This month’s batch of rancid rarities on Blu-ray include movies about giant insects, rare Jean Seberg, sparkling Doris Day, a scary Andy Griffith, bone-crunching Sonny Chiba, Robert Lewis Stevenson and Nathaniel Hawthorne adaptations, a wonderfully sleazy movie about a NYC hooker, and a demon dwarf growing out of Susan Strasberg’s back. What more could one ask for?
Tarantula (Shout Factory) A superior 1955 giant bug film from the great Jack Arnold (The Incredible Shrinking Man). The movie opens with a mutant, near-Neanderthal hunchback (in pajamas) wandering to his death across an Arizona desert. He turns out to be another casualty of a mad scientist (Leo J. Carroll) who is experimenting with atomic nutrients that cause gigantism. Unfortunately, the scientist also creates a huge tarantula in his lab which escapes and keeps growing, wreaking havoc. John Agar plays a local doctor and Mara Corday plays the loony scientist’s unwitting assistant in this fiendishly enjoyable sci-fi treat, which looks spectacular on Blu-ray. Eagle eyes will spot a young Clint Eastwood as a pilot dropping bombs on the monster.
The Corruption Of Chris Miller (Vinegar Syndrome) A true art/trash rarity, this oddball 1973 psychodrama, never before on home video, stars Jean Seberg as a woman who lives with her neurotic step-daughter (Marisol)- who goes bonkers every time it rains. Barry Stokes plays a sexy drifter (and possible serial killer) who insinuates himself into the creepy mother/daughter household. Supposedly Seberg did this sordid tale for financial reasons and was mortified, but it’s a wonderfully deranged treat and I’ve been trying to hunt this title down for decades. Wait until you see the opening of the film where a married woman gets hacked to death by her boy toy dressed like Charlie Chaplin.
Fleshpot On 42nd Street (Vinegar Syndrome) The Staten island-based Andy Milligan made scores of exploitation movies in the 1970s like Torture Dungeon and Bloodthirsty Butchers with his eccentric stable of New York actors. You need to read Jimmy McDonough’s superb book on this crackpot auteur- The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld Of Filmmaker Andy Milligan. This film is a bit of a departure from his usual talky, gory, period melodramas, but it’s just my favorite. Laura Cannon plays a street-smart New York City hooker, who moves in with a transvestite prostitute (played with hilarious gusto by Neil Flanagan). She finally meets a nice guy (played by famed porn star Harry Reems), but like much of Milligan’s work, fate deals a bitter hand. This brand new 4K restoration is a bit of a revelation, including a more complete director’s cut which includes some spicy X-rated footage. Sleazy and just sensational.
The Glass Bottom Boat (Warner Archive) Frank Tashlin directed the best, most surreal, of Jerry Lewis films, not to mention his hilarious work with Jayne Mansfield like The Girl Can’t Help It. This silly, enjoyable spy comedy stars Doris Day, Rod Taylor, and a hilarious Paul Lynde (at the end in drag). Doris meets Rod Taylor cute, while swimming in a mermaid costume to amuse tourists off Catalina Island, when she is hooked by his fishing reel. He falls for her but is warned she might be a Russian spy. Wackiness ensues. The new Blu-ray is flawless- the colors just pop. Doris Day brings such an easy, warm charm to even goofy films like this one- she truly is a national treasure.
The Manitou (Shout Factory) Set in San Francisco, a woman (Susan Strasberg) is frightened by a growing lump on her back. Doctors are baffled. Her boyfriend (Tony Curtis) seeks out a psychic (Stella Stevens) and finally a Native American medicine man (Michael Ansara) named John Singing Rock who confirms that a 400-year-old Native American dwarf demon is growing out of Susan Strasberg’s back. How’s that for a premise? Directed by William Girdler (Day Of The Animals) you cannot imagine how hilariously bizarre this movie gets. The finale, which mixes 2001 psychedelic visuals with the birth of the “Manitou” has to be seen to be believed. Shout Factory puts a disclaimer in the beginning about how the negative of the film was lost and this is a 4K scan of the inter-positive- but believe me it looks amazing.
The House Of The Seven Gables (Kino) Nathaniel Hawthorne’s gothic melodrama of revenge and retribution set around a cursed family house in New England in 1840. A young dashing Vincent Price plays Clifford Pyncheon, who is falsely accused of his father’s death by his evil brother Jeffrey (George Sanders) in order to acquire the family house. But a stipulation in the will leaves the dwelling to Clifford’s fiancé (Margaret Lindsay) who banishes Jeffrey and locks up the house, letting it fall to ruin. Hawthorne based this on a cousin’s actual house, whose family was tied into the Salem Witch trials. A great-looking Blu-ray of this intriguing, moody tale.
The Strange Door (Kino) Charles Laughton plays a sadistic 17th-century nobleman- Sire Alain de Maletroit, who lures a rogue (Richard Stapley) to his gothic castle- which has a massive steel front door once closed has no doorknob to exit. Alain forces the ruffian to marry his niece (Sally Forrest), part of a revenge plot against his brother who he secretly has imprisoned in his torture chamber cellar. Based on a Robert Louis Stevenson short story, Laughton has a fabulously hammy field day playing this monstrous fiend. Boris Karloff plays a servant slavishly devoted to the imprisoned brother, and has a truly heroic ending. Tom Weaver’s audio commentary is sensational.
The Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire (Arrow) In this cracked 1971 Italian “giallo” thriller directed by Riccardo Freda (The Horrible Dr. Hichcock) a woman’s disfigured body is found in the boot of a diplomat’s (Anton Diffring) car in Dublin. The vicious crime is investigated by an ex-cop Luigi Pistilli), who romances the Ambassador’s daughter (the gorgeous Dagmar Lassander). Valentina Cortese (Day For Night) plays the Ambassador’s neurotic wife. No one listens to the cop’s elderly mother who reads lots of Agatha Christie and repeatedly informs her son she knows who the killer is. Full of red herrings and confusing plot twists, but with a wildly perverse finale that will unhinge your jaw. This handsome Blu-ray includes an amusing film appreciation by Richard Dyer and a 20-minute new interview with actress Dagmar Lassander about her film career.
A Face In The Crowd (Criterion) Elia Kazan’s bitterly prophetic tale of a garrulous, hard-drinking, guitar-strumming drifter (Andy Griffith) named Lonesome Rhodes, who is turned into a beloved radio and TV personality, then scarily guided into politics. Fame transforms him from the woodsy, likable, raconteur to a megalomaniac monster. Budd Schulberg wrote the screenplay which is a savage indictment of a corrupt political machine and the gullibility of the masses. Griffith is unforgettable, and a complete 180 degree turn from his warm, benevolent sheriff on The Andy Griffith Show. Patricia Neal superbly plays the ambitious radio executive who orchestrates his rise to fame and lives to regret it. The lovely Lee Remick has a memorable cameo as a baton-twirling conquest of Rhodes in this still-powerful 1957 film.
Brain Of Blood (Severin) A 1971 Al Adamson film about a dying Middle Eastern ruler named Amir (Reed Hadley). His body is wrapped in, what looks like, Reynolds Wrap and shipped to America where a scientist (Kent Taylor) removes his brain and puts it in the nearest available body- Gor (John Bloom), a giant half-wit with a face scarred by battery acid. There is a vicious dwarf (Angelo Rossitto), women chained in the cellar, and actor Grant Williams (The Incredible Shrinking Man) as the hero. You can also buy this as part of a mouth-watering box set called Hemisphere Box Of Horrors which includes the films Blood Drinkers, Curse Of The Vampire, The Black Cat & Torture Chamber Of Dr. Sadism.
The Land Unknown (Kino) A helicopter crashes somewhere in the Antarctic in a mysterious valley filled with carnivorous plants and a gloriously goofy-looking tyrannosaurus. They also discover a strange man who has been marooned there for years, fighting to survive. Starring Jock Mahoney, Shawn Smith and William Reynolds, this 1957 film is such a guilty pleasure for me- I just love bad dinosaur movies. The black and white Cinemascope looks absolutely gorgeous on this fun Blu-ray, and the audio commentary by Tom Weaver is fascinating.
The Street Fighter Collection (Shout Select) The incredible Sonny Chiba stars as a brutal karate thug for hire in the first of three wildly popular Street Fighter films which were all a big hit for New Line Cinema in 1970s. A mafia gang from Hong Kong plot to kidnap a Japanese oil heiress and approach Terry Tsuguri (Chiba) for the job but he turns the tables and decides to protect the heiress, even though she calls him an “animal.” The skull-crushing, eye-gouging, throat-ripping violence was so outrageous this was rated X, but audiences wildly responded to Chiba’s tough-guy persona- he was like a kung fu Charles Bronson. Included on the Blu-rays are interviews with Sonny Chiba and director Jack Sholder (The Hidden)- who creatively cut The Street Fighter trailers. The Return Of The Street Fighter (where Chiba knocks a man’s head so hard the eyeballs pop out) and The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge are in the set in dubbed versions or original Japanese language with subtitles.
The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires (Shout Factory) Martial arts/monster mash-up from Hammer Studios and The Shaw Brothers. David Chaing plays the descendent of a brave warrior/farmer who once battled the fearsome 7 Golden vampires which tormented his village. Chaing gets Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) to accompany him and his siblings to battle the undead creatures which have risen again. Roy Ward Baker directed and an uncredited Chang Cheh choreographed the action sequences for this kung-fu vampire film. Gorgeous looking restoration from the negative, this disc includes the alternate US release The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula and a touching interview with actor David Chaing where he reminisces on actor Peter Cushing’s generosity and kindness.
Cleopatra Jones (Warner Archive) Watching this 1973 blaxploitation classic again, I forgot how much fun it was. The gorgeous, statuesque Tamara Dobson plays US narcotics agent Cleopatra Jones, with her Afro, furs, ludicrous outfits and tricked-out black corvette. Shelley Winters is the butch lesbian arch villain “Mommy” and plays it so over the top you’d think she was on the campy 60s TV series Batman. Bernie Casey plays Cleo’s love interest, who runs a half-way house for addicts, and Antonio Fargas is hilarious as the flashily-dressed drug dealer “Doodlebug.” It’s all pretty cartoonish but incredibly entertaining and looks amazing on Blu-ray. Joe Simon sings the great theme song. As one street kid acknowledges after Cleopatra drives off, “Right on, sister!”