Talk about an eclectic Blu-ray collection to start the new year! From Orson Welles to Japanese cat women and haunted bath houses. The original 1934 Imitation of Life to a near-nude Sandra Dee in The Dunwich Horror. And is it humanly possible to live life without the Blu-ray of The Long, Long Trailer starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz? I think not.
The Lady from Shanghai (Kino Lorber) Orson Welles’ deliriously perverse 1947 film noir with a blonde, beautiful Rita Hayworth as Elsa, who is rescued in Central Park from muggers one night by O’Hara (Welles), a sailor with a heavy Irish brogue, who immediately is smitten by the mysterious, seductive Elsa. She’s married to a diabolical big-time lawyer named Bannister (a glorious Everett Sloane on walking sticks), and O’Hara, against his better judgement, is coerced into taking a job on the crew of their luxury yacht as they sail for the West Indies. Along on the trip is Bannister’s sweaty, devious partner Grimsby (unforgettably played by Glenn Anders). Before long, O’Hara’s feelings for Elsa leads him into a murderous trap. The finale of the film, set in a fun house/hall of mirrors, is visually astonishing. Welles was married to Rita Hayworth at the time and Columbia Studios head Harry Cohn supervised the final cut, removing almost an hour, but something wonderfully bizarre and darkly poetic still shines through. This includes three separate audio commentaries, a 2000 conversation with Peter Bogdanovich and comments by Turner Classic Movies’ Eddie Muller.
In the Folds of the Flesh (Mondo Macbro) One of the most gloriously bonkers giallos of all time, this wildly convoluted 1970 Italian/Spanish thriller directed by Sergio Bergonzelli opens with a beheading, and then a police chase of a criminal who sees a woman burying a body behind a castle-like, waterfront abode. The criminal comes back 13 years later from jail to blackmail those living at the villa- the governess, who cares for the home, her artist nephew and the bewigged batty daughter of the house, played by doomed, one-time Hollywood hopeful Pier Angeli (she would be dead from an overdose a year later). There are murders galore, even Nazi death-camp flashbacks and squawking vultures outside in cages watching the action. The finale has more revelations and surprise twists that any soap opera could handle in a month. But the acting is so arch and over-the-top it seems almost Fassbinder-like it it’s weirdness. A 2K restoration from the original negative, the colors pop in this deranged treat.
A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse (Mondo Macabro) Rare 1975 Japanese sleaze-fest which mixes sex, violence and a vengeful ghost cat-woman. Naomi Tani stars as the abused wife and prostitute at a bath house who is murdered and walled in by her boyfriend and the brothel madam a-la-Poe’s The Black Cat. But she returns as a spectral large white fanged cat to get even. But that is just the tip of the loony, excessive wildness in this enjoyably nutso film. A new 2K transfer from the film negative with informative extras by Patrick Macias, the author of TokyoScope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion.
House of Terrors (Mondo Macabro) Oddball 1965 gothic Japanese horror tale obviously influenced by Robert Wise’s The Haunting and other American old dark house films at the time. A widow inherits a huge remote villa from her husband who just died in a prison asylum. She arrives with her sleazy doctor father-in-law, a lawyer, a physician male friend and his girlfriend only to find a creepy hunchback caretaker. There are ghostly manifestations; screams in the night; doors breathing in and out, frightening séances, and menacing black crows flying in the windows. Then they find they are unable to leave. This is a 2K transfer from the film negative of a movie never before released in the United States. With luminous widescreen black & white cinematography, lots of creepy atmosphere and kinky sleaze thrown in for good measure, this is a real twisted treat. Introduced by Patrick Macias, author of TokyoScope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion.
Dawn of the Dead (Shout! Factory) A 4k UHD Blu-ray of a surprisingly gritty, gory, exciting living dead movie. I was predisposed to hate this 2004 movie when I went to a screening, having adored the original George Romero masterpiece. But my love for actress Sarah Polley made me curious and I was shocked at how much I enjoyed Zack Snyder’s bloody vision. Polley plays a nurse who wakes up to her suburban neighborhood transformed into a bloody battlefield with people viciously attacking and biting and killing each other. Escaping this zombie apocalypse, she encounters a policeman, Ving Rhames, a married couple- (Mekhi Phifer) & his pregnant wife (Inna Korobkina), a salesman (Jake Webber) and they head for safety to the local mall. Not the dark satire of consumerism that Romero envisioned, it’s a straight-out action horror film and really delivers. Incredibly violent and enjoyably relentless. A new 4k scan from the original negative, this 3-disc set includes the unrated and theatrical cut of the film and scores of extras, deleted scenes and audio commentary with director Zack Snyder. “When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth…”
Maigret: Season 2 (Kino Lorber) I am so indebted to Kino Lorber for putting out these restored seasons from the early 1960s BBC adaptations of Georges Simenon mysteries. Rupert Davies is superb as the pipe-smoking deductive Inspector Maigret solving crimes in Paris. This season includes 13 scintillating episodes including one about a headless body found floating in a canal; another about a ruthless businessman convinced someone is out to kill him; a man found dazed and wandering the streets unable to speak; Maigret giving evidence at a trial, slowly becoming convinced the accused is innocent and an episode where Maigret’s lovely wife (Helen Shingler) is asked to mind a baby by a strange woman in the park- and it might be connected with a murder.
