Review of Twilight Zone, The: Vol 28

Introduction

This Twilight Zone collection has the theme of "Strange Powers"


"The Whole Truth" - Episode 50 - January 20, 1961
A used car dealer Harvey Hunnicut (Jack Carson) is compelled to tell the truth by a peculiar Model A automobile that is on his lot. Only by thinking up an unusual marketing idea can he make a living and save the day.

"Mute " - Episode 107 - January 31, 1963
After loosing her parents in a fire and growing up in a telepathic community, a 12 year old girl (Ann Jillian) who has been taken in by a well meaning couple, must try and adapt to a new society, no matter the cost.


"Queen of the Nile" - Episode 143- March 6, 1964
The famous movie star Pamela Morris (Ann Blyth) is just as lovely and youthful as when she first starred in the 1940 film Queen of the Nile. Only when a young, handsome columnist (Lee Philips) who is intrigued with the movie star and investigates her past, does he discover a terrifying secret.

Where can I begin except with `The Whole Truth`? Filmed in an American `recorded before a live studio audience` kind of style, this lightweight cold war propaganda piece is truly awful. Bad production values, a real stinker of a story and a truly awful script just about puts this into the Twilight Zone stinker category for me. Definitely, skip this one.

"Mute" might have been a real interesting story that could of worked on a number of levels but ultimately it fails on all and turns into another `outsider` kind of tale. `Mute` had lots of potential in the basic premise of a girl that can only communicate telepathically, but it doesn`t develop into anything of real interest. There are so many roads this story could of took but unfortunately it followed the easiest and least satisfying.

"Queen of the Nile" is a fairly average affair that again did not develop into anything memorable. If a more darker, sinister angle would have been taken with this one then this episode might just have made it out of the mediocre bin.
On another disk this episode might have been acceptable but on a disk that is crying out for a quality episode, it`s just more pie in the face I`m afraid. One of the better episodes on the disk but that`s not really saying much.

Video

Presented in the original 4:3 ratio, the picture quality is excellent in general with only minor print defects such as a little bit of dust or the odd small scratch to mar the picture. Grain is kept to a minimum and the contrast values are very good for material of this age, with some real deep blacks in well-composed scenes. The picture can also be a little too soft at times masking the otherwise decent detail levels, but there were no digital artifacts visible and in general, the black and white picture looks very good considering the age.

Audio

Again the standard mono mix which remains clear and concise throughout with no major problems. The track maybe a little edgy at times or have a slightly higher noise floor than we`re used too but overall the audio remains solid with no complaints.

Features

Like the rest of the Twilight Zone volumes on DVD this edition contains various notes and essays about the series in general and the specific featured episodes. Inside the Twilight Zone contains a Rod Serling biography, a season by season commentary, history of the twilight zone and a review and credit section for each episode on the disk. This section is written by the author of "The Twilight Zone Companion" Marc Scott Zicree.
You also get the small postcard set that have a brief synopsis and picture of each episode printed on them.

Conclusion

Not the best collection of stories around although the standard of the print is still up there with the best of the zone DVDs. I would only recommend this disk to anyone who wanted the complete Zone set as there is no stand out episode here and your money would probably be best spent elsewhere. Well out of 28 volumes your bound to have a couple of inferior collections and unfortunately this is one.