by Peter Sobczynski
Video games, pajamas and Kool-Aid. Sounds like some of the ingredients for a pre-teen slumber party but they are actually among the items you will find insde of some of the films in this week's column.
Although his name is relatively unknown to the public at large, the late Italian filmmaker Mario Bava is one of those rare figures who is generally spoken of with reverence and awe by anyone with even a passing interest in the history of horror films. Initially a cinematographer (like his father), he drifted into filmmaking when he took over the direction of Italy’s first sound horror film, 1956's “I Vampiri,” from director Riccardo Freda after he left in a dispute with producers. A few years later, after stepping in once again to take over for Freda on 1959's “Caltiki,” Bava was offered the chance to direct his own film. The result, 1960's “Black Sunday,” was a critical and commercial sensation and it launched a career that would span 20-odd movies before his untimely passing in 1980. During that time, he would dabble in many different types of films–westerns (“Roy Colt and Winchester Jack” and “The Road to Fort Alamo”), spy spoofs (“Dr Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs”), science-fiction (“Planet of the Vampires” and “Diabolik”) and even a sex comedy (“Four Times That Night”)–but he would be best known for his excursions in horror, where his visually stunning and narratively daring efforts would dazzle viewers around the world (including such well-known fans as Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton and Quentin Tarantino) and revolutionize the genre forever (his 1964 masterpiece “Blood and Black Lace” is often referred to as one of the first true examples of what would become the slasher film). Even his weakest efforts would usually contain a few genuinely arresting moments and at his best, his films were so strong and effective that they retained their mysterious power even in the sliced-up and redubbed versions that were foisted on the American viewing public by studios such as American-International Pictures.
“The Mario Bava Collection, Volume 1,” a new box set from Anchor Bay, is nowhere near to being a definitive collection of the man and his films–it consists of five early titles and includes one of his lesser, non-horror effort–but two of the films included are among his greatest works and the others, for all their flaws, are pretty interesting efforts as well. Longtime fans will no doubt rejoice over this set (as well as the implicit promise of more to come) and newcomers will find themselves in the enviable position of being able to experience Bava’s work for the first time in what may well be their best-looking versions since their original releases.
The films in the box are as follows:
BLACK SUNDAY (1960): In this prime slice of Gothic horror, Barbara Steele (in the role that made her a genre icon) stars as Katia Vajda, a witch/vampire who is sentenced to death for her work on behalf of Satan and his minions. Before dying, she lays a curse on her executioners and two hundred years later, her spirit is accidentally set free and tries to get her revenge and while taking possession of the body of one of her descendants (also played by Steele) in order to wreak further havoc. From the unforgettable opening sequence of Katia’s execution to its equally startling finale, Bava offers up the kind of moody atmosphere and startling set-pieces that many horror films promise and few deliver. Simply put, this is one of the inarguable masterpieces of the genre and is an absolute must-see. On the disc, Bava expert Tim Lucas (who has been working for years on what promises to be the definitive biography of the man) offers up a smart and incisive commentary that discusses Bava, his work and the differences between the original version seen here and the re-edited cut that was issued in the U.S. later on.
THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1963): In what is often considered by fans to be the first giallo (a type of Italian suspense thriller that would later be popularized by Bava acolyte Dario Argento), sexy-but-frigid American Leticia Roman journeys to Italy to spend time with her aunt and is convinced that she has witnessed a murder. Of course, no one–not even the smitten John Saxon–believes her and she begins to snoop around on her own. As you can probably guess from the title, the film is essentially a lighthearted spoof of the works of Alfred Hitchcock and if you take it simply on that level, it is a pretty amusing work, if somewhat atypical for Bava. The bonus features include another Lucas commentary, trailers for the international and U.S. versions (the latter under the silly name of “The Evil Eye”) and a featurette of John Saxon sharing his memories of working with Bava.
