Hammer DRACULA Restoration... Incomplete!

Hammer fans have been torn on their response to Lionsgate/Icon's new Region 2 Blu-ray/DVD set of Terence Fisher's DRACULA (1958). Everyone is overjoyed to finally see the long-censored decomposition scene as it was intended to be seen, while others have complained that the film now looks too blue or too dark. As it happens, I can't agree with either side of that criticism. The film looks just fine on my 60" Kuro Pro monitor, but after carefully examining the three surviving Japanese reels included as a bonus supplement in the set, I can't agree that we're seeing the decomposition scene as it was intended by director Terence Fisher to be seen either.

Let us begin with a series of frame grabs from the 2012 restoration, beginning with the skeleton of Dracula's hand emerging from the ashes of its disintegrated flesh. This material runs from 79:43-44.

 

The film then cuts to a baleful close shot of Dracula's face, Christopher Lee investing the moment with pathos and defeat.

 

 

 

The film then cuts back to Dracula's arm as the last of the ashen flesh crumbles and the sleeve of Dracula's coat shrinks back to expose the crumbling bones of his forearm.

 Now the same moment as it appears in the Japanese print, Reel 9. The first shot appears to hold slightly longer as the skeleton of the hand disengages from the papery flesh. The restoration holds true to the original release version by retaining only the last frames of the shot. It's much more apparent here that the bones are coming free of what was once flesh.

 

 And now comes the important stuff -- 33:22-23 in the Japanese reel supplement. Here we find a completely unique reaction shot of Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, no longer passively withering into defeat but nearly in tears against his ruthless opponent as the rays of sunlight converge to slay him. I've stepped through the footage and snapped a progress frame with every five beats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It's a wonderful discovery and a tragic omission. In these 30 or so frames, we see the fight bleed out of Dracula; it's his moment of recognition that he's losing everything. The scene then continues with the shrinking of the coat sleeve from Dracula's arm.

 

I don't think this could be a matter of the restoration team choosing to keep the footage we've always known for two reasons: 1) in every other instance, they went with the alternate footage found in the Japanese print, and 2) they have made no mention anywhere of this alternative reaction shot of Dracula. I sincerely believe they overlooked it, so intent were they on the scene's special effects gore that they failed to see a blatant variation of performance.

More about this and my evaluation of the remainder of the restoration in the next issue of VIDEO WATCHDOG -- #174. 

Recipients of the 2012 Rondo Awards

-- BEST MOVIE: CABIN IN THE WOODS

-- BEST TV: WALKING DEAD

-- CLASSIC DVD: A&C MEET FRANKENSTEIN

-- CLASSIC COLLECTION: UNIVERSAL MONSTERS ON BLU RAY

-- RESTORATION: DRACULA (1931)

-- COMMENTARY: David Kalat on Criterion GOJIRA/GODZILLA

-- DVD EXTRA: Universal Monsters ORIGINAL HOUSE OF HORRORS booklet

-- INDEPENDENT FILM: HOUSE OF GHOSTS

-- SHORT FILM: FALL OF HOUSE OF USHER (animated)

-- DOCUMENTARY: BEAST WISHES

-- BOOK OF YEAR: RAY HARRYHAUSEN'S FANTASY SCRAPBOOK

-- BEST MAGAZINE MODERN: RUE MORGUE

-- BEST MAGAZINE CLASSIC: SCARY MONSTERS

-- BEST ARTICLE: Christopher Lee: A Career retrospective, by Aaron Christensen, HORROR HOUND #34

-- BEST INTERVIEW: Michael Culhane talks with original DARK SHADOWS cast, including Jonathan Frid's last interview, FAMOUS MONSTERS #261

-- BEST COLUMN: It Came from Bowen's Basement (John Bowen), RUE MORGUE

-- BEST THEME ISSUE: Tie, MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #30 (Vincent Price); VIDEO WATCHDOG #169 (Dark Shadows)

-- COVER: Jeff Preston's Phibes cover for LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS #29

-- WEBSITE: DREAD CENTRAL

-- BLOG: COLLINSPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY

-- CONVENTION: MONSTERPALOOZA

-- FAN EVENT: Rick Baker gets star on hollywood Walk of Fame

-- HORROR HOST: Svengoolie

-- HORROR COMIC: WALKING DEAD

-- MULTIMEDIA (Audio/video): FRIGHT BYTES

-- SOUNDTRACK/HORROR CD: ROSEMARY'S BABY

-- TOY, MODEL OR COLLECTIBLE: Jeff Yagher's BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN scene

-- WRITER OF YEAR: Tim Lucas

-- REVIEWER OF YEAR: David-Elijah Nahmod

-- ARTIST: DANIEL HORNE

-- FAN ARTIST: MARK OWEN

-- HENRY ALVAREZ AWARD FOR ARTISTIC DESIGN: RAY SANTOLERI

-- INTERNATIONAL MONSTER FAN: Rhonda Steerer (operates Boris Karloff 'More Than a Monster' site from Germany)

-- MONSTER KID OF THE YEAR: SIMON ROWSON (for work in Japan unearthing lost footage in HORROR OF DRACULA)

-- HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES:

   -- J.D. LEES -- Editor/publisher who helped popularize kaiju scholarship with G-FAN, now a giant-sized 100 issues old.

   -- COUNT GORE DE VOL: Still going strong in multimedia, 40 years later.

   -- TED NEWSOM: Opinionated but with good reason -- he was there researching and interviewing long before most others.

   -- STEVE BISSETTE -- Writer's love of the genre has spread across all genres, from comic books to deep research.

   -- JESSIE LILLEY: From Scarlet Street to Famous Monsters and Mondo Cult, she has expanded the outlook of fandom.

   -- And the late GARY DORST: One of fandom's founding forces, gone far too soon.

Aloha, Annette (1942-2013)

Today we've lost Annette Funicello at age 70, after a long and largely private struggle with multiple sclerosis. Wikipedia reports she was unable to walk since 2004 and unable to speak since 2009, enforcing her early retreat from public view. This news is hard to believe for those of us who remember Annette as a 12-year old Mouseketeer (I can, thanks to 1960s reruns of THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB) and her later appearances in a half-dozen BEACH PARTY movies for AIP which, to me as a pre-teen, played like freewheeling, madcap previews of what teenage life might be like.

Walt Disney had seemingly plucked her out of nowhere after spotting her in a juvenile performance of "Swan Lake" at Burbank's Starlight Bowl, in which she played the Swan Queen; she was the last Mouseketeer to be cast and the most popular, even before her puberty hit in a manner television had never documented before. Though noticeably more voluptuous, she wasn't a conspicuously different Annette in the Beach Party films than in the MICKEY MOUSE CLUB serials "Annette" (which launched her hit song "How Will I Know My Love?"), "The Further Adventures of Spin and Marty", or the Disney series ZORRO; there was still something of "Swan Lake's" Swan Queen about her, a warmth and sweetness but also a tacit distance; a hermetic sense of young, grassroots American royalty. With her earnest voice double-tracked, she recorded a number of hit songs ("Tall Paul", "Pineapple Princess"), some of them written by her first serious boyfriend, Paul Anka, who famously spun one of them ("It's Really Love") into the theme music for THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON.

One of the great images of Annette Funicello that I carry with me is one I never saw, but was once described on an episode of THE MATCH GAME by actor Bart Braverman. He remembered seeing her once drive into a studio parking lot in a peach-colored sportscar convertible and stepping out in peach-colored clothes and boots. He said it was the one thing he'd seen in his life that spoke of genuine stardom to him and that he would never forget. I also remember hearing somewhere that Annette and Shelley Fabares were best friends who met once a week to have lunch together, and thinking how many men must see them talking at a nearby table and fight the urge to pick up their check out of simple gratitude.

My own favorite memory of Annette is the opening credits for a certain movie from 1965. I saw this on the big screen as a kid and it may still be the only time a credit sequence has outdone the rest of the picture, even though I like the rest of the picture. Written by the Sherman brothers, it's still the happiest song in the world for me, and I thank her for it -- and for a lifetime of companionship, though she never knew me and I'm sure I knew the real Annette less well than I'd like to believe. To borrow the title of another Beach Boys song, Annette embodied the romance of The Nearest Faraway Place, always close but too far to reach. 

Thoughts About Jess

I want to express my thanks to everyone who has called or written me personally to express their shared sorrow. Naturally I share your regret that Jess is no longer among us, making new movies, but there is still quite a wealth of material out there for us to see, to see again, or to see differently. Will any of us ever truly get to the bottom of all he left us?

Of course I regret that we never met in person, but I think there is no doubt that we experienced a perfect meeting on some special metaphysical level. The one time we spoke on the phone, we both laughed for nearly a full minute before we could begin a proper conversation, so amused were we both to be finally talking together. It was very much like catching up with a friend from some other lifetime. Would shaking his hand have made any difference? We seemed to cross-pollenate one another, odd as that seems; we had a genuine and complete correspondence. I am pleased that I had some hand in reversing what was once the common wisdom about him and his work, and that he acknowledged my efforts on his behalf in a warm and appreciative manner. A shared love of his work also became a password into many important friendships in my life... and there is much more work for us still to do.

Yes, I shed some tears this morning, but listening to Clifford Brown's "I'll Remember April" -- a song I posted on Facebook in tribute to Jess -- reminded me that grief is selfishness. To really be in the presence of Jess Franco, all you need do is listen to great jazz, the most alive music there is. Wherever Jess is, the mystery is taking him into his confidence as a final reward. His best movies addressed the balance of those two great mysteries, sex and death, and he now knows more about the poem he spent his life writing than he ever did while alive.

So I am moved by his death, but not sad; I am actually happy for Jess. No one achieved more; he is the unchallenged King of the Mountain. He went out with a new movie awaiting release. His work just hit Blu-ray this past year and he's got numerous films now being restored and awaiting release on this state-of-the-art medium. He can put his infirmities behind and rejoin the love of his life and the loves of his life. Now that his filmography is complete, its full arc and all its oceanic confluences can be measured and charted; maybe it's the kick in the ass I need to come to complete grips with this book I've been compiling on the back burner and get it done. In the meantime, there are more Blu-rays coming up and I'm hopeful of recording audio commentaries for at least a couple of them.

Jess Franco is finished with life, but life is far from finished with him.

(Photo above, courtesy of Alain Petit's collection.)

Jesús "Jess" Franco (May 12, 1930 - April 2, 2013)

Jesús Franco Manera passed away sometime after 11:00am this morning, from complications of a stroke, at a clinic in Malaga, Spain. He was 82 years old.

Word came at roughly 5:30am (US Eastern time) this morning, on Facebook's El Franconomicon fan page, when Frank Munoz -- stationed at the hospital where "Tio Jess" had been under observation since suffering a serious stroke last Wednesday -- posted this brief message:

"Estoy en el hospital. Acaba de fallecer. Se lo han llevado ahora mismo. Lo siento."

Translation: "I'm at the hospital. He has just passed away. They are taking him right now. I am sorry." 

And so ends -- or begins -- the most epic story in the history of fantastic cinema. The IMDb credits Franco with directing 199 features and the list is surely incomplete, lacking some titles altogether, not to mention variant editions and unreleased titles. Very often, he was also their writer and very often their cameraman, editor, dubber and a member of the cast. No one demonstrably loved making movies more than he.

Of course, Jess has always been the Patron Saint of VIDEO WATCHDOG, the subject of our very first feature article; the way his films invited me in, the way each of his films seemed to open up worlds within worlds, made our obsessive style of coverage possible. I watched two of his films tonight, wanting to be "with" him. I had a feeling this might happen.

Jess was only one month shy of his 83rd birthday, and his final feature -- AL PEREIRA VS. THE ALLIGATOR LADIES, in which his longtime friend and associate Antonio Mayans reprised a role he had played several times -- recently had its first public screening. Of course, Jess's wife and muse Lina Romay (Rosa Maria Almirall Martinez), who became the very essence of his cinema from the time they met in 1973, passed away just over one year ago, on February 15, 2012. 

Go with our blessings, Maestro. And take with you our grateful thanks for all the complex riches you have left behind, which will keep us occupied for so many years to come.

Needless to say, more to follow once I've had a chance to absorb this news.

APRIL FOOL!

On this April Fool's Day, instead of pulling cheap jokes to fool our friends, why not remember the role played by the Fool in the Tarot deck? 

There -- as in this example from the famous Rider-Waite deck -- the Fool is depicted as a vagabond, a fanciful adventurer, less brave than innocently unaware; he seems to know nothing of the world, yet he's out there meeting it head-first, taking risks, ready to step off a precipice as if onto an invisible stairway to Heaven, as the little dog of rational thought yaps and nips at his ankles.

I'd like to reclaim this day for the heroic principle of the Fool, so that it's less an opportunity to mock others than to throw off our shackles of routine and do something foolish ourselves; something that might take us a bit outside our usual comfort zone toward something, anything, that we might look back on in days and years to come as something so unlike us and so worth our time.

Free Look: VIDEO WATCHDOG 173

Boring Saturday? 

Do you know you COULD be kicking back with an advance read of VIDEO WATCHDOG 173, which isn't even in the hands of our subscribers yet?

It's only available for a limited time (a few days), and available exclusively to those folks who have signed up for our eSpecials List. Mind you, there is NO obligation to buy ANYTHING. Signing up just lets us know that you would be interested in receiving announcements of spur-of-the-moment sales, specials and opportunities just like this one!

You can sign up here.

First Look: VIDEO WATCHDOG 173

Click here for the full contents of this exciting new issue, which is shipping soon to our subscribers and retailers, and for the customary four-page free sample!

The Power of THE FURY

Gosh almighty but Twilight Time's THE FURY Blu-ray ($29.95, available here) is one delicious disc. The only other time I've seen this movie, I didn't care for it, but this time it had me absolutely in the palm of its hand, with only one climactic stumble. It's so sensuously filmed, so state of the art in its sinuous, layered technique... and then you notice that everyone is using landline phones and typewriters. There is one video game scene that shows a couple of girls playing Pong. That's how state of the art technology was at the time. Pong. How the world has changed since 1978, but movies have not learned conspicuously more than Brian DePalma was putting into practice 35 years ago.

Likewise, I've never been a John Williams fan -- he's just too cloying for me -- but the disc's isolated music track is a crash course in why he is great. This is what I learned tonight: Williams doesn't just score the action; he scores the performance that goes into a hand gesture, he scores the way light rubs up against the actors, the way the images shock our senses; he has the foresight to time a cymbal clash to the exact second when light flashes off the open eyes of Cassavetes' somersaulting severed head. The man is a freaking painter.

Wishes Still Coming True

I've had this lifelong memory of a time when I was about six years old and already consecrated to the goal of seeing every horror movie ever made. I got permission to stay up all night (it was a Friday, not a school night) to see a "melodrama" listed in TV GUIDE called SHE DEVIL (1957) -- something about two doctors creating a monster out of a beautiful woman. By the time Mom and Granny were ready to turn in, I was getting sleepy too, so they set an alarm clock for the time the movie was scheduled to begin, something like 5:45 a.m., and left it with me, along with a pillow, in front of the television, so I could take a nap, wake up, and be right there when the movie was ready to start. Somehow or other, little Timmy didn't quite make it; I turned off the alarm, struggled to stay awake, and ended up missing all but a few glimpses. I was very angry with myself the next day, especially since no stills from this elusive film ever appeared in any of the monster magazines I collected while growing up. That was a very long time ago, and I never had another opportunity to see SHE DEVIL... until tonight. It's coming out soon on DVD and Blu-ray from Olive Films. In RegalScope. Tomorrow I get to review it.

RIP Armando Trovajoli (1917-2013)

Armando Trovajoli, whose long career as a film composer encompassed more than 200 titles, has passed away at the age of 95. His death was announced only today though he died in late February.

He started out professionally as a successful songwriter and jazz pianist, and evolved from a jazz combo to a full jazz orchestra by 1960, during this period accompanying such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. During the great boom in Italian film production of the late '50s and early '60s, he found his skills increasingly in demand by the movie business. Among his most notable accomplishments as a film composer are the scores for such mainstream successes as TWO WOMEN, BOCCACCIO '70, YESTERDAY TODAY AND TOMORROW, MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE, BAMBOLE, THE LIBERTINE, DEADLY SWEET, LONG DAYS OF VENGEANCE, A BULLET FOR ROMMEL, IL COMMISSARIO PEPE, THE PRIEST'S WIFE, THE VALACHI PAPERS, WE ALL LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH, MAN OF THE YEAR, SCENT OF A WOMAN (the original), A SPECIAL DAY, WIFEMISTRESS, BLAZING MAGNUM, LA NUIT DES VERENNES, MACARONI and LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. 

