MCBASTARD'S MAUSOLEUM: MAD FOXES (1981) Cauldron Films 4K Ultra HD Review + Blu-ray Screenshots/Comparison

MAD FOXES (1981)

Label: Cauldron Films

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 80 Minutes 4 Seconds

Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0, 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital with Optional English Subtitles

Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: Paul Grau

Cast: Jose Gras, Laura Premica, Andrea Albani, Peter John Saunders, Ana Roca

Mad Foxes comes to us from legendary Swiss exploitation producer Erwin C. Dietrich who worked with euro-cult favorite Jess Franco on several of the director's most notorious films, these include Jack the Ripper, and Barbed Wire Dolls. While this is not a Franco film it is perhaps even more demented and unhinged than Franco's work, a trashy and sleaze-riddled Nazi biker action flick that must be seen to be believed!

Now, I would not call our lead Hal (Jose Gras, Lucio Fulci's Conquest) a hero, because what's a hero? Well, it's probably not a forty-something man who takes a virginal teenage girl to a cheesy disco on her eighteenth birthday to get her drunk in hopes of deflowering her. That's not quite a hero, but he is our protaganist, just not a very sympathetic one, but hey, he's got a sweet looking Corvette Stingray, so all is forgiven, I guess. While on his date Hal and his young date are harassed by a group of Nazi bikers at a stoplight, leading to the death of one of the bikers who crashes into a parked car while chasing the Stingray through the streets. When the couple emerge from the disco later that night they find the Nazi bikers have been waiting for them to avenge the death of their friend, they beat the snot out of Hal, wh helpless to do anything is forced to watch one of the bikers jackhammer-rape his date, ruining his chance to deflower her himself, which really does seem to me to be his motivation for the bloody and violent revenge-spree that ensues.

The next day the newly tenderized Hal calls in a favor to a friend who conveniently runs a karate school, who along with his karate-kicking students meets Hal at an abandoned coliseum where the bikers are holding a funeral pyre for their fallen friend. Hal announces his arrival yelling "Sons of bitches, here I am!", and some hilariously bad choreographed fighting ensues, ending with the effeminate leader of the biker gang having his dong cut-off and stuffed down his throat!

Now keep in mind were are only about twenty minutes in and this thing is just getting started, a madcap slice of trash cinema that has our main guy bedding another broad within moments of the avenging showdown at the coliseum, what a guy! Far from being over the surviving bikers head on over to the karate school and toss a grenade into the gymnasium, those who don't die in the initial blast are mowed down in a hail of gunfire.

Unaware of all this Hal meets another woman who has just fucked her boyfriend on a beach not minutes before, but she hitches a ride with Hal anyway, leaving her befuddled boyfriend in the dust! Hal takes this wholesome gal to his parents house out in the country, they shack up for the night, having sex in an bathtub of unhealthy discolored water. The next day they ride some horses through the countryside and fornicate some more, in their absence the bikers show up and slaughter Hal's family, and obviously when Hal discovers their mangled corpses he is none too pleased, and the cycle of fucking, fighting and avenging continues.

This one is a ripe slice of exploitation cinema, it has absolutely no redeeming value other than the never ending carnage and an abundance of nudity, including plenty of full-frontal from Mr. Eric Falk, the guy's schlong really should be credited on the movie poster, it's almost a major character. The madcap action and inappropriateness of this one makes for a fun watch, it's never boring and the bad/hilarious English dubbing adds another layer of cheese to the already nacho-friendly viewing. Out anti-hero Hal as played by Jose Gras is quite wonderful, falling somewhere in between Charles Bronson in Death Wish 2 (1982) and Robert Ginty from The Exterminator (1980), his hammy, tortured looking facial expressions are worth the price of admission alone, a rubber-faced eye-roller with the charm of a pervy car salesman.

Audio/Video: Mad Foxes (1981) arrives 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from Cauldron Film in 2160p UHD with Dolby Vision HDR10 color-grade. The image look terrific with nary a major blemish to distract the eye, grain is present throughout and unmolested, compression is never an issue, and the colors look accurate and well-saturated. Compared to the DVD version I've had for a few years, its a night and day difference with improvement in all the expected areas. The use of WCG is very tasteful and not overcooked with deep blacks levels and pleasing shadow detail. The accompanying Blu-ray is no slouch either, easily stomping the previous DVD edition even without the benefit of Dolby Vision HDR10, with excellent depth and clarity and accurate colors.

The disc includes both DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround English-dubbed audio or Spanish 2.0 with optional English subtitles. The English tracks sound excellent, and I preferred the more impactful mono track personally, but both are free of hiss or distortion, dialogue sounds fine, and the pair of tunes from 80's rockers Krokus sound fantastic.

The cauldron set is chock full of extras, starting off with an Audio Commentary by film critics Nanni Cobretti and Merlyn Roberts that gets into the films distribution history and scarcity, and addressing the films shortcomings while also noting how damn entertaining it is.

We also get an archival 22-minute Erwin and the Foxes : Producer Erwin C. Dietrich and actors Eric Falk and Helmi Sigg talk about Mad Foxes. Sigg starts it off speaking about his love of Universal monster movies and always wanting to be in the movies, which happened when he met director Paul Grau who cast him in Island Women (1980), also speaking about the free-wheeling and improvisational nature of Grau in contrast to Dietrich's more orderly approach to producing. Sigg even brings along his WWII bomber pilot cap he wore so memorably in the film. Also brought up is how they had to remove the Nazi swastika from their Nazi biker outfits for the outdoor scenes as the swastika had been banned in Germany at the time. Falk himself also speaks about the unrestrained way he created his character, comparing the over-the-top nature of the films to the antics from the Muppet's Pigs In Space, with Sigg saying the characters were shallow and without depth, described Falk's character as King Kong, a big ape who was also a bodyguard on-set, which was his former profession, he even tells a story of how he attributes being cast in Mad Foxes as saving his life, when his job as a body guard put him up against a group of Hell's Angel's bikers he invited then to join in on Mad Foxes. Sigg also speaks about the difficulty of driving the light dirt bikes on the city streets, how they were not quite the Harley's he had envisioned. Producer Dietrich only chimes in for brief moment or two, he's an older guy here and seems a bit lost in the conversation, though he does speak about director Paul Grau bringing the project to him, saying the movie was so bad he couldn't even watch it at the time, but now finds it quite funny, discussing the cinema success and eventual banning of film on VHS, clarifying his stance on cutting films, which he is clearly against in anyway. The actors discussing various infamous scenes, such as the death on the toilet of Falk's character and the grisly nurse-gutting scene Sigg's character did. The interview comes to close as Falk's confesses he visited a lot of whore houses in Barcelona and ended up with a case of gonorrhea, and Sigg saying that the effeminate Nazi bikers-leader was a real-life Nazi and had to be threatened with violence to stop spouting propaganda at the hotel they were staying in.

Falk again shows up in the 9-min Mad Eric - interview with actor Eric Falk, again relaying the anecdotes about the Hell's Angels and his gonorrhea but in finer detail, the big guy also speaks about director Paul Grau, giving some running commentary on a slave/master scene from the film which is being played on a screen in the room, also commenting on his own phase of sexual dominance and submission. The disc also includes a trailer for the film.

Next, a new 46-min The Untold Story of Robert O’Neal - Interview with actor José Gras who gets into his career, including appearing in Lucio Fulci's Conquest and Bruno Mattei's Hell of the Living Dead, specific memories of shooting Mad Foxes.There's also a new 20-min Nazi Fox Bikers Must Die - An Video Essay by Troy Howarth that the film in context of other biker/revenge films of the era, the Nazi imagery of the film. Disc extras are buttoned-up with a 2-min Image Gallery and a 3-min Trailer.

The 2-disc release comes housed in a clear full-height Scanavo keepcase with a Reversible Wrap featuring original VHS artwork and new artwork by Justin Coffee. There's also a side-loading Rigid Slipcase with cool new artwork by Justin Coffee with a glossy finish that looks fantastic, and tucked away inside is a 9-panel Fold-Out Poster with artwork on both sides.

Special Features:

- Audio Commentary by film critics Nanni Cobretti and Merlyn Roberts

- The Untold Story of Robert O’Neal - Interview with actor José Gras (46:19)

- Erwin and the Foxes (Producer Erwin C. Dietrich + actors Eric Falk and Helmi Sigg talk about Mad Foxes) (22:30)

- Mad Eric - interview with actor Eric Falk (8:30)

- Nazi Fox Bikers Must Die - An Essay by Troy Howarth (19:50)

- Image Gallery (1:51)

- Trailer (3:27)

- 2-Sided Fold-Out Poster

- Rigid slipcase with artwork by Justin Coffee

Mad Foxes (1981) is a super sleazy and action-packed slice of trash cinema chockful of nudity over-the-top violence with a veneer of cheesiness that when combined with the corny English dubbing makes for a stupendous watch. The level of cartoon violence onscreen here is off the charts, and tasteless exploitation fans and trash-cinema lovers should take note - this is a must-see! That this was afforded a 4K Ultra HD release with Dolby Vision sort of blows my mind, and Cauldron Films killed it with this release, it looks and sounds fantastic and the new and archival extras are terrific, and the packaging presentation is a knockout, this is an essential release for ravenous exploitation fans hungry for sleaze.

Screenshots from the Cauldron Films Blu-ray: