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HORRORS
OF SPIDER ISLAND -
West Germany (1960)
Something
Weird Video (Image Entertainment)
Not Rated |
B&W |
77 Min. |
R0 - NTSC
DVD released November 14, 2000
.........
Featured
as one of the final "experiments" of Mystery Science
Theater 3000's 10-year run, this loony bit of Euro-schlock
is every bit as entertaining in its "stand-alone" form.
On their way to Singapore for a gig, a group of curvaceous, badly-dubbed
showgirls and their beefy manager Gary (Alex D'Arcy) wind up stranded
on a remote Pacific island after their plane crashes. (In one
of the film's most ridiculous scenes, WWII stock footage of a
B-24 bomber plunging earthwards in flames is intercut with
tight close-ups of the women screaming.) To their relief, the
famished castaways soon discover a cabin in the jungle. But their
joy is short-lived when they find the body of a dead man within,
suspended in a giant spider web... With its cast of buxom, scantily-clad
women, atrociously dubbed dialog, kitschy jazz score, goofy spider
puppet and bare-chested, dress pants-wearing monster — who
in many shots isn't even wearing his fright make-up and claws
— Horrors
of Spider Island
is chock full of knee-slapping moments, with or without the
presence of the wisecracking MST3K crew. Be warned, though; your
patience may be tested after "GARY!" is hollered
for the umpteenth time.
• • • Considering
the convoluted route this obscure film had to go through before
its DVD release, any audio-visual flaws in the transfer are minimal.
Something Weird provides the usual assortment of gonzo extras:
liner notes, a gallery of exploitation movie posters set to a
succession of "Horrorama" radio spots, plus three spider-themed
short subjects — including a hilarious one with actress-model
Joi Lansing (The
Atomic Submarine) belting out "Web of Love"
while a costumed, middle-aged male dancer thoroughly embarrasses
himself.
-
B. Lindsey
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Film:
5 |
DVD: 7 |
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TOUCH
OF EVIL -
U.S.A. (1958)
Universal Home Video
Not Rated |
B&W |
105 Min. |
R1 - NTSC
DVD released October 31, 2000
.........
A
noble Mexican cop (Charlton Heston) squares off against a corrupt
American detective (Orson Welles) in a seedy border town... The
story goes that producer Albert Zugsmith hired Orson Welles to
play the heavy, but was only able to secure star Charlton Heston
when he promised the latter to allow Welles to write and direct
the picture. The end result was steeped in all the drama and turmoil
typical of Welles, and would prove to be the final film he would
direct for a major American studio. In adapting the pulp novel
Badge of Evil, Welles artfully blends suspense, sleaze
and a sense of personal tragedy, elevating the film above and
beyond its source material. It’s easy to see how the film could
have become another back lot cheapie in the hands of a lesser
director, but Welles turns it into one of his very best pictures.
The casting is as inspired as it is bizarre. Though third-billed,
Welles naturally dominates the proceedings —
his portrayal of the morally degenerated Hank Quinlan escapes
caricature to become a three-dimensional figure of tragic proportions;
he cannot be called a hero, but neither is he the one-dimensional
bad guy he could have developed into. It’s hard to imagine many
directors making themselves look as bad as Welles does here, as
he plays up his significant weight gain and makes himself look
unbelievably rumpled and seedy. The impression is of a man on
a downward spiral —
his flaw being similar to that of Citizen Kane as a man with greatness
in his grasp who allows his appetites to get the better of him.
The casting of Charlton Heston as Vargas has always inspired chuckles,
and don’t think Welles bought it, either —
at one point his character makes a sardonic wisecrack to the effect
that Vargas doesn’t look at all Mexican. True, Heston doesn’t
really look right for the part, but within that handicap he gives
one of his stronger performances. The character is interesting
in that he is set up as the conventional square-jawed hero, but
as delineated in Welles’ script he is less interesting than Quinlan,
even coming across a bit boorish at times. The supporting cast
includes memorable roles for Akim Tamiroff, Dennis Weaver and
Marlene Dietrich, as well as unbilled cameos from Joseph Cotten
and Mercedes McCambridge. Loaded with absolutely stunning imagery
—
including a rightly celebrated opening shot —
and set to an insanely sleazy and catchy score by Henry Mancini,
Touch of Evil is Orson Welles at
his very best; absolutely essential viewing.