The Asphyx (Kino Lorber) Riveting, thought-provoking, 1973 British sci-fi film about a scientist (Robert Stephens) and his adopted son (Robert Powell) in the 1870s, experimenting with photography on patients at the moment of their death, capturing weird, smudge-like apparitions on the negatives which they attribute to be the moment the soul leaves the body. Further studies reveal this to be a strange entity- the Asyphx, a Greek spirit of the dead that seeks out the bodies of the “dying or the damned.” They foolhardily attempt to capture this creature to retain immortality. But it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature. This is a real stunner on Blu-ray (I’ve never seen it so sharp and clear), and includes the standard and extended cut of the film.
Imitation of Life (Criterion) For those only familiar with the Douglas Sirk-directed version of the Fannie Hurst novel are in for a thrill with this sensational 1934 John M. Stahl classic. It’s still the story of two single mothers down-on-their luck. One white- Beatrice (Claudette Colbert) who sells maple syrup door to door and struggles to take care of her daughter. One black- Delilah (Louise Beavers) who moves in with Beatrice with her young daughter and soon becomes a marketing sensation with Aunt Delilah’s Pancake Flour. Their rise to fame comes with daughter troubles. Beatrice’s girl Jessie (Rochelle Hudson) falls for her mother’s ichthyologist boyfriend (Warren William), while Delilah’s daughter Peola’s (Fredi Washington) attempt to pass for white brings her mother much unhappiness. The friendship between the two women is surprisingly warm and realistic, and the big funeral still looms at the end to rip your heart out. This 4k restoration comes with a new introduction by Imogen Sara Smith and an interview by Miriam J. Petty (Stealing the Show: African American Performers and Audiences in 1930s Hollywood) about the great performances by Louise Beavers and Fredi Washington.
The Dunwich Horror (Arrow) Daniel Haller was the unheralded art director for Roger Corman– who, on a $1 budget made his Poe pictures like House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendulum look like a million. His directorial beginnings were adapting H. P. Lovecraft, with the unfairly critically dismissed Die, Monster Die and The Dunwich Horror which starred Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee. Stockwell plays Wilber Whateley, who seduces Arkham University student Nancy (Sandra Dee) to get his hands on the infamous “Necronomicon” book of spells, housed in the school library. His plan is to follow in his occult family’s dream of bringing the inter-dimensional Old Ones back into this world to wreak havoc on civilization. Whateley invites Nancy to his seaside Dunwich home, where he is feared and hated by the townspeople. He lives with his loony grandfather (Sam Jaffe) and a loathsome creature locked up in the attic. Once available on a long out-of-print Shout! Factory double feature, this is a 2K restoration from the negative and looks and sounds great, especially highlighting Les Baxter’s distinctive, haunting score. I’ve always loved this movie, with Stockwell cutting a sexy, curly-haired, mustache-twirling charm as the evil Wilber, and Sandra Dee in a drugged-out virginal haze (caused by Wilber spiking her tea), even showing some skin on the altar in a revealing open-sided cape. The trippy, solarized, red and black monster sequences in the movie are great fun. The extras include a lengthy discussion between authors Stephen R. Bissette and Stephen Laws and a 16-minute discussion about Lovecraft by fantasy writer Ruthanna Emrys.
Solomon King (Deaf Crocodile) Incredibly rare, little-known, 1974 Blaxploitation film starring, co-written and co-directed by Sal Watts as Solomon King, an ex-CIA operative and nightclub owner, keeping the Princess of a Middle Eastern country safe from assassination by an oil-obsessed tyrant- Prince Hussan (Richard Scarso). King does a crummy job and then goes on a rage-filled rampage of revenge along with his brother Maney (James Watts) and some Green Beret buddies. Filmed in Oakland with non-professionals, this has all the atmosphere of a Rudy Ray Moore film, with bad 70s fashion (and perilous platform shoes), hilarious fight chorography and filled with plenty of crackpot charm. There’s also a real family and friend labor of love feel to the movie. This is from the only known 35mm print this comes with audio commentary by film historian Walter Chaw and a three-part interview with wife of Sal Watts– Belinda Burton-Watts, and a restoration demo video. Funky and fabulous.
The Long, Long Trailer (Warner Archive) Sparkling 1954 color comedy directed with great flair by Vincente Minnelli starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as a newlywed couple who buy a large travel trailer motor home and trek across the country for their honeymoon with disastrous (and hilarious) results. There are memorable comic sequences- a hair-raising trek through the mountains; a calamitous meal made while the trailer is moving; a motor home back-in parking nightmare at a relative’s. There’s something utterly charming about this movie and Arnaz and Ball’s chemistry and comic timing is, not-surprisingly, perfection.
I love the Lady From Shanghai, though I sure like to have seen the directors cut.
Very well written, Mr. Dermody !