This film is a seminal work of its type that is seldom, if ever, bettered. One either likes it or doesn't. For years, awful, damaged, murky VHS and early DVD editions circulated, made from poor 16mm prints. In 1993, Elite restored the film from the original 35mm negative and issued it on laserdisc. In 1999, they re-issued it in the then-new DVD format minus a few extras. In 2002, they restored all the extras, adding a new surround sound option, calling it the "Millenium Edition." Terrible versions continue to proliferate however, worst of all the costly 1998 Anchor Bay "30th Anniversary Edition" which is grotesquely mutilated with a new electronic soundtrack and atrocious newly filmed scenes; still available, it is the one to avoid most carefully.



Despite having fewer extra features than their 2002 Millenium Edition, Elite's 1999 Special Collector's Edition is preferable, dealing with one problem more honestly. Stock recorded music is used throughout the film, and begins unsteadily. In the 2002 Millenium Edition, the soundtrack starts almost inaudibly and increases in volume for the first fifteen seconds, making the viewer expect a low sound level and then jump to turn down the volume a few seconds later. It's either a poor attempt to conceal a minor problem or just a mistake that Elite made while creating the new, unnecessary 5.1 surround track; sadly, the problem also afflicts the regular mono soundtrack in the Millenium Edition. The older Elite Special Collector's Edition presents the original consistent volume level from the beginning, and the slight opening unsteadiness is barely noticeable.



The 1999 Elite Special Collector's Edition has almost three times as many track cue points as their 2002 Millenium Edition--the opposite of what one would expect. The Millenium Edition's added extras are historical curiosities, generally pretty dull and sometimes a little embarrassing; they're certainly not horror film oriented and I doubt that many people will want to see them more than once. The surround sound of the Millenium Edition is artificial and seems inappropriate for an independent B&W film of this age. My feeling is that Elite's 1999 Special Collector's Edition is the best overall presentation; despite slightly fewer extras, the accurate opening volume gives it the edge.



The Good Times DVD, catalog no. 05-81170, is a clone of the 1999 Elite Special Collector's Edition without any extras. The cloning apparently produced a somewhat grainier picture and some motion blur on certain monitors, perhaps because it's not THX-calibrated like the Elite originals. Good Times masks their obvious copyright infringement thinly by eliminating or moving track cue points and deleting the final copyright logo. But if one doesn't care about extras or mind very slightly degraded picture quality--and video piracy, it's still better than anything but the Elite original, and can be had for about $4. Strangely, in library cataloguing of the Elite editions, "Good Times" is listed in the "added authors" column.