Murderer's Row [HD]

NOW THAT'S COOL, BABY!!!
I admit to having a great affinity for Dean Martin. To me he was the essence of cool in the 1960's. Considering he was 49 years old when he did the first Matt Helm movie, The Silencers, that's really saying a lot about his popularity and influence back during that period. I Just loved watching these films on TV as a kid. My brother always preferred the Bond films, but even as a youngster I appreciated the humor and charm that martin brought to his role as Super Spy Matt Helm. The plots of the four films are almost secondary to Martin's scenery chewing, and that's just how I like it.

In "The Silencers" Helm, an agent for ICE (Intelligence and Counter Espionage) is out to stop the usual baddies The Big O from detonating a nuclear bomb and starting world war III. The gorgeous Stella Stevens is along for the ride as is dancer Cyd Charisse. Victor Buono best know as Batman villian King Tut, plays a Chinese baddie!

"Murderer's Row" is the second Matt Helm film...

This product (not the movies themselves) deserves 0 stars!
This is a review of the DVDs and not the movies. I like all four movies and I am a big Dino fan. However, I am greatly disappointed in the current presentation of these movies. None of the formats are in widescreen and they have all been edited for television. This is ridiculous and unacceptable. With the world moving to high definition, these formatted to fit your tv DVDs will soon be outdated. You know that once this occurs the DVD company will re-issue this box set in widescreen format and charge us more money !!! Booo !!! As for the editing, I am calling it censorship. If you want to edit your product for whatever reason, then let us (the buyer) know somewhere on the package. I bought these movies under the false pretense that I was getting the full version of each picture. I don't care what is edited out or the reason why, but the DVD producer should inform us that these are edited versions and let us determine whether we want to buy them. Don't waste your money on...

Swingin' Sixties Party
It wasn't until 1971's DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER that the James Bond films decided to cut loose and have some fun, but Dean Martin had already started the Sixties spy party four times with the Matt Helm series. The OUR MAN FLINT movies (2 of them) with James Coburn seemed hipper, partly because of Coburn's serious convinction as he went through the spy motions, but Dino's spoofs mixed the spy film with the party atmosphere of a Rat Pack show and the casual cool comedy of his TV show.

The films go from best (first) to worst (last)--but who's squawling, baby?

One of my favorite moments happens in MURDERER'S ROW, when Dean wanders into an apartment, plays a record (where he sings "I'm Not the Marryin' Kind"), and helps himself to the bar--until a dead girl falls out of a refrigerator. Not a big deal, but there was something incredibly hip about it.

And another review points out the purely Sixties moment when Dean, driving a wood-paneled station wagon, pushes...

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