Shout Factory will release Monsignor (1982) in January 2012. This campy over-the-top film involves Reeve as priest Father John Flaherty who will stop at nothing to climb the Catholic ladder. This involves an affair with a nun, theft and murder! Directed by Frank Perry, who is also the director of Mommy Dearest with Faye Dunaway.
Blue Underground will release Night Train Murders (1975) on a region-free blu-ray in January 2012. This sadistic exploitation film, from director Aldo Lado, will be presented on 1080p widescreen and DTS-HD Mono. There will be an English audio track with French and Spanish subtitles.
Whether this film’s genre is horror, giallo or exploitation, it must be in your collection!
A sex-crazed nymphomaniac helps speed along her father’s death so she can use the inheritance to help out her depraved boyfriend.
Blood Mania is directed by Robert Vincent O’Neill and stars Peter Carpenter, Maria De Aragon and 1972 Playboy Playmate Vicki Peters. Writing credit goes to Peter Carpenter, Tony Crechales and Toby Sacher.
Extras will also include an interview with Vicki Peters. Can’t wait for this release!
Blue Underground continues to blaze the “exploitation in high definition” trail with their latest Blu-Ray release of Armand Weston’s 1981 gothic horror sleeper THE NESTING.
When Lauren Cochran (Robin Groves, SILVER BULLET), a successful author of gothic novels, is suddenly afflicted with intense agoraphobia, she decides to get out of New York and look for a place in the country. When Lauren and her boyfriend Mark (Christopher Loomis) stumble across a derelict octagonal house in the middle of nowhere, she recognizes it as the same house from her latest novel “The Nesting” and feels compelled to rent the house from Colonel Lebrun (John Carradine, who else did you expect?) and his polite grandson Daniel (Michael David Lally, BASIC INSTINCT). No sooner has Lauren settled down to write than she is disturbed by apparitions and vaguely erotic and terrifying dreams. Her waking hours are no more comforting when her psychiatrist is killed in a freak accident at the house and her handyman tries to rape her. All of her attempts to investigate the house’s background as a bordello during the war find her threatened by both the living and the dead who want to conceal the house’s dark murderous secret and Lauren’s own connection to it. Golden age starlet Gloria Grahame appears here in her last film role as the bordello’s spectral madam Florinda. An adult filmmaker of note, Weston (and his collaborative partner Daria Price) went legit with THE NESTING (although it’s haunted bordello scenario could have started out as a lofty XXX project). Shot by porn and exploitation vet Joao Fernandes (FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER), THE NESTING has nudity and its share of gore (and some good practical telekinetic special effects), but it is a nicely restrained and refreshing departure from the slasher film boom that was just getting underway the same year with THE BURNING, FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH, and HELL NIGHT (directed by Tom DeSimone, another former adult filmmaker) among others. The film was originally shot as PHOBIA, but the title had to be changed because of the release of a higher-budgeted (though now even more obscure) John Huston-directed thriller. The film was also released as MASSACRE MANSION. Fellow sexploitation vet Roberta Findlay executed the haunted bordello scenario with far less finesse in BLOOD SISTERS (1987).
Although the film is quite obscure, Blue Underground has not skimped in their presentation. Previously only available in a very dark transfer on early eighties video from Warner Video (in one of their clamshell covers), the film has been remastered from the original negative in AVC-encoded 1080P 1.85:1 with the film’s original mono audio mix in Dolby Digital, but that’s not all. Blue Underground has also given us spacious and directional remixes (not crappy upmixes) in Dolby Digital EX 5.1 AND 7.1 lossless DTS Master Audio! Subtitles are also included in English (SDH), French, and Spanish. Twelve deleted scenes totaling twelve minutes are also presented here for the first time anywhere (and in 1080P)! English and Spanish theatrical trailers are also included, along with three TV spots, also all in 1080P!
After a couple disappointing DVD editions of Stanley Kubrick’s masterwork A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, Warner Bros. is finally giving the film its earned respect with a fantastic 40th anniversary double disc Blu-Ray edition.
