An April shower of loony Blu-ray releases this month that leaves me salivating. Two more sleazy greats from Russ Meyer; two deranged Category III Asian shockers; rare Italian “giallo” thrillers; The Best Movie Oscar from Sean Baker; a moving new Pedro Almodovar film; a perverse movie adaptation of a banned Dennis Potter play with a terrific performance by Sting; a documentary about Liza Minnelli; more freaky film noir; a somewhat trashy Harold Robbins film adaptation starring Tommy Lee Jones at his hunkiest; not to mention the late, great, Wings Hauser in a whacked-out supernatural slasher film. Christ, and if that isn’t enough- Joan Crawford marrying above her station in a pre-Code 1934 melodrama.
Motorpsycho! (Severin) Russ Meyer’s 1965 male counterpart to Faster Pussycat, Kill, Killl! Is about three violent Vietnam vets on motor bikes (not Harley Davidson but more Hondas). They rape a veterinarian’s (Alex Rocco) wife and he goes in pursuit. (Russ Meyer plays a sleazy cop). The three toughs shoot an old coot and steal his truck and leave his Cajun bride (Haji) for dead. The vet rescues her but gets bitten by a rattler. “Suck it, suck it!” he screams as Haji sucks out the poison. When one of thugs try to attack Haji she grabs a knife and stabs him. Stephen Oliver plays the deranged biker who still thinks he’s still in Vietnam and fighting “commies.” Beautifully shot in black and white (by Meyer), this was scanned in 4K from the original negative and restored by the Museum of Modern Art. Filled with the just right mix of loony sex and violence (and humor) that made it a box office hit for Meyer and caused him to follow up with his masterpiece Faster, Pussycat, Kill, Kill! Meyer’s film anticipated the biker film craze that The Wild Angels created a year later. Haji, as usual, steals the show. A fun extra about the making-of the film- “Desert Rats, On Hondas,” with Haji and Alex Rocco is fantastic.
Up! (Severin) Russ Meyer’s 1976, cartoonish, sexy, ultra-violent saga, which opens with, “No Fairy Tale…This!” Roger Ebert co-wrote the script which is more chaotic, almost incomprehensible plot-wise, with plenty of well-endowed women and men with artificial giant penises. Set around Alice’s Café in the woodsy land of loggers, sleazy cops and randy husbands. Raven De La Croix plays the buxom Amazonian Margo Winchester, surviving a stranger’s rape to become the corrupt town cop’s girlfriend and then a very, very popular waitress at the café. The movie opens with an Adolph Hitler-look-a-like killed in his bathtub with piranha fish. And ends in a wild free-for-all at the café involving large axes and chainsaws. Blood and breasts, indeed. There’s a fun interview with Raven De La Croix about making the film (and almost drowning in an early scene). Handsome Robert McLane plays the diner owner’s husband Paul. McLane starred in the gay film A Very Natural Thing (1974) (under the name Robert Joel) and tragically died of AIDs in 1992. Newly scanned in 4K from the original negative.
Devil Fetus/Her Vengeance (Vinegar Syndrome) Two bonkers Category III (Adults Only) films from Hong Kong’s golden era of off-the-wall filmmaking. Devil Fetus (1985) During the “Feast of the Hungry Ghost” a woman buys a mysterious green jade vase which promises to fulfill her deepest desires. Unfortunately, it unleashes a Tibetan Sex Demon which materializes as a crusty green monster which ravishes the woman while she sleeps. Her husband smashes the vase only to die a hideous face-ripping death. After that the curse ripples through the family in hideous, deadly ways. A birthday cake for a grandmother’s party is suddenly filled with writhing worms. The family dog becomes possessed by the demon only to pass into the younger son when he eats the animal’s intestines. The entire ending is jaw-dropping in its lunacy with the son’s body splitting in half to reveal the evil spirit. Her Vengeance (1988) is an incredibly nasty rape/revenge saga, a remake of a Shaw Brothers film The Kiss of Death, but really a spiritual sister to I Spit on Your Grave. Pauline Wong Siu-fung stars as woman raped by five vicious criminals after work and given an incurable venereal disease. She heads to a seedy Hong Kong nightclub to her wheelchair-bound gangster Uncle (Lam Ching-ying) in order to seek revenge. Targeting the men, she disposes of them in grisly ways (occasionally having the attempts backfire). It ends in a big showdown in the nightclub, the place booby-trapped with fishhooks, crossbows, sharpened pipes and even crushed hot peppers. There were actually four different versions of the film but luckily the most complete version is here, preserving every sadistic twist and grisly shock.
Forgotten Gialli: Volume 8 (Vinegar Syndrome) Another sensational collection of rare Italian thrillers scanned and restored in 2K from the best surviving elements. Rings of Fear (1978) Planned by director Massimo Dallamano as the third in the “schoolgirls in peril” trilogy which included What Have You Done to Solange? and What Have They Done to Your Daughters? Dallamano died in a car accident and TV director Alberto Negrin was brought in to helm this Spanish/Italian production which was said to be a troubled shoot. Handsome Fabio Testi plays an eccentric police inspector investigating the brutal murder of a 16-year-old who attended a posh all-girl’s school. He uncovers a sleazy nest of corruption and underage prostitution, with links to powerful people. For all the chaos behind the making-of the film, this is actually rather entertaining and filled with nice offbeat touches. (Testi’s inspector interrogating a suspect on a roller coaster is a hilarious high point). The extras include a great interview with Fabio Testi, telling great stories about his film career while sitting on a couch with a very loving, over-sized dog. Also on the disc is great, informative audio commentary by Troy Howard, Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolani. Reflections in Black (1974) A woman is chased out of her apartment in a flimsy robe and slashed to death with a straight-razor in a phone booth by a mysterious woman dressed in black. Soon more women are found dead. It’s up to the inspector (played by a good-looking but wooden John Richardson) and his comic Sergeant sidekick (played by the scene-stealing Tano Cimarosa) to weed through a host of suspects like pimps (a funny Ninetto Davoli– used frequently in films by Pier Paolo Pasolini), drug dealing hairdressers, and lesbian photographers. Not to mention investigating kinky sex parties thrown by the decadent aristocracy in order to unmask the killer. Tano Cimarosa is also listed as the director, but thanks to an excellent featurette by Eugenio Ercolani, it is revealed the real director was Gianni Siragusa, listed as “assistant director’ in the credits. Tano Cimarosa started as a puppeteer and became a well-known character actor in scores of Italian genre films. A.A.A. Masseuse, Good-Looking, Offers Her Services (1978) Beautiful Paola Senatore plays Cristina, weary of her father’s (Jack Betts) controlling ways, who leaves home and moves in with her student friend Paola (Simonetta Vitelli). Desperate for money she posts an ad in the paper as a masseuse and prostitutes herself for easy cash. She even meets the slick, fast-talking Oskar (Howard Ross) who promises to connect her with wealthy clients (and takes 50% of her earnings). But then all her tricks turn up dead, their throats slit by a mysterious killer. Is it Cristina’s sweet but dull boyfriend? Her obsessive dad? Her untrustworthy pimp? Her roommate’s sleazy boyfriend? Directed by Demofilo Fidano, there’s a great featurette by Eugenio Ercoli with Simonetta Vitelli (Paola in the film, who was actually the director’s daughter). Her father and mother (Mila Vitelli) began as painters, then drifted into film as set decorators. Eventually Demofila Fidano began directing, primarily spaghetti westerns and it was a family affair with mother and daughter working on the set. Mila even sold her jewelry when money was tight in order to pay the crew. Simonetta played small roles in the films- as kidnapped girls or saloon gals. It all made for very happy sets. (The only actor they ever had problems with was, of course, Klaus Kinski). After leaving filmmaking, Demofilia threw himself into his fascination with Parapsychology. There’s another great extra on the disc about the turbulent life of actress Paola Senatore.
