A batch of loony delights on Blu-ray this month, from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s hallucinogenic Santa Sangre; the outrageous Alex de la Iglesia film The Day of The Beast; even the deliriously enjoyable girl-gang movie Switchblade Sisters. Also, a rare Klaus Kinski– Nosferatu in Venice; an incredible restoration of the early color horror film- Doctor X; more Nick and Nora Charles on Blu-ray; two rare silent films by cinema pioneer Lois Weber; the spectacular 3D kung-fu film Dynasty; Betty Hutton “Doing What Comes Naturally” in Annie get Your Gun; and some snarling Werewolves on Wheels.
Santa Sangre (Severin). Visionary director Alejandro Jodorowky’s (El Topo) 1989 deranged masterwork set in a Spanish circus. When a female aerialist catches her knife-thrower husband cheating on her with the tattooed lady she throws acid in his crotch and he slices off her arms in retaliation. Their son (Jodorowsky’s offspring Alex) grows up in a mental institution, escapes to live with his crazy amputee mom and acts as her arms- standing behind her to play piano, eat breakfast, and kill women, who are buried in the backyard. Life Fellini on bad acid. This amazing 4-disc set includes a CD of the soundtrack and over 8 hours of bonus features.
Werewolves on Wheels (Code Red) A biker gang called the Devil’s Advocates are roaring down the highways raising hell. (Look for a long-haired Billy Gray from Father Knows Best and singer Barry McGuire “Eve of Destruction” as members of the gang). They tangle with a devil cult in monk robes who crown the gang leader’s Adam’s (Stephen Oliver) old lady- the “bride of Satan.” While fighting members of the gang during a devil ceremony, several bikers are marked with claw marks on their faces before they roar off into the night. And wouldn’t you know, a few start transforming into werewolves. You have to wait until the very end to witness that in this weird biker/horror hybrid.
The Day of the Beast (Severin) Alex de la Iglesia’s dementedly inspired 1995 horror comedy about a crazed priest (Alex Angulo) who arrives in Madrid convinced that he has deciphered ancient scrolls and that he alone can prevent the Anti-Christ from being born. He enlists the help of a long-haired death metal fan (Santiago Segura) and they railroad a tacky TV psychic (Armando De Razza) to conduct a satanic ceremony to conjure the devil. It’s nonstop lunacy but a perfect blend of the fantastic and yet deeply anchored in Spanish culture. There really is nothing like it. This incredible disc includes a full-length documentary on the importance of the film to Spanish cinema plus an extended interview with Alex de la Iglesia on the making of the movie.
Doctor X (Warner Archive) A glorious restoration of an early color horror film. Police are investigating a maniac they’ve dubbed the “Moon Killer.” While checking out suspicious doctors at an Academy one doctor (Preston Foster), an amputee and researcher on cannibalism, is experimenting with a beating heart in a glass beaker. This 1932 Warner Brothers film was one of the rare two-tone color films at the time and starred Lionel Atwill as “Dr. X,” Fay Wray as his daughter, Lee Tracy as a fast-talking reporter and a creepy-faced hooded killer. This sublime Blu-ray includes the Black & White version of the film and a featurette on the horror films of Michael Curtiz. The restoration is from UCLA Film & Televison Archive and The Film Foundation with funding provided by The George Lucas Family Foundation.
Annie Get Your Gun (Warner Archive) Manic Betty Hutton replaced Judy Garland, who was fired from this 1950 MGM film based on the Irving Berlin musical. Betty plays the famous sharpshooter Annie Oakley and Howard Keel plays her professional and romantic rival Frank Butler. With sparkling songs like, “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Doin’ What Comes Naturally,” among others. This is a high-octane Technicolor blast from beginning to end, and Hutton is pretty damn terrific in the lead.
Dynasty (Kino Lorber) This “special edition” of the 1977 Hong Kong 3D martial arts spectacular is about an emperor’s son, falsely accused of treason, who hides out at a religious temple honing his kung-fu skills before getting revenge for the death of his parents and his Prince. The 3D is absolutely spectacular- swords; arrows; poles; even kicking legs fly out of the screen at you. Beware the spinning iron umbrella. Another dazzling release from the 3-D Film Archive, this also includes the anaglyphic version, where you can use the cardboard red & cyan 3D glasses included. As an extra is “The House of Terror”- the 1953 3D comic book I remember I once owned; and a wonderful stereo slide presentation from the 1950s not to mention a fun 3D music video. A blast!
