So many rare treats on Blu-ray this month- from dazzling MGM musicals to rare Warner Oland Fu Manchu thrillers, to a great new horror film from director Ti West, a memorably creepy film about alien abduction, Paul Verhoeven’s racy tale of lesbian nuns, a ready-to-be-rediscovered “giallo” thriller from the director of The Perfume of the Lady in Black, a great thriller aboard a runaway train, and the loony Love Slaves of the Amazons. And the crowning Blu-ray event has to be John Waters’ Pink Flamingos on Criterion!
Pink Flamingos (Criterion) John Waters’ incendiary celluloid bomb, lobbed into theaters in 1972, caused just the kind of havoc he envisioned. What was intended as an assault on hippie and bourgeois gay sensibilities still shocks today. Ostensibly a war between two sects for title of “filthiest person alive” there are the Johnsons led by the fabulous Divine as Babs (Anita Ekberg as Clarabelle, Jayne Mansfield as a Manson girl, Ma Kettle by way of Ma Barker). Son Crackers (Danny Mills), Cotten (Mary Vivian Pearce) and the egg-obsessed grandmother Edie (Edith Massey) who lives in a playpen. The jealous wanna-be antagonists are the Marbles- Mercurochrome-haired Connie (a glorious Mink Stole) and her blue-tressed pervert lover Raymond (David Lochary) and their “rather fertile” servant Channing (Channing Wilroy). It’s Battle of Algiers in a sandbox, with Waters go-for-broke spirit bleeding through every frame: comic and dementedly original. Audiences bonded with the renegade spirit- for many it was a perverse light in the dark- scary, funny, outrageous, and a defiant call to arms. This Criterion special edition is a 4k restoration supervised by the director; Divine Trash, a documentary by Steve Yeager; a conversation between Waters and director Jim Jarmusch; deleted scenes; a tour of the infamous locations, plus an amazing essay about the film by critic Howard Hampton.
Ziegfield Girl (Warner Archive) Great soapy, splashy MGM musical melodrama set in the 1920s about three women- Susan (Judy Garland), Sheila (Lana Turner) and Sandra (Hedy Lamarr)- who win spots in the lavish Ziegfeld Follies show on Broadway. Much like an early version of Valley of the Dolls it’s a rags-to-riches story with plenty of highs, lows and tragedy. But it also has eye-popping musical numbers care of Busby Berkeley. The “You Stepped Out of a Dream” number sung by handsome Tony Martin is memorably bonkers. Lana Turner has an aching vulnerability as the doomed heroine and Judy Garland is infectiously charming, while Hedy Lamarr is almost supernaturally beautiful. Warner Archive’s digital restorations of these musicals have been flawless and this is a really fun one.
For Me and My Gal (Warner Archive) Arthur Freed’s MGM musical unit’s fanciful version of the true-life famed vaudevillian team of Jo Hayden (Judy Garland) and Harry Palmer (Gene Kelly). Busby Berkeley directed this tuneful tale of the song and dance duo dreaming of playing the Palace Theater in NYC while the First World War rages in the background. Garland and Kelly are, as always, lovely. Filled with great songs like You Beautiful Doll, Ballin’ the Jack and a heartrending version of After You’ve Gone by Garland. Berkeley forgoes his usually eye-popping, psychedelic choreography for pure vaudeville shtick. The extras include an important career-making short with a young Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin and audio outtakes of Three Cheers for the Yanks and the deleted finale.
The Pirate (Warner Archive) This had all the earmarks of a big hit for MGM in 1948. A big, splashy musical starring Gene Kelly and Judy Garland, directed by Vincente Minnelli, with new songs by Cole Porter and produced by the legendary musical producer Arthur Freed. But this stylized tale of a young woman (Garland) living in a Caribbean Island village, unhappily engaged to the mayor (Walter Slezak), and a traveling actor (Kelly) who pretends to be a notorious pirate to win her heart didn’t click with audiences at the time. But it was definitely ahead of its time and a real delight. With outlandish, colorful costumes and scenery and amazing musical numbers- especially the “Be A Clown” number with Kelly and the glorious Nicholas Brothers. Not to mention a swashbuckling fantasy number where Kelly gets to show his unbeatable mix of athleticism and balletic grace. It’s a film ripe for rediscovery and the colors pop on this Warner Archive disc.
Fire in the Sky (Shout! Factory) A genuinely effective, really creepy film about alien abduction based on a true story. It’s about an Arizona lumberjack in 1975 (D.B. Sweeney), with his logging co-workers, who encounter a UFO. His friends get away but he is whisked aboard the ship for weird medical experiments. But when he is released he is ridiculed and disbelieved. I remember being surprised at how good this was when I saw it in a theater. James Garner plays a state investigator. The sequence aboard the spaceship is phenomenal. This new Blu-ray is a 4K scan from the original negative and comes with interviews with director Robert Lieberman and actors D. B. Sweeney and Robert Patrick.
Fu Manchu Double Feature (Kino Lorber) Several years before actor Warner Oland played detective Charlie Chan he played the villainous Fu Manchu based on the books by Sax Rohmer. The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929) is about his revenge for the death of his wife and son during the Boxer Rebellion. He sends pictures of blood-stained dragons to the British officers he feels are responsible and then poisons them. Scotland Yard detective Nayland Smith (O.P. Heggie) searches for clues and a very young Jean Arthur plays Lia, Fu Manchu’s hypnotized secret weapon of vengeance. Directed by Roland V. Lee (Zoo in Budapest), this 2K restoration sharpens the incredible production design. And then there’s the very gay servant Sylvester and his dog Phyllis. Thought to be dead, the diabolical villain returns in The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu (1930) with the same director and cast. Dr. Petrie (Neil Hamilton/from TV’s Batman) marriage to Lia (Jean Arthur) is interrupted by Fu Manchu kidnapping Lia.
X (Lionsgate) Director Ti West’s dementedly enjoyable and genuinely unsettling new film is set in 1979 Texas, where a van filled with a porn movie crew is headed to a place they have rented to film “The Farmer’s Daughters.” It’s a bunkhouse set back from the main farmhouse where a doddering old man and his ancient wife live. Martin Henderson, blustery in a big cowboy hat is the producer. His girlfriend, the coke-snorting Maxine (Mia Goth) is playing one of the daughters and fiercely dreams of superstardom. Along is the male stud performer Jackson (Kid Cudi), X-rated sexpot Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow), long-haired, movie-obsessed, cinematographer RJ (Owen Campbell), who has brought along his shy, quiet mouse of a girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Oretega) to run the boom mike. They have carefully kept their real purpose from the farmer and his wife and sneak scenes out in the barn for dirty authenticity. But the old couple have their own secrets and the frizzy, white-haired old woman can be seen spying on the young crew from windows and behind trees. At first you assume the elderly woman is suffering from some form of dementia. Trust me, it’s a whole different kind of dementia, and things turn bloody and nightmarish fast. What’s so great about the film is the mix of sardonic humor with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre-like shocks. What also is striking is the perverse subtext exploring age, sexuality and frustrated desire.
Forbidden Letters & Passing Strangers (Altered Innocence) A pioneer of queer cinema, Arthur J. Bressan Jr. (Buddies/ Gay U.S.A.) made these are two seminal films in San Francisco in the 70s, which mixed hardcore gay sex with lyrical, intensely romantic storylines. In Passing Strangers, a closeted 18-year-old (Robert Adams) enters into a pen-pal correspondence with a more confident, sexually active older man (Robert Carnagey). Shot in black & white until they finally meet and then the film turn to color like a porny Wizard of Oz, it includes real footage from a 70’s gay pride march. Forbidden Letters stars Robert Adams again as a young man warily anticipating the release of his boyfriend (Richard Locke) from prison. The voiceover is composed of letters he was too afraid to send his lover in jail and his fear that things might be irrevocably changed when they reunite. Arthur Bressan Jr. shows up in the first film as a projectionist in a porn theater. There’s a terrific on-stage Q & A with actor Robert Adams with queer historian Jenni Olson and several Super 8mm short films by the director.
