McDowell and Redman are such a perfect team for a commentary. This track has a lot of informations about the production and the post-production. The circumstances of this movie have been very crazy. McDowell tells a lot of very funny stories about the other actors and the producer. Redman knows the historic details. The commentary is highly regarded and much much better than the movie itsself.

This commentary is also very good. There are only a few doubles to McDowell’s commentary. Mirren watches the movie for the first time completely. Beside her there are two film critics. They are talking about the circumstances of the shooting, the historic background, the acting, the structure of the movie, the penthouse extras, the producer and a lot of other points.

The commentary has not so much anecdotes like Malcom’s and it is more serious. For Mirren it is not a great movie but a movie with good parts. After the movie she was able to buy a new house. Her recollections are warm and very interesting. A great track.

This commentary is not screen-specific and does not run the full length of the film, only lasting about 93 minutes or so.

What it is however is a fascinating and occasionally hilarious phone interview with the Penthouse on-set journalist covering the making of the film for the magazine. I wish it had lasted longer. Covers the early stages with Gore Vidal all the way to home video release and touches on all the characters involved, great stuff.

It actually is great to listen to all of the commentaries as they all end up filling in the gaps and expanding the stories of the other commentaries. For instance a planned follow up to Caligula is discussed here, is actually referenced in the Mirren commentary and expounded upon.