Talk about “coming in like a lion.” This month is a treasure trove of offbeat Blu-ray releases. From a rarely seen supernatural thriller starring Shirley MacLaine, to a great Alan Rudolph movie, to the first film in 10 years from provocative French director Catherine Breillat, to a 3D film noir starring Edward G. Robinson, a terrific Bruce LaBruce film, to a sensational “giallo” from Lucio Fulci, a perverse Luis Bunuel film starring the divine Jeanne Moreau, to the gloriously surreal Mansion of Madness and the crackpot Delicatessen. Not to mention sexpot Mamie Van Doren in College Confidential. March is not “going out like a lamb.”
The Possession of Joel Delaney (Vinegar Syndrome) A desperately weird 1972 occult thriller (based on a novel by Ramona Stewart) starring Shirley MacLaine as Norah, a wealthy Manhattan divorcee living with her two small children. She is continuously concerned about her aimless, handsome brother Joel (Perry King) who lives in an apartment once rented by the Superintendent’s son Tonio (who has been missing for some time), “He’s just about the best friend I’ve ever had. He stands for everything Norah hates.” Unfortunately, his Puerto Rican buddy Tonio is also a homicidal maniac, beheading women in the city. After Joel is hospitalized in Bellevue after a violent altercation he starts to spout Spanish and behave in a bizarre, scary fashion. Norah becomes convinced he is possessed by Tonio’s spirit and consults a Santeria priest to help exorcize her beloved brother. A real snapshot of Manhattan in the dark days of the 70s. This film, directed by Waris Hussein, is kind of a mess, but it’s ultimately a fascinating one. I have repeatedly brought it up for years but it has been so difficult to find anywhere. This is restored in 4K from the original camera negative. Perry King was fresh from Juilliard when he got the lead in the film and he said Shirley MacLaine was so incredibly kind and supportive, even educating him on how to hit a “mark” in the film (which he had no idea what that was at the time). A two-disc set with audio commentaries and an interview with the director, plus locations in the film (then and now).
Last Summer (Criterion) Provocative director Catherine Breillat’s exhilarating return to cinema after 10 years with this bold reimagining of the 2019 Danish film Queen of Hearts. Lea Drucker is mesmerizing as Anne, a lawyer/advocate, representing teenage victims of abuse. She is married to a successful businessman Pierre (Olivier Rabourdin) and has two sweet, loving adopted daughters. Pierre’s delinquent 17-year-old son Theo (Samuel Kircher) has come to stay with them. He had been living with his mother, but after a violent altercation with a teacher he is forced to move in with his dad. Theo adores the two girls but is sullen and dismissive towards his father and stepmother. But during the course of the summer Anne and Theo suddenly warm to each other and begin a tempestuous, disastrous affair. Typical of Breillat, she plays this out with incredible believability. Anne’s surprising ability to turn the tables on Theo when things go horribly wrong is utterly fascinating. Lea Drucker and Samuel Kircher are just phenomenal. There is this foreboding sense of suspense to Breillat’s film. It’s like viewing a car crash in slow motion- you watch and wait in horror for the impact and destruction to come.
Diary of a Chambermaid (Kino Lorber) Luis Bunuel’s 1964 twisted tale of Claire (Jeanne Moreau), a Parisian who comes to work as a maid in a rural estate in the 1930s. The lady of the house (Francoise Lugagne) is overly consumed with fear that her knickknacks will be damaged. Her elderly father spends his time erotically coveting women’s shoes. The husband (Michel Piccoli) is a randy adulterer who Claire brushes off by telling him she is from Paris; “a slut” and has “syphilis.” Then there’s Joseph (Georges Geret), the racist brute who works for the family that Claire is convinced raped and murdered a young girl. Many of Bunuel’s usual targets- fascists, religion, the bourgeoisie- are skewered but in a more realist narrative then his surreal masterpieces like Viridiana and The Exterminating Angel. It’s, as Pauline Kael reviewed it, “revoltingly beautiful,” cinematically. Jeanne Moreau is absolutely subline. And the film is subversive as hell.
The Glass Web (Kino Lorber) A fabulous new restoration by the 3-D Film Archive of a rare 1953 black and white film noir by Jack Arnold, who had luck with other 3-D films like Creature from the Black Lagoon and It Came from Outer Space. Kathleen Hughes plays a sexy, manipulative vixen named Paula Ranier who targets men and then bleeds them dry through intimidation, extortion or just using her feminine wiles. She is presently blackmailing Don (John Forsythe) the married head writer of a popular TV show “Crime of the Week,” who she had a brief affair with. Not to mention coercing money from the fact checker for the show Henry Hayes (Edward G. Robinson). When she is found strangled, Henry decides to base a show on her murder, putting Don in a nightmarish position. It’s a cat and mouse game with a wild finale and the 3-D is wonderful. Especially later in the film when Don is walking dazed through the city and almost injured in front of a construction chute shooting out rocks (into the audience’s lap). The film comes with scholarly commentary and is presented in 2-D, Blu-ray 3-D and Anaglyphic (red/cyan) version with a pair of 3-D glasses included.
