NIGHTMARE CASTLE (1965) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

NIGHTMARE CASTLE (1965)

Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-FREE
Duration: 104 Minutes
Rating: Unrated 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1) 
Director: Mario Caiano
Cast: Barbara Steele, Paul Muller, Helga Line, Rik Battaglia 

Nightmare Castle is a solid black and white Italian creeper dripping with atmosphere and the unearthly charms of horror queen Barbara Steele (Pirahna) who portrays Muriel, the cheating wife of scientist Stephen Arrowsmith (Paul Muller, Vampyros Lesbos), a somewhat deranged doc whom rightfully suspects his wife of the infidelity, catching in the arms of her lover David (Rik Battaglia) in the green house. Arrowsmith incapacitates them before chaining them to a wall in the basement dungeon, where he subjects to a myriad of prolonged tortures through starvation, burning and lashings of the whip. In agony each begs for death, the end comes by way of disfiguring his unfaithful wife with acid, before electrocuting them both, but not before she curses him and reveals that she he is not the heir to her fortune, from which he has benefited from for years, after er death her half-sister Jenny (Barbara Steele, again) will inherit the estate and fortune.

Arrowsmith's aged house maid Solange (Helga Liné) is complicit in the crime and is rewarded for her allegiance with a blood-transfusion of Muriel's blood, which when treated to with electricity, somehow rejuvenating the old crow into a gorgeous young woman. The issue with the inheritance going to Jenny proves not to be so much of a problem for the doc, whom Arrowsmith conveniently marries with a diabolical plan to drive her completely mad, thereby becoming the heir to the fortune. Things seem to be going according to plan with the unstable Jenny hearing her sister's voice and experiencing vivid nightmares,  when Arrowsmith brings in Dr. Derek Joyce (Marino Masé) to treat Jenny he becomes convinced that something supernatural is happening. 

Barbara Steele is quite good in the dual role of the cheating Muriel and her half sister Jenny, one a raven-haired seductress, the other troubled innocent. Steele takes front and center for the duration of the movie, changing from the erotic venom of Muriel to the haunted confusion of the more frail Jenny with ease. Muller as the jealous scientist driven to murder plays the role with a sinister charm, he's a right bastard of a man and easy to root against. 

Director Mario Caiano might not have the cinematic grace of someone like Mario Bava but he made an effective chiller just the same, a movie steeped in Gothic atmosphere with a few vital scenes of note, the dreamy nightmare sequences are very eerie with the early Morricone score working in their favor. The scenes of the bondage and  torture endured by the cheating lovers is pretty intense for period, maybe not quite shocking but a sweet bit of bondage exploitation that went further than I would have imagined. 

Audio/Video: The new HD restoration of the European 'Night of the Doomed' cut from Severin Films looks mighty fine, the black and white cinematography comes through smooth and with a natural layer of film grain, along with it there's some nice depth and fine detail present, with nice contrast and a dynamic gray scale. There are instances of white speckling a print damage from time to time but nothing awful.

The English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono comes through crisp and clean, it's a dubbed track but this does allow for the fans to hear Barbara Steele's actual voice. Ennio Morricone's score may not be among his best remembered but the nightmare sequences are definitely enhanced by it. 

Onto the extras we have quite a few, including the including two more Barbare Steele movie, new 2K HD scans of Antonio Margheriti's Gothic-terror Castle Blood (1964) and Massimo Pupillo's plague-shocker Terror Creatures from the Grave (1965). While the print are in much rougher shape than Nightmare Castle they are very nice widescreen presentations easily the best versions of either film I have seen.

Nightmare Castle gets an audio commentary with Barbara Steele and Horror Historian David Del Valle, the recording is not too specific to her time on the film and is more of a career retrospective, for fans of the horror icon this is quite a treat. There's even more still from Steel with the exclusive 'Barbara Steele In Conversation', a video interview with the starlet, again recounting her storied career. 

There are also an exclusive interview with Nightmare Castle director Mario Caiano, plus brand new featurettes for Blood Castle and Terror Creatures from the Grave, including deleted scenes for Terror Creatures. Trailers for all three films are included. 

Special Features: 
- Audio Commentary With Star Barbara Steele and Horror Historian David Del Valle
- Barbara Steele In Conversation Featurette (30 Mins) SD 
- Black, White and Red - Interview Featurette w. Director Mario Caiano (14 Mins) HD 
- Castle of Blood (1964) New 2k Scan Of Rare US 35mm Release Print (82 Mins) HD with English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Audio 
- Terror Creatures from the Grave  2k Scan Of Rare US 35mm Release Print (84 Mins) HD with English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Audio 
- A Dance of Ghosts: Castle of Blood Featurette w.Director Massimo Pupillo, Actor Riccardo Garrone, Film Historian Fabio Melelli (Italian with Optional English Subs) (17 Mins) HD
- Vengeance from Beyond: Featurette for Terror-Creatures from the Grave (26 Mins) HD
- Terror Creatures: Deleted Scenes (In French with Optional English Subs) (14 Mins) HD 
- Terror Creatures from the Grave Original Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins) SD 
- Castle of Blood Original Theatrical Trailer (2 Mins) SD 
- Nightmare Castle US Trailer (3 Mins) HD
- Nightmare Castle UK Trailer (1 Mins) HD

A fantastic release from Severin Films that should those with enthusiasm for Eurocult, Gothic horror or just fans of the erotically charged Barbara Steele, regardless of which this is a terrific package. A high recommend, if not just for the main feature and the excessive amount of quality extras on the disc keep in mind you're getting three HD Italian Barbara Steele movies for the price of one, that's a bargain. 3/5

EUROCRIME! THE ITALIAN COP AND GANGSTER FILMS THAT RULED THE '70S (2014)

EUROCRIME! 

THE ITALIAN COP AND GANGSTER FILMS THAT RULED THE '70S (2014)

Label: Cinema Epoch

Duration: 127 Minutes

Region Code: 1

Rating: Unrated

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Audio: English, Italian  Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 

Director: Mike Malloy
Cast: Franco Nero, John Saxon, Henry Silva, Luc Merenda, Antonio Sabáto, Fred Williamson, Richard Harrison, Chris Mitchum, Enzo Castellari, Leonard Mann, Joe Dallesandro, Michael Forest, Claudio Fragasso, John Steiner Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, Mario Caiano, Nicoletta Machiavelli, John P. Dulaney, Greg Stephen, Sal Borgese, Ted Rusoff

Something I didn't even know I was yearning for was a comprehensive documentary about the high octane Eurocrime police films coming out of Italy in the 1970s following the decline of the lucrative spaghetti westerns. At first these films were out and out copycats of American angry cop films like DIRTY HARRY but the Italians quickly made it something all their own by informing their stories with the true life violence of the era. The format usually dealt with an angry cop fed up with crime but also infuriated by the bureaucracy and red tape that prevented them from taking the scum off the streets ending with a fed-up cop pushed over the edge and taking things into their own hands with bloody consequences.

Mike Malloy's two hour plus documentary covers all the facets from  Enzo Castellari's HIGH CRIME (1973) starring Franco Nero (DJANGO) onward offering up a steady stream of movie posters, clips and talking heads. We gets some great info about the second career it offered both seasoned Italian and American actors and just which films were ripping off what other films. Some of the dialogue comparisons are quite fun and just a cunt hair short of being verbatim.

The interviews with John Saxon, Henry Silva and Franco Nero are my favorite with candid and often funny recollections of making these oftentimes misogynist crime thrillers under suspect and hurried circumstances.

Plenty of tales of shooting death defying stunts and action sequences peppered with live ammunition - the spaghetti western may have died off but the down and dirty nature of some of these shoots are right out of the wild west.

I've seen only a handful of Eurocrime capers from the likes of Blue Underground and Raro Video so it was a treat to sit down with  this and just take notes with pen and pad jotting down names of films to further my Italian crime education - this was quite an introduction to a sub genre of Italian cinema that has eluded me for the most part.

There's a metric ton of interviews crammed into this, it's a veritable who's who of Eurocrime cinema spread out over two hours and divided up into chapters with a great soundtrack from Calibro 35 among others. The editing is down and dirty and not overly glossy and that's just fine by me, this is a great documentary packed with more info than I could ever hope to absorb in one sitting. The passion for the genre by the filmmakers is dripping off screen and makes for an electrifying watch one critique might me that at over 120 minutes it's a bit long in the tooth and might wear out the less initiated but not me, I wanted it to on for another hour! 

If you have a curiosity for Eurocrime and Italian cinema I strong encourage you to seek this out and immerse yourself in the glory of the action-packed and ultra-violent Eurcrome cinema of the '70s, a damn fine documentary.