His experience in jazz helped to make him particularly adept at creating atmospheric scores in the genres of horror and fantasy. Among his numerous scores of this kind -- sadly under-represented on CD -- are UNCLE WAS A VAMPIRE, ATOM AGE VAMPIRE, ALONE AGAINST ROME, THE GIANT OF THE METROPOLIS, MOLE MEN AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES, HERCULES CONQUERS ATLANTIS, HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD, WEREWOLF IN A GIRL'S DORMITORY, TOTO VS. MACISTE, THE WORLD OF TOPO GIGIO, SEVEN GOLDEN MEN, PLANETS AROUND US, DR JEKYLL LIKES THEM HOT and FRANKENSTEIN 90.

Trovajoli also excelled at writing Italian popular canzone. Check out his work for Paul Anka, Jimmy Fontana, and this splendid medley of his work performed by Mina. Trovajoli continued to serve as a piano accompanist to Mina and also Johnny Dorrelli throughout the 1970s. His most famous composition in his own country is "Roma nun fa' stupida stasere" ("Rome, Don't Be Stupid Tonight"), made famous in the 1960s by opera great Gino Bechi working in a more popular form, which has since come to be regarded by many Italians as the great city's unofficial theme song.

It's That Time Again!

Time to vote for the 11th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Film Awards!

I'm proud to say that VIDEO WATCHDOG has received 10 nominations in all:
Best Magazine;
Best Cover (Charlie Largent's MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE cover for VW 166);
three Best Article nominations:
Robert Guffey's "Charles Darwin and the Suppressed Science of Dr. Mirakle" (VW 166)
Paul Talbot's "The Unmaking of EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC" (VW 171),
and my DRACULA/FRANKENSTEIN Blu-ray coverage in VW 171; 
a Best Interview nomination for "Say Laví," my Daliah Laví interview in VW 170;
two Best Magazine Horror Column nominations:
Douglas E. Winter's "Audio Watchdog" and
Ramsey Campbell's "Ramsey's Rambles" respectively;
Best Themed Issue for our DARK SHADOWS round table (VW 169);
and one for Best Blog (my Pause. Rewind.Obsess., which you can read right here on the VW website)!

Furthermore, I'm honored to also be nominated for Best Audio Commentary (Mario Bava's HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON)!

Mind you, there are also "write-in" categories, such as Best Writer, Best Reviewer and so forth, so feel free to write our or my other efforts should you feel they are worthy.

This link will take you right to the ballot.

First Franco

Fun stuff from J.L. Romero Marchent's pioneering paella western EL COYOTE (1954): Jesús Franco's very first screen credits as screenwriter and assistant director, followed by his second screen credit as songwriter (following COMICOS, 1953) and, best of all, what is likely his first-ever screen appearance. He is shown reading a decree of statehood as the American flag is raised in 1848 California.

Add One More To The Franco Roster

Tonight, to my wonderment, I stumbled across what seems to be an otherwise forgotten Jess Franco screen credit. After watching an old VHS tape tonight, I discovered that the remainder of the tape contained the first 45-50 minutes or so of Marcel Ophuls' HAGAN JUEGO, SENORAS (1965; US: FIRE AT WILL), an Eddie Constantine thriller produced by Henri Baum, who also produced THE DIABOLICAL DR Z around this time. Jesús Franco is given an entire screen credit all to himself for writing the story and Spanish dialogues.

I remember Franco saying in an interview that he had been responsible for dubbing a number of Eddie Constantine films into Spanish in the 1950s, but this came much later, and it has generally been assumed that Franco stopped accepting work-for-hire jobs like this by this point in his directorial career. I don't recall seeing this film appear in any of his filmographies, not in books and certainly not on the IMDb. Now I wish I had the full feature! In fact, I do have the French version of this film in its entirety, but of course its credits make no mention of Franco. It would seem accurate, though, to credit him with writing the story (generally credited to Jacques Robert), as it's supposed to feature an all-girl gang led by a gypsy named Soledad! Franco had previously cast Soledad Miranda in her film debut LA REINA DEL TABARIN (1960) and, by this time, he may have taken notice that she was starting to play more prominent roles in films.

