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EYES WITHOUT A FACE Lighting Stand-Ins

January 18, 2017, 2:46 am
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Unidentified doubles stand-in for Pierre Brasseur, Juliette Mayniel and Alida Valli as the next scene is lighted on the set of Georges Franju's EYES WITHOUT A FACE (Les yeux sans visage, 1960).

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ONE NAKED NIGHT, or They're Tearing Down Al Viola's Bar

January 26, 2017, 4:16 pm
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The other night, not being quite ready to go to bed and undecided about what to watch, I drew Albert T. Viola's ONE NAKED NIGHT (1965) at random to see what it was about. As the title sort of foretells, it's a mid-Sixties nudie, but what does that really tell you? You never quite know what you might be getting into with those, which is part of their appeal - it could turn out to be a wayward avant-garde film like Michael Findlay's TAKE ME NAKED, a psychological drama like Joe Sarno's RED ROSES OF PASSION, an appalling roughie like Curt Ledger's SHE CAME ON THE BUS, or an out-and-out piece of trash. Eighty minutes later, I was glad I watched it because ONE NAKED NIGHT - above and beyond what it set out to be - belongs to a special category of film whose character only becomes pronounced with time. It tells a fictional story but its real value is that story's documentary context. Like old episodes of NAKED CITY, it inadvertently preserves a New York City of sparkle and swagger and, above all, character that no longer exists.

We should set-up a sub-genre for films with this unique form of appeal. It's not a conscious thing with ONE NAKED NIGHT, obviously, but this preservation of a time and place destined to disappear was something that Jean Rollin deliberately set out to capture with his movies. He was drawn to buildings, castles, even towns that were edging into decay and demolition. He delighted in photographing places that, despite being built to endure centuries, somehow had death somehow built into them nevertheless. As an American alternative, I could cite Willard Huyck's MESSIAH OF EVIL (1975), with its haunting scenes set in Edward Hopper-like streetscapes riddled with the names of antiquated, possibly extinct businesses like W.T. Grant and Florsheim Shoes. What ONE NAKED NIGHT inadvertently captures is what used to be New York City's Fifth Avenue, before there was a Prada or Barnes and Noble in sight. 

Slow news day in New York.
ONE NAKED NIGHT is the story of a young woman, Candy Stevens (Barbara Morris), who leaves her small and small-minded hometown after the suicide of her mother, a woman who was driven to prostitution to ensure that her daughter attend only the best schools. Wanting to put all that behind her, Candy goes to New York City (like David Bowie moving to Berlin to kick his drug habit), where she has been invited to share an apartment with her old friend Laura (Sally Lane). Laura has been making a good living as a fashion model and knows a lot of "exciting people," which turns out to mean that she poses naked for photographers and has a lot of "dates." She brings Candy along to meet her photographer friend Bill (Allen Merson), who agrees to spare a few minutes to take some sample modelling shots of Candy - clothed, of course! In time, they start going out together and hitting all the great night spots, and she gradually relaxes in terms of what she's willing to do in front of the camera and behind closed doors. Bill inevitably breaks her heart, which opens the door for a predatory lesbian neighbor, Barbara (OLGA series star Audrey Campbell), to position herself as her new best friend. She tells Candy stories of how all men are rotten, relating the story of how she lost her own virginity, and beckons her to follow her to a window where she watches Laura engaging in a three-way with two beaux. Barbara never quite gets her wish, as Candy ends up hooking-up with a sculptor named Joe (Joseph Suthrin), which looks like a good thing until her clinging nature gets in the way of his attention to his work. Finally kicked out of his studio apartment, Candy returns to Laura's place and ends up "entertaining" with her until SPOILER she ends up - as one might expect - going the way of her own mother.

Candy and Bill enjoy a night on the town.

Candy's defenses begin to soften under the influence of strong drink.
The simple storyline is meager and dates back to silent movie morality plays, but when Bill introduces Candy to NYC night life, ONE NAKED NIGHT suddenly explodes with vitality and fascination. After a montage of Fifth Avenue storefronts and façades, there is an extended sequence of people dancing in a Harlem jazz club that is truly remarkable. It's not just the places or even the faces, though both have surprising depths of character; the sequence presents us with a way of life that doesn't seem to exist anymore - not because the places are gone, but because people now interact very differently, even in crowded clubs. In this footage, everyone seems to be outwardly sharing and expressing more of themselves. Even moreso than in the film's would-be erotic scenes, here Viola captures a feeling of real human intercourse, real joyous abandon. And then Viola's camera (which he self-operated) returns back outside to linger on the flashing signs, the faces of different businesses receding into the distance on city blocks, the beckoning neon heralding refreshment and adventure - it almost seems to know that none of it but the sidewalks would survive. Editor Fred von Bernewitz infuses it with adroit rhythms, juggling this dreaminess with a sense of a real bustling city, overpowering in its sheer size and character, turned languid and furtive after dark, and the movie finds its real importance here, in these unintended evocations of long walks home after nights in packed clubs. He seems to invite the viewer to wander through it all, like Little Nemo in an unimaginably vast metropolitan dreamscape. This is what Petula Clark was singing about.

Audrey takes a shower.

The morning aftermath of Laura's hospitality.
The acting, I must say, is not bad for this sort of thing. Audrey Campbell actually gets a chance to act here and she's so good one wishes she had worked more often with Joe Sarno, who could have given her characters and situations worthy of her. She even has a brief nude scene, something she never did in the OLGA films. Surprisingly, there was even an official soundtrack release of the jazz soundtrack by Chet McIntyre, which suggests to me that this film was undertaken with somewhat more than the usual ambition - and it is an appealing score.

Whatever its intentions, ONE NAKED NIGHT is a bit more than the immoral morality tale it set out to be. It's a little time capsule of a thrilling place we never had the pleasure of being free and 21 in.

ONE NAKED NIGHT is available on DVD-R or as a download from Something Weird Video.
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Be Gentle, 2017: Some Recent Passings

January 27, 2017, 7:29 pm
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Sir John Hurt, CBE, aged 77. Long familiar as one of Great Britain's finest stage and screen actors: A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS, 10 RILLINGTON PLACE, a terrifying Caligula in I CLAUDIUS, MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, ALIEN, THE ELEPHANT MAN (wish I could BOLD that), 1984, TV's THE STORYTELLER, Roger Corman's FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND, HEAVEN'S GATE, the quietly uproarious LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND, the HELLBOY films, three Harry Potter pictures, one Indiana Jones, V FOR VENDETTA, and most recently, he reteamed with V's Natalie Portman in JACKIE. When I saw him recently in JACKIE, I silently marveled to myself that this venerable player - who looked a pack of cigarettes and half a bottle of gin away from death when he was in his thirties - was still around, showing the youngsters how it is done at age 77. I didn't know he was fighting cancer. One of the greats.

Emmy Award-winning actress Barbara Hale - PERRY MASON's Della Street in more than 270 (!) episodes and 30 (!!) made-for-TV movies, and also featured in such films as THE FALCON OUT WEST, THE WINDOW, THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR, A LION IN THE STREETS, THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION (!!!) and BIG WEDNESDAY - has passed away at age 94. As a lifelong PERRY MASON addict, I've long considered her the most compelling "listening" actress around; she had the uncanny ability to insinuate her Della Street character into scenes where she had no dialogue, allowing the viewer to read her thoughts as she silently reacted to the information being discussed. She was the widow of actor Bill Williams (d. 1992) and the mother of actor William Katt. As Paul Drake might say, "Sweet dreams, Beautiful."

Mary Tyler Moore, 80, made the earliest of her many marks on television as commercial spokesperson "Happy Hotpoint" in ads shown on THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE & HARRIET. She could be glimpsed on album covers, as a dance hall girl in the first Rowan & Martin comedy ONCE UPON A HORSE, and she - or, rather, her shapely legs - were all that were seen of her secretary Sam on David Janssen's early series RICHARD DIAMOND, PRIVATE DETECTIVE - a definite forerunner of Diane, FBI special agent Dale Cooper's unseen Girl Friday on TWIN PEAKS. Appearances on many other crime series followed - 77 SUNSET STRIP, BOURBON STREET BEAT, HAWAIIAN EYE and JOHNNY STACCATO, to name several, but she also had two guest appearances on Boris Karloff's THRILLER ("The Fatal Impulse" and "Man of Mystery") before making her debut as Laura Petrie on TV's perennial hit THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW.  Her seven-year run on MARY TYLER MOORE was a comedic milestone, as were the spin-off series she produced, but dramatic performances in ORDINARY PEOPLE (Oscar-nominated, Golden Globe-winning), FIRST YOU CRY and the TV miniseries LINCOLN proved that she had a great deal more to offer than being one of the best second bananas in TV comedy. 

Mike Connors, aged 91. He was known the world over as the star of TV's MANNIX, but some of us remember him as Touch Connors, an early discovery of Roger Corman, who starred him in FIVE GUNS WEST, DAY THE WORLD ENDED, SWAMP WOMEN and OKLAHOMA WOMAN. Under that name he also starred in Edward L. Cahn's THE FLESH AND THE SPUR and VOODOO WOMAN and (as Michael Connors) Paul Henried's LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG, also for AIP. , 

Actress Mary Webster, 81. She was the ingenue in such films as THE DELICATE DELINQUENT, THE TIN STAR and EIGHTEEN AND ANXIOUS, but she is best remembered as the female lead of the AIP Jules Verne adventure MASTER OF THE WORLD and two classic TWILIGHT ZONE episodes, "A Passage For Trumpet" and "Death Ship," both of which also featured Jack Klugman.

CAN drummer Jaki Liebezeit, 78. Jaki was arguably the greatest drummer in the world - he was such a complete player that the bass guitar almost seemed unnecessary on his watch; it needed to find some other way to contribute to the overall sound. He was sometimes called the "mensch-machine," his neat, precise rhythms and polyrhythmic playing were essential to the "motorik" sound that distinguished so much of the new German rock movement of the 1970s. He also played in later years with The Phantom Band, Jah Wobble, David Sylvian, and made essential 12" EPs with Wobble, U2 guitarist The Edge and CAN's Holger Czukay. He's the kind of musician you can only deeply thank, like a soldier, for his lifetime of service.

Mott the Hoople bassist Peter "Overend" Watts, age 69. His muscular, driving bass lines locked into Verden Allen's growling organ parts to produce a formidable rock motor on the classic albums BRAIN CAPERS and ALL THE YOUNG DUDES. His thigh-high platform boots and long prematurely grey locks also made him a key focus of the band's live presentation. I got to meet the band on their Mott tour, but interacted least with Overend and drummer Buffin, both of whom were quiet and retiring; even so, everyone who caught that show remembers how a certain young lady in the front row reached up to Overend's looming swagger and, shall we say, managed to get "past security." It seems in later years he became a dedicated hiker and published a book of his adventures, THE MAN WHO HATED WALKING, a few years ago.



