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ONE VOICE
(not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey):
Kino's new 4K-restored Blu-ray
transfer of Sergio Leone's
For a Few Dollars More
More nabs top mention this week. Quintessential
Pasta-western, top-shelf rendering and loaded with
supplements. the three films that constitute Arrow's
Blu-ray set of Blood
Hunger: The Films of José Larraz;
Vampyres,
Whirlpool and
The Coming of Sin
aptly described as one of the most underrated and
oft-neglected genre filmmakers of his generation,
Spanish-born director José Ramón Larraz receives his due
with this collection of his work, bringing together a
fascinating cross-section of films from the first half of
his lengthy cinematic career. Brilliant commentaries and
other wonderful extras abound. A must-own. Arrow also bring
Alain Resnais'
Mélo to
Blu-ray - a classic play
about a doomed love triangle in 1920s Paris. Giallo lovers
will want
The Iguana With the Tongue of Fire
- a gore-filled entry with low-budget effects - on another
complete Blu-ray from
Arrow. The restored 1929 thriller
The Informer is
now on Kino Blu-ray and
like the BFI, also includes the rare sound version. It's
hard not to enjoy
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
a co-production from Hammer and Shaw Bros. studios. Anything
with Peter Cushing as Professor Van Helsing has our
attention - on Blu-ray
now, with commentary, from Shout! Factory who include the
edited version (The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula). 1970's
Dominique is an
auspicious horror with Cliff Robertson, Jean Simmons, Jenny
Agutter, Judy Geeson and more - on
Blu-ray from the archivists-extraordinaire at
Vinegar Syndrome. Peter Sellers feature directorial credit
is bittersweet comedy,
Mr. Topaze - a cute
film on an imperfect Blu-ray
image from the BFI. Férid Boughedir brings another charmer
with
Zizou and the Arab Spring
on Blu-ray from Kino.
Beyond Atlantis is
strange and modest adventure out of the Philippines
approaching the realm of the 'it's so bad it's good' genre.
On weak Blu-ray with
commentary from VCI....
"All I ask is
the chance to prove that money can't make me happy.."
Peter Sellers
Buy a friend one coffee this
month. Make DVDBeaver the friend, and do it monthly. Please?
HERE
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Beyond Atlantis
BD - A band of adventurers
on the search for a reported fortune in buried treasure,
investigate many islands to the south of the Philippines and
discover an unknown civilization that may be descendants of the
lost continent of Atlantis. These half human, half fish
creatures, have pearlized eyes and are able to stay underwater
for great lengths of time... a bonus because all of their
important rituals, including love-making, take place on the sea
bed. But this lost tribe needs outsiders for mating and when
they capture the greedy band of fortune hunters, the adventure
becomes a fight for treasure! Blu-ray
Release Date: March 12th, 2019
For a Few Dollars More
BD - This pulse-pounding
follow-up to Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars brings
back Clint Eastwood as the serape-clad, cigar-chewing "Man
With No Name." Engaged in an ongoing battle with bounty
hunter Col. Douglas Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef), the Man joins
forces with his enemy to capture homicidal bandit Indio (Gian
Maria Volontč). Both the Eastwood and Van Cleef characters are
given understandable motivations for their bloodletting
tendencies, something that was lacking in A Fistful of
Dollars. In both films, however, the violence is raw and
uninhibited -- and in many ways, curiously poetic. Leone's
tense, tight close-ups, pregnant pauses, and significant
silences have since been absorbed into the standard spaghetti
Western lexicon. Kino Blu-ray
Release Date: March 26th, 2019
The Informer (1929)
BD - The Informer
(1929) is one of the finest British films of the 1920s and
deserves a place alongside other silent greats such as A
Cottage on Dartmoor (1929). Based on Liam O’Flaherty’s
popular Irish novel (which John Ford famously adapted in 1935),
this gripping thriller is set among a group of revolutionaries
in the newly independent Ireland of 1922. When one of their
number kills the chief of police, he goes on the run. But when
he returns to Dublin he is cruelly betrayed by his onetime
friend Gypo, who then has to battle his old friends as well as
his own mounting guilt. Kino Blu-ray
Release date: April 23rd, 2019
Dominique
BD - Wealthy Dominique
Ballard (Jean Simmons) lives with her husband David (Cliff
Robertson) in Dominique's giant English estate. Emotionally
fragile, Dominique is harassed, tormented, and eventually driven
mad by David until one night she hangs herself, resulting in her
entire fortune being left to her husband. But what at first
seems like a clever inheritance scheme soon becomes a waking
nightmare for David as Dominique's spirit is not at rest and has
instead risen from the grave to haunt him and avenge her death.
But is the evil presence that appears to be seeking vengeance
from the afterlife actually David's dearly departed wife or is
someone else attempting their own elaborate and deadly hoax?
Blu-ray Release Date: March 26th,
2019
The Coming of Sin (Blood
Hunger: The Films of José Larraz) BD
- In Larraz's 1978's The Coming of Sin (La Visita del
Vicio, in its native Spanish), a solitary female artist
takes in a young gypsy girl, who suffers from recurring
nightmares where she is attacked by a naked man on horseback. As
the relationship between the two women gets closer and closer,
the mysterious horseman will invade their lives. This dark,
erotic drama with powerful oneiric images is one of the most
bizarre by José Ramón Larraz, one which we can now discover in
its fabulous new restored version.
