VIDEO WATCHDOG: Our Favorite Discs of 2013

It's that time again. We don't do this every year, but I wanted to put our best foot forward this year, for several reasons. One: this was an exceptionally rich year for home video releases; two: we're behind schedule and want to get this information out to our readers to help guide their last-minute holiday purchases; three: there's never a good time to get this information into print, anyway; and four: if you feel you derived some value from this information, perhaps I could persuade you to contribute the monetary equivalent of that value to our Kickstarter campaign, which we very much want to succeed for the common good.

What we have here are 38 main selections, followed by an additional 35 notable restorations. To compile the main list, I invited our critics to submit their Top Five (5) choices only - I felt that restricting our selections to five would tighten the focus to those titles we considered absolutely indispensable, while also keeping the length of the list somewhat manageable. (Five turned out to be impossibly tight for me, so I granted myself slightly more room to allow for a few more titles I felt absolutely had to show; even so, I allowed myself no personal eurekas like TCM's REMEMBER THE NIGHT and Criterion's 3:10 TO YUMA, nor long-craved arrivals like Shout! Factory's ULTRA Q and JOHNNY SOKKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT sets.) Only one release - the BFI's ROBIN REDBREAST (which I've not seen) - drew more than one vote. The titles appear in alphabetical order with the critic's byline at the end of each blurb. The list of notable restorations was mostly compiled by me, with additional contributions from Eric Somer.

This is not to be mistaken for a Year's Best Movies list; it's a compilation of what were, in our view, the most outstanding home video experiences on disc since December 2012. Asterisks (*) after titles in the main list denote significant digital restoration, as well. - TL 
 

ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET: RÉCITS CINÉMATOGRAPHIQUES *

1961-2006, Carlotta DVD (French Import)

This affordable box set collects almost the complete filmed works of the celebrated nouveau romaniste, with the exception of his penultimate Un bruit qui rend fou (THE BLUE VILLA, 1995). Included in newly HD-remastered transfers are L'Immortelle (THE IMMORTAL ONE, 1961), Trans-Europ-Express (TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS, 1966), L'homme qui ment (THE MAN WHO LIES, 1970), Eden et l'après (EDEN AND AFTER, 1971) and its rarely-screened alternate cut N. a pris les dés (N. ROLLS THE DICE, 1972), Glissements progressifs du plaisir (SUCCESSIVE SLIDINGS OF PLEASURE, 1974), Le jeu avec le feu (PLAYING WITH FIRE, 1975), La belle captive (1982) and C’est Gradiva qui vous appelle (GRADIVA... IS HER NAME, 2006), as well as lengthy interviews with the director,  a 128-page full-color book, a facsimile booklet inspired by a prop from Trans-Europ-Express, and new introductions by his widow Catherine Robbe-Grillet. A marvelous, dense, playful and highly erotic body of work, beautifully packaged, impossible to access in such quality till now - unfortunately not English-friendly, but this problem will be settled when the BFI begins undertaking their release of these titles next year. - Tim Lucas

AMERICAN MARY
2012, Universal Blu-ray (UK Import)
A quantum leap over their feature debut, the $2500 miracle DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK, this stylish and darkly comic horror film by Canadian twins the Soska Sisters (Jen & Sylvia) is at once a scathing indictment of the North American academia and medical establishments, a passionate defense of individual expression through cosmetic surgery, and serves up a magnificent portrait of feminist survival in Katharine Isabelle's impeccably modulated performance. It should be seen in this import edition, which preserves the sleek gloss and candy-rich color schemes of the cinematography, which is noticeably more pallid on the domestic BD release from XLRator. - Tim Lucas

BLACK SABBATH *

1963, Arrow Films Blu-ray/DVD (UK Import)

Mario Bava's three-storied masterpiece, finally presented in its most complimentary setting (Blu-ray) and in both its Italian and English versions, the latter preserving Boris Karloff's own voice in one of his most intimidating horror performances - available on home video for the first time since a 1990s LaserDisc release. The detail and the lushness of the colors are hallucinatory, and the extras are abundant: a detailed visual account of the points of variation between the two versions, a video interview with actor Mark Damon, an introduction by Alan Jones and written contributions by David Cairns and Yours Truly, including my interview with Samuel Z. Arkoff. - Tim Lucas

BLACKFISH

2013, Magnolia Blu-ray/DVD

In a year that brought a number of significant achievements in non-fiction film to home video (i.e. A BAND CALLED DEATH, ROOM 237, MY AMITYVILLE HORROR, HAPPY PEOPLE), my favorite film of the year has the power to change human thinking regarding the captivity and training of wild animals. After seeing BLACKFISH, you will never feel the same about those family trips to the zoo--past, present or future. BLACKFISH is also notable for scoring one of the year’s best social networking marketing campaigns. - Eric Somer

BYZANTIUM 

2013, MPI Home Video Blu-ray/DVD

Director Neil Jordan and writer Moira Buffini craft an original, slinky, stylish, bloody vampire tale (never mentioning the word "vampire") about two young women who claim to be sisters in a seedy resort town. One calls herself Carmilla (wink, wink), but this is possibly the first woman-centered incarnation without a trace of lesbian vampires. I like it a little better than MIDNIGHT SON and BREAKING DAWN PART 2, and those are quite good.- Michael Barrett

CLAUSTROFOBIA

2011, Matchbox DVD-PAL
An assured horror debut from Dutch director Bobby Boermans. The film's ability to induce disquiet from a minimal cast and setting, produces a deep and lasting sense seeping unease within the viewer. - Cleaver Patterson

CLOUD ATLAS 
2013, Warner Blu-ray/DVD

Had I not read David Mitchell's novel, I mightn't have appreciated this lavish, ambitious epic from the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer, who express the recycling of souls via actors in multiple roles. The narrative skips sideways, with an image or dialogue in one timeline triggering another story of people struggling to escape from malevolent forces and finding accord with a kindred soul. If we're generous, the problematic makeup in the Korean segment of "New Seoul" demonstrates not only the "soul" conceit but the theme of repressive society forcing everyone into one artificial mold and making you masquerade as what you're not, which ripples through all the stories. - Michael Barrett

CRIMEWAVE

1985, Shout! Factory Blu-ray/DVD

Sam Raimi’s sophomore feature has a number of problems (many of which were studio-induced), but is filled with the director’s wonderfully maniacal creativity and ranks high amongst that decade’s Guilty Pleasures. It finally reached domestic disc, courtesy of this combo pack release which includes an amusingly candid commentary from co-star Bruce Campbell, who relates the many, many things that went wrong during production. - John Charles

THE CURTIS HARRINGTON SHORT FILM COLLECTION *
1942-2002, Flicker Alley Blu-ray/DVD
This was a great renaissance year for horror's first experimentalist, seeing the posthumous publication of his autobiography NICE GUYS DON'T WORK IN HOLLYWOOD and Kino Lorber's equally worthy Blu-ray release of his feature debut NIGHT TIDE (1961), but its crowning offering was this compilation of hard-to-see film short films, produced in parallel to those of Kenneth Anger and thus revising and rewriting what is generally known about 20th century American avant-garde cinema. Included are "Fragment of Seeking" (1946), "Picnic" (1948), "On The Edge" (1949), the Poe adaptation "The Assignation" (1953), "The Wormwood Star" (1955) and his final work "Usher" (2002), as well as two important pieces of peripheralia, his first effort (a high school-era production of "The Fall of the House of Usher" from 1942) and "The Four Elements" (1966), made for the US Information Agency. - Tim Lucas 

DAY OF THE DEAD

1985, Scream Factory Blu-ray

In the wake of a disappointing Blu-ray from Anchor Bay a few years back, George A. Romero’s underrated third chapter in his DEAD saga received a very good HD incarnation via this new edition, complimented by another fine, feature length documentary from Michael Felsher’s Red Shirt Pictures. Some have decried the disc’s lack of a stereo option; the movie was originally released in mono and I have no complains with how it is presented here. - John Charles

DRACULA *
1958, Lionsgate Blu-ray/DVD (UK Import)
Despite the message board controversies surrounding this title, there is no question that this disc -- including the 2012 Hammer and 2006 BFI restorations of Terence Fisher's classic - delivers the film we know as HORROR OF DRACULA as it was meant to be seen, as opposed to how it came to look in international distribution. Nightfall becomes a veritable subtext of the picture, making candlelight all the more pronounced an opponent against the vampire's dominion - rightly so, given the role played by candlesticks in the grand finale. But to finally see Dracula's disintegration is tantamount to seeing some footage from LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT, something we didn't dare wish for and can now take for granted, and somehow all the more precious in its unrestored state - how wonderful that the original water-damaged Japanese reels were included! - Tim Lucas  