And last, but not least, musician and personal friend Gil Ray, age 60. We never met, we never spoke, but it seems to me that we spent almost every day together on Facebook since that friendship began in August 2009 - and he was a longtime Classic Horror Film Boards contact and a VIDEO WATCHDOG subscriber since our early days. In fact, in VW 33 we reproduced a picture that Gil sent us of his new tattoo - based on a sketch that Federico Fellini had done of the ball-bouncing Devil in his SPIRITS OF THE DEAD short, "Toby Dammit."It was only after knowing him on Facebook for a few years that I learned Gil was a cult celebrity in his own right; he had been a critically acclaimed drummer with the bands Game Theory and The Loud Family. But we never really talked about that, only about the many enthusiasms we shared. I would like his posts, sometimes send him words of support when he was having a bad day (he shared his ongoing struggle with cancer on his page), or words of approval when he shared music we both loved. He was a frequent respondent on my wall, always so enthusiastic, generous and supportive. He liked the pictures I posted of my cats, and sent his sympathies when we lost them. He could see that I can be moody and cynical, but he was always effusive about my work, what I brought to Facebook, and he was particularly very encouraging about my writing there about music. He commiserated with me when I twice failed to pass the test to get book proposals accepted for the 33 1/3 series. In my inbox I found words of encouragement that he sent, urging me to write that Francoise Hardy book I've been flirting with, on and off, for a few years. One day, out of the blue, he sent me a couple of brand new albums from the record store where he'd been working - MC5's BACK IN THE USA and FLOATING IN THE NIGHT by Julie Cruise - "because you've given me so much," he said. That was Gil. I'm going to miss his online presence and the spirited warmth I always felt coming from his corner. Just two weeks ago, he posted a picture of his cat resting on his ankle, preventing him from getting out of bed and offered words of support to everyone who was going to participate in the marches. His last words on FB: "Fight the power." My deepest sympathies to his wife Stacy and family, and to the many, many people who surely loved him. Here's to his well-earned rest and flight from pain. RIP, my friend.



(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.
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Corman's TOWER OF LONDON Coming to Region B

January 30, 2017, 8:24 pm
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TOWER OF LONDON
1962, Arrow Video (UK only), 79m 49s, BD-A/DVD-2 (2 discs)

At one of the busiest junctures of his career - right after making TALES OF TERROR (1962) for AIP, and just before embarking on the European shoot that led to his directing THE YOUNG RACERS (1963), producing DEMENTIA 13, setting up OPERATION TITIAN in Yugoslavia (which led to the making of three or four other pictures), and making his first-ever trip to the Soviet Union - Roger Corman found time to direct this historical thriller about a murderous, ghost-haunted Richard III. It's a remake of sorts of the Universal film of the same title, starring Basil Rathbone (as Richard), Boris Karloff, and a young Vincent Price, made in 1939. This time, Vincent Price has ascended to the misshapen lead.
Vincent Price as Richard III.
As you can tell by his schedule of this period, Corman was entering an experimental phase and open to trying different things, owing to a lingering dissatisfaction over American International Pictures' reported profits on his enormously successful PIT AND THE PENDULUM (1961). TOWER OF LONDON (no definitive article) was made for executive producer Edward Small (JACK THE GIANT KILLER), who had a distribution deal with United Artists, and was set up by Roger's own brother, Gene Corman, who had solicited the script from actor-screenwriter Leo Gordon (ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES, THE WASP WOMAN) and would act as line producer. Roger approached the job as a work-for-hire but intended to bring to it the high level of independent quality he had established with his Edgar Allan Poe series for AIP. He assembled his usual crew, headed by cameraman Floyd Crosby and art director Daniel Haller, and was able to obtain Price because the film was ostensibly an historial costume melodrama - not a horror picture, which AIP's contract with the actor forbade him to make with other companies.

Here actor Charles McCauley plays opposite Price in the role Price played in 1939.
Things were looking promising until a few short days before filming was to commence. It was then that Edward Small summoned the brothers Corman to his office to let them know he'd had second thoughts about their original plan; to save money, the film was now going to be shot in black-and-white. It is impossible to watch TOWER OF LONDON now without regretting this decision, which may have seemed logical at a time when so many movies at this time played for two weeks then went to their eternal reward on black-and-white television, but it shows Small's ignorance of how important color was to Roger Corman. When a film is going to be shot in black-and-white, it requires a different kind of planning; it needs something extra built into its visuals, a more stylized interplay between light and shadow - and this one simply doesn't have it. It tends to look like a black-and-white print of a color film. It has some elegant touches - even places where we can see some anticipatory sparks of THE RAVEN and THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH coming into play - but despite a prevalence of deep focus photography and Daniel Haller's beautifully detailed sets, there is the unfortunate feel of a feature-length pulled punch. Price presides over a familiar cast of B-movie talents (Morris Ankrum as... the Archbishop???) in a film that never gets scarier than a few transparent, double-exposed ghosts, and which never quite overcomes the feel of a college play rather lavishly produced for classic television.

A raven-toting sorcerer (Richard Hale) and various ghosts lead the murderous monach to court the Supernatural.
Streeting on February 13, Arrow's Blu-ray presentation was "transferred from original film elements by MGM" and has noticeably more lustre, depth and detail than previous standard definition DVD releases. While most of the film looks comparable to camera negative quality, there are brief individual shots that appear to have been culled from a modestly lesser source. The audio is the original 1.0 mono (uncompressed on the BD) and there are optional English subtitles. A new interview with Roger Corman gives the film valuable context and it's paired with an interview with Gene Corman from a previous release that complements it very nicely.

Michael Pate (CURSE OF THE UNDEAD) and Sandra Knight (THE TERROR) co-star.
The audio commentary is by Price authority David Del Valle and Tara Gordon, the daughter of screenwriter Leo Gordon. Del Valle focuses on Price and his performance's banquet of ham and relish to the exclusion of much else, but his commentary scores on some worthwhile points. First of all, he mentions having had access to Price's own hand-annotated copy of the script and mentions scenes in which he had hoped to do more than he was finally able to do; secondly, he helpfully points out lines of dialogue and soliloquy where Leo Gordon was basing these on lines from Shakespeare's plays (not only RICHARD III but also HAMLET and MACBETH); and thirdly, he makes the marvelously meta observation that having TOWER OF LONDON is like having a vintage performance by Edward Lionheart (Price's character in THEATRE OF BLOOD) preserved on film - which just might be the "way into" the film that it has always lacked. I was hoping to hear more from Tara Gordon, who after all has actual childhood memories of the principal players in this story, as well as a lifetime of stories about her father, but Del Valle does most of the talking. (Tara has told me since I first posted this review that she was nervous about doing the recording and encouraged David to take charge, which has caused me to reconsider my original response to the track.) Ms. Gordon's warm-voiced input encompasses Leo's working relationship with Gene Corman, his sense of humor, the terrible and mysterious fate of credited co-writer Amos Powell, and also includes the charming story of how her parents met - and why her father sometimes reflected on the possibility that, had things gone a different way, he might have ended up as the Prince of Monaco.

The discs are packaged in a reversible sleeve with original, newly commissioned artwork by Dan Mumford, which cleverly makes Richard III look like a distant, demented relative of the Usher family. Exclusive to the first pressing (but not provided to this reviewer) is a fully illustrated collector's booklet containing new writing on the film by Julian Upton.

(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.  


 
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Those Who Deserve to Make Films

February 15, 2017, 2:20 pm
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One of my greatest regrets about not being able to print the last issue of VIDEO WATCHDOG (184), which remains in-progress, is that it contained the concluding half of John-Paul Checkett's two-part essay on CARMILLA in the cinema. After John-Paul turned in his article, already quite lengthy, I happened to see Bret Wood's latest film THE UNWANTED on Netflix - and I immediately wrote to JP (as I call him) to tell him his article wasn't finished; there was something he needed to add, because Bret's film had turned out to be a contemporary treatment of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's classic 19th century novella. And when I read the extra pages JP turned in, I was gratified to read his assessment because THE UNWANTED became the capstone of the entire assignment.

In the eloquent words of Mr Checkett:

"It is a shame that Wood’s film has not been embraced by a larger audience, especially given that it is, without exaggeration, the best-acted adaptation of the novella ever committed to film. Although the three principal leads are all outstanding, Hannah Fierman’s performance as Laura merits special consideration, and should have served as the springboard for a bigger career. The film is entirely unique as the sole adaptation to present Carmilla in an unambiguously positive light, and the only one that is (quite arguably) completely devoid of supernatural content. Although the film depicts both bloodletting and blood drinking, neither are necessarily indicative of supernatural vampirism, reflecting instead the sexual dynamics explored in Theodore Sturgeon’s SOME OF YOUR BLOOD. Perhaps even more remarkably, the two female leads never acquiesce to the demands of male fantasy, and their love story is as beautiful as it is tragic."

Simply put, Bret Wood (PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS, THE LITTLE DEATH) is one of the most important independent filmmakers specializing in dark subjects working today. He's trying to complete his current work-in-progress, THOSE WHO DESERVE TO DIE and is trying to raise essential completion funds at Kickstarter. If you've read this far, please read the following promotional text, visit the links, and consider making a contribution to what has every hope of becoming another outstanding film.

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The director of the 2014 alterna-vampire film THE UNWANTED is midway through production of a new feature, a brutal revenge film entitled THOSE WHO DESERVE TO DIE.

Joe Sykes (V/H/S) stars as a veteran who returns to his hometown and, guided by the malevolent spirit of his dead sister (newcomer Alice Lewis) carries out a cruel vengeance upon those who destroyed his family. Flavored with a dark and distinctive visual style reminiscent of 1960s gialli, THOSE WHO DESERVE TO DIE continues the exploration of violence and perverse eroticism for which Wood has become known. The film is being produced by Adam K. Thompson, with special makeup effects by Shane Morton (TV’s YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING TO HELL and the biker shocker DEAR GOD NO!).

Teaser Trailer A:
https://vimeo.com/202700320

The Atlanta-based crew expects to complete production in late Spring 2017, and is in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds to complete principal photography (ends February 25). While visiting their campaign page, be sure to explore the behind-the-scenes videos, photos, and giveaway items.

Kickstarter Link:


Alice Lewis in custody, in TWDTD.

One of the most fascinating stories within the production is that of 12-year-old horror-obsessed actress Alice Lewis, who has used photography and cosplay to redefine herself after being adopted at age seven. To celebrate Alice’s inspirational story, the filmmakers crafted this brief profile piece:
https://vimeo.com/202248001

Main text (c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.

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Latest Rondo Award Nominations Announced

February 26, 2017, 12:50 pm
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This year's Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award nominations were announced today, and I'm very pleased to report that VIDEO WATCHDOG - in its last turn at the prize - was nominated in the following categories:


  • Best Magazine
  • Best Cover - Mark Maddox's CARMILLA, VIDEO WATCHDOG #183 (pictured)
  • Best Columnist - Larry Blamire's "Star Turn"
  • Best Article - "BALDPATE: The Long Road to the HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS" by Kim Newman, VIDEO WATCHDOG #181
  • Best Article - "NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE: Variations and Version Blood" by Tim Lucas, VIDEO WATCHDOG #182
And the good news in the Best Article category is, you can vote for two!

In addition to my Best Article nomination, I received 4 additional nominations myself: 
  • Best Blog - Video WatchBlog (you're looking at it!)
  • Best Audio Commentary - Fritz Lang's DESTINY (Kino Lorber)
  • Best DVD Extra - BLOOD BATH's "The Trouble With Titian Revisited" video essay (Arrow Video)
and - last but certainly not least - a nomination that doesn't actually bear my or anyone's name:




Photos: Entertainment Weekly/Mitchell Haddad

  • Best Live Event - Cinefamily/SpectreVision's live table reading of THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES - an original script by Tim Lucas & Charlie Largent, with Michael Almereyda and James Robison - last October 12 at L.A.'s Vista Theater, hosted and narrated by  Joe Dante and featuring a cast including Bill Hader, Jason Ritter and special guest Roger Corman, who left his handprints in cement outside the theater!  
Please be aware that the ballot also includes various write-in categories where VW and its contributors are eligible, including Best Writer, Best Artist, and Monster Kid of the Year. To refresh your memory, VIDEO WATCHDOG's contributors for the past year included Michael Barrett, Larry Blamire, Ramsey Campbell, John Charles, John-Paul Checkett, Bill Cooke, Shane M. Dallmann, Lloyd Haynes, Chris Herzog, Charlie Largent, Tim Lucas, Mark Maddox (artist), Kim Newman, Eric Somer, Brad Stevens, Brett Taylor, Budd Wilkins and Douglas E. Winter.

I would personally love to see Donna Lucas' 27 years of publishing VIDEO WATCHDOG honored with a Monster Kid of the Year Award, too. This year is VW's last grab for Rondo's golden ring and it would be wonderful to see her mammoth contribution to horror and fantasy publishing recognized with a tribute that is all hers.

Donna and I are so very pleased and proud of these nominations, and for the high quality of the overall ballot itself. The state of film and film-related publishing may be ailing, magazines may be dropping like flies, but you would never know it from the robust health of the high quality work being done in these areas.

I hope you'll all FOLLOW THIS LINK, look over the large cast of worthy nominees, and cast your email votes for your favorites!
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Rigby's EURO GOTHIC Reviewed

March 5, 2017, 2:52 pm
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I have long harbored a secret concern that those of us who are particularly drawn to the European strain of horror cinema probably have a screw loose somewhere. These are the sorts of movies, after all, in which narrative is secondary to atmosphere and logic is sometimes utterly disposable;  where characters can be found wearing 19th century clothing in 20th century storylines or driving cars in 18th century Bavaria; where heroes are often villains; where beauty is in abundance yet so often desecrated; and they maraud under titles like SPASMO, METEMPSYCO and YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY. How do any of these traits speak to a balanced mind?

For this reason, I was excited to hear that Jonathan Rigby - the author of the admirably insightful and well-balanced ENGLISH GOTHIC and AMERICAN GOTHIC, among other fine books - was working on a new series addition to be called EURO GOTHIC, a selective overview of horror in European cinema. So much that has been written about European horror films has come from writers that, like myself, are a little crazy about it all - hopelessly obsessive, impossibly completist and/or elitist, sometimes willfully provocative. As I saw it, the strong card of Rigby's eventual take on this uneven landscape of macabre twins, bland masks, robust werewolves, crumbling villas, webby catafalques, lesbian vampires, bouncing balls and affable mental cases was bound to be his remarkable even-handedness, his balance and perspective. In short, the sheer sanity he would likely bring to bear on such an hallucinatory task.

And indeed, EURO GOTHIC: CLASSICS OF CONTINENTAL HORROR CINEMA (Signum Books, 416 pages, $34.95) is very likely the most balanced piece of writing such films have ever received. At the outset, Rigby explains the basic impossibility of fully addressing the scope of his title, which he has made manageable by focusing on "113 representative titles" which receive the fullest attention, each of which radiate out into micro-managed discussions of other, more minor works which relate to that title through theme or shared participants, all the while observing a chronology that feels remarkably consistent considering the sheer chaos under the microscope. He also wisely, I think, concludes his history in 1983, with Pupi Avati's alphabetically appropriate ZEDER (aka REVENGE OF THE DEAD), at the time when so much of the respective cult cinemas of Italy, Spain, France and Germany began to suffer financial crises and became geared, whenever films overcame the odds to get made, toward direct-to-video release.

Just as, for many viewers, "Euro Gothic" may signal one specific thing rather than the hopping mad variety of its reality, it is rare to find Eurocult cinema discussed in the same breath with its actual antecedents in the silent era, where in fact we find these often rebellious, revolutionary, outlaw films related to a large number of the great classics of world cinema - films like THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI, NOSFERATU and DR MABUSE - THE GAMBLER, but this book rightly encompasses those titles and many others and establishes firm connections between their experimentalism, Expressionism, and use of natural (often war-torn) scenery and all that came later.

Conrad Veidt in THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE (1926).
The opening chapter, "Warning Shadows 1896-1954", covers a remarkable chunk of history and encompasses some of its most exemplary research. I wish I had known, while preparing my audio commentary for Kino Lorber's DESTINY (1920), that its trilogy of stories about death traversing three different epochs had been anticipated by UNHEIMLICHE GESCHICHTE (a 1919 horror anthology) and SATANAS (1920, which cast Conrad Veidt as the Devil, wearily traversing three different historical epochs). Rigby also comes up with a NOSFERATU variant heretofore unknown to me: DIE SWOFFTE STUNDE EINE NACHT DESGRAUENS, a sound-era redressing which added dialogue and sound effects, new footage including outtakes directed by F.W. Murnau himself, and reidentified Max Shreck's Graf Orlok as Furst Wolkoff. While this lengthy chapter covers such highlights as THE HANDS OF ORLAC, THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE, FAHRMANN MARIA, ORPHEUS and different versions of ALRAUNE and THE GOLEM, it is most memorable in its discussions of a few uncommon titles: Maurice Tourneur's delightfully impish LE MAIN DU DIABLE ("The Devil's Hand," 1942), Edgar Neville's Spanish thriller LA TORRE DE LOS SIETE JOROBADOS ("Tower of the Seven Hunchbacks," 1944) and Guillaume Radot's torrid sorcery fantasia LA DESTINE EXECRABLE DE GUILLEMETTE BABIN ("The Filthy Destiny of Guillemette Babin," 1947).

Simone Signoret in LES DIABOLIQUES.
The second part, "Experiments in Evil, 1954-1963", makes a speedy impression with its detailed examination of Clouzot's LES DIABOLIQUES (1954), one of the book's absolute highlights. Rigby goes on to detail how dark suspense vehicles such as this led to more aggressive horror material, in symbiotic response to a return to horror that was world-wide now that a decade had passed since the end of the war. Throughout the book, Rigby maintains a through-line showing how gothic cinema was becoming popular and developing in England and America, helping the general and more advanced readers to remember where in time we are. He is attentive to when and how Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava's I VAMPIRI (1957) happened in relation to Terence Fisher's ground-breaking THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (also 1957), which was shot - Rigby shows - at approximately the same time as the Italian film, though it beat the English one into theaters by four months. However, his attention to the Hammer film causes him to overlook the real inspiration behind the former, which was Andre de Toth's colossal hit HOUSE OF WAX (1953). Mad scientists are the thrust of this period, whether it's Baron Frankenstein, THE HEAD'S Dr Ood (it's good to see this film properly appreciated, with art director Hermann Warm's roots going back to NOSFERATU and DESTINY),  EYES WITHOUT A FACE's Dr Genessier, or the title characters of THE TESTAMENT OF DR CORDELIER and THE AWFUL DR ORLOFF. It is in this chapter that Rigby initiates his commendable habit of naming the locations where many of these films were shot, which is especially helpful in terms of identifying the various villas and castelli where the first generation Italian horrors were made. (It must be noted, however, that such information has its limits as many of these locations have been renamed over time - the Villa Parisi, where Bava's KILL, BABY... KILL! was shot in 1966, is now known as the Villa Grazioli and is not to be confused with another Villa Parisi where other horror films, like 1980's BURIAL GROUND, were shot.) The chapter rightly culminates with Bava's masterpiece BLACK SABBATH.

Daliah Lavi in IL DEMONIO (1963).
"Angels for Satan, 1963-1966" addresses the remarkable consistency of a trend in European horror across the board during this period of demonizing women, frequently in the person of Barbara Steele but also extending to BLOOD AND ROSES' Annette Vadim, Daliah Lavi in IL DEMONIO and LA FRUSTA E IL CORPO (THE WHIP AND THE BODY, 1963), and Estella Blain in Jess Franco's MISS MUERTE (THE DIABOLICAL DR Z, 1965), and reaching its fever pitch in the female killing spree of Bava's SEI DONNE PER L'ASSASSINO (BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, 1964). "Nights of the Devil, 1967-1971" encompasses the psychedelicizing and sexualizing of European horror as well as the rise of the giallo and personalities like Jean Rollin, Dario Argento, and Paul Naschy. In this chapter, Rigby's appreciative eye notes that the same picturesque German snowfall nestles the images of THE HORRIBLE SEXY VAMPIRE, BITE ME DARLING and EUGENIE DE SADE, while his ear catches some reprised music cues from THE WHIP AND THE BODY in LA VENGANZA DE LA MOMIA (THE MUMMY'S REVENGE, 1973), but he also begins here to draw certain lines. We can begin to feel his patience sorely tested by some of the genre's mounting excess, but most of all by the technical sloppiness found most particularly in the French and Spanish product. We can sense his relief when something genuinely and completely laudable like DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (1971) comes along, and may feel relief of our own when he has the largess to showcase a neglected title like Jose Luis Merino's BLOOD CASTLE (aka SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER, 1970).

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in HORROR EXPRESS.
At the end of this chapter, when Rigby gets his opportunity to address Eugenio Martin's HORROR EXPRESS (1972), the book's appreciation warms up considerably as Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing enter the history as a duo for the only time, reminding us where the author feels most at home. As a reader who naturally favors European horror, I find his assessment of this title ("a bona-fide classic of the form") a bit overdone, and it serves in context as a harbinger of disagreements that seem to intensify as we draw closer to the 1980s - notably his dislike of Paul Morrissey's FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN (which nevertheless is one of the highlighted 113) Andrzej Zulawski's POSSESSION and Walerian Borowczyk's DR JEKYLL AND MISS OSBORNE, not to mention the bulk of Paul Naschy and Jess Franco's work, which many fans naturally gravitating to this book would consider major treats. The disconnection would seem to be a lack of humor in the face of outrage, but this is not a charge one can easily address to the author of the best book about Roxy Music. On the other hand, Rigby is not above expressing warm regard for some actors who frequently labor in such films, including Helga Line, Julia Saly and particularly Narciso Ibanez Menta, whose Count Dracula in Leon Klimovsky's "entirely lacking in suspense or even rhythm" LA SAGA DE LOS DRACULA (1973) "ranks not far behind Christopher Lee as the best on film."

Jessica Harper in SUSPIRIA.
By the time we get to "Rites of Blood, 1973-1975" and "New Worlds of Fear, 1975-1983," the reader feels the book's energy beginning to flag as the story begins to wildly diversify into international co-productions and endless retreads and attempts to recapture a glory that was never much more than a subgenre sideshow. In other words, here Rigby very capably illustrates the death throes of a genre that had by now done and shown about all that one could do and show to shock. In this context, the appearance of something like Argento's SUSPIRIA (1977) towers above everything else exactly as it ought, and few writers have dealt with its uncanny magnificence as excitingly or capably. When I read these pages, I had to revisit the film at once.

Are there faults? Of course there are. At the outset, Rigby apologizes for the need to be selective in his coverage, to the detriment of films made in, say, the Scandinavian countries or Eastern Europe. (1953's DRAKULA ISTANBUL'DA from Turkey is a serious omission in this respect, as it contains scenes that appear to have influenced, say, I VAMPIRI while also anticipating both HORROR OF DRACULA and Franco's supposedly unprecedentedly literal COUNT DRACULA of 1970.) Also, while music has long been central to the character of European horror films, the scores of the films under discussion generally receives short shrift, with "funky" being the most commonly deployed adjective when it's mentioned at all. Likewise, whenever Rigby attends to uses of color, he almost always defaults to blue, very nearly the only color he mentions with specificity. There is also a tendency to take films at face value as the director's own work in cases where post-production tampering was done - Franco's SUCCUBUS (1967) and VENUS IN FURS (1969) being good cases in point. This book marks probably the only occasion when FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE OF FREAKS (1971) has been discussed without invoking the name of cast member "Boris Lugosi," and it also mistakenly identifies director Robert H. Oliver as a pseudonym for its producer Dick Randall. But this book didn't require a fan's hornet-like attention to detail as much as it needed responsible distance, and this is what we get: a sober yet loving history of the subject at hand, respectful and affectionate yet soundly critical, in which the writing boasts literacy, geniality, and careful attention not only to matters of chronology and geography, but to the furtive ways in which films sometimes speak to one another (as when Rigby notes that Julien Duvivier's LA CHAMBRE ARDENTE [THE BURNING COURT, 1961] misses an opportunity to invert BLACK SUNDAY with a witch's curse uttered by the blonde and luminous Edith Scob).

As with ENGLISH GOTHIC and AMERICAN GOTHIC before it, Jonathan Rigby's EURO GOTHIC represents a major addition to the literature of fantastic cinema, a valuable addition to any collection so devoted. The layout follows the same template as those earlier releases, and the plentiful photos are attractive and reflect both care and cleverness in their choosing. Taken as a set, these books amount to the finest history of the horror and fantasy cinema genre presently available.

(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.

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A Franco Eureka

March 7, 2017, 10:31 pm
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I'm working on a review for SCREEM Magazine of Jess Franco's NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND DESIRES (Mondo Macabro) and, while watching it, I had a brainstorm that I've never seen noted elsewhere.

The movie is a kind of reworking of a story previously told, in different ways, in other Franco movies like SUCCUBUS (1967), NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT (1970), LORNA THE EXORCIST (1974), DORIANA GRAY (1976) and SHINING SEX (1977)... but as soon as I saw the opening with Lina Romay participating in a nightclub mentalist act, something clicked in me. It was then that I realized the seed of all these stories (one of the main arteries of Franco's filmography) was Cornell Woolrich's novel NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES - or the 1948 John Farrow film made of it. (My personal bet would be the novel, as Franco drew inspiration from Woolrich's THE BRIDE WORE BLACK for his THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z some years before François Truffaut got around to filming it. I don't know how I missed this, it was so bold to see; the Spanish title of the Woolrich novel and Farrow film is MIL OJOS TIENE LA NOCHE, and the Franco film's Spanish title is MIL SEXOS TIENE LA NOCHE.)

Update: Since originally posting, I have been apprised by Facebook friends that this connection was previously cited in a Franco interview by Robert Monnell and Carlos Aguilar's book on Franco. I was unaware of this. But I'm not finished...

Then, as the story continued to unfold into the realm of mind control, the other shoe fell. It was then that I realized what Franco had actually done to create this central storyline, which was to playfully conflate NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES with another film of similar title, Fritz Lang's THE THOUSAND EYES OF DR. MABUSE! 

I've never seen this connection noted by anyone - and it was right there in the film's title all along.

My SCREEM review will go into more detail.

(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved by the author.
 
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March 24, 2017, 10:38 am
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I'm afraid I didn't care much for KONG: SKULL ISLAND. I don't like the trend of weighing fantasy down with military hardware and weaponry, even less the trend of turning franchises into cross-referential universes built around some secret government power grid operation. Most importantly, I refuse to accept that every giant gorilla is automatically Kong. Kong is a special character and, if you're going to use him, I feel you have to earn him - not with brawn (that would give you Konga) but with character and sensitivity. Likewise, as much as I like Brie Larson, Kong needs to be complemented by a heroine with the power to humanize him, not just an empowered woman who can stand there in the midst of flying monster hair and fireballs and send up a flare. I swear, the movie looks like it never left the storyboard stage; it really is more graphic novel (Issue 1) than movie. When Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again" was played, I had to wince; the film had succeeded in checking off every war movie cliche of the past 50-60 years. And don't get me started on the five-second needle drops of popular songs from 1973 - you know, like Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust", "Down On the Street" by the Stooges, and the real knee-slapper, CCR's "Run Through the Jungle." (Get it? That's what they're doing.) In all fairness, some people have liked it - usually with caveats attached, like they went in with low expectations (or a grandson), or they enjoyed it "for what it was."


PASSENGERS (2016): This movie has been taking some heat as "sexist," but I found it an unexpectedly captivating, humane science fiction drama sprung from the hoariest of the genre's cliches - a futuristic Adam & Eve story. It's not exactly that, but close enough: a man (Chris Pratt), alone of 5,000 passengers being transported to live on an Earth-like planet many light years away, is awakened from suspended animation when his chamber malfunctions... with another 90 years to go before the others are revived in anticipation of their arrival. Over the following year, he forms an attachment to a sleeping female passenger (Jennifer Lawrence) and wrestles for a full year with the moral question of whether or not to wake her, while simultaneously going mad from loneliness. Considering who plays the sleeping beauty, you can imagine how the dice roll, but it's a consistently engaging, tense and surprising drama that managed to address dark topics and technological breakdowns without ever succumbing to the dystopian virus that has done so much to destroy the genre. It's refreshing in this aspect, and the ship design and special visual effects are worthy of the fine performances by the principals. One of them is Michael Sheen, cleverly cast an android bartender who is modeled on Lloyd in THE SHINING - a mite heavy-handed, but in this setting, an homage to Kubrick is hardly misplaced.

As for the sexism angle, I'll need to call SPOILERS before going any further... but Pratt's character is crazy at the time he makes the decision to wake her, literally past the point of becoming suicidal, and 2) as the story continues, it becomes clear that Lawrence's character would have died along with everyone else had he not interrupted her sleep. I absolutely agree that it is an unsettling, creepy situation for her to awaken into, and the film is responsible enough to address this; he was absolutely wrong not to confess to what he had done immediately, but the result is a dramatic human story - not to mention a story of forgiveness and sacrifice - not real life. Rather than brand him a monster, which is a label that neither the film nor the character himself really disagree with, I prefer to take a more encompassing view that, in narrative terms, he was a tool of fate that allowed everything to work out for the best. I should also point out that he suffers a great deal and at length when the truth comes out, including excommunication from his beloved, and she finally forgives him when circumstances push her to the extremis of confronting a possible future likewise without companionship for the remainder of her life.



It looks like the remaining two films in the Andre Hunebelle FANTOMAS Trilogy (starring Jean Marais, pictured above) are coming out on Blu-ray in France at the end of this month. All three discs offer English subtitles. Though far from representing the original novels by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre), these updated, gadget-riddled action comedies are a delight in their own right, especially the first - which is as accomplished as any Bond film of the same period.

Amazon.fr is a great place to snag these; you can get all three for well under $60 with express mail included. 



Sitting here eating a bagel with my morning coffee and listening to Elvis' GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS! soundtrack - one of the first albums I ever owned. All is right with the world when I'm listening to this album - something I should remember for future reference. But something new is clicking with me on this listen - how geographically encompassing this music is. There are songs that sound American, Japanese, Caribbean, Spanish, Balinese, Italian... it's like the album wants to host and undertake the healing of the whole post-war world, with the King as the catalyst. It's the IT'S ALL TRUE or CINERAMA ADVENTURE of rock soundtracks, and yet I'm sure that lots of people today, previously unexposed to this music, would hear the ethnic settings of these songs (admittedly based in musical cliche) and see only caricature and condescension in them and call them racist. And that would be after branding half or more of the songs as sexist.

                                                                            * * *

RIP to the always passionate and charismatic Cuban-American actor Tomas Milian (COMPANEROS, THE BIG GUNDOWN, FACE TO FACE, RUN MAN RUN, etc); the superb and often underrated British director Robert Day (CORRIDORS OF BLOOD, THE HAUNTED STRANGLER, TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT, TARZAN'S THREE CHALLENGES, SHE); game show creator/host/songwriter/CIA hit man (?) Chuck Barris (THE DATING GAME, THE NEWLYWED GAME, THE GONG SHOW), and the sublime Lola Albright (PETER GUNN, KID GALAHAD, A COLD WIND IN AUGUST).