• • • Universal’s
release is in dire need of an updated special edition. The disc
presents the same 1.85/16x9 transfer present on their laser disc
edition, which coincided with the re-editing of the film according
to Welles’ famous memo to Universal. As had been the case with
so many of his films, Welles fell out of favor with the producers
over his meticulous working methods and was ultimately banned
from the editing room. Upon viewing their initial cut of the picture,
Welles fired off a 58-page memo begging for some editorial and
soundtrack alterations; many of these requests were denied at
the time, but the project was finally undertaken in the late 1990s.
This edition does not represent a true director’s cut, but it
does reflect the changes Welles tried to encourage Universal to
make in 1958. The transfer looks very good indeed —
the materials are in excellent shape, blacks are appropriately
deep, whites are clean, and the grey scale is accurately rendered.
The mono soundtrack also packs a lot of punch, and Universal has
seen fit to include Welles’ memo as an on-screen text extra. Though
satisfying in terms of its presentation of the reconstructed edit,
one remains hopeful that Universal will give the film a proper
SE treatment that will incorporate the other two edits of the
film (’58 theatrical cut and longer European cut).
- T. Howarth |
|
Update
On October 7, 2008 Universal is releasing
a two-disc "50th Anniversary Edition" of Touch
of Evil.
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Film:
10 |
DVD: 8 |
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BLOOD
AND BLACK LACE -
Italy - West Germany (1964)
VCI Entertainment
Not Rated |
Color |
90 Min. |
R1 - NTSC
DVD released October 24, 2000
.........
Finally,
master visualist Mario Bava's shocking (for its time) '60s murder
mystery is available in America in uncut form. This is the seminal
film that drew the blueprint for the giallo — a particularly
Italian genre of suspense/horror/mystery thriller with an emphasis
on stylish visuals, bizarre psychological aberrations and intense
murder scenes. With a diverse pallet of candy-colored hues and
sinister shadows, Bava weaves a tale of savage multiple murders
with the Christiana Haute Couture, a high-profile house of fashion,
at its vortex. The models there are leading scandalous lives behind
the scenes and the tell-all diary of one of the women, Isabella,
chronicles all the sordid details. When Isabella turns up brutally
murdered and the diary's existence becomes public knowledge, no
one can feel safe. Will the price of learning its secrets be horrible
death? Accompanied by Carlo Rustichelli's swanky core, Bava's
Blood and Black Lace establishes
all the giallo formula's key ingredients. The faceless, black-gloved
killer that came to stalk the cinematic landscape through the
works of Dario Argento, Sergio Martino and others made his first
dramatic appearance here. This had to be strong stuff for the
mid-'60s. Not because of gore (which is actually mild), but for
the grim sadism with which some of the victims are dispatched.
It still packs a punch. Goosebumps are guaranteed. •
• • VCI comes through for Bava fans — and those yet to
discover the film — with its uncut December 2000 release. Audio-visual
quality of the DVD easily surpasses anything seen on these shores
since its exploitation-circuit release. The original Italian language
track is provided and highly recommended. Adding icing to the
cake is a selection of Bava film trailers (including the hyperbolic
American promo for the disc's main subject), interviews with stars
Cameron Mitchell and Mary Arden, and another superbly informative
audio commentary by Bava scholar Tim Lucas.
-
B. Lindsey |
|
Update
This DVD went OOP in 2005. On November 8, 2005 VCI re-released
Blood and Black Lace in a two-disc
special edition which, while anamorphic and offering more extensive
extras, unfortunately suffers from markedly inferior audio/visual
quality.
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Film:
8 |
DVD: 7 |
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THE
BEYOND -
Italy (1981)
Anchor Bay Home Entertainment
Not Rated |
Color |
89 Min. |
R0 - NTSC
DVD released October 10, 2000
.........
I've finally
seen Lucio Fulci's notorious horror film via Anchor Bay's October
2000 DVD release, and my feelings are mixed. I expected to like
it a lot less than I actually did. Fulci establishes a credibly
creepy atmosphere; some of the set-pieces are marvelously photographed.
The opening pre-credits sequence, set in 1927 and shot in a sepia
tone recalling old photos, is very well executed (and will evoke
winces from even the most jaded). The music score is memorable
and — for a Fulci zombie pic — the acting's actually pretty good.
In these regards it's superior to a very similar Fulci effort,
City
of the Living Dead. That being said... Like City,
the plot of The Beyond doesn't make
a whole lot of sense. (We do, at least, get a tidy Twilight
Zone-ish ending here instead of the former's head-scratching
"What the hell???" conclusion.) And yes, it's ridiculously gory
in some parts, particularly the scene involving some laughably
phony spiders that devour a man's face. Since the rest of the
makeup effects in this 20 year old shocker are quite good — genuine
nightmare fuel, in fact — this one scene really hurts the movie.
