This month Blu-ray selections has some real rancid rarities, including a particular loony favorite- The Road to Salina, one of Rita Hayworth’s last films. Other include a film starring David Bowie, Kim Novak and the last screen appearance by Marlene Dietrich– Just a Gigolo; the harrowing Hunter Hunter; the glorious MGM musical Ziegfeld Follies; the divinely weird Dead and Buried in 4K UHD; David Cronenberg’s terrific The Dead Zone. Also, a great set of Italian crime films from Arrow Video. Fred Astaire & Eleanor Powell dance sublimely in Broadway Melody of 1940. The hilarious Strike Commando action movie shot in the Philippines starring Reb Brown. And if that wasn’t enough- the 1968 horror film Chamber of Horrors, which warns the audience of upcoming scares with a “horror horn” and a “fear flasher.”
The Road to Salina (Kino Lorber) Gorgeous Gilda star Rita Hayworth made this oddball psychological drama in which she runs a roadside gas station/cafe and mistakes a drifter (Robert Walker Jr.) for her long-lost son. He goes along with it but finds it weird when his “sister” (Mimsy Farmer) recognizes him. Soon brother and sister are playing “doctor” every afternoon in the back bedroom. This one’s got lots of full-frontal nudity, an incest theme, and Rita doing the frug with Ed Begley. She even sniffs at a joint (but doesn’t inhale). “You smell bad” followed by, “I love you” are some of the loony exchanges between Farmer and Walker. This 1970 oddity was Hayworth’s second to last film and, boy, is it wonderfully weird. Directed by French director Georges Lautner (Le Professionnel).
Icy Breasts (Kino Lorber) This superior 1974 French thriller is also by Georges Lautner (The Road to Salina) about Francois (Claude Brasseur), a TV writer who meets a mysterious, beautiful blonde woman on the beach- Peggy (Mireille Darc), and relentlessly pursues her. He crosses swords with a handsome, powerful attorney (Alain Delon) who tries scaring Francois off by suggesting that Peggy is dangerous, and then having his servants threaten him. But Francois persists, even after bodies start piling up. Based on Someone is Bleeding, the first novel by Richard Matheson (I Am Legend), this is spellbinding from beginning to suspenseful end. A 4K restoration from the camera negative and with insightful commentary by Nathaniel Thompson, Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell.
Hunter Hunter (Shout! Factory) Brilliant, harrowing suspense film by Shawn Linden with one of the most brutal, devastating endings I’ve ever seen on screen. It’s about a husband- Mersault (Devon Sawa), his wife Anne (Camille Sullivan) and their young daughter Renee (Summer H. Howell) who live remotely in the the forest in a small family cabin, hunting for food, and selling pelts in town for supplies. Anne has begun to admit “this is a hard life.” Not so much for herself but for her young daughter, who is happy hunting with dad but should be with other children and in school. Lately a ferocious wolf has been out there threatening them. Mersault goes out on an extended hunt for the wolf one night and then stumbles onto a campsite from hell, realizing there is another predator out there scarier than the wolf. Filmed in the wilds of Manitoba, the movie looks astonishing, and the cast is really remarkable. This gets unbearably tense really quickly and doesn’t let up until the soul-crushing end.
The Web (Kino Lorber) Unfairly neglected noir-ish 1947 thriller starring Edmond O’Brien as Bob Regan, a scrappy lawyer hired by shady industrialist Andrew Colby (Vincent Price) to be his bodyguard when Andrew is threatened by an old partner recently released from jail. Ella Raines (always terrific) plays Andrew’s devoted, tart-tongued secretary. A shooting, which is ruled as justifiable, leads Bob to suspect he has been framed, but his old friend Lt. Damico (William Bendix) isn’t buying it. A crafty little cat-and-mouse mystery well-directed by Michael Gordon, who began making tough little crime pictures and graduated to glossier material like Pillow Talk and Portrait in Black.
