Warner Home Video has a nasty Halloween treat for all: the release of the  Horror Classics Vol. 1 boxed Blu-ray set. The titles are smartly bound in a hardcover book format, complete with some cool graphics. Each of the films contains the original theatrical trailer as well. Here is the official press release:

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will scare the heck out of fans when Taste the Blood of Dracula; Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed; and The Mummy are released October 6 in the new Blu-ray Horror Classics Vol. 1 Collection, just in time for Halloween celebrations. All films in the collection are newly re-mastered in 1080p HD and packaged in elegant rigid pocketbook style ($54.96 SRP).  

The quartet of classic horror films, featuring cinema monsters Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy, represent classic examples from Hammer Film Productions. Founded in 1934, the British company became best known for a series of gothic horror films and a leader among English filmmakers that dominated the international horror film market from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s.

ABOUT THE FILMS

THE MUMMY (1959) In this vivid Technicolor® reincarnation of The Mummy, screen horror icon Christopher Lee wraps on the moldy gauze bandages and emerges as the tormented Kharis, an avenger stalking the hills and bogs of Victorian England to track down archaeologist John Banning (Peter Cushing) and other desecrators of his beloved Princess Ananka’s Egyptian tomb. “Lee looks tremendous, smashing his way through doorways and erupting from green, dreamlike quagmires in really awe-inspiring fashion” (David Pirie, Time Out Film Guide). Awe-inspiring, too, was the box-office success of this third Hammer reinvigoration – after The Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula – of a classic screen monster.

DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE (1968) In his third incarnation as Bram Stoker’s infamous vampire, horror great and 55-year movie veteran Christopher Lee goes fang to cross with the forces of good in this atmospheric Hammer Studios film directed with stylish menace by two-time Academy Award ® -winning cinematographer Freddie Francis.

FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED! (1969) Baron Frankenstein’s (Peter Cushing) experiment went wrong, dead wrong. Thus, another victim lies in a makeshift grave. Suddenly, a water main bursts, forcing the dead man’s arm to the surface. Next, the torrent heaves the body upward. Frankenstein’s panicked accomplice tries to conceal the body… but corpses can be so unwieldy. This creepy scene is a highlight of Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, horror great Peter Cushing’s fifth Hammer Studios Frankenstein saga. Other cast members of note include film-debuting Simon Ward (Young Winston) and Freddie Jones (The Elephant Man) as the scientist’s pitiable new creation.

TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA (1970) Taste the Blood of Dracula, the fourth film in Hammer Studios’ cycle of’ hemogobbling’ Victorianera horror, is a showcase of why Hammer became the name in Gothic terror. The solid cast and rich production design raise goosebumps of real-life fear and otherworld dread. And Christopher Lee dons his red-lined cape again to become Evil Incarnate. He’s Count Dracula, a being neither dead nor alive...but his movies are livelier than ever.

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 The Warner Archive has released a major collection of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis comedies in two separate DVD volumes. 

Volume one has four DVDs and contains:

• "My Friend Irma"
• "My Friend Irma Goes West"
• "That's My Boy" 
• "Sailor Beware" 
•  "Jumping Jacks"
• "The Stooge"
•  "Scared Stiff"
• "The Caddy" 

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 Volume 2 has three DVDs and contains:

• "Pardners"
• "Hollywood or Bust"
• "Living It Up"
• "You're Never Too Young"
• "Artists and Models" 

CLICK HERE TO ORDER VOLUME 2 FROM AMAZON

By David P. King

What would happen if Travis Bickle’s cringe-inducing date from “Taxi Driver” was stretched out over an entire weekend in the North of Italy? Thanks to “The Visitor” (“La Visita”, 1963), we have our answer.

Pina (Sandra Milo) is an independent businesswoman living in rural Italy. But she’s unwed and approaching 40-years-old, and longing for a change in her life. She places a personal ad in the newspaper (readers under 40: think Match.com, but with ink, paper and more desperation) stating her desire to find a man and marry. Of the potential suitors who reply, Adolfo di Palma (François Périer), an older bookseller in Rome, seems the most promising. The story begins as he arrives in northern Italy to meet Pina in person.

Many have witnessed those godawful first dates in which every subtle hint goes unread and signs are horribly misinterpreted. Adolfo, it is safe to say, is the undisputed champion of these first-date nightmares. After the train he arrives on pulls safely out of the station, the real train wreck unfolds slowly. Adolfo drinks too much grappa, allows his eyes to wander to a 16-year-old neighbor, loudly proclaims how much he detests Pina’s surroundings and is a cheap date in every sense of the word.

As Pina grasps at straws to salvage the budding relationship, Adolfo clumsily grasps at just about everything else. Credit director Antonio Petrangeli with turning what could be nothing short of a cringefest into a compelling film that is at once funny and pathetic, mysterious and revealing. The possible couple are not stock characters who are aging and lonely, searching for love against all odds. We see their regrets and secrets in flashbacks and a surprise confrontation toward the end. And it’s in the final act that the film hits its stride, as Adolfo and Pina finally say what they’ve been politely skirting around throughout the visit.

The film has been released on DVD from the Raro Video label and is presented as a special edition with a wealth of extras including an interview with director Ettore Scola, who discusses Pietrangeli's work; an interview with Piertrangeli's son Paolo (who is a director, too) and an interview with the film's composer  Armando Trovajoli. There is also a 16 page illustrated booklet that provides analysis of the film as well as vintage interview comments from the director. In all, an impressive package for a worthy film.

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By Lee Pfeiffer 

The Warner Archive has re-issued a special DVD edition of director Philip Kaufman's The White Dawn as a burn-to-order title. The previous version had been released by Paramount Home Video in 2004 to commemorate the film's 30th anniversary. Fortunately, this reissue carries over the special bonus features from that release. The movie was not well received by either critics or the public at the time of its initial release and vanished rather quickly. Although the production boasts three well-respected actors in the lead roles, none of them were considered "box office" and Kaufman himself had only one modestly received movie to his credit (The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid).  It is appropriate that The White Dawn has been re-examined in recent years. This isn't some undervalued classic, but it is an interesting film with many merits. The story is based on a novel by James Houston that, in turn, was inspired by true events. The film opens in 1896 with the three leading men seen as crew members of a whaling ship that is trolling the ice-packed waters off of remote Baffin Island in Canada, just below the Arctic Circle. They manage to harpoon a whale from their long boat but in their relentless pursuit of the creature, they end up being shipwrecked on an ice flow and given up for dead by their fellow crew members. They are saved from certain death by Inuit (Eskimo) people who take them to their village and nurse them back to health. With no immediate hope of returning to their own world, the three men- Billy (Warren Oates), Daggett (Timothy Bottoms) and Portagee (Lou Gossett)- acclimate themselves as best they can in the igloo village they must now call home. The transition is not an easy one. The language barrier presents the most obvious obstacle but there is also the harsh landscape that requires a constant battle to survive. The people are perpetually threatened by severe weather, dangerous polar bears and starvation. They lead a nomadic lifestyle, having to relocate every time the food supply becomes meager. Despite these obstacles,  over the course of a one year period, the three men adjust to life among the Inuit, who treat them warmly and respectfully. Before long, they are accepted as "family" by their saviors, who are amused by the cultural differences the men bring to the village.  The Inuit elders follow tradition and willingly share their wives as sex partners for the men. To Kaufman's credit, these scenes are handled with a playful innocence and are never distasteful. With sex just about the only enjoyable past time in this frozen wasteland, the Inuit regard it with a laissez faire attitude- much to the delight of their "guests". Although Daggett and Portagee are respectful of their hosts and acclimate themselves to the environment, Billy is a hot-tempered, self-centered man who mocks the Inuit behind their backs and regards them as savages.  Eager to make a mad gamble to find another whaling ship that will rescue them, he manages to exert influence over his two companions and thus sets in motion a series of events that leads to the film's tragic conclusion. Billy's attempts to con his hosts at games of chance in order to make claim to their women is the first indication that the situation is going awry. The Inuit prove not to be the gullible, childlike people Billy thinks they are. They are quite aware of attempts to manipulate them. Billy also orchestrates the trio's ill-fated attempt to steal precious food and a boat in order to flee to "civilization". The men fail spectacularly and are faced with the humiliation of having to be rescued once again by the very people whose trust they have abused. However, it is the introduction of Billy's home-made liquor to these innocent people that ultimately leads to the final tragedy. 

It's unclear to what degree the incidents portrayed on film reflect what happened in real life. The history has been passed down among the Inuit, so one must assume there has been some alteration or embellishment of the facts, as will inevitably happen over time with any oral history. What impresses most about the film is Michael Chapman's stark cinematography in this frozen wasteland. You literally wonder how any living creature can survive in such an environment, let alone thrive. On the DVD, Kaufman, who provides an audio commentary as well as a filmed introduction, relates the seemingly impossible obstacles that had to be overcome in order to shoot the film. Environmental factors were only part of the challenge. He also had to coach his cast of Inuit people, none of whom had probably ever seen a movie before, let alone acted. In that regard, he pulls off what may be the film's signature achievement, because these non-professional thespians turn in remarkably convincing performances. Henry Mancini provides a wonderful score (one of his personal favorites) that was inspired by an impromptu song that was created by an Inuit woman. 

The problem with the film from a dramatic standpoint is that it is never as emotionally moving as it should be. We certainly cringe when we see the rescued whaler's abuse of their savior's hospitality but we never learn anything about their backgrounds and they remain superficial protagonists. With Daggett and Portagee clearly level-headed, decent men, it is never theorized why they continue to follow the bull-headed Billy's advice, even when it would seem to inevitably lead to disaster. The performances of Oates, Bottoms and Gossett- fine actors all- never rise above the level of being merely competent, primarily because, at heart, this is really the story of the Inuit people and how these "aliens" have abused their trust and generosity. 

The DVD contains an excellent, restored transfer of the feature film, a brief filmed introduction by Philip Kaufman as well as his commentary track and a historical look at life among the Inuit people. Kaufman also appears in Welcoming the Dawn, an interesting featurette in which he largely focuses on the technical and logistical problems of bringing the story to the screen.  He is particularly determined to stress that the slaying of a polar bear in one of the film's most harrowing sequences, did not result in injury to the animal, as incredible as that may seem after viewing the scene. Whatever you think of the end result, after hearing about these obstacles, you'll have to admire the sheer grit and determination of Kaufman and his crew for working amid some of the harshest conditions on the planet. As director, Kaufman has made a number of fine, off-beat films that don't fit easily into any one mold. The White Dawn is certainly one of them. It's a flawed film, to be sure, but one that does have elements that will haunt you long after you've seen it.  

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DK publishers will release "Blood, Sweat and Bond", a behind the scenes compilation of remarkable photos from the forthcoming 007 flick "SPECTRE" starring Daniel Craig. Click here to pre-order from Amazon.

The Warner Archive has released two sets of DVDs each showcasing 1970s television series starring James Stewart: "The Jimmy Stewart Show" and "Hawkins" (which was actually a series of TV movies that aired in the 1973-74 season.) 

 Here is the press release for "The Jimmy Stewart Show":

James Stewart made a rare sojourn into the world of Situation Comedy on NBC at the dawn of the Seventies. His gift for comedy, on grand cinema display since the dawn of his career, made him a congenial fit for the familial world of episodic comedy. Stewart plays Professor James Howard, an anthropologist struggling to make sense of the generation gap with his college students and just plain struggling to make sense of his own family. Jim and wife Martha are busy raising an eight-year-old, as is their twenty-nine-year-old first born, Peter (James Daly) and his wife, Wendy (Ellen Geer). And "Uncle Teddy" (Dennis Larson) is sure to demand "the proper respect" from his five-day-older nephew, Jake (Kirby Furlong). It's a good thing Jim has a Nobel Prize-winning best friend, chemistry professor Dr. Luther Quince (John McGiver) to help make sense of the chaos, especially after a house fire forces Peter's family to move in with Jim's!

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Here is the press release for "Hawkins":

A decade before TV saw another silver-haired, slow-drawling Southern shyster with a knack for sleuthing out the truth, M-G-M welcomed back two titanic talents, TV producer Norman Felton and screen legend Jimmy Stewart, for Hawkins. Stewart played Billy Jim Hawkins in rotation with the Shaft TV movies (Talk about Country Mouse and City Mouse!), solving crimes alongside his cousin RJ (Strother Martin) and a bevy of sensational costars. Bonnie Bedelia plays a troubled young woman accused of familicide, Cameron Mitchell plays a tinseltown spouse facing murder charges, Julie Harris plays an accused mercy killer, William Windom plays a parent with a vendetta, Lew Ayres and James Best play folk caught up in a deadly Civil War re-enactment, James Luisi plays a football pro caught up in foul play, Teresa Wright plays an ex-amour of Bill Jim’s, and Paul Burke and Pernell Roberts play a senator and aide caught up in a slaying.

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Fox is celebrating the 40th anniversary release of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" with special edition Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD releases. Here are the details from the official press release.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show 40th Anniversary â€“ the ultimate midnight movie – comes home on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD September 22 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Featuring an all-star cast, including: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick and Meat Loaf, The Rocky Horror Picture Show quickly became a pop cultural phenomenon passed down from generation to generation. Now, after four decades, it’s back stronger than ever with an all-new Ultimate Collector’s Edition, featuring limited edition packaging, exclusive collectible pink surgical gloves, fishnet stockings and a soundtrack for its army of die-hard fans! 

The Rocky Horror Picture Show 40th Anniversary edition is packed with featurettes highlighting past celebrations and midnight screenings, deleted musical scenes, 11 outtakes, alternate endings, commentaries by Richard O’Brien and Patricia Quinn (Magenta), photo galleries and more! Bring the midnight screening home to share with friends and family with Rocky-oke: Sing It! – which includes 18 show-stopping musical numbers from the hugely popular soundtrack: “Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me,” “Sweet Transvestite,” “The Time Warp” and more! The Blu-ray also features incredible HD featurettes, as well as a photo gallery from Rock ‘N’ Roll’s seminal photographer Mick Rock, which dives deeper into Rock’s experience capturing the moment on-set and behind-the-scenes of the 1975 film. In “Mick Rock's Picture Show (A Gallery)” fans can take a peek at more than 70 high-resolution images from his archives.

A Lou Adler/Michael White Production directed by Jim Sharman, this cinematic classic follows sweethearts Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) as they are stuck with a flat tire during a storm and discover the eerie mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a sweet transvestite scientist. As their innocence is lost, Brad and Janet meet a houseful of wild characters, including a rocking biker (Meat Loaf) and a creepy butler (Richard O'Brien). Through elaborate dances and rock songs, Frank-N-Furter unveils his latest creation: a muscular man named "Rocky."

Since its 1975 release, The Rocky Horror Picture Show quickly made its mark as the most-beloved cult film of all time. Today, this iconic cult classic film is the longest running theatrical release of all-time and currently plays at weekly midnight showings in over 300 theaters across the U.S. and even more around the world. Moreover, the film’s cultural exposure and acclaim has extended far beyond the theatrical release, as the original “Rocky Horror” stage show continues to delight audiences worldwide.

Blu-ray Special Features:

Includes both the U.S. and U.K. Versions of the Film

Rocky-oke: Sing It!

Commentary By Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn (Magenta)

Don’t Dream It, Be It: The Search for the 35th Anniversary Shadowcast, Part I

An-tic-i-pation: The Search for the 35th Anniversary Shadowcast, Part II

Mick Rock (A Photographer)

Mick Rock's Picture Show (A Gallery)

A Few From The Vault

Deleted Musical Scenes

1: ”Once In A While”

2: ”Super Heroes”

Outtakes

Alternate B&W Opening

Alternate Credit & Misprint Ending

"Rocky Horror Double Feature Video Show" (1995)

Beacon Theater, New York City (10th Anniversary)

Time Warp Music Video 

The Midnight Experience

Pressbook & Poster Gallery….And More!

DVD Special Features:
Includes both the U.S. and U.K. Versions of the Film

Commentary By Richard O'Brien and Quinn (Magenta)

The Theatrical Experience

Prompter: “When do I squirt my water pistol and when do I scream?”

And More!

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Cinema Retro has received the following press release from ITV:

To commemorate ITV’s diamond anniversary, independent distributor Network will release a 12-disc boxset featuring 60 episodes from classic TV series including The Sweeney, The Avengersand Upstairs Downstairs, as well as previously unreleased episodes from the broadcaster. ITV60 (15) will be released on DVD on 26 October 2015, RRP £79.99 exclusively through networkonair.com, and is available to pre-buy** now. Terms and conditions apply.

ITV60 will be available from selected retailers from 23 November 2015.

A mixture of timeless classics, forgotten gems and once thought lost shows, this set contains exceptional rarities from the Associated Rediffusion archive: No Hiding Place, Mystery Bag,Crane and Our Man at St. Mark’s, together with previously unreleased episodes of Crossroads, Rainbow, Tiswas, Coronation Street, World in Action, The Bill and a classic Whicker’s Worldaboard the Orient Express.

Since the summer of 1955, the ITV network has entertained the nation with some of the most memorable programming ever created for British television. This collection celebrates those six decades with an outstanding, specially selected collection of superb dramas, hilarious comedies and thought-provoking documentaries – some of which haven’t been seen since their original transmission.

With each disc themed to provide an “evening’s entertainment”, this dip into the archives provides a trip down Memory Lane as well as a timely reminder of some of the best television of the last 60 years.

BY TIM GREAVES

Not to be mistaken for the cannibal monstrosity from Umberto Lenzi with which it shares its title, Eaten Alive is a 1976 tale of terror set in the Louisiana swamps and was directed by Tobe Hooper in the wake of his phenomenal success with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre two years earlier. From the outset Eaten Alive shares its predecessor's mien of ill ease (though not to such stomach-tightening effect), but little of its wicked humour. Indeed it's an all-round far crueller film and positively bubbles over with bloodshed.

Producer Mardi Rustam – who also wrote the story with colleague Alvin L Fast, TCSM's Kim Henkel then adapting it for the screen – was aiming to ride the tidal wave of Jaws' success; what the results lacked in quality (certainly if Rustam felt truly inspired by Spielberg’s film) was voraciously compensated for with lashings of cheap thrills and squalid chills.

The story kicks off with a very fresh-faced Robert Englund attempting to abuse 'the new girl' in a grimy brothel. Immediately deciding that prostitution isn't for her, the young lass packs her bags and sets off on foot into the night. But it's very much a case of ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’ when she stumbles across the remote Starlight Hotel and its creepy proprietor Judd (Neville Brand); after attempting to assault her, he prongs her to death on the tines of a pitchfork and feeds her corpse to the huge crocodile he keeps in an enclosure in the back yard. It’s a brutal and extremely graphic sequence but one via which Hooper adeptly alerts the audience that he's upped the ante to deliver something rather more visceral then he did with TCSM (which for all its notoriety is a largely bloodless affair, functioning primarily on a psychological level). The rest of the movie’s runtime pivots on Judd serving up hotel guests as crocodile chow for no discernible reason beyond the fact he's mad as...well, as a box of baby crocs.

Given the unbridled success of Hooper's earlier film, it's no surprise that Eaten Alive is often given short shrift and indeed it is inferior, mainly due to sluggish pacing and the fact it was shot in its entirety on a soundstage; although the hotel exteriors –wreathed in swirling mist and bathed in a quease-inducing red glow – have an appealingly stylised look, it's also painfully obvious one is looking at a studio-bound set, replete with the tell-tale hollow sound resulting when interiors feebly posture as exteriors. However, if you can look past this handicap, and claustrophobic dread coupled with sleaze by the bucketful float your boat, then there's plenty on offer here to keep you entertained.

The cast alone is worth tuning in for. Complementing Brand's frenetic turn as the maniac hotel manager there are fun appearances from legends Mel Ferrer (whose career had certainly seen better days) and Addams Family icon Carolyn Jones (almost unrecognisable as the decrepit Madam of a brothel). Also on hand are Stuart Whitman as a local sheriff oblivious to the carnage being perpetrated on his patch and TCSM's leading lady Marilyn Burns, who fortuitously discards her frightful wig early on but still ends up bound and gagged by our resident psychopath... the poor girl didn't have a lot of luck in Hooper's films, did she? There's also a bizarre turn from William Finley as a disgustingly sweaty guest with a penchant for barking like a dog, giving Brand strong competition in the most deranged character stakes.

Alternatively lurking under titles such as Horror Hotel, Starlight Slaughter and Legend of the Bayou, when Eaten Alive was issued in the UK on VHS in the early 80s under the moniker Death Trap it immediately drew unfortunate attention that earned it a place among the infamous 'video nasties' and it was withdrawn from circulation. Previous DVD releases have reportedly been pretty much substandard across the board (although I haven't seen any of them to be able to comment fairly). But one thing's for sure: Arrow's new uncut Blu-ray/DVD combination package is anything but substandard, in fact it's absolutely terrific, doing Robert Caramico's stylish cinematography more fitting a service than one could have ever imagined possible. 

As if such a superior, uncut presentation of the film alone doesn't make this one a worthwhile purchase, Arrow has bundled in an impressive collection of sweeteners. There are new interviews with Tobe Hooper (who also appears in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it introduction tagged onto the start of the movie), supporting actress Janus Blythe and make-up artist Craig Reardon, as well as older ones with Hooper, Robert Englund and Marilyn Burns. Mardi Rustam provides an informative commentary and there's also a 20-something minute featurette that delves into the life of the Texas bar owner upon who the film is loosely based, as well as a healthy selection of trailers, radio and TV spots, plus a gallery of poster art and lurid lobby cards. A final gem appears in the form of a gallery of original 'comment cards', collected from attendees at a preview screening of the film back in 1976, with the incentive for filling them out being a reward for the best 'new title' suggestion. Most of the remarks are pretty uncharitable, with an amusing standout being the one on which the viewer sarcastically requests to be informed of any subsequent title change so that he/she doesn't inadvertently go to see it again!

UPDATE: Looks like we were correct to term this story from the German magazine Bild as "too good to be true". Doris Day has denied published reports that she will come out of retirement to appear in a film directed by Clint Eastwood. Click here to read more. 

File this in the "Seems Too  Good To Be True" section. The Guardian reports that Clint Eastwood is trying to lure Doris Day out of retirement for a role in one of his forthcoming films. The 91 year-old screen legend retired from making feature films in 1968 and has resisted all offers to resume her career. However, she is said to be open to working with Eastwood on the project, of which nothing is known at this time. Eastwood was said to have delivered a script to her and that she made only two demands: to film her scenes in Carmel, California and to ensure that her long time charity that benefits animals will see a percentage of the profits. There have been rumors over the years regarding Day's imminent return to the screen. All have proven to be unfounded. For more click here. 

BY TODD GARBARINI

I have been a fan of the Italian giallo subgenre for 30 years since my initiation into it was precipitated by my first viewing of Creepers (1985), the severely cut version of Dario Argento’s Phenomena, my personal favorite film of his. Subsequent viewings of films by both Mr. Argento and his mentor, Mario Bava, as well as Lucio Fulci, Lamberto Bava, Luigi Cozzi, and Michele Soavi solidified a love for the putrid and the fantastic, and anyone who has seen these movies knows how delightfully entertaining they are: off-kilter camera angles, ludicrous dialogue, and what writer Todd French referred to as “a maddening narrative looseness” are present in these films in a way that they are absent in other genres. There is just nothing like an Italian giallo film. With all of the mock horror films that have been made going back to 1981’s Student Bodies and the later, more contemporary and successful Scary Movie parodies, it was only a matter of time before someone took on the giallo. Quite honestly I am surprised that it took as long as it did.

Rey Ciso (Adam Brooks, who looks a lot like Franco Nero in 1977’s Hitch-Hike and also co-wrote and co-directed the film) is a film editor who actually cuts movies on celluloid. Once a great editor who worked with top-level directors, he suffered a tragic accident which cost him four fingers and has been relegated to cutting movies with wooden substitutes that look like they might be sound-designed by Jack Terry (John Travolta) in Brian De Palma’s Blow Out (1981). In fact, The Editor, which was shot in the summer of 2013, starts out much the same way that Blow Out does, with a movie-within-a-movie concerning a stripper who is accosted on her way home from work (a nod to 1982’s Tenebre when Ania Pieroni is attacked by a vagrant). There is a lot of blood as you can well imagine, and when the action moves to the editor, we see a sad and decrepit man whose young, attractive female assistant has the hots for him for some reason. His wife is a former actress who is beyond her prime and takes out her frustration on him. If all of this sounds depressing, it’s not, as the film is actually quite humorous in that it’s a send-up of giallo films. If you are a fan of these movies to the same extent that I am, you will recognize the obvious tips of the hat (or strokes of the blade) to Mr. Argento’s Inferno (1980) and Mr. Fulci’s New York Ripper (1981). There are also myriad instances of silly dubbing (another staple of giallo), gratuitous nudity, and the sound of the actors and actresses voices coming off as too theatrical and forced. This is all deliberate as a tongue-in-cheek salute to these movies that we love so much.

Now, unfortunately for Rey, someone is killing people off all around him. Naturally he is the prime suspect, and a rookie detective (played by Matthew Kennedy, who looks like Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, who also co-wrote and co-directed the film – do you see a pattern here?) is after him almost every second just trying to pin the crimes on him. And what would a giallo send-up be without Udo Kier?

There is a conscious effort on the part of the filmmakers to pay homage to the cinematography of this once great, bygone era. The movie-within-the-movie possesses a color palette that would do Luciano Tovoli and Romano Albani proud as it harkens back to 1977’s Suspiria and 1980’s Inferno respectively. The film is beautiful to look at in every respect. Even the poster art is gorgeous! It comes with a reversible cover and I prefer the image on the inside which just screams “the 80’s”.

There are an abundance of extras in this collection, and I appreciate the fact that Shout! Factory has done a DVD/Blu-ray combo on this title. I highly recommend The Editor for those with a love for these films. The extras are:

Making Movies Used to Be Fun (51:03) is a funny and entertaining behind-the-scenes look at the making of The Editor and reveals that most of the people in front of the camera are also some of the people behind the camera.  Conor Sweeney, like the aforementioned Brooks and Kennedy, contributed to the script.

Hook Lab Interview (7:11) sits with Norman Orenstein and Trevor Tuminski in a comedic look at their musical contribution to the film.

Brett Parson Poster Video (5:35) chronicles the agony that the poster artist endured trying to create the film’s poster. Oh, the humanity!

Astron-6 Film Festival Introduction (1:57) is an annoying piece better left unviewed.

A collection of several scenes cut from the film.

Full-length audio commentary with Adam Brooks, Connor Sweeney and Matt Kennedy. I would advise you to watch the film first as this contains many spoilers. It is also a lot of fun to listen to.

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BY DOUG OSWALD

Starring Rory Calhoun, Anne Francis, Vince Edwards and Chuck Connors, “The Hired Gun” arrives via the Warner Archive Collection. The 1957 western was part of a production deal between Calhoun and Victor Orsatti, known as Rorvic Productions, which resulted in this, “The Domino Kid” and “Apache Territory.”

Ellen Beldon (Francis) is about to be hanged in Texas for the murder of her husband. Judd Farrow (Connors), pretending to be a minister, helps her break out of jail by hiding a Derringer pistol inside a Bible. They ride off to the safety of her uncle’s ranch across the order in New Mexico. Gunslinger Gil McCord (Calhoun) is hired by Ellen’s father in-law, Mace Belon (John Litel), to extradite Ellen and return her to Texas so she can be hanged. He accepts the $5,000 bounty and sets out.

Gil gets hired as a ranch hand and captures Ellen. On their return trip to Texas, Ellen fills Gil in on the truth behind the murder. They are pursued by Judd and Kell Beldon, her brother-in-law. Attacked by Indians and surviving a gunfight with Judd and Kell, they eventually make their return to Texas. The truth behind the murder is revealed and the movie concludes with another gunfight followed by our hero and his gal riding off together.

Calhoun was a diverse actor and minor leading man who appeared in westerns, musicals and comedies throughout the forties and fifties including “How to Marry a Millionaire” and “River of No Return” with Marilyn Monroe. I’ve been an Anne Francis fan due in part as a result of repeat viewings of “Forbidden Planet” and the TV series “Honey West.” Chuck Connors’ credentials go without saying, but he is relegated to a supporting role.

I came to this movie with no expectations and while this is not a great western, it is an enjoyable minor entry in the genre. It feels more like an episode of a TV series and uses a lot of second unit rear projection shots in many scenes. Released by MGM in 1957, the black and white transfer looks very nice in this burn-to-order release with a very short run time of just 64 minutes. The DVD preserves the CinemaScope widescreen image and includes the theatrical release trailer.

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Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London will display likenesses of all six James Bond actors: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig this October to coincide with the opening of the new 007 film "SPECTRE".  The display opens to the public on 17 October for a limited time. For more click here. 

About the film

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

On a hot Brooklyn afternoon, two optimistic nobodies set out to rob a bank. Sonny (Al Pacino) is the mastermind, Sal (John Cazale) is the follower, and disaster is the result. Because the cops, crowds, TV cameras and even the pizza man have arrived.

Blu-ray Disc 1 – Includes the film and previously released special features:

· Commentary by director Sidney Lumet

· Vintage Featurette - The Making of Dog Day Afternoon: 4-part documentary exploring the actual events that inspired the movie, casting, filming and aftermath

o The Story

o Casting the Controversy

o Recreating the Facts

o After the Filming

· Vintage Featurette - Lumet: Film Maker

· Theatrical Trailer

DVD Disc 2 – Includes John Cazale documentary and previously released special features:

· I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale - Documentary

Special Features:

o Al Pacino – extended interview

o Israel Horovitz – extended interview

o The American Way (1962, producer/director Marvin Starkman, screenwriter Bob Feinberg) – A rare, offbeat short film tweaking American institutions and starring a young John Cazale

o The Box (1969, director Marvin Starkman) – Cazale, who had an interest in photography, is featured behind the camera as director of photography in this early short film

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BY HANK REINEKE

The ninth annual Drive-in Super Monster Rama was staged – as is traditional - on the weekend following Labor Day at the Riverside Drive-in, Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. Inaugurated in 2007, this fiendish gathering of monster-movie insomniacs is tailored to those who cherish the classic horror films of the 1960s and 1970s. It’s a thoughtfully programmed and purposely retro affair; fans get to experience (or re-experience) their favorites as they might have when the movies were new – in the witching hour setting of an authentic neighborhood drive-in theater.

With each passing year the Monster Rama grows steadily in attendance and flourishes in reputation. In 2013 the annual gathering spawned a mid-spring sister event, the April Ghoul’s Drive-in Monster Rama. Co-sponsored from inception by George Reis (of the preeminent cult/horror/exploitation film review website DVD Drive-in) and Todd Ament, the proprietor and projectionist of the Riverside, both weekend events feature eight full-length feature films (almost exclusively from 35mm elements) as well as a dizzying array of vintage trailers, cartoons, shorts, and refreshment stand advertisements.

The September event is proudly the more old-school of the two and this year’s offerings might have been the best yet. On Friday night, September 11, with the weather as near-perfect as one could expect for the season, there was a four-film celebration of American International Picture’s Edgar Allan Poe-film cycle. From 1960 through 1964, director-producer Roger Corman filmed no fewer than eight adaptations of Poe’s work, a remarkable series of visionary and literate motion pictures that brought together such on-screen talent as Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Ray Milland, Barbara Steele, Jack Nicholson, Hazel Court and Basil Rathbone. Of course, it’s without argument that the uncontested big-ticket star of the enterprise was the legendary Vincent Price. The elegant actor with the menacing but sonorous voice would feature in no fewer than seven of the eight Poe films.

Though it’s been nearly twenty-two years since his passing, Vincent Price remains an obvious favorite amongst Monster Rama attendees. The films of this master of the macabre have been well represented at the September event; Price remains the only actor to have at least one – and often several – back catalog films screened at every gathering since launch. So it was to everyone’s delight - and no one’s surprise - that Price would be the featured player in all four of Friday’s films: The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Masque of the Read Death (1963), Tomb of Ligeia (1964), and The Haunted Palace (1963).

Roger Corman’s celebrated cycle of Poe adaptations are, well… exactly that, adaptations. The films are only occasionally literal re-creations of the original source material; mostly they’re brilliant cinematic re-imaginings inspired by the author’s body of macabre work. As a child seeing the films for the first time - in ten minute intervals sandwiched between drain-cleaner commercials on the 4:30 movie - I was disappointed in them. Surely these were costume melodramas and not genuine horror films. Where were the monsters?

Today, as an adult with a half-century’s accumulation of weariness and wisdom, I’ve come to understand that Corman, in the best tradition of Poe, identified the wellspring of terror as something internal. The short stories, novelettes, and poetry that ebbed from the pen of this vanguard of American mystery writing is imbued with a grotesquery that is almost always more psychological than spectral. Corman’s great directorial gift was his canny ability to visually convey the crippling psychological inner-torment of both victim and protagonist.

Milner as Officer Pete Malloy of the Los Angeles Police Department in the TV series "Adam-12" which ran between 1968-1975.

Actor Martin Milner passed away on September 6 at the age of 83. Milner had many TV series and feature film credits (including "Sweet Smell of Success", "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" and "Valley of the Dolls"). However, he is primarily remembered for starring in two iconic television series of the 1960s: "Route 66" and "Adam-12". Novelist and Cinema Retro contributing writer John M. Whalen provides some reflections on Milner's career. Click here to read and make sure you follow the link to his 2001 interview with Milner for the Outre web site. 

Apple Records has announced that the company will release a set of 27 #1 hits by the group with rare accompanying videos. Titled "Beatles +1", the set will be available on DVD and Blu-ray and contain over 200 minutes of video materials compiled from various sources. The set will be released November 1. For more click here. 

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“ODDBALLS AND YOUNG LOVE”

By Raymond Benson

Wes Anderson’s marvelous 2012 comedy, Moonrise Kingdom, was previously released on Blu-ray and DVD, but The Criterion Collection has seen fit to issue an edition that blows the old one away. With an abundance of fun, entertaining supplements and packaged ephemera—Criterion’s disc is in keeping with the other fine releases the company has done for the filmmaker.

Moonrise Kingdom is the first Wes Anderson movie I truly fell in love with. While I liked and appreciated his earlier pictures, Moonrise is a flawless masterpiece of style and wit—as is Anderson’s following film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. For my money, these are two slam-bang pieces of comic brilliance.

The setting is a small fictional New England island, during one summer in the Sixties. A Boy Scout troop camps out there. Some families live on the island, others visit for the season. Twelve-year-old Suzy (wonderfully played with a mature sense of irony by Kara Hayward) falls for one of the scouts, Sam (Jared Gilman, in another highly accomplished performance). They’re both intelligent, curious, and have wicked senses of humor. They make plans to run away together, and when they do, the adults (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand are Suzy’s parents, Edward Norton is the scoutmaster, and Bruce Willis is the chief of police on the island) go nuts. The whole island gets involved in searching for the precocious lovebirds, including the entire scout troop. Add in an approaching hurricane and you’ve got a wacky romantic farce with suspense.

If you’re familiar with Anderson’s work, you’ll know to expect a good degree of quirkiness—every frame of this delightful picture oozes with eccentricity. Oddballs abound. The overall tone is light and whimsical, and yet the handling of the subject of young love is powerfully poignant and painfully real. How many of you remember what it was like?—that first, young love, the infatuation with another person at such a tender, yet blossoming, age. Anderson captures it all with a good deal of laughs and a lot of heart.

The director and his team also managed to build an entire universe around this little island—the detail is remarkable, all the way from hand-knitted decorations to the invented library books Suzy has stolen to read over the summer. The sense of community the picture conveys is palpable—and it’s no wonder, since the entire cast and crew (and, of course, others from Anderson’s stock company pop up—Bob Balaban, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, and Harvey Keitel) lived together for a couple of months while making the movie. As emphasized repeatedly in the supplemental documentaries, the cast and crew became a family.

Visually, the restored 2K digital transfer, supervised by Anderson, is the kind of picture one would use to demonstrate the joys of Blu-ray to a novice. It is a colorful, vibrant picture with an imaginative look and feel, thanks to the Production Design, Art Direction, and Set Decoration by, respectively, Adam Stockhausen, Gerald Sullivan, and Kris Moran. The new audio commentary features Anderson, Bill Murray, Edward Norton (who literally phones it in), Jason Schwartzman, Roman Coppola, and others—and it’s all entertaining stuff.

The supplements include special shorts that were used to promote the film, some of which were previously released, such as the Bob Balaban-narrated overview of the six library books Suzy is reading throughout the film, and Bill Murray’s guided tour of the set. There’s a new behind-the-scenes documentary, selected-scene storyboard “animatics,” audition footage of the child actors, and interviews with many of the cast and crew. Edward Norton presents a selection of short videos he shot with an iPhone, and there is a bit on miniatures and props used in the film.

Additionally, the packaging includes a few souvenir goodies—a “postcard” of the cast and a map of fictional New Penzance Island. The enclosed booklet contains pictures of merit badges, the library book covers and some illustrations, and an essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien.

Looking back at 2012, it’s a shame that the picture’s only Oscar nomination was for its Original Screenplay (by Anderson and Roman Coppola). It was my favorite picture of the year, and Criterion did it proud.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

For fans of Sixties retro TV, DC Comics is providing news that will have them pinching themselves. The legendary comic company has announced a major new project titled "Batman '66 Meets The Man From U.N.C.L.E.". The two-issue adventure will be released this December and if this teaser artwork is any indication, we might see comic incarnations of Adam West, Burt Ward, Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, all of whom are alive, well and working. The only icing on the cake we can hope for is if DC gets them all together for a promotional event. Meanwhile, the emphasis on U.N.C.L.E. might lend some steam to on-going grass roots efforts to get Warner Brothers to commit to a sequel to director Guy Ritchie's recent big screen reboot, which under-performed at the boxoffice but has built a loyal following of fans. For more click here. 

There must be as many incarnations of toy James Bond Aston Martin DB5 cars as there are grains of sand in the Sahara Desert. For die-hard collectors, however, the world is not enough when it comes amassing 007 memorabilia so click here if you want to order (from Amazon) the Hot Wheels 1/64 scale "Goldfinger" Aston Martin DB5. It's rather small, of course, so we suggest using flea circus performers for the ejector seat.  

BY ADRIAN SMITH

Somewhere in the north-German countryside is a POW camp for Naval officers and assorted other servicemen. The camp kommandant claims that it is completely escape proof, but this does not deter the camp escape committee, lead by Captain Maddox (Jack Warner, best remembered as the titular copper in Dixon of Dock Green). They've tried tunnelling and going over the wire, but they always get caught, or worse luck the tunnel collapses. Thankfully the kommandant is a reasonable man who understands their duty to try to escape, unlike the sadistic guard Captain Schultz (Anton Diffring, an actor who escaped Nazi Germany himself in 1939, only to be typecast as Nazi thugs for most of his forty-year career), who would happily shoot prisoners if he could get away with it.

Lt. Ainsworth (Anthony Steel) has an ingenious idea. An accomplished artist, he creates a papier-mâché head which can be assembled into a convincing dummy that the men refer to as Albert. This way someone can escape whilst the prisoners are being escorted outside the camp to the shower block, and when a headcount is taken, the German guards will not notice that anyone is missing. This is a plan so daring, and frankly quite bonkers, that it can only be based on a true story, which it is. Albert was built by John Worsley in the camp Marlag O, and it was used twice to allow men to escape. It is an amazing story and Albert R.N. belongs alongside other true POW escape films like The Colditz Story (1955) or The Great Escape (1963).

The film was directed by Lewis Gilbert, who was responsible for an incredible forty-one films between 1944 and 2002. In 1953 alone he was working on Johnny on the Run (for the Children's Film Foundation), Albert R.N. and The Sea Shall Not Have Them, which may explain why this particular film does not get mentioned in his recent autobiography "All My Flashbacks: Sixty Years a Film Director". There were just too many films to cover. Gilbert is one of the most prolific yet largely-ignored British film directors, with most perhaps mainly remembering his 1966 hit Alfie and contributions to the James Bond canon; You Only Live Twice (1966), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).

Albert R.N. has recently been restored for this new DVD release from Renown Pictures. It both looks and sounds superb. Sadly there are no other extras included. A commentary track from Lewis Gilbert would have been fantastic, or failing that a historian who can give details of the actual true story would have given the package some more weight. Despite this Albert R.N. comes highly recommended. The kind of black-and-white movie which you used to find on TV on a rainy afternoon, its depictions of wartime heroism, sacrifice, honour and above all, the stiff upper lip, will make you proud to be British.

By John M. Whalen

When the “hardware widow” (Allyn Ann McClerie) asks Monte Walsh (Lee Marvin) if he’d gotten used to the idea of his long-time partner Chet Rollins (Jack Palance) and her being married, Monte says: “I never had so many things to get used to in my whole life, as now.” That line of dialogue in the middle of William Fraker’s “Monte Walsh” (1970) pretty much sums up this first and best film adaptation of Jack Schaeffer’s novel about the end of the Old West in general and the cowboy life in particular. It’s a true classic and even though it features two of the toughest tough guy actors of the sixties and seventies, it’s not a melodramatic shoot-em-up, full of violence, sound and fury. Rather it’s an elegiac portrait of the way it must have really happened, presented in a style as realistic as the Frederick Remington paintings shown under the opening credits.

At the start of the story, Monte and Chet are two cowboys riding back to Harmony, Montana, and the ranch where they work, only to find that everything is gone. The winter was so severe the local ranchers gave up and sold out to Consolidated Cattle, an Eastern syndicate “run by accountants,” according to foreman Cal Brennan (Jim Davis). Brennan is managing the only spread left by Consolidated and offers them jobs. The film’s first act introduces the basic situation and most of the main characters which include Shorty (Mitchell Ryan), a bronc buster full of mischief and braggadocio, and Martine (Jeanne Moreau), a prostitute who Monte calls The Countess because of her French accent and is in love with in his own way. There’s a bunkhouse full of familiar actors you’ve seen before, including Bo Hopkins, Michael Conrad, and J.D. Spradlin.

Once the mise en scene is established, screen writers Lucas Heller and David Zelag Goodman prepare us for the trouble lying ahead by introducing the character of Fightin’ Joe Hooker (John McLiam), an old, deranged Civil War veteran who rides fence and keeps muttering, “I had a good life.” Chet and Monte remark to themselves that it appears Fightin’ Joe’s life is about over. Riding fence is the lowest job a cowboy can have. Soon after, when all the hands are out on the prairie, gathered around the chuck wagon, they see Fightin’ Joe on his horse whooping and galloping in a suicide charge straight off a cliff.

When they return to the ranch Brennan informs them that Consolidated has ordered four layoffs and Shorty is one of those given his walking papers. Monte gives him some money, knowing there just aren’t any cowboy jobs available anymore. Chet meanwhile has had his eye on the widow who owns the hardware store. In one scene, he asks Monte if he remembered how many cowboys there were when they first got there. “There’s a hell of a lot fewer now,” he says without waiting for an answer. He tells Monte he’s going to marry the “hardware widow.” Too make matters worse for Monte, Martine is moving to a town 40 miles away. There aren’t enough men left in Harmony for her to make a living.

After Chet’s wedding, Monte rides to see Martine and proposes marriage. Only trouble is neither one had any money. He says he’ll come back after he finds a job. Back in Harmony that night he walks down the dirt street of the sleeping town and the bleak look on his face shows he’s finally aware of how bad his situation has become. He discovers the grey bronc that Shorty had never been able to break penned up in a corral belonging to the owner of a Wild West show. Monte saddles up and rides the bronc, destroying half the buildings in town in the process. The scene conveys Monte’s sense of growing frustration as civilization has been taking away all the things and people he knew. The destruction of the buildings may be only coincidental to Monte doing what he does best perhaps for the last time, but it’s also meant to show a displaced cowboy wreaking some revenge on the progress that is making him obsolete. The Wild West Show operator offers him a job playing a fictitious outlaw. Monte needs the money but he thinks about it and turns it down, saying. “I’m not going to spit on my whole life.”

There have been many films about the ending of The Old West. Sam Peckinpah’s “Ride the High Country,” “The Wild Bunch,” “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” and “The Ballad of Cable Hogue” immediately come to mind, as does Tom Gries’s “Will Penny,” with Charlton Heston. These are great films, but “Monte Walsh” is more like “Will Penny” and “Cable Hogue” in the sense that Peckinpah’s action films have plots revolving around violence and revenge, while “Monte Walsh” has very little, if any, plot. There are shootings and fist fights, but are shown merely as part of the everyday life of a cowboy. Instead of the heavy blood-letting found in the “The Wild Bunch” most of the action in “Monte Walsh” is rather good-natured and usually ends in laughter and a drink. These scenes are made all the more poignant as we watch the impersonal and far more lethal forces moving into the west, slowly killing the kind of life these people knew.

The times soon become so desperate economically the characters are forced to change. Lack of employment and the possibility that there will soon be no place for them, drives them to desperate acts. The gradual erosion of the situation the cowboys and Monte’s lover face is portrayed so subtly and realistically that it comes almost as a surprise when things do suddenly take a violent turn.

“Monte Walsh” was remade in 2002 with Tom Selleck. Unlike that version, the original film does not present the Eastern syndicate and the railroad as evil villains. Fraker and his writers instead merely show the inevitability of progress and how civilization’s forward expansion necessarily makes some things and people extinct. It’s unfortunate but it’s just the way things are.

Not enough can be said about the understated, thoughtful performances by the three leads. Marvin reveals a sensitivity that only a truly tough man can risk showing. His quiet, low key portrayal and his gradual understanding of what is happening around him slowly builds to a truly sad and tragic scene near the end of the film. Palance again reminded us of what a great actor he was in the days when he played Mountain Rivera in Rod Serling’s “Requiem for a Heavyweight,” on Playhouse 90. And Jeanne Moreau moves us deeply as she accepts Monte’s proposal, and later, when he can’t find a job, tells him “It’s okay.” She wasn’t expecting a wedding right away, knowing in all likelihood there never would be one.

“Monte Walsh” was Fraker’s first directorial effort. He is better known as a cinematographer who worked on “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “The Professionals,” also with Lee Marvin. His only other notable directing job was “The Legend of the Lone Ranger.” On “Monte Walsh” he turned the lensing over to David M. Walsh who captured some nice images of the area around Tucson, subbing for Montana.

The music score was by John Barry with a tune “Good Times Are Coming” sung by Mama Cass. Barry’s score has been highly praised, but I found it too reminiscent of some of the Bond films he’d done, and for that reason somewhat distracting. The Mama Cass vocal was another discordant element, definitely a product of the time the film was made—the peace and love music of the

Seventies “Flower Power” generation. However, the ironic tone of the lyrics perfectly fit the movie’s theme.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray give us “Monte Walsh” in full 2.41:1 aspect ratio, as it was filmed. Earlier VHS versions cropped the film to 1.85:1 . Color and picture are excellent. Sound is monaural and a bit bright, making Barry’s score shrill at times. However the dialog is clear, with the music never overpowering the actors’ words. Unfortunately there are no extras on this Blu-ray other than the original theatrical trailer.

“Monte Walsh,” especially on this Kino Lorber disc is highly recommended to all lovers of the western and to those who enjoy films that try to attain the status of a work of art simply by telling the truth.

(John M. Whalen is the author of "Hunting Monsters is My Business: The Mordecai Slate Stories" . Click here to order the book from Amazon)

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Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

25 years of Tremors celebrated with first ever book on the cult horror phenomenon

Includes brand new Kevin Bacon interview

Previews October 2015’s Tremors 5: Bloodlines

In paperback and ebook 23 July 2015

‘Answers all the questions you never knew you had about the Tremors series’

Mike White, The Projection Booth podcast

Twenty-five years after cult horror comedy, Tremors, flopped at the box office before becoming a hit on home video, new book Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Tremors is set to shed light on the film’s rocky road to the big screen with fresh insight from more than 55 cast and crew, including star Kevin Bacon.

Tremors first exploded onto cinema screens in 1990, detailing events in the small town of Perfection, Nevada that had come under attack from giant underground creatures, dubbed Graboids. Starring Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward as two handymen trying to save the townsfolk, plus Michael Gross as survivalist Burt Gummer, the film was a modest success on its initial release, going on to become a smash on VHS and spawning four sequels and a short-lived TV series.

UK Film journalist Jonathan Melville has spent two years interviewing Tremors’ cast and crew, including stars Kevin Bacon, Michael Gross and Reba McEntire, director Ron Underwood and executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, perhaps best known to modern audiences as the executive producer of The Walking Dead. The book also looks at each of the sequels and the 13-episode TV series.

In addition, the book charts the 10-year journey from script to screen of October 2015’s Tremors 5: Bloodlines, the controversial sequel which sees the return of Michael Gross as monster hunter, Burt Gummer, minus the creators of the franchise.

The book also includes:

Recently discovered and previously unpublished photos from the set of Tremors

Newly uncovered sketches from the original poster designs

Exclusive reprints from the Tremors storyboards, including deleted scenes

More information on Jonathan Melville, author of Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Perfection can be found at www.tremorsguide.com.

Paperback: ISBN 978-0-9933215-0-4 – 304pp, B&W, RRP £14.99 / $22.99

eBook: ISBN 978-0-9933215-1-1 – RRP £5.99 / $6.99

Seeking Perfection: The Unofficial Guide to Perfection features interviews with more than 55 people involved in Tremors (1990), Tremors 2: Aftershocks (1996), Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001), Tremors: The Series (2003), Tremors 4: The Legend Continues and Tremors 5: Bloodlines (2015).

Interviewees include Tremors co-creators/writers/producers S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock, director Ron Underwood, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, producer Jim Jacks, actors Kevin Bacon, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire, Ariana Richards, Charlotte Stewart, Tony Genaro and Robert Jayne.

The book also includes interviews with cast and crew from Tremors 2: Aftershocks, including actors Helen Shaver and Christopher Gartin; Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, including actors Shawn Christian and Susan Chuang; Tremors 4: The Legend Continues, including actors Lela Lee and unit production manager Jon Kuyper; and Tremors: The Series, including actors Victor Browne, Marcia Strassman and Gladise Jiminez.

Seeking Perfection can also be found on:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tremorsguide

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tremorsguide

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KIEŚLOWSKI’S ALTERNATE UNIVERSES

By Raymond Benson

The late Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski often dramatized the theme of one’s destiny—whether it be determined by fate or by random coincidences. His most well known work, the Three Colors trilogy (Blue, White, and Red), certainly deals with the subject of chance, as do several episodes of his celebrated television miniseries, The Decalogue.

Made in 1981 during the Solidarity movement and a time of political upheaval in Soviet-occupied Poland, Blind Chance explores the question of “what if?” If you did something as insignificant as bumping into another person, would that change the course of your life?

The film offers three alternate “lives” of a medical student named Witek (superbly played by Boguslaw Linda). The first five minutes provide us with brief glances of Witek as a child, a teenager, and then a young adult. After the death of his father, Witek decides to drop out of medical school and travel to Warsaw to visit his aunt. He is late to the station and must run through a crowd of people to catch the train. What happens on the platform is the pivotal catalyst for the rest of the story. He almost collides with a drunk—but doesn’t touch him—giving Witek that extra second or two that allows him to catch the train. While onboard, he meets an elderly Party-line Communist who takes a fancy to Witek and offers him a job in the city. So, in this lifeline, Witek becomes a Communist and works in opposition to the young people of his age group who are protesting the government.

In an alternate scenario, though, Witek actually collides with the drunk, but the man with the beer remains standing. This causes Witek enough of a delay that he misses the train. He then gets into a scuffle on the platform with a police officer and is arrested. Once Witek is back on the street, he is forever prejudiced against the Communist government. Thus, in this life he becomes an anti-Soviet activist and a practicing Catholic.

Finally, in a third possibility, which may be what really happened, Witek accidentally knocks down the drunk—delaying the young man a few seconds longer—so that Witek not only misses the train, but he avoids the policeman on the platform. Instead, he runs into a female medical student colleague. She persuades him to stay and return to his studies. Witek marries the girl, has children, becomes a successful doctor, and remains apolitical. Witek lives a happy life—until Kieślowski pulls the rug out from under us and delivers a knife wound of an ending.

The picture might remind viewers of Peter Howitt’s 1998 British film Sliding Doors, which also examined alternate life paths—but only two. Blind Chance does it with three, and the movie was made more than fifteen years earlier.

The task of editing such a story is, of course, challenging, and editor Elzbieta Kurkowska deserves special praise for keeping the complex narrative comprehensible. In a 2003 interview, filmmaker and Kieślowski associate Agnieszka Holland explains that she had seen the first cut of the film, which was initially too confusing and didn’t work. Kieślowski made a thorough assessment of what had gone wrong and completely recut the picture with Kurkowska—resulting in the brilliant piece of work presented here.

If you can get past the heavy political discourse that is an integral part of the story, you will find Blind Chance to be a fascinating and intelligent scrutiny of the way life rolls the dice for us all.

The film was banned by the Polish government prior to its release, due to inherent criticisms of the government. The picture was finally released in Poland in 1987 with some cuts dictated by the censor board. It wasn’t until the fall of Communism in Europe in 1989 that the complete works of Krzysztof Kieślowski (who had been making movies since the 70s) emerged from behind the Iron Curtain so that the rest of the world could discover him.

The Criterion Collection has reassembled Blind Chance to its 1981 version—with the exception of an audio-only portion of a few seconds of a police beating that, for some reason, “couldn’t be restored.” The 4K digital transfer, approved by cinematographer Krzysztof Pakulski, is clean and sharp, providing the viewer with the best possible edition of this important work. The soundtrack is in uncompressed stereo.

Supplements include the Holland interview; a new interview with Polish film critic Tadeusz Sobolewski; and demonstrations of the nine pieces of the film that were censored in 1987. The booklet contains an essay by film critic Dennis Lim and a 1993 interview with Kieslowski.

Blind Chance is recommended for discerning cinema enthusiasts looking for a little European history, intelligence, and artful filmmaking. A truly gifted auteur, Kieślowski departed this plane of existence way too early (in 1996 at the age of fifty-four). Perhaps he is now living his own alternate timeline.

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In 1968 Carne made the cover of the Saturday Evening Post along with her "Laugh-In" co-stars Goldie Hawn and Chelsea Brown.

Actress Judy Carne passed away last week at age 76. Her once promising career took off in the late 1960s as the "Sock It To Me!" girl who gyrated in a bikini and was routinely doused with water on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In". However, as her aptly-titled autobiography was titled ("Laughing on the Outside, Crying on the Inside: The Bittersweet Saga of the 'Sock It To Me' Girl"), Carne's life and career veered wildly off course after she left the hit NBC program. Broken marriages, drug problems and high profile arrests ensured that she would never see the kind of stardom that other "Laugh-In" women such as Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin attained. Writing in the Washington Post, Justin Wm. Moyer explores the tragic life and career of a very talented artist whose penchant for self-destruction could not be overcome.   

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The following is a press release from Sony and Eon Productions:

LONDON, September 8, 2015 – Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment today confirmed that Sam Smith has recorded “Writing’s On The Wall,” the theme song to SPECTRE, the 24th James Bond adventure.  SPECTRE will be released in the UK on October 26 and in the US on November 6.  The song, released by Capitol Records, will debut and be available to purchase and stream on September 25.

Multi-platinum selling artist Sam Smith has co-written the title song, “Writing’s On The Wall,” with fellow GRAMMY® Award winner Jimmy Napes.  It is the first James Bond theme song recorded by a British male solo artist since 1965.  Smith’s debut album In The Lonely Hour launched at No. 1 in the UK and bowed in at No. 2 in the US, and has since earned five No.1 UK singles, four GRAMMY® Awards, three Brit Awards, six MOBO Awards, Q and AMA Awards.

Commenting on the announcement, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the producers of SPECTRE, said, “Sam and Jimmy have written the most inspirational song for Spectre and with Sam’s extraordinary vocal performance, ‘Writing’s On The Wall’ will surely be considered one of the greatest Bond songs of all time.”

Smith said: “This is one of the highlights of my career. I am honoured to finally announce that I will be singing the next Bond theme song. I am so excited to be a part of this iconic British legacy and join an incredible line up of some of my biggest musical inspirations.  I hope you all enjoy the song as much as I enjoyed making it.”

The 23 previous James Bond theme songs make up some of the most memorable movie music of all time.  The previous Bond theme song, “Skyfall,” was performed by Adele, and was honored with the Academy Award® and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, the Brit Award for British Single of the Year, and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. 

ABOUT “SPECTRE”

A cryptic message from the past sends James Bond (Daniel Craig) on a rogue mission to Mexico City and eventually Rome, where he meets Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci), the beautiful and forbidden widow of an infamous criminal.  Bond infiltrates a secret meeting and uncovers the existence of the sinister organisation known as SPECTRE.

Meanwhile back in London, Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), the new head of the Centre for National Security, questions Bond’s actions and challenges the relevance of MI6, led by M (Ralph Fiennes). Bond covertly enlists Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and Q (Ben Whishaw) to help him seek out Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), the daughter of his old nemesis Mr White (Jesper Christensen), who may hold the clue to untangling the web of SPECTRE. As the daughter of an assassin, she understands Bond in a way most others cannot.

As Bond ventures towards the heart of SPECTRE, he learns of a chilling connection between himself and the enemy he seeks, played by Christoph Waltz.

Sam Mendes returns to direct SPECTRE, with Daniel Craig reprising his role as 007 for the fourth time. SPECTRE is produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.  The screenplay is by John Logan and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Jez Butterworth, with a story by John Logan and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade.

SPECTRE is set for release in the UK on October 26, 2015, and in the US on November 6, 2015.

BY LEE PFEIFFER

 The mid-to-late 1960s saw such sweeping and rapid changes in politics, sexual mores and popular culture that the mind still reels when thinking about it. Hollywood studios, ever opportunistic, desperately tried to tap into the dramatically changing youth culture. A few years earlier, sanitized Elvis Presley musicals and lame beach comedies satiated younger movie goers. By 1967, Frankie and Annette had been abruptly made irrelevant by Bonnie and Clyde. Suddenly aging studio executives were throwing money at virtually any project that would prove they had their fingers on the pulse of the increasingly important demographic that represented the future of the film industry. In 1969 alone there was a sea change in the types of films that were bringing in big boxoffice. Wife swapping was played for laughs ("Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice"), drug dealers were presented as tragic heroes ("Easy Rider") and an X-rated film would go on to win the Best Picture Oscar ("Midnight Cowboy"). Even the main staple of the traditional studio release- the Western- was often rendered unrecognizable as veteran stars engaged in unprecedented blood-letting in Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" and the anti-Establishment tone of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Fox, like other studios, grappled to stay relevant. There was still plenty of business for old-fashioned studio fare that was deemed non-threatening, but the wind was clearly in the sails of those movies that pushed the envelope in terms of making social statements. And so it was that an ill-fated project titled "Che!" went into production at the studio. 

"Che!" was very much  a "Ripped From Today's Headlines!" film.  Ernesto "Che" Guevara had only been killed two years previously and had already become an iconic symbol in international revolutionary movements. The proud communist was born in Argentina but had joined up with Fidel Castro's movement in 1956 that was dedicated to toppling the seemingly indestructible dictatorship of corrupt Cuban president Fulgencio Batista, who was widely deemed to be a bought-and-paid for puppet for American mobsters who had widespread financial interests in the island nation. Che, who started as a lowly medic for Castro's 82 man guerilla movement, quickly rose in stature following a massacre that found the group reduced to only 12 fighters.  Incredibly, within a relatively short period of time, Castro's ragtag band regrouped and won almost fanatical support among the general population. In a stunning turn of events, Batista was abruptly forced to resign and flee the country. Castro triumphantly entered Havana and the rest is history.

The Fox production of "Che!" primarily resonates a bit today only because Cuba is back in the news. Castro, who has been on his "death bed" seemingly for twenty years, is still stirring controversy with the recent decision by the Obama administration to loosen restrictions on Cuba. Though widely supported by public polls, the policy is taking a hit in some quarters because of Castro's predictable penchant for tossing insults at the USA during the most sensitive period. He claims that America owes Cuba many millions of dollars in reparations for damage inflicted on the nation through the 55 year embargo. The seeds of all these issues are addressed in "Che!" but only in the most superficial manner. The film presented the titular firebrand, played by Omar Sharif, as the brains behind Castro's successes. Castro, played by Jack Palance, is seen as a relatively benign figure here; a man who becomes almost completely dependent on the political and military advice offered by his younger protege. Upon taking power, however, rifts come between the two "comrades". Castro installs himself as a ruthless dictator in much the manner that Batista was. Che opposes his cozy relationship with the Soviet Union that saw Cuba become the mistress of the Russians, accepting the placement of nuclear missiles in return for the easy financial supplements that Castro became increasingly dependent on. The Bay of Pigs invasion is mentioned almost in passing and the Cuban Missile Crisis is covered almost entirely through some brief newsreel footage of Adlai Stevenson publicly challenging the Soviets to admit the presence of the missiles during a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting that became infamous. The long-term implications of such momentous events are swept aside. Instead, we see the perpetually brooding Che as a man who is impossible to please. While Castro is content to have won power in Cuba, Che is restless to spread the revolution to other nations. While Che is critical of Castro's abuse of power, he falls victim to his own demons as well, justifying mass murders of former government and military officials on the basis that doing so will satiate the public, which is demanding retribution for years of oppression under Batista. All of this is powerful fodder for a dramatic screenplay, but "Che!" is schizophrenic in its structure. It waivers between being a psychological study of a complex man and being an overview of important political events that were still relatively recent at the time of the movie's release. In the end, the film is unsatisfactory on all levels. Worse, it has a rushed look to it and, despite some fleeting atmospheric scenes shot in Puerto Rico (doubling for Havana). Many of the other sequences were all too apparently shot at the famed Fox Ranch set in Malibu. The movie, which fortunately is at least never dull, begins with Che already dead, having been killed in a gun battle in Bolivia, where he made the ill-fated decision to try to launch a revolution in a country that was not demanding one. His story is then told through flashbacks by the normal competent director Richard Fleischer, who uses the awkward device of having friends, colleagues and enemies of Che relate anecdotes by breaking the "the fourth wall" and addressing the viewer directly. It's a hokey tactic that more than once elicits some unintentional giggles. 

When the film  opened, it was universally panned and helped derail Omar Sharif's status as a bankable leading man. He had made some major hits over the years: "Lawrence of Arabia", "Doctor Zhivago" and, more recently, "Funny Girl". But there were the high profile bombs "Mayerling" and "Mackenna's Gold". With "Che!", both Sharif and Jack Palance found themselves ridiculed by critics who savaged their performances. Ironically, it is only their performances that seem to have withstood the test of time. Not only do they both bear remarkable physical resemblances to the historical figures they are playing, both also give quite credible performances. Sharif is appropriately a brooding, humorless figure and Palance, who was known to chew the scenery, is quite restrained and content to chew some fine Cuban cigars instead. Director Fleischer had assembled an impressive cast of character actors including Cesare Danova, Robert Loggia and Barbara Luna but gave them nothing of any consequence to do. They serve primarily as window dressing. Even the great Woody Strode is bizarrely cast in an almost wordless role that sees him reduced to marching through the jungle and firing machine guns. The screenplay never digs beneath the surface to examine either Che or Castro's motives for their actions. The abuse of the Cuban people by Batista is all but ignored, for example, and the film takes an agnostic attitude towards the actions of Che and Castro, probably because passing judgment one way or the other might well have alienated the intended audience. The strategy didn't work. "Che!" became a notorious bomb at the time of its release and its reputation remains tarnished though it's attributes are probably more apparent today than they were back in the day. This makes the new Twilight Time limited edition (3,000 units) Blu-ray release  all the more welcome. In viewing the movie in retrospect, it still resonates as a misfire but doesn't seem nearly as awful as critics made it out to be in 1969. The transfer looks great and there are some bonus features: an interesting vintage "making of" featurette, a TV spot and the original trailer. There are also the usual excellent liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo, who points out the irony in the fact that to today's generation, Che is primarily known as an anonymous image on bestselling T shirts that have made a fortune for capitalist hucksters. One hopes that the company might reissue this title some day and include commentary tracks by political historians in order to separate fact from fiction. 

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Jones in the Disney comedy hit The Love Bug.

Last week actor Dean Jones passed away at age 84. Jones was the affable star of many Disney live action films in the 1960s and 1970s including "That Darn Cat!", "The Love Bug", "The Ugly Dachshund" and "Monkeys, Go Home!" among numerous others. Jones was given a lifetime achievement award by the Disney company in recognition of his many contributions to major films produced by the studio. Jones became increasingly adamant that he would only appear in family-oriented films. However, early in his career he had supporting roles in such mainstream adult fare as "Tea and Sympathy", "Torpedo Run", "Never So Few", "Ten Thousand Bedroom"s", "Ash Wednesday" and starred in the  1965 cult horror film "Two On a Guillotine".  Jones was also a proficient stage actor and received great acclaim for his starring role in Stephen Sondheim's "Company" in 1970. However, he was tormented by the divorce he was going through and ended up leaving the production after only two weeks. Larry Kert took over the plum role and received a Tony nomination. In later years, Jones, a devout Christian, became increasingly involved in faith-based projects and founded the Christian Rescue Committee, a charitable organization. For more click here. 

BY ERNIE MAGNOTTA

Throughout most of the 1980s, prolific filmmaker Charles Band ran the (sadly) now defunct distribution company Empire Pictures. Empire, whose fun movies had their own unique style and humor, released a plethora of enjoyable, low-budget action/sci-fi/horror/fantasy titles the likes of Walking the Edge (1985), Crawlspace (1986), From Beyond (1986), Troll (1986), Dolls (1987) and Cellar Dweller (1988). The company, however, is probably best known for the amazing cult classic Re-Animator (1985) as well as the popular Ghoulies and Trancers series. If, like me, you’re a fan of Empire Pictures’ entertaining output (as well as a fan of Band’s later company, Full Moon Pictures, which is best known for the iconic Puppet Master series), you can rejoice as their much-sought-after cult favorite, Zone Troopers, has finally been released on Blu-ray.

Solidly directed by Danny Bilson (The Rocketeer) who also co-wrote with his long-time friend Paul De Meo (Arena), Zone Troopers tells the enthralling tale of a small group of American soldiers who, while battling the Nazis in Italy in 1944, stumble across a crashed spaceship from another galaxy. Led by tough-as-nails Sergeant Stone (Tim Thomerson from Trancers), the soldiers not only do everything in their power to stay alive, but also to ensure that the aliens and their advanced technology do not find its way into the hands of the evil Nazi horde.

Zone Troopers is a unique and extremely fun combo of old-time war films and B-movie science fiction fantasy. The highly enjoyable movie also boasts an amazing cast. Timothy Van Patten (Class of 1984, The White Shadow) is dead-on as young, New Jersey soldier Joey Verona. Van Patten goes all out delivering the innocence and patriotism (as well as the requisite East Coast accent) necessary to bring this wonderfully clichéd role to life. Art La Fleur (1988’s The Blob) is terrific as tough, but loveable Corporal Mittinsky aka Mittens, and Tim Thomerson, who conveys quite a bit of info through very subtle facial expressions, is excellent as the indestructible Iron Sarge. Rounding out the group of stalwart heroes is Biff Manard (Trancers II) who makes his character of writer/reporter Dolan more than likeable. The lighthearted film is filled with action, adventure, camaraderie and humor, and, at times, feels like a 1940s comic book. It also benefits from a fun musical score by talented composer (and brother of Charles) Richard Band (Re-Animator, The House on Sorority Row), wonderful special alien effects by legendary makeup artist John Carl Buechler (Friday the 13^th Part VII: The New Blood); not to mention top-notch cinematography and editing by long-time Charles Band associates Mac Ahlberg (Prison) and Ted Nicolaou (Subspecies) respectively. Filmed in both Italy and the US, the well-paced film also contains intentionally dated and, therefore, intentionally corny and priceless dialogue (mostly from Van Patten) as well as a bunch of 1940s references which makes the war section of Zone Troopers feel entirely authentic.

Zone Troopers has been released on a region one Blu-ray by Kino Lorber. The high definition transfer looks fantastic and the movie is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Special features include the original theatrical trailer, an interesting onscreen interview with the great Tim Thomerson, and an amusing and informative audio commentary by director Danny Bilson and writer Paul De Meo who both seem to enjoy revisiting their cult film (and rightly so). Whether you’re a lover of war movies, retro science fiction, or you’re just looking for something fun and different, Zone Troopers is definitely the Blu-ray for you.

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Official press release:

At 07:00 UK time on Monday 7th September, the box-office for SPECTRE will open across the UK and Ireland, giving cinema audiences the opportunity to book their tickets in advance to see Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment’s SPECTRE.

For the first time ever, the film will open to the public on the same night as the World Premiere in London, giving audiences the opportunity to be the first in the world to see the hugely-anticipated 24th film in the James Bond franchise.

Following the World Premiere and release in the UK and Ireland on 26th October, SPECTRE will begin its rollout in territories around the world. The film will release in the US on November 6, 2015.

BY ERNIE MAGNOTTA

Although I was barely ten years-old, I remember feeling terrified while watching horror master Wes Craven’s 1978 made-for-TV thriller Summer of Fear (under its alternate title Stranger in Our House) as well as thoroughly enjoying his adaptation of the comic book Swamp Thing four years later, but it wasn’t until November of 1984, while viewing the trailer for some new horror flick called A Nightmare on Elm Street, that I recall hearing and remembering the name Wes Craven. After being thrilled by this masterpiece which, in my opinion, is Craven’s greatest work, I certainly wanted to learn more about this extremely talented filmmaker. After doing a bit of research, I quickly discovered that I had already seen Craven’s original and very interesting Deadly Blessing (1981) and, also, his other masterpiece (in my opinion): 1977’s The Hills Have Eyes. Whenever someone mentions Wes Craven, I immediately think of Nightmare and Hills, so, due to hearing the very sad news of his passing, I’d like to focus this article on those two masterworks because if any movies from his amazing filmography show Wes as a writer/director to be reckoned with, they are, without a doubt, The Hills Have Eyes and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Craven’s first movie as writer/director (and editor) was 1972’s controversial, but important The Last House on the Left. The disturbing film, which was inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring (1960) and produced by Sean Cunningham (Friday the 13^th), was made during the height of the Vietnam War and seemed to be Craven’s outcry against the rise of violence in the United States at the time. It also rightly depicted that violence as brutal and horrific instead of glamorizing or sanitizing it. Lensed in New York and Connecticut for only $87,000, the film’s poster featured the immortal tagline ‘To avoid fainting, keep repeating, it’s only a movie…only a movie…only a movie…’, dealt with revenge, booby traps and a civilized family vs. an uncivilized one. The last two would show up again in Craven’s next film.

Five long years later, Craven would write and direct again and it was definitely worth the wait. On July, 22^nd, 1977, The Hills Have Eyes was released upon an unsuspecting public. The $230,000 budgeted film dealt with the Carters; an average, middle-class family whose car breaks down near a deserted bomb range in the Nevada desert while driving cross-country. Once stranded, night falls and the Carters are repeatedly attacked by an uncivilized, cannibalistic, mutant family who live in the hills and have been surviving in the desert for years by feeding off of anyone foolish enough to cross their path. The cannibals, who go by names such as Mars, Mercury, Pluto and Papa Jupiter, brutally murder Mr. and Mrs. Carter, their oldest daughter Lynne, and Beauty, one of their two dogs. The deranged mutants also kidnap Lynne’s infant daughter, Katie, leaving only Lynne’s younger siblings, Bobby and Brenda, along with Lynne’s husband, Doug, and their second dog, Beast, to face the crazed family, hopefully rescue little Katie and survive.

Although still a hardcore piece of horror cinema, The Hills Have Eyes is a more enjoyable experience than The Last House on the Left. Where Last House went for and achieved stark realism, Hills deftly balances realistic, identifiable, likeable characters with somewhat over-the-top/comic bookish, but still terrifying, villains (who Craven based on the supposedly real-life, 16^th century, cannibalistic Sawney Bean family). The film chillingly shows that in a life and death situation, an intelligent, passive, civilized person may have to become just as uncivilized as his or her attackers. The film’s memorable tagline, “A nice American family. They didn’t want to kill. But they didn’t want to die.”, pretty much sums up the entire movie.

The cutting edge, low-budget film, which introduced the world to future horror movie icons Dee Wallace (The Howling, Cujo) and Michael Berryman (Deadly Blessing, The Devil’s Rejects), went on to gross $25 million and quickly became a cult classic, further solidifying Craven’s name as a major and original talent in the world of horror cinema.

Over the next seven years, Craven would work in both film and television and, with the exception of the aforementioned Swamp Thing, would always direct films in the horror genre. Immediately following Swamp Thing, Craven completed an original horror screenplay which he

shopped all over Hollywood. Every studio felt that the script didn’t have potential and passed on it. With almost no money to his name and just about ready to give up on the project, Craven finally saw a glimmer of hope as a tiny, independent company called New Line Cinema gave the film a green light. New Line head Robert Shaye, whose company dealt mostly in distribution, but had recently moved into production by making a few low-budget films including an underrated 1982 horror called Alone in the Dark, believed in Craven’s script and production immediately began with Wes once again in the director’s chair. The screenplay’s title was A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The frightening film tells the tale of a group of four teens who all begin having nightmares about the same creepy, burnt-faced man who skulks in the bowels of an old boiler room and wears a dirty red and green sweater, a beat-up, old fedora and a self-made glove of sharp “finger-knives.” When her friends begin dying one by one, intelligent teen Nancy deduces that if this mysterious figure kills you in your sleep, then you die for real. After getting almost no help from the adults around her, Nancy does some digging and finds out that the murderer’s name is Fred Krueger and that his motive is to kill the Elm Street kids as an act of revenge in order to punish their parents who burned him alive ten years earlier due to him being a filthy child murderer. Armed with only her wits and a few self-made booby traps, Nancy prepares to face Krueger in a desperate battle for survival.

Made for under $2 million dollars, the expertly crafted film was released on November 9, 1984 and, little by little, gained momentum as horror fans slowly began to discover what an unexpected gem it was. After all, the trailer made it seem as if it was just another in a seemingly endless cycle of formulaic dead teenager flicks still being released due to the massive success of both Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13^th (1980). But A Nightmare on Elm Street was different. It was something special. More of a psychological thriller than a by-the-numbers slasher film, Elm Street’s extremely original story, much like The Hills Have Eyes, was partly influenced by real-life events. Wes Craven read a series of articles in the L.A. Times which detailed several young men who were afraid to go to sleep and tried everything in their power to stay awake. When they inevitably nodded off, they died. Craven immediately thought “What if a person, like a boogeyman, was killing them in their dreams?” With the story now in place, Wes then began to construct his soon-to-be iconic villain. Craven based him on a scary childhood incident where, one night, while little Wes was looking out his bedroom window into the alley below, a creepy man wearing an old hat continued to stare up at him with a look of evil. Craven then took the name Fred Krueger from a school bully who constantly tormented him (he did the same thing twelve years earlier with The Last House on the Left; naming one character Fred and the other Krug) and decided on Elm Street because it was a street close to the school where he used to work as an English teacher as well as being the name of the street where JFK was, unfortunately, assassinated on. Wes said that he wanted a name/place that evoked pure Americana. Craven then chose the razor-sharp glove because he was thinking of what early man may have feared and thought of the claws of a bear. He also wanted Freddy to be a painful, optical effect, so he decided on red and green for Freddy’s sweater after learning that they were the two colors which were the most difficult for the eye to see side by side. Lastly, Craven decided that Freddy would be very different from the plethora of mute, masked, cinematic psycho killers which were inundating theaters at the time. Freddy would talk (including a few darkly humorous lines of dialogue) and, although covered in burnt scar tissue, remain unmasked. The chilling monster would also take great pleasure in terrifying his victims-to-be.

BY DOUG OSWALD

“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” isn’t a horror movie in the traditional sense, but does depict a real life monster masquerading as a soldier, husband and father. Told from eight-year-old Bruno’s point-of-view, the story takes place in Nazi Germany during WWII and is a deeply moving portrayal of the horror of the Holocaust. The movie opens with Bruno playing with his friends and returning home to learn his family is moving. His father, a high ranking officer with the Nazi SS, has been given orders for a new assignment far away from their home in the city.

Relocated to a home in the country located next to what Bruno believes is a farm, he wants to find a friend, but is told to not venture beyond the locked garden gate. For most boys that’s just a challenge and he finds a way beyond the garden. After walking through the woods, he meets a boy names Shmuel who wears striped pajamas and lives at “the farm” located just beyond the barbed wire electrified fence. They shake hands through the fence and become best friends and meet there daily.

Bruno’s new house has a different type of staff. They’re dressed and behave differently than the staff at the old house. Bruno talks to an old man working in the kitchen, but he’s told not to engage him. Bruno’s mother is uncomfortable with their move, her husband’s work and the new staff. Father is busy and his older sister becomes infatuated with a young SS officer as well as indoctrinated into the German Nazi cause. Bruno’s sister posts magazine and newspaper clippings about Nazis on the wall near her bed like they were movie stars.

One of the most moving and fascinating scenes in the movie happens as Bruno is watching a Nazi propaganda movie made about the death camp which he thinks is a type of farm. While the camp is never directly identified in the movie, it is a fictionalized version of the notorious Auschwitz death camp. The propaganda video depicts a happy existence for the Jews on “the farm” as they stop at the café for coffee, participate in sporting events and go about their work singing and happy. The movie within the movie was recreated by the filmmakers and is based on actual Nazi propaganda created during this period. Bruno embraces his father, convinced he is making a good life for the those living on “the farm.”