The spider idea, when there was obviously only enough money in
the budget to wrangle three real tarantulas, was incredibly dumb
in retrospect. The entire sequence should have been cut. Gorehounds
will doubtless revel in this movie, which also holds things of
interest for anyone who likes creepy, atmospheric chillers. It's
the second-best of the three Fulci "living dead" flicks I've seen
(Zombie
being the superior of the trio), but certainly falls short of
the Italian director's intriguing, offbeat gialli A
Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) and Don't
Torture a Duckling (1972). • •
• Anchor Bay has done a splendid job here, it must be
said. Video and (especially) audio quality are truly excellent
— presenting the film in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen with a choice
of either a top-notch 5.1 Surround mix or the original Italian
mono. The DVD features a plethora of interesting and worthwhile
extras, including a hidden Easter Egg showcasing what has to be
the goriest movie trailer in human history, a promo for Fulci's
Cat
in the Brain. (The Anchor Bay DVD covered here
has been OOP for some time now. In October 2008 Grindhouse Releasing
is scheduled to issue a new edition.) -
B. Lindsey
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Film:
5 |
DVD: 10 |
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THE
1000 EYES OF DR. MABUSE
-
West Germany (1960)
Allday Entertainment
Not Rated |
B&W |
99 Min. |
R0 - NTSC
DVD released July 18, 2000
.........
This disc was
a real find. It's a terrific way to introduce American audiences
to the sinister world of Dr. Mabuse (pronounced "Ma-BOO-za"),
the seemingly immortal German super-criminal who's the villain
in a series of European thrillers dating from the Silent Era.
1000 Eyes marked the return of master
director Fritz Lang to the subject of Dr. Mabuse as well as his
native Germany, where this low-budget but tightly constructed
film was made. In the intricate scenario
almost nothing can be taken at face value; characters and events
may very well not be what they seem. Disparate strands of plot
— a bizarre murder during a traffic jam, a rich American industrialist
visiting Germany on NATO business, a suicidal mystery woman with
a dark secret, a psychic who foresees assassinations — each have
threads all leading to the same place: a hotel built by the Gestapo
during World War II. Who is the sinister man with the club foot?
Why did Howard Vernon (The
Awful Dr. Orlof) shoot the TV reporter with the
weird-looking "needle" gun? Is that bald guy who keeps popping
up really an insurance salesman? Could the nefarious Dr. Mabuse,
believed dead for almost 30 years by the West German police, really
be spinning a web of subterfuge, blackmail, and murder from the
plush environs of the Hotel Luxor? You'll have to check in to
find out. • • • Marvelously
packaged with some terrific extras (particularly the audio commentary)
and presented in both its original German (with subtitles) and
English-dubbed versions, fans of obscure European cinema can't
afford to miss this DVD. Equal parts crime drama, noirish mystery,
and James Bond espionage flick, The 1000
Eyes of Dr. Mabuse proved to be such a genre-bending entertainment
that I immediately snapped up Allday's second release in the series,
1962's The
Testament of Dr. Mabuse.
-
B. Lindsey |
|
Update
Available (new) off and on since 2006, this disc now appears to
be permanently OOP (as of 2009).
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Film:
7 |
DVD: 8 |
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TORSO
-
Italy (1973)
Anchor Bay Home Entertainment
Not Rated |
Color |
92 Min. |
R0 - NTSC
DVD released March 21, 2000
.........
When one of
their female classmates is brutally murdered by a sadistic sex
killer, four foxy college girls leave the city for the perceived
safety of a country villa owned by one of the girls' father. Naturally
these nubile co-eds are given many opportunities to shed their
clothes before discovering that the killer has trailed them to
their rural sanctuary... Helmed by Sergio
Martino,
Torso
is an Italian murder mystery/suspense thriller in the giallo
style popularized by directors Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Despite
some genuinely effective moments of terror, it can't hold a candle
to such earlier Martino works as The
Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh
and All
the Colors of the Dark.
Unconvincing gore and clumsily translated dialog don't help matters.