Don’t Torture a Duckling (Arrow) A beautiful 4K UHD restoration Lucio Fulci’s 1972 “giallo” masterpiece (with truly one of the best titles for a movie ever). A Southern Italian village is terrorized by a series of child killings. A journalist (Tomas Milian) attempts to make sense of the crimes, while the superstitious townspeople focus their suspicion on the local “witch” (Florinda Bolkan). Barbara Bouchet plays a decadent wealthy woman who vacations nearby and sexually teases the young men in town. Fulci’s film is intense, thought provoking, and absolutely riveting. Restored from the Techniscope camera negative by Arrow Films, this limited edition comes with sensational audio commentary by Troy Howarth (who penned several great books about the “giallo” thrillers). Plus, a rare 1988 audio interview with Lucio Fulci and a video essay by critic Kat Ellinger.
Choose Me (Criterion) Just watching the opening credits, with a sexy Lesley Ann Warren seductively dancing down the nighttime streets towards the neon-reflected “Eve’s Lounge” with the luscious, smoky baritone of Teddy Pendergrass’ voice singing “Choose Me” on the soundtrack, and I’m a goner. One of my favorite films from Robert Altman protégé Alan Rudolph (although Remember My Name is a close second). Lesley Ann Warren plays Eve, the owner and bartender at the lounge and into the club one night comes a ridiculously handsome stranger- Mickey (Keith Carradine), an escapee from a mental institution who everyone believes is a pathological liar but is amazingly always telling the truth. Genevieve Bujold plays the radio talk show sensation Nancy Love, dispensing sage advice over the air but frustrated and unhappy in her personal life, moving in as roommate with Eve under the fake name “Anne.” Rae Dawn Chong plays Pearl, married to a brute (Patrick Bauchau), who is sleeping with Eve, but also fascinated by the enigmatic oddball Mickey. The film is infused with such loony romanticism and the performances are all just sensational. And the end is just sublime. As an extra, there is a fantastic conversation between longtime collaborators and good friends Keith Carradine and Alan Rudolph about the making of the film that is the very best.
Saint-Narcisse (Film Movement) Provocative Canadian queer-core pioneer Bruce LaBuce’s film is one his best yet- a twisted masterpiece about sexy, self-obsessed, Polaroid-popping, motorcycle-riding Dominic (Felix-Antoine Duval) who tracks down the mother he never knew was alive- a witch who lives deep in the forest with her ageless female lover. He then spies a brooding, cigarette-smoking monk named Daniel (also played by Felix-Antoine Duval) who he frighteningly resembles. Daniel is sexually involved with an obsessive older priest who is unwholesomely fixated on the handsome young man being connected with Saint Sebastian. LaBruce weaves this incestuous melodrama with erotic tension and dark humor in all sorts of inventive, unexpected ways and the ending is sardonic and sublime. Comes with deleted scenes and audio commentary by the director.
College Confidential (Kino Lorber) “No film dared touch this theme before!” screamed the ads for this film from Albert Zugsmith (producer of Touch of Evil, not to mention Sex Kittens go to College). Steve Allen, who had a successful TV talk show, stars as sociology professor Steve MacInter, who comes under fire when he interviews the college kids as a survey about the lifestyles of the younger generation. But it’s the questions about “S-E-X” that cause the parents to flip out. Then at a party at his house someone spikes the punch and slips in a dirty film in between his home movies (showing the students horsing around at the park) and all hell breaks loose. There’s a big trial covered by such journalistic luminaries as Walter Winchell and Sheilah Graham. Country star Conway Twitty sings and Mamie Van Doren plays a sex kitten who lies to her father (Elisha Cook Jr.) about the professor making a pass at her. There’s an endless, sanctimonious sermon at the end by Steve Allen at his trial that will have you falling off the couch laughing. Allen’s real wife Jayne Meadows stars as a NY Times reporter in this long sought after 1960 howler.
Nosferatu (Universal) What’s so unique about Robert Eggers’ ghoulishly brilliant interpretation of Nosferatu is that he does not forget it is a tale of horror. And even though the film has all the gothic trappings of a Hammer film- there is this paralyzing sense of menace that bleeds from every frame. There is the familiar set up- Nicholas Hoult plays the recently married Thomas, forced by his real estate boss (Simon McBurney) to travel deep into the Carpathian Mountains to meet a reclusive eccentric- Count Orlac (Bill Skarsgard)- in order to sign the deed to a London ruin. Along the way, the gypsies beg him not to go to the castle. And they are right. The Count is a monstrous vampiric entity and he has a psychic connection to Thomas’ wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) from the past. Meanwhile, Ellen suffers somnambulistic nights and has dark visions of something evil “coming,” Before long a ship crashes ashore with no crew member left alive and overflowing with rats. A plague seizes the city and a strange scholar of the occult (Willem Dafoe– just terrific) is brought in to uncover what is possessing Ellen. And how to combat the evil that has descended on the city. The cinematography by Jarin Blaschke is nightmarishly atmospheric. The production design by Craig Lathrop is phenomenal. The score by Robin Carolan is deliciously creepy. And the rest of the cast- Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Emma Corrin and Ralph Ineson– are perfection. The original 1922 silent version of Nosferatu by F. W. Murnau was visually hypnotic, and had a memorably chilling Max Schreck in the lead. The 1979 Werner Herzog interpretation- Nosferatu, the Vampire– had the magnetic madness of Klaus Kinski. But What Eggers (and Skarsgard) capture so frightfully is the ancient creature’s towering malevolence. There’s something terrifying about him- the rumble of his voice- the shadow creeping across the wall- everything drips with deadly fury. Bill Skarsgard’s Count Orlac is no cape-wearing, sensual blood-sucker. He is a foul, rotting beast and in director Robert Eggers’ gothic horror masterpiece you are never allowed to forget that.
The Mansion of Madness (Vinegar Syndrome) Visually sumptuous, incredibly surreal 1972 film By Juan Lopez Moctezuma (Alucarda) based on an Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether.” Arthur Hansel stars as Gaston, a journalist traveling to a remote fortress-like asylum deep in the forest run by Dr. Maillard (Claudio Brook) who has “a novel way of treating the mad.” In fact, the patients are let to roam freely, acting out their wildest fantasies. They even dress like French officers, carrying rifles and firearms. Gaston tries to escape with a beautiful patient (Ellen Sherman) but they both are captured and returned to even more insanity. Part of the Mexican film renaissance at the time, Moctezuma produced some of the early films of Alejandro Jodorowsky, which this film feels a kinship to. A mix of Fellini with Marat/Sade, it is so strange and beautifully bizarre with astonishing art direction, costuming and cinematography, it’s quite unforgettable and looks absolutely gorgeous on Blu-ray. There’s a wonderful extra with the director’s daughter about her complicated, creative father, not to mention an interview with actress Ellen Sherman on the strange experience making the film was. There’s even a feature-length documentary on the director that is just incredible.
The Killer is Not Alone (Mondo Macabro) A genuinely strange 1973 portrait of a killer. Julio (David Carpenter aka Domingo Codesido Ascanio) is a shy, handsome student, the son of a wealthy industrialist, who, because of a sexual trauma he experienced in his youth has turned into a repressed psycho-killer, brutally strangling women with piano wire. He flees to Madrid and checks into a rooming house run by dance teacher Dona Dolores (played by well-known actress and flamenco dancer Lola Flores). Julio takes a shine to Dona’s pretty daughter Monica (Teresa Rabal) but his urge to kill returns. There are truly bizarre touches like Julio’s love for hotdogs and rhinoceroses, not to mention all the shots of the celebration of Holy Week in the streets. It’s a hotbed of neurosis, repression and Catholicism. Directed by Jesus Garcia de Duenas, this was his only feature film. The extras include invaluable audio commentary by Troy Howarth and Rod Barnett and a fascinating interview with the director of the Stiges film festival Angel Sala.
The Hungry Snake Woman (Mondo Macabro) Outlandish Indonesian film starring “Suzzanna, the queen of horror.” The snake queen lives in a cave with her curvaceous, cannibalistic handmaidens. She entices an unemployed rapist to kill three women for her- by drinking their blood and then eating their breasts (he even wears a Dracula cape and fangs). There’s a half-snake woman with a dwarf henchman who plots against the queen, not to mention bursts of kung-fu fighting, fathers vomiting centipedes and other loony bits of black magic- including turning two fake psychics into actual turkeys. Trust me, this is a jaw-unhinging blast from beginning to end.
Tokugawa Sex Ban (Mondo Macabro) A feudal lord is forced to marry the shogun’s daughter princess Kiyo. But he likes martial arts, is a 34-year-old virgin and confirmed misogynist. A “French sex doll” (Sandra Julien) is brought in to teach the lord the joys of sex and he takes to it too well. He decides to make a new law that forbids anyone but himself from sex. And punishable by castration or death. The villagers eventually riot and use a penis-shaped battering ram to storm the palace. This mix of period sets and costumes, softcore eroticism and dark humor is a winning combination for this enjoyably bonkers film directed by Norifumi Suzuki (School of the Holy Beast and Star of David: Beautiful Girl Hunter).
Delicatessen (Severin) A post-apocalyptic wild comedy about a butcher who hires assistants and then makes mincemeat out of them, which he sells to the whacked-out inhabitants of his apartment building. His new employee, a former circus performer, proves to be a real match for him when he falls for his daughter and the butcher loses control. There are great characters in this fun house of a movie- an escargot-lover whose apartment is alive with snails, a woman who sets up elaborate Rube Goldberg suicide schemes that always misfire and a demented group of terrorists, the Troglodins. Co-directed by Marc Caro (The City of Lost Children) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie). The 1991 film may remind you of the best of the Coen brothers, Sam Raimi, Terry Gillian and Pedro Almodovar, but when all is said and done, it’s unique, and lots of fun to watch. Restored in 4K from the original camera negative this comes with almost 6 hours of new and archival special features.