First Look: ABE's BARON BLOOD

Filmed in sumptuous Technicolor, Mario Bava's BARON BLOOD has always looked somewhat pasty on home video. This is not only a symptom of the longer European cut, which replaced the shorter, rescored American International version on tape and disc in the 1990s; even the old HBO videocassettes were lacking in brilliance. I first saw BARON BLOOD on the CBS LATE MOVIE circa 1973 and I've never forgotten how ravishing it looked -- primarily because the home video versions have never let me forget. But the film has now been treated to a top-to-bottom digital remastering in advance of its release as part of Anchor Bay Entertainment's THE MARIO BAVA COLLECTION VOLUME 2, and my test disc comes close to perfectly capturing the handsome Gothic luxuriance I remember from my first viewing almost 35 years ago.

Here, in the film's opening shots, you'll see the stepped-up grain levels common to optical title overlays. However, ABE's new remaster marks the first time when I've noticed that some of that "grain" (the area at 2:00 in front of the Pan Am 747's nose) is actually schmutz on the window of the plane carrying the photographer of the 747!

This isn't the best grab of actor Antonio Cantáfora I could have showed you, but it's excellent in terms of showing you the transfer's attention of detail. Look closely at Antonio's cheek and you'll see some lines there. Either he had some mild scarring, or his skin buckled on his pillow the night before and hadn't quite smoothed out by the time he had to shoot his close-up!

This shot of Elke Sommer and Rada Rassimov is a good illustration of the transfer's warm skin tones and sharp detail, especially in the colorful design of Elke's coat. There are medium shots of Elke, too, in which the details of that coat are perfectly legible and assertive in their coloring.

"Meester Beckair ist da ghost..."

Again, in this closeup of Joseph Cotten, the framing and coloring beautifully capture the full range of warm and cold tones. Very crisp-looking, and the blue of Cotten's eyes really pop.

When the film brings in the warm colors -- amber gels, the gold of the Baron's treasure, and bonfires like this -- now you can really feel them.

I've never been too knocked out by this particular shot of piccola Nicoletta Elmi before; it's a fairly straightforward shot, but I'm newly impressed by the range of colors and textures in it -- the greens of the foliage are rich and lovely, Nicoletta's auburn hair is beautiful, her frightened eyes are expressively and icily blue, and you can see every stitch in her knitwear.

This has always been a tricky shot to convey on home video. This dead, impaled character has a glassy glint in his eye that's always played a game of "now you see it, now you don't" on VHS and DVD. It's very apparent here, and the newly enriched blue of the formerly pastel sky in this day-for-night shot is now a convincing register of dusk.

So, yes, I'm very happy about this new transfer too, as I have been with the others I've shared with you so far.

As you may remember from an earlier confession on this blog, BARON BLOOD was the last of the three audio commentaries I recorded last December in an evening-long bout. For that reason, I was frankly a little wary about listening to it. I remember feeling that my voice was shot when I finished recording it, but I can't hear any wear or tear on my vocal cords on the finished track at all. I don't think anyone's going to call it the best of my commentaries, but that's to be expected -- and it's okay; BARON BLOOD isn't really one of Mario Bava's best movies. That said, I do think the track is above average -- it's got some quiet patches I could have filled with more prep time, but it's also the beneficiary of some recently unearthed information that didn't make it into MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK.

Post Logic Studios' exemplary restoration work on the picture has, in a matter of speaking, given BARON back its BLOOD, strengthening its proud pulse and revitalizing its long-lost warmth and complexion. Consequently, BARON BLOOD is now a more enjoyable and entertaining experience than this European version has ever been on home video. With Bava's lighting and the film's Technicolor palette finally back in the fullest sway we are likely to see, it's above average too.

THE MARIO BAVA COLLECTION VOLUME 2 streets on October 23.

First Look: ABE's BAY OF BLOOD

When Image Entertainment released Mario Bava's ECOLOGIA DEL DELITTO (1971) back in 2001, they had many different English titles to choose from. It's known by many, ranging from CARNAGE to BLOODBATH to LAST HOUSE PART 2. Though the title on the print itself read "A BAY OF BLOOD," Image opted for commercial reasons to go with the best-known US theatrical release title, TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE. For its forthcoming reissue as part of THE MARIO BAVA COLLECTION VOLUME 2, Anchor Bay Entertainment is reverting to the title on the print, which was also used for MPI Home Video's first VHS and Beta releases of the title back in the late 1980s.

