Search - The Shirley Temple Storybook Collection: Terrible Clockman/The House of the Seven Gables on DVD

A piece of early T.V. history-that is all it is good for

All Red | USA | 03/10/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Beware....if you think you are buying great acting and adaptations of classic literature,turn back, put away your credit cards and run! As a piece of television history,"The Shirley Temple Storybook", a show from the early 1960's that ran a season and flopped, has interest in that it chronicles the early attempts of NBC to bring melodramatic teleplays to the small screen.In the DVD release, nothing has been done or changed,and the shows look EXACTLY as the evening they aired, with static interference,film rolling and buzzing sound....there is even a scene in "The House Of The Seven Gables" where you can spy stage hands in the background and actor Martin Landau waiting for his cue!!!The teleplays and the names associated with the productions will be easily recognized by any T.V. buff.What is really bad, though, is that the stories are so cheaply and ridiculously acted and staged that it is utterly laughable...and it is! The biggest problem,though, is that I purchased this to see "The House Of The Seven Gables" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and it is nothing even REMOTELY close to the book.Now granted, I had a lot of trouble with Hawthorne's LENGTHY prosaic style when I read his novel, but puleeeeze...what is done in "The Shirley Temple Storybook" is to somehow put together a ridiculous story with dialog and plot that resemble an episode of Dark Shadows: The Beginning Collection 1.IT IS NOT THE HAWTHORNE STORY.Kudos, though, to the set designer,who did recreate the house as it stands in Salem.I have been there, and at least that looked correct.By this time,Shirley Temple Black was in her late thirties, and I suppose that her name and former glory as a child star would be a draw; but this is really,really,really bad! You will see the likes of Agnes Moorehead (Bewitched),Robert Culp and Martin Landau making complete fools of themselves as supporting cast.Talk about "arriving overdone?".This DVD hits the trash can right off!"