GIRL SLAVES OF MORGANA LE FAY (1971) Mondo Macabro Blu-ray Review

GIRL SLAVES OF MORGANA LE FAY (1971) 

Label: Mondo Macabro 

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 86 Minutes 29 

Audio: French DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)

Director: Bruno Gantillon

Cast: Dominique Delpierre, Alfred Baillou, Mireille Saunin, Régine Motte, Ursule Pauly

In the fantastical erotic French-horror tales The Girl Slaves of Morgana La Fay, directed by Bruno Gantillon, two attractive young women, Francoise (Mireille Saunin) and Anna (Michele Perello, The Blood Rose), arriving in their car through the French countryside when their car runs out of gas. They end up spending the night in a barn, where they make love, 'natch. The next morning Anna has disappeared and Francoise ventures into the forest to find her, where she encounter the diminutive dwarf Gurth (Alfred Baillou, Fun For Three), wearing a purple smoking jacket as well as eyeshadow and eyeliner, who says he can lead her Anna. She follows him to the edge of lake, board a driverless boat, and is taken to an island castle, trapped in a magical kingdom of Avalon, a place ruled by the gorgeous Morgana, Queen of Witches (Dominique Delpierre, The Sicilian Clan), a seductive lesbian witch who maintains her youthful looks by offering young women eternal youth and beauty in exchange for their mortal souls. Those who betray or refuse the offer are tossed into a dungeon as they age into old hags. 

She finds her gal pal Anna, who has already accepted Morgana's offer of eternal youth, but Francoise is set on leaving, plotting with the dwarf Gurth, who secretly years to usurp Morgana, to escape, but first she must gather three items; a magical necklace, an invisibility tunic, and 

a topaz globe, all three combined will enable her to escape the island.  

It's a nicely realized slice of erotic-fantastic, gorgeous often nude women everywhere, kinky lesbian sex, and some fine look period locations, set pieces and wardrobe, and I rather adored the fantastical elements - it does excellent work bringing them altogether into a pretty coherent and quite pleasing erotic fantasy romp with an exquisite dreamy atmosphere that's totally hypnotic.

Audio/Video: Girl Slaves of Morgana La Fay (1971) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, presented in 1080p HD framed in 1.66:1 widescreen, with the Morgana et ses Nymphes (Morgana and Her Nymphs) title card. This is advertised as being "uncut, fully restored and in a brand news 4k scan from the film’s original negative", and it looks terrific. The  source looks wonderful, colors are strong, the purple smoking jacket of the dwarf and the gowns of the girl slaves fare particularly well, and there's plenty of filmic texture and detail to the image, and while there is some inherent softness due to the aesthetic choices, it's inherent to the source. Audio comes by way of French DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. Dialogue is nicely prioritized, fidelity is strong, and the score by  François de Roubaix’s (Daughters of Darkness) with it's mix of psychedelia and medieval instrumentation sounds appropriately fantastical and atmospheric.  

Mondo Macabro offers a well-stocked edition, loaded with extras, we get a 13-min Short Film by Bruno Gantillon from 1970  - An Artistic Couple, 42-min of brand new interviews with director Bruno Gantillon by way of the Bruno Gantillon Holds Up the Ceiling Part 1 & Part 2; a 45-min Brand new interview with Dominique Delpierre that spans her entire career, 11-min Archive interview with Bruno Gantillon, 1-min Deleted Scene, and an Audio commentary with Bruno Gantillon and film expert Lucas Balbo, plus a 5-min Publicity Parade Video featuring stills and posters, and finishing up with a 3-min Theatrical Trailer. 

The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a wrap featuring new artwork by Symeoni. 

Special Features:

- Brand new 4k transfer from film negative, digitally restored.

- An Artistic Couple – short film by Bruno Gantillon from 1970 (13:12) 

- Two brand new interviews with director Bruno Gantillon: Bruno Gantillon Holds Up the Ceiling Part 1 (26:28) & Part 2 (16:41) 

- Brand new interview with Dominique Delpierre (45:43) 

- Archive interview with Bruno Gantillon (10:57) 

- Deleted Scene (0:48) 

- Audio commentary with Bruno Gantillon and film expert Lucas Balbo.

- Publicity parade video featuring stills and posters (5:00) 

- Theatrical Trailer (2:39) 

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NOTHING UNDERNEATH (1985) (Sotto Il Vestito Niente) Rustblade Blu-ray Review + Screenshots

NOTHING UNDERNEATH (1985) 

 aka Sotto Il Vestito Niente

 40th Anniversary Edition

Label: Rustblade

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 94 Minutes 10 Seconds 

Audio: Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono or English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Cario Vanzina

Cast:  Tom Schanley, Donald Pleasence, Star Renée Simonsen, Catherine Nayes, Marie McDonald, Nicolas Perring