                                                                            * * *

I should mention that I have a few new audio commentaries that have gone into release recently, all for Kino Lorber: ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966), THE SKULL (1965), COMPULSION (1959) and LIFEBOAT (1944). I'm presently scripting a commentary for Sergio Leone's THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (1967).

And, last but certainly not least... 

HERE is a link to my first-ever article for Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, written about the films SUMMER OF '42 (1971) and CLASS OF '44 (1973), 35mm IB Technicolor prints of which will be playing there over the last weekend in April.

(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.

  
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The Week In Review

March 31, 2017, 11:35 am
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Rihanna as Marion Crane in BATES MOTEL.

This week's BATES MOTEL episode "Marion" reminded me of what a profound and ultimately humane, sympathetic, inexhaustibly complex work of art PSYCHO is. In attempting to do something different/unpredictable/audacious, the makers of this show, I fear, may have critically misjudged their mission - which I've always hoped was to broaden and deepen the essential tragedy of the story, to make the original film that much more heartbreaking. Donna predicted that tonight's events might happen last week. I thought, "They wouldn't dare." They did. (No dialogue credit for Joseph Stefano either, but perhaps they were doing him a favor.) As with all things, time will tell. Four more episodes to go.

Copies of CALTIKI THE IMMORTAL MONSTER hit the Arrow Video offices today and will be shipped to retail outlets presently. It doesn't appear to be mentioned on the packaging, but - at my urging - Arrow generously decided late in production to present CALTIKI THE IMMORTAL MONSTER on the Blu-ray disc in both its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and, for the first time ever, in full aperture 1.33:1. There is absolutely no doubt that the film was intended to be screened only at 1.66:1 because the unmatted version is intermittently hard-matted. Of course, the 1.33:1 TV prints prevailing in circulation over the years represented a cropping of the hard-matted release print. However, all of Bava's special effects footage in the original dupe negative was filmed unmatted, so this disc makes available for the first time a far more generous view of these effects than have ever been seen publicly! Additionally, I believe the intermittent in-camera matting offers some exciting eurekas into how the film was originally shot and assembled by Bava and Freda. In addition to my audio commentary, I wrote an essay for the accompanying booklet about this astounding artifact and what it seems to reveal to us about the secrets of this two-fathered film.

Also in Mario Bava-related news, this week Kino Lorber announced their plans to release Bava's masterpiece KILL, BABY... KILL! (Operazione paura, 1966) for the first time on Blu-ray in June. The disc will include a brand-new 2K restoration, a newly-recorded audio commentary by yours truly (Tim Lucas, the author of MARIO BAVA, ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK), a 20m documentary visit to the film's original locations with assistant director Lamberto Bava, and more!

I've been thinking a lot today about my friend (I consider him a friend) Richard Harland Smith, who has announced on his FB page that his new audio commentary for Robert Wise's A GAME OF DEATH (1945, Kino Classics) is his last. Of course he's not dead, just retiring from a particular beat, but this leads me to eulogistic thinking. I understand that lives change as individuals change and grow, as families change and grow, and I can appreciate what he says when he explains that it's time he started focusing more on life and less on movies. But it also bugs me because Rich is one of the very best audio commentators around; he has always had a rare gift for writing about the movies with respect and appreciation while writing about the personalities involved that makes them seem warmer, more grounded, and approachable. He's grounded too, the cinema has never been a church for him, so what made him such a unique commentator is now leading him to hang up that hat. THE DEVIL BAT, THE DEATH KISS, DERANGED, BURNT OFFERINGS, TWICE-TOLD TALES (with Perry Martin), DONOVAN'S BRAIN, MALATESTA'S CARNIVAL OF BLOOD, BLOOD AND LACE, BEWARE OF THE BLOB, PANIC IN YEAR ZERO!... I don't know how many commentaries Rich has recorded but every single one I've heard has given me real enjoyment, taught me something, painted a picture or two that I felt I could step into. This is all too rare, especially among writers and commentators embracing genre films. His ARBOGAST ON FILM blog was a brilliant thing that turned blogging sideways. Who else would even think of using Halloween as an excuse to write prose poems describing 30 different horror movie screams, and then make it an annual event? There ought to be a book of his collected work, so it can dwell somewhere more upscale than in old magazines, some of which I edited. Rich was one of my favorite writers from my years of editing VIDEO WATCHDOG, and I was always honored to present his writing. I guess I'm wrestling with these feelings because I sense that he probably feels, on some level, sorrow because the work could never be as sustaining as it was uplifting. This could well be a projection of mine. But here's to you, my friend; if you never write another word, your voice is always going to linger somewhere in my own regard for film. Carpe diem.

Elvis and director Norman Taurog.
Considering how central and important Elvis Presley was to my early movie-going experience, it's odd that, at my present age, there still remain several of his films that I've still never seen. I can trace the break in our contract to an afternoon in 1969-70; I was about 13 years old and went to see an Elvis movie (CHARRO), but due to an unannounced change in the running times, ended up seeing a Sergio Leone film (ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST) instead. It changed my life, and realizing afterwards that the Elvis movie could add nothing of greater substance to my day, I got up and left without seeing it - and, to this day, I still haven't seen it. I've always looked back on this as the first adult decision of my life. However, this decision had a residual result, in that - especially after the wounding disappointment of Elvis' death - I rarely went revisited his movies, even after they became available letterboxed. But now, as serendipity would have it, I find myself taking a short break in my Leone commentary duties to whip up a little essay about Elvis. And perhaps, I find myself thinking, the time has come to finally seek out the rest of those Elvis movies. Funny how life works all of this out. How much funnier to notice.

Now reading Henry Green's CAUGHT. I haven't read Henry Green since the late 1980s but the first 35 pages of this make me want to go back and swallow the other books whole. This particular novel, a postwar reverie about his time in the London Auxiliary Fire Brigade during the Blitz, is one I was always discouraged from reading by an essay I read that described its storytelling as unusually straightforward, but it's anything but. The early chapters (no fire-fighting yet) are consistently surprising, with sudden startling injections of space and shadow, color and vertigo, and frequent are the paragraphs and sentences I reread for the multiplicity of layers in them, which is both dazzling and disorienting, and for the sheer pleasure of going back to see exactly how he managed this or that stylistic effect. The last paragraph I just read before closing the book for the night described the lead character leaving a house and walking to the front gate to return to town, but in that walk he was simultaneously a self-absorbed child, a doting newlywed, and the neglectful father of a young son. Such a great writer.

RIP to Tony Russel (b. Anthony Russo - seen above at left), the Gamma I commander from THE WILD WILD PLANET, one of the standout heroes of Italy's sword and sandal era (THE SECRET SEVEN, REVOLT OF THE SPARTANS), and a familiar voice from the dubbing industry. Tony was a great guy; Michael Barnum interviewed him for a retrospective feature article in VIDEO WATCHDOG 128 (still available, even digitally). He was 91.

RIP German-French actress Christine Kaufmann, whose films included MADCHEN IN UNIFORM, THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1959, pictured), TOWN WITHOUT PITY, TARAS BULBA (starring her one-time husband, Tony Curtis), Gordon Hessler's MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1972), and BAGDAD CAFE. She died after a long battle with leukemia at 72.

And, last but not least, RIP to the great Alessandro Alessandroni, the man who whistled, played guitar and led the Cantori Moderni choir on most of Ennio Morricone's scores for Sergio Leone's Westerns. He also composed a number of scores in his own right, including those for THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE (a particular favorite) and LADY FRANKENSTEIN, and performed vocally and instrumentally on many others, including Mario Bava's DANGER: DIABOLIK and the mono film SWEDEN HEAVEN AND HELL (Alessandroni and his wife Giulia provided the voices for the classic novelty song "Mah Na Mah Na"). The particular tenor of his Leone performances - gentle, ragged, weathered, rollicking, acoustic and electric - forever changed many young lives. Mine included. He was 92.

(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.

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Fun at the New Beverly

April 3, 2017, 11:56 pm
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Elvis sings "Bossa Nova Baby" in FUN IN ACAPULCO.
I have a new 3500-word essay about Elvis Presley's 1960s films that is now posted over at the New Beverly Cinema website, which you can find right here. The primary focus is on two films - FUN IN ACAPULCO (1963) and CLAMBAKE (1967) - which will be playing there for one night only on Tuesday, April 18, in stunning IB Technicolor 35mm prints. I'm hoping to pack the house.

The Elvis films were as central to my early movie-going experience as monsters or anything else, yet this is the first really substantial thing I've ever written about them. I hope you'll enjoy it.

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New Books and Music

April 20, 2017, 4:51 pm
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Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain in THE RIFLEMAN.
Classic TV aficianados will be excited to learn that Laurel Records has just released MUSIC FROM THE ORIGINAL TELEVISION SERIES "THE RIFLEMAN," a generous two-disc set of Herschell Burke Gilbert's original music cues. This is some of the most readily identifiable, and long coveted, ever withheld for so long from the public reach, and it has finally been brought to disc in stunning fashion by the composer's son John G. Gilbert. The first disc of the set includes 35 different original cues by Gilbert, totalling 57:48 in length, and there is also a bonus disc of 26 additional library tracks heard on the show that Gilbert accessed from the MUTEL music library, totalling 61:44! Rounding out the package is an informative, 22-page illustrated booklet that offers a biography of Gilbert, a history of the series and its music (all of which - surprise! - was originally recorded in Munich, Germany!), and a list of feature films in which the MUTEL tracks can also be heard (for example, RIOT IN CELL BLOCK ELEVEN, WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS, THE THIEF and BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT). The original Gilbert tracks are a sonic revelation, yielding up charming, colorful instrumentation details often lost in playback on the show's 16mm syndication prints.

Just released by McFarland is Roberto Curti's RICCARDO FREDA: THE LIFE AND WORKS OF A BORN FILMMAKER, a most welcome 376 page critical biography of the Egyptian-born filmmaker, an Italian swashbuckler specialist who is sadly almost entirely known in this country for a handful of horror films he barely took seriously (I VAMPIRI, CALTIKI THE IMMORTAL MONSTER, THE HORRIBLE DR HICHCOCK, THE GHOST, TRAGIC CEREMONY). The joy of Curti's text is that he has sought out and screened as much of Freda's work as can presently be found, and made sense of Freda's overall career for the first time in English - vital in itself, as many of the films either do not exist in English or can no longer be found in the English-dubbed versions that once circulated (as in the case of the 1940s adventure THE GAY SWORDSMAN or the 1950s thriller TRAPPED IN TANGIERS). Indeed, it was brave of McFarland to undertake this book because it covers a number of features that American readers simply have no way of seeing. Curti has interviewed a number of former Freda associates, including his daughter Jacqueline, and manages to shed new light on facets of his life and career that all other references based in repeated misinformation; for example, he reveals that Freda and his muse Gianna Maria Canale were never actually married and that 1957's I VAMPIRI (their most famous collaboration) actually marked the end of their romantic relationship. The history of the Italian popular cinema is something of a slippery slope; indeed, there are also many cases in the book when the memories of different participants are found to be at odds with one another. Generally, Curti acknowledges them all and allows them to reader to choose the truth for themselves. I am a rare exception to this rule, often cited by Curti as a source of misinformation, even when said information was given to me by Freda himself or responsibly culled from published interviews. This would annoy me less if I didn't have such respect for Curti's own contributions; he proves himself a vigorous and passionate champion of Freda, adding insights and discoveries of consequence to the existing literature, in highly readable English. As for the feeling of the reader, it is one of privilege and great liberty, to actually read at length, and in depth, about Freda (indeed, this sphere of filmmaking) without reaching for the Italian/English Dictionary with each new sentence. If the history of the Italian popular cinema is a subject near and dear to your heart, as it is to mine, you must have this book. One hopes that its existence will help to spur a resurgence of interest in Freda's work and its resurrection on Blu-ray. Also available from McFarland directly at www.mcfarland.com (or by calling 800-253-2187).

Donna and I were recently sent a lavish book by rock historian Douglas Harr, which he was kind enough to tell us had been inspired in its presentation by MARIO BAVA - ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK. Although it's a bit outside my usual scope here, I would like to recommend this book - ROCKIN' THE CITY OF ANGELS: CELEBRATING THE GREAT ROCK SHOWS OF THE 1970s IN CONCERT, ON RECORD, AND ON FILM - both for the historical record it represents, and as a magnificent objet of the book-making art. Taking a different approach to the subject of 1970s rock than other books, Harr uses the lavish coffee table book model as a means of documenting - in near-cinematic terms - how in-concert performances during this period evolved from the raw extended performances by groups like Led Zeppelin, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and The Who into something more ambitious and theatrical with the arrivals of Alice Cooper, David Bowie, and KISS, culminating in such classic conceptual stagings as Genesis' THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY and Pink Floyd's THE WALL. Harr's essays describe in vivid detail the experience of being a Los Angeles audience member (hence "THE CITY OF ANGELS") at each of these shows, then explore how successfully these live events were subsequently preserved on record and on film. The text is richly complemented with more than 600 luscious images, predominantly color, showcasing the various acts in performance, taken by photographers Richard E. Aaron, Jorgen Angel, Martyn Dean, Ian Dickson, Armando Gallo, Stacey Katsis, Neal Preston, Jim Summaria, Lisa Tanner, Brian Weiner and Neil Zlozower. This book is clearly a labor of love and a marvelous tool for evoking memories of long-ago venues, and I would imagine equally valuable to fans of the various bands who were not around to see these tours when they originally took place. In its determination to be encompassing, the book doesn't allow itself any musical snobbery, which is the approach most fair to the subject at hand. King Crimson fans may resent the fact that Harr also finds room for the less cerebral Supertramp and AC/DC, but they may also learn a thing or two by reading those chapters outside their usual habit trails. I was astounded to discover that this book is priced under $100; I don't know how they managed it, but you get a lot of book for your money and you might even get high off the printer's ink. In addition to the highlighted link, you can also find ROCKIN' THE CITY OF ANGELS here.

As always, the bolded blue links will take you to sales pages for the item under review.

(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.

   
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Remembering Ella, Now 100

April 25, 2017, 2:06 pm
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They called her "The First Lady of Song." Ella Fitzgerald, born 100 years ago today. Since her death in 1996, she has ascended to a level she was said to occupy in life, that of a genuine musical legend; she is now interred in box sets with celestial collaborators.

It's hard for me to believe now, but I was once in her presence - backstage at Cincinnati's Music Hall in September 1977 - and even touched her shoulder, which was covered in heavy mink, in hello and farewell. I don't think she felt it, and she might have looked askance at me or clobbered me if she had. But it's what I came away with from our brief encounter, rather than an autograph or a conversation. I stood beside her as she talked with another fan. She had a charmed music even in her speaking voice, but she also had the staunch aura of a warrior, of someone who had endured a lot of ugliness to bring a little beauty into the world.

(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved. 
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RIP Daliah Lavi (1942-2017)

May 6, 2017, 10:34 pm
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Daliah in THE WHIP AND THE BODY.
Israeli singer-actress Daliah Lavi passed away last Wednesday, May 3, at the much-too-young age of 74. She was a good friend to us at VIDEO WATCHDOG and we will miss her terribly.

Long years ago, I located this feline goddess of the silver screen - in, of all places, Asheville, North Carolina - and she agreed to be interviewed for my Mario Bava book about her important work on THE WHIP AND THE BODY (1963). I found her to be wonderfully warm, funny, and down-to-earth. Talking about her past put her into an expansive mood and we ended up also talking a bit about her early life and how she ended up becoming an actress, the farthest thing from her thoughts.

She had been an impoverished kid in a kibbutz when Hollywood came calling in the form of a Kirk Douglas picture called THE JUGGLER (1953). She and her little friends kept sneaking into the pool area to gawk at the stars - the cast included future HOGAN'S HEROES star John Banner who became a valued friend for years after. By the end of production, the actors became so fond of Daliah and her antics, they arranged a future for her. 

On her birthday, they presented her family with an opportunity for her to study ballet and reside with a family in Sweden. She eventually became too tall for ballet but she lived with the right Swedish family to pursue acting; it was the family of Volodja Semitjov, the screenwriter of Arne Mattsson's ONE SUMMER OF HAPPINESS (1951), one of the most successful Swedish films ever made. Daliah never acted in a Swedish film (she insisted) but did appear in one; her first proper film was her first starring role, in a picture called BLAZING SAND (1960), which she took pride in noting was the first Israeli-German co-production. (It's available as a DVD-R or download from Something Weird Video, if you'd like to see it.)  She felt that her best film was Brunello Rondi's IL DEMONIO (1963); I had to break the news to her of her co-star Frank Wolff's suicide. She admitted to being distracted (in love with the man who became her first husband) during the making of the Bava film, but when she looked at the copy I sent her, she could understand its value. Her Nevenka - a character created by another friend, Ernesto Gastaldi - is one of the great performances in Bava's catalogue, powerfully intuitive and decorative. She considered most of her films to be "garbage" and didn't like to talk about the really bad ones that came after the Bava film - she frankly included CASINO ROYALE (1967) under that heading and told me that it put her to sleep every time she tried to watch it. She finally retired from films in 1971 (her last was CATLOW with Yul Brynner) and gave her creativity completely to music. She released several albums and many singles, including songs about unification such as "Jerusalem," which became huge hits in Germany. She retired from live performance around 1987, but this is who Daliah most essentially was: a woman who had been a dancer who became an actress who became a singer whose ultimate purpose was to be nurturing, healing, a unifying link of good will between people and countries.

After our interview, Donna and I set about completing the Bava book and presented Daliah with a copy (and an extra one for one of her sons), as well as a copy of IL DEMONIO I had located - she told me she was so excited to receive it and share it with her loved ones. If I remember correctly, it was around this time that she told me that she had been approached to perform a new series of concerts in Germany, which she would agree to do only if it was presented as a farewell tour. I saw reports, even some of her television appearances, during this 2008 tour, which became a tremendous success. Her last concert was recorded digitally and was released as a bonus DVD in a collection of re-recordings of her most popular songs; she got a Gold Record for it. "What a nice way to retire from the record business," she wrote to me. If you look at the YouTube videos, you'll get some idea of how much her music and curing presence was adored by the German public.

It was a couple of years after her homecoming - and about five years after the publication of the Bava book - that I emailed her to ask if we might continue our interview and make it a proper feature in VIDEO WATCHDOG. She hated to send emails so she asked me to call her - and she immediately agreed. We talked at wonderful length - frankly, I don't think she ever learned how to tell stories concisely! - and the interview became the centerpiece of VW 170.

Daliah on her first film set with Kirk Douglas, 1952.
In the course of preparing that issue, I was successful in finding on eBay a photograph taken on the set of THE JUGGLER that showed Kirk Douglas sitting among the film crew, with a very recognizable child standing directly behind him. It was indeed Daliah. We scanned the photo for use in the interview and sent her the original, which she had never seen before, and she told me that she had it framed to be displayed in her home. She told me that seeing it gave her a feeling, much like her farewell tour, of having come full circle. We sent her copies of VW 170 that she gave to the guests attending her 70th birthday party.

After this, we kept in touch intermittently - when I had a question, when someone was trying to reach her through me, when it was her birthday. I urged her to write her autobiography, but she told me that she had too many secrets to keep for other people; she believed that such books were usually written only to spread dirt and she wasn't going to do that. (In fact, if I ever asked her what she thought about a colleague, she rarely said more than "He was nice" or "She was nice" for that very reason.) As time passed, she told me that she had taken a bad fall while walking around her property and had to spend some time in bed; then she injured her shoulder and had to receive a titanium implant. She complained about the way it conducted cold; it was an unpleasant companion to her in the wintertime. But she would laugh as she said this, marveling that she was now part-bionic. She had come a long way from that kibbutz in Shavei Zion, and we both agreed that she had lived a very blessed life.

Daliah in concert, 2008.
I became a fan of Daliah's music as a result of being her friend. She was a wonderful woman - incidentally, she was the first person I interviewed for my book who took an active interest in me and my devotion to Bava, who asked me questions. The essence of the woman I knew is in her music, not in her films, as she would have been the first to agree. She was such a warm and vibrant spirit, I can't believe she's gone. It hurts a little now to have her telephone number.

Rest in everlasting peace, dear lady.

(c) 2017 Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.
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All About THE GENE KRUPA STORY

May 9, 2017, 11:09 am
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I have a new essay premiering today on the New Beverly Cinema blog, promoting this weekend's screenings of THE GENE KRUPA STORY (1959) as part of their month-long tribute to actor Sal Mineo. Be there or be square!
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Of WonderFest, Drive-Ins and Legacy

June 7, 2017, 1:50 pm
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This past weekend, Donna and I made our annual trek down to Louisville, Kentucky to attend WonderFest. The fact of the matter is that neither of us really ended up attending WonderFest, per se - aside from going out for meals, we didn't get downstairs at all! We hear there are good people and good things going on down there, but the reason we go is to spend time with our friends and we couldn't break away from our duties in what has come to be known as The Kogar Suite. Named in respectful deference to our friend and mentor Bob Burns, each year the Kogar Suite grants sanctuary to those nearest and dearest to us, while observing a different room theme. One year, it was Kogar and other assorted apes; then it was DARK SHADOWS... and this year, Donna and Lisa Herzog came up with the idea for a Drive-In theme. It proved to be pretty popular among the attendees, especially once it was decided to include a free concession stand - complete with taste-tempting hot dogs, mouth-watering popcorn, delicious candy, and a host of sparkling soft drinks! Traditionally, the Suite is a place where we all gather to discuss the most important topics of the day (for example, FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD) as Donna plays hostess, welcoming people and mixing up something she calls a Vodka Sunset. This year, something called a Re-Animator was added to the cocktails menu (or is that a Reanna-mator?) and our special guests included actor Brian Howe and Nashville's own diabolically rockin' The Exotic Ones.








