Tim Lucas / Video WatchBlog: February 2021

Friday, February 26, 2021

Appreciating Jack

Don’t worry, this isn't a eulogy. He’s just on my mind.

Sometimes I think he might have been the best movie star ever, but I know that he was (I put this in past tense because he’s now reportedly retired) at least the most interesting, charismatic American actor of my lifetime. He is also (as I can tell from having read a couple of his screenplays) a genuine intellectual, which you can’t readily see in his performances but which is often evident in the choices he made, at least until Hollywood’s production slate sold out. Even then, he could take something like AS GOOD AS IT GETS to the next level, and make something like ABOUT SCHMIDT (a tough sell that deserved to be made) commercially feasible.

I feel he’s probably underrated by generations now who only know him from BATMAN or THE SHINING.

Appreciate him now. It’s going to hurt when he goes.

(c) 2021 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.

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Thursday, February 25, 2021

Give It A Spin: MURDER AT 45 RPM (1960)

Michel Auclair comforts Danielle Darrieux in MURDER AT 45 RPM.

A short update concerning my recent Boileau-Narcejac movie binge:

Though I was successful in locating Etienne Périer's MEURTRES EN 45 TOURS and English subtitles online, I remained very curious about the English dubbed version MURDER AT 45 RPM, which was briefly distributed here in the United States by MGM before everyone forgot it ever existed. Happily, I found a listing for it at Sinister Cinema and placed an order, which arrived just yesterday.

Based on a novel (AU COEUR PERDU) translated into English as HEART TO HEART, the film stars Danielle Darrieux, Jean Servais (THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE) and Michel Auclair as the usual romantic triangle, this time with Servais as the sadistic husband, who doubles as composer for Darrieux's star vocalist. In the standard Boileau-Narcejac situation, one of them is murdered and taunts the surviving suspects through a series of anonymously mailed recordings. Servais is especially good, somewhat reminiscent of Paul Meurisse in DIABOLIQUE, but the plot is a little too familiar and Périer's uninspired direction makes the film almost appear to have been shot for television, with fades-to-black like commercial breaks after almost every key scene. There is also a preponderance of static shots of characters watching television and driving from one place to another; it's simply not very cinematic. To make matters still more stale, the musical aspect of the film was already somewhat old-fashioned even at the time it was made. Aside from the pop music angle, the basic score of the film by Yves Claoué is pleasingly white-knuckled.

Despite these glum factors, I'm glad I grabbed this dubbed version because the English print is like a deep, nostalgic immersion into what the Late, Late Show used to be like when I was a kid falling in love with all those mysterious European films in the 1960s. This one doesn't bill Titra but it was very much one of their jobs, with Bernie Grant and Joyce Gordon voicing the principals, with (I think) George Gonneau dubbing at least one of the men so that Bernie didn't have to dub them all. Just the strange, canned sound of this old movie gave me the warm and fuzzies.

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Download THE BIG, BAD WOLF

Here's your big chance to get a really cheap download of a really cheap movie - the original Childhood Productions release of THE BIG BAD WOLF (1966, but actually Peter Podehl's DER WOLF UND DIE SIEBEN JUNGEN GEISSLEIN/"The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats," 1957) - in SD, 720 or 1080p HD! You can do it - I did!

Here's the official pitch:

Download THE BIG BAD WOLF and help AGFA’s non-profit mission by purchasing a piece of home video history for a donation of $2.99 -- or pay-what-you-want!

Inflicting trauma on kids across the country during its original theatrical run, THE BIG BAD WOLF is a surreal and disturbing mid-century anthropomorphic nightmare that masquerades a children's film.

In the 1990s, Something Weird Video revolutionized the home video landscape by unleashing thousands of outlaw exploitation films on VHS. To this day, some of these mega-rare tapes include the best-available versions of movies that have fallen into a black hole of neglect. AGFA is thrilled to digitize and share some of our favorite titles from the Something Weird tape collection -- newly transferred from the original S-VHS masters.

This is a digital transfer of Something Weird’s vintage master tape, complete with supplemental trailers. It will not be released on home video by AGFA and is only available here.

Friday, February 19, 2021

Coming Soon From Kino Lorber: CROSSED SWORDS (1977)

Mark Lester and Mark Lester as the Prince and the Pauper in CROSSED SWORDS.

If you've never seen Richard Fleischer's CROSSED SWORDS (1977), a retelling of Mark Twain’s THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER starring Charlton Heston (as Henry VIII), Oliver Reed, and numerous veterans from Hammer and Ken Russell films, you should pick up the imminent Kino Lorber Blu-ray (streeting March 23). This is very much an Ilya Salkind/Pierre Spengler production from their THREE MUSKETEERS/SUPERMAN heyday, and a resonant reminder of a time when the British film industry was second to none. It's a handsome thing, photographed by Jack Cardiff and scored by Maurice Jarre. There are minor faults - Mark Lester isn’t quite up to either of the two lead roles (he's an awkward 17 year-old, playing characters meant to be resourceful 8 year-olds) and there were apparently enough problems with the original script for George Macdonald Fraser to receive sole credit on the US release for “Final Screenplay” (a credit I’ve never seen before!) - so I would have to objectively rate it just a notch below excellent.

Nevertheless... I loved it.

The great Oliver Reed in his swashbuckling prime.

There’s a scene in which Reed (in top swashbuckling form as Miles Hendon) enters the royal palace and recognizes the doorman as someone he knew years earlier. The doorman, whom he greets with palpable warmth, is played by none other than Michael Ripper, clawed to death by Reed in CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (1961) many years previously, and this is just one of many magical scenes arranged through its exemplary casting. Rex Harrison, Ernest Borgnine, Raquel Welch, David Hemmings, Harry Andrews, Murray Melvin, Dudley Sutton, Sybil Danning (in a rare unglamorous role as the Pauper’s careworn mother!), so many more... I don’t know why I avoided this film for so long, but to see all these fine actors assembled, in their prime and giving their best, in what was - to me - a “new” movie was like having them all back again. As the end credits rolled, I felt pangs of gratitude. Bless them all.

Charlton Heston as King Henry VIII.

Kino Lorber's disc also includes a standard-definition presentation of the “International Cut” - to help us determine the impact of that “Final Screenplay,” I suppose - and I intend to watch it. There's also a 20m interview with Mark Lester, in which he reminisces about the production, and a Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell, and Nathaniel Thompson commentary that will surely shed some light behind and in front of the scenes.

Thursday, February 18, 2021

Between DIABOLIQUE and VERTIGO: LES LOUVES (1957)

I find myself insistently drawn toward finding and watching more films based on the writings of Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. Last night's viewing was a remarkable yet seemingly forgotten (at least here in the US) thriller called LES LOUVES (“The She-Wolves,” 1957), which was given the cleverly resonant alternate title of DEMONIAC here in the States when United Motion Picture Organization released it in the summer-autumn of 1958. It was based on an early book in the authors' collaboration, which was translated into English as THE PRISONER - which J.F. Norris wrote about most persuasively for his blog Pretty Sinister Books.

It's set in occupied France during WWII and features Micheline Presle and Jeanne Moreau as two very different sisters, the daughters of a once prosperous family - the elder is very rigid and uptight and teaches piano, while the younger sister seems more amoral and empathetic and has a professed talent for communicating with the dead. But they aren't the primary characters: the film opens with two POWs who successfully escape and flee to the home address of a “godmother” pen pal whom one of them has arranged to marry, though they have never met. This POW doesn’t make it, so his partner (François Périer) assumes his identity to lie his way into the shelter of his dead friend's engagement. Add in a couple more complications that I won't spoil for you, and the story establishes a fantastic situation in which a bourgeoise household is occupied by one man and three women - each of them pretending to be someone or something they are not! It certainly keeps you guessing!

Each of the performers is excellent: this is an early breakthrough role for Moreau, who makes the most of her spooky yet alluring character; Presle is a woman whose conservative comportment and poise becomes more worrisome as the film proceeds, and Robinson - a surprise curve ball reserved for the onset of Act II - makes a powerful impression in a role that threatens to unmask Périer. It is such a perfect follow-up to DIABOLIQUE - both so different and so much like it - that I can’t figure out why it’s not better known.

Here's a review from the PITTSBURGH SUN-TELEGRAPH, September 7, 1958:

Click to enlarge.

Despite receiving reviews as enthusiastic as this, DEMONIAC has become forgotten as an American release and LES LOUVES is remembered only by an elite few. This needs to change. René Chateau holds the rights to LES LOUVES, while Gaumont controls MEURTRE EN 45 TOURS and MALÉFICES - they are all available on DVD from these links at Amazon.fr. In the meantime, as we pray for the refreshment of a much-needed domestic release, you can find an acceptable but not-so-hot copy of LES LOUVES on YouTube in French, and subtitles can be found elsewhere; it can also be found online with subs if you look around. Happy hunting!

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Internet Find: MALÉFICES

Juliette Gréco and friend Nyété in MALÉFICES (1962).

This 1962 film from French director Henri Decoin tends to be regrettably overlooked by histories of the horror film. Based on a 1961 novel by that eminently filmable suspense team Boileau-Narcejac, it is a worthy addition to a filmography that boasts the likes of DIABOLIQUE (1955), VERTIGO (1958), and EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960, the latter not an adaptation so much as a Boileau-Narcejac rewrite), though it is made with such subtlety that one is left somewhat mystified by the experience. What exactly happened here? What actually caused it? The natural or the supernatural?

After those three best-known film credits, the cold, contained thrillers of Boileau-Narcejac continued to be filmed, mostly abroad. 1960 alone saw the production of Serge Friedman's LES MAGICIENNES (based on their 1957 novel); their 1952 novel LE VISAGES DE L'OMBRE was nicely filmed in Britain by David Eady under the novel's translation title of FACES IN THE DARK (1960); and Étiénne Périer directed MEURTRE EN 45 TOURS ("Murder At 45 r.p.m.," based on their 1959 novel À COEUR PERDU, "A Lost Heart," translated into English as HEART TO HEART). These three were primarily exercises in mystery-suspense yet they (and DIABOLIQUE) were also very much the inspiration for the thrillers made by Hammer throughout the 1960s, which are always discussed as an essential chapter of their horror legacy - so why not these?

The Kessler Twins are featured on this UK still for LES MAGICIENNES (1960).

Part of the reason may be their obscurity. LES MAGICIENNES (which starred Alice and Ellen Kessler, the Kessler Twins, who subsequently appeared in Mario Bava's ERIK THE CONQUEROR) was given a UK theatrical release as FRANTIC, while it was a no-show in American until it surfaced in a dubbed version titled DOUBLE DECEPTION circa 1966-1970, then disappeared. MURDER AT 45 R.P.M. fared only slightly better, achieving miserly US theatrical play in 1965 before briefly appearing in television syndication the following year through 1970. For the bilingual, both films are available in France on Gaumont DVD under their original titles.

The same circumstances roughly befell Decoin's MALÉFICES - based on the 1961 novel of the same name, translated as SPELLS OF EVIL - whose grandly evocative title was obliterated by Paramount when they issued the film to US theaters in the summer of 1963 as a B-title under the vague, bland moniker WHERE THE TRUTH LIES (not to be confused with the 2005 Atom Egoyan feature). I was very pleased to discover an excellent quality, widescreen French-language version with hard English subtitles available for viewing or downloading from the website Cave of Forgotten Films.

It is the story of François Rauchelle (Jean-Marc Bory) - a mild, unassuming veterinarian who lives with his wife (Liselotte Pulver) on Noirmoutier Island, which connects to the mainland by a single road known as the Passage du Gois, which is erased at high tide each day. He spends his time tending to farm and domestic animals, until a stranger rouses him from his bed one night with a personal request that he venture out to a mainland address the next day and tend to an ailing leopard. (He has made the personal appearance so he will know the plea was made in earnest and not some sort of fantastic joke.) He makes the trip and finds the leopard domesticated in the care of an exotic-looking woman named Myriem Heller (Juliette Gréco of ORPHEUS and BELPHEGOR fame), who lives with her African servant Ronga (Maithé Mansoura). Rauchelle soon finds himself under the power of Myriem, who has acquired mystic powers after years of study under an African sorcerer, and his marriage - along with his will - begins to disintegrate. His only rudder through this turbulent adventurer is the stranger who introduced them, Vial (Jacques Dacqmine), an authority on black magic who is a rival for Myriem's love and therefore cannot entirely be trusted.

What I found most pleasing about MALÉFICES is that it perpetuates the pensive, off-kilter look of DIABOLIQUE and EYES WITHOUT A FACE and so feels very much part of their atmospheric unity. It is photographed in luscious anamorphic black-and-white by Marcel Grignon, also responsible for the memorable THE BLONDE WITCH (LA SORCIÈRE, 1956, with Marina Vlady), Roger Vadim's LES LIASONS DANGEREUSE (1959) and VICE AND VIRTUE (1963), and the first two entries in Andre Hunebelle's FANTÔMAS trilogy (1964-65). The opening aerial shots of the protagonist's Citroën 2CV puttering across the long stretch of the continental passage anticipate the main titles of THE SHINING, as the night shots of the insect-like vehicle flash us back to Franju - as does Rauchelle's first interaction with the leopard, which is remarkable and not at all what we are led to expect. Juliette Gréco - who was, of course, also a singer who received much publicity for her love life with various celebrities - is perfectly believable as the witchy femme fatale, fed up with living in the mausoleum-like castle of the last man she destroyed and exerting all her influence to tempt our unambitious, untravelled hero into abandoning his marriage and joining her on a romantic voyage to parts unknown. As in all of Boileau-Narcejac's work, we are led into believing many things about our story until its weird illusions are dismantled by cold logic in the final stretch, but this one leaves certain aspects of the uncanny open to question and even belief. Also notable is a nerve-scraping musique concrète score by Pierre Henry that keeps the nervous system leaning forward to the edge of one's seat with an ironic, admiring smile on one's face. In retrospect, MALÉFICES stands out as an antecedent of Damiano Damiani's eerily modernistic THE WITCH IN LOVE (LA STREGHE, 1966), based on Carlos Fuentes' novella AURA - another sometimes overlooked achievement that ranks with the best Euro Gothics. It deserves to be much better-known, so here is your chance.

Danielle Darrieux at the wheel in MURDER AT 45 R.P.M.

Until recently, an acceptable copy of MEURTRE EN 45 TOURS (sans sous-titres) was available on YouTube, but a DVD-R of MURDER AT 45 R.P.M. - from a dubbed 16mm TV print - remains available from Sinister Cinema. All three of the French titles discussed here - LES MAGICIENNES, MEURTRES..., and MALÉFICES - are available from Amazon.fr on Gaumont DVDs.

Nothing would please me more than to learn that a Blu-ray box set of BOILEAU-NARCEJAC movies was in the works. As Juliette Greco's Myriem would know, sometimes putting the thought out there can make it happen.