Two Films by Lois Weber (Kino Lorber) Two great restorations of silent films directed by cinematic pioneer Lois Weber, the first female filmmaker, who wrote and directed complex, feature-length narratives in the early silent film days of D. W. Griffith and others. She was the first woman inducted into the Motion Pictures Director’s Association, and many of her films tackled the social ills of the time. Here are 2k restorations of two of her later silent films. Sensation Seekers (1927) is about “Egypt” (Billie Dove) the wild child daughter of a well-respected family who comes to find love and comfort from a minister (Raymond Bloomer), only to have malice and town gossip tear them apart. A Chapter in Her Life (1923) is about a wealthy, bitter, unhappy man. He lives with his late eldest son’s hateful widow and her unhappy daughter; a mean housekeeper and her drunken stable boy son. Into their lives comes sweet, young Jewel (Jane Mercer), the daughter of the aristocrat’s other son, who has mended his early drunken ways and has to take a job abroad. So, into this unhappy household (which Jewel refers to as “Castle Discord”) comes a little girl who brings some much-needed warmth and happiness into the home.
Nosferatu in Venice (Severin) An unofficial sequel to Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu, it’s amazing this 1988 rarity ever was completed thanks to a revolving door of directors and Klaus Kinski’s legendary explosive temperament. Kinski refused to wear the original makeup from the Herzog film so he wanders around the foggy canals of Venice with long white hair and a decadent count outfit- he’s like a vampire Beethoven. Actors Christopher Plummer and Donald Pleasence appear in the film only to keep out of Kinski’s way. Pleasence supposedly was nonplussed about the chaos around him and continued to read his book on the couch in between takes. This gorgeous 2k scan from the negative is impressive. So is the nearly 1 ½ hour feature-length documentary “Creation is Violent” about Kinski’s final years. Jaw-dropping, hilarious, horrifying, and eventually quite moving, it’s just astounding.
Another Thin Man (Warner Archive). Third in the delightfully witty “Thin Man” series of comedy mysteries starring William Powell and Myra Loy as Nick and Nora Charles and their beloved dog Asta, based on writings by Dashiell Hammett. There’s now a new addition- a little boy- Nicky Jr. in the family. They are invited to Long Island to the home of Colonel MacFay (C. Aubrey Smith), the former business partner of Nora’s father. Once again, they’re dragged into a mystery when they discover MacFay is being threatened by a shady stranger (Sheldon Leonard) and it all leads to murder. When MacFay’s bodyguard asks, “What’s the idea of the kid?” Nick replies, “Well we have a dog and he was lonesome. That was the idea, wasn’t it Mummy?”
Hitcher in the Dark (Vinegar Syndrome) Sublimely sleazy 1989 shocker directed by Umberto Lenzi (The Seven Blood-Stained Orchids) under the pseudonym Humphrey Humbert. It’s about a clean-cut-looking psycho (Joe Balogh), driving the Southwest in a white Winnebago picking up female hitchhikers and then stabbing them; taking Polaroids of their corpses and dumping them in the swamps for the alligators to feed on. He picks up a pretty blonde- Daniela (Josie Bissett) who unfortunately is a ringer for his mother, and holds her captive, even cutting and coloring her hair. A 4K restoration from the 35mm negative, it’s really a sardonic, subversively satisfying chiller.
The Producers (Kino) 4K restoration of Mel Brooks comic masterpiece starring the larger-than-life Zero Mostel as a sleazy theatrical producer who seduces little old ladies for the cash to back his productions. A nebbish accountant (Gene Wilder) suggests it might be financially worthwhile to over-sell shares of a show bound to fail and they find an ex-Nazi who has written a play glorifying the Third Reich- Springtime for Hitler, which they figure will close before the first acts finishes. But things go hysterically wrong. Wilder and Mostel are beyond brilliant and the opening musical number for Springtime for Hitler is still so outrageous, offensive and hilarious it takes your breath away.
