Tim Lucas / Video WatchBlog

Sunday, February 27, 2022

RIP Veronica Carlson (1944 - 2022)

The lovely and talented British actress Veronica Carlson has left us at age 77. She made other films (according to the IMDb, 25 in all); however, it is on the strength of her performances of two stand-out pictures—DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE (1967) and FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (1969)—that she is fondly remembered by many as the purest yet most alluring female icon of Hammer Films. (She was also featured in the company's 1970 spoof THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN, which at least didn't work against her.)

Many regard her as second only to Barbara Shelley as Hammer's finest actress, but I've always found it hard to compare them. Barbara Shelley, an undeniably great actress, was born to play character roles, while Veronica was born to play heroines. She also had an almost unique ability to project open access to the soul, spiritual strength, and innocence—the cherishability—of her characters despite a creamy, outward buxom package that would have fought against a deeper look at a lesser actress. She was that rare actress who could be wholesome without ever becoming boring.

I never met her, as many of my friends did, but she was a Guest of Honor at the first Fanex convention I ever attended back in 1991. I have an indelible memory from that weekend of seeing her walk past me in the downstairs corridor. She must have been going to dinner. That dress, along with her Florida tan, an easygoing smile, and a natural radiance... she was like seeing the sun itself pass by.

(c) 2022 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.

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Thursday, February 17, 2022

Severin Films' DELIRIUM reviewed

DELIRIUM (1979, 88:06) Severin Films BD

If I understood what director Peter Maris was saying in his supplementary interview, DELIRIUM (in the UK, one of the original Section 2 Video Nasties) started out as a salvaging job. He had been in the running to direct a feature film for St. Louis-based Worldwide Productions, they decided to go with a less competent director who made a mess of things, and he was subsequently invited back to make something releasable of it.

The result is indeed a somewhat schizophrenic film; it starts out to be the story of Charlie (Nick Panouzis), a Vietnam vet who returns home with a psychopathic streak and goes on a murder binge with a series of almost obliging young ladies: the first one gets impaled despite an obvious opportunity to defend herself with an ornamental spear wall-hanging; the second is a hitchhiker who is scared witless by his tendency to exceed the speed limit, but when he pulls over, she doesn't seize the opportunity to clear out—she decides to skinny-dip in front of him; when he assaults a farm girl before impaling her with a pitchfork, they fall to the ground near some neighboring dogs, who don't even bark—they just amble offscreen, bored to tears; and then there's the woman taking an inopportune bath, who shrugs off every downstairs noise he makes in the otherwise empty house. This main branch of the scenario bracket DELIRIUM thematically somewhere between Bob Clark's DEATHDREAM (1974) and Buddy Giovannazo's COMBAT SHOCK (1984). The scenes of homecoming mayhem, which are punctuated with flashback shots that attempt to pass off a wooded area in St. Louis as a Southeast Asian jungle (never mind the telephone poles), are the weakest in the film but nevertheless, it's competently assembled and modestly ahead of the turning point that would come along in the following year with FRIDAY THE 13th.

This story—and the ongoing police investigation of the murders—is the film's primary point of focus, so it comes as quite a surprise when it wraps up slightly less than an hour into the running time. A parallel storyline, which is where the movie really snares our interest, concerns a secret underground committee of "good Americans" (a board of the city's top businessmen, led by yet another Vietnam vet, played by Barron Winchester) who have dedicated themselves to ridding St. Louis of its street trash. How the two narrative threads eventually link I'll leave for you to discover, but it represents a clever and valid save of the unfinished picture.

I came to DELIRIUM (also known in some quarters as PSYCHO PUPPET) expecting no more than a graphic, grassroots psycho-thriller, but it surprised me. It was shot entirely on location in St. Louis on 16mm for $40,000 with a cast of locals, several of them without prior dramatic experience, yet it's a surprisingly functional film, competently shot (by Bill Mensch) and briskly edited (by HITCHHIKE TO HELL's Dan Perry). While no one would ever call it major league, the level of ambition and creativity it brings to a generally thankless task is impressive. In addition to the so-so psycho thriller, you get a chewable political subplot, a fairly persuasive police procedural (hard to pull off on this budget), lots of wince-worthy sexism, and a surprising number of downright impressive explosions, bullet squibs, and gore effects. There's even a romantic sidebar involving the assistant detective (Terrry TenBroek) and a murder victim's roommate (Debi Chaney), both of whom wear some preposterous 1970s fashions and look like Mr. and Mrs. High School Quarterback and Cheerleader. The gore effects by Bob Shelley, who subsequently went on to such projects as Oliver Stone's JFK and Robert Rodriguez' DESPERADO, are Savini-like (based on magician tricks and illusions) at a time when he was just beginning to break through as a celebrity in his own right.

