I always find it amusing when people tell me physical home media is dead. For film collectors, this is a golden age with boutique Blu-ray labels cranking out astounding rare titles each month, digitally restored from their negatives. I can’t tell you how many movies I have craved to own for years are now available, sometimes in staggering 4K UHD Blu-rays. This month includes so many of my personal favorites, some getting new face lifts, like Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom from Criterion, Butcher, Baker Nightmare Maker from Severin, Goodbye, Uncle Tom from Blue Underground, Deathdream from Blue Underground, One from the Heart from Lionsgate, Paul Leni’s spooky 1927 The Cat and the Canary from Eureka’s The Masters of Cinema series, and one title I have never been able to track down- Back from the Dead from Kino Lorber.
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Peeping Tom (Criterion) It still kills me that this amazing, disturbing, psychological thriller single-handedly destroyed the career of one of the great film masters- Michael Powell (The Red Shoes). Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho came out only months later and, while that was also critically attacked, it was a giant financial success, whereas Peeping Tom, for many years, was a film almost impossible to see. Carl Boehm is chilling as a London photographer shooting sexy pin-up photos and working on film crews with aspirations of being a filmmaker. He rents a flat in his home to a blind woman and her daughter Helen (the sublime Anna Massey), who he grows attached to. His shy, quiet demeanor masks a dark secret. He loves to kill and film women with a camera outfitted in such a way that the victims can see their own fear before they die. The subversive subtext of voyeurism and film itself was incredibly ahead of its time. This is a new 4K digital restoration “special edition” and comes with a heartfelt introduction by Martin Scorsese, several audio commentaries, a documentary about the film’s history and an interview with the brilliant film editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who was married to Michael Powell.
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Goodbye, Uncle Tom (Blue Underground) 4k UHD. Filmmakers Gualtiero Jacopetti & Franco Prosperi created a whole genre of exploitation film beginning with Mondo Cane, Mondo Cane 2 and African Addio. But Goodbye, Uncle Tom, their 1971 faux-documentary about the brutality of slavery in the old South is in a class by itself. Intended as a rebuttal to charges of racism leveled at the directors for African Addio, this is their response. And, while it was meant with the best intentions, the result is pretty shocking and infinitely problematic. There are two cuts of the film (which are included here in 4K restorations). In the American cut a helicopter with journalists from Europe drop down in the past at a Southern mansion and are shown how slaves are treated there. The opening shots of slaves working the cotton fields waving at the helicopter, with composer Riz Ortolani’s lilting score in the background, is something. But the European version (with a more political slant) begins with the funeral of Martin Luther King and a look at Black Panthers and the riots that ensued after King’s assassination before we get to the helicopter. The film was shot in Haiti and the extras in the film rival an MGM religious epic. But whether they knew what they were getting into (reenacting the abuse salves suffered) is another thing entirely. Jacopetti and Prosperi thank the Haitian dictator and his scary strongman “Papa Doc” Duvalier for their assistance in the film. But according to the terrific booklet essay by Don Madigan that was “akin to thanking Pol Pot for using his killing fields.” This amazing set includes documentaries on the directors and film experts dissecting this outrageous shockumentary.
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Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (Severin) 4K UHD. you have to keep remembering, to your astonishment, that this loony masterpiece was directed by William Asher– the same man who directed 102 episodes of I Love Lucy. Susan Tyrrell gives a go-for-broke, maniacally inspired performance as the bonkers Aunt Cheryl who has been raising Billy (Jimmy McNichol) ever since his parents were killed in a hideous car accident on the Pacific Coast Highway. But now that he might get a basketball scholarship for college and is dating a girl (Julia Duffy), she goes all out to keep him with her, which even includes murder. That’s when Billy comes under suspicion from a loathsome homophobic cop (Bo Svenson). The whole deranged finale, on a stormy night no less, is when Aunt Cheryl goes on a bloody rampage, popping out of bushes wielding a machete, or racing around outside with a hatchet, leaving bodies piled up everywhere. To me, very few film reach the level of inspired insanity as this film and this 4K version is absolutely astonishing. There are fun interviews with Jimmy McNichol, producer Stephen Breimer and Steve Eastin (the Coach). I loved the new interviews with editor Ted Nicolaou and Bo Svenson. There is audio commentary moderated by Nathaniel Thompson (Mondo Digital) and commentary with Jimmy McNichol. But there’s also a hilarious interview with Susan Tyrrell who says about making the film, “I hated every damn minute of it. So, that being said, I have a lot of horrifying stories to tell you.” Then we proceed to view her watching the film (with her pet parrot), voicing rude, hilarious commentary.
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One from the Heart (Lionsgate) Gorgeous 4K UHD version of Francis Ford Coppola’s much-maligned “musical,” filmed entirely on the stages of Zoetrope Studios, awash in neon and artificiality. It’s about a couple- Hank (Frederic Forrest) and Frannie (lovely Teri Garr), living and working in Las Vegas, who break up on their 4th of July five-year anniversary. What follows is they both have unexpected romances- Frannie with a piano player (Raul Julia) and Hank with a gorgeous acrobat (Nastassja Kinski)- who slithers in a giant martini glass at a casino. The amazing production design by Dean Tavoularis, using miniatures and elaborate sets, and the luscious cinematography by Vittorio Storaro and Ronald V. Garcia set the stage for this neon-drenched fairy tale. But it’s the music by Tom Waits that seals the deal. That gin-soaked Tom Waits singing voice mixed with the dulcet tones of Crystal Gayle all help create a unique, magical vision.
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Bully (Umbrella) The kids are definitely not all right in Larry Clark’s appalling and brilliant 2001 film. Based on a true crime that rocked Florida, a group of teens plot a half-baked scheme to kill a friend- Bobby (Nick Stahl). In the book about the case by Jim Schutze, there was more of a reason to off him. You can see some of that with the bullying, psycho-sexual hold he had on his best friend Marty (Brad Renfro) and Bobby’s sadistic brutalization of Marty’s girl Lisa (Rachel Miner) and friend Ali (Bijou Phillips). But the conspiracy to murder him (perpetrated by kids who barely knew him) makes it even more dumbfounding and shocking. A great ensemble cast- Renfro, Miner, Stahl and Phillips are just amazing, but my favorites are Michael Pitt as a brain-fried stoner and Daniel Franzese, who is always terrific. Larry Clark’s typically voyeuristic filming of the teens and the on-target portrait of a Florida suburban lifestyle filled with aimlessness, sex, drugs, and Eminem make for one scary, darkly comic, nightmare.
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Killer Klowns from Outer Space (Shout! Factory) A new 4k UHD upgrade of director Stephen Chiodo’s wildly inventive, incredibly fun 1988 sci-fi film about a small town invaded by alien clowns who plan to capture and harvest humans for food. Typically, the kids are onto the danger and the adults don’t believe them until it’s too late. The different “Killer Klowns” are wonderfully designed- like Emmett Kelly with hideous giant teeth. And their weapons are hilarious- cotton candy; a bazooka that fires popcorn, and even scary balloon dogs. When the clown/aliens get shot they explode into confetti. Really a blast from beginning to end, this 4k scan from the original camera negative really makes the colors pop. This 35th Anniversary edition has audio commentary by The Chiodo Brothers; features on the making of the film and the visual effects; deleted scenes; bloopers, and early films by the Chiodo Brothers.
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The Cat and the Canary (Eureka) We have MoMa to thank for this glorious restoration of director Paul Leni’s wonderfully expressionistic 1927 “old dark house” silent horror comedy. Based on a popular play by John Willard it’s set in a spooky old mansion for the reading of a will, twenty years after the eccentric millionaire who lived there died. A sinister housekeeper Mammy Pleasant (Martha Mattox) creepily greets the greedy relatives but the ceremony is interrupted by a guard who shows up saying that an escaped lunatic is at large and had been spotted near the house. “He’s a maniac who thinks he’s a cat and tears his victims like they were canaries!” Laura La Plante plays Annabelle, who inherits the fortune under the provision that she isn’t judged insane. Creighton Hale plays the lovelorn Paul, the cowardly hero. There are secret passageways in bookcases and walls where dead bodies fall out of. Hairy clawed hands suddenly appear out of a hidden panel in the bed’s headboard to steal priceless jewels around the throat of our heroine. A gloved hand wipes away cobwebs just to see the credits. Leni had them drill holes in the floor of the set to light the characters in a certain way. Later versions include the 1939 Paulette Goddard/Bob Hope smash hit and an underappreciated 1978 Radley Metzger version. The Blu-ray comes with a handsome booklet with excellent articles on the film and a great video essay included, “Mysteries Mean Dark Corners,” on “old dark house” thrillers.
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Bluebeard (Kino Lorber) According to author Myron Meisel in King of the Bs about Poverty Row director Edgar G. Ulmer, “For many years, scattered cults of film lovers had cherished the impossibility of his demented poetry.” In Bluebeard, John Carradine gives a wonderfully haunted performance as Gaston Morel, a puppeteer in 19th Century Paris, who is also a strangler of women he paints, their lifeless bodies ending up floating in the Seine. His latest obsession is the beautiful Lucille (Jean Parker) in this strangely effective film. This is a HD master by Paramount Pictures but there are still plenty of speckles, dings and damage lines. Still- after decades of ghastly “Public Domain” prints this is the best this film has ever looked. It comes with excellent audio commentary by film historian David Del Valle and another commentary track by Gregory W. Mank and Tom Weaver.
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Deathdream (Blue Underground) New 4K UHD Blu-ray of director Bob Clark’s (Porky’s) 1972 riff on The Monkey’s Paw about a Vietnam War soldier- Andy (Richard Backus) thought to have died, who then mysteriously shows up at his parent’s front door alive but “changed.” Besides being pale, distant, and odd, he also has a secret and desperate need for human blood. This film is mordant and strange, but really creepy as hell. Terrific performances by John Marley (The Godfather) and Lynn Carlin (Faces) as the heartbroken parents who are at first overjoyed to see their son again and slowly learn to regret it. This was also known as The Night Andy Came Home and Dead of Night, but under any title it’s haunting and unsettling. Scanned from the original negative, the bonus materials include a new interview with actor Gary Swanson (originally cast as Andy), screen tests, interview with composer Carl Zittrer, archival audio commentary by director Bob Clark and another audio track by the author of the screenplay- Alan Ormsby (Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things).
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Republic Pictures Horror Collection (Kino Lorber) Included is the sought-after The Lady and the Monster (1944), the first version of Curt Siodmak’s 1943 novel Donovan’s Brain, about a scientist (Erich von Stoheim) who keeps alive the brain of a tyrannical financial giant in a glass tank in his lab. Co-starring is Vera Hruba Ralston, a Czech figure skater who placed 17th in the 1936 Olympics, notoriously insulting German leader Adolf Hitler who asked her if she would like to skate for the swastika to which she curtly replied, “I would rather skate on the swastika.” The Phantom Speaks (1945) is about a physician (Richard Arlen), whose body is invaded by the fiendish spirit of an executed killer, who forces the doctor to commit murder. The Cat Man of Paris (1946) is a thriller about a writer (Carl Esmond), whose acquaintances are suddenly being found clawed to death by a mysterious creature. Valley of the Zombies (1946) is about a psychotic man (Ian Keith), convinced that transfusions of blood can immortally keep him alive. After he dies on the operating table, thanks to voodoo, his dead body rises and searches out his enemies for a little hemoglobin.
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Back from the Dead (Kino Lorber) Peggie Castle stars as Mandy, with her husband Dick (Arthur Franz) and sister Kate (Marsha Hunt) at the seaside when she suffers a miscarriage and is suddenly possessed by the evil spirit of Dick’s first wife Felicia, who drowned mysteriously years ago. The newly inhabited Mandy tries to kill her sister while she sleeps by gas, goes after the family dog with a dagger and returns to the occult leader she once loved. They then plan to sacrifice a neighbor as part of a satanic blood rite. It’s really bonkers, but lots of fun. Marsha Hunt is an actress that always brings a soulful quality to whatever she appears in- even junk like this. Originally this played on a double-bill with The Unknown Terror (see Sci-Fi Chillers below).
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Sci-Fi Chillers (Kino Lorber) Three oddball sci-fi treats. The Unknown Terror (1957) is one of my all-time faves, about an expedition deep into the jungle in search of a missing brother which leads the travelers to a mad scientist who is feeding the local natives to a giant, carnivorous fungus he has created below in a cave. The Colossus of New York (1958) is about the brain of a dead Nobel Prize-winning doctor (The Wild, Wild West’s Ross Martin) which is put into a giant eight-foot-tall robot. His gentle demeanor slowly changes and he becomes a megalomaniacal monster with a dangerous thirst for revenge. He also can shoot death rays from his eyeballs. Destination Inner Space (1966) is about a group of scientists working in a lab on the ocean floor. They get attacked by humanoid monsters which might be the beginning of an alien invasion. Only available before in crummy bootlegs, this is a real treat for sci-fi fans.