Blu-ray Release Date: March 25th, 2019
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
BD - Professor Van Helsing
(Peter Cushing) and Count Dracula (John Forbes-Robinson) meet
again in this spectacular kung fu horror thriller set in the
village of Ping Kuei. After learning about the seven golden
vampires of the village, Hsi Ching (David Chiang), Vanessa Buren
(Julie Ege) and Mai Kwei (Szu Shih) offer to guide Van Helsing
and his son to Ping Kuei to free it from the curse of Count
Dracula. Throughout their journey, the group encounters several
unwanted attackers until they arrive at the golden vampires'
derelict temple, inhabited by Count Dracula. In the temple, Van
Helsing and the count begin a fearsome battle to the death – an
ultimate clash between good and evil!
Blu-ray Release Date: April 9th, 2019
Zizou and the Arab Spring
BD - Férid Boughedir
charmingly pulls off a lighthearted comedic fable about, of all
things, the 2011 Arab Spring uprising in Tunisia. This year
we’re treating the Friends of the Film Festival to the sweet
story of Zizou, a naive and sincere optimist whose crush on a
beautiful girl leads him to become the unwitting face of a
revolution. With two years of university under his belt, but
very little common sense, Zizou leaves his Saharan village and
finds work in the big city of Tunis, installing satellite dishes
alongside a colorful cast of characters.
Blu-ray Release Date: April 16th,
2019
Whirlpool (Blood Hunger:
The Films of José Larraz) BD
- A young man and his aunt live in a small cottage in the
secluded woods in this X rated exploitation murder thriller. The
aunt is into group sex and lesbianism while her nephew desires
more than one partner for his satisfaction. He takes pictures of
the action, particularly when a blonde female model from London
joins in the fun. She is willingly seduced by the aunt and the
nephew. She is forced to remain at the macabre cottage when she
stumbles across photographic evidence in the darkroom.
Blu-ray Release Date: March 25th,
2019
Vampyres (Blood Hunger: The
Films of José Larraz) BD -
Motorist Ted (Murray Brown) picks up cloaked hitchhiker Fran
(Marianne Morris) who takes him back to her decaying mansion -
Hammer's Oakley Court - for some wine and a little blood
drinking. Little does he know that Fran and fellow blood-drinker
Miriam (Anulka) have a habit of luring men back to the mansion
and tear them to pieces with knives and teeth (their mutilated
bodies are subsequently discovered at car crash sites with empty
bottles of Carpathian wine; though no one seems to question why
the drunken drivers are without clothes). To Miriam's annoyance
and jealousy, Fran is content to sleep with and slowly drain Ted
who seeks the help of nearby campers Harriet (Sally Faukner) and
John (Brian Deacon) when he becomes too weak but the vampires
have already formed an attachment to Harriet who has been
witnessing their comings (with a string of motorists are never
seen leaving) and goings (running through the woods to the
cemetery before the dawn). Arrow
Blu-ray Release Date: March 25th, 2019
Mélo
BD - Director Alain Resnais faithfully adapted his
script for Melo from a 1929 play by Henry Bernstein--the
first time that Resnais handled his own screenplay. Violinists
and lifelong friends Pierre Arditi and Andre Dussolier have each
found happiness in adulthood, but only Dussolier has become
famous. Ardati leads a contented life with his wife, Sabine
Azema, little suspecting that she is enamored of Dussolier. An
abortive plan to murder her husband leads to Azema's suicide,
but Ardati remains blissfully unaware of her infidelities. When
the truth is revealed to Ardati, Dussolier honors the memory of
Azema by insisting that no illicit romance ever occurred. One of
the more "linear" of Resnais' works, Melo, filmed in
1986, was given a general American release three years later.
Blu-ray Release Date: April 8th,
2019
The Iguana With the Tongue of Fire
BD - Set in Dublin (a rather
surprising giallo setting), Iguana opens audaciously with an
acid-throwing, razor-wielding maniac brutally slaying a woman in
her own home. The victim s mangled corpse is discovered in a
limousine owned by Swiss Ambassador Sobiesky (Anton Diffring)
and a police investigation is launched, but when the murdering
continues and the ambassador claims diplomatic immunity, tough
ex-cop John Norton (Luigi Pistilli) is brought in to find the
killer... Blu-ray Release Date:
April 8th, 2019
Mr. Topaze
BD - Peter Sellers directs
and stars in this bittersweet comedy, based on a Marcel Pagnol
play. Honest French teacher Auguste Topaze (Peter Sellers) is
fired after refusing to alter the bad grades of a baroness'
grandson. Sensing an opportunity, actress Suzy (Nadia Gray)
convinces her lover, corrupt city council member Castel Benac
(Herbert Lom), to hire Topaze as a managing director for one of
his businesses, arguing that Topaze's well-known honesty will
protect the company from suspicion. When Topaze learns he is
being used, he decides to swindle his manipulators.
Blu-ray Release Date: April 15th,
2019
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