GRAPHIC SEXUAL HORROR (2009) (Synapse Films Blu-ray Review)

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COLT .45 - THE COMPLETE SERIES (1957-1959) (Warner Archive Blu-ray Review)

COLT .45 - THE COMPLETE SERIES (1957-1959)

Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 1875 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Cast: Wayde Preston, Donald May, Kenneth MacDonald

Colt .45 was a three-season Warner Bros. Television program, and is apparently a loose adaptation of the same-titles 1950 film that starred Randolph Scott. It's set in 1870s American West and starred Wayde Preston (Today We Kill... Tomorrow We Die!) as Christopher Colt, who travels the Old West under the guise of travelling gun salesman, selling Colt .45s 'natch, but who is secretly an undercover agent for the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps, meant to find places where law and order have fallen to the wayside, or to track down notorious outlaws, some based on historical figures, and to make sure that law and order is properly restored before moving on to to the next town. It's a pretty standard episodic western, most of single-episode story arcs with a baddies-of-the-week, but Preston is a charismatic lead and pulls you in, plus we get guest appearances from the likes of Adam West (Batman), Charles Bronson (Hard Times), Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek), Lee Van Cleef (The Grand Duel), Angie Dickinson (Dressed To Kill), Alan Hale Jr. (The Giant Spider Invasion) and even baseballer Sandy Koufax loads more familiar faces of the era. Interestingly, the second season was problematic and by third season series star Preston was replaced by actor Donald May (TV's The Edge of Night '67-'77) who played Sam Colt, Jr., a cousin of Preston’s character, though Preston eventually returned. Late-50's TV westerns are a bit out of my wheelhouse so I came into this pretty blind and unknowing, though for years I have heard TV and western collectors talking about this show an how it had fallen into obscurity. Well, the Warner Archive have answered those calls with a terrific three-season Blu-ray set that collects all of the long unavailable 67 episodes remastered from 4K scans of the original negatives.  I cannot say that the show did much for me on a personal level, growing up in the 70's I was never a big vintage western TV fan, but this set is sure to be an unexpected treat for fans of vintage TV westerns who might have grown up with it. 

Audio/Video: Colt .45 joins the HD digital age in 1080p HD frame din the original broadcast aspect ratio of 133:1 fullscreen, sourced from new 4K scans from the OCN. Holy cow, I have seen some vintage 50's TV shows make their way to Blu-ray and DVD, but I was startled with just how crisp and refined the monochromatic western looked in HD, I was blown away. The source looks immaculate with nary a blemish in sight, it's spotless, but the grain is unmolested.

The black and white image is nicely textured and has excellent grayscale with solid black levels. This is truly a wonderful presentation, and probably the best looking black and white 50's era television program I've personally seen on Blu-ray, yet. Likewise, the English language DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono presentation is pristine and well-balanced, dialogue, atmospherics and the scores all sound quite wonderful, appropriately vintage and of its era for sure, but clean and crisp without a trace of hiss or age-related wear. 

Sadly, no extras were prepared for this set, I think the drama around why Preston stepped away from the show and was  replaced might have made for a interesting featurette, but WAC are not known for creating new extras for their releases, choosing instead to funnel their limited budgets into top-notch audio/video restoration, and to that end they have succeeded admirably, this is a terrific looking/sounding set.  

The 10-disc set comes house in a sideloading slipcase, inside there are three individual keep cases, all oversized with flipper trays, one for each season. Again, while this is not my cup o' tea I know Warner Archive are making vintage TV western fans quite happy my bring this from the vault and putting it onto their shelves with pristine A/V presentation rarely afforded to these vintage TV shows.

Warner Archive continue to impress with their tasty and sometime unexpected catalog deep-dives, and this set was highly unexpected, as was their terrific 10-disc Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 animation box set. I do hope to see more multi-disc sets coming from WAC in the near future, there's lot of vintage TV series out there waiting to be restored to HD glory, and a lot of ravenous physical media junkies looking to snatch 'em up!