Anora. Criterion). Director Sean Baker’s (The Florida Project) latest is a rollicking, raunchy, riotously funny film about a 23-year-old Brighton Beach exotic dancer Anora (or “Ani” as she lies to be called). played winningly by Mikey Madison. One night she does a lap dance for a crazy, rich Russian- Ivan (Mark Eydelshtein), who offers her $15,000 to spend a wild week with him in his parent’s mansion. They party, they fuck- he’s like a big immature kid. He has sex like a jack rabbit, smokes pot and plays video games in his boxers. But Ani finds him rather amusing. They fly off to Las Vegas just for fun and impulsively get married, but there is hell to pay when they come home and his godfather Toros (Karren Karagulian) finds out. Toros hurries over with two thugs- Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov)- in order to annul the marriage before the wealthy, furious Russian parents get to NY in their private plane. Ivan runs away leaving Ani to fight off the goons on her own. But she is a scrappy, foul-mouthed fury- she breaks Garnick’s nose, and Igor has to tie her down with a telephone cord to keep her from leaving. Then they drive around Coney Island hunting for the wayward son- who is busy drinking, carousing and throwing money around in a myriad of clubs. Pretty Woman 2 this ain’t. Sean Baker delights in filming the more fringe members of society- but he is never judgmental in any way. Ani is a real tough cookie, but genuinely sweet too, and during their frantic, freewheeling night you can even see Igor’s admiration for her indomitable spunk grow in the face of all this chaos. The 4K digital restoration includes two audio commentaries, a making-of documentary, the Cannes Film Festival press conference and deleted scenes.
The Room Next Door (Sony) (DVD only) Director Pedro Almodovar’s first English-language film, based on the novel What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez, is a compassionate, elegant, transcendent tale of friendship and mortality. Julianne Moore plays Ingrid who, after many years rekindles friendship with her old friend Martha (Tilda Swinton)- they were close during their youthful days when they both worked at Paper magazine. Ingrid went on to became an auto/fiction novelist and Martha a war correspondent. Martha is now battling cancer, but because the treatments and experimental drugs aren’t working she asks Ingrid to accompany her to a rented house in upstate New York and be with her when she takes her life (aided by a pill she purchased off the dark web). Ingrid has just finished a book about her fear of death and is horrified and reluctant at first but gives in to be there for her friend. This is not the bummer it sounds like at all. There is great empathy without cloying sentimentality. There is also great wit and warmth. Not to mention two towering performances by Swinton and Moore– whose friendship and feelings for each other is poignant and palpable. Almodovar always has such specific color schemes in his films, and here the color red is used beautifully- right down to the red door of Martha’s room and the scarlet lipstick she eventually applies to her lips. The movie covers friendship with such simplicity, truthfulness and tenderness, not to mention slipping in perfect literary and cinematic allusions, like James Joyce’s The Dead, and the infinite joy of watching Buster Keaton. Pedro even playfully throws in a reference to Erotic Vagrancies, a new book about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s tumultuous love affair. But it’s really about the strong bond of friendship in the face of tragedy, and there is such beauty, loveliness and hopefulness in that.
Sadie McKee (Warner Archive) “Every gal has her price, and mine’s high,” says Sadie McKee (Joan Crawford), in this crackling 1934 pre-Code melodrama. She’s the daughter of a cook who gets jilted at the alter in NYC and ends up working as a dance hall girl. Into the club one night comes a drunken millionaire Jack Brennan (Edward Arnold) and her old nemesis- lawyer Mike Alderson (Franchot Tone– who Crawford would marry in real life shortly afterwards). Alderson’s family employs her mother and he disapproves when Brennan becomes smitten with Sadie and asks for her hand in marriage. Terrific songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed are sprinkled throughout like “All I Do Is Dream of You.” (Clips from this film were used in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?). Don’t miss the three wonderful 30s Warner Brothers cartoons as extras- especially the magical color woodland fantasia called “Pop Goes Your Heart.”
Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story (Kino Lorber) A rich, moving examination of the life and career of the phenomenally talented Liza Minnelli. Directed by Bruce David Klein, the film is structured in chapters of the people who helped shape and mold her as a singer and as a person. From Kay Thompson, Charles Aznavour, Bob Fosse, Fred Ebb, Halston and others. You learn what a loyal friend she can be from Michael Feinstein, Mia Farrow, Ben Vereen, Joel Grey and many more. With a wonderfully edited flashback of her life, including the turbulent relationship with her famous mother Judy Garland. It doesn’t shy away from the pitfalls and drama either. From failed relationships and publically addressing her problems with addiction. Just terrific indeed.
Brimstone & Treacle (Vinegar Syndrome) This began as an original teleplay to air on British TV by the wildly original playwright Dennis Potter (The Singing Detective/Pennies from Heaven). But it was banned by the BBC and never aired. Luckily for us there is an excellent 1982 film version directed by Richard Loncraine. Sting stars in the title role as a mysterious interloper who weasels his way into the fraught home of a middle-class North London couple- Tom (Denholm Elliot) and Norma (Joan Plowright), caring for their daughter Patricia (Suzanna Hamilton), left in a vegetative state after a hit and run accident. Martin (Sting) manipulates his way in by claiming to be the long-lost fiancé of Patricia and offering to help care for her to ease the strain on Norma. But we see how diabolical and almost supernaturally evil he is when left alone with Patricia. Denholm Elliot and Joan Plowright are phenomenal, and Sting (in his acting debut) is fiendishly good. While it feels a bit stagey, it’s still a wonderful dark comedy. This is a 4k UHD restoration from the original camera negative and includes an interview with the director and production designer and an extra about the film adaptations of Dennis Potter’s work. (The opening and closing credits of the film are just gorgeous
The Betsy (Imprint) God forgive me, but I love these glossy all-star studio adaptations of Harold Robbins novels. The Carpetbaggers; The Adventurers; Where Love Has Gone; The Lonely Lady are all hilariously soapy and enjoyably ludicrous on screen. This was a later entry and stars Tommy Lee Jones at his young, strikingly handsome, best as Angelo, a fearless race car driver who is approached by the 90-year-old head of an automobile empire (played with hammy intensity by Laurence Olivier) to create a new car named “Betsy” after his pretty granddaughter (Kathleen Beller). Robert Duvall plays Loren the 3rd, the scheming grandson who runs the company and is dead set on not having this new car come out. There is flashbacks galore- Olivier is really in throughout the whole film and is having a grand old time chewing the scenery on screen. Sex, secrets, lies and all sorts of underhanded shenanigans happen (even tossing gay villains out of windows when they get in the way). Lesley-Anne Down is a hoot as Lady Bobby, the sexy English mistress of Loren and also sleeping with the hot race car driver Angelo. There’s something bloodless about this 1978 film directed by Daniel Petrie– you wish they went for broke and captured the trashy fervor of Robbins’ novels. But it’s still a lot of fun (I remember seeing this with a friend when it came out and we were crying laughing). This 2K scan Blu-ray looks great and includes really entertaining and informative audio commentary by Howard S. Berger and Nathanial Thompson. This Australian Blu-ray is region-free and plays on U.S. players.
Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXIII (Kino Lorber) Rope of Sand (1949) In a remote part of South West Africa a sadistic security chief (Paul Henreid) keeps anyone from smuggling diamonds out of the restricted area. Burt Lancaster plays Mike Davis, a guide who returns to the area to retrieve some stolen gems. Claude Rains plays Martingale, a mining manager who hires a prostitute (Corinne Calvet) to ferret out where Mike has hidden the diamonds. Peter Lorre plays “Toady.” Directed by William Dieterle, the desert scenes were shot in Yuma, Arizona. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950) The film opens during a trial where the prosecutor is addressing the jury about the seven defendants, “These seven people are on trial either for murder or being accomplices to the act of murder. What they did, they did gladly and with full understanding. They are evil. All of them. Seven evil people. Look at them carefully because they are your enemies and the enemies of every decent citizen.” Then we flashback to their crimes. James Cagney plays career criminal Ralph Cotter, who escapes a chain gang and joins up with his criminal posse. Tragic actress Barbara Payton plays one of the seven “evil people” Holiday Carleton, whose thinks her brother (Neville Brand) was shot to death by the guards escaping (it was actually Cotter who killed him). She gets involved with Ralph in a truly toxic relationship that ends in murder. Cagney gets to play a real vicious killer in this, his last gangster role. Directed by Gordon Douglas (Them!). Barbara Payton gives one of her best performances. Never Love a Stranger (1958) Based on Harold Robbins first novel, the film follows the rise and fall of Frankie Kane (John Drew Barrymore) from early days in a Catholic orphanage to shoe shine boy in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen to his rise in the criminal underworld. A young Steve McQueen plays Kane’s best friend Martin Cabell, a Jewish law student who eventually becomes district attorney. Dorothy Collins sings the theme song.
Whore (Kino Lorber) The NC-17 version of Ken Russell’s sleazy 1991 film about one sordid day in the life of a street whore (Theresa Russell), looking for tricks on the side of the road and avoiding her violent pimp Blake (Benjamin Mouton). Antonio Fargas plays a slightly unhinged street person named Rasta who comes to her rescue often. Russell breaks the fourth wall and relates to the audience where she came from, the drunken cheating husband she ran out on and the son she begrudgingly gave away to a childless couple. Not to mention the brutality of life on the streets. There were several versions of the film and author Tim Lucas takes us on a tour of the differences between them in an interesting extra (he also does the audio commentary). The Blockbuster chain of video rentals changed the title to make it more family friendly to “If You Can’t Say It, Just See It.” The screenwriter Deborah Dalton talks candidly and warmly about her relationship with director Ken Russell. One movie marquee in the film is playing Russell’s Lair of the White Worm with Space Sluts Go to College.
The Carpenter (Vinegar Syndrome) I was really saddened to hear that Wings Hauser died recently. He was one of those character actors that I always looked forward to in films and on TV. There was this wide-eyed sardonic snap to every performance. Look at him as the vicious pimp in the film Vice Squad– he’s genuinely terrifying but there’s this pitch-dark comic undertone also that is mesmerizing. I’m thrilled that Vinegar Syndrome rescued the genuinely offbeat 1988 film- The Carpenter, restoring it in 2K from the best existing film elements, not to mention reintegrating the censored gore. The film is about Alice Jarett (Lynne Adams), just released from the nuthouse after a breakdown. Her cheating husband has purchased a house in the country and workman are around all day doing the renovations. She notices at night there is this lone carpenter (Wings Hauser) working tirelessly. Anytime someone breaks into the house to do harm, the carpenter is there with a buzz saw, a sander, a nail gun to dispose of the creeps. Even when Alice catches him drilling into one of the victims she doesn’t seem fazed by any of it. Is he a figment of her imagination? A supernatural entity? Or her psycho fairy godmother? Directed by David Wellington and shot in Quebec, this is the damndest of films. Impossible to categorize on any level. Is it a black comedy? A slasher film? Who cares? Wings Hauser is diabolically fun in the movie, giving a witty, surprisingly restrained performance. The Blu-ray includes a “making-of” feature and a fun interview with the late, great, Wings Hauser, who admits when he gets on a film set, “I just show up and pray to God that I don’t fuck it up.”
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