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Recent Releases In Review

TALES OF THE UNCANNY (2021, Severin Films): This direct-to-video documentary - largely assembled from ZOOM interviews and trailer clips, with some more professionally shot interviews along the way - is a rousing and useful overview of the horror anthology in film and television, ranging from the German silent Poe adaptation EERIE TALES (1919) to SOUTHBOUND (2015) and beyond, to the very threshold of its centenary. Sixty-one filmmakers and authorities from around the world trace the primal allure of the horror short story back to our earliest memories of storytelling, as ourselves and as a species, then pick their favorites and comment on others. The result is a chronologically arranged symposium that covers a lot of ground with knowledge and sophistication. There's a nice middle section that offers up a lot of love for Amicus Films; the final third I found slightly less interesting but helpful in terms of narrowing down the profusion of DTV titles to a core of worthwhile work. Included as two bonus features are EERIE TALES (the film that started it all) and also Jean Faurez's 1949 film UNUSUAL TALES (Histories Extraordinaires à faire per ou à faire rire... - which means "Unusual Tales to Make You Scream and Laugh"). At the end, two polls are taken to arrive at the general favorite film and episode. I was frankly outraged by the final results, but at least it's democracy at work.

DARK INTRUDER (1965, Kino Lorber): A miscast Leslie Nielsen stars in this fascinating mid-sixties oddity, a pre-KOLCHAK television pilot about a debonair 19th century occult specialist who lives in a library of forgotten lore, attended by a dwarf manservant, who is sometimes called upon by the police to solve murders of unusual mystery. It turned out so well that Universal decided to ship it out to theaters as a co-feature (it's no more than roughly an hour long), at just about the time B-pictures disappeared. Without giving too much away, the murders lead to a real freak of nature (one that Stephen R. Bissette ties into the lineage of David Cronenberg's THE BROOD in his recent book on that film) and some nicely eerie set pieces that will have you recalling HOUSE OF WAX and other period horror fare, while the main dramatic scenes feel very much like a citified version of THE WILD WILD WEST. Written by Barré Lyndon (THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET, John Brahm's THE LODGER, George Pal's THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, and the "Sign of Satan" episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR), this was produced by future NIGHT GALLERY producer Jack Laird (it feels like his work), and photographed by John F. Warren (who shot eight THRILLERs and almost 50 HITCHCOCK episodes), so it has a fine pedigree. Peter Mark Richman (who recently passed away), Judi Meredith (somewhat too modern an actress to be suitable for 19th century parts), and Werner Klemperer are also in it and, of all people, THE GODFATHER's Al Lettieri briefly turns up as a constable. Had I seen this when I was twelve, I'd probably feel a huge sentimental attachment for this, but I didn't, so I don't. Nevertheless, this is a nice bon-bon. I wish this release contained the original pilot version (a 16mm print of which recently surfaced on eBay) but it does include a fine commentary by FANTASTIC TELEVISION author Gary Gerani that will tell you anything you want to know about this peculiar one-shot. Not quite the outstanding rediscovery that Kino Lorber's 2018 release of Joseph Stefano's THE GHOST OF SIERRA DE COBRE was; it's a little corny and self-conscious in the way most pilots are, but the climactic makeup is good and Gerani's audcom turns a engaging hour into an interesting two.

Monday, February 15, 2021

Get Swamped With "Wild Bill" Grefé!

Cover art by Twins of Evil.

HE CAME FROM THE SWAMP - THE WILLIAM GREFÉ COLLECTION

(1965-2020; Arrow Video)

This handsomely packaged box set proclaims "This Is Horror!" but it's actually a little bit of everything exploitative: it's got monsters, it's got swamp adventures, it's got cautionary tales about drugs and alcohol, it's got rock and country, it's got Rooney Kerwin, it's even got Rita Hayworth on her way down - and I would wager from the looks of it that at least some of it was 16mm blown up to 35. It's all presided over by the dean of Florida movie exploitation, William "Wild Bill" Grefé, whom Herschell Gordon called "a titan" and David F. Friedman (rarely a humble man) called "the best of us." Included here are such drive-in confections as STING OF DEATH (1965) and its original co-feature DEATH CURSE OF TARTU (1966), THE HOOKED GENERATION (1968), THE NAKED ZOO (1970, with Rita Hayworth), THE PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST aka ELECTRIC SHADES OF GREY (made 1971, unreleased until 2001), MAKO: JAWS OF DEATH (1976) and WHISKEY MOUNTAIN (1977), along with a newly "expanded" (now two hours plus) edition of Daniel Griffith's 2016 documentary, THEY CAME FROM THE SWAMP: THE FILMS OF WILLIAM GREFÉ (2020).