Nothing Underneath (1985) is a later era giallo directed by Cario Vanzina, very much in the mold of Dario Argento or Brian De Palma, and in the vein of classic fashion-world set thrillers like Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace, this one concerning a black-gloved killer in Italy that is murdering fashion models with a pair of gnarly looking scissors. It actually starts off in the U.S., in Wyoming where Yellowstone Park Ranger Bob Crane (Tom Schanley, Get the Gringo) is going about his daily routine, we get some terrific location shooting with gorgeous, rugged terrain and mountain vistas. While on a trail he is overcome by disorienting visions and pain, we learn that he has a psychic connection with his twin sister Jessica (Nicola Perring, Duet for One), who is a rising fashion model working in Italy, and he sees vision of her being attacked by a black-gloved killer with a pair of huge scissors. Unable to reach her by phone het hops the next plane for Italy, arriving at her hotel, finding that she has disappeared without a trace. He contacts the police via the soon to retire Commissioner Danesi  (Donald Pleasence, Halloween), who doesn't quite buy the psychic-twins connection, but does believe that something has happened to his sister, and gets involved. 

A lot of the film is Brian questioning models, photographers and fashion agency staff trying to get to the bottom of his sister's disappearance, only to find that the fashion industry is pretty tight-lipped and chock full of addicts, weirdos and perverts, though one model, the gorgeous Barbara (Danish supermodel Renée Simonsen, who adorns Roxy Music's Atlantic Years album artwork), takes a liking to him, and eventually he does gets to the shocking truth about what happened to his twin sister and who is behind the scissor-killings. 

It's a stylish flick, very glossy in it's construction, chock full of gorgeous women, striking locations, and decent, but not great kills, though I do love the killers choice of weapon! The supernatural elements of the psychic-twin is interesting bit not well-developed, and a bit half-baked - for starter's, if he's psychically connected to his sister why does he see her death from her killer's POV? Its not a deal breaker though, the whodunnit/amateur sleuth elements are solid, even if I don't think Donald Pleasance had all that much to do, but I always love seeing pleasance in anything, plus we get to see him dining with Brian at what looks to be the long-discontinued SuperBuffet spread at Wendy's. The Brian de Palma influence is pretty string, and never more so than when the killer wields a electric drill as a weapon via Body Double, the de Palma flavor furthered by a tasty score from Pino Donaggio, reworking some familiar themes to wonderful effect. The way the finale plays out is quite terrific, we get the driller-killer aspect, the revenge-killing motif is exposed, and there's a fun breaking glass slow-mo to freeze-frame finale that was perfection. 

Audio/Video: Nothing Underneath (1985) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Rustblade, presented in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1). The film was previously issued on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome and Nucleus Films, neither of which I own, so I cannot compare it to, but the image here is quite pleasing, Colors are vivid, the image is sharp and textured, skin tones look warm and natural, and the sepia tone flashback looks terrific. Audio comes by way of English or Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 with optional English subtitles. I preferred the English track, this being one of the rare mid-8-s post-sync sound Italian productions. There's some minor sibilance issues that are source related, but generally it's quite pleasing with some solid stereo panning effects, and the Pino Donaggio score, and soundtrack selections like  Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok" fare well in the mix. 

Onto the extras, from what I can tell none of the Vinegar Syndrome/Nucleus Films extras are ported over, these appear to be newly commissioned interviews and visuals essays. First up is the 21-min Interview with Enrico Vanzina who discusses coming off a series of comedies and wanting to branch into other genres, the influence of Brian De Palma

We also get a brief 4-min Interview with Pino Donaggio, the composer addresses the similarities between his score for Body Doble and Nothing Underneath, noting the similarities and basically attributing the similarities to being a signature style.  There's also a 7-min visual essay Approfodimento de Francesco Lombuscio who dives into the influences evidenced by the film. Disc extras are finished-up with the 2-min American Trailer, 2-min Italian Trailer, 5-min of 

American Opening & Closing Titles, plus a 2-min Gallery. 

The single-disc release arrives in an oversized clear keepcase with a 2-sided, non-reversible wrap, offering both the English and Italian titles on the front cover and spine. 

Special Features: 

- Interview with Enrico Vanzina - in Italian with English subtitles (21:21) 

- Interview with Pino Donaggio  in Italian with English subtitles (4:11) 

- American Trailer (2:02) 

- Italian Trailer  (1:58)

- American Titles (5:26) 

- Approfodimento de Francesco Lombuscio (7:24) 

- Gallery (2:10) 

I would give this a high recommend, a solid fashion-world set giallo-slasher that is surprisingly well-made for it's late in the genre vintage, especially if you love the Dario Argento and Brian De Palma entries oft his era. The supernatural element is interesting but a bit of a let down, and even thought the kills, while bloody, are not all that well-staged, I loved the black-gloved killer elements, the killer's choice of scissors as preferred weapon is very cool. Well-directed, terrific score, and some wild twist and turns that really turned me on, not to mention some gorgeous women and plenty of nudity.  

Screenshots from the Rustblade Bu-ray: 

Extras: 

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