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Philo Vance Collection (Kino Lorber) S. S. Van Dine wrote several mysteries in the 1920s showcasing an aristocratic, amateur detective- Philo Vance. William Powell starred in three Paramount films as the sophisticated sleuth. (He reluctantly made one more for Warner Brothers). The Canary Murder Case (1929) is about an unscrupulous showgirl the “Canary,” played by the iconic Louise Brooks (Pandora’s Box), who is blackmailing several men and determined to marry young heir- Jimmy (James Hall), even though Jimmy is in love with Alice (Jean Arthur). Philo Vance (Powell) rounds up the suspects for a game of poker to unveil the killer. The Greene Murder Case (1929) is about the airtight will of a tyrannical millionaire who forces a family to all live together for 15 years in the same mansion. Suddenly the siblings start getting bumped off one after another. Lovely Jean Arthur shows up again as one of the family who is shot but only wounded. The Benson Murder Case (1930) is set during the stock market crash in 1929, where a ruthless stock broker- Anthony Benson (Richard Tucker) sells his wealthy clients short, bankrupting them. They all unexpectedly show up at Benson’s country house during a thunderstorm and, not surprisingly, it ends in murder. Luckily, Philo Vance is on the scene to solve the crime. Gravel-voiced Eugene Pallette amusingly plays police Sergeant Heath in all three films.
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Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf (Mondo Macabro) The fifth in the continuing “Waldemar Daninsky” werewolf saga starring Spanish horror legend Paul Naschy. This time he is lured from Transylvania to London for a cure of his lycanthropy. He meets a doctor- the son of Henry Jekyll, who tries curing him by using his father’s formula. Now he’s not only a werewolf but he’s also the evil Mr. Hyde (with gold eyes and a fiendish grin). There were 4 different versions of the film and the disc includes an integrated version with all the sex and violence included. Naschy as Hyde visits London strip clubs, strangles prostitutes with their nylon stockings and even transforms back into a wolfman at a disco in this wacky horror hybrid. Extras include an archival interview with Naschy from 2002. An interview with his son Sergio Molina. And a 30 minute extra on the career of director Leon Klimovsky.
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Saigon (Kino Lorber) When Alan Ladd was paired with beautiful Veronica Lake (with the peek-a-boo-hairdo) in the 1942 crime drama This Gun for Hire, based on a Graham Green novel, Paramount studios realized their chemistry on screen was off the charts. They were later teamed in two great film noirs- The Glass Key (1942), based on a Dashiell Hammett novel, and The Blue Dahlia (1946), written by Raymond Chandler. Saigon (1958) was their 4th and last film together, unfortunately, and I always heard it wasn’t very good. But where the hell could you see it? It never surfaced on home video and rarely aired on TV. Set post-World War II in South-East Asia, Alan Ladd plays a former Major, whose army pal is dying (he has only a few months left). They take a job flying planes for a shady war profiteer and get involved with smugglers, a beautiful secretary (Veronica Lake) and a suitcase full of cash. Sure, it’s not on the level of The Blue Dahlia, but I was thrilled to finally get to see Ladd and Lake’s last film together.
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Bad Lieutenant (Kino Lorber) Accept no substitutes- Harvey Keitel is the only Bad Lieutenant. This special edition of Abel Ferrara’s nightmarish 1992 take on a drugged-out crooked NY cop searching for redemption still is as shocking and brilliant as ever, and now looks terrific on 4K UHD and has great commentary by the director describing the renegade way the movie was filmed and how Keitel, who was going through personal problems at the time, channeled his rage and torment into a performance that is nothing short of shattering. With a screenplay co-written by Zoe Lund (who was the star of Ferrara’s Ms 45 and eventually was lost to drugs in real life), the movie is so personal and devastating (and so Catholic too). The fact that there is a remake (and directed by Werner Herzog no less) is more of an affront when you revisit this disturbing triumph. Keitel digs so deep into this character it scars your soul just to watch him.