THE EDGAR WALLACE ANTHOLOGY *
1960-65, Network Video DVD
An overwhelming collection of all 47 films in the series of Wallace adaptations produced by Merton Park Studios of Great Britain during the same period as the better-known Rialto productions from West Germany. Not as garish or progressive as their German counterparts, these are very much in the tone of the English quota quickies - solid, well-crafted B-pictures featuring many beloved actors (Hazel Court, Michael Gough, Patrick Magee, Bernard Lee, Alexander Knox) and made by able directors (Clive Donner, John Moxey, Vernon Sewell and others), and VW's own trusty Kim Newman is along to annotate them in a series of booklets. The seven volumes composing this box set are also sold individually for those who prefer to test the waters first. - Tim Lucas

ÉRIC ROHMER *
1950-2009, Potemkine Films Blu-ray/DVD (French Import)
Are you sitting down? This definitive box set collects the complete works of this seminal French filmmaker on 52 discs, and the new HD transfers are not only English-friendly but blow the previous Criterion masters out of the water. The supplements and extras, including a book, do not share the features' English-accessibility, and it's regrettable that one can only obtain the Blu-rays by also paying for a balance of DVD copies we'll likely have no need to watch, but to possess this set is to feel in possession of a library devoted to youth and beauty, the art of conversation, and many elegant solutions to the most enduring of human problems. - Tim Lucas 

  
EXCISION

2012, Monster Pictures Blu-ray/DVD
Writer / director Richard Bates Jr.'s deliciously subversive, surrealistic horror is shocking and entrancing in equal measure.  Bates' razor sharp script proves that though the horror genre is often dismissed as inferior to mainstream cinema, it can be equally clever and insightful under the right guidance. - Cleaver Patterson

FANTASTIC VOYAGE

1966, 20th Century Fox Blu-ray

Featuring some of the strangest backdrops in a science fiction film, FANTASTIC VOYAGE takes us on a journey through a microscopic universe as eerie and beautiful and fraught with unknown dangers as any solar system or galaxy. The visual effects and set design are still impressive, and the Blu-ray upgrade is the next best thing to enjoying this fantastic voyage on the big screen. The extras from the former special-edition DVD are all here, including the isolation of Leonard Rosenman's important, experimental score. - Bill Cooke 

THE FLY

1958, 20th Century Fox Blu-ray

Reacquainting oneself with THE FLY on Blu-ray, one realizes how unique this film was when it premiered at the tail end of the 50s sci-fi cycle. Eschewing atomic radiation as a potential fall guy, THE FLY localizes horror in human error and scientific overreaching but takes its sweet time in playing its trump card. But what an ace it slaps down on the felt - and the power of the film's grisly finish has not diminished a jot in over fifty years. - Richard Harland Smith

FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY

2013, Dark Sky Films Blu-ray/DVD
Wacky is not a word normally associated with films from the horror genre, especially those as graphically gory as Richard Raaphorst’s totally off-the-wall trip.  However this freakish fantasy - combining both monsters and Nazis - is so unlike anything you'll ever have seen before, that it will literally blow your mind. - Cleaver Patterson

THE FROZEN DEAD

1966, Warner Archives DVD-R 
No, the restoration of its intended aspect ratio and discomfiting chromatics does not make THE FROZEN DEAD a better movie but, goll-ee, it's just a lot more fun this way. A key title for Monster Kids who came of age in the '60s, this one has only about eight minutes of good material but those eight minutes stick with you well after the final fadeout. - Richard Harland Smith

THE FURY
1978, Twilight Time Blu-ray (USA) and Arrow Films Blu-ray/DVD (UK Import)
As I mentioned in my review in VIDEO WATCHDOG 174, the experience of watching Brian De Palma's post-CARRIE telekinesis film with its career-best John Williams score isolated on Twilight Time's Blu-ray was one of the most education lessons in filmmaking I've ever gleaned from video. Just as the film itself is a marvelous index of ways to keep the eye occupied and tantalized, the audio track provides thrilling illustrations of when music is and is not necessary, how instrumentation can be used to lend coloring to light, and much more. The Arrow set adds an even greater wealth of supplementation to an essential purchase. - Tim Lucas 

GORGO *

1961, VCI Blu-ray

While it still isn't perfect, the blu-ray goes a long way toward restoring the picture quality of Eugene Lourie's final statement in the giant-creature genre. The film - about a sea monster's decimation of London while searching for its captured young - is one of the most colorful and exciting pictures of its type, unhampered by a romantic sub-plot and moving at breakneck speed toward a climax both thrilling and surprisingly emotional. VCI's new transfer of a superior film element brings a new level of excitement to the eye-popping visual effects. - Bill Cooke

HANDS OF THE RIPPER

1971, Synapse Films Blu-ray/DVD

This latter day Hammer horror seems rushed in execution but mature and forward-looking in design while serving as a linchpin between the studios' black-and-white psychothrillers of a decade earlier and the looming slasher cycle. One can even discern seeds of HALLOWEEN in this tale of Jack the Ripper's daughter cutting a bloody swath through Edwardian England. - Richard Harland Smith

 
HOUSE OF WAX

1953, Warner 3D/2D Blu-ray

One of the finest 3D movies and a horror classic in any format, Andre De Toth’s 1953 remake of MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM finally hit Blu-ray in as good a recreation of its original dual projection 3D as is technically possible at home. Both the beautifully composed sense of depth and comin’ at ya gimmickry work wonderfully and leave one hoping that Warner also plans to give semi follow-up PHANTOM OF THE RUE MORGUE (1954) the same deluxe treatment in future. - John Charles

THE IMPOSSIBLE 
2012, Summit Inc/Lionsgate Blu-ray/DVD
Director J.A. Bayona (THE ORPHANAGE) coordinated the most intelligent disaster film on record with THE IMPOSSIBLE, based on the actual tsunami that assaulted Thailand in 2004. In his feature film debut, Tom Holland delivers an amazing performance as Lucas, a boy who is unusually talented at helping others. What a shame he did not receive an Oscar nomination. Nonetheless, one can predict a bright future for him. - Eric Somer

KOMMISSAR X *

1966-69, Anolis Entertainment DVD (German Import)

Though pricey, this seven-disc set may be the most fan-friendly box set ever. It collects six of the seven Kommissar X spy thrillers starring Brad Harris and Tony Kendall - sub-Bondian movies, but no less loveable - in English-dubbed and English-subtitled German editions, with an alternate Austrian version of the second, bonus interviews, Easter egg trailers in the filmography, photo and poster galleries, and an astonishing seventh disc that chronicles a joyous 2009 reunion of the two stars and their quirky director Gianfranco Parolini, filmed only months before Kendall's tragic death from cancer. - Tim Lucas 

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF ROSALIND LEIGH

2012, Image Entertainment DVD
Emphasizing style and substance over the instant gratification offered by many modern horror movies, this film by first-time writer/director Rodrigo Gudiño (the power behind Rue Morgue magazine), haunts the memory with its suggestion and subtlety - and the overriding presence of Vanessa Redgrave. - Cleaver Patterson

LIFE OF PI 
2012, 20th Century Fox Blu-ray/DVD

Which story do you want to believe? Director Ang Lee proves yet again he can handle any genre, any premise, any potential narrative problem. LIFE OF PI is the most gorgeous 3D film to date (I am commenting on the theatrical presentation here), and looks stunning in HD 2D as well. - Eric Somer

THE LOST FILMS OF HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS * 
1969/71, Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray/DVD

Say what you will about the movies in question (and really, the less said the better), this release still represented a major archeological save from a new label that offered up some of the most exciting genre titles of 2013. Not only were these long unseen features (ECSTASIES OF WOMEN, LINDA & ABILENE, and BLACK LOVE) returned to circulation, they looked fresh out of the lab. The first two, in particular, rank amongst the most gorgeous presentations of films from that era offered by any label. - John Charles

NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET

2012, Cinema Guild DVD

This was the last film of Raul Ruiz, master of self-conscious narrative games in the traditions of Borges and Robbe-Grillet. Most scenes are shot in long, insidious single takes as characters engage in baffling banter in a storyline best described as tenuous. An old man recalls his boyhood dialogues with Long John Silver and Beethoven, and he believes his impending retirement means someone will kill him. Strongly resembles a film I watched at the same time, Manoel de Oliveira's elegiac, personal, spellbinding ghost story THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA, but that's a 2011 release or it could have replaced the Ruiz film here.- Michael Barrett

PACIFIC RIM

2013, Warner 3D Blu-ray/2D Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy
Guillermo Del Toro’s long awaited “Robots vs. Monsters” epic felt somewhat compromised by its cost and major studio origins, but one area where the film absolutely did not disappoint was the director’s incredible sense of imagination and design. Seemingly every aspect of the production displays a remarkable, infectious sense of creativity and this deluxe multi-format release showcases the movie beautifully. It also offers up special features that genuinely enhance one’s appreciation of PACIFIC RIM’s considerable strengths. - John Charles

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES 
2012, Universal Blu-ray/DVD
When Luke (Ryan Gosling) makes his entrance, it is clear you are in good hands with director Derek Cianfrance. Modern film noir is seldom this epic. - Eric Somer

ROBIN REDBREAST 
1970, British Film Institute DVD (UK Import) 
The vaults of the BBC remain, especially for Americans, largely undiscovered country when it comes to Gothic and ghoulish entertainment. Happily, the BFI has been returning to the light a wealth of scary teleplays, both originals and adaptations of classic works, among them this compelling rural chiller, which serves as a landmark (however obscure) between NIGHT OF THE DEMON and THE WICKER MAN. - Richard Harland Smith

A precursor to THE WICKER MAN (1973), this television drama though not exactly frightening in the traditional sense is decidedly creepy, leaving the viewer in disbelief that the practices at its core could still be taking place in a modern, civilized society.  Accompanied by an enchanting public information film AROUND THE VILLAGE GREEN (1937), which gives an insight into traditional English village life, this is the perfect example of how to produce real horror from the outwardly innocent. - Cleaver Patterson

 
SECONDS

1966, Criterion Collection, Blu-ray

Criterion upgrades this eerie cult item - one of the most interestingly photographed black-and-white films of the sixties - to high definition with stunning results. John Frankenheimer's intensely dark and disturbing tale about a middle-aged man's attempt to start life anew in a surgically transformed body stars Rock Hudson in the performance of his career. Criterion imports the great Frankenheimer commentary from the former DVD and adds a few more extras, including an appreciation from actor Alec Baldwin. - Bill Cooke

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK 
2012, Starz/Anchor Bay Blu-ray/DVD
Director David O. Russell (THREE KINGS, THE FIGHTER) returns to the quirky comic roots he established with 1994's SPANKING THE MONKEY, the indie film that put him on the map as a filmmaker to watch. SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK withstands repeat viewings with ease. - Eric Somer

THE UNINVITED

1944, Criterion Collection Blu-ray/DVD
There are a slew of Top 10 Haunted House movie lists written by fans on the IMDb and none of them include THE UNINVITED. This has less to do with philistinism than the fact that the movie was just unavailable for years. Not missing, not lost... just off the market, withheld. The Criterion Collection's inclusion of this beloved title in its estimable ranks should right that inequity. - Richard Harland Smith

 
THE VINCENT PRICE COLLECTION

1959 - 1971, Shout! Factory, Blu-ray
Six essential titles from Vincent Price's association with American International Pictures (FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, PIT & THE PENDULUM, THE HAUNTED PALACE, MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, WITCHFINDER GENERAL and THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES) are oddly presented out of order on 4 discs, but this is still nirvana to the gothic horror fan. It's especially wonderful to finally have PIT AND THE PENDULUM in anamorphic widescreen. The package includes introductions by Price himself (fragments from a vintage interview) and plentiful audio commentaries (both old and new) featuring name talent like Roger Corman, Tom Weaver, Robert Fuest, Price biographer Lucy Chase Williams and VW contributors Tom Weaver, David Del Valle and Justin Humphreys. - Bill Cooke

WAKE IN FRIGHT 
1971, Image Entertainment Blu-ray or DVD 
Ted Kotcheff's rediscovered Australian classic (released in the US as OUTBACK in 1971) is misleadingly sold as a horror movie with shades of DELIVERANCE and STRAW DOGS. Closer to WALKABOUT, it's an expressive, atmospheric, existential character study of a surly, uptight teacher (Gary Bond) who faces his demons over a long weekend with a bunch of drunken yahoos (including a wiry Donald Pleasence) in the middle of bloody nowhere. Intense, foreboding, sometimes shocking. - Michael Barrett

WARM BODIES

2013, Summit Inc/Lionsgate Blu-ray or DVD 
This is a zombie comedy told by the zombie, who forms elegant sentences in his head as his body shuffles with other zombies at the airport (social comment like the mall in DAWN OF THE DEAD). When he meets a living girl while foraging for flesh, she causes his heart to skip a beat, or beat a skip, and his impulse to kidnap and shelter her causes his regression to a state increasingly capable of speech, warmth, etc. as the love bug spreads like a virus through zombie culture. The romance and symbolism are handled with Young Adult Novel sincerity that's never undercut by the absurdity and snarky hipness.- Michael Barrett

ZATOICHI: THE BLIND SWORDSMAN 
1962 - 1973, Criterion Collection, Blu-ray/DVD
This mammoth set from Criterion features 25 films on 9 blu-ray discs, plus standard definition presentations on 18 DVDs. Produced over a decade by the Daiei Studios, this Japanese historical adventure series stars Shintaru Katsu as a blind masseur who also happens to be a master swordsman. Every story has basically the same plot: Zatoichi comes to a new village, encounters people suppressed by local gangsters or politicians (or both), and in the end he must grudgingly use his sword-fighting talents to mete out justice. What makes the stories resonate is the character's profound inner turmoil over his ability to kill, and Katsu's deeply moving and endearing portrayal. - Bill Cooke

OTHER SIGNIFICANT RESTORATIONS OF 2013 
AN AMERICAN HIPPIE IN ISRAEL (Amos Sefer, 1972; Grindhouse Releasing) 

A MAN ESCAPED (Robert Bresson, 1956; Criterion) 
A BAY OF BLOOD (Mario Bava, 1971; Kino Lorber) 
BLACK SUNDAY (Mario Bava, 1960; Arrow Films) 
THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE in MOVIES 4 YOU - MORE SCI-FI CLASSICS (Joseph Green, 1959/61; Timeless Media/Shout! Factory) - includes supplementary bonus nude footage for the 1st time! 
THE BRIDES OF DRACULA (Terence Fisher, 1960; Icon UK) 
CHINA GATE (Samuel Fuller, 1957; Olive Films) 
CINERAMA HOLIDAY (Robert L. Bendick/Philippe De Lacy, 1955; Flicker Alley) 
COHEN AND TATE (Eric Red, 1988; Shout! Factory) 
COLLEGE (James W. Horne/Buster Keaton, 1927; Kino Lorber) 
CORRUPTION (Robert Hartford-Davies, 1967; Grindhouse Releasing) 
DEMONS (Lamberto Bava, 1985; Synapse Films) 
DEMONS 2: THE NIGHTMARE RETURNS (Lamberto Bava, 1986; Synapse Films) 
THE DEVIL BAT (Jean Yarbrough, 1940; Kino Lorber) 
THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (Freddie Francis, 1964; Icon UK) 
EYES WITHOUT A FACE (Georges Franju, 1959; Criterion) 
FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON (Mario Bava, 1970; Kino Lorber) 
GATE OF HELL (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1953; Criterion) 
THE GRAPES OF DEATH (Jean Rollin, 1978; Redemption/Kino Lorber) 
THE HOT NIGHTS OF LINDA (Jesús Franco, 1973; Severin) 
HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN (Jesús Franco, 1973; Mondo Macabro) 
JUBAL (Delmer Daves, 1956; Criterion) 
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (Alfred Hitchcock, 1934; Criterion) 
THE MUMMY (Terence Fisher, 1959; Icon UK) 
NIGHT TIDE (Curtis Harrington, 1961; Kino Lorber)
NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT (Jesús Franco, 1970; Redemption/Kino Lorber) 
NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1922; Kino Lorber) 
L'ORGIE DES VAMPIRES (Renato Polselli, 1964; Artus Films France) 
THE PUPPETOON MOVIE (Arnold Leibovit, 1987; B2MP) 
ROLLING THUNDER (John Flynn, 1977;  Shout! Factory) 
SAFETY LAST (Fred C. Newmeyer/Sam Taylor, 1923; Criterion)
SEX KITTENS GO TO COLLEGE (Albert Zugsmith, 1960; Warner Archive)
SHE DEVIL (Kurt Neumann, 1957; Olive Films) 
SOUTH SEAS ADVENTURE (Carl Dudley/Richard Goldstone/Francis D. Lyon, 1958; Flicker Alley) 
A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (Jesús Franco, 1970; Redemption/Kino Lorber) 
THE WICKER MAN - THE FINAL CUT (Robin Hardy, 1973; StudioCanal UK) 
ZOMBIE LAKE (J.R. Lazer, 1981; Redemption/Kino Lorber)  

SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 11 Reviewed

SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 11: TRYING BEATS STUDYING
Schulmädchen-report 11. Teil Probieren geht über Studieren
aka BLUE DREAMS aka CONFESSIONS OF A NAKED VIRGIN
1977, Impulse Pictures, $24.98, 80m 13s, DVD

REVIEWED BY TIM LUCAS

The real maestro of the Schoolgirl Report series, Ernest Hofbauer, returns to direct this eleventh entry, which convenes around the framing story of a group of adult authorities who assemble to do a radio show on the subject of how well today's youth are protected by German youth laws. These experts include youth psychologist Dr. Hammacher (Astrid Boner); Mrs. Thea Berthold (Linda Carroll), a homemaker; Dr. Wolters (Peter Böhlke), the head of a "humanistic" high school; and Police Inspector Jenkel (Ulrich Beiger), who immediately admits that "all laws are in need of improvement."

