Reviews: M Squad - The Complete Series starring Lee Marvin - 15 DVD Box Set, Plus Bonus CD - The Music From M Squad

starring: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Charles Bronson, Janice Rule, Leonard Nimoy
directed by: n/a






Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0011301671547
Format: Box set, Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC
Label: Timeless Media Group
Languages: EnglishOriginal Language
Manufacturer: Timeless Media Group
MPN: EDID67154D
Number Of Items: 16
Publisher: Timeless Media Group
Region Code: 1
Release Date: November 11, 2008
Running Time: 2866 minutes
Studio: Timeless Media Group


Rating: - Outstanding series......and soundtrack!!!
A true classic not only for nostalgia lovers. The less than half hour episodes is enough for total enjoyment of these police cases, brilliantly played by Lee Marvin. As for most late 50's series, the jazz based music (Count Basie) matches perfectly the overall quality of the series. Great packaging also!!

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Rating: - M Squad an A show
Watching Lee Marvin as the lead on 1957-59's police show in Chicago was a treat. It was an old fashioned police story with the police doin their jobs, not entangled with personal relationships. Besides Marvin's acting, it was fun trying to spot the many actors who appeared on he show before their own big break,such as , Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Tom Laughlin, Burt Reynolds,Leonard Nimoy twice as a crook, and Deforrest Kelly four times as a policeman. All three seasons are here .

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Rating: - M Squad...Thank GOD!
Yes, the quality of the episodes varies from not so good to totally watchable, and the sound is about the same on the scale of things, but I'm thrilled just to be able to take a few hours at a time and treat myself to a batch of M Squad's in any form! I had low expectations when I read about how this set came together, and thus far, after watching 5 discs, my expectations have been exceeded. I've not seen an episode I couldn't make sense out of and to be honest, watching these late at night on my cathode ray tube makes me feel like I'm a kid again watching something clandestine and forbidden, mostly due to the quality. It's like being out in the sticks and then after everyone has gone to bed a signal is being beamed into my living room thrusting me into a time warp where the signal comes over the air instead of a cable or satellite feed and if I aim the rabbit ears just right Frank Ballinger comes into focus and solves the heinous crime in question...and the music, and the black and white photography, and the Chicago exteriors and dingy interiors...I love this set and highly recommend it to any fan of Lee Marvin, hard-boiled crime procedurals, and noir milleu.....I'm happy to have it and if you have issues with pristine images versus down and dirty, then maybe you should stick with your Heroes and King Of Queens box sets and leave this one for the real fans! When I get to the end I'm going to start over as this set stays right by the TV Set at least until someone releases the complete Johnny Staccato series and then Marvin can alternate with Cassavetes.....

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Rating: - For What It Is Worth . . . . . . .
This box set has a few good and a few bad.

First the good. Yes, it does include all 117 episodes in chronological order from the first to the last. All three seasons. The bonus CD is great and I wouldn't ask for better.

Brief summary: M-SQUAD was a product of its time. Why people compare it to DRAGNET I have no idea. There is no comparison. The show features jazz music which PETER GUNN and SHOTGUN SLADE and MAN FROM UNCLE did. Jazzy music scores were a fad at the time. Lee Marvin makes the show shine. Without him, it would have been another cop program. The show is extremely violent. Heck, the opener has Marvin coming out of his car, being shot at and he fires back. Before the opening credits roll it's already featuring four gun shots. Critics complained in the early 1960s because of the violence. Heck, watch the one episode that opens with a family being killed off (women and children) when someone throws a live pineapple (grenade) into thier back yard!

Like a lot of 50s TV shows, the guests are occassionally impressive and a surprise. Angie Dickinson, Charles Bronson, Leonard Nimoy, Ed Nelson, DeForest Kelley, H. M. Wynant and even a young Burt Reynolds. Don't look up the cast list in advance - just watch them and be surprised when they appear on screen. Plenty of other supporting role characters would have been just as notable had they later hit the success the above did but you'll certainly see other familiar faces.