Even if you have never seen A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, you may recognize some of its iconic images in popular culture (I’ve lost count of how many times it is referenced on THE SIMPSONS, but you may recognize Bart Simpson donning Malcolm McDowell’s bowler hat and make-up in one of the “Treehouse of Horror” episodes). Alex (McDowell, in his star-making performance) is the leader of ultra-violent youth gang The Droogs, who have a penchant for home invasion and rape. When his own gang turns on him during a break-in, Alex is captured. Since the woman he attacked dies, he is charged with murder and sentenced to fourteen years in prison. Alex volunteers for the experimental “Ludovico technique,” a form of aversion therapy designed to rehabilitate criminals within two weeks. The technique involves being strapped to a chair, fed a cocktail of drugs, and being forced to watch violent movies. The technique seems to work and Alex is pronounced cured (during a test he is unable to defend himself against a physical assault, he becomes sick at the sight of breasts, and he has also developed an aversion to the music of his once favorite composer Beethoven whose music was used to score the violent movies). On the outside, he is unable to defend himself against assaults from his former victims and his former gang members, and unfortunately winds up in the home of one of his victims (Patrick Magee, DEMENTIA 13). Rated X in the US upon its theatrical release and cut for an R-rating (this BluRay is the full version) and withdrawn from UK release for over 20 years after its controversial premiere, the cinematic assault and social satire that is A CLOCKWORK ORANGE is perhaps Kubrick’s most relevant work.
John Alcott’s cinematography is finally given a 16:9 presentation in this 1080P VC1-encoded correctly framed at 1.66:1, high-bitrate transfer (you can throw out that HD-DVD which had to spread the film alone over two discs). The film’s soundtrack has been masterfully remixed in 5.1 and encoded in 16-bit DTS-HD Master Audio (additional Dolby Digital 5.1 language options are in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish – along with subtitles in English, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish – so there’s no reason for anyone anywhere to not import this edition). English SDH subtitles are also included. Lead actor McDowell appears on an audio commentary with historian Nick Redman and Warner has also included a 45-minute British Channel Four documentary “Channel Four documentary: Still Tickin’: The Return of Clockwork Orange,” the half-hour “Great Bolshi Yarblockos!: Making A Clockwork Orange” (featuring Steven Spielberg, William Friedkin, and Sydney Pollack), the half-hour “Turning Like Clockwork” retrospective (hosted by McDowell), as well as the shorter “Malcolm McDowell Looks Back.” The film’s theatrical trailer rounds out the extras on disc 1. As if that weren’t enough, Warner has also given us a second Blu-Ray featuring “O Lucky Malcolm!” a near ninety-minute career profile of the actor (in 1080i), as well as the two and a half hour documentary “Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures” (in 480i). Also included is a 35-page booklet with an essay about the film’s controversial reception and censorship.
Synapse Films is pushing the envelope again, this time on Blu-Ray with a beautiful high-definition remastering of one of Radley Metzger’s erotica triumphs: THE IMAGE.
Based on the novel “L’Image” by the pseudonymous Jean de Berg (actually Catherine Robbe-Grillet, wife of author/filmmaker Alain), THE IMAGE tells the story of author Jean (Carl Parker, SCORE) who meets the mysterious Anne (Mary Mendum aka Rebecca Brooke, LAURA’S TOYS). Anne is a model who “belongs” to icy photographer Claire (Marilyn Roberts, LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR). Jean discovers that the startling depths of Anne’s sadomasochistic submission to Claire and is himself invited to join in under Claire’s terms. Is Anne a pawn in a power game between Jean and Claire, or is Jean himself the pawn? Masterfully photographed by Metzger himself (seamlessly matching Paris exteriors and posh New York interiors) – with some audacious and humorous visual flourishes – THE IMAGE is elegant, kinky, and explicit, being an electrifying bridge between Metzger’s earlier softcore erotica and his XXX triumphs such as THE OPENING OF MISTY BEETHOVEN and MARASCHINO CHERRY. Forget DEEP THROAT, this is the X-film people should have been lining up around the block to see. The film builds from an assured slow, sultry build-up to explicit and arousing sex scenes, and finally to the grueling and harrowing finale in “The Gothic Chamber” and Mary Mendum is a riveting screen presence. While in Paris, she also appeared in Max Pecas’ FELICIA (released in both hardcore and softcore versions) and then went on to become Joseph Sarno’s muse in some of his best seventies work including ABIGAIL LESLIE IS BACK IN TOWN (with hardcore vets Jennifer Welles, Chris Jordan, Eric Edwards, Jamie Gillis, and Sonny Landham). The film was also released in a cut version titled THE PUNISHMENT OF ANNE.
Synapse’s 2002 DVD looked fantastic for the time, but now they have revisited one of their most celebrated releases with a new AVC 1080P 1.85:1 transfer from the original 35mm negative materials. Besides the original mono mix (in DTS Master Audio), Synapse has also done a new 5.1 surround remix (also encoded in DTS Master Audio), as well as added optional English subtitles. The film’s memorably funky library music score has also given an isolated DTS Master Audio track. Nathaniel Thompson also supplies a new set of liner notes.
Blue Underground presents the first Blu-Ray edition of CAT O’ NINE TAILS, one of Dario Argento’s most underrated works.