The stories begin with Dr. Hammacher's account of Martina Behrens (apparently the radio show has no qualms about not protecting the subjects' anonymity), a failing student who relies on her straight A classmate Rolf to help her in exchange for the occasional under-the-desk feel. When she is caught cribbing his notes during a test, Martina fails her exam and is required to take Rolf as a tutor. He is willing to help but his rates are high. After losing her virginity to him, her grades improve greatly, but Rolf soon tires of her and wants to move on, setting up a tragic scenario with a surprisingly downbeat finale for an opening story.

Inspector Jenkel details the case of one Regina Schiminholz (Karine Gambier), who accuses her professor, Werner (Claus Tinney) of beating, molesting and raping her while serving as her tutor, in the presence of his menacing Great Dane. (The introduction of voyeuristic, antic animals during sex scenes is one of Hofbauer's recurring motifs.) After she reports her complaint to the school board, Werner gives his side of the story, in which Regina attended her tutorials in provocative clothing and practically raped him. It sounds absurd until a surprise third party steps forward to set the record straight.

Remarkably, up to this point, SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 11 is a virtual remake of Walter Boos' tenth series entry - with Tinney reprising much the same role in the RASHOMON retread - though filmed with more irony and panache.

Off-mic, Gila, an audio technician at the radio station, tells her male associate that she has a story she could contribute and they feign technical difficulties in order to relate it. When Gila was 16, she and her voluptuous best friend Gabi (#10's possessed girl Alexandra Bogojevic with glasses and a newly freckled face) decided they had been masturbating long enough and that it was time to experience real sex, so they made a date to meet with two boys in that most evocative of Hofbauer locations, a barn. This sequence builds to a remarkable, seismic double tryst that nearly brings down the barn and knocks over a shelf of paint cans - a minor jewel of frenzied exploitation editing that, in its energy and bucolic imagery, recalls the best of Russ Meyer.

When the broadcast taping resumes, Dr. Wolters reminisces about one of his own tragic students, Michaela Rautenberg (Yvonne Kerstin), a promising and serious young student whose school work began to suffer after her mother's health took a turn for the worse. A suicide note left in Wolters' mail box by Michaela tipped him off to her intentions in time to save her, and she confided to him and his wife the truth of her recent life, when she fell under the control of a biker gang that turned her into their sex slave and prostitute.

The fifth and final story is told by Thea about her own daughter, Heidi, still a virgin as of her 18th birthday. At her party, her thoughtful girlfriends taunt "the Iron Maiden" by relating the quick stories of their own deflorations, which are illustrated with brief vignettes involving the usual greenhouses, barns and farm animal voyeurs. Hofbauer goes so far as to cut away from one young man's exploration of his partner's public hair to the dribbling lips of a Shetland pony.

Heidi's best friend Ulla invites her over one day, on the premise of swapping clothes, but she entraps her in her bedroom with her handsome cousin Achim (Heiner Lauterbach), who has a reputation as a playboy, and refuses to let them out until Heidi is no longer a virgin. Achim admits to Heidi that his reputation is not well-earned, and the couple stage a "radio" event of their own for Heidi's eavesdropping girlfriends. Afterwards, back at Heidi's room, the film concludes with what a suddenly male narrator calls "an example of trust and love," cleverly shot through a revolving glass jar to obscure the love-making and make it more visually inventive.

While not one of Hofbauer's best films, SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 11 is recognizably his work, being an alternately manic and melancholy tour through human travails that builds to a healing finale. It has definite highlights in terms of comedy, tragedy and genuine eroticism, and it doesn't suffer from the erotic fatigue that clings to some of his later pictures. (Even in one of the film's tragic moments, a drug overdose, the revealing shot contains some editorial counterpoint by incorporating a Jimi Hendrix poster.) Again, none of the performers are credited onscreen, but even official cast lists exclude certain key roles, such as those of Gila and Martina.   

Impulse Pictures' 1.66:1 presentation - in German with English subtitles - appears to have originated from an aged, moderately noisy master with noticeable ghosting in the titles. Nevertheless, it is conspicuously more handsome and rich in audio than their SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 10, which is slightly grainier and evidently survives only in edited form. Certainly the extant Japanese and German DVD issues look no better. The color is not as gaudy as in the series' earliest entries, when the girls' fashions could match, but it is pleasingly naturalistic and, while the image loses detail as people and objects gain distance, the close-ups are occasionally smooth and appealing. The 2.0 mono track makes Gert Wilden's score a joy, with bright highs and fat lows.

Buy this title directly from Impulse Pictures here.

(c) 2013 Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.        

SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 10 Reviewed

SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 10
"Every Girl Starts Sometime..."
aka Schulmädchen-report 10. Teil - Irgendwann fängt jede an
1976, Impulse Pictures, 80m 40s, DVD

REVIEWED BY TIM LUCAS

Like all the preceding numbers in Impulse Pictures' releases of the Schoolgirl Report series, this tenth outing is presented in the original German (itself almost always dubbed) with English subtitles. In this case, however, the main titles sequence unreels in English and carries the title SEXY SCHOOLWORK - contrary to the film's earlier dubbed release here on VHS under the title SMARTIE PANTS. Under the direction of Walter Boos, the film attempts to uphold its docudrama pretenses by crediting none of the actors by name.

This time, five different stories are presented as offshoots of a sex education class in an all-girls college. In contrast to the more juvenile or melodramatic nature of the segments themselves, the questions raised in the classroom are surprisingly intelligent and philosophical, proving there was intelligence behind this project if not always within it.

In the first story, related anecdotally by the class professor (Astrid Boner), Dr. Hansel (Reiner Brönneke) is charged with the rape and deflowering of a 17-year old student, Susanne (Bärbel Markus), whom he was tutoring in Latin and English. In a RASHOMON twist, perhaps inspired by Mario Bava's FOUR TIMES THAT NIGHT (1972), we see the incident staged according to the accusation, and then Susanne's real lover, her classmate Bert (Claus Obalski), comes forward with the true story, which we also see enacted.

The second story concerns a student in the class itself, Inga (Marianne Dupont), who reminisces internally about how her own sexual awakening compelled her to pursue young men who might deflower her. The first refuses after a heavy petting session because it's a bother; the second actually does it but in a wham-bam dismissive way that leaves her depressed; the third is a young man working in a greenhouse, who is scared off by her aggression; and the fourth, Freddy, turns out to be a wonderful lover... except that afterwards he turns her over to two biker friends for a gangbang. Fleeing the scene of her violation in tears, she meets a gentle and sensitive young man who may be the answer to her quest for genuine love.

The next story has no apparent connection to the framing story and concerns 17 year-old Kathy Dietz (Yvonne Kerstin), who engineers the break-up of her father's second marriage by promising sexual favors to her boyfriend if he succeeds in making love to her stepmother (Karin Lorsin). He succeeds and discovers that the stepmother is really the woman he prefers to be with.

Episode Four zeroes in on an absent student, Seffi (Alexandra Bogojevic), who is very much in love with her boyfriend Karli (Peter Hamm) but they are both miserable because they have no place to sleep together. In a completely outré contrivance, Karli is introduced by a co-worker to William Peter Blatty's novel DER EXORZIST and conceives a wild idea. He proposes to Seffi that she pretend to be possessed by the Devil, so that he can gain entrance to her bedroom in the guise of a Rasputin-like monk named Horace, and make love to her under the guise of an exorcism! Seffi agrees and commences to make faces and expose herself to all the baffled folk in her small village until "Horace" shows up at the local tavern and makes his expertise known. It's the only episode in which the series' zany sense of humor is apparent.

The final segment is about Iris (Gina Janssen), whose happy affair with a wealthy older man, Walter (Paul Glawion), is suddenly cut off. She finds herself pursued by a younger, yet still older man, Franz (Claus Tinney, previously seen in SGR 8), who turns out to be Walter's nephew and hopeful of becoming the new partner in Iris' love life. To his surprise, Iris turns out to be a more substantial young woman than he expected - she has read Dante in the original, no less - and he is still more surprised when she immediately accepts him. Afterwards, he invites her to dinner but she turns the tables by inviting him to eat with her parents - a careworn mother and a drunken father forever complaining about his war wounds ("an inheritance from Adolph"). His reaction to the dinner decides their future and confirms her wisdom.

In the context of its series, SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 10 is something of an oddity. Despite the subtitle (a sexist tweak on the German original's "Everybody Starts Sometime"), only two of the five vignettes are about the loss of virginity. Furthermore, it's not really a film about the "issue" of teenage sex, as the once-political exploitative series set out to be in 1970. The majority of its stories involve relationships between adult partners and unusually mature, theoretical teenagers. It's common in the series for the teenage girls to be smirkingly knowledgeable beyond their years, but all of the young women in this film are indistinguishable from sexually active adults, even when they are pretending to lose their virginity. The EXORCIST-themed episode is a riotous hoot, like nothing else in the series, and its two principals are plainly adult, impossible to confuse for school-aged lovers. The film gains most of its value from its typically attractive and capable cast, but its most successful erotic scenes involve the older characters; it's otherwise flatly directed and shot, with only intermittent moments where the camerawork shows imagination. Gert Wilden's particolored dance score is somewhat more vivid than usual.