It's not a complete turkey by any means, however. Some of the
stalking scenes do generate goose bumps — particularly the one
in the woods — and there are attractive European actresses in
it who frequently cavort in the nude. Typical of the genre, the
music score greatly enhances the imagery. Although giallo fans
will likely find things of interest in this film, they'd be better
off revisiting Argento or superior Martino as far as armchair-gripping
chills are concerned. Torso is a
giallo that just doesn't quite gel. Still worth a look at any
rate, if only for the naked babes and the occasionally effective
set-piece or two. • • • Anchor
Bay's DVD presentation is commendable. This is the uncut
European version, never seen in the U.S.,
including a few seconds of generally unconvincing gore effects
and a lot more nude women. Audio/video quality is quite good;
the picture has been enhanced for 16:9 TVs. Extras: You get the
humorously-narrated American trailer, the psychedelic European
trailer, English and subtitled Italian language tracks, and an
insert card featuring a reproduction of the film's Italian poster
under its more lurid native title, I Corpi Presentano
Tracce di Violenza Carnale ("The Bodies Bore Traces of
Carnal Violence").
- B. Lindsey |
|
Update
This Anchor Bay edition went OOP in 2005.
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Film:
5 |
DVD: 5 |
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BRIDE
OF THE MONSTER -
U.S.A. (1956)
Image Entertainment
Not Rated |
B&W |
69 Min. |
R0 - NTSC
DVD released February 15, 2000
.........
Not as endearingly
bad as Ed Wood's famous Plan
9 from Outer Space but it comes hilariously close.
In his last film role (while alive, anyway) a frail, elderly Bela
Lugosi triumphs over adversity — chiefly the entire production
— in conjuring a few flashes of the old Hollywood spirit in his
portrayal of the power-mad Dr. Eric Vornoff. The not-so-good doctor
will stop at nothing to perfect his own race of atomic supermen
with which to conquer the world, including kidnapping the local
yokels and subjecting them to one failed experiment after another.
This eventually draws the attention of the police (who are pretty
slow on the uptake) and an intrepid female reporter. Ms. Reporter
is captured by Vornoff's lumbering, ox-like servant Lobo (the
immortal Tor Johnson) and is held prisoner at the mad doctor's
extremely rustic manor near Swamp Lake, where Vornoff squints
and makes weird hand gestures at her. The police eventually arrive,
Lobo turns on his master and much unintentional hilarity — Ed
Wood style — ensues. There's a moral to the story, too: Never
tamper in God's domain. Any fan of Wood, Tim Burton's bio-pic
about Wood, Bela Lugosi, or Mystery Science Theater 3000
(which 'experimented' on this film in its fifth season) is guaranteed
to be entertained. Bela's immortal "Jungle Hell" monologue is
priceless. • • • While
the Image DVD, part of the Wade Williams Collection, features
a pretty good print of Bride
of the Monster, the only extra is
a well-worn trailer. Still, this is the kind of flick which only
folks who've already seen and can appreciate its peculiar charms
will want to buy anyway. You're either in league with Bela's race
of atomic supermen... or you're not.
-
B. Lindsey
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Film:
6 |
DVD: 5 |
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THE
TINGLER -
U.S.A. (1959)
Columbia TriStar Home Video
Not Rated |
B&W |
82 Min. |
R1 - NTSC
DVD released September 7, 1999
.........
This
classic '50s "gimmick" picture from B-movie impresario William
Castle (the original House
on Haunted Hill) is wonderfully presented here. The incomparable
Vincent Price plays Dr. Warren Chapin, a dedicated scientist who
unwittingly discovers the secret of the "Tingler" — a hideous,
physical manifestation of human fear. The centipede-like creature
'appears' along the spinal column of people who undergo a severe
fright. In the course of his research Chapin devises a method
of surgically removing the Tingler and trapping it alive, with
all sorts of unforeseen — and dire — consequences. (Lesson # 1:
Never bring monsters into the house when you have a wife
that wants to kill you.) Price's
performance perfectly treads the very fine line between over-the-top
hammery and camp. ("This pistol can put a hole in you the size
of a medium grapefruit," he smoothly intones, and we buy it.)
Though the entire concept behind the origin of the creature is
patently ridiculous, Price sells it to us with the consummate
bravado of a carnival barker. The scene in which he experimentally
injects himself with LSD to generate fear — the first use of the
drug in the movies — is an absolute hoot; the unique color-enhanced
fright sequence (bright red blood with everything else in the
shot remaining black and white) is also a treat. •
• • Columbia TriStar gave this charming chestnut a fitting
treatment for its 40th anniversary DVD in 1999. The movie has
never looked or sounded better and is presented in letterbox format.
A number of bonus features are included; the Scream For Your
Lives! featurette, about William Castle and the making/marketing
of The Tingler, is a particular delight.
I can only imagine the reactions of audience members in the few
theaters in which Castle rigged a random number of seats with
(mild) electric shocks! -
B. Lindsey
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Film:
6 |
DVD: 9 |
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