A Scream in the Streets (Severin) A delightfully depraved 1972 sexploitation film produced by Harry Novak about a series of brutal rapes committed by a homicidal transvestite. Yes, a killer drag queen movie and he’s about as convincing in a wig, dress and gloves as J. Edgar Hoover must have been. The movie is about a detective- Ed, and his new partner Bob (who can’t seem to do anything right and is a violent hot-head). We get to see all the sins of the city. A crazed client at a massage parlor beating one of the girls with a belt. A voyeur watching through the window while two bored housewives have sex together. Meanwhile the drag queen rapist is hacking up a female undercover cop in the park and cackling maniacally. The surprise in this film is that there’s more male genitalia exposed, which is great. Equal opportunity sleaze.
The Time Travelers (Scorpion Releasing/Kino Lorber) In this intriguing sci-fi tale a group of scientists create, and step through, a time portal into 2071, a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with roving mutants. They are rescued by the only survivors, who live underground with teams of androids, working to build a spaceship to transport them to a planet they can inhabit in a far-away galaxy. This twisty pretzel of a film was directed by Ib Melchior, who also directed The Angry Red Planet but wrote the screenplay for Robinson Crusoe on Mars. It’s wonderful to have this above-average 1964 time-travel saga looking so spectacular on Blu-ray.
Sleepless (Scorpion Releasing) Italian horror maestro Dario Argento, returns from the financial disappointment of The Phantom of The Opera with a return to form in this 2001 “giallo” thriller set in Turin. Max von Sydow stars as an ex-policeman who comes out of retirement because of a series of gruesome murders which mirror similar crimes he solved 17 years ago. Many of Argento’s “greatest hits” are on display- stylized murders (a harrowing chase through a deserted train is stunning); the clues including a strange nursery rhyme; dwarf killers; not to mention music by Goblin. But the great joy in this Blu-ray, besides looking just stunning, is that it includes the Italian-language version. Unfortunately, you do miss hearing von Sydow’s distinctive voice, but the Italian language option makes it a different, better movie in my opinion. There is terrific, insightful audio commentary by authors Nathaniel Thompson (Mondo-Digital) and Troy Howarth (So Deadly, So Perverse).
The Lash of the Penitentes (Kino Classics) Quasi-documentary exploitation film about poor, intrepid newsman George Mack, who tries to secretly cover the barbaric rites of the Penitente cult in New Mexico, which practices self-flagellation and mock crucifixions during Lent. When the elders discover he’s been spying on their ceremonies they have him murdered. Cinematographer Roland Price shot these rituals and they are hauntingly evocative, but then they drop in a lurid sequence where a woman is dragged out of her adobe home for being a witch, stripped naked, and whipped. (Well, you gotta sell tickets). If you check out the trailer there is all this extra footage about a woman being sexually attacked which isn’t in the film but might have been inserted somewhere along the line of the film’s run. This Blu-ray is the uncensored cut preserved from the Library of Congress.
Hercules and the Captive Women (The Film Detective) A beautiful transfer of this 1961 camp favorite with Reg Park as the musclebound Hercules, who rescues a damsel in distress and returns her to her home only to find her mother (Fay Spain) is the ruler of Atlantis; wants her daughter dead; and plots to rule the world with her army of creepy blonde beefbags. This disc includes the hilarious Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode of the film and a new documentary called Swords & Sandals.
Switchblade Sisters (Arrow) Director Jack Hill was the king of the female action flick- especially his work with the legendary Pam Grier (Coffy, Foxy Brown and The Big Bird Cage). But this is a trash masterpiece. Joanne Nail plays Maggie, the new member of “The Dagger Debs” led by badass Lace (played by Robbie Lee, who snarls through her teeth throughout the whole film). But jealous Patch (Monica Gayle) is out to frame Maggie, which leads to an all-out war with a rival gang. Customized tanks, the Black Panthers and machine guns all play a part of the insane finale of this grindhouse great.
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Damn, there’s a pack of long desired on blu ray titles this month! Switchblade Sisters? Werewolves On Wheels? The Producers? The possibility of buying Santa Sangre for the fourth and hopefully last time How? How will I have any money left to eat? I’m also now a huge fan of Alex de la Iglesia ever since you started writing about him, and I’ve long wanted to see The Lash of the Penitentes. Thanks again for the ill tip!