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Truth decay

WHAT BETTER WAY to inaugurate a DVD column than with a review of Bill Morrison's celebration of celluloid deterioration, Decasia? Paradoxes abound: Morrison's selectively edited symphony of damaged film stock has been transferred to crisp if not immortal video by a company called Plexifilm (the fine folks behind recent discs devoted to Benjamin Smoke, Sun Ra, Friends Forever, and Thai auteur Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul).

For Morrison, the scratches and bug- or germlike spots on a particular frame don't just signify ruin – they also add dimensions to an image, opening up holes within skies and dreamscapes within landscapes. (The final credits thank Hurricane Fran for her effect on some of the archival contents.) Decasia intercuts footage of looms with footage of projectors, unspooling a spooky netherworld somewhere between Martin Arnold's hilarious assaults on Hollywood film stock and Jay Rosenblatt's precise manipulation of anonymous clips found in history's dustbin. The hypnotic score – including a brass section that might be formed from car horns – suits a movie that opens with the slo-mo spins of a dervish. Boring? Sometimes. Entrancing? Yes. (Johnny Ray Huston)

Top three campy chapter titles of the week

1. "Quiet Sundays and Setting Lotion," from Mommie Dearest (Paramount)

2. "He's Been Around, You Know," from Andy Warhol's Heat (Image Entertainment)

3. "Panic in the Promenade," from The Towering Inferno (20th Century Fox)

Seal of Krofft

Nostalgia buffs, stoners, and kids of all ages have hungered for Rhino Home Video's official DVD release H.R. Pufnstuf – The Complete Series, and the wait's been worth it: the three-disc set compiles all 17 episodes – which originally aired from 1969 to 1970 – with commentary on the pilot by gods of Saturday morning Sid and Marty Krofft (The Bugaloos, Lidsville, Land of the Lost, Far Out Space Nuts, etc.). Though the Krofft duo had an extensive background as puppeteers and had designed the costumes for The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, the famed H.R. Pufnstuf was their first TV production. It offers an instant introduction to their signature style, which is akin to a 3-D cartoon looped over a psychedelic, '70s-garish rainbow.

As the jaunty title song explains (lyrics are included in the packaging), H.R. Pufnstuf follows the adventures of Jimmy (Jack Wild, who had just been Oscar-nominated for playing the Artful Dodger in Oliver!), swept away to the magical Living Island after a "kooky old witch," Witchiepoo (Billie Hayes, whose performance is one of Pufnstuf's many direct nods to The Wizard of Oz), sets her sights on Jimmy's talking golden flute, Freddy. Fortunately, Living Island's mayor, a googly-eyed dragon in cowboy boots named H.R. Pufnstuf (acted by Robert Gamonet and voiced by show writer Lennie Weinib), comes to their aid.

Every episode includes the following: Witchiepoo steals, or conspires to steal, Freddy; Jimmy, Pufnstuf, and the rest of the gang outwit her; Jimmy has a musical number; the laugh track is readily employed. Somehow, the formula works every time. DVD extras include interviews with the Kroffts, a scarily aged Wild, a still-spry Hayes, and Krofft expert Hal Erickson, who discusses the notorious Kroffts-versus-McDonald's incident, among other things. The set also features the pilot for the 1957 Krofft production Irving, another entertaining – and, typically, highly surreal – testament to the brothers' puppeteering skills. (Cheryl Eddy)

Booby trap

"It starts with a premise. To wit, the planet Earth is the lunatic asylum of our galaxy. It goes on to make the point that the town you live in is very probably one of its violent wards." So director George Axelrod describes Lord Love a Duck, his 1966 comedy attack "against just about everything: teenagers, their parents, schools, religion, beach pictures, you name it." The quotes come from Inside the Mind of Director George Axelrod, a special feature from MGM's DVD edition of Lord Love a Duck, the little cult movie that just might have inspired a much larger one, Michael Lehmann's Heathers.

Just as Winona Ryder triggers Christian Slater's homicidal side in Lehmann's movie, a Lolita-like Tuesday Weld activates the criminal impulses of odd bird Roddy McDowall in Axelrod's film. But the late Axelrod – who died from a heart attack last year – takes fewer prisoners. There's not a single sympathetic human in his scenario, save for McDowall's "Mollymauk," a mythical character who seems a few decades too old for the high school he's attending. (The school is called Consolidated, and "Adolescent Ethics and Commercial Relationships" is a main course there.) Fans of Heathers and Election owe it to themselves to hunt down Duck, if only to witness Weld attaining the 12 colorful cashmere sweaters required for membership in an elite girls' club. Axelrod was no stranger to the topic of blond ambition: though this was his only directorial effort, his screenplay credits include Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Seven-Year Itch. (Huston)