Love and Human Remains (Sony) The mysteries of the human heart (including the really dark sides) are revealed in director Denys Arcand’s superior adaptation of Brad Fraser’s play. David (Thomas Gibson) is a rakish, handsome, gay waiter and former TV star who lives with Candy (Ruth Marshall), his best friend and confidante, who is juggling two relationships- one of them with a woman. There are David’s friends- the creepy/good-looking yuppie womanizer (Cameron Bancroft); a psychic dominatrix (Mia Kirshner); and a 17-year-old busboy (Matthew Ferguson) who is enamored of David- and a series of brutal serial killings swirling around them. The cast is terrific- Gibson’s cavalier attitude masks an unhappy core that is indicative of the mood of this provocative and intriguing film.
Hotel Fear (Mondo Macabro) (aka Pensione Paura) Another remarkable Italian thriller by director Francesco Barilli, whose only other feature is the diabolical The Perfume of the Lady in Black. This 1978 film takes place in Italy at the end of World War II at a run-down lakeside hotel run by a mother and her pretty, virginal daughter (Leonora Fani). There are a handful of unsavory miscreants at the hotel, and the scarcity of food makes feeding them difficult. The fabulous Luc Merenda (The Violent Professionals) plays a sleazy gigolo kept by a jealous older woman, and mom has hidden an AWOL soldier lover up in the attic. Some nights the unsettling sounds of war planes overhead make the guests extremely nervous. When the mother unexpectedly dies it’s up to the daughter to hold things together until her father comes back from the war but a mysterious figure begins stalking the hallways at night, bumping off the guests and the poor daughter is forced to lug the bodies down into the basement. Impossible to categorize as a simple “giallo,” even though there are those elements, this is a welcome treasure on Blu-ray. It comes with fascinating interviews with the director and Luc Merenda.
Strangler vs. Strangler (Mondo Macabro) Indescribably bizarre 1984 Serbian dark horror/comedy by Slobodan Sijan about an overweight man who sells carnations on the street and lives with a loony mother that punishes him for not selling enough flowers by forcing him to kneel on nutshells while she whips the palms of his hands. He begins to strangle women who dislike carnations and his infamy causes a rising rock star to write a single dedicated to the “Belgrade Strangler” that becomes a sensation- even to the killer. Meanwhile a bedraggled Inspector Clouseau-like police detective converses with his cat on how to catch the killer. The tone of the film is satiric, experimental, almost like a punk rock provocation. A controversy at the time of its release, it’s the strangest of the strange.
Last Passenger (Cohen Media Group) Nerve-shredding thriller set aboard a late-night British train where the handful of passengers, including a doctor (Dougray Scott) & his small boy, discover the train is suddenly hurtling past stations, cannot be stopped by brakes, and there is a madman locked in the engine room. Skillfully directed by Omid Nooshin, the characters are all well-drawn, believable and empathetic, which makes it even more suspenseful when things go to hell. Other superior cast members are Kara Tointon, David Schofield, Iddo Goldberg and the wonderful Lindsay Duncan. Should be used as a textbook example of how to successfully make a streamlined thriller.
The Ravager & The Bushwhacker (American Arcana/Something Weird) Two wonderfully warped sexploitation “roughies” with absolutely no socially redeeming value. My favorite kind. The Ravager (1970) is about Joe (played by thick-accented Pierre Agostino), a Vietnam Vet witnessed a woman raped and killed during the war. He returns to the States “a very sick man with a very sick mind.” Joe buys a box of dynamite, rigs some bombs and blows up lovers in a car, lesbians on a boat, even a mother and her child, occasionally pausing to be a peeping tom in this sick treat. The Bushwhacker (1968) is about a deranged man (Dan Martin) living rough in the desert in a fur-trapper hat and carrying a rifle, who shoots down a small passenger plane. The four survivors build a fire, and search for help, but this doesn’t stop them from having sex with one another. The crazed coot starts abducting the women and doing unspeakable things to them. Directed by Byron Mabe (whose other sleaze treats are The Lustful Turk, The Acid Eaters, She Freak and A Smell of Honey, A Swallow of Brine). Considering these are the best elements from the only remaining prints, the crummy quality only adds to the experience.
