Another fabulous month of eclectic, crackpot Blu-rays. From gorgeous restorations of pre-Code shockers; a 4K “steelbook” of a zombie classic; an exploitation gem about the dangers of weed; a film based on a controversial Jean Genet play; some classic Universal horrors; a memorably sardonic Paul Schrader film; Charles Laughton fiddling while Rome burns; and Mitch Gaylord’s ass. What more could one ask for during these difficult times?
The Comfort Of Strangers (Criterion) A sexy and sinister film, beautifully directed by Paul Schrader. Based on the novel by Ian McEwan, the screenplay by Harold Pinter is first rate- the language is icy, mysterious and precise. A gorgeous young couple (Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson) are on a holiday in Venice. They really aren’t sure why they’re there, but they seem at some crossroads in their relationship. One night, while wandering lost in the streets, they run into an English-speaking Venetian (Christopher Walken) who uneasily imposes himself on the couple. He brings them back to his villa where they meet his wife (Helen Mirren), and the young couple slowly realize that this “chance” meeting has been carefully orchestrated, and has rather ominous implications. Luxuriously lensed by Dante Spinotti, there is a languorous menace to the winding streets and alleys as the couple try to unsuccessfully distance themselves from their new “friends.” Everett and Richardson are superb in the film, and Walken gives a monologue about his family that only he could deliver in such a deeply bizarre way. The whole film has a creepy elegance that slides under the skin with the precision of a straight razor.
American Rickshaw (Cauldron) The lost Mitch Gaylord film! Well, not exactly lost- it came out on a muddy VHS as American Tiger. But this is a 2k restoration from the original camera negative. Mitch Gaylord was an acclaimed medal-winning Olympic gymnast, whose film career was quite short. Aside from a movie that reflected his own life- American Anthem, about a talented athlete (“The Struggle…The Striving… The Sweat… The Hopes…The Heartbreak…” screamed the poster), he did a few forgettable erotic thrillers. But then there’s this whacked-out 1989 film by Italian director Sergio Martino (Torso) which was shot in Florida. Gaylord plays a hunky Miami rickshaw driver (of tourists) who becomes the suspect of the murder of a cult-like evangelist’s (Donald Pleasence) son. A mysterious elderly Asian woman (Michi Cobi) and her magical Siamese cat mystically watch out for him as he avoids the police and crosses paths with an untrustworthy stripper (Victoria Prouty) and lethal hit man (Daniel Greene). The weird supernatural subplot, not to mention a fabulous nude shot of Mitch Gaylord, makes this limited-edition Blu-ray a must-own.
The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue (Synapse) A staggering 3-disc set of Spanish director Jorge Grau’s beautifully photographed, fabulously gory tale of a nuclear facility causing the living dead to rise and roam the English countryside. This was a staple on 42nd Street and played under many titles, including: Breakfast At Manchester Morgue, Don’t Open The Window and Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. Zombies are caused by contact with contaminated blood and stalk an old crypt, and, bloodily, a hospital. This is a 4k restoration from the original 35 mm camera negative and it is absolutely glorious. With two audio commentaries; a feature-length documentary on the film’s director; the soundtrack CD- this “steelbox” presentation is just perfection.
The Wretched (IFC) Something wicked this way comes to a small lakeside resort town in brothers Brett & Drew Pierce’s skillful, genuinely creepy, chiller. Troubled teen Ben (John-Paul Howard) has been sent to live with his dad (Jamison Jones) and work the summer docks at a tourist-friendly marina. Ben has one arm in a cast and immediately clashes with entitled rich bullies, but he finds an ally with Mallory (Piper Curda) a cool, sardonic co-worker. What upsets him is the fact his dad, who has split from his mother, has a new girlfriend (Azie Tesfai). What also disturbs him are the weird goings-on with the family next door. What Ben doesn’t realize is that a monstrous, toothy, forest she-demon has escaped its exile (living in a fathomless cave beneath a tree) and has possessed the mother next door (Zarah Mahler) and is set on consuming the young children and husband of the house. In typical Fright Night/Disturbia teen-paranoia fashion, no one believes Ben except his pretty co-worker and it’s up to them to defeat this mythological monster. The Pierce Brothers steer an engaging, terrific cast through this fast-moving terror tale with moments of truly unnerving horror.
The Sin Of Nora Moran (Film Detective) Amazing restoration of a fascinating 1933 pre-Code film of a woman waiting on death row, recalling the tragic events that brought her to this moment. The soulful Zita Johann (The Mummy) plays Nora Moran, raised in an orphanage, who travels to New York for dance school but ends up working for a drunken lion tamer at a circus. Eventually she lands back on a chorus line and becomes mistress of a married politician and eventually a convicted murderer (for a crime she didn’t even commit). The cinematic tricks director Phil Goldstone uses elevates this poverty-row melodrama into something strange and special. This sensational restoration is from the camera negative and is a collaboration of producer Sam Sherman and UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Universal Horror Collection Volume 6 (Shout! Factory) Another great collection from the Universal B vault. The Black Castle was Lon Chaney Jr.’s last film for the studio that made him infamous. The plot is about an Englishman (Richard Greene) who travels to the castle of a creepy count (Stephen McNally) to find out what happened to two friends. Boris Karloff plays the castle physician. In Cult Of The Cobra, Richard Long and Marshall Thompson play some G.I.s who foolishly watch a sacred Hindu ceremony. Faith Domergue plays the beautiful woman of mystery who tracks down the soldiers one-by-one and then kills them by transforming into a killer cobra. The Shadow Of The Cat (first time on home video) is about a cat who witnesses his mistress’s murder. Barbara Shelley plays the dead woman’s favorite niece who shows up as the killers search for a will that will disown them. There is a lovely extra with the aged, but sharp-witted Barbara Shelley discussing her career with Hammer Studios. My favorite in the collection is The Thing That Couldn’t Die, set at a dude ranch, where a young woman adept at water dowsing (Carolyn Kearney) is led to a buried, ancient chest. The chest contains the head of Gideon Drew (Robin Hughes), who was beheaded 400 years earlier for sorcery. The head wakes and telepathically controls the handyman in order to be reunited with its buried body. So preposterous and yet so much heady fun.
Diva (Kino Lorber) Director Jean-Jacques Beineix ultra-stylized art-house hit about an opera-obsessed mailman (Frederic Andrei) in Paris who gets a cassette thrown in his mailbag and becomes hunted by hit men and embroiled in a murder. The cassette is a rare concert recording of a great American soprano (gorgeous Wilhelmenia Fernandez), who stubbornly refuses to record her own singing. Sexy, stylish, suspenseful, romantic and funny- there is a delirious operatic sweep to the film that is exhilarating.
The Balcony (Kino Lorber). You have to give director Joseph Strick credit- he made a movie out of James Joyce’s Ulysses, for God’s sake. But to film Jean Genet’s controversial play set in a brothel was asking for it. Shelley Winters plays the Madam administering to the perverted needs of her clients while a revolution rages outside. The chief of police (Peter Falk) asks her to impersonate the Queen in order to calm the insurgents. The Madam even uses three whorehouse clients to impersonate the Bishop, the General and Chief Justice, all killed during the fighting. No, the movie doesn’t work, but it’s a noble, oddball, effort with a great supporting cast, including Lee Grant and Ruby Dee. It also hasn’t been seen in decades.
The Sign Of The Cross (Kino Lorber) Jaw-dropping pre-Code epic directed by Cecil B DeMille set in ancient Rome during the bloodthirsty reign of decadent Emperor Nero (a flamboyant Charles Laughton). Frederick March plays a Roman soldier tragically in love with a Christian woman (Elissa Landi). Claudette Colbert plays Empress Poppaea who bathes in asses’ milk (that scene is pretty outrageous). The finale where the Christians are thrown to the lions also shows half-naked women eaten by crocodiles and mauled by gorillas in the arena as the crowd cheers.
She Should’a Said No!/Devil’s Sleep (Kino Classics) Exploitation film producer Kroger Babb explains in the introduction to this hilarious “educational” film about the dangers of “tea” smoking, “If its presentation saves but one young girl or boy from becoming a ‘dope fiend’…then its story has been well told.” Lyle Talbot plays a L.A. detective out to get a marijuana peddler named “Marky” (Alan Baxter)- who targets wealthy teens and susceptible showgirls. Lila Leeds plays Anne, a sweet girl helping put her brother through college, who gets hooked on loco weed. “Try another puff- See how pretty the world looks then,” encourages Markey and before long Anne is giggling and dancing wildly. (Lila Leeds gained infamy when she was arrested during a marijuana raid along with Robert Mitchum). In this movie marijuana sticks are smuggled in cans of red ripe tomatoes. Devil’s Sleep stars Lita Gray Chaplin as Judge Ballentine, blackmailed by a pusher (Timothy Farrell) of “bennies” with compromising pictures of the Judge’s daughter nude at a druggy pool party.
