I have to laugh with sardonic joy at the array of oddball Blu-ray stocking stuffers this holiday month. From a perverse Italian “giallo,” The House with Laughing Windows (God, I love that title), to hilariously sleazy wonders like Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, to the sensational early film by Paul Thomas Anderson– Boogie Nights, to an offbeat Kevin Smith comedy Dogma, to Mary Harron’s inspired adaptation of American Psycho, to the spooky delights of Ted Geoghegan’s We Are Still Here, to Criterion’s 4K restoration of Tim Burton’s surreal, magical- Pee Wee’s Big Adventure– these are all great crackpot Christmas gifts.
The House with Laughing Windows (Arrow) A brilliant, sublimely subversive Italian thriller, this 1976 “giallo” is superbly directed by Pupi Avati. Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) arrives by ferry to the small Italian village to restore a fresco of Saint Sebastian at a church by the infamous artist Legnani (“the painter of the agony”). Weird incidents begin. He gets threatening phone calls to “leave the painting alone!” His friend gets pushed out of a window to his death. He finds a tape recording with a croaking voice chanting “Soft, hot, blood, death, the colors, the purity.” He meets the town drunk who knows the real story behind Legnani and his evil sisters. And yes, there is an actual house with laughing windows. A slow burn of a film but with a killer ending. Extras include a feature-length documentary “Painted Screams” featuring interviews with director Pupi Avati and actors Lino Capolicchio and Francesca Marciano. There are two audio commentary tracks- both excellent. One with Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson, the other with Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth.
Boogie Nights (Warner Brothers) Mark Wahlberg is just sensational as Eddie Adams, a busboy with a humongous dick, working at a 70s disco, who is drawn into the glittering, sordid world of porn by X-rated director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds in one of his best performances since Deliverance). Here Eddie finds a bizarre surrogate family- with coke-addled maternal Amber (Julianne Moore); teen sexpot Rollergirl (Heather Graham); amateur magician Reed (John C. Reilly) and cowboy stud Buck (Don Cheadle). He is transformed into “Dirk Diggler,” and becomes an overnight porn superstar, and his life becomes a mad whirl of sex, money, coke, sports cars and platform shoes. Director Paul Thomas Anderson brilliantly chronicles the dizzying heights and frightening fall as drugs, madness and the advent of video take its toll on the industry. The camera weaves serpent-like through this incredibly deluded world and there are wild bursts of black humor and unexpected violence. The cast, camerawork, production design, and especially the costumes are perfection. But it’s Wahlberg’s stunning performance- sweet, dumb, seductive and sad- that anchors this porno-Nashville. A terrific 1997 film given a beautiful 4K UHD edition.
Dogma (Lionsgate) Writer-director Kevin Smith’s ambitious leap of faith sees Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) visited in the night by a flaming crotchless seraph (Alan Rickman) who informs her that she has been chosen to prevent two serial-killing fallen angels (Ben Affleck & Matt Damon) from re-entering heaven under a loophole in Catholic dogma, which would mean an end to all life. She is joined in battle by two pot-smoking slacker prophets, Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith), a 13th apostle named Rufus (a wonderful Chris Rock) and a dreamy muse stripper (Salma Hayek). As in every Kevin Smith film, all roads lead to New Jersey. His comic fantasia is anything but blasphemous- it’s mountains of Catholic doctrine filtered through the eyes of a comic-book enthusiast. Although uneven and too long, it’s such an inspired heavenly hash that makes even God (a beatific, goofy-sweet Alanis Morissette) do a handstand. This is a 4K UHD release.
Scars of Dracula (Kino Lorber) Hammer Films returns to its gothic roots with this fifth Dracula film, this one directed by Roy Ward Baker (Quatermass and the Pit). Christopher Lee slips back into the cape after being reconstituted by a blood-dripping bat. When a village girl is found drained of blood the townspeople storm the castle and return to their church only to find all their wives and family members slaughtered. A young man, and his buxom girlfriend (Jenny Hanley), arrives in town to rescue his brother, who is trapped in Dracula’s castle. Obviously made with a tighter budget, I still think this one works great. The extras here are super- especially a making-of feature with Jenny Hanley’s amusing recollections about her uncontrollable giggles when they filmed a fake bat biting at her bosom (which infuriated the deadly serious Christopher Lee). There is also archival audio commentary with the director, Christopher Lee and Hammer film historian Marcus Hearn.
The Gracie Allen Murder Case (Kino Lorber) This zany 1939 comedy/mystery starring comedienne Gracie Allen is the first film without her partner George Burns. Here she plays a scatterbrained woman who teams up with detective Philo Vance (Warren William) to clear her friend (Kent Taylor) of the murder of an escaped mobster. Gracie keeps mispronouncing him as “Fido.” Nightclubs, gangsters, disappearing corpses, poison and plenty of non-sequiturs from the ditsy Allen. The illogic-logic Gracie keeps chattering is maddening and only mildly amusing. But seeing her shoehorned into a murder mystery is bizarrely fascinating. Wait for Gracie’s hand wrangling vaudeville bit with two bodyguards at the end.
Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (Kino Lorber) The second of the notorious “Ilsa” exploitation films, which swaps out the brutality of the first film for a more tongue-in-cheek, campier tone, but still giving its audience all the sadism and nudity they crave. The fabulous Dyanne Thorne returns in the title role, now working for an oil sheik El Sharif (Jerry Delony) and kidnapping American girls, shipping them over in wooden crates as new additions to his harem. The well-endowed Uschi Digard (Super Vixens) is part of the new shipment. A diplomat (Richard Kennedy) doing a Henry Kissinger impression) arrives with a handsome CIA operative- Adam Scott (Max Thayer). Adam quickly beds and transforms Ilsa, while hunting for his planted spy- Haji (Faster, Pussycat, Kill, Kill!), disguised as a belly dancer with a recording device hidden in a red jewel in her navel. Haji gets unmasked, captured and brutally tortured (with fire ants and a crushing press attached to her breasts). The best new additions are Ilsa’s topless, lesbian henchwomen- Satin (Tonya Boyd) and Velvet (Marilyn Joi). Ubiquitous George “Buck” Flower is a hoot as a syphilitic beggar. The fact this sleaze-fest is now a gorgeous 4K UHD disc is absolutely hilarious. There is archival audio commentary with director Don Edmonds and Dyanne Thorne, and new commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger. But don’t skip the revealing and fascinating interview with director Don Edmonds, who shares funny anecdotes about the making of the film, offering his sage advice to young wanna-be filmmakers.
Out of the Fog (Warner Archive) Moody 1941 waterfront melodrama reuniting John Garfield and Ida Lupino (The Sea Wolf). Garfield plays cheap hood Harold Goff, who threatens Brooklyn harbor boat owners that if they don’t pay him protection their vessels will end up in flames. He is putting the squeeze on fry cook Olaf (John Qualen) and local tailor Jonah (Thomas Mitchell) who enjoy fishing at the end of a long day and dreaming of buying a bigger boat. Goff even begins dating Jonah’s restless daughter Stella (Ida Lupino), once engaged to nice guy George (Eddie Albert), which maddens Jonah so much he even plots a murder. Based on an Irwin Shaw play produced by Garfield’s Group Theater, well directed by Anatole Litvak with sensational nighttime, fog shrouded cinematography by the legendary James Wong Howe.