Special Features:
- None

Screenshots from the Warner Archive Blu-ray: 

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FRIVOLOUS LOLA (1998) (Cult Epics 4K UHD Review)

FRIVOLOUS LOLA (1998)

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Label: Cult Epics 

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 104 Minutes 29 Seconds 

Audio: English or Italian DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround, 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: HDR 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: Tinto Brass

Cast: Anna Ammirati, Patrick Mower, Mario Parodi, Serena Grandi, Antonio Salnies

The Tinto Brass (P.O. Box Tinto Brass) sex-comedy Frivolous Lola (1998) is set in 1950 in a small Italian village where the sexy and quite charming Lola (Anna Ammirati) is set to marry baker Masetto (Mario Parodi, Black Angel), who firmly believes that couples should be virgins when they marry, which is a constant source of frustration for flirty Lola who is looking to scratch her itch sooner rather than later. The couple argue often as Masetto is short-tempered, and during one of of their heated exchanges she leaves him, the flirtatious beauty wastes no time finding sexual adventuress to drive Masetto into a jealous rage, one such adventure includes an older man (Patrick Mower, The Devil Rides Out), who is the lover of her own mother Zaira (Serena Grandi, Anthropophagus) - and who may or may not be her father! 

This is a fun little sex romp, Ammirati is irresistible as the flirtatious beauty who cruises around her small village flashing her bare fanny to passybys while riding her bicycle. An erotic sex romp for sure but one that strays away from the harder-edged softcore of some of Brass's work, but still chock full of titillating scenes of Lola dancing for American soldiers in front of jukebox, an extended masturbation scene, peeping through keyholes, and fantasizing about an encounter of pleasure cruise, all of it gorgeously shot with a voyeuristic eye by Massimo Di Venanzo (Black Angel), with a romanticized, soft-focus gauzy lensing.  

The film is a sumptuous affair and looks gorgeous, benefitting from a wonderful score from Pino Donaggio (Carrie), including a theme song with vocals by the film's gorgeous star Ammirati, plus songs like "Be Bop A Lula" by 50's rocker Gene Vincent, "Let's Twist Again" by Curtis King Jr, Glen Miller's "In the Mood" and "Vorrei Sapere Perché" song by Mina, and co-written by none other than Italian horror maestro Lucio Fulci (City of the Living Dead)!

Audio/Video: Frivolous Lola (1998) arrives on region-free 4K UHD from Cult Epics in 2160p Ultra HD framed in the original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio. The source is in terrific shape with nary a blemish to to distract the eye, and grain levels are lush and filmic. We also get the addition of a WCG HDR color-grading, that slightly plumps up the primaries, though not a huge amount over the accompanying Blu-ray, but black levels and shadow detail look superior on the UHD. The all-important skin tones look terrific as well, which we see quite often when Lola is flashing her ass and snatch. 

Audio comes by way of English or Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 in either mono or stereo options, for a total of four options with optional English subtitles. Both language are dubbed and sound terrific. Dialogue is always crisp and clear, and the lush Pino Donaggio (All Ladies Do It) score comes through nicely in the mix. 

Extras include the UHD include a New Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani & Troy Howarth; plus Trailers for All Ladies Do it and Istinto Brass. The Blu-ray sports the feature film in 1080p HD and the same commentary and trailers, plus an an Archival Interview with director Tinto Brass (2004) that runs about 27-minutes, and a Photo Gallery of still images from the film. 

The 2-disc UHD/BD arrives in a black dual-hub keepcase with a Reversible Wrap, the reverse side featuring both the English artwork and a "cheekier" uncensored Italian artwork with the Italian title, plus a 20-page Illustrated Booklet with a "A Committed Brat" sssay by Eugenio Ercolani and Domenico Monetti. Also tucked away inside are 4 Repro Italian Lobby Card Prints featuring the Italian title 'Monella", included with the First Pressing 4K UHD Only. There's also a First Pressing Only Slipcover with it's own unique artwork. 

Special Features: 
Disc 1: 4K Ultra HD 
- New 4K Transfer (from original negative) & Restoration + HDR
- New DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround/2.0 Stereo / English & Italian
- New Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani & Nathaniel Thompson
- Theatrical Trailers

Disc 2: Blu-ray 
- New 4K Transfer (from original negative) & Restoration
- New DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround/ 2.0 Stereo / English & Italian
- New Audio Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani & Nathaniel Thompson
- Theatrical Trailers
- Archival Interview with director Tinto Brass (2004)
- Photo Gallery
- Reversible sleeve with original Italian uncensored poster art
- 20-page illustrated booklet w/Essay by Eugenio Ercolani and Domenico Monetti
- Slipcase
- 4 Repro Italian Lobby Card Prints (First Pressing 4K UHD Only)

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Screenshots from the Cult Epics Blu-ray: