A Better Beginning: Reprinting VIDEO WATCHDOG #1

Publisher/art director Donna Lucas restoring the images accompanying a discussion of HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN in VW's first issue.

While VIDEO WATCHDOG magazine has been marking its 20th anniversary, VW publisher Donna Lucas has been quietly engaged in one of the greatest restoration projects in the magazine's decades-long history. No, it's not the ultimate exposé of how CATACLYSM became part of THE NIGHTMARE NEVER ENDS, nor is it a meticulous comparison of five different versions of Jess Franco's LA COMTESSE PERVERSE... it's Donna's own painstaking digital recreation of VIDEO WATCHDOG #1.

When we decided to reprint our premiere issue, Donna's first idea was to scan the contents of a surviving copy and turn it over to our printer. Simple, right? However, the realities proved more complex. First of all, the original paste-up boards used to create the issue -- with PMT (photo mechanical transfer) illustrations affixed with spray adhesive to windows cut into each laserjet-printed page -- were long missing. Secondly, the original print job was so clumsily executed that a straightforward scan yielded typographic results that were somewhere south of acceptable. Fortunately, a thorough search of the attic at Chez Watchdog yielded a box of considerable value, containing not only the original layout boards but also most of the original illustrations and drawings that Donna used to create this landmark issue back in 1990.

Original artwork by Stephen R. Bissette and yours truly awaits its chance to be rescanned.

The discovery of the original artwork, as well as some photographic material, proved to be a real godsend to this undertaking, as the scanning of the PMT images, whether from a printed copy or from the original PMT's, tended to throw up some nasty moiré patterns. However, by meticulously rescanning each layout page in high definition from the original sheets, and inserting completely fresh digital scans of the issue's stills and original art from the original materials whenever possible, Donna has ensured that the 20th Anniversary edition of VIDEO WATCHDOG #1 will be much more than just a reprint.

"If you were to ask me what percentage of the pictures are now in better quality, I'd have to say 100% of them!" Donna explains. "Even when I didn't have access to the originals, I removed specks and dots and flaws from what I had to work with. Some pictures that were badly cropped in the original, like the center spread from SUCCUBUS, will be seen in this new printing as they were meant to look the first time. Likewise, some pictures that were too dark in the original issue, like some of the shots from CUT AND RUN, have been brightened, so you can now see the actors' expressions and can tell what's going on in them. We are also printing this new edition on paper that's consistent with the way VIDEO WATCHDOG is printed now, so it will be light and flexible in ways the original wasn't."

The text in the issue has not been changed. The only variation that has been made to the issue in terms of content is its back cover. Whereas the original edition showed an image from the Jess Franco film THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF, the reprint edition offers a scan of the same back cover image taken from Donna's and my own personal copy, inscribed to us in gold by Franco and his wife and longtime associate Lina Romay.

"I've always felt that our first issue stood apart from every other issue we did, in terms of quality control -- or the lack of it," Donna says. "When our readers receive this new, improved version of #1, I think they're going to feel like their collection is complete for the first time!"

Orders for the 20th Anniversary edition of VIDEO WATCHDOG #1 (at the printer) are now being accepted here and at our toll-free number, 1-800-275-8395.

FIRST LOOK: VIDEO WATCHDOG #157

Donna is just now putting the final touches on the inside covers, but the front cover -- an image of Romy Schneider from HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT'S INFERNO made still more scintillating by Charlie Largent -- is ready for unveiling!

You may note that this is indeed our 20th anniversary issue and, for the first time in those 20 years, my name is on the cover. Other contributors like Kim Newman and Steve Bissette have had this honor, but this is a first for me, in this country anyway. For those of you who have been clamoring for me to write more for VW, I actually wrote more than half of this issue -- the Franco essay alone is our longest single-piece feature article ever, practically novella-length at 34 pages (advertising free, of course), plus there's three-page "Watchdog Barks" editorial and I also reviewed some films, including CLOUZOT'S INFERNO. So no one can say I didn't give this anniversary issue my best shot.

Also in this issue, David J. Schow performs a post mortem on FEATURES FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, a book that McFarland and Company withdrew from sale slightly more than a month after its publication date. It's our longest book review ever! Plus Kim Newman on SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, John Charles on some Paul Naschy rarities, and much more. For more details, visit out Coming Soon pages here.

Press Release: It's Official

DIRECTOR IRENE MIRACLE AND AUTHOR/PUBLISHER TIM LUCAS OF VIDEO WATCHDOG TO COLLABORATE WITH THE FACTORY DIGITAL FILMMAKING PROGRAM AT DOUGLAS EDUCATION CENTER

'The Baggage Claim' Will Begin Filming in Late July 2010 at Douglas Education Center

MONESSEN, PA., May 17, 2010 – On any ordinary day, walking into the The FACTORY Digital Filmmaking Program complex at Douglas Education Center (DEC) would be both exciting and imaginative - as students learn the building blocks to develop a positive career in filmmaking. These days the ambiance is absolutely electrifying as students and teachers gear up for this summer’s “The Final Product” production.

Golden Globe-winner Irene Miracle (director of DAWNLAND: CHANGELING as well as an actress noted for such films as MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, Dario Argento’s INFERNO and PUPPET MASTER) and students from The FACTORY Digital Filmmaking Program at DEC will team up to produce THE BAGGAGE CLAIM in late July 2010. The film is based on a screenplay by Tim Lucas, Saturn Award-winning writer/publisher of VIDEO WATCHDOG magazine, and the cult fiction favorites THROAT SPROCKETS, THE BOOK OF RENFIELD, and the epic biography MARIO BAVA – ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK. THE BAGGAGE CLAIM will be produced under the auspices of The Final Product - the last course students enrolled in The FACTORY Digital Filmmaking Program at DEC will take prior to graduation. “The Final Product exemplifies the Factory’s philosophy of immersing students in a real world production situation by teaming them with working filmmakers on viable projects,” said FACTORY director Robert Tinnell. Previous productions have been directed by Tom Savini, whose make-up effects school is part of Douglas Education Center, as well as by Tinnell, an industry veteran whose directing credits include FRANKENSTEIN AND ME and whose screenplay for THE LIVING AND THE DEAD will be directed by Brad Anderson in the coming year.

Irene Miracle is eager to begin collaboration with DEC. “What delights me about Robert Tinnell and The FACTORY Digital Filmmaking Program at Douglas Education Center is the feeling of being surrounded by an incredible number of like-minded poetic creators, and that together we’re all aiming for the stars. That may explain why this little film we are planning will be so crowded with people, quick scene changes, and a heart beat that takes the world into a quick dance.”

Screenwriter Tim Lucas notes, “I sat down and wrote THE BAGGAGE CLAIM in a single sitting, in longhand, hardly changing a word as I typed it up. Irene loved it, and when Robert Tinnell came aboard and we saw what was possible with his resources at DEC, we revised it together with an eye to those possibilities. It was one of the happiest writing experiences I’ve ever had.”

Lucas goes on to say, “In some ways, THE BAGGAGE CLAIM is an opportunity for a group of artists experienced in horror to speak more warmly to our audience by sharing what we’ve learned about life and relationships by this point in our lives, while telling a story in an unmistakably fantastic vein.”

DEC students enrolled in The FACTORY Digital Filmmaking Program will have a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in a variety of positions during the creation of the digital production of THE BAGGAGE CLAIM. All aspects of filmmaking will be put to use while students work hand-in-hand with film industry professionals. Education and experience will be used in the field in a green screen environment.

“My students and I are thrilled to be working alongside this wonderful group of film professionals,” said Robert Tinnell. “There is a tremendous need for students to have practical, hands-on film-making experience prior to graduating into the real world of professional filmmaking, and I am very pleased that DEC is creating an atmosphere where creativity and learning are one in the same in achieving that aim.”

For more information, call 412-684-3684 or visit www.dec.edu.

Here's a link to the actual press release.

Joseph W. Sarno 1921-2010

Joe Sarno and his wife/assistant Peggy Steffans Sarno, photographed in 2002.

Michael Raso of RetroSeduction Cinema has contacted me with the sad news that writer-director Joseph W. Sarno passed away this evening at his home in Manhattan after a short illness. He was 89.

Sarno toiled in the sexploitation industry, but I dislike referring to him as a sexploitation or even an exploitation director, though his films were certainly sold this way. In films like SIN YOU SINNERS (1963), SIN IN THE SUBURBS (1964), RED ROSES OF PASSION (1966), CONFESSIONS OF A YOUNG AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE (1974) and ABIGAIL LESLIE IS BACK IN TOWN (1975), he introduced to American "dirty movies" new and serious dimensions of human psychology and a profound sensitivity to female sexuality in particular. He may well have been the erotic cinema's first proponent of sexual experimentation, which he explored not salaciously but as an exposé of human relationships, yearnings and frailties. His films deal with infidelity, group sex, paganism, sexual accessories, encounter group therapy and, most recurrently, "mind-fuck" situations -- the kind that come about when a free spirit visits a conservative village and liberates its pent-up energies. (I once asked Joe if Pasolini's TEOREMA had been an influence, and he not only hadn't seen it, he'd never heard of it.) Above all, his films are about how people change other people.

Most of his work was shot in the state of New York, with the exception of a trilogy of Florida works made in 1968-69, though he sent his biggest shock waves through the genre with the 1968 release INGA, which introduced Marie Liljedahl and commenced a whole series of films shot in Sweden, where he and his assistant wife Peggy (who, as Peggy Steffans, had starred in the 1963 Adolphus Mekas film HALLELUJAH THE HILLS) "vacationed" every summer.

INGA was historic for filming what may well be the first authentic female orgasm ever shot, and Sarno's insistence on authenticity was one of the secrets of his success. He once told me that, in several of his softcore films, the actors had actual sex below frame to authenticate the passion in their lovemaking scenes -- and it can be felt. (As I think back over his work, for me, the most erotic moment may be a pointed glance between two lesbians who haven't yet connected in THE YOUNG EROTIC FANNY HILL, a moment that makes an otherwise subpar offering rewarding viewing.) Among his Swedish films are THE INDELICATE BALANCE (1969), DADDY, DARLING (1970), THE SEDUCTION OF INGA (1971), YOUNG PLAYTHINGS (1972, with Christina Lindberg), LAURA'S TOYS (1975) and BUTTERFLIES (1975, with Maria Forsa), all of which offer production values wholly on par with the work Ingmar Bergman was producing at the same time.

Aspects of fantasy and horror entered Sarno's work with VEIL OF BLOOD (1973), the LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS-like A TOUCH OF GENIE (1974), the Jekyll/Hyde spoof THE SWITCH, OR HOW TO ALTER YOUR EGO (1974) and SACRILEGE (1988). Beginning in the early 1970s, Sarno also very quietly began directing hardcore sex films under a series of aliases, but they all contained telltale thematic ties to the work of which he was most proud. Notable titles in this grouping include THE TROUBLE WITH YOUNG STUFF (1977) and the INSIDE films devoted to sex-stars Gloria Leonard, Jennifer Welles, Annie Sprinkle and Seka.

I first discovered Sarno's work at the drive-in during the 1970s, and I knew it was different and important then. Andrew Sarris recognized Sarno's value nearly a decade earlier, praising it in the pages of THE VILLAGE VOICE. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to champion his work to a new generation of fans in the VHS and DVD era, and even more grateful that I had the pleasure of speaking with him occasionally by telephone. This is a great loss for real adult cinema and, for me, a personal loss.

"Mata Hari's Filing Her Report..."

Anyone who knows and loves Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA will readily smile at the way those words sounded as they were spoken in the film by the catty, young ballet student Olga, played by Barbara Magnolfi... but in fact they weren't spoken by Magnolfi at all. This, and Olga's other great line ("Names that begin with S are the names of... SNAKES!"), were actually dubbed by the American actress Carolynn de Fonseca, whose eternally breathy, warm, girlish and schmoozy voice was a hallmark of Italian film dubbing for close to five decades.

It's my sad duty to report -- from her husband Ted Rusoff (the nephew of Samuel Z. Arkoff and a dubbing actor/director/legend in his own right) via VW associate editor John Charles -- that Carolynn de Fonseca passed away about six months ago. According to Rusoff, they worked together on "approximately 1200 dubbing projects over the course of 45 years."

For those of us who adore the Italian cinema and were raised on its dubbed imports, who mentally drew lines of continuity in accordance with the invisible family of voices they shared, this news is tantamount to learning that Vincent Price's wife in THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1963), Nevenka in THE WHIP AND THE BODY (1963), Cleo in TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE (1965), Aura in THE WITCH IN LOVE (1966), the eponymous narrator of THE WILD WORLD OF JAYNE MANSFIELD (1968), Edwige Fenech's ditzy best friend in BLADE OF THE RIPPER (1971), the nymphomaniac in SLAUGHTER HOTEL (1971), Maciara in DON'T TORTURE THE DUCKLING (1972), Gianna Brezzi in DEEP RED (1975), Anita Ekberg's KILLER NUN (1978), the Roman landlady in INFERNO (1980), the woman in love with the refrigerated severed head in MACABRO (1980), the mother with the breast-fixated zombie son in BURIAL GROUND (1981) and the tragic Frau Bruckner in PHENOMENA (1985, "These are the things that can happen in the life of a woman!") have all left us in one fell swoop.

A remarkable compilation of some of her dubbing credits can be found on her Wikipedia page here, and on her IMDb page here. She also made various onscreen appearances which are noted in these filmographies.

We send our sincere sympathies to Mr. Rusoff and our eternal gratitude to Carolynn de Fonseca for a lifetime of mostly invisible, yet highly distinctive, service.

"Her Mind Was the Most Erotic and Dangerous Part of Her Body."

Mimsy Farmer seduces Robert Walker, Jr., posing as her long lost brother, in ROAD TO SALINA.

... so read the US posters for Georges Lautner's largely forgotten ROAD TO SALINA (1970), which lingers, if at all, in the popular memory as an embarrassment made by an aging Rita Hayworth shortly before her retirement from the screen. I watched it tonight, for the first time uncut, and can't figure out why it has acquired such a low reputation.

It still awaits its DVD debut, so you can only see it via an old Charter Entertainment VHS or DVD-R, where it's badly cropped and less than smoothly dubbed, so that works against it... and yes, at 52, Rita Hayworth is no longer GILDA, but that's not the movie we're watching. Rita's actually fine, playing a delusional woman in middle age, sick with loneliness, who mistakes a young drifter for her son, missing for the past four years; Robert Walker Jr. (the son of one of Hitchcock's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, fresh from his near catatonic appearance in the commune sequence of EASY RIDER) is very watchable as the boyish, spaced-out protagonist with Clint Eastwood's DIRTY HARRY haircut, who decides to take a break from his bad luck and be mothered for awhile... but he soon gets sistered too. Mimsy Farmer is electrifying as the sexy, teeth-baring, peroxide pixie whose free and faux-incestuous ways tempt Walker to stick around for awhile in a "hot box" in the middle of nowhere.

I would argue that ROAD TO SALINA is exactly what a Seventies film noir properly was and should have been: the depiction of a steamy Venus Fly Trap that you or I might easily wander into, and not be too quick to extract ourselves from -- not another second-hand gumshoe story set in a Hollywood B-movie version of the 1940s.

8th Annual Rondo Awards Results

BEST FILM OF 2009 -- DISTRICT 9
BEST TV PRESENTATION -- "DOCTOR WHO": 'The End of Time'
BEST CLASSIC DVD OF 2009 -- AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON: FULL MOON EDITION
BEST CLASSIC DVD COLLECTION -- THE WILLIAM CASTLE COLLECTION
BEST TV COLLECTION -- "ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS" (S4)
BEST RESTORATION -- FAUST (1926)
BEST DVD EXTRA -- "Beware the Moon" documentary
BEST DVD COMMENTARY -- Fred Dekker: NIGHT OF THE CREEPS
BEST DOCUMENTARY -- AMERICAN SCARY
BEST BOOK -- BELA LUGOSI AND BORIS KARLOFF: The Expanded Story of a Haunting Collaboration by Gregory William Mank
BEST MAGAZINE -- RUE MORGUE
BEST ARTICLE -- "Bad Moon Rising" by Jovanka Vuckovic
BEST COVER OF 2009 -- MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #26
BEST WEBSITE -- Dread Central
BEST HORROR BLOG -- The Drunken Severed Head
BEST CONVENTION OF 2009 -- MONSTER BASH (Pittsburgh)
BEST FAN EVENT -- TRIBUTE TO FORREST J ACKERMAN
FAVORITE HORROR HOST -- Count Gore De Vol
BEST HORROR PODCAST -- RUE MORGUE RADIO
BEST CD -- STAR TREK II: WRATH OF KHAN
BEST HORROR COMIC BOOK -- BATMAN: GOTHAM AFTER MIDNIGHT
BEST TOY, MODEL OR COLLECTIBLE -- Twilight Zone's "Talking Tina"
COUNT ALUCARD'S CONTROVERSY OF THE YEAR -- "No, but I can burn one for you." Studios offer some classics on DVD-Rs only.
CLASSIC MOST IN NEED OF DVD RELEASE OR RESTORATION -- ISLAND OF LOST SOULS
WRITER OF THE YEAR -- GREGORY WILLIAM MANK
ARTIST OF THE YEAR -- GARY PULLIN
FAN ARTIST OF THE YEAR -- ROBERT SCOTT
DVD REVIEWER OF THE YEAR -- KIM NEWMAN
MONSTER KID OF THE YEAR -- ELIOT BRODSKY of Monsterpalooza
THE MONSTER KID HALL OF FAME -- The six latest inductees are: Bill Lemon, Ray Meyers, Dennis Druktenis, Robert "Bob" Carter, Frederick S. Clarke and Bill Warren.

Rondo Voting Ends at Midnight Tonight

Hey, everyone! Today is the last day for voting in the 8th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, so get right over to the Rondo website and cast your ballot! Vote for whomever and whatever you like; the important thing is to participate -- but naturally Donna, the Kennel and I would appreciate your votes for VIDEO WATCHDOG and its contributors wherever appropriate.

This blog has been extremely intermittent of late, so I would not feel right about accepting the Best Blog Award. I encourage followers of this blog to consider Pierre Fournier's Frankensteinia blog instead; it is in the truest spirit of these awards and got my vote.

I would also particularly like to remind you of the INFERNO screening at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, nominated as Best Fan Event. It was a great evening, we had an audience that snaked around the block, and a terrific 30m Q&A with Irene Miracle and Keith Emerson. I'd love for them both to have Rondos of their own!

Full contents details about our next issue, VIDEO WATCHDOG 156, including free reading samples, are now posted under Coming Soon on our website, or you can find yourself magically transported there by clicking here.

First Look: VIDEO WATCHDOG #156

Cover just completed -- isn't that a beauty? We will be posting full contents details and free samples on the website's Coming Soon page in the days ahead!

Frankensteinia, Edisonia, Fournieria, Rondomania!

Over at his Frankensteinia blog today, Pierre Fournier observes the centenary of the the Thomas Edison Company's FRANKENSTEIN (1910), featuring Charles Ogle as the Creature. On a more poignant note, this means, in a broader sense, that the Frankenstein movie, as a subgenre, turns 100 today. The mystery critic known as Arbogast on Film has selflessly spearheaded a movement to encourage voters to elect Frankensteinia as Best Blog of the Year in the current Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards competition -- and, as much as I think Mr. Arbogast is similarly deserving, I think Pierre's blog cuts more to the quick of Classic Horror, not to mention Monster Kiddom. You could do worse than to vote Pierre Fournier Monster Kid of the Year.

Rondo voting ends in less than two weeks! Visit the Rondo Awards website soon to cast your ballot! And please remember VIDEO WATCHDOG (and Best Fan Event nominee INFERNO Midnight screening) as you make your selections!

Farewell to Carol Marsh

I just learned from the Classic Horror Film Boards that CAROL MARSH, the British actress best remembered as Lucy in Hammer's DRACULA (HORROR OF DRACULA, 1958), has passed away at the age of 80. Marsh, who made a wonderful Alice in the 1949 version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, ironically passed away on March 6, the day after the release of Tim Burton's new version. As memorable as she was in both films, my favorite of her roles may well be her first, as the strangely feral innocent enamored of Richard Attenborough's kid gangster Pinky in BRIGHTON ROCK (1947, pictured).

Image from PRIX DE BEAUTÉ (1930)

There are many striking images of Louise Brooks in this movie -- happy, serious and tragic -- but I found the simple yet profound introspection of this one particularly striking. This movie was made on the cusp on sound (a silent version also exists), and it may be the movies' earliest attempt to depict the private relationship between an individual and their music. (The film could actually be described as a chronicle of the ironic role played by a favorite song in a woman's short life.) I was very moved by this camera composition, shot by the great Rudolph Maté, and by the actress's willingness to be this naturalistic and intimate with the camera when most other women in her profession were still striking melodramatic poses. This shot actually reminds me of certain similar moments involving Soledad Miranda in EUGENIE DE SADE and Thora Birch in GHOST WORLD. A full review is forthcoming in VIDEO WATCHDOG #156; available on Kino on Video, $29.95.

Get Rondo-ized!

"Don't hurt that Rondo, Rondo!" VW publisher Donna Lucas takes a protective stance outside the auditorium where the 6th Annual Rondo Awards were held at WonderFest in 2008.

In an effort to spread awareness of VIDEO WATCHDOG's various nominations for the the 8th Annual Rondo Awards, Donna and I (with the approval of our writers) have decided to make available -- for a limited time -- the complete texts of the four nominees for this year's Best Magazine Article award.

Stephen R. Bissette's "Let the Twilight In", an in-depth study of TWILIGHT and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, can be read here.

Eric Somer's "Down the Block from Bergman: THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and Beyond," an examination of the influence of Ingmar Bergman's THE VIRGIN SPRING on Wes Craven's THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, the recent remake, and other horror films, can be read here.

Kim Newman's "DVD Spotlight: MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION, a detailed history of the 1966-70 British TV terror anthology, can be read here.

And Shaun Brady's "Weird Scenes Inside the Fun House: The Making of MALATESTA'S CARNIVAL OF BLOOD," a production history of the 1972 Pittsburgh-made surrealist horror film, can be read here.

And here is a link to a special Rondo link page now added to our website, which also features direct links to a five-part HD video of my Q&A with INFERNO star Irene Miracle and composer Keith Emerson, which has been nominated for Best Fan Event.

Also, please don't forget to consider any of our many hard-working contributors for your vote in the Best Writer and Best DVD Reviewer categories, and remember that both our cover artist Charlie Largent and our art director Donna Lucas (whose layouts make VW's feature articles soar) are eligible in the Best Artist category.

Rondo Awards: 7 VIDEO WATCHDOG Nominations!

The nominations for the 8th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards were announced this evening, and I'm proud to share the good news that VIDEO WATCHDOG has been nominated for seven awards this year, including Best Magazine. Also, though I've been delinquent in my duties here for most of the year, Video WatchBlog has been nominated once again for Best Blog.

I'm especially proud of VW's showing in the Best Article category, with two first-time feature contributors netting half the nominations. The VW nominees in this category are:

"Down the Block from Bergman: The Last House on the Left and Beyond" by Eric Somer, VIDEO WATCHDOG #151.

"Let the Twilight In" by Stephen R. Bissette, VIDEO WATCHDOG #150.

"Mystery and Imagination" by Kim Newman, VIDEO WATCHDOG #151.

"Weird Scenes Inside the Fun House: The Making of Malatesta's Carnival of Blood" by Shaun Brady, VIDEO WATCHDOG #153.

Also nominated for Best Magazine Cover is Charlie Largent and Donna Lucas's cover for VIDEO WATCHDOG #147. Charlie's name alone appears on the ballot but all of the text and vertical stripe material is added by Donna after Charlie turns the central graphic in.

Though it's not a VW nomination per se, I'm also (even especially) elated to see that the INFERNO midnight screening at LA's New Beverly Cinema last October -- where I hosted a screening of a beautiful 35mm print of Dario Argento's masterpiece and interviewed the film's star Irene Miracle and its composer Keith Emerson before a sold-out audience -- has been nominated for Best Fan Event.

It's not every midnight movie, even in Los Angeles, that draws a crowd that snakes around the block -- and that night, the audience was packed with celebrities like directors Ernest Dickerson, John Gulager and David Gregory, writers F. X. Feeney and Richard Heft, West Coast horror cognoscenti galore, and legendary actor Clu Gulager right there in the front row! You can see the whole Q&A on YouTube by searching for "INFERNO Q&A." It was one of those evenings when magic really was all around all of us who were there, and I am overjoyed to see that magic spreading to the Rondo nominations! Rondos for Keith Emerson and Irene Miracle... how cool would that be?

Congratulations to all the nominees! You can find your Rondo Awards ballot and a full list of nominees here. Now vote!

Larry Blamire Tells Some of All

Larry Blamire. Writer, director. Actor, artist, activist. Lyricist, lore-icist. Husband, healer, skeleton wrangler. Callamo mountaineer, science doer, protector of deer. VIDEO WATCHDOG cover boy. (Yeah! Don't forget that!) Flim-flam man, flip-flop model. A median who has worked his way up from the early, lowly level of comedian. Glib habitué of screening rooms, Bronson Cave and barbecue pits.
But what drives him? What pushes him on to conquer mountain after molehill? Where will it all end, and will there be some goofy gag that we can only see if we sit through the end credits?