A writer-director who got his start with Florida-made racing films like THE CHECKERED FLAG (1963) and RACING FEVER (1964), Grefé was one of the first filmmakers - if not THE first - from the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area to make a grab for the brass ring of national distribution, and the one most likely to be assimilated into the mainstream. While his fellow locals Herschell Gordon Lewis, Doris Wishman, and Brad F. Grinter were dabbling in the outlaw cinemas of gore, nudism, and WTF, Grefé's bottom line was always action, though he wrapped it in many different kinds of genre wrapping paper. His movies aren't always well-acted, but they are all at least competent within their framework and manage to leave most every viewer with one or two scenes worth savoring. As regional exploitation filmmaking goes, in terms of quality and consistency, he's up there with the best of them, short of George A. Romero. He's probably best-known for the second unit shark/stunt work he brought to the James Bond film LIVE AND LET DIE (1973), which was filmed in his general area, but the movies he made himself are humble but winning mixtures of ingredients that shouldn't mix - STING OF DEATH is an old-fashioned monster movie about a Jellyfish man with a Neil Sedaka musical number in it; STANLEY (1972, not included here) is about a Native American who trains rattlesnakes to do his bidding; WHISKEY MOUNTAIN (with Christopher and Lynda Day George) is a dirt-bike adventure inspired by DELIVERANCE.

STING OF DEATH.

Kim Newman reviewed DEATH CURSE OF TARTU and STING OF DEATH in detail back in VW 158. STING OF DEATH was made first, with DEATH CURSE necessitated by having to fill out a drive-in double bill for a guaranteed opening, and it plays the better of two. There are certainly later examples of men-in-suit monster pictures like OCTAMAN (1971) and SLITHIS (1978), but STING OF DEATH feels like the last-gasp of a certain kind of innocence in such a picture, replete with a silly monster, corny mock-science dialogue, and a pool party sequence with lots of attention paid to shaking bottoms in tight Capri pants and bikinis. It's also shot with a lot of bold primary colors and imagination. DEATH CURSE OF TARTU - "a transposition of the 'mummy's curse' formula to the Everglades," as Kim noted - was written at white heat by Grefé himself in a single night, but that urgency doesn't quite come through in its mostly humdrum execution. On the other hand, it does have a pretty great drive-in monster in Tartu, once again played by Hobart, and a brief cameo appearance by future BLOOD FREAK director/narrator Brad F. Grinter.

DEATH CURSE OF TARTU.

Over the weekend, I took a deeper dip into the set. THE HOOKED GENERATION and THE PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST were previously released on DVD by Something Weird Video/Image Entertainment in 2012, with audio commentaries by Grefé conducted by Frank Henenlotter; these are also included here. Regardless of the title, this is not at all a generational story, but rather a tale of three surprisingly amiable drug dealers - Daisy (Jeremy Slate), Acid (John Davis Chandler), and Dum Dum (boxer Willie Pastrano) who turn murderous while negotiating a deal with Cuban smugglers, killing not only them but several Coast Guard officers before abducting a couple of witnesses (Steve Alaimo and Traci Lords-lookalike Cece Stone). It's a nesting doll: the drug movie becomes a kidnapping movie becomes a flight into Florida swamp lands not unlike GUN CRAZY. The movie as a whole is not so much, but it is absolutely worth seeing to enjoy Chandler's audacious and outrageous performance as the stupid smack-head so needful of a shot - maybe ten minutes after he last had one - that he actually shoots up while crawling on the deck of a bot dodging a hail of bullets! Slate is memorable in his own way and its the oddball charisma of these two GUNSMOKE veterans and the suddenly-wide-awake feel of its action sequences that carries an otherwise flimsy picture. Fun note: briefly featured in this 1968 picture is a rock band calling themselves The Bangles.

Jeremy Slate, Willie Pestrano and John Davis Chandler in THE HOOKED GENERATION.

Acid looking at acid.

John Darrell turns on and drops out in THE PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST.

THE PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST (made during a period when Grefé held an executive position at Ivan Tors Productions) doesn't carry Grefé's name other than his sole Director of Photography credit. The direction is credited to producer Stewart Miller, who directed one day before a nervous breakdown forced him to concede responsibility to his cameraman and technical advisor. Grefé introduces the film by explaining that he was tricked into making without a script, so it had to be almost entirely improvised - but he took the responsibility seriously and didn't throw the opportunity away. It starts with a simple premise: a holier-than-thou young priest, Father John (John Darrell), lectures a group of hooky-playing high schoolers, who thank him with paper cup of Coca-Cola laced with LSD. (Surprisingly, no one taunts him with "Are you sleeping, Father John?" as his shattered mind is rudely awakened.) He trips out, drops out of his church, and hits the road to "get his head together." Another Russian doll: Sanctimonious religious instruction becomes drug movie becomes road movie becomes EASY RIDER rip-off! Our humbled protagonist (wearing a bad wig and scruffy beard) sets out in his square sedan toward hippie mecca California, meets and shares and parts ways with various fellow young people along the way, and is given good reason to realize that it's America itself that's screwed-up rather than our Father John Quixote. It's crude, it doesn't make its points with much restraint or taste, and it's technically not very well made (the sound is on the raspy side), yet I've found myself haunted by it. Grefé won my respect for having turned a fool's errand into something that I believe might have offered a helping hand to certain confused members of his audience back in the day, had this film seen the light of day in its time. In 1971, there were lots of people in the midwest and southern drive-in crowds who wouldn't have been caught dead seeing EASY RIDER, and if they were tricked into seeing this by going to see THE HOOKED GENERATION, they might have seen reflections of their own parents, their own country, their own despair here. So, while I can't really say I admire the filmmaking here, I got caught up in it despite myself and am still thinking about it a couple of days later. Worth checking out, and both HOOKED GENERATION and PSYCHEDELIC PRIEST are the subjects of two on-camera interviews with film historian Chris Poggiali.

