DVD Savant has put up reviews for three of the four volumes coming out. They sound like a lot of fun and Warners has a few extras here and there (like a commentaries on a few titles).

CAMP CLASSICS vol. 1 (ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. WOMAN, THE GIANT BEHEMOTH, QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE):
http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s2335scif.html

CAMP CLASSICS vol. 2 (CAGED, THE BIG CUBE, TROG):
http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s2336wome.html

CAMP CLASSICS vol. 4 (THE PRODIGAL, LAND OF THE PHAROHS, COLOSSUS OF RHODES):
http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s2318epic.html

For the curious, vol. 3 is TERRORIZED TRAVELERS and features HOT RODS FROM HELL, SKYJACKED (yes!) and ZERO HOUR! (the inspiration for parts of AIRPLANE!).

SKYJACKED has appeared occasionally on TCM and it's not a very good movie. It seems strange that Heston would do AIRPORT 1975 so soon after this. I've always wanted to see ZERO HOUR, and it's amazing to learn that ZAZ swiped complete shots, setups and dialogue for AIRPLANE. HOT RODS TO HELL airs often on TCM too, and it's a woefully out-of-date (even in 1967) and frequently hilarious terrible-teens flick.

I'm mostly looking forward to finally getting 50 FT. WOMAN and QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE on DVD. Volumes 2 and 4 don't excite me as much, though I'll probably Netflix COLOSSUS OF RHODES.

Calling ZERO HOUR! an "inspiration for parts of AIRPLANE!" is a true understatement. There are parts that feel pretty close to being a shot-for-shot remake, filled with familiar camera set-ups and dialogue that one remembers by heart as straight lines only here it's just the dialogue. It's hard to hear someone say, "You're gonna have to talk him right down to the ground!" and not have a watermelon crash down behind him. All fans of AIRPLANE! owe it to themselves to see ZERO HOUR!

. . . far from what I would consider to be a "CAMP CLASSIC", but highly recommended, is John Cromwell's women in prison (this might be the film that started the genre) noir CAGED (1950) from Vol. 2, which we watched for the first time last night . . . this is a real throwback to the sort of "social expose" film Warner did in the 30s, most usually with their male stars; very tough, excellent black and white cinematography, a stunning performance from Hope Emerson as the sadistic matron Evelyn Harper (she is frighteningly like the character Hume Cronyn played in Dassin's male prison noir BRUTE FORCE a couple of years earlier), and a very, very uncompromising ending . . . both lead performer Eleanor Parker (she does quite a job with this role as she moves from being a scared teenager in jail to a tough ex-con) and Ms. Emerson were nominated for Academy Awards . . .

The anamorphic transfers of COLOSSUS OF RHODES and QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE are the best I've ever seen those titles look on home video. I've had so many copies of COLOSSUS over the years, in various languages and aspect ratios, so it's gratifying to see it look this good.

For anyone who does the Netflix thing, all of these titles are being released individually as well.

Picked these up yesterday at CostCo at a price of around $19.08 each.

Not all of these have extras, but I'm very, very impressed at the effort WB went to for some of these releases.

QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE - commentary by Tom Weaver and actress Laurie Mitchell

ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. WOMAN - Tom Weaver and Yvette Vickers. (Finally!)

THE GIANT BEHEMOTH - fx aces Dennis Murren and Phil Tippit

THE LAND OF THE PHAROAHS - Peter Bogdonavich and tapes of Howard Hawks

THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES - Sir Christopher Frayling

THE PRODIGAL - Drew Casper

I sorta wish WB would have gone the extra effort on the other sets; for starts, Tom Weaver could have probably provided entertaining commentaries for all of them.

It's pretty amazing in retrospect just how much AIRPLANE! owes to ZERO HOUR!, up to and including the exclamation point in the title. I'm not taking anything away from AIRPLANE!, which is a great comedy, but ZERO HOUR! did a lot of the work for ZAZ. I'm glad to finally see it at all, much less in Warner's beautiful black-and-white widescreen print with nary a scratch or pop. It is unquestionably a terrible movie, but I mostly enjoyed it.

And no less amazing how much AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON owes to QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE! In QUEEN, the crash on Venus is actually accomplished with special effects footage of the Moon, making the very title of the later comedy something of an in-joke.

I thought the crash in QUEEN is footage from WORLD WITHOUT END, putting it right here on Earth.

I've seen SKYJACKED before, but watched the DVD anyway. It's still not a very good movie, victimized by some silly flashbacks and fantasy sequences, a limited plot, and James Brolin's terrible performance. It does have some very nice aerial shots and models that look indistinguishable from the real thing.

How odd is it that two different companies would release Rosey Grier movies (SKYJACKED and THE GLOVE) on DVD on the same day?

Just watched SKYJACKED as well and I too was impressed with the aerial photography and special effects there, Marty.

I saw this when it originally came out at a drive-in with my folks, so it was a little homecoming for me, no matter how terrible it was.

And, boy, those little planes really hate Heston, don't they?

Nope, it's actually from FLIGHT TO MARS -- so QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE depicts a rocket approaching the Moon and crash-landing on Mars, which turns out to be Venus.

I have vivid memories of cracking up when Brolin told the story about the guy getting his nuts blowm off. In my defense, I was 11.

Now I'm having thoughts of ABBOTT & COSTELLO GO TO MARS, a movie in which Abbott and Costello don't go to Mars.

The footage of the crash landing does date back to FLIGHT TO MARS, and I believe that it was borrowed for both WORLD WITHOUT END and QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE.

Around 1961, I went to a theater and saw a triple bill of those three films, in the following order:

FLIGHT
QUEEN
WORLD

By the third film, the audience laughed with derision during that crash landing sequence.

http://www.tcm.com/movienews/index/?cid=172120

My review of the historical epics set is now on the TCM website.

Excellent news - really looking forward to seeing Queen of Outer Space in a decnt print. Saw this movie originally in an all night session in a terribly washed out print (plus the BBFC had censored it as it played with a "U" in the UK !!)

QUEEN looks very, very nice. The movie is a stinker, though I enjoyed the Tom Weaver/Laurie Mitchell commentary track. I don't even find many campy laughs in the movie, it's just too dull.

SPOILER







However, it is hilarious when Zsa Zsa with her thick Hungarian accent puts on the mask and tries to disguise herself as Laurie Mitchell.