Yes, even The Exotic Ones (and John Davis) enjoy Kogar Suite Hot Dogs!
This must have been our fifteenth year of attending, as it was also the fifteenth year that David Colton has presented the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Film Awards down there. VIDEO WATCHDOG and I were nominated in several categories but we didn't end up in the Winner's Circle anywhere on the ballot. So you can imagine our surprise when host David Colton suddenly announced "something new" - a new award, not necessarily to be given every year, but in consideration of "special achievement" - and then proceeded to present Donna and I with the first-ever Rondo Legacy Award for having produced 27 years of VIDEO WATCHDOG.

Donna and I with David Colton and our new addition.
There is video of our acceptance - apparently too large a file to share here (thanks, Blogger) - but, trust me, the award came as a complete surprise. I was genuinely speechless and grateful to Donna for meeting the moment with some eloquence. I am especially pleased that her name is on the award. I've often had to remind her that all of our Rondo wins for Best Magazine and Best Book are shared by her, but this is the first Rondo Award that actually bears her name. It's now my hope that Jim & Marian Clatterbaugh will win one of these next year for their many years of producing that beautiful magazine, MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT.


I want to close this entry with a special word of thanks to David Colton... not just for creating this special award that brings a touch of blessed closure to something that had to end much too suddenly, but for bringing the Rondo Awards each year to WonderFest. Had he not done this fifteen years ago, I might never have discovered this convention or met so many amazing people who have become some of my dearest friends. You've made a real difference in my life, David - Donna's too. Thank you.


(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved. 

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RIP Adam West (What A Way to Go Go)

June 11, 2017, 3:09 pm
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RIP Adam West, age 88, the only real Batman of all the Batmen, and one of the very few American actors I can think of who could give both a genuine performance and a surrealist wink at the same time. Who could wear both a Bat-suit AND a pair of clown-colored baggies in a surfing competition with the Joker, or awkward with a sexy lady, or be up to his cowled neck in a giant Frosty Freeze sno-cone and still walk away with his dignity intact. He caught my attention even before BATMAN, playing Captain Quick in a series of TV commercials for the chocolatey milk supplement, as astronauts in ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS and the OUTER LIMITS episode "Invisible Enemy" and as the dashing young hero of a Three Stooges feature, THE OUTLAWS IS COMING - and he shone in later roles as well (THE MARRIAGE OF A YOUNG STOCKBROKER is one of his more unfairly overlooked performances) - but few of my childhood icons were as completely and originally realized as his Batman. His resourcefulness was played for laughs, but his intelligence never was, and he was the first crime fighter in my experience to tap into the outré to solve crimes - meditation, mysticism, that side of himself that knew that nothing awakened such fright in the criminal element as the shadow of a bat. I suppose my childhood will never be dealt a bigger ZOWIE! of a death blow till the Big One comes along.


I'm so glad he was able to make his final bow in his definitive role, alongside once-youthful ward Burt Ward's Robin, as the voice of Batman in THE RETURN OF THE CAPED CRUSADERS - and with a BATMAN '66 comic doing well wherever fine comics are sold. 

Speaking of comics, Adam's loss - reportedly due to a short battle with leukemia - brought back some potent memories of that time of life when he loomed largest.As a nine year-old, I had some DC Comics in 1966 (I've recently been feeling a strong pull toward re-acquiring some of those 80-Page Giants) but I was a Marvel kid from roughly 1963 on. However, when the BATMAN show premiered on ABC-TV in January 1966, I had to start adding BATMAN and DETECTIVE comics to my monthly pile. This was the first issue I bought, #178, January 1966. Cover art by Gil Kane. As I recall, the art inside was attributed to "Bob Kane" - bland, stiff, not half as exciting. But the next issue had The Riddler on the cover, art by Carmine Infantino. Those Infantino covers would have been worth the 12 cents without ANYTHING inside.



For reasons unknown to me, when the series first went on the air, 20th Century Fox was caught short in terms of releasing an authorized soundtrack album - so the breech was filled by a lot of cover albums, including one by an anonymous outfit calling themselves The Bat Boys. (Does anyone know their story? Any moonlighting jazz legends in this ramshackle combo? I'm told it was a product created for Pickwick, so it's not impossible that Lou Reed or John Cale were involved. Hey, I wouldn't admit it either. ) Anyway, I remember playing this one a lot before the Neal Hefti and Nelson Riddle albums came along to replace it. One thing that endeared it to me was a noticeably wrong chord on the electric organ - an honest-to-God mistake - around the 1:32 mark... which the uploader of this track has apparently taken the time to fix after all these years. Or was it exclusive to the mono version? Or was a bum take accidentally released on the first pressing?

(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.
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TOWER OF SCREAMING VIRGINS reviewed

June 17, 2017, 1:11 pm
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Teri Tordai as Marguerite of Burgundy.




A title like TOWER OF SCREAMING VIRGINS conjures up a certain set of preconceptions, most of which this 1968 German/French/Italian co-production (originally titled Der Turm der verbotenen liebe, or "The Tower of Forbidden Love") quickly dispatches. 

There is no screaming, per se; there is only one virgin in the scenario, and he's male; however, there is a tower - a not very convincing scale model of one, not unlike those we see under the main titles of Hammer films. The direction, credited to François Legrand, was actually a collaboration between Franz Antel and Fritz Umgelter. Now comes the real surprise: it's a swashbuckler, which the English credits vaguely inform us was based on a novel by Alexandre Dumas; that novel was in fact a play entitled La Tour de Nesle, which Dumas only revised from an original text by Frédéric Gaillardet, based on the stories of debauchery concerning Marguerite, daughter of the Duke of Burgundy, and other members of the royal families of France and England, who were said to use an old guard tower on the edge of the river Seine for their adulterous revels in 14th century France. In 1955, the great Abel Gance adapted the play into a fantastic and erotic adventure concoction, La Tour des Nesles, starring Pierre Brasseur (EYES WITHOUT A FACE) as the heroic swordsman Buridan and Silvana Pampanini as Marguerite de Bourgogne. In Gance's telling, Marguerite was the kinky ringleader of a scheme in which new young men were serially invited to the Tower for a night of bliss, with either her or one of her handmaidens, dressed in a mask and nothing else, after which they were slain by the armed guards and tossed into the Seine.





Jean Piat as the dashing Buridan.

 If it surprises some that something called TOWER OF SCREAMING VIRGINS is a remake of an Abel Gance film, it's still more surprising that it's not a bad one. It's actually a good deal like Gance's film (alas, only available as a French DVD without English options), including an abundance of bare breasts, but without any of the shock value accrued by being made in 1955. Made in 1968, which accounts for some of the punches it pulls in terms of violence, it is beautifully photographed by Oberdan Trojani - whose screen credits include Orson Welles' OTHELLO, THE GIANT OF METROPOLIS, HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN and THE LEGEND OF BLOOD CASTLE - a brace of marvelous titles I've never suspected of sharing such patrimony. 



Jacques Herlin and Uschi Glas. 

And yet there is something delightfully off-kilter about it all: despite its dark subject matter, it's an exuberantly happy swashbuckler, thanks to an irresistibly charming, sometimes fourth-wall-breaking lead performance by Jean Piat (who made his screen debut playing Gaston Leroux's detective character Joseph Rouletabille and was featured in Sascha Guitry's 1955 remake of Gance's NAPOLEON, along with Orson Welles); the women (led by Teri Tordai and Uschi Glas) are just as relentlessly beautiful, garbed in a kind of kinky fantasy version of 14th century dress - half fairy tale, half Roger Vadim/Barbarella fantasy; it boasts some extremely grand production design by Peter Rothe, which extends to a giant chessboard obsessed over by the King (THE WHIP AND THE BODY's Jacques Herlin); it's scored (by Mario Migliardi, Margheriti's BATTLE OF THE WORLDS) against its historical setting with music that seems to have escaped from an Edgar Wallace krimi, with lots of blood-icing organ and skulking electric bass; and it's dubbed with those bright, uber-contemporary voices you may remember from the English versions of the SCHOOLGIRL REPORT pictures. It may be a mutt, but so is Spumoni ice cream.




TOWER OF SCREAMING VIRGINS was first released on home video, decades ago, as a scratchy, washed-out, poor quality VHS from Video Yesteryear. Seeing the film on this limited edition BD-R disc from Snappy Video, with its rich - if often fluctuating and overly hot - color intact, is a pleasant surprise, a delicious and sometimes delirious sensual experience. It was originally announced as having a limited run of only 100 copies, but after these sold out from Snappy's website, the title reappeared at Amazon. The disc is sourced from a surviving 35mm release print from its US distributor Maron Films Limited - the same company that released Luís Buñuel's TRISTANA, Sergio Martino's THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS WARDH as NEXT!, and the Fima Noveck-doctored version of Harry Kumel's DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS, so I presume the actual rights to this film are held by some overseas company, as is the case with those other imports. I'll leave it to others to decide how authorized a release this Region A/B/C disc is, with its "M" (Mature) rating (it was rated X and reduced to an R rating in its US theatrical release) - but I will say that, while it's the very definition of a no-frills package, with no extras, no subtitles, and no color timing (there's a bit too much magenta in this Spumoni), it's a nice souvenir of a mostly forgotten and diverting picture, which you may find worth seeking out.

(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.
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Five Naschys on Blu-ray Velvet

June 24, 2017, 4:13 pm
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I recently cracked open the shrink-wrap on Scream Factory's new release THE PAUL NASCHY COLLECTION. It offers five Naschy vehicles on Blu-ray for the first time: HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB, VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES, BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL, HUMAN BEASTS and NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF, complete with alternate and deleted scenes, trailers, stills galleries, Spanish credit sequences, a 24-page illustrated booklet featuring production notes by The Mark of Naschy's Mirek Lipinski, and three audio commentaries by Rod Barnett and Troy Guinn, the hosts of the Naschycastpodcast.