While walking home, blind crossword puzzle designer Franco Arno (Karl Malden, TV’s THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO) and his niece Lori (Cinzea de Carolis, NIGHT OF THE DEVILS) overhear a conversation between a blackmailer and his target. That same night, there is a break-in at the Terzi Institute, which is known for its revolutionary and controversial genetic experiments. When Lori recognizes the man being blackmailed in the newspaper as the victim of a mysterious accident, Arno consults young reporter Giordani (James Franciscus, KILLER FISH) who looks into the possible connection between the death and the break-in at the institute. As more bodies start to pile up, Giordani becomes involved with the icy Anna Terzi (Catherine Spaak, THE LIBERTINE) who could just as easily be a suspect or a potential victim. When Lori, who saw the blackmailer’s face, is abducted, Arno and Giordani must rescue her and expose the killer. Dismissed at the time as a quick and messy follow-up to THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, CAT O’NINE TAILS has improved with age. The characters are not as well-written as those in Argento’s previous film, but they are likeable and sympathetic. The streak of humor that runs through the film is appropriately Hitchcockian (including a great car chase), Ennio Morricone’s lullaby theme is up there with his best works, and Argento and cinematographer Enrico Menczer (HOLOCAUST 2000) capture the deaths with a creative verve only hinted at in BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and further expanded in FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET and DEEP RED. Malden and Franciscus are a great pair of leads, Spaak is a throwback to the film noir femme fatales, and exploitation favorite Horst Frank (THE HEAD), Pier Paolo Capponi (FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION), BIRD’s Umberto Raho, Tino Carraro (WEREWOLF WOMAN), Werner Pocath (MOSQUITO), and Rada Rassimov (BARON BLOOD) pop up in supporting roles (child actress de Carolis would grow up and develop a kinky relationship with a snake in 1979’s LIBIDINE).
As usual, Blue Underground gives us a solid package. First off, it’s a dual-layer, 1080P AVC-encoded 2.35:1 transfer from the original negative. Not only does Blue Underground give the DTS-HD Master Audio treatment to the original 1.0 mono track, they’ve also done a stereo remix, also in DTS Master Audio. The Italian and French dubs are also included in Dolby Digital, but unlike the old Anchor Bay DVD, the BU Blu allows you to watch the film in Italian with optional English SDH subtitles. The extras include the 14-minute featurette “Tales of the Cat” which features interviews with Argento, writer Dardano Sacchetti (HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY), and Ennio Morricone, as well as some cool vintage radio interviews with James Franciscus and Karl Malden about working on the film. The US and international theatrical trailers are also included along with two TV spots and two radio spots.
Danielle Harris (the kid star of HALLOWEEN 4 and 5, later the perky co-star of ROB ZOMBIE’S HALLOWEEN and HALLOWEEN II) follows up her turn in the slasher HATCHET II with the eighties slasher throwback BLOOD NIGHT: THE LEGEND OF MARY HATCHET from LionsGate.
Years ago, 12-year old Long Island child Mary Mattock suddenly butchered her entire family Lizzie Borden-style. She was institutionalized where she grew into a shapely naked chick (Samantha Facchi) and was raped by an orderly and gave birth to a baby that apparently died, causing her to massacre the entire hospital before being taken down by the police. For the last twenty years, the local twenty- and thirty-something teens have celebrated the urban legend that Mary stalks the town looking for her lost baby with the usual drunken, horny parties would-be victims are wont to throw on the anniversary of slasher rampages. This year, however, “Mary Hatchet” is back to make this “Blood Night” especially gory. TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2’s Bill Moseley pops up as the local weirdo to provide all of the background information on Mary. There’s not a lot of great acting among the supporting cast, but they are attractive and get slashed. With a good amount of gore and nudity, BLOOD NIGHT isn’t trying to be anything revolutionary; rather, it is an affectionate tribute to eighties slasher films (actually, it feels a bit more like those obscure mid-to-late eighties stragglers – not all of which are justifiably obscure – following the slasher boom. Some viewers will decry the lack of originality, others will find it refreshingly un-ambitious, delivering some creative kills and gratuitous toplessness (not just decapitated heads).
LionsGate presents the film in a respectful 16:9 anamorphic widescreen transfer with active 5.1 surround audio. Extras include a making-of featurette, cast/crew interviews, and an outtakes reel.
Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis rake the muck in Alexander McKendrick’s acid, satiric SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS, now out on a loaded two-disc special edition from The Criterion Collection.