Alias Nick Beal (Kino Lorber) In this diabolical 1949 film by director John Farrow (The Big Clock), Thomas Mitchell plays Joseph Foster, a decent, married, ambitious, district attorney whose attempt to rid the city of corruption puts him in line for a run for Governor. Before you can sing “please allow me to introduce myself,” whistling out of the fog appears the malevolent Nick Beal (Ray Milland), who offers to help Joseph, but in shady, underhanded ways. He even bestows a bar girl (Audrey Totter) an apartment, fancy clothes and a fur coat in order to use her to keep Joseph in line and break up his marriage. Has Joseph sold his soul to the mysterious Nick Beal? A rare fantasy film in need of rediscovery.
Girl Gang (Kino Lorber) When it comes to 50s exploitation bad girl movies many are familiar with The Violent Years– written by Edward D. Wood Jr. (Plan 9 From Outer Space), about a group of morally bankrupt high school girls who get their kicks robbing gas stations; holding up teens on lover’s lane; gleefully smashing up school rooms, and whose philosophy is: “So what?” Girl Gang is just as loony. A seedy Timothy Farrell is the pusher/pimp named Joe, lording over a group of young girls (all look 30) who commit stick-ups and steal cars for him. He hooks them on heroin to make them more dependent on him and turns them out as prostitutes. Despite the sordid subject matter, the movie is really very funny- a scene with the partying girls smoking reefer and jitterbugging while a hep-cat pounds away on the piano is a high point. A bonus feature is Pin-Down Girl, another 1951 sleaze-fest about racketeers using women’s wrestling to launder money. It stars Peaches Page and there is audio commentary by Eric Schaefer who wrote a great book on exploitation films.
Years of Lead (Five Classic Italian Crime Thrillers 1973-1977) (Arrow Video) A fantastic box set that reflect the attitude of action audiences in Italy to what was going down in the 70s- from corruption in government and the police; to kidnappings; to the psychological make-up of spree killers. The one film I was excited about seeing was The Savage Three directed by Vittorio Salerno starring Joe Dallesandro as a sleek, handsome and vicious computer guy at a data company who hangs with two co-workers after work committing escalating acts of mayhem and violence. Dallesandro did a lot of fascinating genre movies in Italy, many never-before seen in America. Here he is just terrific as the morally bankrupt killer and there’s a scene where he chases a practically nude victim with a forklift that has to be seen to be believed. Other films in the set: No, the Case is Happily Resolved by Vittorio Salerno; Colt 38 Special Squad by Massimo Dallamano; Like Rabid Dogs by Mario Imperoli; and Highway Racer by Stelvio Massi. The transfers are astonishing, the informative booklet that comes with it is invaluable and the extras are all great: Joe Dallesandro is dryly hilarious in a 40-minute recollection about his film career.
Ziegfeld Follies (Warner Archives) All-star1945 MGM extravaganza with William Powell playing the great showman Florenz Ziegfeld, now in heaven in a luxurious suite in the clouds, reminiscing over his great triumphs. An excuse to stitch together fabulous musical and dance sequences. A gorgeous Lucille Ball on a white horse, carrying a whip, in one glitzy number “Here’s to the Ladies;” Esther Williams in a water ballet; Fred Astaire dancing with Lucille Bremer in “Limehouse Blues;” Fanny Brice in a comic routine with Hume Cronyn and William Frawley; stunning, sultry Lena Horne singing “Love;” Judy Garland in the jolly “A Great Lady Has an Interview;” etc. There are some groaningly tiresome vaudeville routines with Red Skelton and Keenan Wynn, but watching Fred Astaire finally dance with Gene Kelly in “The Babbit and the Bromide” is pure joy. Extras include a featurette: Ziegfeld Follies: An Embarrassment of Riches and 2 classic cartoons.
Broadway Melody of 1940 (Warner Archive). There’s a joyful athleticism to the leggy, beautiful Eleanor Powell, the “queen of tap” at MGM, and this glorious pairing with Fred Astaire mixed with the music of Cole Porter is irresistible. Astaire had just wrapped up at RKO, where he did all those hit musicals with Ginger Rogers. Here, he and George Murphy play dance partners trying to break into the big time. A case of mistaken identity gets George Murphy paired with Broadway star Eleanor Powell, but don’t fear- she’ll eventually be dancing in the right partner’s (Astaire) arms. It all ends with an amazing dance routine to “Begin the Beguine” that is breathtaking. There’s a fun extra, narrated by Ann Miller, called “Cole Porter in Hollywood” that talks about the movie’s creation, and even an Our Gang short. The digital restoration is perfection.
