DISCO ITALIANA (1978-1979)
3 Blu-ray +1 CD Set
AMERICAN FEVER (1978)
GREASE ROCK (1979)
JOHN TRAVOLTO: THE FACE WITH 2 LEFT FEET (1979)
Italians love a good knock-off, they brought us Sharksploitation, Nunsploitation and Indiana Jonesploitation, and they even dabbled in the mirrored-ball realm of discosploittaion following the wildly successful John Travolta hit Saturday Night Fever. Now, Severin Films - who else? - brings a trio of Italian Discosploitation classic to Blu-ray for the first time ever! Severin have taken some huge swings with their box set, with sets dedicated to z-grade filmmakers like Al Adamson, Cliff Twemlow, and Andy Milligan, as well as themed boxes dedicated to sharksploitation, brucespoitation, Indiana Jonesploitation, and psychotic women, but this in my opinion is the wildest swing of all. I am usually down for all sorts of cheapo exploitation with a horror bent to it, but disco, c'mon now!?!
I would say that for the first forty years of my life I have loved all manner of music, except for two pretty specific genres modern country and disco, I fucking hated disco, and have only in the last decade or so taken in and appreciated it in small doses, but even still, not a huge fan, and should admit that I still have not ever watched Saturday Night Fever. That's right, I am watching these Saturday Night Fever knock-offs without even having seen the film that inspired them! The sets marks the home video debuts of American fever (1978), Grease Rock (1978), and John Travolto: The Face with 2 Left Feet (1979), all three films have been newly scanned in 4K from their original camera negatives, with over five hours of extras and a bonus CD soundtrack.
AMERICAN FEVER (1978)
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 90 Minutes 48 Seconds
Audio: English or Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Claudio Giorgi
Cast: Zora Kerova, Gianni Medici
Director Claudio Girgi (C'รจ un fantasma nel mio letto) has the distinction of directing the very first of the Italian Discosploitation with American Fever (1978)featuring a screenplay co-written by George Eastman (Absurd) and starring Mircha Carven (SS Experiment Love Camp), a guy who fo r years claimed to be the illegitimate son of Clark Gable, as Tony, a simple gas station attendant by day and the disco-king of Rome by night, who dreams of becoming a movie star, working out to posters of his hero Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, Robert DeNiro, and Al Pacino. His best friend Nino (Vincenzo Crocitti, Torso) is an aspiring filmmaker who says he's writing the script for a film that will break him big, but the closest he ever gets is doing some high-falling stunt work on a western, and offers from a sleazy mob-connected porno producer. A love interest comes by way of the lovely suicidal rescue Lisa (Zora Kerova, Cannibal Ferox), and things get dark when the mob comes looking to collect on a debt owed by Nino, and Tony must comes to terms with the reality that maybe Hollywood stardom is not in the cards, but his boss's offer to become a 50/50 partner ain't so bad. The story is pretty frothy and fun, a few darker moments here and there, which I liked, and a bumpin' disco soundtrack, including the Spotlight, D.D. Sound and La Bionda, and you will hear the title track "American fever" by Spotlight ad nauseum during the numerous dancefloor scenes, thankfully it's a catchy little earwork, so that's okay.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary With Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson And Howard S. Berger
- All About The Music: The Birth Of Disco And The Road To Italy's AMERICAN FEVER – Interview With Alan Jones, Author Of Discomania: Fantastic Beats And Where To Find Them (10:06)
- Trailer (3:11)
GREASE ROCK (1979)
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 91 Minutes 19 Seconds
Audio: English or Tialian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Michele Massimo Tarantini
Cast: Monty Ray Garrison, Auretta Gay, Cecilia Buonocore
Next up is Grease Rock (1979), aka Disco Fever directed by Michele Massimo Tarantini (Massacre in Dinosaur Valley) stars one-and-done actor Monty Ray Garrison as Robbie, a somewhat goofy John Travolta obsessed Italian who rides around in his sidecar motorcycle which he has taped pictures of Travolta onto the sideview mirrors!. With his hair full of grease and a heart full of disco he and his gang of bikers enjoy disco dancing and engage in disco dance-off competitions, during which he spots American beauty Cindy (Auretta Gay, Zombie) who he hopes to partner with for the King & Queen of Rock Contest, meanwhile while his girl-next-door pal Sandra (Cecillia Buonocore), who funds the cash-strapped lad's disco-addiction, secretly pines away for him without notice. This on arguably borrows more from other 1978 Travolta star vehicle, Grease, or maybe because I've actually seen Grease several times as opposed to SNF, it just felt that way. I enjoyed the rubber-faced cheesiness of Garrison here, and the well-staged dance off are a ton of fun, with music that includes a score by Gianfranco Reverberi (Delirium), and a not-awful disco cover version of The Rolling Stones' ‘Satisfaction’ and John Paul Young’s hit “Love is in the Air”. We also get a motorcycle race against a train that nearly ends in tragedy. This is another fun slice of threadbare disco fluff, the performances are charming, it's stylish, and the candy-coated disco music is quite fetching, too.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary With Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson And Eugenio Ercolani
- Brillantina Is The Word – Interview With Alan Jones, Author Of Discomania: Fantastic Beats And Where To Find Them (2:40)
- Trailer (4:12)
JOHN TRAVOLTO: THE FACE WITH 2 LEFT FEET (1979)
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 100 Minutes 26 Seconds
Audio: English or Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Neri Parenti
Cast: Ilona Staller, Massimo Vanni, Sonia Viviani, Angelo Infanti
Last but certainly not least, John Travolto: The Face with 2 Left Feet (1979), directed by Neri Parenti (Fracchia Vs. Dracula), and co-written by Giovanni Simonelli (A Cat in the Brain) and Massimo Franciosa (Spasmo), and is said to be the most infamous of the Italian Discosploitation films of all, which stars Giuseppe Spezia, a Travolta lookalike, as a wallflower chef named Gianni is enamored with disco-club DJ (adult film star Ilona Staller, Five Women for the Killer). With no dance moves or natural charm it seems a hopeless case, but his friends Alvin (Franco Agonstini, The Case of the Bloody Iris), Claudio (Claudio Bigagli, Mediterraneo), Massimo (Massimo Giuliani, Slave Queen of Babylon), Paolo (Adriana Russo, The Sicilian Connection), and Deborah Sonia Viviani, Nightmare City) plot to gain her affection by shaving off his moustache and impersonating megastar heartthrob John Travolta when he is set to arrive at the very hotel he works for. Also be on the lookout for Massimo Vanni (Rats: Night of Terror) and Angelo Infanti (The Godfather) to show-up in this one. It's a fin concept, executed with goody comedic charms that goes really broad with the comedy, which I think make this a pretty silly and enjoyable capper to this trio of disco-flavored Italian exploitation.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary With Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson, Eugenio Ercolani And Howard S. Berger
- The Show Is Over: JOHN TRAVOLTO And The End Of The 'Disco Film' – Interview With Alan Jones, Author Of Discomania: Fantastic Beats And Where To Find Them (8:58)
- U.S. Trailer (1:33)
- Italian Trailer (3:43)
- Bonus Disc: Soundtrack CD (15 Tracks, 41:53)
Audio/Video: All three film are presented in 1080p HD widescreen, sourced from new 4K scan of the Original Camera negatives. These look pretty dang terrific, the sources look immaculate, colors are bright and vivid, grain is well-managed and textures are pleasing, and blacks are solid. Audio comes by way of both English or Italian dubs in DTS-HD MA 2.0 with optional English subtitles. Both tracks are solid, I mostly took in the English dubs, and while not all the dubbing is done with precision it did the trick just fine, dialogue was never a chore to discern, and the music sequences are plenty robust.