I have generally positive feelings toward all of the films in this set, but I went directly to Carlos Aured's BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL (Los ojos azules de la muñeca rota, 1974), which received a theatrical release in this country (in somewhat censored form) as HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN. I've seen the film many times and primarily wanted to check the commentary, because Rod and Troy are personal friends and I was curious to see how well they adapted their podcast approach to a more formalized commentary presentation. I'm pleased to say that I don't have to take a diversionary "they're both great guys" approach because the commentary managed to be relaxed and entertaining, well-synchronized to the onscreen action and educational. The pronunciations of a name or title or two get slaughtered along the way, but I'm not exactly innocent of this myself; the important thing is that they've done the reading to know these people and topics and they pay them the proper respect. Bottom line: I enjoyed the commentary a great deal, and I came away from it with a deeper appreciation of the film itself - so top marks!


In fact, I'll go that compliment one better in that Rod and Troy's discussion of BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL stimulated my own thinking and made me repeatedly wish I could have been a third wheel in their commentary (as I have been a couple of times on their podcast). But therein lies the beauty of still being a blogger at this belated day and age: I can round up some of those thoughts here!

At one point early in the commentary, Rod points out that this film, while Spanish, is actually a giallo and that he won't brook any argument on this subject because it's such an obvious fact that it would be foolish to contradict. To contradict, perhaps; but to discuss, I think not. I personally would argue that BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL is a giallo more by design (or imitation) than birthright - by which I mean that it's analogous to a film like Jess Franco's DEATH PACKS A SUITCASE (1970), which was officially part of the West German Bryan Edgar Wallace series of thrillers but didn't quite feel a perfect fit. (Indeed, Dario Argento's THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE was released in Germany as part of Rialto's Edgar Wallace series, which it wasn't properly part of, and I daresay BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL wouldn't be, either.) That said, the film has every outward sign of being a giallo, from its abstractly decorative title to its eroticized murder scenes and flaunted cinematographic techniques. But I truly feel that these are present because Naschy was imitating what was then a commercial trend in European cinema, much as he had imitated the Universal Monsters series for so many films. Much as we tend to distinguish between the Spaghetti Western and the Paella Western, BLUE EYES is a different creature from its Italian counterparts; Spain had no giallo tradition because its national censorship forebade this. You  can find paperback counterparts to the Mondadori gialli in Great Britain and France, but not in Spain.




The beauty of BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL not belonging at the giallo table proper is that it is therefore free to use its ideas toward becoming its own thing, and Naschy embraces this prospect with anarchistic enthusiasm. I was impressed to notice on this viewing that Naschy and Aured's imitation had some noticeable influence on the giallo itself. Naschy casts himself as Gilles, an ex-convict, hitchhiking through the French countryside following his release from prison, who takes a job as a handyman in a secluded house inhabited by three very different sisters, each of whom is disfigured or disabled in some way. Aside from the obvious value of a "three sisters" concept to Dario Argento, even before Gilles reaches the house, we are privy to a series of red-tinted reveries or fantasies or possibly memories that depict him strangling different women - which don't recall much that existed within the gialli at that point in time, but look very much ahead to the way Argento filmed the roaring headaches suffered by his shadowy killer in TENEBRAE, made almost a decade later in 1981. Likewise, the death shrine exposed in the final reel looks forward to the room reserved for Nicholas in Argento's TRAUMA (1993).




Given these subjective cutaways to the inside of Gilles' mind, by the time he meets his three beautiful co-stars (Maria Perschy, Diana Lorys and Eva Leon), the viewer is somewhat indoctrinated into viewing the sisters less as three distinct women than as three facets of all women, as interpreted by his fractured psyche. There is a sister who is purely physical (because she's a nymphomaniac), one whose disfigured arm and hand cause her to wear a prosthetic, and a third who is more purely intellectual (because she is bound to a wheelchair). The middle sister, the most self-consciously damaged of the three, is thus equal parts mental and physical - and the sisters, as a trinity, can be viewed as semi-mechanical and thus doll-like (though it is not their blue eyes that give the film its title). This being a Naschy film, Gilles gets to assert his bare-chested, axe-wielding masculinity toward two of the sisters; this being a horror film, he suffers to some extent from each conquest.

Which brings me to another important point of reference, namely Don Siegel's THE BEGUILED (1970), a film recently remade by Sofia Coppola and based on a novel (well worth reading) by Thomas Cullinan. In this Civil War-based story, Clint Eastwood played an injured deserter who is found and taken in by the students of a Southern school for young women. There he is furtively cared for by the girls, and his personal charm becomes a lightning rod for arousing their nascent sexual feelings and sparking petty jealousies, until his presence is made known to the adult instructors, whose sexual feelings are more mature and ultimately more deadly. Once the man is properly nursed back to health, he wants to leave, and the women amputate his leg to keep him there - a form of castration that unleashes the worse side of his male character in compensation for his loss.

There is a somewhat complementary scene in BLUE EYES in which Gilles is stabbed in the abdomen by the handyman he's replaced, and his seeping wound is tended by two of the sisters (Lorys and Léon) and Michelle (Inés Morales), the pretty blonde nurse who tends to the needs of the third sister. The close-ups of the seeping and frankly labial injury recall the subversively erotic imagery of Caravaggio's 1603 religious painting "The Incredulity of St. Thomas." Considering Naschy's own recorded comments about his belief that making horror films in Spain at this point in history was a revolutionary act, the comparison isn't far-fetched.




SPOILER: The meaning of the film's baroque title is ultimately revealed when it is learned that the eye-gougings from a rash of murders surrounding the sisters' property are the doing of a local doctor (Eduardo Calvo) determined to reconstruct the corporeal form of his late daughter. This revelation - which follows the surprising death of Naschy's lead protagonist as the film continues for another reel - would seem to wrest the film away from its giallo pretensions back to its fundamentally Spanish origins, as the conceit of a determined doctor working to restore/reconstruct a damaged female form - despite originating in Georges Franju's EYES WITHOUT A FACE (Les yeux sans visage, 1959) literally extends from Jess Franco's seminal THE AWFUL DR ORLOF (Gritos en la noche, 1962) to Narciso Ibańez Serradór's THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED (La residencia, 1970). The irony of the film's finale resides in the fact that the doctor's selfless (albeit criminal) attempts to make his daughter whole again mirror Gilles' more selfish manipulations of the three sisters, each of them incomplete in some way, which are genuinely curative until the sole unconquered sister brings everything crashing down.



Like its companion feature VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES (directed by Léon Klimovsky), THE BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, while the others in the set are framed at the more expected 1.85:1.  It is fairly unusual to see a 1974 film lensed this way, not least of all one involving the precepts of the giallo, a genre almost always composed for anamorphic widescreen lensing. This was almost certainly the choice of cinematographer Francisco Sánchez (who, interestingly, also shot VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES) and perhaps made this decision to better accommodate the high-ceilinged, split-level interiors of the villa in Madrid where they were filming, as well as the tall-treed locations where Naschy's character makes his last run toward freedom. (Sánchez did not always opt for 1.33:1, as his earlier 1.85:1 CURSE OF THE DEVIL with Naschy shows.) I looked very closely at the framing for fault but could find absolutely none; in fact, certain shots - like the overhead climactic shot inside the house - appear ideally composed.

If this first dip into THE PAUL NASCHY COLLECTION is just a taste of its pleasures, it ought to be well worth the purchase price indeed.

(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.  

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Surprise! One Last VIDEO WATCHDOG

July 3, 2017, 4:26 pm
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Are you ready for another anniversary?

It was twenty-seven (27) years ago today that Donna and I shipped out the first issue of VIDEO WATCHDOG to subscribers all over the globe. It's not every magazine that gets launched with a subscriber base already in place, but between my "Video Watchdog" column for GOREZONE and ads placed in FANGORIA, we were fortunate to be one of that elite number. 350 subscribers before our first issue was printed, Donna tells me.

As symmetry would have it, today we find ourselves mirroring that occasion by making public our Farewell Issue - VIDEO WATCHDOG #184! You may have seen it discussed by some lucky early recipients on message boards and social media, but now it's available to everyone - both in its printed form, and as a free digital edition. This final issue does not play by the usual rules; it was produced in strictly limited quantity, and it is not being sold on newsstands. You can only secure your copy from us directly at www.videowatchdog.com.

This issue was made possible when the rights to VIDEO WATCHDOG (concept and business) was returned to us last May, along with the balance of my intellectual property, by the trustee of our bankruptcy case. But it would not have happened without the particular kindness of our subscriber Richard Kaufman, the editor of GENII, the Conjuror's Magazine. Richard told us that, as a fellow print man, he was aware of how much of our soul and guts we had invested in each and every issue of VW, and that it rubbed him the wrong way to see it denied its proper closure - especially when he learned that we had been obliged to shut down with our next issue roughly 90% ready to go to press. He asked if we had any objection to him seeking the production costs we needed, on our behalf. We told him that our hands were tied, but when we were granted the legal freedom to move ahead, we gave him the green light. Within a single week, he found a couple of illustrious patrons (noted on our inside front cover) who helped prestidigitate it into being.

We're very proud of this issue. First and foremost, it contains the second half of John-Paul Checkett's engrossing and rewarding overview of Carmilla on the screen, this portion encompassing such titles as LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH, THE BLOOD-SPATTERED BRIDE, ALUCARDA, THE MOTH DIARIES and THE UNWANTED. We also have Ramsey Campbell's thoughts on David Robert Mitchell's IT FOLLOWS, Larry Blamire's appreciation of the classic TWILIGHT ZONE episode "And When the Sky Was Opened," Douglas E. Winter's Audio Watchdog column (covering THE REVENANT, EX MACHINA and more), as well as (by my count) 40 reviews in all - written by such illustrious contributors as Kim Newman, Budd Wilkins, John Charles, Bill Cooke, Shane M. Dallmann, Michael Barrett, Chris Herzog, Eric Somer, Lloyd Haynes and yours truly. I'm glad that I was able to get one last Jess Franco review in there.  In our final Letterbox department, we present five (5) pages of comments and reminiscences from readers about what VIDEO WATCHDOG has meant to them over the years.

The front cover depicts Lily Cole in Mary Harron's film of THE MOTH DIARIES (Mr. Checkett's account of Rachel Klein's 2002 novel and its 2012 film adaptation are an issue highlight), and in hindsight, I see it as something of a symbolic gesture on our part. For the first time ever, our cover image is no longer framed by a video screen proscenium; we've finally come out the other end of the baptism of blood this past year has been, and broken through our formatting to freedom - the freedom to get this last issue to you. And, as someone pointed out to us, our back cover image of Maika Monroe looking over her shoulder in IT FOLLOWS seems to embody a backward glance at the 27 years of achievement trailing behind us. Cool.


In closing, Donna has asked me to inform everyone that this Farewell Issue includes a very special sale offer on page 17. All the more reason to reserve your hard copy while they still last.


(c) 2017 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.


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