There is one episode in the second season that depicted Chicago cops in a bad light and that episode alone prompted the then-current mayor of Chicago to ban filming in the streets of Chicago. That ban would not be lifted until the early 1980s when they filmed THE BLUES BROTHERS. Yep, this show REALLY worth watching.

Now the bad news: these episodes were not from the original studio negatives. As pointed out in other reviews, they are certainly transfers from 16mm prints. Not that this is a bad thing, but instead of getting 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 in picture quality you get 8.5 to 9.5 depending on the print. Some episodes are great, others are a bit washed out or too bright and a few are missing 1 or 2 minutes from the prints.

Still, it comes down to this or nothing. And the price cannot be beat for 117 episodes. I only give it four stars instead of five because of the occassional lack of good prints. Buy it today!

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Rating: - Hard-Boiled Cop in 1950s Chicago
"M Squad" has the reputation, deservedly so, as being one of the key television crime series of the 1950s. Lee Marvin stars as Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger, fighting crime in the mean streets of Chicago. What works for this show is the casting of tough guy Marvin, the location filming, and the half hour time-frame of this series, which forced the series' writers to create tight scripts for the show. "M Squad" has been referred to as one of the prime examples of "TV noir" and it's easy to see why based on the episodes that I've had a chance to watch so far in this 15-DVD set, which includes all 117 episodes from the series' three seasons (1957-60). The series is probably closest in tone to the original 1950s version of "Dragnet," and includes plenty of voice over narration by Marvin, just like Jack Webb's narration in "Dragnet." And one of the early episodes in this DVD release includes no fewer than four actors from Webb's "stock company" of actors who appeared on "Dragnet" multiple times (William Bryant, Herb Ellis, Olan Soule and Peggy Webber). But "M Squad" is a tougher, more hard-boiled series devoid of "Dragnet's" lighter moments and, unlike Webb's Sgt. Joe Friday, Marvin's Lt. Ballinger goes it alone without a partner more often than not. It's easy to see why "M Squad" made Lee Marvin a bankable star . . . . once the crime is committed in the opening sequence, Marvin is in virtually every scene as he pieces the evidence together.

This is a vintage TV-on-DVD set that's a bit tougher to evaluate given the circumstances surrounding its release. The DVD releasing company, the Timeless Media Group, has a licensing arrangement with NBC Universal for this series and several others like "Checkmate" and "Arrest and Trial" where they have DVD release rights only. Universal did not provide Timeless with any prints for this series and Timeless had to secure prints on its own, including reaching out to collectors who own 16 millimeter prints of the series. Originally, this set was slated to have 100 episodes, but collectors of the series contributed the additional 17 episodes necessary for a complete series release. Consequently, the audio/visual presentation for "M Squad" is highly variable. None of the episodes that I've viewed so far are of the razor sharp quality found in vintage TV releases from the major studios and, frankly, these episodes are much closer in audio/visual quality to public domain releases from companies like Alpha Video or Mill Creek Entertainment; those who are familiar with some of the public domain episodes of the 1950s version of "Dragnet" will know what to expect. So here's the dilemma for prospective purchasers of this release. Does one buy this set with very inconsistent audio/visual quality, or does one hold out for something better in the future? The series' rights holder, Universal, seems to be releasing fewer vintage television releases on its own, preferring to license some of its older series to companies like Shout! Factory ("McHale's Navy," "Ironside," "Adam-12"), Arts Alliance America ("Banacek") and Timeless Media (several TV westerns and the aforementioned "Checkmate" and "Arrest and Trial"). So it's unlikely that "M Squad" will ever see a release directly from Universal, given the cost of restoring and remastering episodes. Ultimately, the purchasing decision for "M Squad" is a trade-off in audio/visual quality versus the chance to own all 117 episodes, plus the set's sole bonus item . . . a music CD soundtrack of the show.

At best, the audio/visual quality of this release would earn no more that three stars, but the fact that Timeless has included the entire run of this rare-to-see series, plus a bonus music CD, earns the set an additional star. Videophiles will want to avoid this set, but fans of the series will appreciate the opportunity to own the entire series in a single package.

M Squad - The Complete Series starring Lee Marvin - 15 DVD Box Set, Plus Bonus CD - The Music From M Squad Reviews

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