Rita Hayworth and Stephen Oliver in THE NAKED ZOO.

The Daniel Griffith documentary shares the WHISKEY MOUNTAIN disc in this set, and includes talking head commentary from a number of his better-known colleagues and cast/crew people, including H.G. Lewis, Dave Friedman, actor/singer Steve Alaimo, and Florida-based monster maker Doug Hobart. For those who might be disappointed that HE CAME FROM THE SWAMP falls short of definitive by not including some of Grefé's most popular titles - STANLEY (1972) and IMPULSE (1974) - the documentary covers these in detail, as well as the once-lost THE DEVIL SISTERS (1966), his WILD ANGELS riff THE WILD REBELS (1967), the appallingly racist and unfunny Mickey Rooney-produced "comedy" THE GODMOTHERS (1973), and a good deal more. Highlights of the program include footage from Grefé's first (unfinished) film project, clips from industrial films, and some outstanding behind-the-scenes footage - especially a near-death experience for Harold "Oddjob" Sakata during the production of IMPULSE. To be found among the extras are five interesting outtakes from the final assemblage. The only thing I found at all lacking about the docu is a fuller accounting of the 1965 Del Tenney film ZOMBIES, for which Grefé served as second-unit director, which went unreleased until it was retitled I EAT YOUR SKIN for Cinemation's 1971 double-bill with David Durston's I DRINK YOUR BLOOD.

I haven't yet seen THE NAKED ZOO, but it is presented in the original director's cut and also a "not-director-approved" Barry Mahon recut, which reportedly features nude inserts. Fay Spain also appears, as do HOOKED GENERATION vets Steve Alaimo, Willie Pestrano, and an actual name band: Canned Heat.

The box copy informs us that all seven films have been newly restored from the best surviving elements, with original uncompressed mono audio. This is not always an endorsement; the sight and sound of these films are not their strongest calling cards. I'm not sure if any of these films was shot in 16mm and blown up to 35mm, but it wouldn't surprise me as they are frequently grainy or diffuse-looking, and the audio is sometimes harsh with not all dialogue quite coming across. (The optional subtitles on all films is a help for those who need the extra help.) WHISKEY MOUNTAIN is particularly surprising in this regard; it looks like a movie from the 1970s in every way, it's attractively lensed - the set demonstrates the solid learning curve of Grefé's frequent cameraman Julio C. Chavez - but the presentation here doesn't appear to have come anywhere near its camera negative or an interpositive. This also leads to projector wear on some of the sources, but apparently it can't be helped.

If a set as generous as this - laden with commentaries, trailers, alternate cuts, industrial films, stills galleries, and director introductions - can leave us wanting more, it's really quite a commendation. Arrow's packaging of these seven films (and variants) covers four BD discs, and there's also a hardcover booklet containing an illustrated text interview with Grefé and a two-sided reversible poster.

Saturday, February 13, 2021

When Psychos Were Pschyos

Ad from a Tampa, Florida newspaper, 26 May 1946.

I've never heard of this movie (Warren William's penultimate film, a contemporary retelling of Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT directed by Alfred Zeisler), but the then-innovative ad campaign points the way to Hitchcock's PSYCHO and William Castle's HOMICIDAL some 15 years earlier - when an advertisement could get away with misspelling "psycho" because the term hadn't quite yet been defined in the manner it would be. To the best of my knowledge, FEAR is never mentioned in overviews of horror and suspense cinema - but this ad certainly offers it a seat at the table maybe even a place of honor at its turning point, if only in salesmanship.

And you've gotta love "modern scientific air conditioning."

FEAR is available for viewing now on Amazon Prime. As further enticement, here's an interesting review over at Dan Day Jr.'s blog.

Friday, February 12, 2021

Two Fat Essentials Coming From Severin Films

Severin Films has been doing extraordinary work of late. Their 2020-2010 roster has included such important titles as the BLOOD AND FLESH AL ADAMSON monolith, THE COMPLETE LENZI/BAKER GIALLO COLLECTION, Jess Franco's SHINING SEX and BAHIA BLANCA, Sergio Martino's THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH, Lucio Fulci's ENIGMA and DEMONIA, Alain Jessua's SHOCK TREATMENT, a restoration of the German sexy shocker HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND, not to mention such charming arcana as Jeremy Kasten's THE THEATRE BIZARRE and THE ATTIC EXPEDITIONS, MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY, and David Gregory and Kier-La Janisse's TALES OF THE UNCANNY, a diverse and fascinating critical exploration of the horror anthology film, which includes two such features (1919's EERIE TALES and 1949's UNUSUAL TALES) as extras. The view going forward into 2021 is, if anything, even more appetizing, with such titles on offer as Álex de la Iglesia's PERDITA DURANGO and DAY OF THE BEAST, NOSFERATU IN VENICE, William Girdler's GRIZZLY and DAY OF THE ANIMALS, Alejandro Jodorowsky's SANTA SANGRE, and the classic Something Weird Video title A SCREAM IN THE STREETS (which will finally also be made available in its X-rated version, which contains a hardcore Colleen Brennan sequence that I believe has only previously surfaced on an old, pre-SWV VHS release on the CNH label).

