Banacek: The Complete Series Box Set
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DVD details
Actor: Brenda Vaccaro, George Peppard, Margot Kidder, Michael Lerner, Victoria PrincipalDirector: n/a
Brand: Hart Sharp Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1276 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-09-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: 670547
Studio: Arts Alliance America
Product features:
- George Peppard is Thomas Banacek, Boston s leading freelance investigator. When a crime proves too difficult for insurance investigators to solve, Banacek is called on in thisic TV Show from the early 70s. This specially priced DVD contains three of the best episodes from this beloved series. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION Rating: NR Age: 829567054727 UPC: 82956
DVD Reviews of Banacek: The Complete Series Box Set
DVD Review: TO SOLVE THE IMPOSSIBLE CRIME - CALL BANACEK
Summary: 5 Stars
Here's the short version of my review.
* Buy it, it's fun and entertaining and Peppard is great as a self employed bounty hunter of missing or stolen highly-insured items.
* His sexual behavior is reprehensible and meritless, but.. nobody's perfect.
* It's fun to see if you can figure out these impossible thefts before Banacek does. The video is in good condition, not the highest quality, but good enough to be enjoyable.
* Not only does he solve impossible thefts, he tells how it was done. Banacek is probably on every magician's blacklist.
Now, here's the longer version of my review;
Until episode five, ( To Steal A King ) I didn't hear anyone mention Banacek's first name. He typically only goes by his last name, even among his friends. Thomas Banacek is a private detective, sort of a suave mod seventies version of Sherlock Holmes in a turtleneck jersey, but with much less character background. George Peppard does an above average job of making the character entertaining to watch, but having more backfill to his past would have lent more scope to his character. Banacek is probably the opposite of Columbo, if you are familiar with that series. At first glance Banacek comes across as a gilded snobbish yuppie riding into the midst of crime scenes with an vein attitude in his personal limousine. But appearences are decieving. Banacek is not an antagonist and is never rude, quite the opposite he typically makes an effort to be polite and friendly to those around him without being pretentious or patronizing, and what people take for a super ego is simply a high level of confidence in himself. He has a refined sense of humor and always has a coy but snappy comeback when someone makes a crude or imptertinent remark. Mostly he's very easy-going and cool in his approach to his work and the people he enounters during his investigations, the only time he really seems to get perturbed is when someone remarks crudely on his Polish heritage or mispronounces his name, which happens a lot more frequently than it should. Banacek limits his investigations to complex cases of thievery in which a highly valued object insured at great cost has gone missing under truly baffling circumstances. He attempts to recover the missing items or items, thus saving the insurer from having to pay, and and draws a commission of ten percent of what would have been paid out by the insurance company. Because of this, he often describes himself as being in the business of "recovery". He bristles at the idea of working for anyone but himself, and refuses to be "hired". High profile wealthy businessmen, politicians and private citizens who know of his reputation for success often ask thier insurance companies to bring Banacek into their cases. He shows up, makes an assessment of the situation, determines if it's worth his time to investigate. The friction in most episodes comes from other investigators who are direct employees of the insurance companies. They resent his presence because it bruises their egos and puts their own expertise into question. Banacek travels just about everywhere via his personal limousine driven by his chauffeur Jay who is loyal to Banacek but also adds comic relief to the episodes as he proffers his own rather strange ideas about how the crimes might have been perpetrated. Apparently Banacek offered him an ongoing deal that if Jay could figure out how a crime was committed before he did, he would cut him in for ten percent of his ten percent commission. If there is anything controversial about the show it would be Banacek's overt womanizing. Early on, beginning in the first season there is more than enough innuendo in his various personal rendezvous with a new and different sexy female lead in each episode, that he has been running a string of one night stands. Commitment in a relationship is not foremost on his list. Also , this is a show produced at the height of the woman's liberation movement, so women make plenty of references toward Banacek as a "male chauvinist", which he definitely is not, though he might more aptly be defined as a male version of a nymphomaniac. On the other hand , the women he meets are not exactly reluctant to take a tour of his bedroom. I'm not sure if these episodes are shown in the orginal edited-for-television version, but I would say probably not. For example, in the pilot episode which is titled "Detour To Nowhere" at one point he is in a rented motel room where he has laid out some small peices of electronic equipment that he found in a shack, ( which later turned out to be a metal detector)... and is trying to figure out what they make and how they fit together. A woman who shared his room the previous night and is still lying there in bed,( Carlie Kirkland a very attractive lady who works directly for the insurance company who is trying to recover the same missing armored car as he is ), coyly remarks , "maybe it's a Polish vibrator". I don't think that would have passed the network censors of the early 70's, so I suspect these are unedited or uncut. There are episodes which also show the racial conflicts of the time. Also in this series we see some of the early appearances of stars who will come into their own later. For example , Mike Farrell ( later played BJ Hunnicutt on M.A.S.H), appears in episode seven, he plays a significant role but does not get co-star rating in the show's credits. You might also recognize Garry Walberg as a police lieutenant in one episode, ( he later played the role of Lieutenant Frank Monahan on the Quincy M.E. series ). Gregory Sierra stars as a co-culprit in one episode..., ( he had many different roles later including on twelve episodes of Sanford and Son, and 35 episodes of Barney Miller as Detective Chano Amenguale.) Here are how the episodes basically play out. A very mysterious robbery takes place that seems to be impossible. For example, at a casino a public display of one million dollars cash under a sealed glass dome suddenly ends up empty right in front of everyone's eyes. In comes Banacek. Whoever the company insurance investigator is, resents him,and lets him know it. Banacek looks around, asks some questions, calls his friend Mulholland who is a cultured erudite bookworm with an unparalleled knowledge of history to look up some information for him, talks a beautiful woman into a late night meeting, figures out the how the crime was done and then... either confronts the perp directly ( which is not always a good move for Banacek since he doesn't carry a gun and confronting the crook sometimes ends up in a violent struggle), or gets together with the victim and the insurance rep and fills them in on how it was done and where the object is located. It's rather formulaic, but it works. It's entertaining and fun to see how the crimes were committed. That's basically where the most enjoyment comes from , seeing how the impossible crime was actually pulled off. There is also lots of great Boston scenery, if you happen to be from New England and are familiar with Boston you'll recognize many of the landmarks, maybe even some of the street signs. It looks like they used real footage of the outdoor Boston area rather than a set, and of course the opening credits of each episode when he is rowing on the Charles River. It's a short lived series, only Two seasons, but they are entertaining enough to own as a collection and simply to enjoy watching. As for the video quality, it's okay. Not the best ever, but about equal to what it probably looked like when it was broadcast on television during the 70's. Very watchable , the sound is good. I encountered no problems with viewing or listening to the DVD's.
- Mike S.
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