The Phantom Of The Opera (Shout! Factory) This may have not been a commercial hit for Hammer studios but this 1962 version of the famed Gaston Leroux novel has gorgeous production design and I’ve always really liked it. A London opera house is besieged by weird occurrences while mounting a production of Lord Ambrose D’Arcy’s (Michael Gough) “Joan Of Arc.” A mysterious, masked, scarred-face figure (Herbert Lom), who lives beneath the opera house, kidnaps a young singer (Heather Sears) and trains her in the role of Joan (from a score he wrote that was stolen by the odious Lord D’Arcy). There’s a cool hunchback assistant (Ian Wilson), a creepy rat catcher, and stylish direction by Terence Fisher.
Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell (Shout! Factory) The last in Hammer’s Frankenstein series and also the last film by director Terence Fisher also. Peter Cushing again plays Victor Frankenstein, thought to be dead and up to his old tricks at an insane asylum where he has the run of the establishment. An arrogant young surgeon (Shane Briant) (charged with “sorcery”) is incarcerated at the asylum and becomes Frankenstein’s new assistant. They resurrect an almost Neanderthal-like creature (David Prowse) with the transplanted hands of an artist and the brain of musical and mathematic genius. But things go bloodily awry. Definitely one of the more gruesome of the series but still filled with dark wit and great style.
Pat And Mike (Warner Archive) “Not much meat on her but what’s there is choice,” says Spencer Tracy about female golfer Katharine Hepburn in this rollicking comedy written by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin and wittily directed by George Cukor. Tracy plays a shady sports promoter who takes on Hepburn as his client. Her problem is that she always chokes up when her fiancé shows up. Tracy trains her to be a tennis and golf pro and they fall for each other. (The chemistry between Hepburn and Tracy is a thing of beauty). Aldo Ray is a riot as big dumb fighter Tracy promotes. Once again Warner Archive has done a stellar job with the transfer.
Swallow (Shout! Factory) A fabulously bizarre feminist horror fable by Carlo Mirabella-Davis with a remarkable and heartbreaking performance by Haley Bennett. Haley plays Hunter, the trophy wife of successful businessman Richie (Austin Stowell). They live in a remote, pristine, modern mansion, where she spends the days cleaning, playing games on her phone and preparing dinner for her handsome, but aloof, husband. She is merely a pretty ornament to further his success. Hunter even becomes pregnant, but that leaves her more isolated and lonely. She slowly is seized by the compulsion to swallow things- like marbles, push pins and batteries. But an emergency rush to the hospital unravels her secret and she is forced to undergo dubious psychological therapy and a full-time bodyguard to follow her around during the day (even frisking her before she goes to the bathroom). With such disturbing subject matter, it’s understandable that the first half of the film is slightly cartoonish. But eventually the movie deepens into a fascinating and poignant portrait of a woman’s self-journey to some semblance of inner peace.
The Beast Must Die (Severin) Calvin Lockhart plays a rich hunter who invites several guests to his island estate but one of them is a werewolf. The movie plays like an Agatha Christie mystery but with snarling fangs. There is even a “werewolf break” at the end so you can make a guess who the lycanthrope is. With a fun cast such as Peter Cushing, Marlene Clark, Anton Diffring and Charles Gray. Severin released this enjoyable thriller on the Amicus Collection box set, but this is a 4K restoration (after superior 35mm elements were discovered in France). Time to double dip!
Tales From The Darkside: The Movie (Shout! Factory) Fun horror anthology film with stories by Stephen King, George Romero and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, nicely directed by John Harrison with a great group of up-and-coming stars. Debbie Harry is in the wrap-around story as a modern Hansel & Gretel-like witch, fattening up a kidnapped boy to cook and eat. The boy tries to delay the inevitable by reading aloud these “Tales from the Darkside.” In the first story, some college students encounter a very pissed-off mummy, with a cast that includes Steve Buscemi, Christian Slater and a stunningly beautiful Julianne Moore. The second story has David Johansen as a hit man hired by a wealthy, wheelchair bound man (Bill Hickey) to kill a satanic cat. And the third story is about an artist (James Remar) who meets a beautiful young woman (Rae Dawn Chong) the same night he encounters a demonic creature in an alley. Good, bloody, old-school special effects and tons of great extras make this an enjoyable treat.