That said, their biggest news was issued last week and today - their announcements of two new, major box sets. Here are the full details:

THE DUNGEON OF ANDY MILLIGAN (click for trailer)

Street Date: April 2021

Disc 1: The Ghastly Ones (1968)

Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 72 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Features:
*Audio Commentary with Actor Hal Borske and Filmmaker Frank Henenlotter
*Audio Commentary with CineFear's Keith Crocker
*Partial Audio Commentary with Filmmaker Fred Olen Ray
*Trailer
*BLOOD RITES Alternate Title Sequence
*Ghastly & Depraved - Interview with Marketing Wiz Samuel M. Sherman
*Trailer for Lost Milligan Film DEPRAVED!
*Talk Of The Trade - Interview with Early Milligan Actress Natalie Rogers
*THE FILTHY FIVE - One German Language Reel of Lost Milligan Film

Disc 2: The Body Beneath / Nightbirds (1970)

The Body Beneath:
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 82 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Features:
*Audio Commentary with Film Scholars Vic Pratt and Will Fowler
*Trailer

Nightbirds:
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 77 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
*B&W
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Features:
*Audio Commentary with Actor Berwick Kaler & Author Stephen Thrower
*Trailer

Disc 3: Torture Dungeon / Bloodthirsty Butchers (1970)

Torture Dungeon (Never Before Released Director's Cut)
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 80 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Features:
*Audio Commentary with Milligan Historian Alex DiSanto
*Trailer

Bloodthirsty Butchers (Never Before Released Director's Cut)
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 79 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Feature:
*Trailer

Disc 4: The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here! (1971) 

The Curse of the Full Moon (Never Before Released Director's Cut) 
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 73 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
     -Audio Options:
      1. Dialogue Only
      2. Cut down audio from THE RATS ARE COMING...
*Closed Captions

The Rats are Coming! The Werewolves are Here! (Theatrical Cut) 
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 91 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Features:
*The World of Andy Milligan - Locations Featurette Narrated by Temple of Schlock's Chris Poggiali
*Trailer

Disc 5: Man With Two Heads (1971) / Guru, the Mad Monk (1970)

The Man With Two Heads (Never Before Released Director's Cut):
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 89 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Features:
*Party Sequence - Alternate Version
*Trailer

Guru, the Mad Monk (Presented in 1.85:1 and 1.33:1 Versions)
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 56 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 & 1.33:1 
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Features:
*Audio Commentary with CineFear's Keith Crocker
*Remembering Andy Milligan - Interview with Set Photographer Tom Vozza
*Trailer

Disc 6: Legacy Of Blood / Legacy Of Horror (1978)

Legacy of Blood (Never Before Released Theatrical Cut)
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 77 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Feature:
*Legacy of Chris - Interview with Actor Chris Broderick

Legacy of Horror (TV Cut)
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 83 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Features:
*Blood or Horror - Interview with Executive Producer Ken Lane
*TV Spot

Disc 7: Fleshpot on 42nd Street (1973) / Seeds (1968)

Fleshpot on 42nd Street
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 87 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Seeds 
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 84 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Features:
*VAPORS (1965, 32 min)
*Trailer

Disc 8: Carnage (1984) / Blood (1973)

Carnage
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 92 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Feature:
*MONSTROSITY Trailer

Blood
Disc Specs:
*Runtime: 69 mins
*Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 
*Color
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed Captions

Special Feature: 
*TOGA PARTY (1979, 84 min): Feature film with inserts shot by Milligan

Disc 9: The Bearded Lady's Wake CD - Electronic Music By Frequent Milligan Collaborator Hal Borske

*Andy Milligan's Venom ALL-NEW 128 Page Book By Stephen Thrower

Order NOW: https://severin-films.com/shop/andy-milligan-collection/

THE EUROCRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER LEE (click for trailer)

Street Date: May 25th, 2021

DISC 1: The Castle of the Living Dead (1964)
*Runtime: 90 mins
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed captions
*Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1

Special Features: 
*Audio Commentary with Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson & Film Writer Troy Howarth
*Audio Commentary with Film Writer Kat Ellinger
*From the Castle to the Academy – Interview with Master Producer Paul Maslansky
*The Castle of The Mystery Man – Roberto Curti, Author of Mavericks of Italian Cinema, on Writer / Director Warren Kiefer
+ CD Soundtrack

DISC 2: Challenge the Devil aka Katarsis (1963)
*Runtime: 79 mins
*Audio: Italian Mono/ English subtitles & closed captions
*Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1

Special Features:
*Dance with the Devil – Interview with Roberto Curti, Author of Mavericks of Italian Cinema
*The Importance of Being Giorgio – Interview with Giorgio Ardisson Over Two Decades 
*Trailer

DISC 3: Crypt of the Vampire (1964)
*Runtime: 85 mins
*Audio: English & Italian Mono
*Closed captions
*Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Special Feature:
*Trailer

DISC 4: Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962)
*Runtime: 86 mins
*Audio: English & German Mono
*English subtitles on German, closed captions on English
*Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1

Special feature: 
*Audio Commentary with Film Writers Kim Newman & Barry Forshaw

DISCS 5 & 6: Theatre Macabre (1971-1972) 
*Runtime: 610 mins
*Audio: English Mono
*Closed captions
*Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Special feature:
*Promo with Christopher Lee

DISC 7: The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967)
*Runtime: 84 mins
*Audio: English & Italian Mono
*Closed captions 
*Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1

Special features:
*Audio Commentary by Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson and Film Writer Troy Howarth
*Audio Interview with Actress Karin Dor (German with English subs)
*Location Featurette
*Theatrical Trailer (German)
*Teaser Trailer
*Die Schlangengrube - Die Burg des Grauens – German Super 8 Digest Short
*Die Schlangengrube des Grafen Dracula – German Super 8 Digest Short
*Poster Gallery
*Behind the Scenes Still Gallery
*Restoration Slideshow

DISC 8: Relics from the Crypt 
A collection of interviews with Christopher Lee over the years and other related horror featurettes, including the first ever release of the recently unearthed 20 minute 1964 Swiss TV documentary 'HORROR!!!' featuring interviews with Lee, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Roy Ashton, Roger Corman and behind-the-scenes footage of THE GORGON and MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH.

*HORROR!!! – 1964 Swiss Documentary Short by Pierre Koralnik Featuring Interviews with Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Roger Corman and Roy Ashton (French with English subtitles)
*Behind The Mask – Christopher Lee Remembers Boris Karloff. *New edit of unfinished 1991 documentary by Ian Rough
Cinescope 1976 Belgian TV interview with Sélim Sasson (French with English subtitles)
*Colin Grimshaw Interviews Christopher Lee in 1975 
*1985 Audio Interview with Christopher Lee, accompanied by stills from The Del Valle archive & video introduction with David Del Valle 
*Monsters & Vampires – Interview with Pioneering Horror Movie Historian Alan Frank 
*The Crypt Keepers – Making of Crypt of the Vampire Featurette with Screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, Assistant Director Tonino Valerii and Film Historian Fabio Melelli (Italian with English subtitles)
* "O Sole Mio / It's Now Or Never" & "She'll Fall For Me" Christopher Lee & Gary Curtis Music Videos with optional Gary Curtis Audio Commentary
*The Invincible Sir Christopher – Filmmaker Philippe Mora Recalls Lee
*Outtakes from TO THE DEVIL... A DAUGHTER / THEATRE OF DEATH 2001 DVD interview session covering the most frightening films ever, BLACK MASSES, POLICE ACADEMY 7 & More
*University College Dublin 2011 Q&A with Sir Christopher Lee 

DISC 9: Original Soundtrack CD The Castle of the Living Dead

Pre-Order yours now: https://severin-films.com/shop/eurocrypt-christopher-lee/...

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I can't wait to see the Milligan set, which not only promises to deliver the long-rumored but never before offered "uncut" versions of his most famous films as well as a trailer and a single reel of two lost ones. If you love this stuff as I do, it's like being told that LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT is just around the corner. While it's true that it doesn't include the HOUSE OF SEVEN BELLES or COMPASS ROSE work prints, which can be seen over at the ByNWR.com website, it includes every extant theatrical release from 1967 through 1972 - some in more than one version. On the subject of the ByNWR holdings, Jimmy McDonough tells us to be patient, so something may be in the works over there. I certainly hope so. 

Today's announcement of the Christopher Lee box set, for me, gave me the same rush as finding a new issue of CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN or MONSTER MANIA on the newsstand when I was a kid. Unlike the majority of people, I imagine, I first discovered Christopher Lee in a television broadcast of Steno's UNCLE WAS A VAMPIRE (1959) and his appearances in European horror films always held a special fascination for me - not above his work in Hammer films, which I discovered a year or two later, but somehow beyond. And this set, which will tie these scattered works into a coherent constellation, will also make so much available that hasn't previously been at hand in such handsome, complete form... or so thoroughly annotated, it fairly screams ESSENTIAL. I wish UNCLE WAS A VAMPIRE and THEATER OF DEATH could have been included, but 9 discs - including a complete Polish television series I've never hear of... This is vast, this is generous, this is something very badly needed.

Both sets are also being made available in special "bundle" offerings. For further details, visit their website. The Milligan bundle is long gone, but the Lee bundle was just announced today. But quantities are small and will go quickly, and the pre-order prices are more than reasonable for all that's in store. Get over there NOW!