Like the original German release of this title, Impulse's 1.66:1 DVD contains more than a half-dozen brief cuts during scenes of sexual activity -- jumps in the music track help us to pinpoint them at 8:40, 18:09, 18:26, 18:30, 25:05, 25:46 (which apparently omits a lengthy gang-rape), 37:46 and 38:15. There may be others. The omissions are not the fault of Impulse and survive as traces of an attempt on the part of the film's producers to jazz the film up with some added explicitness that was reconsidered before the film hit German theaters. An earlier Region 2 release from the Japanese label Mondo Romantic ran only 78m 02s and omitted the gang rape finale of the Inga segment (and its hopeful conclusion) in its entirety, ending her story on the happy note of finding satisfactory sex with Freddy! While Impulse's transfer of this wintertime movie appears mildly noisy and somewhat drably colored, Mondo Romantic's somewhat more colorful transfer was clearly pumped up too much, creating still more surface distortion. Impulse's release, though flawed, therefore embodies the best possible presentation of SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 10 we are likely to see.

Purchase directly from Impulse Pictures here.

(c) 2013 Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.

The Widened Horizons of CINERAMA HOLIDAY

As the year hurriedly draws to a close, I've been trying to catch up with some of my overdue 2013 viewing with an eye toward drawing up my list of year's favorites. Last night I watched Flicker Alley's CINERAMA HOLIDAY, a beautifully restored presentation of the second film lensed in three-camera Cinerama, back in 1955.

Flicker Alley's previous release of the initial film, THIS IS CINERAMA (1953), was fun up to a point but finally succumbed to overbearing, flag-waving patriotism that hasn't dated well. For the second film, Cinerama turned to audience response cards that asked viewers of THIS IS CINERAMA what they'd like to see next. The consensus of opinion reflected a desire for a bigger, more adventurous look at the world, so they took a midwestern American couple and a couple from Switzerland and sent them on tours of each others' respective worlds: the Swiss touring America coast-to-coast, while the Americans visited various stops in Switzerland and France. The resulting film is a far more buoyant and inviting travelogue experience, one that takes us through valleys and deserts in search of the Old West, and then on to Las Vegas and the San Francisco coast; over the Swiss Alps to a variety of ski locations and an outdoor performance by members of the Ice Capades; to jazz and folk performances in the great city of New Orleans (Odetta is briefly glimpsed in performance); and then into Paris, with side trips into Montmartre, the Louvre, the Lido (a stunning acrobatic performance), a jolly Guignol puppet show performance (not to be confused with the Theâtre du Grand Guignol!), and the Notre Dame cathedral, before it all builds to a bizarre twist, in which the film's two couples converge in New York City for the premiere of CINERAMA HOLIDAY, at which they arrive just in time for the supersonic finale featuring the breathtaking stunt flying of the Blue Angels.

 

Watching this film helped to crystallize something in my thinking. While THIS IS CINERAMA was the demonstration of an extraordinary new technology that didn't quite know what to do with itself yet, CINERAMA HOLIDAY takes the significant step of showing people that the world was truly three-dimensional, not just points on a map. It showed people the larger world's potential for adventure, scenic beauty, drama, romance, spiritual enrichment of the spirit, and also danger. If it is, first and foremost, an improvement over what the first film delivered, it is also, secondly and most effectively, a kickstart for the tourism industry - as well as an inspirator of much cinema yet to come. In cinematic terms, it stands out as perhaps the first film to showcase locations in documentary terms that, at the same time, underscores them with same larger-than-life sensibility that later became a key ingredient of the James Bond film series.

The film runs 129 minutes and is presented complete with overture, intermission (with cigarettes prominently featured in the onscreen art) and exit music. While parts of the second half look slightly overdark, this is an impressive restoration and will have you wishing your home screen, whatever its size, was bigger to lend its imagery the majesty it warrants.

Buy the Blu-ray/DVD combo set of CINERAMA HOLIDAY directly from the Flicker Alley website here. 

The Apple Of My Eye

I am so proud of Donna today!
Her vision for our magazine's digital future has won the praise of a high-ranking hardware engineering professional! The VIDEO WATCHDOG Digital Archive - which has applications above and beyond just making our back issues available digitally - was something she conceived through months of intense focus and concentration in a cluttered makeshift office in a suburban home... and now her efforts have won the respect of one of the chiefs of the profession! You can read his comments at our Kickstarter Comments page, here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1416663393/video-watchdog-digital-archive-for-ipad-android-an/comments

Daily Grindhouse Supports Video Watchdog Kickstarter Campaign

Yesterday we had a terrific posting of support by Geoff Hunt over at DAILY GRINDHOUSE, which I want to single-out for your attention. It touched on an aspect of our Kickstarter campaign that's especially important to me.
 
When Geoff observes that VIDEO WATCHDOG is as much a community as a magazine, he touches a warm nerve that runs to the heart of this campaign. Obviously, it's our goal to make all of our back issues available digitally, but it's just as importantly about the creation of a fully cross-platform app for our magazine that will also be applicable to all our issues still to come. The more encompassing our app can be, to include Android and Kindle Fire and Nook HD as well as our existing iPad/iPhone outlets, the larger our digital readership will be, the broader range our interactivity can enjoy, and the more successful we can be at bringing this community of like-minded people together.

Geoff mentions that he's made some good friends through a shared liking for VIDEO WATCHDOG. One of my favorite reader encounters took place when I was in Los Angeles making a personal appearance. One of the people there approached me and shook my hand, saying "Thanks for continuing to produce such a great magazine." I thanked him, and a moment later, he came back as though he had reconsidered something, and he leaned forward and whispered, "What I really meant to say is, Thank you for showing me that I'm not alone." I've been fortunate enough to hear a lot of laudatory things from people over the years, but I promise you this: there really is no finer compliment than this.

What Kind of Person Reads VIDEO WATCHDOG? They're the kind of person who used to uncap a Sharpie and circle the movies they couldn't afford to miss in the next week's TV GUIDE. The kind who have at least a dozen stories about staying up all night as a kid to watch something as urgent as FROM HELL IT CAME or PHAROAH'S CURSE at 4:30am. The kind who mightn't have cared for Westerns as a genre, but felt compelled to see every Western that Jacques Tourneur or Lucio Fulci ever made... and ended up loving Westerns as a result. The kind who can't let go of the vintage big-box VHS tapes in their collection - not only because the cover art is cool, but because the films are cropped and pan&scanned a certain way and "someone must keep a record." But they are mostly open-minded people obsessed with cinema, not as an escape but as a way of living, committed to an ongoing search for those special films that attract a special few with a special light.

Those are our people and VIDEO WATCHDOG lives to inform and entertain them. If you recognize yourself or someone you care about in that description, get involved in this important campaign!

Click here: http://tinyurl.com/vwkickstarter

Make the VIDEO WATCHDOG Digital Archive a reality!

VW Kickstarter Support from CINEFEX Publisher Don Shay

This wonderful endorsement appeared today on CINEFEX magazine's Facebook page:

CINEFEX PUBLISHER DON SHAY'S FAVORITE FILM MAGAZINE
... EXCEPT FOR CINEFEX, OF COURSE.

If you have a passion for sci-fi/fantasy/horror films (and who doesn’t), you should be reading “Video Watchdog.” Published since 1990, this bimonthly journal is packed with in-depth interviews, articles and reviews on films old and new. “The critical analysis in ‘Video Watchdog’ is consistently
better than any other film publication I know,” says Shay. “There’s a reason Quentin Tarantino dubbed it ‘the most reliable film magazine in the world.’”

“Video Watchdog” has just released its first digital issue, but more exciting than that is its announcement of a Kickstarter campaign to bring the entire “V”’ catalog — all 176 issues — to your computer and/or tablet early next year, with lots of extra features and interactivity.

The campaign is already underway, and they need your help to reach their goal. This is a Kickstarter project well worth supporting.

http://kck.st/1bIqbDg

VIDEO WATCHDOG Digital Archive at Kickstarter

http://tinyurl.com/vwkickstarter

On Monday, November 25, Donna and I took the bold step of launching a new Kickstarter campaign. Our goal is to undertake the mammoth task of digitizing our entire back catalogue -- 174 issues plus two 178-page Special Editions -- and make it available on all devices: iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, Android, Nook HD, as well as PCs and Macs. We also intend to use this opportunity to do more than simply create a viewable pdf record of all we've done; we'll also be reinvigorating those thousands of pages with new interactive material!

VIDEO WATCHDOG prides itself on publishing content that doesn't grow old, and we are going to utilize our past material as a foundation for more creative expansion. Even our earliest reviews of VHS and LaserDisc releases remain pertinent as film criticism -- and we have a backlog of hundreds of feature articles and thousands of reviews that stand to become one of the most important archives of film reference, film thought and film discussion on the Internet. We are talking about more than 14,000 pages of the best writing from the best writers, critics, authors and thinkers specializing in genre cinema. That's roughly the equivalent of 40 books on a wide variety of topics, everything from classic to contemporary horror, martial arts cinema, Italian westerns, dark fantasy, film music, arthouse and grindhouse -- all of it searchable for the first time, so you could conceivably type any new topic that caught your fancy into your search engine and pull up everything VIDEO WATCHDOG ever had to say about it.

