Batshit Blu-rays of the Month- 11 for June

            Sure, June is the month that is the gateway to summer. But June is also busting out all over home media, especially giving new visual and audio clarity to mainstream favorites and also artistic, boundary-pushing treats. Finally, a gorgeous Blu-ray of Splendor in the Grass. Not to mention the jaw-dropping Ma Mere. The truly sublime actress Zohra Lampert plays a fragile witness to a vampiric interloper in Let’s Scare Jessica to Death. An ahead-of-its-time visionary sci-fi classic- Dark City. Paul Schrader’s magnificent Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. Plus whacked-out cult films are given new life this month including a rare Sal Mineo & John Saxon-starring rock n’ roll hoot- Rock, Pretty Baby!

            Splendor in the Grass (Warner Archive). This heartbreaking 1961 classic starring Warren Beatty (his sensational feature film debut) and a luminous Natalie Wood was sensitively directed by Elia Kazan from an original screenplay by William Inge (Picnic, Bus Stop). The title is a quote from William Wordsworth: “Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower, we will grieve not; rather find strength in what remains behind.” Set in Kansas in 1928, two high school sweethearts navigate the sexual repression and mores of the time, not to mention the smothering influences of their families. Bud Stamper (Beatty) is from a wealthy family, his father is a womanizing tycoon (played beautifully by Pat Hingle). His sister (Barbara Loden) is a sexually free-wheeling disaster, getting expelled from every school she is sent to. Bud’s love is “Deanie” Loomis (Wood), a girl from a modest, working class family, and while they desperately try to have a chaste, loving relationship, the repression finally drives her around the bend into a full-blown nervous breakdown. Leave it to Inge to write that being horny can make you mental. (Although, if I’m entirely honest- I’ve been there). The performances are all extraordinary and the film leaves a powerful, emotional punch- the ending has haunted me for decades. Finally available on Blu-ray, this is truly a home media collectors event.  

            Ma Mere (KimStim) There’s a soulful Jean-Pierre Leaud quality to tousle-haired beauty Louis Garrel (The Dreamers), who plays the unfortunate son in this outrageous 2004 shocker directed by Christophe Honore and based on a novel by George Bataille. Vacationing with mom (Isabelle Huppert) in the Canary Islands they receive word that dad has died and mom takes it on herself not merely to corrupt her son’s morals with her hedonistic lifestyle- but strip mine his soul. Joan Crawford may have been a terror- but she never egged on her girlfriend to rim her son while she watched. You’ve got to hand it to the astonishing Isabelle Huppert– she’s utterly fearless.

            Let’s Scare Jessica To Death (Vinegar Syndrome) Zohra Lampert gives a sublime performance as the fragile, just-released-from-a-mental-hospital, Jessica, who returns to her Connecticut farmhouse and starts to fear a strange young female drifter (Gretchen Corbett), befriended by the family. The woman is actually a vampire but everyone just thinks Jessica is nuts. It’s such a wonderful slow burn of a film and Lampert gives great depth to this overlooked 1971 horror masterpiece. Directed by John Hancock this is all about atmosphere, and succeeds, like Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, in creating a palpable, paranoid nightmare.

            Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf (Mondo Macabro) A brand new 4K UHD edition of the fifth in the continuing “Waldemar Daninsky” werewolf saga starring Spanish horror legend Paul Naschy. This time he is lured from Transylvania to London for a cure of his lycanthropy. He meets a doctor- the son of Henry Jekyll, who tries curing him by using his father’s formula. Now he’s not only a werewolf but he’s also the evil Mr. Hyde (with gold eyes and a fiendish grin). There were 4 different versions of the film and the disc includes an integrated version with all the sex and violence included. Naschy as Hyde visits London strip clubs, strangles prostitutes with their nylon stockings and even transforms back into a wolfman at a disco in this wacky horror hybrid. Extras include an archival audio commentary with Paul Naschy from 2002. And newly translated English subtitles.  

            Dark City (Arrow) Director Alex Proyas’ (The Crow) visionary 1998 sci-fi film is a dazzling achievement that tragically didn’t find an audience at the time. Only a year later The Matrix arrived, but this film was just as ground-breaking and beautiful and bizarre. Rufus Sewell plays John Murdoch, who wakes without memories in a hotel room with a dead hooker and goes on the run, chased by a wily, accordion-playing police Inspector (William Hurt) and a weird group of bald, pasty-faced, chattering “Strangers” in long coats who look like they escaped from Hellraiser. He also realizes he has a weird power over these nocturnal creatures. They call it “tuning.” Kiefer Sutherland plays the creepy Dr. Schreber, frantically seeking for John Murdoch to give him clues to the mystery behind all of this- but he also could be secretly working with the “Strangers.” Every frame of the movie is painterly, eerie, like a film noir but dripping with futuristic oddness. And everywhere in this surreal cityscape giant billboards tower above, tantalizing those below to vacation at “Shell Beach.” Beautiful Jennifer Connelly plays Murdoch’s lounge singer wife. This gorgeous 4K Blu-ray offers the longer director’s cut (without Kiefer Sutherland’s narration at the beginning) plus the theatrical cut of the film. The extras are staggering. If you’ve never seen it (and unfortunately many haven’t) you are in for a wild ride.