The film's score is credited to composer David C. Williams, his first assignment in a screen career that has now amounted to more than 50 pictures, including CHILDREN OF THE CORN: THE GATHERING, THE PROPHECY II, WISHMASTER 2: EVIL NEVER DIES, and PHANTOMS. A good deal of the soundtrack makes use of library tracks, a couple of them pretty familiar—such as the alternately tense and sparkling keyboard cue that was often heard in '70s film and TV, from David Cronenberg's RABID to an Excedrin headache commercial. However, a few scattered cues sound homegrown, such as the one heard during the pitchfork attack, and briefly enliven the film with a synth-heavy, Goblin-like zest.

DELIRIUM (needless to say, not to be confused with Lamberto Bava's LE FOTO DI GIOIA, which now shares its title here in the States) isn't what anyone would call a horror sleeper; indeed, it's questionable whether or not this entirely qualifies as a horror film, on balance. Nevertheless, had you seen it as a drive-in co-feature in the '70s or early '80s, I suspect you would have sat it out, been reasonably entertained by it, and later perhaps felt some quirky sentimental attachment toward it. Seeing it fresh off the rack in 2022, I'd have to say it held my interest as a relic of a very creative time in American filmmaking.

Severin Films' Region Free BD represents the movie's first appearance on a home video disc and, according to their web page, it has been restored "from the only known 35mm print in existence." Being a blow-up from the 16mm camera negative, the 1.85:1 presentation carries some understandable grain, especially during the darker sequences, but it all goes toward reminding us of the technical limitations the film managed to overcome. There is an English mono soundtrack with closed captioning. There is no audio commentary but there are two extras, the first offering director Peter Maris' recollections of the production, and the other interviewing Atlanta-based special effects designer Bob Shelley, who revels in the art of blowing things up real good.

Thursday, February 10, 2022

A Peek At ELVIRA'S HAUNTED HILLS

Cassandra Peterson and Richard O'Brien (in TOMB OF LIGEIA mode).

Donna and I recently watched ELVIRA'S HAUNTED HILLS, which was directed in Romania by our friend Sam Irvin way back in 2001 and was released as a fully restored Collector's Edition Blu-ray by Scream Factory last October. Sam had recently sent us a copy as a gift and—missing our friends as we do—we decided to spend our most recent Pizza Night with him.

Truth be told, I've never really been on the Elvira wavelength, so I never sought this movie (nor the first one, ELVIRA MISTRESS OF THE DARK) out. Turns out to be my loss, because I found HAUNTED HILLS to be highly enjoyable. Behind the cleavage and the bawdy jokes, it's actually quite a knowledgeable, funny, and heartfelt tribute to Roger Corman's Poe pictures of the early 1960s—I wonder if it might have reached a wider audience had it been sold as such? I didn't laugh at everything in the film that was supposed to be funny (sometimes I did—I could say the same about almost any comedy), but it did have me laughing as soon as the first image faded up.

What most amused me, what made me laugh most heartily, were the many moments when the atmosphere just... clicked into that seemingly inimitable AIP vibe. The dialogue (written by Cassandra Peterson and John Paragon) plucks a number of familiar verbal bon-bons from the movies it honors, so it's smart as well as silly—and the film's fidelity is not just due to Sam's input (he was the creator of the much-respected fanzine BIZARRE in the early 1970s) but also to Ms. Peterson. Her finest moment in the film (and probably Sam's too) is the pay-off to a series of jokey references to Elvira's presumably low-brow music hall act: a genuinely remarkable explosion into skilled song-and-dance that rockets out of the screen with just the right mix of good and bad taste; I don't know that even Ken Russell could have done it much better. Richard O'Brien (the creator of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW and Riff Raff in the celebrated film version, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW) is also in the film and he's spectacular. I was also pleasantly surprised by Scott Atkinson, an actor with whom I wasn't familiar, who is cast as the film's suave Vincent Price surrogate and plays the part with a voice purloined from the late George Sanders.

In a supplementary interview, Sam mentions that he set out to make a Mel Brooks-style spoof of the Corman Poe films, and it really is the Roger Corman corollary to YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA—DEAD AND LOVING IT. It's humor is to a great extent derived from how precisely it mirrors the films it honors. It was made in Romania where I imagine the budget could be stretched farther, and also where old world artisan craftsmanship is still part of their culture—you can see it in the beautiful, lavish sets.

If you haven't seen this film, but have seen all of the Corman/Price/Poe pictures many times, and love what Mel Brooks did with his horror spoofs, give this one a chance. It goes well with pizza, and you're the audience it was really made for.

Saturday, February 05, 2022

Thoughts on LADY IN A CAGE (1964)

Last night, I watched Imprint's Australian import of LADY IN A CAGE with the Barry Forshaw/Kim Newman commentary, a vigorous listen that pays out in a refined appreciation of this still daunting, somewhat marginalized suspense thriller. As Britons, they have a somewhat different view of the film than we do in America, because the BBFC banned the film in England in 1964 and did not reverse their decision until 1967; I'm still not clear on why they reconsidered the ban, but their original concern about the film was that its violence might be imitable and unfavorably influence members of the audience. Between them, Barry and Kim make a sound case that Walter Grauman's film (based on a script by producer Luther Davis) was likely as much an influence on Wes Craven's THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) as THE VIRGIN SPRING (1960, evident in the similar nature and names of their Sade/Sadie characters, and the physical profile of the home invaders) and point out that it remarkably manages to deliver about the same degree of graphic violence as the Craven film would. It's also a strongly-worded film at times, and may be the earliest film (at least the earliest studio film) to unambiguously use the word "gay" as code for "homosexual." (I know we all want Cary Grant's BRINGING UP BABY exclamation "I just went gay all of a sudden!" to mean what it means today, but non-gay uses of "gay" proliferated in films for years to come, so there will always be some ambiguity attached.) In summation, Kim and Barry concur that LADY IN A CAGE is probably the only horror film of its era that is just as shocking today as it would have been in 1964, and I can't argue with that. If you're one of those people who saw the film once and doesn't remember much about it, you probably saw it on commercial television where it was always cut; this is not the sort of film one forgets.

Olivia de Havilland, who replaced Joan Crawford in the lead role (she decided to do William Castle's STRAIT-JACKET instead) cautioned audiences from the poster "Do Not See It Alone!", is said to have disliked the final product, which she considered an egregious example of trends in filmmaking of which she did not approve, but as Kim says, "I don't think Olivia de Havilland ever walked through anything." She is flat-out great in this, giving a remarkably physical and emotional performance for an actress who is literally trapped in a box and unable to share scenes with her co-stars for much of the running time.

Home invaders James Caan, Jennifer Billingsley, Rafael Campos and Ann Sothern.

I agree with the commentators there is actually little to criticize in any of the performances; while one or two things about its essentially toxic world view might seem too "on the nose," is it really possible to be too "on the nose" if you're telling someone their house is on fire, or - it only follows - that their world is at an existential precipice?

Color would have destroyed this film, which was wisely shot in black-and-white, giving it a pseudo-documentary, true crime feel, and there is also some startlingly gory stuff in it; given the monochrome palette, even the scene in which Jennifer Billingsley marks up Rafael Campos with a lipstick looks like she's taking a straight razor to his bare skin. But what most resonates about the film is ultimately its blunt conclusion that "WE are the monsters." When Cornelia, the de Havilland character, finally realizes (as her home invaders have pointed out) that she is as monstrous in her own way as anyone else in the film. I was very pleased to see the film holding up so well to such sustained critical scrutiny, and there's still a Kat Ellinger commentary and a video essay by Chris O'Neill yet to go. It also has a slipcase with unique artwork limited to the first 2000 copies, so collectors be alert.

The Imprint release came out last December, around the same time as a stateside release from Shout! Factory, which replaces the Imprint supplements with a new commentary by David Del Valle and David DeCoteau, whose thoughts on the subject should also be of keen interest. It also has a featurette of Kim Newman solo, presumably enthusing about the movie at length.

Wednesday, February 02, 2022

DOUBLE DOOR (1934) reviewed

DOUBLE DOOR

1934, 75m 49s (Kino Lorber BD)

Not so much a horror film as a stagebound photo-play with a blood-chilling performance at its fore, this pre-code Paramount thriller is based on a highly successful play by Elizabeth A. McFadden and reunites two members of its original Broadway cast: Anne Revere (who went on to a successful film career) and Mary Morris, who, although she steals this film and single-handedly makes it a must-see, never made another movie. (She lived to the age of 74 in 1970.) Her Broadway performance struck such a popular nerve that she's introduced with perhaps the most prominent (nay, ogreish) screen credit I can recollect of any horror star of the 1930s, bursting through a pair of double doors to the menacing tune of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor."

The story takes place inside the New York family mansion of one of the state's richest clans, the Van Bretts, and begins on the occasion of dashing half-brother Rip Van Brett's (Kent Taylor) marriage to the lovely Anne Darrow (Evelyn Venable), an event which Rip's stone-faced, ice-veined older sister Victoria (Morris) does everything she can to spoil. With Anne's encouragement, the two young lovers escape to their honeymoon with spirits intact, but Rip is the product of a lifetime of psychological abuse and diminishment at Victoria's hands. When the couple return to the mansion after their vacation, he gradually slides back into his old spineless ways, which leads to Anne suffering similarly to the point where it becomes a her-or-me situation. When it looks like Rip just might side with his wife, Victoria ramps things up by descending into utter madness, kidnapping Anne - presumed to have simply left Rip - and holding her captive behind the double doors of a secret soundproof, airtight room behind one of the living room walls.

What makes DOUBLE DOOR stand out is not only the blood-and-thunder performance of Morris (whom the Brooklyn DAILY EAGLE likened to "a kind of female Frankenstein") but also its transfiguration of the secret, locked room trope into a Grand Guignol death trap, and also the cinematography of Harry Fischbeck (TERROR ABOARD), which is openly playful with non-realistic lighting effects as Morris' fuming histrionics edge into stark hysteria. It's also a pleasure to see Kent Taylor (so familiar to many of us from his end-of-the-road appearances in Al Adamson films) at his best, and he and Evelyn Venable - who made a number of films together - are so comfortable with one another as to look genuinely in love. Also present in a brief but key role as the family attorney is Halliwell Hobbes, known for his appearances in DRACULA'S DAUGHTER and other Universals.

An early directorial outing for Charles Vidor (best remembered for GILDA, and reputedly a co-director on MGM's 1932 THE MASK OF FU MANCHU), DOUBLE DOOR is to this day an obscure film, which makes its arrival on Blu-ray seem all the more uncanny and miraculous. Following its initial release, it disappeared (possibly due to the Van Bretts bearing too close a similarity to the members and pets of the wealthy and much-publicized Wendel family of that period) and remained in Paramount's vaults until MCA acquired the studio's pre-1948 titles and released it to television circa 1961. A few lucky horror fans of that period remember stumbling across it when it was booked into their favorite spook show, but nothing of any substance was written about it until William K. Everson included it in the "Horror As A Bonus" chapter of his MORE CLASSICS OF THE HORROR FILM, first published in 1986. Everson wrote that DOUBLE DOOR was "one of those films that is recalled with awe, affection, and not a few shivers from those who saw it on its original release." He spoke of Morris' performance in particular as "venomous" and "witchy," and also criticized it for going too far over the edge in the closing reel - but that's exactly what makes the film so scary and so much fun; it's like those precious few moments from SH! THE OCTOPUS rendered as a slow 75m boil. Until the arrival of Kino Lorber's Blu-ray just a couple of months ago, anyone who had seen the picture only knew it from a dark and poorly defined bootleg that was kicking around from an old 16mm source.

Kino Lorber's disc is further enriched in value with two highly informative audio commentaries, one by Tom Weaver (I enjoy his use of voice actors to bring more personality to quoted sources, but I wish he would leave the gratuitous comic sound effects at home), and another by David Del Valle and Stan Shaffer, who engage in a stimulating, sometimes rapid-fire discussion. At one point, David theorizes that Victoria's escalating evil is motivated by her incestuous longing for half-brother Rip, arguing there is "no other" motivation for all she does. I agree she's motivated by sexual resentment, but I prefer another explanation: that she's a deeply frustrated, past-prime spinster, now so undesirable in her character that not even her vast millions can entice any suitors to her door.

A half-dozen trailers are also included, alas none for DOUBLE DOOR itself. A must-see for Paramount horror and pre-code enthusiasts, and ideal viewing for a dark and stormy night.

Monday, January 31, 2022

THE BRAIN EATERS (1958) reviewed

THE BRAIN EATERS

1958, 61m 2s (Scream Factory BD)

Directed by actor Bruno ve Sota (DEMENTIA, ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES), this dirt-cheap AIP acquisition is an uneven but consistently intriguing riff on Robert A. Heinlein's 1951 novel THE PUPPET MASTERS. Heinlein noticed and sued the film's (uncredited) executive producer Roger Corman, but the case was settled out of court. The novel was not officially adapted to the screen until 1994.

The film opens with a random juvenile delinquent assault, followed by the discovery in a forest ravine of a 50' missile - two incidents that are soon found to be related. Pipe-smoking Dr. Paul Kettering (an early starring role for ATTACK Of THE CRAB MONSTERS’ Ed - then Edwin - Nelson, who also produced) takes the lead in an investigation of the seemingly uninhabited spacecraft, and is quickly leaned on by Washington in the person of science-scoffing Senator Walter F. Powers, who smells something "anti-American" about it. The answers he demands soon become apparent through the silent actions of two squirrelly young men (one is Hampton Fancher, the future screenwriter of BLADE RUNNER; I don't know who the one with the untimely long hair and beard might be*), who hustle furtively through noirish streets while clutching boxes with an inner glow à la “the Great Whatzit” in KISS ME DEADLY. They have been taken over by parasitic brain leeches that latch onto their napes, and are being impelled to spread the alien - but ultimately, not otherworldly - influence to the most politically powerful people in the area, starting with the Mayor. (For some reason, tough guy Walter F. Powers is never threatened.) Joanna Lee (PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE) plays Kettering's girlfriend Alice, who is overtaken in a flowing nightgown, thus becoming an erotic enticement for Kettering to join the invasion in the film's closing minutes. Quite unusually for the time, the attack on Alice is filmed with a highly mobile hand-held camera from the perspective of the alien presence, which frankly look like motorized merkins with pipe-cleaner antennae.

Running only 61 minutes and starting out with an ace Paul Julian title sequence (scored with Dmitri Kabalevski's Symphony 1, Movement 1, "Lento"), the film gets off to a jagged start but it soon levels out to a taut, expressionistic piece with a bold experimental streak that occasionally begs to support ve Sota’s claim that he co-directed DEMENTIA with John Parker. Over the years, beginning when I was very young, I’ve seen this film numerous times but have always had a hard time remembering much about it, perhaps because with its narration, cantered angles and shadow play, it has the feel of a waking dream. It works because the whole is somehow held together by a few other committed performances, terse narration by second male lead Alan Frost (aka Alan Jay Factor), and a brooding and energetic library score made up of bits of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Ralph Vaughn Williams. It also has three or four dynamic scenes, such as the confrontation in the Mayor’s office, which are shot and cut in a stylized yet two-fisted way that now recalls the feel of Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. As if the movie's not weird enough, it also includes a pre-celebrity cameo by Leonard Nimoy (his credit reads "Nemoy"), who looks like a character from the Bible having a schvitz with only his voice recognizable.