BAY OF BLOOD is one of the films in the ABE set for which I recorded an audio commentary, and the track turned out fairly well. Because I know this film pretty much inside and out, and because my time was limited, I did my least amount of preparatory scripting for this track. So you'll hear a looser, more conversational me than you usually do in an audio commentary, where I tend to put on my professorial airs. Listening to the playback, I caught myself making only one error, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. You can have a contest among yourselves to find it, if you like.

Disc producer Perry Martin and his team at Post Logic Studios have executed a splendid visual restoration of the picture. It's the first home video rendering of this Technicolor feature that looks authentically like Technicolor, and the color intensities also match those of the color production stills in my possession. The blacks are also now noticeably deeper. You can almost feel the bedded warmth of Anna Maria Rosati's body in this shot. It's the first time this shot has ever reminded me of a similar shot of Daliah Lavi in THE WHIP AND THE BODY, which we pictured on the cover of VIDEO WATCHDOG #39 many years ago, and which now opens the "Love and Death" section of MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK.

From a chromatic standpoint, I was also newly impressed by this shot featuring Leopoldo Trieste and Claudio Volonté. The water is a rich sapphire blue, the boat looks almost freshly painted, and the skin tones are accurate.

I haven't done a side-by-side check with any of them, but, to the best of my memory, I believe earlier transfers of this scene were brighter, making Brigitte Skay's breast more visible. Bava would have approved of the subtlety and light accuracy recaptured here.

The Image disc was rightly criticized for failing to eliminate a large volume of distortion, pops, clicks and sizzles from the audio track. I'm told they were there in the original source, and were still there when the source came to Post Logic, but the audio has been almost completely cleaned up. Doing spot audio checks of the disc here on my computer, I couldn't hear much in the way of unwelcome sound; on my home entertainment system, I did a similar check and occasionally turned up the faintest afterburns of noise clinging to sudden bursts of sound, such as bird cries. There remains some limitation in the audio source, which doesn't deliver much in the way of bottom, but it's acceptable. Put it this way: the audio is no longer distracting.

The framing also seems ideal. I'm reminded by this dialogue scene between Laura Betti and Leopoldo Trieste that all of my region-free readers who admire this film should waste no time in tracking down a copy of the Italian release, called REAZIONE A CATENA (which means "Chain Reaction"). All of the film's dialogue scenes were shot two different ways -- once in Italian and once in English -- and the Italian release includes the never-before-exported Italian dialogue (along with English subtitles, quite different to the dialogue you'll hear in the ABE version)! The Italian track has a more intellectual and philosophic tenor to it, raising the film even higher in my estimation, and the actors speak their lines with greater ease and confidence. Released in Italy by Raro Video, REAZIONE A CATENA is available here in America from Xploited Cinema, and it's a must-have for all Bava fans.

The improved image quality is crisp enough to deliver skin textures as well as tones in close-ups like these.

Under any title, BAY OF BLOOD is one of Bava's most beloved and influential films and, once again, ABE's new remaster proves a noticeable upgrade in quality. And yes, the radio spots and CARNAGE trailer have been ported over from the previous Image release.

First Look: ABE's 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON

Ely Galleani, credited as Justine Gall, peers indoors at the events of Mario Bava's underrated 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON.

Just as Anchor Bay's forthcoming remaster of LISA AND THE DEVIL is a conspicuous improvement over what we've had before, their remaster of 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON [Cinque bambole per la luna d'agosto, 1970] included in THE MARIO BAVA COLLECTION VOLUME 2 is also significant. For one thing, it's the first anamorphic DVD presentation the film has ever had. The disc includes two soundtrack options: the English dub and the original Italian dub track with English subtitles, both included on the 2001 Image Entertainment disc.

I wasn't able to record an audio commentary for this movie, unfortunately -- I would have much preferred talking about it than BARON BLOOD (which ABE requested I talk about instead) -- so I popped the disc on with the intention of giving it only a cursory spot check. It was such a pleasing experience, I ended up watching the entire movie. From the first shots, the anamorphic presentation helped heretofore unsuspected details to pop off the screen at me, along with richer colors, so I sat transfixed till it was over.


In shots like these, revitalized to the depths of their original color palette, you can understand why French critic Pascal Martinet (author of the first-ever book on Bava's films) called 5 DOLLS "a veritable symphony of blue."

At times, I felt I was watching a movie I had never seen before, or at least not so fully experienced before. Like LISA, 5 DOLLS is drenched in sensual details and the crispened image and heightened color amplify its intentions in this regard.

Never before have I seen the details of this particular trick shot quite so clearly. I had always assumed that the ship and the beachfront house were part of the same glass matte set-up. The new clarity of the anamorphic transfer exposes new detail and dimensionality to the house, suggesting that, while the boat was a clipped photo affixed to glass in front of the camera, the beach house and the ridge it occupies were more likely a foregrounded miniature.

I've always loved this swirling colored caftan worn by Edith Meloni in the film. It's even lovelier now. Congratulations to Post Logic Studios for a job well done.

The Italian soundtrack gives the film a smarter, more staccato feel; I recommend it over the lazier English dub. Had I recorded a commentary for 5 DOLLS, I would have argued against its reputation of Mario Bava's worst movie (far from it!) and discussed its curious tendency to frustrate viewer expectations. I would have also pointed out that the movie's highly unorthodox and LOUD use of rock music predates Dario Argento's uses of Goblin's progressive rock score for DEEP RED by several years, though Argento tends to be universally credited with introducing rock to horror cinema. Bava also toys with the diegetic placement of music, with soundtrack sometimes revealed as being played on records by the cast, as Argento also did in TENEBRAE. This is a woefully obscure and underrated movie -- Bava's only film to bypass US theatrical distribution altogether -- and it may have been his most progressive. Happily, it was been winning more admirers in recent years, mostly through the initial persuasion of Umiliani's brilliant soundtrack, and I suspect it will find still more converts after the release of this fine presentation.

The one area in which this new 5 DOLLS does not meet the standards of the Image release is in its menus, which are attractive but no more than functional and straightforward. The Image menus not only featured samples of Piero Umiliani's and Il Balletto di Bronzo's original score in bold stereo, but it incorporated a playful graphic of a character whose eyes began to drift around if you left the main page in play to listen to the music. I wish the disc producers had been able to spend more time and money on details such as this (I know they wish the same thing), but budget was obviously concentrated on those areas where it was most important. I wouldn't recommend that anyone throw the previous disc away, because its menus are classics, like a love letter to the film's highly specialized clique of fans -- but it's no more than a conversation piece when compared to this otherwise well-advanced presentation.

First Look: ABE's LISA AND THE DEVIL

Because I worked as a commentator for a number of the movies included in Anchor Bay Entertainment's forthcoming MARIO BAVA COLLECTION VOLUME 2, I've been sent a set of preview test discs for the new remasters included in this compendium, as well as ERIK THE CONQUEROR, which will be released separately at the same time. I've already watched a few of the movies and I'm here to tell you that the movies have indeed been conspicuously improved over their previous issues. If you're already excited about this incredible bargain of a set, prepare to get more excited.

My breath was taken away by Post Logic Studios' restorative work on Bava's baroque masterpiece LISA AND THE DEVIL (1973). I've never seen this film on video in a presentation that didn't look like a poor cousin to HOUSE OF EXORCISM (1975, which is largely composed of footage from LISA) -- which makes sense because the original negative of LISA was lost or destroyed as it was being used to create 16mm TV prints at Allied Artists. Only once did I see the film as it was meant to look, at a showing of a restored 35mm print supervised by the late Carlos Sylva at the American Cinematheque in the early 1990s. That version, I recall, was sharper and more boldly colored than any other I had seen... and that stunning viewing experience is pretty much perfectly replicated by ABE's newly remastered version.

The heightened detailing is evident from the very first shots of the animated titles sequence, with new textures evident in the red table surface and the white glove turning over the cards of the Tarot deck.

Even when Cecilio Paniagua's nostalgic-looking cinematography turns misty-eyed, in closeups of Elke Sommer and in faintly sun-dazzled shots like this, the mistiness never softens the essential sharpness of the picture.

In this shot of Alida Valli familiarizing herself with Sommer's face, as Telly Savalas rhapsodically describes the coloring of her hair, you can see how the colors have a certain Technicolor strength without losing the naturalistic subtlety of their coloring. The blue of Valli's eyes manage to pop while the purple of her dress remains muted and not overpowering.

This closeup of Savalas, as Leandro, is one of the shots I remember best from the American Cinematheque screening. I remember Alfredo Leone being annoyed by the pale quality of the color in past home video presentations, which diminished the ruddiness of Savalas' skin and god knows what else. On the big screen, Savalas looked distinctly redder than the other cast members, betokening his devilish caste, and this was something always lost on video. The effect has now been fairly well reinstated.

And here you can see how lovely are the presentations of skin tones, hair gloss, even the honeyed warmth of Sommer's hair color. All of these improvements help to make a very sensual film play more sensually, and to better delineate the fascinating components of its rococo set decoration. LISA AND THE DEVIL finally arrives on disc as ravishing as it was always intended to be, and it actually looks better to me than the glimpses I stole of HOUSE OF EXORCISM, which is featured on the same disc. But the LISA footage has always looked good in that heretofore prevailing context.

The only drawback: Sylva Koscina's bludgeoning death (intact in HOUSE OF EXORCISM) remains unintegrated, a problem that I hope can be corrected at some point in the future. Otherwise, Bava fans can rejoice because LISA AND THE DEVIL has finally triumphed in pictorial beauty over its more financially successful, frog-barfing twin.

And, in the "if I do say so myself" department, I was very pleased with how my audio commentary for the film plays. This is partly the work of disc producer Perry Martin, who edited my talk, eliminating some "um's" and "uh's" and sometimes shifting bits around for heightened effect -- a very happy collaboration. Together, I think we've done a very good job of shedding a bit of light on one of Bava's most mysterious and beckoning works.

I'll be continuing with previews of other titles in the BAVA COLLECTION 2 set in the days ahead.

BAVA Box Clarifications

A despoiled vestal virgin and her lover are bound in barbed wire and set for sacrifice in Mario Bava's ERIK THE CONQUEROR.

I need to follow-up on my previous posting about the second Bava box specs. It seems that a number of readers failed to notice that little dividing line that I placed between the nine titles included in the box and the three Bava titles that Anchor Bay are selling separately. Consequently, I am seeing online advisories for people to cancel their ERIK THE CONQUEROR orders because it's also being included in the second Bava set. But it's NOT!

To restate things more clearly, the ninth film in the box set is RABID DOGS, not ERIK THE CONQUEROR. ERIK is only being sold separately. The good news is that Deep Discount DVD is having an Anchor Bay horror "Buy 2 Get1 Free" sale, so you can now pre-order THE MARIO BAVA COLLECTION VOLUME 2 (nine movies!) for a mere $30.18, and add on ERIK THE CONQUEROR absolutely free! See this page for details.

Nor did I mean to suggest that LISA AND THE DEVIL was going to be cut. What I said, or should have said more plainly, is that Anchor Bay's remastered disc will not carry over a sexually explicit "deleted scene" that was included on the previous Image disc. Bava had nothing to do with shooting it, and I'm personally in favor of its omission.

Finally! BAVA COLLECTION 2 Box Set Specs

The box says "8 Films By Mario Bava," but rest assured, there are actually nine. Here's the rundown on all the specs and extras:

BARON BLOOD
Uncut European version
Widescreen (1.85:1) presentation, enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Audio Commentary by Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas
Theatrical Trailer
Radio Spots

BAY OF BLOOD (formerly TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE)

English version
Widescreen (1.78:1) presentation, enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Audio Commentary by Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas
Theatrical trailer
Radio Spots
Poster and still galleries

5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON
International version in Italian with English subtitles and English-dubbed
Widescreen (1.85:1) presentation, enhanced for 16x9 televisions

FOUR TIMES THAT NIGHT
International version in Italian with English subtitles
Widescreen (1.78:1) presentation, enhanced for 16x9 televisions

KIDNAPPED / RABID DOGS
YES! Two versions: Mario Bava’s original 1975 work print (RABID DOGS) and the 2002 alternate version (KIDNAPPED)
Widescreen presentation (1.78:1), enhanced for 16x9 televisions
In Italian with English subtitles
Featurette: “End of the Road: Making Rabid Dogs and Kidnapped”
Audio Commentary by Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas
Mario Bava bio

LISA AND THE DEVIL / HOUSE OF EXORCISM
Two versions: Mario Bava’s original film (LISA AND THE DEVIL) and the alternate "Mickey Lion" version (HOUSE OF EXORCISM)
Widescreen (1.85:1) presentation, enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Audio Commentary for Lisa and the Devil by Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas
Audio Commentary for House of Exorcism by Producer/Co-Director Alfredo Leone
Theatrical trailers
Radio Spot

ROY COLT AND WINCHESTER JACK
In Italian with English subtitles
Widescreen (1.85:1) presentation, enhanced for 16x9 televisions

And then there are the single-disc Mario Bava DVD releases:

ERIK THE CONQUEROR
International version in Italian with English subtitles and English-dubbed
Widescreen presentation (2.35:1), enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Audio Commentary by Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas
Audio Interview with actor Cameron Mitchell
U.S. and German trailers
Poster and still galleries
Mario Bava bio

THE MASK OF SATAN (BLACK SUNDAY)
International version with English dubbing
Widescreen presentation (1.66:1), enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Audio commentary by Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas
U.S. and International trailers
TV spot
Mario Bava & Barbara Steele bios

THE THREE FACES OF FEAR (BLACK SABBATH)
International version in Italian with English subtitles
Widescreen (1.77:1) presentation, enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Featurette: “A Life In Film - An Interview with Mark Damon”
Audio commentary by Mario Bava biographer Tim Lucas
International & U.S. trailers
TV spot
Radio spot
Poster and stills gallery
Mario Bava & Boris Karloff bios

The good news is that RABID DOGS, though not mentioned on the BAVA COLLECTION 2 packaging, will be included in the set, and I've been assured that the feature masters have all been improved over the previous Image Entertainment releases to varying degrees. However, please note that the LISA AND THE DEVIL upgrade included in this set will not contain the sexually explicit "deleted scene" previously released, so Bava completists will need to hang on to their Image discs or Elite laserdiscs for future reference.

The set retails for $49.98, but it's being offered in some locations (ahem) for far less. Even at full price, that works out to about five bucks per movie. An amazing value -- and a great introduction to some of Bava's best, and some of his most offbeat, work.

BAVA COLLECTION 2 Art Revealed

As if in reply to the 12-pound heft of MARIO BAVA ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, Anchor Bay/Starz Entertainment have upped the ante with their forthcoming BAVA - THE MARIO BAVA COLLECTION VOLUME 2. The set has now been increased in size to encompass eight (8) different Bava films!

According to this recently leaked cover art, KIDNAPPED is joining the set. What, no RABID DOGS? I would hope this is an oversight or perhaps an unavoidable omission considering the clearly crowded list of titles. The publicist for the set has promised Video WatchBlog an exclusive on the set's extras as soon as they're confirmed, so keep watching this space for further details.

To refresh your memory, three of these titles -- BAY OF BLOOD, BARON BLOOD and LISA AND THE DEVIL -- will also feature audio commentaries by me, Tim Lucas, as will Bava's wonderful Viking adventure film ERIK THE CONQUEROR, which is being sold separately by the label as it was licensed from a different licensor.

More Bava in Time for Halloween

It's being announced elsewhere, so I might as well join the bandwagon and report that Anchor Bay's MARIO BAVA COLLECTION VOLUME 2 will be released on October 23. The titles included in this set are: BARON BLOOD, LISA AND THE DEVIL and HOUSE OF EXORCISM, ROY COLT & WINCHESTER JACK, FOUR TIMES THAT NIGHT, BAY OF BLOOD, and 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON. The audio commentaries I recorded are for LISA AND THE DEVIL, BAY OF BLOOD, and BARON BLOOD -- and I recorded them in that order, for those who may be interested in auditing them sequentially and hearing my voice disintegrate in slow motion. The Alfredo Leone/Elke Sommer commentary recorded for Image Entertainment's HOUSE OF EXORCISM release will be ported over for that title.

ERIK THE CONQUEROR (which will be the complete original export version, not the AIP reduction) will be released separately at the same time, also with a commentary by me, which I'll be recording before the end of this week. The closing shot and end card of the film (curiously missing from the German DVD release) has been restored, which should make this gorgeous-looking release of even greater interest to collectors.

Finally, I mentioned here recently that I managed to record the first three commentaries in a single marathon session last Thursday night. Someone on one of the horror discussion boards has suggested that my expeditious work somehow speaks poorly of me and makes the set's extras as a whole seem less attractive, because -- they presume -- the commentaries have got to be a reckless mess. I resent this because, first of all, I don't do careless work and certainly wouldn't boast about doing careless work; I only mentioned the marathon session because I felt so pleased to have succeeded in my aims against the odds and the clock. It was an achievement. Secondly, I didn't set the deadlines for these commentaries, but as a professional, I agreed to live up to them. I refused to let the quality of my work suffer due to time constraints and, if it somehow did suffer despite my best efforts, I wouldn't have released it. As I write this, it remains for those three recordings to be edited and synched to the movies, so I don't know yet myself how everything is going to turn out -- but I think even the raw tracks were on par with other commentaries I've done.

PS: I wanted very much to record an audio commentary for 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON but time simply didn't allow it.