Get The Picture?

Seeing this simple but well-composed image from Hammer's LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (1971, which also appeared on the cover of its novelization) earlier today reminded me of a time when every new still to surface from an upcoming horror movie seemed to extend the genre's vocabulary. A new still of Christopher Lee as Dracula, or Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein added on to what was previously known about that series of films. I firmly believe this was one of the secrets of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND's success, and partly why it's so hard for similar magazines of today to equal the power of its zeitgeist. It could be something as simple as a new face screaming, a new slapdash makeup for Frankenstein's monster, a new actor portraying Count Dracula, or an incomprehensible shot from a Mexican monster rally I'd probably never see -- they all conspired to make the genre more vital and fascinating. For me, this sense of perpetually new discovery stopped sometime in the 1980s, but I don't take full responsibility for that. It's not that I lost my love for this stuff, or that horror movies themselves became redundant, but that the Art of the Movie Still itself began to suffer. Most collectors will tell you that lobby card sets from the 1980s are crap. It should be remembered by all filmmakers, active or aspiring, that the best way to generate some genuine excitement about your feature is to take some great still photos while you're in production. If a picture can be worth a thousand words, why can't it sell a thousand tickets?

Loving the Vampire

I watched Jess Franco's FEMALE VAMPIRE (1973) tonight via Netflix on my Kindle Fire HD. It turned out to be an unexpectedly wonderful way of watching it, making it a more intimate and book-like experience. It may be the first time I've seen it in French with subtitles, and the soundtrack is alive from beginning to end with the sounds of nature and people; there is a scene where Jack Taylor follows Lina Romay to a public place scattered with empty chairs though we hear a crowd of children and grown-ups milling about, talking and laughing -- but, you see, he only has eyes for her. This is remarkable stuff and something I've never gotten from the English dub.

FEMALE VAMPIRE, aka THE LOVES OF IRINA aka EROTIKILL, is basically the story of four lonely sexual encounters ending in death; it depicts the grief of solitude in the lives of three of its victims before dispatching them, and we are given glimpses in the aftermath assuring us these lost souls are no longer alone. There's very little script, so it unfolds remarkably slowly for a film whose cult only came about in the age of the short attention span. "Elegiac pacing," they call it.

But what is very obvious to me about the film now, seeing it again and knowing when in their story it was filmed chronologically, is that it's the marriage contract between Jess and Lina. This was Lina's first starring role. She knew that Jess was mourning Soledad Miranda, who had portrayed a premonition of this character in VAMPYROS LESBOS, made the same year (1970) she died in an automobile accident at the age of 27. And she literally gives him Soledad and more. She is not only declaring her love but demonstrating it, serving up all she has to give to his eye and camera. And he worships her in return, which is all she asks in order to give him everything. Which is, in effect, a vision of the remainder of his career. The film begins with them meeting, when he is only a camera; she steps out of the misty woods and he gives her a good look up and down, like one forest creature meeting another. She butts him away so the story can be told, and it only ends when the two characters they play, his (a forensic surgeon) searching for hers ("the mouth that kills") for most of the running time, finally meet on the same plane, in the the same room.

And Jess lives.

FEMALE VAMPIRE is also available on Blu-ray and DVD from Redemption Video.

Thoughts on HITCHCOCK

I found HITCHCOCK kind of fascinating. Never mind the Ed Gein interweavings, which are preposterous, and the extramarital teasings, which at the very least are chronologically misplaced. Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren seem miscast, but they are better actors than their counterparts in THE GIRL and they succeed completely in inhabiting and telling the story of their script, with depth and nuance and power; in the process, they take this tissue of fact-based fabrications and say something true and honest about Hitch and Alma -- not true to the moment of their lives, perhaps, but to its sum. I thought Scarlett Johansson was perfection as Janet Leigh (requiring much more subtlety than I knew she had), and James D'Arcy also a believable Anthony Perkins. The scene of Hitch listening to the first audience's reaction to the shower murder made me wince with emotion.