BLACK SABBATH (1963): This omnibus offers viewers three short horror stories linked together by none other than the legendary Boris Karloff. “The Telephone” is a nerve-wracking thriller about a prostitute who is apparently being threatened by her psychotic and vengeance-seeking ex-pimp/boyfriend. “The Wurdalak” is a visually ravishing Gothic tale of a young Russian nobleman (Mark Damon) who takes shelter with a family in a remote cottage for the night, only to discover that the recently-missing father (Karloff) may have been transformed into a vampire and he may be the only one strong enough to stop him from killing everyone. “The Drop of Water” is an intense chamber piece about a greedy nurse who steals a valuable ring from a deceased patient and is haunted by her conscience–and maybe more–over the course of one long night. Another Bava classic, this is one of the few anthology films in which all of the segments are worth watching, though if I had to choose one, I would probably go with “The Telephone” because of its surprisingly adult content (especially for the time) and the sheer intensity of the material. Tim Lucas contributes another commentary track on the history of the film and the disc also features an interview with Mark Damon.(Although it was originally indicated that this disc would include the recut American version (which was the only one to include Karloff’s actual voice) as well as the Italian cut (in which he was dubbed), the Italian version is the only one to be found here.)
KILL, BABY. . .KILL! (1966): In what would prove to be his last excursion in Gothic horror, a coroner arrives in a remote Transylvanian village to investigate some mysterious deaths and discovers that they may have been driven to suicide by the ghost of a young girl who was killed by drunken townspeople years earlier. Although the film may not be the classic that some fans have claimed, Bava does create a palpable sense of dread with his moody visual style that will haunt you long after you have taken the film out of the DVD player. Alas, this disc lacks any real extras to speak of other than a couple of trailers–this is especially vexing since Tim Lucas did record one for a now-in-limbo edition of the film that was once scheduled for release from Dark Sky Films.
KNIVES OF THE AVENGER (1966): In one of the odder entries in Bava’s filmography, this is a somewhat bewildering Viking epic in which Cameron Mitchell fights to protect the wife and son of a Viking king whom, unbeknownst to them, he killed in battle. Although the sight of Bava tackling such an unusual genre for him should prove intriguing for hard-core fans, there really isn’t much here to separate the film from other cut-rate spectacle of the era. Perhaps realizing that this would be the least-played disc in the set, the only extras on display are a Bava bio and the original trailer.
[b[An Anchor Bay Home Entertainment release. $49.98.
NEW AND NOTABLE
THE 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN (The Weinstein Company. $19.95): Having apparently wildly estimated the public’s appetite for ersatz grindhouse fare, the Weinsteins hope to make a few bucks off of some authentic grindhouse fare by releasing this 1978 martial-arts classic.
THE AURA (IFC Films. $19.95): When Argentinian director Fabian Bielinsky made his directorial debut with the art-house hit “Nine Queens,” he was hailed as a fresh new talent worthy of notice. Alas, that promise was dashed when he unexpectedly passed away last year but before his death, he completed this intriguing follow-up about a meek taxidermist who dreams of one day pulling off the perfect crime and finds the opportunity to do so dropped in his lap during a hunting trip. Although it lacks the immediate punch of his previous film, this was a smart and solid work that demonstrated that Bielinsky was the real thing and not just a one-hit wonder.
BABY BLUES (Synkronized USA. $24.98): No, this is not an adaptation of the stridently unfunny comic strip that plays like “Family Circus” without the edge. This is a 1999 French TV movie about a club-footed detective investigating the discovery of the skeleton of a newborn baby. Since I’ve never seen it, I couldn’t tell you who did it but I can tell you why such an obscurity is being released here and now–the presence of a pre-“Amelie” Audrey Tautou as one of the suspects.
BOBBY (The Weinstein Company. $29.95): If earnestness was all that was needed to make a great movie, then Emilio Estevez’s labor of love about the goings-on at the Ambassador Hotel on the day of the 1968 California Democratic primary that ended with Robert F. Kennedy being gunned down in the hotel’s kitchen might have actually deserved all the awards that it was clearly hoping to score. Alas, great movies also need gripping screenplays, compelling characters and something resembling a point and despite Estevez’s efforts, this star-choked soap opera basically plays out like a low-grade disaster movie in which we restlessly sit through famous faces (too many to list here) going through their individual subplots while waiting for the climactic carnage to kick in.
THE BREASTFORD WIVES (Secret Key. $14.98): Come on–with a title like that, you think I’m not going to mention it?
COMING SOON (Lionsgate. $9.98): In this barely-released 1999 film, a group of college girls discovers that one of their own has never had an orgasm and endeavor to remedy the situation. This is billed as a comedy but seeing as how the cast includes the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Corrigan and Peter Bogdanovich, I can’t see how this could possibly end well for our heroine.
THE DORIS DAY SIGNATURE COLLECTION VOL. 2 (Warner Home Video. $59.95): Warners offers up another collection of six films featuring the perennially perky and popular performer–“Romance on the High Seas” (1948), “My Dream Is Yours” (1949), “On Moonlight Bay” (1951), “I’ll See You In My Dream” (1951), “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (1953) and “Lucky Me” (1954)–along with vintage shorts and cartoons on each title. Of them, my pick is probably Michael Curtiz’s “My Dream is Yours”–the plot may be yet another rehash of “A Star is Born” but it does contain a funny dream sequence featuring one of the greatest movie stars of all time, Bugs Bunny.
FLANNEL PAJAMAS (Hart Sharp Video. $24.98): Although way too long for its own good, Jeff Lipsky’s examination of a relationship between a self-absorbed man (Justin Kirk) and an emotionally vulnerable woman (Julianne Nicholson) from its giddy beginnings to the bitter end is a harrowing and often fascinating look at how people change and evolve for good and ill. Certainly not the kind of film you would pick up for a cheery night of DVD watching but it is worth checking out for the gutsy and impressive performances from Kirk and Nicholson.
GAME BOX 1.0 (Lionsgate. $26.98): If “Nightmares,” “Brainscan” and “Stay Alive” didn’t sate your desire for crappy horror films about killer video games wreaking havoc on unsuspecting players, perhaps this direct-to-video effort about a loner trapped in a real life-or-death battle inside a mysterious game will finally satisfy you. Otherwise, I can’t think of another reason to pick this up unless you are an unreconstructed “Boy Meets World” fan who wants to know what Danielle Fishel has been up to lately. Strangely, if you click on this title at Amazon.com, it informs you that 54% of those looking at that particular page buy the title while the remaining 46% wind up purchasing, of all things, “Volver.”
THE INVESTIGATOR (Acorn Media. $24.99): In this British television movie based on a real-life story, Helen Baxendale (the English lass who was briefly in the whiny clutches of David Schwimmer on “Friends”) plays a military policewoman in the 1980's whose new assignment–ferreting out lesbians within the ranks–becomes complicated when she comes to some shocking (okay, maybe not that shocking) realizations about her own personal life.
JONESTOWN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PEOPLES TEMPLE (PBS Home Video. $24.99): Originally produced for the PBS series “American Experience,” this oftentimes horrifying documentary takes a look at the Reverend Jim Jones, the charismatic Bay Area religious leader who developed a large cult that he led to live with him in a commune in Guyana and to die with him in a now-infamous 1978 mass suicide, using surreal archival footage and present-day interviews with former followers.
LE PETIT LIEUTENANT (Koch Lorber. $29.99): Although this French drama hardly made a blip on the American art-house circuit when it briefly appeared a few months ago, this was a pretty gripping police procedural (one with a plot that cannot be described without divulging elements best kept secret) with strong performances from Jalil Lespert as a young cop transferred from Normandy to the mean streets of Paris and Nathalie Baye as the veteran inspector who becomes his mentor.
LITTLE MURDERS (Fox Home Entertainment. $14.98): Alan Arkin made his directorial debut with this extremely dark 1971 comedy from writer Jules Feiffer about the strange romance that develops between a couple (Elliot Gould and Marcia Dodd) in a New York City so choked with violence and paranoia that there appears to be a sniper on every corner. In some ways, this bleak farce has dated terribly but in other ways, the portrait of ordinary people snapping under the pressure of living in a world gone increasingly wrong is as potent as ever.
MAJOR LEAGUE–WILD THING EDITION (Paramount Home Video. $14.99): Yep, this is another reissue from Paramount of a previously released title that is now adorned with a couple of new bonus features and a gimmicky subtitle. As for the film–the 1989 surprise hit baseball comedy in which aging veteran Tom Berenger, rebellious rookie Charlie Sheen and spoiled veteran Corbin Bernsen band together to save the Cleveland Indians from doom–it has never really been one of my favorites (it always struck me as a junior-level version of the great “Bull Durham”) but it does have its share of funny moments here and there, most of them courtesy of the great Bob Uecker as the hilariously exasperated announcer.
MR. BILLION (Fox Home Entertainment. $14.98): Cult director Jonathan Kaplan (the man behind such grindhouse favorites as “Truck Turner,” “The Student Teachers” and “White Line Fever” and the more respectable likes of “Heart Like a Wheel” and “The Accused”) was the man behind this quirky 1977 effort about in which an innocent Italian mechanic (Terrence Hill) must get to California in order to claim the inheritance left him by his late billionaire uncle while the executor of the estate (Jackie Gleason) tries to ensure that he doesn’t arrive. Not a masterpiece by any means but the combination of goofy humor and reasonably impressive car chases make it worth a look as long as you aren’t expecting too much.
MURDER IN SUBURBIA–SERIES 2 (Acorn Media. $39.99): If you picked up that “Midsomer Murders” set that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago and are hungry for more quirky mystery shows from England, you might want to check out this collection of six comedic whodunnits about an oddball pair of female police detectives (Caroline Catz and Lisa Faulkner) who crack wise while cracking cases.
PAYBACK–STRAIGHT UP: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT (Paramount Home Video. $19.99): Those with long memories may recall that when the 1999 film “Payback,” an adaptation of the Evan Hunter novel that previously inspired the classic John Boorman film “Point Blank,” was released, it was in a form far different from what writer-director Brian Helgeland had originally envisioned–fearing that it would be too dark and confusing for audiences to handle, star-producer Mel Gibson re-edited the film, shot many new scenes (even bringing a new character, portrayed by Kris Kristofferson, that hadn’t previously existed) and added in plenty of voice-over narration to lighten the mood and confusion. Until now, this original version was virtually impossible to see but this DVD restores that initial cut and offers an array of bonus materials (including a commentary track from Helgeland and an on-camera discussion between the director and Gibson) to explain the differences and how they came about. As a bit of film history, this is a fascinating exploration into just how radically a film can change from the initial idea to the final product. As a film, it does admittedly play much better than the theatrical version and while it does work as a bit of nasty fun, there is still no reason why you need to see this when “Point Blank” is so readily available.
PHANTASM (Anchor Bay Home Entertainment. $19.98): Don Coscarelli’s 1979 low-budget horror classic–a surrealistic nightmare involving grave robbers, a mysterious Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) and some nasty flying spheres that do gruesome things to anyone unlucky enough to encounter them–returns to DVD in an edition that retain the previously released extras (including a highly entertaining commentary track featuring Coscarelli, Scrimm and co-stars Michael Baldwin and Bill Thornbury) along with some new stuff for the fans. Fans of Coscarelli (who would go on to direct other cult classics such as “The Beastmaster” and “Bubba Ho-Tep”) will be delighted to know that Anchor Bay is also issuing two of his other films this week as well–the 1994 direct-to-video sequel “Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead” and the 1989 adventure thriller “Survival Quest.” (Alas, Universal is still inexplicably sitting on the even-more demented 1988 sequel “Phantasm II.”)
SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU?: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON (Warner Home Video. $34.95): I hope this collection of episodes from the Saturday morning perennial contains the episode where Scooby and the gang catch that costumed smuggler and he says “And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” (If I have used this joke before when discussing earlier “Scooby-Doo” DVDs, I apologize profusely but face it, it was either that or make an equally lame and predictable reference to Shaggy being a pothead or Velma being a lesbian.)
SHANGHAI SURPRISE (Lionsgate. $19.98): As someone with a reputation for going out on a limb to champion unjustly maligned films, I would love to report that this legendary 1986 disaster–a romantic comedy in which sleazy con man Sean Penn and prim missionary Madonna fall in love while chasing after a cache of opium in 1930's Shanghai–is actually much better than its reputation would suggest. Alas, it is just as terrible today as it was back then–implausibly written, stridently unamusing and featuring wildly miscast actors who, despite their real-life romance at the time, fail to strike any sparks in their on-screen encounters–and only the presence of a couple of songs from producer George Harrison save it from complete disposability. While the disc bills itself as a “Special Edition,” it should come as no surprise to learn that neither Penn nor Madonna are anywhere to be seen on the bonus features–instead, the disc contains a giggly commentary featuring fans recruited from a Madonna-dedicated website, interviews with other participants who spill the dirt on the behind-the-scenes chaos and pointless “I Love the 80's”-style featurettes with bottom-feeders like Melissa Rivers and Ted Casablanca trying to demonstrate how droll and clever they are.
SLEEPING DOGS LIE (First Look Pictures. $24.98): In this strange dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait (his directorial follow-up to the immortal “Shakes the Clown”), a young woman (Melissa Page Hamilton) finds her life turned upside-down when a promise to be completely open and honest with her fiancé leads her to admit to a collegiate sexual indiscretion that you can sort of guess from the title and the cover art. Although I haven’t seen it–it was supposed to play in Chicago last fall and then mysteriously disappeared from the schedule–some of the reviews that I have seen suggest that it is actually smarter and less salacious than the premise might otherwise suggest.
THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO–SEASON ONE, VOLUME ONE (Paramount Home Video. $38.99): In perhaps the quintessential 1970's cop show from the mind of prolific producer Quinn Martin, veteran cop Karl Malden and young hotshot Michael Douglas team up to fight Bay Area crime while encountering such guest stars as Tom Bosley, Robert Wagner and Dick Van Patten. Apparently, Paramount felt that a complete season set would simply contain too much action and excitement for the average viewer so they have thoughtfully only released the first fourteen episodes of the first season in this 4-disc set and will presumably release the rest later on. (Of course, they are still charging what a normal full-season set might ordinarily go for so that you don’t get too confused.)
SWEENEY TODD: THE DIRECTOR’S CUT (Acorn Media. $24.99): No, this is not an adaptation of the long-running musical about a murderous barber and an enterprising pie-shop proprietress who form a ghoulish partnership in the slums of London. Instead, this is a straightforward and non-musical dramatic version of the story filmed for the BBC in 2005 that is worth watching for the surprisingly intense violence and the not-so-surprisingly intense lead performance from Ray Winstone in the title role.
THE UNTOUCHABLES: SEASON ONE, VOLUME ONE (Paramount Home Video. $38.99): Yeah, Paramount is pulling the same half-season screw-job here that they did with “The Streets of San Francisco” and under normal circumstances, I would suggest ignoring such an obvious rip-off. However, the show, loosely based on the exploits of federal agent Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) and his tireless efforts to thwart organized crime in Depression-era Chicago, is such a great program–fast, exciting and sometimes surprisingly violent–that even I may find myself caving in and picking up a copy before too long to once again experience the thrill of seeing Ness and his men break up a speakeasy in Berwyn while Walter Winchell offers up his inimitable narration.
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originally posted: 04/13/07 16:00:21
last updated: 04/13/07 22:27:10
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