The Mad Miss Manton (Warner Archive) Screwball 1938 mystery about a madcap Manhattan socialite- Melsa Manton (Barbara Stanwyck), who, while walking her dogs at 3 in the morning, is witness to a murder but cannot get the police to believe her and gets trashed in the press by newspaper man Peter Ames (Henry Fonda). She sues the newspaper for slander and Ames begins to fall for Melsa when more bodies start turning up and it begins to look that Melsa and her wealthy sleuthing girlfriends are onto something. Sam Levene is quite funny as the apoplectic police lieutenant and Hattie McDaniel steals the film as the wisecracking maid. This is the first of three pairings of Fonda and Stanwyck (including Preston Sturges’ hilarious The Lady Eve). Breezy fun. Two sensational early Warner Brothers cartoons- Porky the Gob and fabulous The Penguin Parade are extras.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents Season 7 (Universal) (DVD only) The final season of the popular TV anthology show, hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. For years, I wondered if we would ever get the last two seasons out on DVD, so this is a thrill. This 7th season of murder and mayhem include great episodes like Bang! You’re Dead about a young boy (Billy Mumy) wandering around town with a loaded gun. Or Beta Delta Gamma about a fraternity prank, making a student think he killed someone, that goes terribly wrong. This episode includes such luminaries as Barbara Harris and Barbara Steele. Bad Actor, with a script by Robert Bloch, is about an alcoholic actor (Robert Duvall) who concocts a bizarre way to dispose of the body of a fellow thespian he killed who beat him out of a coveted role. My favorite is the controversial The Sorcerer’s Apprentice about a magician who takes a homeless, feeble-minded boy (Brandon De Wilde) under his wing, and the magician’s scheming wife (Diana Dors) who foolishly tries to manipulate the boy into murder. The ending is fiendishly good. It was thought to be too shocking at the time and never aired until the show was syndicated. Another great one scripted by Robert Bloch (Psycho).
We Are Still Here (Dark Sky/MPI Home Video) 10th Anniversary edition of director Ted Geoghegan’s nice shivery homage to those great splattery Lucio Fulci films of the 80s. Starring the legendary Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator) as Anne, still grieving the loss of her son in an accident, who has moved to the wintry wilds of New England with her husband Paul (Andrew Sensenig) to heal. Unfortunately, they’ve picked the wrong house to recoup. A weird old man (Monte Markham) stops by, like a welcome wagon from hell, to give the startled couple a history of the damned spot they’ve chosen to call home. Anne invites a couple over (Larry Fessenden & Lisa Marie), who are sensitive to the paranormal, when she becomes convinced that her late son is trying to reach out to her. Director Ted Geoghegan carefully builds the sense of isolation and suspense and Crampton conveys just the right fragility and terror. It’s also great seeing Lisa Marie again. Fulci’s films also borrowed heavily from H.P. Lovecraft– like Geoghegan– to make sense of the hidden horrors lurking in the basement. Good grisly fun!
Dan Curtis’ Gothic Tales (Kino Lorber) Producer/director Dan Curtis (Dark Shadows/The Night Stalker) ruled TV for a while, introducing television audiences to gothic horror and modern tales of terror (Trilogy of Terror). The classic tales he adapted here for ABC’s late night series “Wide World Mysteries” in 1973 and 1973 were Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a decent version of the oft-told tale of a London aristocrat who makes a demonic deal that a painting of him will grow old while he stays young and handsome. Shane Briant (who began in Hammer films) plays Dorian, who is taken under the wing of a decadent hedonist (Nigel Davenport) who takes Dorian down the road to debauchery. Briant is pretty terrific in the lead and the script by John Tomerlin is witty and literate. There are two separate audio commentaries for The Picture of Dorian Gray, one by film historian David Del Valle and the other by Stephen R. Bissette. The Turn of the Screw stars Lynn Redgrave as the fragile British governess who arrives at a remote country estate to care for two young children, who becomes convinced that the kids are possessed by ghosts. Or is it all in her mind? I’ve always had a soft spot for Lynn Redgrave and thought she was fine in this atmospheric version, directed by Dan Curtis. The actors chosen to play the children (Jasper Jacob & Eva Griffith) are just sensational. For The Turn of the Screw there is audio commentary by Anthony Slide and a promo short with interviews with Dan Curtis and Lynn Redgrave. Both were shot on analog videotape.