Tippi and Alfie

The HBO Hitchcock movie THE GIRL (2012) held my interest, not least of all because its casting seems in better focus than the major studio HITCHCOCK, but it's still thin broth. And puzzling: there is so much there that I've never read about in Hitchcock bios, and so much in the bios that wasn't dramatized, I was left questioning scenes as much for what they had to offer as for why such outright invention was considered necessary. When the MARNIE honeymoon rape scene was depicted to suggest that Tippi Hedren actually stood nude on set in front of Hitchcock, and that he included the scene specifically to arrange this, I finally knew enough to call "Fowl' (no pun intended, really). The BIRDS attack scene was nicely restaged, but the opportunity to say something useful about these people, or even about sexual harrassment, was spoiled by the decision to eliminate any glimpses of Hitchcock's humor and make the whole thing a one-sided, one-note tissue of suffering.

From the VW Archives: Boris and Bela

Here's something from the archives I thought might interest you.

While going through a portfolio of some old artwork recently, Donna found this drawing that I did back in 1990. It was done at the dawn of VIDEO WATCHDOG time, at the tail end of the same time I drew several pieces for our very first issue, for the simple reason that we weren't able to illustrate everything. This piece was going to accompany my review of Greg Mank's book on Karloff and Lugosi, and depicts them in their respective roles as Hjalmar Poelzig in THE BLACK CAT (1934) and Ygor in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939), because I intended to note in my review the coincidence of their success during the 1930s with the foreignness of their respective personas. I remembered this piece as almost photo-realistic in its perfection, but now, more than twenty years later, it looks a good deal less accomplished and I'm glad it didn't see the light of print.

That said, I'm happy to share it with WATCHDOG readers here, now, as a page you didn't see.

New Books: The Two Wallaces

Today I received from Amazon my copy of this deluxe coffee table book documenting the amazing career of comics artist Wallace "Wally" Wood. Just a page-through summons so much emotion. I've always been a Ditko guy, but Wood really grabbed me this past year as I rediscovered his astonishingly lifelike, detailed work for early MAD and some of his later adult work like CANNON and THE PIPSQUEAK PAPERS (which I find touchingly funny, tenderly erotic and, I suspect, painfully autobiographical).The text is bilingual (English/Spanish) and the art reproductions are ideal. One big surprise that leaped out at me: on the basis of some daily strips reproduced from "Sky Raiders," Jack Kirby inked by Wood can be indistinguishable from Jim Steranko.

Also new, but available only as a super-pricey import, is this hefty hardbound photo album documenting the 32 Edgar Wallace krimi-films produced by Rialto Film of West Germany during the 1960s and '70s. Co-written by leading Wallace-krimi scholar Joachim Kramp (who tragically died in 2011, before this last dream project was fully realized) and Gerd Naumann, this thing must weigh as much as the Bava book, and in addition to a standard edition being made available to Amazon and similar outlets, it has been produced in four limited editions of 500 each sold exclusively by the publisher, Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf -- personally signed by the buyer's choice of actors Karin Dor, Karin Baal or Uschi Glas, or composer Peter Thomas. I was lucky enough to snag #413 of the Karin Dor set. The fact that this book is essentially a collection of all the photos taken on the sets of these films (including never-before-seen color shots from THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG and THE TERRIBLE PEOPLE) makes the purchase doubly attractive to English-speaking fans; the English text is introductory and minimal, though one-page interviews with Dor, Baal and actor Joachim Fuchsberger are also included. My favorite images in the book show actor Klaus Kinski's happy demeanor on various sets (contrary to his mentions of the films in his autobiography), various gag shots (including one of the Monk with the Whip being instructed in how to snap his lethal weapon by someone in elaborate cowboy dress), and visionary director Alfred Vohrer at work with his assistant Eva Ebner. I have a few quibbles with the end product: in my opinion, whoever was responsible for the layout didn't always pick the best shots to reproduce at full-page size; also, the book's weight and proportions make it a bit unwieldy. A taller book would have been more balanced and easier to peruse. Also, I'm uncertain of how well the book's binding is going to hold up over time, and I was a little annoyed that my copy arrived with its back cover slightly crinkled. Nevertheless, as an artifact, it's damn near irresistible.

According to the S&S website, the book is not being sold outside Europe, but the publisher (who does speak English) agreed to send mine for an additional postage charge of about $65.