FRANCO FEBRUARY - DAY 26! SLAVES (1977) (Full Moon Features DVD Review)

SLAVES (1977) 

Label: Full Moon Features 
Region Code: 0 NTSC
Duration: 76 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 
Audio: German Dolby Digital Surround 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Lina Romay, Martine Stedil, Vitor Mendes, Esther Moset, Jess Franco

In Slaves (1977), also known as Die Sklavinnen and/or Swedish Nympho Slaves, we have a very trashy women-in-peril entry from none other than Eurotrash superstar Jess Franco. The film begins with a scantily clad woman named Marta (Esther Moser, Sexy Sisters) clumsily making her way through the thick green canopy of the jungle before arriving at a shack with the words "Federal Police" literally written in marker onto a sheet of paper, ha ha. Once inside she collapses, hen she comes through she spins a sordid tale of escaping the clutches of the dope peddling/woman whoring Madama Araminda, played by Franco's 70s sex-kitten and future wife, the lovely Lina Romay. Araminda is the proprietor of a local dope/whore house known as the Pagoda, and apparently that story Marta spun was a whopper, because in the very next scene Araminda has been imprisoned eat the Snake Island Prison, but as we catch up to het she is in the process of escaping with the help of a young woman named Ebenholz (Aida Vargas) and an unknown benefactor.

Ebenholz and Araminda arrive at a designated meeting point where they are intercepted by a menacing character played by director Jess Franco, an assistant/enforcer to a wealthy man named Amos Radeck (Vítor Mendes, Call of the Blonde Goddess), the mysterious benefactor, who wants answers from Araminda, like what happened to his daughter and where exactly the five million dollars in ransom he paid for her went... apparently the brothel owner was involved in a kidnap/ransom scheme involving the billionaires sexy daughter Martine (Martine Stedil, Die Marquise Von Sade). Radeck's enforcer strips off Araminda's shirt and begins burning her bare breasts with his lit cigarette, promising more torture is to come if she does not come forward with information about Radeck's daughter and the ransom money. While all this is happening fatso Radeck is looking bemusedly at a comic book.
  

From this point the story evolves into a series of flashbacks narrated by Araminda, we find out about her seedy drug/whore business, how she combed the beaches of her island community looking for fresh meat for her whorehouse, The Pagoda. How she seduced Martine with some sexy lesbian loving and then drugged her with psychotropic drugs that made her forget not only who she was, but also convincing her that she was a whore and that Araminda is a princess, damn, those are some good drugs!

As you may have surmised Araminda is not a nice lady to work for, she drugs her whores, beats them, and routinely has them raped by her horny goons when they step out of line, one of the rapes is pretty damn violent, but still not x-rated. She's not above killing them when they turn on her, as one of the whores named Vicky (Peggy Markoff, Barbed Wire Dolls) finds out, she's strangled by Araminda's own gown. It was nice to see the lovely Romay play someone villainous, usually she plays the victim being manipulated, so this was a nice turn of character for her, though she's still a charmer to me, even as cold as she plays it she's still smoldering 

Even by Franco standards of the era there's a lot of lady flesh on display here, gorgeous 70s women in various states of undress, usually baring it all, leaving very little to the imagination, subjected to various cruelties including water torture, rape, or serving as stripper eye candy for despicable men. The story is threadbare, even by the usually slim Franco standards, but it is a fun exploitation romp through the lens of Franco, attractively shot in location in Portugal with keen lensing by cinematographer Peter Baumgartner (Jack the Ripper) with a groovy and somewhat exotic jazzy score from Peter's brother Walter Baumgartner (Die Marquise von Sade), both of whom Franco worked with on many of the films he made with Swiss producer/financier Swiss producer Erwin C. Dietrich. Franco also handles some of the cinematography himself, clearly evident from his use and love of the numerous zoom-in shots. 

The movie ends with a wonderfully nasty twist that is superbly diabolical, while not one of my favorite Franco films the story is threadbare fun and delivers all the Franco goods in spades, loads of nudity, lots of sleaze and some atmospheric lensing. 

As for the extras, we get the same 40-min Franco, Bloody Franco audio interview that showed up on both Full Moon's Women in Cell Block 9 and Jack The Ripper releases. It's from 1976, conducted in French, with burned-in English subtitles, Franco touches on his version of Jack the Ripper, Roger Corman and his unflattering views on Spanish horror star Paul Naschy. There's also a trailer for the film and a 7-min VHS trailer reel of Franco films.