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (Criterion) In Tim Burton’s surreal, inspired, dementedly funny 1979 road-trip movie, the irreplaceable Paul Ruebens plays man-child Pee Wee Herman, traveling across the country in search of his stolen bicycle. Seeing him on the side of the road with an over-sized thumb outstretched still makes me roar with laughter even after repeated viewings. And one of his rides with trucker Large Marge (Alice Nunn) is a sequence that always makes children jump in fright. This is a director-approved 4K UHD & Blu-ray 2-disc set with audio commentary with Tim Burton and Paul Ruebens; deleted scenes, plus excerpts from the 40th anniversary screening hosted by Dana Gould.
Plot of Fear (Indicator) Fantastically offbeat 1976 “giallo” directed by Paolo Cavara (Black Belly of the Tarantula) about a harried police inspector (Michele Placido) trying to get to the bottom of two seemingly unrelated murders. The strangling of a man fond of hiring an occasional dominatrix and a woman bludgeoned to death by wrench on an abandoned bus. At both scenes of the crime there are left illustrations from Heinrich Hoffman’s macabre children’s book “Shockheaded Peter.” The inspector becomes romantically entangled with a pretty bisexual model (Corinne Clery) and begins to think the solution of the crimes is linked to a decadent party held by some wealthy hedonists where a young prostitute mysteriously died. The storytelling is purposefully frenetic and strange and American actors pop up like Tom Skerritt as a policeman and Eli Wallach as the mysterious head of a suspicious surveillance company. This is a spectacular looking restoration on Blu-ray and comes with an 80-page booklet with fascinating essays on the film. There are wonderful extras on the disc including interviews with the uninhibited, charming Corinne Clery and the talented lead actor Michele Placido. With fascinating and informative audio commentary by film historians Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth. A bizarre thriller in desperate need of rediscovery.
American Psycho (Lionsgate) Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is young, successful, good-looking, and completely self-absorbed. He dresses in designer duds, gets into the hip, best, restaurants and spends each morning following a complex skin regime. He also hacks up women, and stabs homeless men. He puts “Hip to be Square” on the turntable by Huey Lewis and the News and takes an ax to his adversaries while wearing a see-through raincoat so as not to splatter his Valentino suit. Bret Easton Ellis’ controversial novel was a conceit that wore thin on page. What director Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol) has done is zero in on the caustic black humor in purely cinematic terms. Christian Bale, with his beautifully sculpted body, has the right arrogance and narcissism for the role. Harron shows an icy restraint with the gore and while it still doesn’t completely work (the ambiguous ending feels like a cheat) it makes for a darkly fascinating look at the seething, soulless, misogyny hiding behind the perfectly tailored suit. This 4K UHD Blu-ray is the 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition and comes with many extras and comes with 5 business cards, which, if you’ve seen the movie, is pretty damn funny.
Saga of the Phoenix (88 Films) This is the 1989 sequel to The Peacock King, the wild Japan/Hong Kong collaboration based on Makoto Ogino’s hit Manga series, mixing martial arts action, goofy comedy, the supernatural and even stop-motion animation to tell the story of a Tibetan monk- Peacock and a Japanese monk- Lucky Fruit traversing the globe trying to stop the openings of the gates of hell by the Hell Virgin- Ashura (who they discover is just a sweet-natured teenage girl forced to do evil). In The Saga of the Phoenix, Yuen Biao returns as Peacock, Gloria Yip as Ashura, the Hell Virgin and Abe Hiroshi is now the Japanese monk Lucky Fruit. Ashura is given 7 days to live among her friends on earth before returning to Hell. Much of the drama concerns Ashura’s Gremlins-like creature Tricky Ghost and her scheming evil sister- the Hell Concubine (Ngai Suet) who has encased Peacock in ice in the netherworld. Directed by Lam Ngai Kai (Ricki-Oh: The Story of Ricky) (1991) and co-director Lau Sze-Yue. Definitely more kid-friendly than The Peacock King but still enjoyable. Prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike (Audition/Ichi the Killer) was Assistant Director on this whacky fantasy flick, which looks astonishing on Blu-ray and includes excellent audio commentary and alternative Japanese footage.
I want every one of these movies. And I loved
Lynn Redgrave too.