Donna has been working tirelessly and obsessively on this project for months, and by now you should have seen the incredible results of her efforts in our first digital issue, which is available FREE right here. For the first time, we're able to accommodate more pictures, more sounds, more information, even my own editorial annotations... How could our readers not want this x 176?

To realize this ambitious vision, we need numbers more than hefty contributions. Lots of people contributing modest but helpful amounts -- it's really that sort of grass roots support that's going to put us over the top! But for those of you who are able to contribute more, we've worked out a sizeable number of rewards to tempt you at different levels.

We urge you to click on the link above, watch the beautiful promo film that our friends at New Voyage Communications in Washington DC put together for us (with input from some of our most illustrious celebrity readers), and see what our campaign is all about!

UPDATE: Here is a direct link to our press release. 

Italian Horror Set for Renaissance with THE BOOK

 

I rarely, if ever, use this blog to help distribute press releases, but when producer David Bond sent me the following one, I could not believe my eyes... Of course, I was all too willing to pitch in and lend my support! Read on, and be prepared to lend yours... 

 

ITALIAN MASTERS OF GENRE TO RETURN

AND COLLABORATE ON ‘THE BOOK’

"Rome, the Eternal City, as narrated by the Italian Masters of Horror."

THE BOOK sees the ultimate collaborative Italian horror film unfold before your very eyes.

A one off project of unprecedented scale, THE BOOK brings together, for the very first time, the writers, directors, actors, composers and artists behind the finest Italian genre cinema of the past sixty years. This includes the creative forces behind the Giallo movement, Spaghetti Westerns, Eurocrime and more. Each director will be given the opportunity to showcase their own personal vision of Rome, spread across a dozen episodes. Each segment in this feature film will contain a unique blend of macabre thriller, horror and the fantastic; all delivered with the unique style and method of the director in question.

THE BOOK features 12 individual episodes, each of which is helmed by a master of Italian genre cinema. The following directors are confirmed:

LAMBERTO BAVA (SHOCK, MACABRE, DEMONS 1 & 2, BODY PUZZLE, GHOST SON)

ANTONIO BIDO (BLOODSTAINED SHADOW, CAT WITH THE JADE EYES, BLUE TORNADO)

ENZO G. CASTELLARI (COLD EYES OF FEAR, THE HOUSE BY THE EDGE OF THE LAKE, THE LAST SHARK, INGLORIOUS BASTARDS)

LUIGI COZZI (THE KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN, CONTAMINATION, STARCRASH, THE BLACK CAT, PAGANINI HORROR)

ALBERTO DE MARTINO (THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER, THE ANTICHRIST, SCENES FROM A MURDER, HOLOCAUST 2000)

RUGGERO DEODATO (CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK, LAST CANNIBAL WORLD, CUT AND RUN)

ALDO LADO (NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS, SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS)

UMBERTO LENZI (NIGHTMARE CITY, SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS, THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER, EATEN ALIVE, GHOST HOUSE, CANNIBAL FEROX)

EDOARDO MARGHERITI (IN THE EYES OF A KILLER, SIX STEPS INTO GIALLO, BLACK COBRA)

SERGIO MARTINO (TORSO, ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH, MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD, THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL, YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY)

SERGIO STIVALETTI (THE THREE FACES OF TERROR, THE PROFANE EXHIBIT, THE WAX MASK)

TONINO VALERII (writer of TERROR IN THE CRYPT and THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH, director of MY DEAR KILLER and MY NAME IS NOBODY)

The screenplay will be provided by DARDANO SACCHETTI (THE BEYOND, DEMONS, MANHATTAN BABY), with exclusive poster art by ENZO SCIOTTI (THE BEYOND, PHENOMENA, NON VIOLENTATE JENNIFER (I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE), THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, DEMONS, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD).

Featuring a brand new score by GOBLIN and CLAUDIO SIMONETTI’S GOBLIN. With more participants to be announced……….

Following the ambitious extremity of THE PROFANE EXHIBIT, producers DAVID BOND and MANDA MANUEL present: THE BOOK. Assembling the finest living Italian filmmakers, the project intends to provide these elite creative forces a platform with which they can showcase the dexterity and innovation which brought them initial acclaim. Free of studio constraints, THE BOOK will be Italian genre at its most raw and basic form, with the impetus placed upon recapturing the magic which resonates with so many fans the world over.

An INDIEGOGO project, designed to generate the start-up funding for THE BOOK, is now up and running. Tired of the standardized trinkets that are usually offered as part of these funding schemes, the producers of THE BOOK have gone to great lengths to ensure that genuinely exclusive and one-of-a-kind bonuses have been offered.What is currently listed is only the beginning of what will be unveiled along the way. To ensure that people are paying attention to the project, there will be sporadic offers posted throughout the 90 day campaign. This will benefit all collectors, fans and true enthusiasts of Italian genre cinema. Included in the delights on offer are:

Signed, rare VHS tapes of classic Giallo, Video Nasties and Horrors from the directors involved, plus options for personalization.
Original cinema posters (some of which are 30 -40 years old), signed by the directors, plus options for personalization.
A private SFX workshop with SERGIO STIVALETTI (Rome / LA)
Exclusive access to the filmmakers. Festival screenings. Wrap party invites. Set visits and much more.

This is a very rare opportunity to become part of the Italian film history.

For more info visit: The INDIEGOGO PAGE: igg.me/at/thebook 
TWITTER https://twitter.com/THE_BOOK_ITALY (@THE_BOOK_ITALY)
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/THEBOOKITALIANANTHOLOGY
INSTAGRAM THE_BOOK_ITALY

For further information, interview opportunities, official stills and more, please contact: themastersreturn@gmail.com

Arrivederci, Teodoro

This morning, I received sad confirmation of the passing of actor/writer/dubbing legend Ted Rusoff, the subject of John Charles' feature interview in VIDEO WATCHDOG 159, at the admitted age of 74. This from Ted's sister-in-law, by way of Harvey Chartrand: ""I just got official word from Rome that Ted died on September 28, 2013. He was hit by a car in August and hospitalized near Rome for more than a month. He died in the hospital."

You can look up some of Ted's many (mostly uncharted) accomplishments on the IMDb or on his Wikipedia page. Even he couldn't recollect all the voice work he'd done, in everything from Italian pepla to porno, but his voice befriended all of us who loved European cinema - particularly European genre cinema - since the 1960s. For me, this is a fond farewell to a man I was proud to call my friend.

Ted loved language like no one else I've ever known. According to his daughter Giulia, "He has written poetry, lyrics to songs, music for songs and an opera, 500-plus dubbing scripts, a textbook on the Finnish language, short stories, and screenplays - all of them damn good, but I honestly think this [limerick] ranks near the top of his entire life's literary output...

A certain young dubber from Venice
Was greatly addicted to tenice
He practiced the serve
With both vim and with verve:
Said it lengthened the shaft of his penice."

That was Ted. (And to be perfectly candid, for all I know, Giulia may have been Ted also - she shared his sly way with words, and I've never been completely sure that he wasn't just pulling my leg by adopting the occasional guise of an adoring, erotica-writing, lingerie model daughter. Giulia hasn't responded to any of my queries about her dad's rumored death, so I really can't be sure whether or not I'm saying goodbye to her, as well. I wouldn't put such a prank past him. Pranks ran in his family.) Ted and I became pen pals as the VW piece was heading into print, especially after he received a gift copy of the Bava book, which he admired and respected so much that it replaced the dictionary he considered the best in the world on the lectern in his home. He was a smart, wily, impish devil of a man, and I wish I'd known him a lot longer.

Hot Digital Dog!

You've asked for it and, after months of intensive labor and development... we've done it!


VIDEO WATCHDOG is going digital... and so is my Saturn Award-winning book MARIO BAVA - ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK!

And they're not coming soon... they're available NOW!

Get 'em for your PC, iPad, iPhone, iPod, and anything that supports Flash. Head over to our website and read all the juicy details. But there are some things you'll want to know...

First things first:
No, we are not abandoning print. VIDEO WATCHDOG will continue to be published the way it has always been! The print version gets done first and while it's at the printer, we'll knuckle down to the digital edition -- loading it up with interactive material (trailers, pop-ups, audio samples and extra content) that will bring you, as our reader, much closer to the films and other subjects under discussion. Just look for all the little play arrows and icons, feel your way around... I'll explain more when you get there! This is a wholly immersive experience, like reading VIDEO WATCHDOG in 3-D.

And here's the sweet part...
Each new digital edition of VIDEO WATCHDOG will be absolutely free!

What? Are we crazy? You bet! Donna has conceived a business model for this baby that's sure to please everyone. Our back issues will be priced at $3.99. So as long as you get the current issue before it becomes a back issue, it's yours for the taking!