The movie is brutal at times and the brutality at the house comes at the hands of the young SS officer. The man working in the kitchen is terribly mistreated and suddenly disappears. Bruno’s friend, Shmuel, appears in the house to help set up a party. After eating some food given to him by Bruno, Shmuel is caught eating the food by the young SS officer. Bruno denies giving Shmuel the food and Shmuel is taken away. We see the beating Shmuel received after he and Bruno meet at the fence days later. Bruno apologizes and they dig a hole under the fence so they can play together. Shmuel tells Bruno that his father has disappeared. Bruno offers to help search for Shmuel’s father on “the farm” and the next day Shmuel brings and extra set of striped pajamas for Bruno to wear. Their search leads to the devastating conclusion of “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.”

The movie is a believable and outstanding depiction of the innocence of childhood in the midst of real life horror. Bruno is brilliantly played by Asa Butterfield in one of the most believable kid roles in any movie. Following this movie he gave equally good performances as the title characters in Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” and in the sci-fi drama “Ender’s Game.”

Bruno’s mother and father are known to the viewer as “mother” and “father.” David Thewlis is convincing and understated as Bruno’s father. He runs an extermination camp by day and comes home for dinner with his family. Monsters don’t get any more real than that. I loved Thewlis’ performance in this movie, playing an almost dual role as father and mass murderer trying to keep his family together. He’s also one of the best character actors working in movies today. Vera Farmiga plays Bruno’s mother, a woman who comes to realize she is married to a monster, but who also is trying to pretend they are a normal family. Farmiga is very good here and currently plays another mother in the hit TV series “Bates Motel,” where she plays Norma Bates, the queen mother of monster mothers. Jack Scanlon plays Shmuel, the boy in the striped pajamas. Or, maybe both Shmuel and Bruno are the title character because in the end they both wear striped pajamas and share the same fate. All of Shmuel’s scenes are with Bruno and the two boys connect on screen in believable and poignant performances. The scenes with the boys are difficult to watch and filled with sadness because we know that Shmuel is living in a sort of Hell on Earth. The two young actors carry their scenes beautifully.

“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” was released to theaters in the fall of 2008 and is based on the 2006 book by Jon Boyne who co-wrote the screenplay with director Mark Herman. Herman directed two of the best comedy-dramas of the 1990s, “Brassed Off” and “Little Voice.” The Miramax Blu-ray contains an insightful audio commentary with Herman and Boyne, deleted scenes with optional commentary by the director and a featurette about the production with interviews of the cast and crew. The location shots, period costumes and performances are done with great care and attention to detail. The movie is worthy viewing during this 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

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BY DARREN ALLISON

In the 1982 cult film “Videodrome”, James Woods plays a low life television programmer named Max Renn.  His television station, Civix TV, Channel 83, televises adult programmes such as softcore pornography over the airwaves. Alongside his partner, a satellite pirate named Harlan (Peter Dvorsky), Renn scans the airwaves for decidedly dodgy shows to broadcast on his station. Harlan discovers a noise-shrouded broadcast lasting less than a minute that takes place in a sordid room. The footage contains convincingly realistic sadomasochism and possibly a murder. Renn is drawn to the material and immediately starts to investigate in order to secure the broadcasting of this edgy program called Videodrome. It is during this time that Renn attends a TV debate on a talk show, where he meets fellow guest and radio personality Nicki Brand (Deborah Harry). The couple date and Renn soon discovers that Brand is something of a sadomasochist and is further more turned on by the idea of Videodrome. Renn however, is growing more frustrated in locating the source of the programme and is eventually advised by his agent to drop the project. Additional clips are located by Harlan that continues to feed more into Renn’s growing curiosity. He continues to search for the people behind Videodrome until his path leads him to an encounter with a curious personality known as Brian O’Blivion (Jack Creley). From here on, David Cronenberg’s intriguing film takes a very psychological and disturbing turn. Soon after, Renn begins experiencing headaches and strange hallucinating effects that are the result of Videodrome’s hidden signal.

Combining the bio-horror elements of his earlier films whilst anticipating the technological themes of his later work, “Videodrome” exemplifies Cronenberg’s extraordinary talent for making both visceral and cerebral cinema. Cronenberg has been hailed by contemporaries such as John Carpenter, who insists “he’s better than all of us combined” and Martin Scorsese as a genius. “Videodrome” was Cronenberg’s most mature work to date and is still regarded as a cult classic.

James Woods shines in his role of Max Renn, and Debbie Harry turns in a convincing and confident performance, almost as if she had a point to prove. Whilst the story shows it age in terms of technology (with Betamax tapes and 4:3 TV’s all over the place), it also provides a dark and disturbingly accurate account of what was also to come.

UK fans of “Videodrome” will be delighted with Arrow’s new presentation. Its previous release (by Universal) was largely disappointing, not only because of picture issues (it was also a cut version), but also because of its failure to deliver in terms of bonus material, which was zero. This time around Arrow have used the same Criterion master (approved by director David Cronenberg and cinematographer Mark Irwin) as its source and in the process, the picture is vastly better. There is no longer evidence of an over sharpened image and as a result there is a much smoother, pure, high definition presentation. This master also offers a correct frame ratio and colour definition is much more vivid, yet stable. Universal’s previous Blu-ray release suffered considerably from the reproduction of reds and blues in particular. Strong, deep blacks have also helped to improve some of the darker scenes without compromising any of the film’s finer details. The film also benefits from just the right amount of grain and never looks overly defined.

Arrow’s audio consists of one standard track (in English LPCM 1.0.) but the clarity remains sharp throughout and really brings to the fore Howard Shore's wonderfully atmospheric score.

Overall, I find it hard to perceive how anything can possibly topple this defining collection. It is by far, the finest transfer (I have yet to see) of what some fans describe as Cronenberg’s finest hour.

By Lee Pfeiffer

By the late 1950s, the late French novelist Jules Verne was considered good boxoffice, with smash hits such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days having been adapted from his books to the screen. Fox wanted to jump on the bandwagon and made plans to film one of Verne's most popular novels, Journey to the Center of the Earth. The studio had allocated a substantial budget, most of which went into production design and special effects. The project began with Clifton Webb attached at the star, but James Mason ultimately took over the key role of Sir Oliver Lindenbrook, as esteemed Scottish scientist who receives tantalizing evidence that one of his legendary peers, who disappeared two hundred years earlier, may have found a way to explore the deepest regions of the earth's nether regions. Obsessed with replicating this quest, Lindenbrook takes along Alec McKuen (Pat Boone), one of his most promising students. The expedition arrives in Iceland, where Lindenbrook also enlists the aid of Hans (Peter Ronson), a strapping young local man whose physical strength will prove to be useful in the ordeals to come. Unexpectedly, Lindenbrook finds himself having to rely on the support of Carla Goteborg (Arlene Dahl), the widow of a rival scientist who Lindnebrook had mistakenly confided in, only to find the man was trying to use the information to make the historic journey himself. The team is well-equipped for the dangerous mission, but once inside the bowels of the earth, they discover that yet another rival, Count Saknussem (Thayer David), is also competing to race them to the actual center of the planet- and he is willing to use deadly force to ensure he gains all the glory.  The film is utterly delightful throughout, thanks in large part to the winning cast. Mason is perfect as the cranky, eccentric professor whose obsession for the mission inspires him to lead the team into the most dire circumstances. Most surprising is the performance of Pat Boone, who Scottish accent comes and goes on a whim, but who exudes genuine appeal on the big screen. (Boone also produced the movie, an investment that still pays him substantial dividends.) At the time, casting singing teenage idols in major film roles was a gimmick that often didn't work and proved to be a distraction. However, Boone acquits himself well throughout and limits his crooning to only one romantic number early in the film. Dahl is the ultimate liberated woman, insisting on holding her own amid some vile threats and Thayer David exudes icy menace as the cold-hearted explorer willing to murder for glory. Young Diane Baker plays Alec's fiancee, who spends most of the film back in Edinburgh worrying about the fate of her betrothed. (Although a few scenes were shot in Scotland, the principal actors never left the United States. Much of the footage was shoot at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, as well as Lone Pine, California). Veteran director Henry Levin proved to be an inspired choice to helm the production, as he is equally adept with the human elements of the story as he is with the spectacle. 

Twilight Time had previously released the film in 2012. However, this "new, improved" edition features new cover art, isolated score track of Bernard Herrmann's bombastic, impressive score and an audio commentary by Diane Baker and film historians Steven C. Smith and Nick Redman. There is also an original trailer and the usual informative collector's booklet with liner notes by Julie Kirgo.  The limited edition (5,000 units) Blu-ray that does justice to the amazing set designs and special effects. While these aspects of the movie may seem quaint and retro in the age of CGI, they will amaze more sophisticated viewers who realize that they represent the work of true craftsmen who labored to come up with the incomparable look of the film. The climactic attack by an army of super-sized, flesh-eating lizards is especially impressive and downright chilling.  This is one exotic Journey that is worth the investment. 

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BY DARREN ALLISON

Incubo sulla città contaminate / Nightmare City 1980 Directed by Umberto Lenzi, Starring Hugo Stiglitz, Maria Rosaria Omaggio and Mel Ferrer. Arrow Blu-Ray / DVD dual format.

TV Reporter Dean Miller (Hugo Stiglitz) is assigned to the airport to interview an arriving scientist. The airport personnel are left confused when an unidentified Hercules lands without communicating with flight control. The emergency services are deployed to meet the incoming plane but as the doors open, all carnage breaks loose as an array of varying mutant maniacs spill out onto the runway. Among them is the scientist that Miller was sent to meet. There is an immediate onslaught. With the mutants seemingly impervious to bullets, they proceed to attack and devour anyone who stands in their way.

Of course, it’s a wonderful opening idea and Umberto Lenzi wastes little time in getting to the action. Forget the phrase ‘slow burner’, Lenzi doesn’t believe in it. However, examining his film too intently will reveal certain narrative flaws. Who was flying the plane? How did Miller know the scientist was going to be on that unidentified plane? These are the sort of questions that simply need avoiding.

So, in the true style of Lenzi, let’s cut straight to the chase. These mutants are most certainly zombies. It is also not a film to be taken seriously; it’s a ‘romp’ as filmmaker and Fangoria editor Chris Alexander so fondly describes it in his superb commentary. Lenzi’s zombies have often been described as ‘Pizza faced’, but think of a ‘burnt meat feast’ Pizza and you’ll be pretty close to the genuine article. You can even (to a certain extent) forget the story in general, it’s a pretty poor one and very little of it. We soon come to realise that these zombies are in fact, plague infested zombies and their bite contaminates their victims. Gore fans can also revel in the fact that these zombies can only be destroyed by a shot to the head…

The bottom line is to just enjoy Nightmare City; it’s a perfect beer and pizza festivity. I suggest simply soaking up the action, (and it is non-stop action). Forget the stupid script, the lousy acting and the terrible post production dubbing. Instead, smile at the pure carnage, the fun of those typical Italian set ups, the eye gouging, the head splattering and of course, the completely outdated approach of exposing women’s breasts at every given opportunity. Accept the film on that basis, and I’m sure you will enjoy this seminal cult classic. The film also contains a wonderful, minimalistic score from Stelvio Cipriani, and in a style that would later be adapted by the likes of John Carpenter and his contemporaries. The film has however, often been criticised for its ending, but it is an interesting concept to say the least. Depending on your perspective, some might even suggest it is an imaginative and fascinating ending. For first time viewers and without revealing any more information, I will let you decide for yourself.