When his baby sister Susan (Susan Harrison, KEY WITNESS) starts seeing squeaky-clean jazz musician Steve Dallas (Marty Milner, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, replacing Robert Vaughn), influential Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster, THE LEOPARD, in a role meant for Orson Welles) employs ambitious press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis, SOME LIKE IT HOT) to find the dirt on Dallas to break them up. Falco contrives to manipulate Hunsecker’s rival columnist to run the item so that it cannot be traced back to Susan’s brother. Not only does Hunsecker seem overly attached to his sister, Lancaster and Curtis trade some memorably bitchy lines courtesy of writers Ernest Lehmen (NORTH BY NORTHWEST) and Clifford Odets (whose play “The Big Knife” explored amoral Hollywood on the other side of the country). Barbara Nichols (THE NAKED AND THE DEAD), Edith Atwater (FAMILY PLOT), and Sam Levene (THE KILLERS) co-star. The Chico Hamilton Quartet appear as themselves (Hamilton later scored Polanski’s REPULSION, but Elmer Bernstein provides the score here).
Previously released in a non-anamorphic widescreen barebones DVD by MGM (back when MGM didn’t bother transferring their 1.66:1 titles in 16:9), SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS gets the expected top-notch treatment from Criterion. The film has been transferred from an all-new high definition master with their usual meticulous MTI digital restoration and careful clean-up of the Dolby Digital mono audio. There’s an authoritative audio commentary by film scholar James Naremore. There’s also a 1986 documentary on director Alexander MacKendrick (THE LADYKILLERS) featuring interviews with the director, Burt Lancaster, and the produce James Hill among others. More interesting (to me, that is) is a 1973 documentary on the great cinematographer James Wong Howe that even features lighting tutorials by the master. Film critic Neil Gabler provides an interview with lots of insight into infamous gossip columnist Walter Winchell, who served as the inspiration for Lancaster’s character (and who reportedly ran a smear campaign against a man courting his daughter). Filmmaker James Mangold studied under MacKendrick and also provides a neat interview. Besides the theatrical trailer, Criterion of course features their requisite informative thick collector’s booklet with an essay by critic Gary Giddins, two short stories by co-writer Lehman featuring the characters from the film, notes about the film by Lehman, and an excerpt from Mackendrick’s book “On Film-making.” Whether you are rediscovering this classic or seeing it for the first time, Criterion’s set features everything you could possibly want about the film.
HERCULES star Steve Reeves’ first western (which he also produced and co-wrote) and his final feature film A LONG RIDE TO HELL (also known as I LIVE FOR YOUR DEATH) hits DVD courtesy of Code Red Releasing.
Ranch owner Mike Sturgess (Reeves) and his brother Roy (Franco Fantasia, JUSTINE DE SADE) are in the wrong place at the wrong time when they chase after some cattle rustlers and run into Sturgess’ old friend Maynard (Wayde Preston, of TV’s COLT 45). Little do they know that Maynard and his buddies have robbed a train nearby and have stashed the money until the heat dies down. They beat up Mike and his brother and leave them for dead. Mike and Roy are wrongfully accused of the robbery and sent to prison at Fort Yuma where Roy dies at the hands of sadistic warden Shorty (Nello Pazzafini, I AM SARTANA, TRADE YOUR GUNS FOR A COFFIN). Mike and the other prisoners stage a violent prison break. Mike returns home and finds his ranch in ruin and decides to track down and avenge himself on Maynard and the other robbers, using the hidden loot to turn them against each other. Bruno Corazzari (Fulci’s THE PSYCHIC and THE BLACK CAT), Silvana Venturini (THE LICKERISH QUARTET), and Rosalba Neri (THE DEVIL’S WEDDING NIGHT) co-star. The film is based on the novel “Judas Gun” by Gordon Shireffs, an actual American author whose novel was optioned by Reeves. Director Camilo Bazzoni was a former cinematographer and later directed the giallo SHADOWS UNSEEN. Carlo Savina (LISA AND THE DEVIL) provides the Spaghetti Western score. Cinematographer Enzo Barboni later directed the comic TRINITY westerns with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer.
Previously released in a non-anamorphic, PAL-NTSC edition, A LONG RIDE TO HELL arrives back on DVD from Code Red in a beautiful 16:9 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer from a high definition master using the original CRI negatives (Cinerama Releasing put this one out in the states, and a number of their titles have come out from Code Red and Scorpion Releasing). Co-star Mimmo Palmara is featured in an hour-long, English-subtitled interview covering his career and his friendship with Reeves (he made six films with the star). “At Home with Steve Reeves” is a camcorder visit to Reeves California home by the Italian Steve Reeves Fan Club. The disc also features the American theatrical trailer and trailers for several other upcoming Code Red releases.