American Fever extras come by way of a new Audio Commentary With Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson And Howard S. Berger, which is loaded with information about the bands on the soundtrack, the distribution of the film, their own opinions and experiences during the disco era. We also get the 10-min All About The Music: The Birth Of Disco And The Road To Italy's AMERICAN FEVER – Interview With Alan Jones, Author Of Discomania: Fantastic Beats And Where To Find Them, the evolution of disco beginning in the '70s in the Latino, gay and black communities, pin-pointing the moment disco became disco proper as Manu Dibanco's Soul Makossa album, and other notable entries, key figures in the movement like Gorgio Moroder, How Looking For Mr. Goodbar was the first film to feature a disco club, but then Saturday Night fever arrived and the scene blew up, the huge soundtrack for the film, and how the film was both what blew up the scene but also heralded the end. Of course he also gets into the Italo-disco variants that were basically knock-off with homegrown disco, starting with Saturday Night Fever, fun trivia about the star and the music from D.D. Sound and La Bionda. We also get the 3-min Trailer which is quite a fun teaser.
Special features from Grease Rock include Audio Commentary With Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson And Eugenio Ercolani, they dissect the plot, the gang element pulled from grease, the differences between the English and Italian versions of the film, the disco soundtrack of course, the film's disappointing box office, the well-executed disco sequences, and noting how these films have never had US good US releases till now. Then into the 3-min Brillantina Is The Word – Interview With Alan Jones, Author Of Discomania: Fantastic Beats And Where To Find Them, noting the alternate titles (Disco Crazy) of the film, and career of director Michele Massimo Tarantini (Massacre in Dinisaur valley), notable soundtrack selections, analogs to Saturday Night Fever, how it was a bit of a flop but gained a following on subsequent TV airings. The 4-min Trailer is included.
a new Audio Commentary With Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson, Eugenio Ercolani And Howard S. Berger that dives deep into the career of Nero Parenti who is quite famous in Italy even still, mostly die to a sting of Christmas comedies, the cast, the script, and how the film flopped, the soundtrack album and it's highlights, the rampant Travolta fever of the era. Next up, the 9-min The Show Is Over: JOHN TRAVOLTO And The End Of The 'Disco Film' – Interview With Alan Jones, Author Of Discomania: Fantastic Beats And Where To Find Them, the intricacies of the name of the film in Italian, which is a gag, the cast and crew, including Travolta lookalike Giuseppe Spezia, the story which is a 60's throwback to the music films of Lucio Fulci, Iiona Staller's career, including disco singer and porno, how the film does capture that essence of disco music, the soundtrack including big hits by Tony Renis ("Disco Quando") and C.G.&M Ballestra's "The Show Is Over", and how the film Can't Stop the Music basically put the final nail in the coffin of disco films, alongside Zanadu and The Apple, even though the music survived a bit longer, and how in Italy the same three people using different names were responsible for the Italo-Disco movement, and noting some of the better Italo-Disco films. We also get the 2-min U.S. Trailer, 4-min Italian Trailer, plus the Soundtrack CD
The 3-film Disco Italiana set arrives in a side-loading Rigid Slipbox housing three black keepcases with single-sided artworks. The disc are adorned with an image from the films, and the John Travolta: The face with Two Left Feet includes the 15-track CD Soundtrack for the film, which runs 42-track minutes, tucked away inside is an insert card with the track list and composer/song credits.
Well, I said up front I am not a huge disco fan, nor have I ever watched Saturday Night Fever, which for these flicks would seem like a prerequisite, so how'd they fare? Well, I thought it was pretty frothy and charming trio of disco-infused flicks, lots of silly humor, dated machismo, and some cool international and Italo-Disco songs that were actually pretty catchy. For me it was interesting to see a few folks I recognized from Italian horror and exploitation classics show up in some decidedly not horror/exploitation stuff, including the directors/writers/composers behind the camera. This won't ever make a top ten list of favorite Severin Films boxsets, because this is not a genre that I am super passionate about, but I appreciate the big swing they've taken on this one, and the talented people they assembled to tackle the flicks on the extras, who are passionate about them. Adding discosploitation to their growing list of curated 'sploitation set proves once more there are no limits on what Severin are willing to do, meaning that the possibilities for future sets is absolutely limitless, and I am here for it, so bring on the next weird one!
Screenshots from the Severin Films Blu-rays:
AMERICAN FEVER (1978)
GREASE ROCK (1979)
JOHN TROVOLTO: THE FACE WITH 2 LEFT FEET (1979)
Buy it!
#ad