A 2K scan from a fine-grain element, this Scream Factory release (Region A) is a limited edition of 1000 copies sold exclusively though the Shout! Factory website. (Clicking on the blue title above will take you there.) Though the packaging describes the video as 1.37:1, it is presented on disc in anamorphic 1.78:1 and the compositions always appear to be perfectly balanced. There are a couple of instances where the film grain on faces is overly active and noticeable but there’s no denying this is the best the film has ever looked. There are no supplementary features. Collectors of AIP and dark sci-fi curiosa are advised to pounce fast, while supply lasts.

Speaking of which, it appears that Scream Factory's 1500-copy limited edition of Roger Corman's DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955) is still available, which I would have to call an even more pressing purchase.

Special thanks to Sam Moyer and Michael Draine for their help in identifying the library music composers.

* I thought it might be Charles B. Griffith (another screenwriter!) but his daughter says no. If anyone knows the answer, let me know.

Thursday, January 27, 2022

WARPED & FADED and ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS In The House

In the last couple of (busy) days, I received my long-awaited copies of WARPED & FADED (by Lars Nilsen and friends, a book about the birth of the American Genre Film Archive) and Severin Films’ ALL THE HAUNTS BE OURS: A COMPENDIUM OF FOLK HORROR box set, two Kier-La Janisse projects in which I had a modest participation. I wrote essays on Mimsy Farmer and John Carradine for the former and wrote/narrated a 27m visual essay about Daliah Laví for the latter, which has been nicely paired with her favorite film IL DEMONIO (1963). Tonight I spent some very enjoyable time with the book, which is a gem of attractive design with some quite meaty contents, including a good amount of space given to Joe Sarno and his films, so it not only gave me pleasure but also a feeling that the ground was being serendipitously paved for the book I’m writing now. If you’ve been hungering for something like a 21st century PSYCHOTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, WARPED & FADED is the book for you.

I devoted the greater part of this evening to finally watching Kier-La’s much discussed, three-hour-plus, award-wining documentary WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED, a comprehensive study of folk horror cinema.

Unlike most film documentaries, it has a heady, sensuous, dare-I-say sorcerous personality all its own, and it guides the viewer through its dazzlements of illustrated international data as a kind of fever dream, alternately stark and turbulent. In one of the deepest pockets of its monumental body of information, it admits that this area of filmmaking has only begun to be seriously mapped, which means that the genre (if that’s all it is) is presently somewhat analogous to the mysterious, dark unwritten laws of nature that underpin all such films, powerful but never fully defined. The examples of folk horror are even traced to the very edges of vampire films, fairy tale films, mummy movies, etc, so that it begins to feel as though all horror might be traced to this larger netherstructure, on some level. 

The many published experts of film and folklore assembled here are good company, consistently bracing and illuminating in observations that stretch us well beyond what’s available to the silver screen. In the end, we’re left not only teetering on the tip of an iceberg but wanting very much to keep burrowing onward - and this set includes 19 international features to begin with. 

This documentary is a remarkable work of pooled scholarship and a remarkable directorial debut. I only wish there was a companion book to grapple with - but there is a 154-page book of original related essays included, to occupy us for a little while!

Monday, January 24, 2022

THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES Now Accepting Pre-Orders!

I'm very pleased to announce that Electric Dreamhouse/PS Publishing is now accepting pre-orders for my latest novel, THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES - a comic reimagining of how Roger Corman took a giant step into the psychedelic counter-culture prior to making his cult film favorite THE TRIP (1967).

You've been hearing about this project for years - as a forthcoming movie by Joe Dante, as a new production from SpectreVision, even as a live table reading starring Bill Hader and Corman himself, which was ballyhooed as "The Greatest Film Never Made!" Everyone involved in this project remains hopeful that the film will someday be made, but in the meantime, here's the sugarcube to whet your appetite.

I wrote an essay about how the novel came to be, which forms the basic content of last week's newsletter from PS Publishing. What follows in bold type is their lead-in and a link to the newsletter itself.

THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES is not just a book about Roger Corman and an outstanding cast of familiar and funny supporting characters. It’s a novel about Hollywood when it stood poised between the collapse of the old studio system and the rise of the new independent film movement, a monumental change for which Corman was largely responsible. It’s also a romantic story about finding the courage to reshape your own world and—perhaps most importantly—about the risks and challenges artists must sometimes face if they want to advance to the next plateau.

Find out more in this week's newsletter: https://preview.mailerlite.com/e4f0w9t9n0

Just as everyone who's read the script or attended the table reading seems to love it, everyone who's read the novel seems to love it too - and we are hoping for a respectable success. Of course, I would love for any of my books to be successful, but if this one attracts the enthusiastic following it deserves, the film stands a better chance of getting made.

I can't say more at this time, but I'm working to get an extra goodie or two into the book before it goes to press. I'm over the moon about the cover art by Charlie Largent, who was my collaborator on the screenplay, and truly believe that you'll be tickled green as the hand that crawls up the wall by this story and its kaleidoscopic cast of characters.

Feel free to share links and promote! (Once you get to the newsletter, click on the picture of the books to access the ordering page.)

Friday, January 14, 2022

Jersey Alexanderplatz

Günter Lambrecht as Franz Biedenkopf.

Last night, after randomly watching Jacques Rivette's LE PONT DE NORD (which I didn't much like), I decided to embark on another viewing of BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ. It's worth going through the whole thing again just to re-experience the Epilogue, which I believe more or less handed David Lynch his post-DUNE career. I've never tried to articulate or outline the connections I intuit between the two but I feel there is a potent fundamental relationship between this 13-part miniseries and a significant other, THE SOPRANOS. It's there in the physical similarities between Günter Lamprecht and James Gandolfini, the ongoing tension between crime and confession, German and Italian pride, the mob and Nazism, the anger that always surfaces in the sexual relationships, and also in the story's increasing outreach to other planes of reality, consciousness, and damnation.

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano.

Friday, January 07, 2022

VW'S BEST HORROR/FANTASY RESTORATIONS OF 2021

1. THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957, Warner Archive)

Officially released on December 15, 2020, this 4K scan from the film's original color separation elements didn't have a chance to circulate till the early months of this year, so I'm including it. For decades, this seminal work by Terence Fisher has been declining in favor of other films he made, and this powerful release made it obvious that its restoration was much more than purely cosmetic, restoring not only the rich complexity of Jack Asher's color photography, but also its dense Gothic atmosphere and the pageantry of its wardrobe, deliberately placed to cause friction with its medical, cadaverous and sorcerous imagery. Going the extra measures to make a great thing still more essential, the restoration was also provided in a choice of 1.85:1, 1.66:1, and (in the Bonus Materials) open-matte 1.37:1. Watching this, I felt I was truly seeing it again for the first time since my first viewing in its 1964 theatrical re-release. It is always wonderful to see a film beautifully restored, but it's rare that that the process restores its power as well as its beauty. This release leaves absolutely no question that this was one of Fisher's greatest films, and a dramatic turning point for the horror genre. Order here.

2. THE DUNGEON OF ANDY MILLIGAN (1967-82, Severin Films)

Whether or not you consider Andy Milligan's films to be trash, or if you love them for that very reason, no other release of 2021 accomplishes more important work than this box set. It goes the earlier Scorpion Releasing Blu-rays of a few titles one better by preserving their original full-aperture aspect ratios, but its most valuable contribution to film history is not that all 14 titles collected here are presented in optimal form and framing for the first time; it is the set's additional recovery of Millgan's original, never-before-released THE CURSE OF THE FULL MOON and LEGACY OF BLOOD (the unreleased director's cuts of THE RATS ARE COMING! THE WEREWOLVES ARE HERE! and LEGACY OF HORROR), the uncut versions of BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS, TORTURE DUNGEON and THE MAN WITH TWO HEADS (pictured), and the only known surviving reel from a German print of the lost film THE FILTHY FIVE giving us a glimpse of a potent early performance by Frederick Forrest. What is gathered here proves without doubt that Milligan's work was seared through with personality and quirky charm, and a fascinating and sometimes appalling meeting place between the horror film, sexploitation, and the New York Off-Off-Broadway and arts scene of the late 1960s. Stephen Thrower's book ANDY MILLIGAN'S VENOM carries an already incomparable package even further with essential reading about the subject. Order here at a nicely reduced price.

3. TIH-MINH (1919, Gaumont - French import)

Before/After restoration demonstration from the disc.

Prior to this recent Blu-ray release, it was virtually impossible to see Louis Feuillade's magnificent, charming crime serial short of a scratchy bootleg copy with dodgy subtitles. To see a film of this age and drama treated to a 4K restoration from its original nitrate camera elements is nothing short of a long, sustained, emotional experience. Order here.

4. DOCTOR X (1932, Warner Archive)

The big headlines concerning this release was the 4K restoration of its original Technicolor version, and what a ravishing thing it is - with Fay Wray in the flesh and the most luminous, unforgettable use of green outside THE WIZARD OF OZ. Here we see that two-color Technicolor was not a half-measure but an inroad to its own fascinating avenue of eerie fantasy. However, what pushes this release near the top of this list is its thoughtful inclusion of the overlooked black-and-white version, hard to see since a far-more pastel-looking transfer of the color version first came to home video back in the 1980s. A classic horror film, incontestably, presented and documented with class and skill by all concerned. Order here.

5. THE PUPPETOON MOVIE VOL. 2 (1934-46, www. puppetoon.net)

This is another December 2020 release that didn't reach most collectors' hands until early last year. Rondo Award-winning Arnold Leibovit's second two-disc treasure trove of stop-motion shorts by the much-beloved Hungarian filmmaker George Pal (THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE TIME MACHINE) gathers 18 shorts "unseen in generations" - including "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" (1935), "Love On the Range" (1938), several "Jasper" shorts (including 1944's "Jasper Goes Hunting," which features a cameo by none other than Bugs Bunny), as well as the especially early industrial shorts "Radio Valve Revolution" (1934) and "How An Advertising Poster Came About" (1938). Sourced from film archives all over the world, each of these rare titles has been fully restored in high definition (as the packaging reports) "from their original Successive Exposure Negatives or 35mm IB Technicolor Nitrate Prints." A non-stop parade of sheer joy in one's craft, teeming with personality, charm, and imagination, this is a set guaranteed to lift you higher than a glass of fine champagne. Order here.

6. THE EUROCRYPT OF CHRISTOPHER LEE (1962-71, Severin Films)

Another home run by Severin Films, this set - while documenting the actor's early European period short of completely - nevertheless collects a goldmine of deep cuts never before available in America in such revelatory quality: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DEADLY NECKLACE, THE CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD, CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE, CHALLENGE FOR THE DEVIL (pictured), THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM, as well as the 24 surviving episodes of the Film Polski series THEATRE MACABRE hosted by Lee, which includes two absolutely essential short films by Andrzej Zuławski. As with the Milligan set, the crowning touch is an accompanying booklet written by Lee's biographer Jonathan Rigby, a substantial postscript to that earlier work which is worth separating from the box and shelving alongside Rigby's other fine books. Order here.

7. FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN (1973, Vinegar Syndrome)

This is the first release of Paul Morrissey's zany film on Blu-ray, and indeed its first release on disc in this century. Brave as Criterion was to release it (and its companion feature, BLOOD FOR DRACULA) back in 1998, a film like this really craves the particular passion that a boutique label like Vinegar Syndrome can bring to it. This box does not stop at a single 4K restoration; it offers that restoration in 4K UltraHD, as a 1080p Blu-ray disc that preserves the flat (yet surprisingly dimensional) cinematography of Luigi Kuveiller (DEEP RED) in all its beauty, and in two very different forms of 3D. The original theatrical 3D method - called "SpaceVision" - is not offered here, but the anaglyphic red-blue 3D (for which two sets of glasses are provided) is similarly eye-crossing and headache inducing and robs the film of its color. For those who can only enjoy the film in 3D this way, it's a fun and nostalgic option, and when the two kids are attacked by bats, the image has a most effective depth. The digital 3D presentation, on the other hand, is ideal, marrying this title to the technology this film always envisioned, making this release a most unique and fulfilling form of restoration. At the time of its original release, the film's daring and bawdiness, its humor and bloodiness were all far ahead of their time. Seen today, one is almost overwhelmed by the great refinement of its imagery, the heart-stopping poetry of the female zombie (Dalila di Lazzaro) being raised from her vat or gaining consciousness as her viscera is being palpated by the lovesick Baron (the brilliant Udo Kier), and the aesthetic sense that generally reigns throughout, not least of all in the exquisite music of Claudio Gizzi - simply one of the most beautiful film scores of all time. Order here.

8. MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN (1960, Arrow Video)

Because its director Giorgio Ferroni did not specialize in horror (but rather in Italian westerns under the name Calvin Jackson Padget), this film is not so well-known as it should be, but this Arrow release - available in a standard single disc edition, as well as a deluxe two-disc limited edition - should go some distance toward correcting this. Historically speaking, this film is nearly as important as THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in that it was the first Italian horror film in color, and it is an often breathtaking adventure in psychological and sexual tension, Gothic atmosphere, and sheer delirium. Produced by Galatea Film (who had Mario Bava under contract at the time, working on CALTIKI THE IMMORTAL MONSTER and BLACK SUNDAY), there are occasional outbursts of color saturation in the pervasive pastel hues which indicate that either Mario, or his father Eugenio, lent a hand at some point - you can hear my exact comments about this in my audio commentary. The first disc includes the original Italian and English export versions, while the second disc (grab it while you can) adds the French and American cuts (the latter adds narration and other unique touches provided by "US Supervisor" Hugo Grimaldi). A longtime curio here claims its long-overdue classic status. Order here.

9. KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER - THE COMPLETE SERIES

(1974, Kino Lorber)

From the episode "Demon In Lace."

Since the 1990s, these episodes have been kept in circulation via old analog tape masters that were so dull, they made the show a rough challenge to watch in TV syndication. Here, all 20 hour-long episodes have been completely rejuvenated with 2K remasters that greatly enrich the show's engaging energy, atmosphere, and the performances of a remarkable number of the medium's great character actors of this period. Though its unrelated to issues of restoration, this set is further enriched by 21 audio commentaries by a number of published authorities on the horror genre in general and this show in particular, including Mark Dawidziak, David J. Schow, Kim Newman, Gary Gerani, Barry Forshaw, Constantine Nasr, Rodney Barnes, Steve Haberman, Amanda Reyes, Steve Mitchell, Cyrus Voris, Michael Schlesinger, Mike White and Chris Stachiw, and... yours truly (on "The Vampire"). Kino Lorber has also released a nicely refreshed set of NIGHT GALLERY - SEASON ONE, and while it's pretty great, the image upgrade is not as startling as this. Order here.

10. BLOOD CEREMONY (1973, Mondo Macabro)

Some of you may be old enough to have first encountered Jorge Grau's version of the Erzebet Bathory legend (also covered around the same time in Hammer's COUNTESS DRACULA, Harry Kümel's DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS, and Walerian Borowczyk's IMMORAL TALES) when it played the US drive-in circuit as THE LEGEND OF BLOOD CASTLE or in very choppy form under the ironic title THE FEMALE BUTCHER. Once again, art triumphs of time and censorship in an astounding 4K restoration from the original uncut camera negative. What once looked like cheap, intermittently incoherent grindhouse trash is reborn here as a sumptuously produced and erotically transgressive historical tragedy, well-cast and well-played by the likes of Lucia Bosè, CANDY's Ewa Aulin, THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK's Silvano Tranquili, and LISA AND THE DEVIL's Espartaco Santoni. Mondo Macabro released Standard and Deluxe versions, but both include two versions of the film, both impeccably restored: the uncut international version as well as the alternate Spanish "clothed" version. The company's website declares this title "Sold Out," so order here while you still can.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

AN ANGEL FOR SATAN (1965, Severin Films): Never released to US theaters or television, and only ever released in English during a brief UK release, this release delivers a stellar presentation of Barbara Steele's final Italian Gothic, and one of her finest films - directed by Camillo Mastrocinque (CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE aka TERROR IN THE CRYPT), it's in some ways a forerunner of Mario and Lamberto Bava's TV movie LA VENERE D'ILE (1978) - beautiful, romantic, delicately erotic and inescapably morbid. With releases like this, one expects the original Italian track and English subtitles, but David Gregory and his team have also succeeded in unearthing the Holy Grail of this film's long-lost English soundtrack, which gives us the added treat of seeing this film as we would have seen it in theaters, in in the 1970s in a presentation by our local horror host. The fact that it's a well-done track, with Carolyn de Fonseca dubbing Steele, only adds to the myriad pleasures of this release. Order here.

THE FU MANCHU CYCLE, 1965-1969 (Indicator): The two Jess Franco titles were already in fine shape, but this set really brings Don Sharp's already respected THE FACE OF FU MANCHU and underrated THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU back into discussion, as well as Jeremy Summers' THE VENGEANCE OF FU MANCHU, which had its US theatrical release in black-and-white! A further treat found in the extras are two chapters recovered from silent serials: THE MYSTERY OF DR. FU-MANCHU: The Fiery Hand (1923) and THE FURTHER MYSTERIES OF DR. FU-MANCHU: The Coughing Horror (1924). SOLD OUT.

DEMENTIA 13 - DIRECTOR'S CUT (1963, Vestron Video): This unexpected release finds Francis Ford Coppola going back to his first real movie as writer-director and erasing the material added to it in post-production by director Jack Hill at the behest of producer Roger Corman. Essentially a vanity project for Coppola, who wanted the film to be available as he made it, this version feels more all of a piece than the more familiar version, but also a bit softer and not quite as satisfying. In his commentary, Coppola mentions that his shooting schedule in Ireland was caught short and there were other things he had planned to do after returning home to Los Angeles - but he only got around to adding the wonderful pre-credits sequence. Though it would have gone against the spirit of this release, one wishes that both versions of the picture had been included to better facilitate comparisons. On the plus side, the film has never looked or sounded better and this version is an interesting curio. Order here.

FLIGHT TO MARS (1951, The Film Detective): Cameron Mitchell, Marguerite Chapman, John Litel, and Arthur Franz are all aboard. Not the best of 1950s science fiction pulp cinema, however this "70th Anniversary" 4K restoration presents eye candy of the first order. Sometimes that's enough to sail you through an evening. Order here.

Finally, I must make note of a veritable high tide of 2K vintage restorations released this past year by Kino Lorber, including THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923), James Whale's THE KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR, THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (1935), THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES BACK, THE SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM, AMONG THE LIVING, the long-lost mondo movie INGAGI (which is just one title in their ongoing "Forbidden Fruit" series of vintage exploitation programmers), THE BRASS BOTTLE (more eye candy!), a slew of ABC MOVIES OF THE WEEK titles (SCREAM PRETTY PEGGY, THE SCREAMING WOMAN, etc) restored to their original 35mm beauty, and the wild silent crime thriller fantasy FILIBUS.

Bear in mind that the focus of this list is restoration quality and its consequences only, and specific to VIDEO WATCHBLOG's main beat, horror and fantasy; it is not meant to be a Best of Year list, or to mention all the features on the discs of those titles chosen. I'm not able to cover 4K content and besides, I see 4K work as being more akin to customization than restoration, at this point. Also, please understand that I can only include what I have seen, and what I've seen is just a portion of what I have been sent or purchased myself. I'm sure to have missed some worthy titles. Write me if you want to bring them to my notice.