Green Hornet - Vol. 1
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DVD details
Actor: Bruce Lee, Lloyd Gough, Van Williams, Walter Brooke, Wende WagnerProducer: Richard M. Bluel
Writer: George W. Trendle
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
DVD Release Date: 2000-11-21
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Bci / Eclipse
DVD Reviews of Green Hornet - Vol. 1
DVD Review: Unbelievable. You people know nothing about Bruce Lee's history!
Summary: 3 Stars
Okay, here is the deal for all you other reviewers. Bruce Lee shot to fame in this country AFTER HIS DEATH. He had a huge hit with the movie "Enter the Dragon" which was released here after he had died. In the months that followed he picked up a huge cult following as other dead celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean had before him. Many studios were looking to cash in on his fame. An American biopic was discussed but did not materialize until "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" was released two decades later. Columbia Pictures was busy making deals with Lee's Hong Kong movie studio to release Lee's incomplete masterpiece "Game of Death" which would later be butchered in order to splice in new scenes with Hollywood stars. Another cheap film distributor managed to grab up the rights to three of Lee's HK martial arts films, and retitled one of them "Return of the Dragon" in hopes that it would be mistaken as a sequel to "Enter the Dragon". This would be followed by "Fists of Fury" and "Chinese Connection", and I wont go into how the distributor bungled the film titles in the English language release.
It was about this time that 20th Century Fox realized that Bruce Lee had starred for them in a failed television series back in the 60's called "The Green Hornet". Made after the success of the Adam West "Batman" television series. It was well made but unlike "Batman" was not a comic book parody, and therefore did not catch on with their audience. After about half a season it was cancelled, and did not have enough episodes to be offered into syndication.
Now nearly a decade later the studio was thinking about re-releasing the episodes as television movies. It was common practice by the mid 70's to reedit popular but short lived series into movies. Fox had done so with their "Planet of the Apes" series editing two episodes back to back as one film. But somewhere along the line they realized that Bruce had been given little to do as the Hornet's Asian sidekick and decided not to bother. Instead they sold the footage to another company who decided it was good enough for a theatrical release.
The episodes picked were based on how much screen time Bruce Lee was given. About three episodes were shown back to back. But the problem was that unlike the Batman series, the fight scenes in Green Hornet were usually brief. So footage from other episodes was edited in to lengthen the fight scenes in the movie. Some of you who have seen the movie may have noticed the continuity error of the Green Hornet & Kato fighting men at a marina with small boats inter-cut with them fighting on a dock with large ships.
The movie was released and failed miserably at the box office. Still looking to make a fast buck the same company edited more Green Hornet footage together and released it as "Fury of the Dragon". The movie poster showed a shirtless Bruce Lee in a fighting stance looking like he was giving off one of his famous screams. Even the opening credits did not give away that this movie was actually Green Hornet episodes. It was animated in the same style as the title credits in Bruce Lee's Asian movies. It was only after the opening credits ended that you saw Bruce Lee as Kato chauffeuring Green Hornet that you realized you were suckered.
As for the Green Hornet not available on video, the main thing holding everything up is the Trendle estate. George W. Trendle had created and owned the character, and has sold the television rights to Fox under the agreement that it would not be campy like "Batman" was. After the series aired Trendle accused them of camping up his character, possibly he had seen the Green Hornet's guest appearance on Batman. He tried taking steps to revoke Fox's rights to the character, but once the series was cancelled for bad ratings he decided there was no reason to bother. Years later Fox's rights to the character expired and reverted to his estate. Allegedly they are the ones who kept Fox from releasing Green Hornet on video. [ 20th Century Fox's video company CBS/FOX had much success releasing the Bruce Lee films and wanted to continue the trend ] I know that Good Times home video released this movie and eventually had to pull it after the Trendle estate threatened a lawsuit. I am not surprised that they stopped Brentwood from releasing the sequel. But then again as the rights to this character pass from one Trendle family member to another, it won't be long before one of them prefers money over family honor.
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