So Long Billie (Altered Innocence) Sumptuous visuals mask the bleakness of the universe in directors Anna Falgueres and John Shank’s moody French film about doomed innocence. Vincent (Aliocha Schneider) lives with his young 13-year-old brother Jimmy (August Wilhelm) in a small stone bunker in the middle of a remote, mountainous region of France. Their protector is Toxou (Vincent Rottiers), a scruffy older bad boy who constantly reminds Victor, “Who was here for you when your dad left?” They bully and rob tourists; fix up wrecked cars; secretly dig for ancient artifacts in unsecured archeological dig sites, and the little street kids that hang around them pay money to watch through peepholes in the wall while Toxou has sex with loose women. Into Victor’s life comes the disturbed young girl Billie (Garance Marillier/Raw) and their passionate summer affair threatens Toxou’s hold over Victor and panics Jimmy that he will be left alone. The movie really casts a strange spell on the viewer.
House of Wax (Shout! Factory) How can you hate a movie in which Paris Hilton gets killed? To tell the truth, this reboot of the famed Vincent Price 3D horror classic is actually pretty inventive and creepy. The director is Juame Collet-Serra (who made one of my favorites- Orphan) and it’s about a bunch of teens heading to a concert who get stranded in the strange town of Ambrose which has a decrepit old wax museum. Pretty soon they are trying to evade a fiendish killer who plans to pose them as new permanent exhibits in his house of horrors. The cool thing is that the “house” is actually made entirely of wax, which includes everything in it. That makes the fiery, melting finale all the more eye-popping. The cast is attractive and really get to die hideous deaths There are new interviews with Paris Hilton and Robert Ri’chard, a blooper reel and B-roll with cast commentary and an extra about the design of the incredible wax house.
Bringing Up Baby (Criterion) Howard Hawks brought “screwball ” to a stratospheric level with this manic, hilarious 1938 comedy about a harried paleontologist (Cary Grant) who gets entangled with a ditsy heiress (Katharine Hepburn). A stolen dinosaur bone; an on-the-loose leopard named “Baby” causes an exasperated Cary Grant to cry out “I’ve just gone gay!” in this riotous comedy. This Criterion edition is a 4K restoration with audio commentary by Peter Bogdanovich; a video essay on Cary Grant; a 1977 documentary on director Howard Hawks: “A Hell of a Good Life,” among other cool extras.
Hunting Ground (Mondo Macabro) A bleeding-heart female lawyer (Assumpta Serna), who vigorously defends thieves and murderers, is targeted by some unsavory thugs who like her style in the courtroom. So, how do they thank her? First, they steal her car. Then they find the address to the villa where she and her family spend their weekends. And commit a home invasion that leads to the murder of her husband and the arrest of a suspect- the younger, frailer, brother of the killer. The loathsome creeps even threaten the lawyer by phone that if she doesn’t get the brother off there will be more hell to pay. A surprisingly nasty Spanish revenge film by Jorge Grau (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) that probably should have been retitled “Last Villa on the Left,” with an ending that is absolutely jaw-dropping in its savagery. Included is a vintage interview with the director who discusses his genre movies of the 70s.
Dead and Buried (Blue Underground) A 4k UHD Blu-ray of director Gary Sherman’s strikingly original 1981 chiller with a smart screenplay by Dan O’Bannon & Ronald Shusett (Alien). It chronicles a series of bizarre murders whose victims are the unfortunate visitors to Potters Bluff, a sleepy coastal town. With Jack Albertson as a quirky mortician; James Farentino as a sheriff trying to unravel the mystery and an infamous scene involving a nurse, a very long syringe and an exposed eyeball. There are many audio commentaries; scores of fascinating extras and even a CD of the soundtrack by Joe Renzetti.
Just a Gigolo (Fabulous Films/Shout! Factory) This oddball 1978 film was directed by actor David Hemmings (Blow Up), and is also the last screen appearance by Marlene Dietrich. It stars David Bowie as a wounded Prussian soldier returning to Berlin after World War I to find a changed, hard-scrabble landscape. His mother (Maria Schell) has transformed their home into a seedy rooming house; his old girlfriend (Sydne Rome) is now a socialist and singer, sleeping with a wealthy Prince (Curt Jurgens), with dreams of Hollywood stardom. He becomes a gigolo at an infamous nightclub, part of a stable of handsome young men pimped by the Baroness (Marlene Dietrich) and has an affair with a widowed, wealthy woman (Kim Novak). Meanwhile, the dark cloud of fascism rises in the streets and underground. The movie doesn’t know what tone to take. Is it a dark comedy? Is it whimsical? Is it a trashy imitation of movies like Cabaret? Who cares? You get to see Marlene sing “Just a Gigolo” and watch David Bowie and a glamorous Kim Novak in a uniquely weird film. There’s a fascinating “making of” extra and answer to how the hell they roped Marlene Dietrich into this.
The Dead Zone (Shout! Factory) A “Collector’s Edition” of a terrific 1983 adaptation of a Stephen King novel by David Cronenberg, with a haunting Christopher Walken who plays a New Hampshire school teacher who has a car accident that leaves him in a coma for five years. He awakens to find that by touching the hand of a stranger he can see imminent danger and other future events. The sheriff asks for his help in capturing an elusive killer and when he shakes hands with an oily politician (Martin Sheen), he senses the apocalyptic havoc in store for the country with him in office. An elegant, taut thriller with an unforgettable lead performance by Walken.
Strike Commando (Severin) Wild, ludicrous and enjoyable Rambo-like action film shot in the Philippines by Bruno Mattei and starring former football star turned action hero Reb Brown. Brown plays a take-no-prisoner commando behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War. He is trying to rescue a village from the Vietcong and Russian soldiers and warring with a corrupt officer (Christopher Connelly) back at the base. There’s plenty of action and lots of things blow up. Reb Brown does a tearful scene with a dying Vietnamese boy where he tries to describe Disneyland to him. “Popcorn grows on trees,” he sobs. And there’s a muscle-bound Russian soldier (Alex Vitale) he has a massive beefbag showdown with. Amazingly remastered from the original negative.
Secta Siniestra (Bloody Sect) (Vinegar Syndrome) An incredibly rare, 1982 Spanish horror film by Ignacio F. Iquino that is fabulously demented in so many great ways. A mercenary is in bed with his mistress when his mentally ill wife escapes from where she is locked in the attic and gouges out his eyes while he sleeps. The wife is thrown in jail and the blind man and his mistress go to a clinic in order to use artificial insemination to conceive a child, only to be impregnated with the sperm of Satan. And that’s only the first 20 minutes. The movie riffs off Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, The Shining among many others, but gets so wild towards the end you can’t catch your breath- or stop laughing- at the movie’s many nutty twists and outrageous turns. There’s terrific audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger who, not only explains the film’s history, but where it fits in with Spanish horror films. Newly scanned and restored from the 35mm negative, if ever there was a crackpot movie ripe for rediscovery it’s this devil baby.
Chamber of Horrors (Shout! Factory) This was conceived as a TV pilot but it was thought too violent and released in theaters with a great gimmick- any time there was an upcoming gory scene a “Horror Horn” and a “Fear Flasher” pulsated on the screens. Audiences were disappointed when the scenes that followed didn’t deliver, though. The bright spot is Patrick O’Neal, just great as a deranged criminal forced to chop off his manacled hand to escape from hanging. He outfits himself with a unique stump in which he can snap in all sorts of weapons like knives and cleavers to kill his enemies. My brother bought me the one-sheet for this forgotten horror treat, which I treasure.
Great selections as usual, so excited about Dead Zone finally making it to blu ray! I have to say, having never watched House of Wax before, it was way better than I imagined it would be. Thanks as always for the tip!