            Rock, Pretty Baby! (Kino Lorber) Universal Studios dives into the teen rock ‘n roll movie craze starring heartthrob John Saxon (who the studio was grooming for stardom). Saxon plays Jimmy, desperate to raise money for an electric guitar so their teen combo (with an energetic Sal Mineo on drums) can enter a TV contest with a possible recording career. His mother (Fay Wray) is supportive. But his doctor father (Edward Platt/Get Smart) wants him to go to medical school and grumbles, “one band in a thousand makes the grade!” Rod McKuen plays bass fiddle in the band and sings several of his own songs. He would go on to have a big career as a poet/songwriter in the 60s. Henry Mancini did the score for this 1956 music-heavy film. Sal Mineo has a real exuberance on screen, actually playing the drums. Later he would be ideally cast as Gene Krupa in a bio-pic. Shelley Fabares (who would have a hit song “Johnny Angel” in 1961) plays Jimmy’s tomboy sister “Twinkie.”  This was a box office smash for Universal and spawned a sequel- “Summer Love.”

            Alien Terror (Kino Lorber/Raro) (aka Alien 2: On Earth) During the enjoyable Blu-ray extra- “A Love Letter to Alien 2,” director Eli Roth applauds the ballsiness of low budget Italian horror films of the 80s to shamelessly rip off a movie like Ridley Scott’s Alien and create something loony like this. Set in California, a group of cave explorers head down to further examine a fathomless chasm. Meanwhile a spaceship re-enters the atmosphere with the astronauts inside strangely missing and these weird blue rocks start appearing all over on the ground. One of the spelunkers (played by Michele Soavi, the talented director of Cemetery Man) picks one up and brings it with him into the cave with calamitous results. The rocks pulsate and then shoot out hideous creatures that infect the host (or just rip their faces off). The whole thing becomes quite apocalyptic. How they got the whole ending (probably shot without permits) of the city of Los Angeles completely deserted is a wonder. Only ever available in shitty bootlegs this looks terrific and you can watch it in Italian with subtitles or dubbed English. Heavenly schlock.

            I, Madman (Kino Lorber) Alright, let’s pause for a minute to pay tribute to actress Jenny Wright. Her output on film may be slight- including The World According to Garp, St. Elmo’s Fire, and Kathryn Bigelow’s vampire classic- Near Dark. But she mesmerizes on screen. There’s such a quirky beauty to her. A sense of mystery. Fierceness. And innate sexiness. In director Tibor Tikacs’s horror gem, Wright plays a bookstore clerk and aspiring actress who can’t make anyone believe she has witnessed a facially-scarred fictional killer from a 1950’s pulp novel “I, Madman” written by Malcolm Brand (found in an estate sale) come to life and brutally murdering those around her. The killer in the book (and now in present day Los Angeles) delights in removing ears, noses and hair and attaching these items to himself. A genuinely clever, creepy and fascinating 1989 horror film, made even better by starring the incandescent Jenny Wright.

            DeepStar Six (Kino Lorber) A crew has been working underwater building a government missile silo at the bottom of the ocean floor. When they set off an explosion they unfortunately unleash a ferocious prehistoric undersea creature (a crab-like monster with crusty jaws that open like a flower). Another enjoyable underwater monster/action flick (like Leviathan and Deep Rising) with a likable cast (Greg Evigan and Nancy Everhard have great chemistry). Miguel Ferrar is perfect as the cowardly creep. This 1989 film is from producer/director Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13^th) and is a brand new 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative. The flesh tones are just great and the blacks are sharp and deep- it really looks amazing. There are many extras including audio commentary with the director and visual effects supervisor James Isaac and new interviews with Greg Evigan and Nancy Everhard. 

            Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (Criterion) Glenn Gould, the handsome, eccentric pianist whose interpretation of Bach was considered controversial, is a ripe subject for a film. A hypochondriac who retired from performing early on in his career to live a hermit-like existence out in the country with a multitude of stray animals, he was quite a character. Director Francois Girard sets out to chronicle his life in 32 short vignettes, much like musical variations. Some are real documentary talking-head footage of actual colleagues and family members, others are reenactments of certain parts of Gould’s life played by Colm Feore (who has a beautiful angular face reminiscent of a young Antonin Artaud). The result is spectacular- you come away with a feeling for Gould’s crackpot genius- and also invigorated- like hearing a thrilling piece of music. It’s a perfect example of how to make a non-linear film and have it work.

            Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Criterion) A thundering, lyrical original score by Philip Glass accompanied by stunning visuals by cinematographer John Bailey and a brilliant concept by director Paul Schrader help make this a rousing, poetic, fictionalized account of the life of celebrated Japanese author Yukio Mishima, who famously committed “seppuku” (ritual suicide by sword). The movie begins with Mishima (Ken Ogata) leaving his home in full military attire, with four of his private army. Then the film chronicles his childhood in black and white, as a sickly, shy child dreaming of dying for the emperor only to be found unfit to serve in the army. Then the film switches to vibrant color with stylized sets to recreate adaptations of his fiction. The first, a stuttering student decides to set fire to a golden pavilion because it represents beauty which must be destroyed. The second, a bored and vain young actor decides in order to free his mother from loan sharks to sell himself to an older woman who delights in scarring his beautiful body with razors while he willingly and ecstatically submits to the torture. The third chapter is an eerie foreshadowing- a group of kendo students plot an assassination coup which will end in their own suicide. The final chapter is the events of Mishima’s final day, holding a general hostage and, from a rooftop, trying to explain his mission to a jeering crowd of soldiers below. His attempt to achieve the perfect harmony of pen and sword. The film covers his homosexuality, his obsession with body building and fatal fixation on honor and sacrifice to the emperor. It’s a powerful, gorgeous film and the new 4K UHD restoration is a revelation.