The digital version of my critical biography MARIO BAVA - ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK is reasonably priced at $29.99. Remember, text-wise, this is the equivalent of 10 regular-sized books, plus you need to factor in the value of its hundreds of meticulously restored, full color illustrations, many from the Bava family's own personal archives. To further sweeten the deal -- and make it an essential acquisition even for those who own and cherish the hard copy -- the Bava book has been likewise enhanced for its digital edition with a slew of trailers, commercials and short films. Most of these are available elsewhere online, but here they are uniquely cued to the story of Bava's life and career! We think it makes a great book even greater, but we're not quite done with it. We are planning to make further special amendments, additions and corrections to ATCOTD to coincide with the Mario Bava Centenary next year... and if you buy the book now, your copy will be automatically updated to our Centennial edition at the time of its publication! At no extra charge!

Our goal is to make this material available to all formats, but as of right now, at the time of this launch, they are available only for Flash (ie., your PC) and Apple products like the iPhone, iPod and (the ideal delivery system, in our opinion) the iPad.

When I got my first look at the Bava book on the iPad, I had the strange, elating sensation that I was finally seeing the book I labored so long to create in its native technology. I know the tangible book is a glorious thing, an epitome of the bookmaker's craft, but it's 12 pounds and bulky, so not the most comfortable book to hold and read. The hard copy is also a little expensive, as many of you have pointed out! But now, at last, it's within everyone's economic reach -- and easier to read and use than ever! Now the pages can be enlarged for detailed perusal without even an inkling of distortion... now the entire text is completely searchable so you can immediately access the information you're seeking (eliminating the need for the Index it took us six months to prepare!)... but, best of all, it's no longer 12 pounds! In its digital edition, the Bava book is now something you can carry with you anywhere. You can read it on the bus. You can read it in bed. In the dark!

What about those of you who use Android, Kindle Fire and the other formats?
Well, Donna is still working to make these, and our other future ePublications, adaptable to these and other formats. It will get done, but this much we can deliver now.

Since 1990, we at VIDEO WATCHDOG have made it our business to redefine what genre film criticism is, what a magazine about genre films can be, what a book about a genre filmmaker can encompass. This is the most important step we have taken since the publication of the Bava book in 2007, and it's only the beginning of a new era in our history.

So what are you waiting for? Visit our website, get your VIDEO WATCHDOG app, and experience the new digital realm we've envisioned!
 

My "Citizen Clarke" Published

In stores shortly: LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS #31, with its DEMONS OF THE MIND cover story. This issue also features my long-promised memoir "Citizen Clarke," a 10-page look back at my eleven years of training for my life's work under Frederick S. Clarke at CINEFANTASTIQUE. Editor Richard Klemensen has done a really nice job with the presentation, which is nicely illustrated with vintage pics of Fred, Donna and I. This is my first-ever appearance in the pages of LSoH -- a marvelous magazine I first discovered in a Toronto bookstore back in 1981, while I was up there covering the making of VIDEODROME for CFQ -- and it's an addition to my working roster that pleases me particularly.

Eight Years A Blogger

Yes, it was eight years ago today that I decided, very spur of the moment, to launch this blog. I still post things here, although I now have another blog (Pause. Rewind. Obsess. II) where I tend to post my free-floating ideas and responses to the movies and other programming I watch... primarily because I much prefer the template I have over there to this one, which I don't feel right about changing. Besides, as a Gemini, it somehow makes sense to be running two blogs at once. Blogger tells me that Video WatchBlog has chalked up... well, this will be the 1,060th posting. That still averages out to 132.5 postings per year, so my overall average isn't that bad, especially with everything else that's been going on. Even so, I'll try to do better.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, Video WatchBlog seems to have become a kind of obituary blog this year. I need to discourage this tendency because people then look to me for formal acknowledgements of the passings of numerous worthy luminaries, and I don't always have enough time to balance my surplus of heart. Hammer's Anthony Hinds recently passed away and, although I wasn't able to write something appropriate here at that time, Constantine Nasr has agreed to write a eulogy for the next issue of VIDEO WATCHDOG. It was also terrible news to hear of the death of that charismatic Italian actor Giuliano Gemma at age 75, as the result of a head-on traffic collision. Less than an hour ago, I learned from a friend of the passing of Diana Harryhausen, since 1963 the wife of animation legend Ray Harryhausen, who passed away just five months ago.

Just yesterday, the news came of the death of Philip Nutman -- novelist, screenwriter, journalist and FANGORIA foreign correspondent -- at the age of 50. I didn't know Phil well -- when you love the same things and produce work in a similar vein, it's almost like there's no need; you know you've got each other's back. What people like that do well together is socialize, and we never had that opportunity. But we were friendly acquaintances for a long time; every few years, Phil would call the office and we'd catch up; he would regale me with stories of his adventures in the film trade in that funny, larger-than-life, almost Australian cardsharp's voice of his. I remember him telling me about years that were wasted trying to get a film together with members of The Doors. I thought of Phil first when Ray Manzarek died. When he joined FB, I hoped it would be an opportunity to stay in closer touch with Phil, but his behavior was taking erratic turns and I finally just minded my own business. A talented man. I'm just so sad that he wasn't looking out for his own best interests. If you were a friend of Phil or a fan of his work, please make whatever contribution you can manage to his funeral fund.  

Things here at the homefront have been extremely busy, engrossing and promising. Donna has been deeply engrossed in a project concerning VIDEO WATCHDOG whose details we hope to be sharing with you very soon. In the meantime, I have been supplementing my time with scripting and recording audio commentaries for various upcoming Blu-ray and DVD releases. I was recently engaged by the BFI (British Film Institute) to record commentaries for five Alain Robbe-Grillet films they have licensed, beginning with TRANS-EUROP-EXPRESS (1966) and SUCCESSIVE SLIDINGS OF PLEASURE (1974), which were first announced for this December but which I now hear may be slightly postponed. The other three titles have yet to be announced. I've also agreed to record two commentaries for Britain's Arrow Films: Roger Corman's PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1962) and Robert Fuest's DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN (1972), which should surface sometime before next Spring. I've already recorded the commentary for SUCCESSIVE SLIDINGS and will be recording TRANS-EUROP-EXPRESS very soon; Robbe-Grillet was one of the writers whose work and example persuaded me to become a novelist, so it was a great honor to be invited to speak at length about his films, which has given me permission to delve back into his books and also into some of the fine books written about him. The strange thing about this assignment is how much I feel that the liner notes I wrote for the Redemption Jean Rollin discs, and the commentaries I recorded for their Jess Franco titles (especially NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT) and for Kino Lorber's recent disc of Mario Bava's FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON prepared me for it. There is a continuity with all this work I think you'll find surprising and interesting.

Beyond that, I've also contributed to a couple of books now newly on the market: the BFI Companion book GOTHIC: THE DARK HEART OF FILM, to which I contributed two pages on Italian Gothic cinema; and John Szpunar's account of the diabolic side of desktop publishing, XEROX FEROX: THE WILD WORLD OF THE HORROR FILM FANZINE, which includes a lengthy new interview with me about VIDEO WATCHDOG and our 23-year publishing history.

But the most exciting news concerns a certain screenplay of mine, which is finally moving forward and should be going into production next spring. 

  

THAT'S SEXPLOITATION! (2013) reviewed

Frank Henenlotter's new documentary for Something Weird, THAT'S SEXPLOITATION! is a rollicking ride through the tassled hills and cat-masked valleys of America's uniquely uncomfortable history of silver screen erotica.

Co-hosted by Henenlotter and veteran exploitation king David F. Friedman (who died in 2011), the movie covers a lot of varied ground in its generous 136-minute running time: arcade shorts, pre-code peekaboos, nudie-cuties, pious STD mellers, goona-goona, '50s Euro imports, burlesque films, nudies, roughies, druggies, white-coaters and more, everything up until the time, as Friedman groans, "hardcore put an end to everything." Each excerpt is properly identified and their particulars are so fascinating (absurd/silly/funny, rather than seriously erotic), and the gear shifts between chapters so extreme, that each subheading begs for its own feature documentary -- or further investigation of the Something Weird back catalogue, which was surely part of the plan.

Though the necessarily shared narrative duties give this the feel of television rather than documentary, it holds together because the footage is always lively and interesting, because each new twist in the tale says something different and valid about the changing face of 20th century America, and because Friedman keeps the story's focus on how these films filled a need and were sold. Because the story is left to a producer's perspective than that of directors, it's not really about who set the highest artistic standards in the genre (Radley Metzger and Joe Sarno don't really get a mention or a showing) as much as it's about less-than-beautiful hootchie-coochie girls coyly modeling 1930s pubic hair or motor-boating the camera. As the narration freely admits, most of these films seemed able to cope with their content (and remain within the bounds of the law) by keeping it as infantile as possible, or, in the case of the roughies, as violent as possible to counter the temptations of the imagery. Adding to the fun, Henenlotter sometimes uses screen text on clips to direct our gaze, to help us overhear things we weren't meant to hear (like one hapless man in an orgy scene, telling his partner that he's wearing two pairs of briefs to help discourage his arousal), and to follow-up on unkept promises like the "Coming Soon to This Theater" OLGA'S GARDEN OF TORTURE.

The on-camera host approach probably doesn't work as well as a traditional narration/montage approach would have (Henenlotter taking a long walk to Friedman's house, in the rain, no less, and elsewhere addressing us from a stool in a nude bar, while ogling a nude male bartender, feel particularly forced), but the film deserves particular credit for allowing men a place in this history, reserving space for gay exploitation and the history of male nudity in straight features. The clips are extremely well-selected and cleverly edited together throughout, and Friedman's raconteur revelry, albeit token, nevertheless brings us into the raucous presence of the enterprising, carny-barker spirit that got most of these films made in the first place.

THAT'S SEXPLOITATION! is presently playing different film festivals here and abroad. There has been no announcement as yet about its home video release, which is surely forthcoming.

12 Unpublished Novels They Wish They Could Read

I found myself in some unexpectedly grand company today, thanks to Joshua Chaplinsky and the folks at LitReactor. My humble thanks -- I suspect your patience and curiosity will be rewarded next year.

R.I.P.: Dante DiPaolo (1926-2013)

I was just notified by Kathy Brown, who runs the Rosemary Clooney website, of the death last week, on September 3, of actor-dancer Dante DiPaolo, who was the very last person I interviewed for MARIO BAVA - ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK.

Dante broke into the movies in 1939, as a hoofer, and appeared in a couple of the great MGM musicals: MEET ME AT THE FAIR and SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. It was during this period that he met the great love of his life, Rosemary Clooney, but they were both married at the time: she to actor-director Jose Ferrer, and he to a Hotel Tropicana showgirl then known as Nadine Ducassay, who later found work in Rome under the names Nadia Sanders and Nadine Ducas. (She went on to appear in a conspicuous role in Fellini's 8½, among other films.) Dante followed Nadine to Rome and was floored when producer Virgilio DeBlasio, who had taken them to dinner to become better acquainted with her, suddenly shifted all his attention to Dante, upon learned he had been in SEVEN BRIDES, then a perennial on Italian television.

Suddenly Dante became a much in-demand actor. He started out as henchmen and villains in such sword-and-sandal films as Riccardo Freda's epic SAMSON AND THE 7 MIRACLES OF THE WORLD (1961), Marcello Baldi's THE SON OF HERCULES VS. VENUS (1962) and Irving Rapper's PONTIUS PILATE and JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS (both 1962), but he gave his best performances to Mario Bava's greatest giallo thrillers, THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1962, as the mysterious reporter Landini) and BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964, as the frazzled drug addict Frank).  When the Italian film industry began suffering a crisis in the late 1960s, so was their marriage and Dante returned to the States, where he was able to appear in one last important musical, Bob Fosse's SWEET CHARITY (1969).  He and Clooney reunited in the 1970s and they remained devoted and together for the remainder of her life, with Dante producing her stage act. They finally married in 1997, only five years before her death in 2002. Some years later, he made a few appearances on the short-lived but interesting HBO series UNSCRIPTED, co-produced by his nephew George Clooney, playing an actor named Dante (a clip from THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH was used to touchingly illustrate his former screen career).

Dante gave some of the very best, most nuanced performances found in Bava's films -- he had the goods to have become a first-rate film noir star -- and I was so pleased to be able to interview him and get some of his memories into the book. During our talk, I mentioned to him that THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH had been reworked into a light comedy, which completely surprised him. I arranged for him to see it, and we also sent him a gift copy of the book, which he told me made him feel tremendously proud -- and also happy for Mario, whom he considered a hugely underrated talent. At the time I interviewed him, on June 13, 2006, Dante was living next door to his elderly mother, who was dependent on his care (even though he was then 80!), and sharing an apartment with none other than his first wife. I'm told that his mother lived to be 100, but did predecease him. He cared for her as he had cared for Rosemary through her final illness.

Here's to you, Dante! My book would have been grievously incomplete without you, and I'm grateful for your work, your input, and so glad we got to touch base.

First Look: VIDEO WATCHDOG 175

This time, your first look is right here in my hand! Donna hasn't yet updated our website page -- you wouldn't believe how much she's been juggling of late -- but the next issue is already printed, here at Chez Watchdog and it will be shipping soon! Among the contents in this exciting new issue...

DOG BYTES (short reviews)
247~F
THE DARK MIRROR
THE FIELDS
FINAL DESTINATION 5
THE PETE WALKER COLLECTION
ROCCO: DER MANN MIT DEN ZWEI GESICHTERN (aka SUGAR COLT)
SEA OF SAND

RAMSEY'S RAMBLES by Ramsey Campbell
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

FEATURE ARTICLE:
"We Love You, Jo Walker..." THE KOMMISSAR X LEGACY by Tim Lucas

DVD SPOTLIGHT:
KARLOFF: CRIMINAL KIND and BORIS KARLOFF TRIPLE FEATURE
reviewed by Kim Newman

DISCS IN DEPTH (longer reviews):
AMERICAN MARY
DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK
DARK SHADOWS
THE DEVIL'S SISTERS
FOREVER EVIL
HELL
HIGH LANE
THE LADY VANISHES
LIFEFORCE
MOTHER'S DAY (original and remake)
THE NICKEL RIDE / 99 & 44/100th's % DEAD
NIGHTMARES
NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT
SCREAM THEATER DOUBLE FEATURES
ZOMBIE LAKE

BONUS FEATURE:
"Digital Alchemy: ZOMBIE LAKE and the Ever-Evolving Art of Film Mastering" by Bret Wood

BIBLIO WATCHDOG (book reviews):
HORROR AND THE HORROR FILM
DARK SHADOWS Comics Series

Plus Douglas E. Winter's AUDIO WATCHDOG and MORE!

Street date: September 30!

Adiós, José Ramón Larraz (1929-2013)

Spanish writer-director José Ramón Larraz has passed away at the presumed age of 84. News of his hospitalization was circulated a week or two ago, but no cause of death has yet been announced. Horror fans who came of age in the 1970s remember Larraz as one of the most exciting new European voices of that decade. He began his career as a graphic artist and cartoonist. Like his compatriot Jess Franco, he left Spain at the height of Franconian oppression to create his art under freer conditions; unlike Franco, who gravitated to France, Larraz went to London. His works, marked by morbid themes and often explicit violence and carnality, include WHIRLPOOL (1970, possibly the first X-rated horror film released in the United States -- released one week before Franco's EUGENIE... THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION -- and an obvious influence on Wes Craven's THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT), DEVIATION (1971), SYMPTOMS (1975, arguably his best film), the erotic terror classic VAMPYRES (1974, for which he recorded a memorable audio commentary when it was issued on DVD and Blu-ray by Blue Underground) and THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED (1974). He was often credited on these films under such names as J.R. Larrath or Joseph Braunstein. After this, when creative freedom was permitted once again in his country, he returned to his homeland, where he made such films as THE COMING OF SIN (1978), STIGMA (1980), THE NATIONAL MUMMY (1981), BLACK CANDLES (1982), REST IN PIECES (1987) and DEADLY MANOR (1990), which did not receive the same level of international exposure. He was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Sitges Film Festival and the subject of a documentary, ON VAMPYRES AND OTHER SYMPTOMS, directed by Celia Novis in 2011. A major figure, whose passing comes as a major loss to Spanish culture, especially as it follows so soon the recent deaths of Jess Franco and Bigas Luna.

RIP: Producer Luciano Martino (1933 - 2013)

I have just learned of the death today of legendary Italian film producer Luciano Martino, the brother of director Sergio Martino, at the age of 80. Simply put, the Golden Age of Italian Fantasy would have been no more than an aberration without his financial support and encouragement of this man, who sometimes went by the name of "Martin Hardy" on screens trying very hard not to appear Italian. Among his most important productions: Brunello Rondi's IL DEMONIO, Mario Bava's THE WHIP AND THE BODY, Antonio Margheriti's THE GIANTS OF ROME, Romolo Guerrieri's THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH, Umberto Lenzi's SO SWEET... SO PERVERSE (aka ORGASMO), Giuliano Carmineo's WHAT ARE THOSE STRANGE DROPS OF BLOOD ON JENNIFER'S BODY?, Lenzi's CANNIBAL FEROX, Lamberto Bava's BLASTFIGHTER, and Sergio's own marvelous series of giallo thrillers, including THE CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL, THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH and ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK. He continued to produce as recently as last year, and he was also credited as a writer or co-writer on many films of the early 1960s, often with the great Ernesto Gastaldi, including Sergio Leone's THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES and Alberto De Martino's MEDUSA AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES. The husband of actress Wandisa Guida (the innocent female lead of the first Italian horror picture, I VAMPIRI), Martino was credited with discovering and fostering the career of Edwige Fenech, one of the great European sex sirens of the 1970s. We owe him more than we can ever repay, but his movies will hold our attention through posterity!