I was wondering if anyone knows if the 1979 film "Dummy", starring Levar Burton and the incredibly talented Paul Sorvino is available for DVD or video purchase? I saw this movie when I was 13, MANY MANY years ago and I'd like to see it again. Thanks!
shareI am wondering the same thing. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and wish I could own it, even though it was a made-for-TV movie. Did you have any luck figuring out if it's available?
shareNo. No luck. You're the first one to respond to my board.
If it's useless information, chances are I already know it!
Would love to buy a copy on dvd, If anyone has one to sell or know where I can buy a copy,I would be eternally gratefully.
shareThere are a few copies up for sale on iOffer.
http://www.ioffer.com/i/144655103
My co worker and I was talking about this movie yesterday and we were both trying to figure out why isn't a NON BOOTLEG COPY being released?? This movie was GOOD!
shareThe reason it isn't available on DVD is because entertainment company executives think most made-for-TV movies of the 70's and 80's are dreck (with a few exceptions) and most of the ones that people probably want are made independently (Baby Cakes, starring Ricky Lake and Craig Sheaffer is one example; it was made after the Big Six movie companies gave up on made-for-TV movies, abandoning them to become disease of the week or true story of the week.) Dummy was amazing-I was angry at the end when I saw it as a kid-but it was a disease of the week TV movie, and maybe Warner Bros. didn't want to waste time on it (BTW, I heard that Donald Lang was responsible for the murders after all, and was finally caught for one that was not mentioned in the movie-he was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment; so what happened in Dummy was not true.
sharehttp://www.wbshop.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-WB-Site/default/Product-Show?pid=1000205223
Warner has it now as a made to order DVD. They're not the best things in the world, but it certainly is better than nothing :)
I saw this when it first aired, and then I saw a repeat some time when I was in college, which would have been in the early 1980s. I was studying American Sign Language and had a lot of Deaf friends. At that time, there was a post-script at the end stating that Lang was the last person seen with another prostitute before she was murdered, and he had been arrested and charged with her murder.
So, that he was innocent probably was not true, but that the film was about the tragic lives of many deaf people who had never had education or exposure to language, yes, it was true. In 1979, when the movie was made, it was only 4 years after the passage of public law 94-142, the Education of All Handicapped Children. Before that law, there was no provision for the education of someone like Donald Lang. Although all states had schools for the Deaf, and they had dormitories where students could live, parents had to transport their kids to the school some way. Parents who didn't have a car, or live near a bus or train, or couldn't afford tickets, and the time off to accompany their kids to the school, couldn't send them. And there was no outreach. Some parents might not realize the schools existed. Some children were misdiagnosed as mentally retarded, and institutionalized.
It's hard to say how much of Lang's social isolation contributed to his criminal behavior. Other uneducated, isolated deaf people never committed violent crimes, and lots of serial killers had normal childhoods. However, the enigma of the crime probably would not be what it is, and Lang would not have committed a second crime, assuming that is what happened, or, perhaps his antisocial tendencies would have been identified when he was younger, before he killed anyone, if he had been able to communicate from childhood, with sign language. But, it's also possible that it he had been able to communicate with people, have normal friends and a normal social life, he might never have killed anyone.
Just purchased the DVD from WB a few days ago, it's on its way to me. I purchased the movie from a seller on iOffer last year and the picture quality was HORRIBLE! WB lets you preview a clip of the movie before you purchase it so that you can see what the picture quality is like. It's (picture quality) nice. Can't wait to get it!
share