The undeflectible interrogators at Bantam Street recently cornered the handsome cotton-haired director of the classic LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA and the soon-to-be-released classics THE LOST SKELETON RETURNS AGAIN and DARK AND STORMY NIGHT and refused to let him out of the hot seat until he had answered every last one of their questions.

Unfortunately they only came up with four and they weren't very good ones, but Larry -- being a professional -- gamely gave them his all. Then his al, and finally his a. If this had been ROLLING STONE, the cover would have read "Blamire Remembers" and the world would have wept.

But enough preambulating. Here's the goods.

Larry comes clean about his favorite classic TV show here.

Larry tells us the latest beans or spills the dope about upcoming Bantam Street projects here.

Larry takes us behind the scenes of his songwriting process here.

And finally, Larry confesses why he's taken to carrying a spoon with him at all times here.

So far, he's taking the Fifth on everything else, but I understand he's being grilled 'round the clock like an olive bread panini, so stay tuned to the Bantam Street website for more thrilling revelations as they are extemporized.

Stacie Ponder Interviews Me

... about blogging, horror and French head cheese on her outstanding blog Final Girl. Click here for the goods.

Greg Shaw and the Roots of Rock Fandom

Three years ago, Suzy Shaw and Mick Farber produced a book called WHO PUT THE BOMP: SAVING THE WORLD ONE RECORD AT A TIME (Ammo Books, 301 pages, $34.95), which collected the cream (or creem) off the top of the late Greg Shaw's seminal rock fanzine WHO PUT THE BOMP (1970-79). To be honest, I still haven't seen that book, so I must imagine its pros and cons from the largely enthusiastic customer reviews at Amazon.com, and some idea of that book is probably necessary to reach a fully accurate assessment of the recently released follow-up volume, BOMP 2: BORN IN THE GARAGE, subtitled "Greg Shaw and the Roots of Rock Fandom 1970-1981," edited by Suzy Shaw and Mike Stax (Bomp & Lit Publishing, 312 pages, $15.95). That said, I found myself completely and utterly absorbed in reading its articles and perusing its discographies, first as a reader and music buff, but foremost as a former fanzine publisher myself.

I don't know how the first BOMP book handled the backstory of the fanzine that, along with Paul Williams' CRAWDADDY!, launched serious rock criticism and inspired the likes of CREEM and ROLLING STONE, but BOMP 2 does a very thorough and self-contained job. The Foreword is by rock reissue producer Alec Palao (you can thank him for the ZOMBIE HEAVEN CD set), which in itself already says something about the fertile impact of WPTB on its readers; he reminisces about his early exposure to photocopies of the zine circulated among friends, which he consulted like "an oracle, where discographies are ancient runes, and the fragments of commentary, pearls of an ancient, knowing wisdom." The introduction by Kinks biographer Jon Savage deals more specifically with WPTB as a product of Greg Shaw (1949-2004), and as a product of its time, a time that also saw the issue of such classics of rock archaeology as the NUGGETS compilation, an album that might have been unthinkable without the audience Shaw had organized. In just a few pages, Savage covers a lot of frontal ground and also subtle subtext, such as how Shaw's enthusiasm was dissipated over time by the fluctuations of what was happening in music in the present tense, as a business and as a mutating beast of the music he loved. Then there's Mike Stax's amazing 12-page overview of Shaw's entire publishing history, including WPTB, the APA zines METANOIA, LIQUID LOVE and ALLIGATOR WINE, and the newsstand-circulated BOMP (including its unpublished 22nd issue).

Ken Barnes follows this with a detailed history of his own long involvement with Shaw and his creation, and other key personalities behind the scenes, capturing perfectly the feel of a time when records were a rare addiction and knowledge of bands like The Velvet Underground or The Seeds was like a secret handshake among a cognoscenti only able to identify itself being cultivated by rallying points like WPTB -- an audience largely recruited from the subcultures of comics and science fiction fanzines. Much of what Barnes writes about Shaw strongly resonated with my own memories of meeting and working with Frederick S. Clarke of CINEFANTASTIQUE, which was in its own way a cinema analogue to what Shaw was doing for rock. Artist William Stout (who also provides a magnificent cover) writes about Shaw's tenebrous involvement in his past life as the artist for some classic bootleg album covers, such as TALES FROM THE WHO. And then Greg's widow, Suzy Shaw, offers her own compelling, frank memoir of Greg and what has happened with the Bomp empire (which went on to include its own record label) since his death. All this accounts for only the first 40 pages of the book, which amply rewards your $16 investment (cheap)!