Giant (Warner Archive) Director George Stevens’ visually striking epic Texas drama, based on an Edna Ferber best-seller, is given the upgraded 4K Blu-ray treatment. The film starred Elizabeth Taylor as a sweet Virginia lass who marries wealthy oil tycoon Rock Hudson only to be dumped in a Victorian mansion in the middle of the dusty plains. James Dean is electrifying as the scruffy neighbor who discovers his own oil gusher. The film charts the drama through the years and touches on the effects of racism when the son (Dennis Hopper) marries a Mexican girl. With excellent performances by Mercedes McCambridge, Sal Mineo, Carroll Baker and the wonderful Jane Withers who is big as all outdoors. Tragically this was made during the time James Dean lost his life in a car crash and friend Dennis Hopper dubbed in the final dialogue. The 4K Blu-ray is sourced from the original camera negative.
The Brain from Planet Arous (The Film Detective) John Agar plays Steve, a nuclear scientist whose body is taken over by a giant alien floating brain (with eyes). The creature is named Gor and has escaped from another planet. “I need your body as a dwelling place while I am here on your earth,” it explains. Gor especially likes kissing Steve’s fiancé Sally (Joyce Meadows), who immediately knows something’s wrong. Agar’s eyes go black occasionally when Gor decides to blow up planes in the sky just for fun. A good alien, here on Earth to capture Gor, puts his essence inside the family dog in this 1957 camp classic.
Benedetta (IFC Films) When I first heard Paul Verhoeven had directed a movie about a real-life Italian 17th-century lesbian nun, I thought it was to be a nunsploitation Showgirls. But it’s actually a terrifically entertaining movie. Young Benedetta, a gift to the Italian nunnery from her parents, is willful and pious from the beginning, convinced her calling is something celestial. And her first night at the convent a giant statue of the Virgin Mary falls on her and she emerges from underneath without a scratch. In later years (now played by the luminous Virginie Efira) she is visited by visions of Jesus, has religious fits and even bleeds from her palms Stigmata-like. But Mother Superior (a sardonically spectacular Charlotte Rampling) is suspicious and skeptical of her “gifts” and takes to spying on her, catching Benedetta in a torrid affair with another novice Bartolomea (Daphne Patakia), even pleasuring themselves with a wooden dildo carved from a religious statue. A beautifully crafted period piece punctuated with wild bursts of perverse humor and stinging satire, this isn’t so much blasphemous as fiendishly subversive.
Love Slaves of the Amazons (Kino Lorber) Riotous 1957 color Universal Studios epic about a lost tribe of green-skinned warrior woman hidden deep in the Amazon. An archeologist- Dr. Peter Masters (Don Taylor)- is propositioned by a high-strung drunk (Eduardo Ciannelli) who promises to guide him to the hidden tribe (for his share of the diamonds plentiful there), but Peter gets captured and turned into a “love slave.” With a hilarious all female Amazon dance sequence that will remind you of the dances in those 50s sci-fi epics like Fire Maidens of Outer Space, Queen of Outer Space, Missile to the Moon and Cat Women of the Moon. Filmed on location in Brazil and directed by Curt Siodmak, who wrote the screenplays for The Wolf Man and Donovan’s Brain. This howler played on a double-bill with The Monolith Monsters.
Always a delight to read you reviews and recommendations, Dennis. And how refreshing to have a genre critic with an unashamedly gay slant — they’re still rare. Keep up the good work!