Yesterday, I was at Tower Records and was going through their bargain bins and saw many old B Movies there... science fiction, horror, serials etc. all from Alpha Video. I saw a Peter Lorre Mr. Moto feature, a Karloff Mr. Wong feature, many silent classics like Hunchback of Notre Dame, Nosferatu, Phantom of the Opera, The Golem. The Lost World, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Metropolis in the bins.
There were three different Sherlock Homes features with Basil Rathbone as well as a collection of the Holmes TV series.
Alpha had quite a few westerns with Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Bob Steele, Rex Allen and the Lone Ranger. There were quite a few old old Alfred Hitchcock movies from his early days as well as some Dick Tracy features as well. Horror films included such "B"s as The Devil Bat, White Zombie, Spooks Run Wild, The Ape Man, and The Mad Monster, just to name a few.
While I cannot vouch for the quality of the video transfers as Alpha has put out some really marginal quality DVDs at times, sometimes I have been pleasently surprised by some of them. At $7.95 per DVD, you are not taking too big a risk here.
I picked up two old horror picture "dogs","The Monster Walks" with Mischa Auer and Rex Lease from Astor Pictures, and "Dead Men Walk" with George Zucco and Dwight Frye from PRC Pictures. The transfers seem to be from old 16mm prints,not outstanding, but quite watchable. Since most of these films are not available from the major companies, they may be be the only copies of existing. I am going to waste a stamp and send for their complete catalog.
As always, Caveat Emptor.

May I suggest you visit the Alpha website. They are selling these DVDs there for $5.95 each. I didn't check to see what they charged for S & H but I assume a multiple purchase would save you some money.

Go to:

oldies.com

Bruce

This old serial villain got volumes I & II of their THE PHANTOM CREEPS on DVD. The first 5 chapters of volume I were quite comparable in "quality" to that of the VCI tape issue. However, chapter 6 was a real dog, with a lot of fuzzy and dark spots throughout. Chapters 7 through 12 were again much like the VCI tape issues. I don't know what happened with Alpha with chapter 6 of TPC, but for the under $17 (including postage & handling) I paid for the set, I'm satisifed.

El Shaitan: Is there another web-site name for this Alpha label? I have tried "oldies.com" several times and all I get is a list of oldies rock and roll radio stations. Although I am from that era I am looking for the movies you mentioned. Thanks Smiley

Kan........... go to www.oldies.com and it will open their home page...... then click on the section that says MOVIES.
I just ordered five DVDs from them for a total of $30.50 with shipping included. Their sale price for five dvds is $25.00 plus $5.50 shipping.

In my opinion, this firm is on the same level as Madacy, Whirlwind and any other bottom of the barrel outfits you can name. The video quality of their transfers is totally unacceptable. I purchased a few of their titles but no more. This bunch is a testament to that old saying that "you get what you pay for". A more proper name for them would be "Zeta Video" not Alpha Video.

I would tend to agree with you in some ways. Certainly their King of the Zombies does not even come close to the Roan Archival Video release. So their quality is very uneven and sometimes poor. But then I picked up their version of TOPPER RETURNS, the ROCKY JONES SPACE RANGER TV SHOW and they were excellent. So I am taking a chance on ordering some of the lesser B-movies titles, but at the price it is worth a gamble. I can always get rid of them on Ebay if they stink.
CC

I've just taken your advice and ordered Rocky Jones on DVD ! I've always been a fan of Rocky Jones who played here in Australia in the early 60's. I had only a poor VHS version of Radar Men so I also ordered the two Alpha Video DVD's of that serial. I used DeepDiscountDVD because www.oldies.com doesn't ship to Australia. I've had great service from DeepDiscountDVD over the last few months - cheap postage and its here (in Australia) within a week.

SQ4..
Let us know how Radar Men From The Moon looks... frankly, I have been wary of Alpha's serials especially in light of how many superior copies are out there. Undoubtably the best RMFTM is from Roan Archival Video (now owned by Troma)... it is the definitive copy on DVD and I own that one. So proceed cautiously when ordering any serials from Alpha. The best Flash Gordon serials on DVD come out of Image Entertainment. Roan has some other excellent serials such as The Three Musketeers w/John Wayne, Undersea Kingdom w/Ray "Crash" Corrigan and S.O.S. Coast Guard w/Ralph Byrd & Bela Lugosi.
As I said before; Caveat Emptor
CC

Today I received five DVDs from Alpha Video and they were about what I suspected they would be, a mixed bag.
The Flash Gordon TV Series... made in Germany, this is nothing like the Universal Serials. The characters look good enough, but the production is cheesey as well at the writing. Not too bad video quality, but only for the completist collector.

The Fu Manchu TV Series... nothing outstanding here. run of the mill early TV production. The films are a bit soft, as well as the acting. My least favorite actor of the fifties is here....Rick Vallen. For the completist again.

The Ape Man... A Sam Katzman production, with Bela Lugosi as a glandular induced Ape Man. Taken from a 16mm print, it is in fair quality but a bit uneven. Probably the only place you will find this dog. Lugosi tries hard...

The Phantom From Space...a mysterious UFO crashes and unleashes an invisible alien. This "phantom" goes on an unwitting rampage as he struggles for survival in our world. Without his space helmet, he cannot breathe our air for long. Scientists track him and finally, he just dies from not being able to breathe and turns visible in death. Not terribly exciting. The video quality is soft, almost like it was recorded off the air. (I originally thought this was the film with the Gorilla wearing a Space Helmet, "ROBOT MONSTER". But it wasn't, so I had to search out that bomb elsewhere.)

The Son of Monte Cristo... a Walter Wanger film with Joan Bennett, Louis Hayward, George Sanders, Clayton Moore, Rand Brooks and just about every character actor you have seen in serials and b-movies showing up somewhere.....even Ralph Byrd has a few minutes of screen time. Fair video quality, and a good example of the genre. Nice costumes, sword fighting and derring do with a masked hero The Torch. This is one worth having just for all the familiar faces.

So there you have it......five dvds that only cost me 25 bucks and shipping. You get what you pay for here, but I was satisfied. Films like these will never be restored and put out by the larger video companies. I am trying to collect a lot of these old "Z-Movies" and Alpha has many of them. Their catalog has quite a few more titles I am going to take a chance on.
As always, you pays your money and takes your chances.

Crimson Collector:
I have 5 of Alpha's b-western DVD's and The Return of Chandu , and The Phantom Creeps. As mentioned above the one chapter of Phantom Creeps is lousy but basically the serial is not bad. Same goes for Return of Chandu its quite watchable. As far as the westerns go the Roy Rogers were decent however Colorado Sundown was kind of washed out, plus, the first copy I owned of the movie stopped before the ending. I sent a note to Alpha enclosing my e-mail address. Within a week I'd received an e-mail from Steve Kaplan of Alpha Video apologizing for the bad DVD and telling me that a new copy would be in the mail. I received the new copy and happily I got a chance the see how the movie ended.
Barcroft

As I have said....Alpha is not a company that goes in for restoration, they use the masters that are available to them and they can either be fairly good, or just marginal in their quality... even downright bad.
One good thing is that they stand behind their product, as in the case of replacing Barcroft's flawed disc.
Their prices certainly are not going to dent our pocketbooks. When a better version is available from other sources, I would go for the the higher priced disc. But many of these "B" films are just never going to be reproduced by other firms and are probably our only chance at them in this format.

The Corner Barbershop