What constitutes the bulk of the book are scanned pages from WPTB's ten-year history, focusing on material germaine to what Shaw considered the bread and butter of his musical ethos: garage rock: The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Seeds, The Flaming Groovies, The Shangri-Las, The Cryan Shames and Dave Edmunds -- but also curiosities like Shindig, producer Jack Nietsche (Ken Barnes delivers the definitive study of this guy), Dutch rock and Beatles novelties. There's a LOT of information here, perhaps not ideally organized for quick retrieval, but the book certainly projects a world you can get lost in.

As a former fanzine publisher myself, and as someone who used to swap my rags for a great many sf zines, I was especially moved by what this book recaptures of that subculture in terms of its fannish mindset and cartoons (many of them by William Rotsler, who I didn't realize at the time was the director of MANTIS IN LACE, THE GIRL WITH THE HUNGRY EYES and many other genre-tinged sexploitation flicks) -- some of which my experienced eye recognized as having been traced onto mimeograph stencils! That said, for many readers, the most compelling aspect of this retrospective may well be its collection of Shaw's editorials (which chart the growth of his brainchild as well as the scene it helped spawn, and the friction between his quixotic musical sensibilities and what was happening in music at the time) and -- something evidently omitted from the first volume -- samplings from WPTB's legendary letters pages, which includes correspondence from such luminaries (and later luminaries) as John Peel, Lester Bangs, Lenny Kaye, Greil Marcus, Kim Fowley, Richard Meltzer, Ed Ward and Jay Kinney. (Might that letter from Tom Miller on page 160 actually have been written by the future Tom Verlaine?)

Any book that brings back to my nostrils the fragrance of mimeo sheets, typewriter ribbons, staples and fresh vinyl warrants my highest recommendation. I guess I'll be heading off to Amazon for Volume 1.

Post Mortem with Mick Garris

In this premiere webcast, presented in five segments, Mick Garris interviews Oscar-winning hair-raiser Rick Baker, most recently responsible for Benicio del Toro's makeup as THE WOLFMAN. Quality hosting by Mr. Nice Guy, who takes a more conversational/less intrusive-interrogative approach, and handsomely produced and directed by Mr. Even Nicer Guy, my pal Perry Martin. Check it out.

First Look: VIDEO WATCHDOG #155

For full details and a four-page, click-to-enlarge free sample, see the Coming Soon area of our website.

"At the moment, all films are crawling with quotations!"

Silvia Sorrente, and Michel Lemoine somehow looking away from her, in SIN ON THE BEACH.

That's just one of the many great lines of dialogue to be found in Something Weird Video's English-dubbed DVD-R of José Bénazéraf's SIN ON THE BEACH [L'éternité pour nous, 1961]. Here are 14 others:

2. "Improbability always appeals to women."

3. "It's a fact: something is always happening."

4. "When you're hitching lifts, all men are disgusting."

5. "If you mistake my piano for a divan, they [the customers] will mistake my dancefloor for a bed."

6. "All women take off their clothes. Few are applauded for it."

7. "Love! In this house, it's an obsession!"

8. "I'm being absurd. I guess it goes to prove one can't keep news of death to oneself."

9. "What's important is to move. You know? Move!"

10. "You have to hurt yourself to love someone."

11. "The marvelous immodesty of young lovers, it's so very moving!"

12. "That's not blackmail; that's just mendacity."

13. "Men always end up by confessing, especially when we pretend we aren't interested."

14. "One wishes for a great destiny and all one gets is a little song."

15. "You don't kiss madmen -- you lock 'em up!"

The dubbing, performed by familiar voices, is amusingly philosophic and over-the-top, like a Grove Press novel run amok, while the movie itself is almost abstractly alluring. There's Michel Lemoine, with his astonished Siamese cat's face... Silvia Sorrente, an hourglass of maddening flesh... and a story involving a murder that occurs offscreen, which keeps rewriting itself until the viewer loses all concern with who killed whom and feels himself chasing a dream along three parallel strips of grey -- sky, sea and sand -- all long dead.

Running 65:34, SWV's DVD-R contains no credits (apart from "Stanley Borden Presents") and clocks approximately 20m shorter than the uncut version released on DVD in France two years ago by K Films. Though the continuity is choppy, it's likely that the English-dubbed version was always at least a reel shorter than the original length, and chances of a better quality copy of this English dub are highly unlikely.