All About THE GENE KRUPA STORY

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!

RIP Daliah Lavi (1942-2017)

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.

Remembering Ella, Now 100

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. 

New Books and Music

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.

   

Fun at the New Beverly

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.

The Week In Review

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.

Recent Facebook Postings

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.

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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).

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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.

   

A Franco Eureka

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.
 

Rigby's EURO GOTHIC Reviewed

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.

Latest Rondo Award Nominations Announced

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!

Those Who Deserve to Make Films

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.

* * *

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:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/588743918/those-who-deserve-to-die

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.

Corman's TOWER OF LONDON Coming to Region B

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.