Special Features:
- Franco, Bloody Franco: Audio Interview with Jess Franco (French with English subtitles)(40 min) 
- Vintage VHS Franco Trailer Reel (7 min)

I am loving these Jess Franco DVD releases from Full Moon, my only beef is that these are so nice looking that they deserve proper Blu-ray releases, I would love to see these get an HD bump in the near future.  This is part of Full Moon's 10-part Jess Franco Collection, each sold separately, and when placed together the spines form a portrait of Franco, which is pretty cool. 

FRANCO FEBRUARY - DAY 20! BARBED WIRE DOLLS (1976) (Full Moon Features Blu-ray Review)

Day 20 of Franco February is a total sleaze-fest, were revisiting our review of Barbed Wire Dolls (1976), which is a ton of WIP fun. It's super-sleazy even by the usual Jess Franco standards, but not quite on par with the hardcore stuff he did, but there's still plenty of tortured titties, naughty finger and whip penetration and gratuitous crotch shots!

BARBED WIRE DOLLS (1976) 

Label: Full Moon Features
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 81 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital Surround 5.1
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Lina Romay, Monica Swinn, Martine Stedil, Eric Falk, Paul Muller

Barbed Wire Dolls (1976) is widely considered one of the most outrageous women-in-prison films of all time, it was the first team-up between Franco and Swedish producer Erwin C. Dietrich When the producer saw the finished cut of the film he declared that it was unreleasable as is - surely not the first or last time the Spanish euro-cult auteur heard that I am sure - but Franco turned him around and the pair had a great string of exploitation films to follow. 

In this seedy WI.P classic Maria (Lina Romay, The Hot Nights of Linda) is sent to an island prison for the murder of her incestuous father, the prison is run by a diabolical lesbo-warden (Monica Swinn, The Duke of Burgundy) who has a penchant for wearing a monocle, reading Nazi literature in bed, and walking around in some seriously demented wardrobes, her preference is for short-shorts and jackboots. She also enjoys the company of women, namely that of her prisoner's whenever the urge arises, occasionally darting her tongue into some ambiguous places in the process. The movie doesn't get much if any set-up, but the standard WIP tropes apply, we have a wicked warden and a group of mostly nude young women, who are subjected to the cruel tortures and erotic delights of the warden and her equally wicked underlings, the diabolical Dr. Costa (Paul Muller, She Killed in Ecstasy) and the pervy torturer Nestor (Eric Faulk, Blue Rita), the latter of whom subjects the women to whippings, beatings and electrocution via the nude women being tied down to a metal bed spring box hooked up to an electrical current. When the women are electrocuted they begin flailing wildly and screaming in pain as the lights dim off and on, it's good, lurid exploitation stuff. 

Lina Romay has that wonderful wide-eyed innocence I love about her, plus that voluptuous 70's body of hers is a major turn on for me, she has something about her that always get under the skin, a lot of it has to do with the way her mouth frames her teeth, but I'm just weird that way, she's a stunner! The nudity in this one is wall-to-wall, including not just her but three other female prisoners, we have the ginger duo of the truly bonkers Ingrid (Peggy Markoff, Swedish Nympho Slaves), who thinks she's a Queen,  the more mean-spirited Rosaria (Beni Cardoso, The Girl from Rio) - who in one scene masturbates with a lit cigarette! - and a blond inmate named Bertha (Martine Stedil, Slaves), all of whom eventually team-up with newcomer Maria for a daring prison break they get the best of the lustful Dr. Costas who is too blinded by his libido to see what's coming.   

The story is mighty threadbare, most WIP films are, but even by that anemic standard this one has no real drive, perhaps even more plotless than Franco's Women in Cell Block 9 (1978). Where it succeeds is amping up the lurid sexploitation with lots of seedy violence and torture thrown in for cheap titillation, and that's all right by me. A scene worth noting, and not for anything good, is a flashback/dream of Maria's father, played by director Jess Franco, chasing her around with thoughts of daughterly lust on his mind. The scene plays out in slow-motion, but the camera is not slowed down, nope, Franco and Romay play the scene moving themselves in slow motion in a Vaseline lensed slice of hilarious strangeness, the effect completely fails, so much so that it's laughable. As much as I do love Franco there's does always tend to be something sort of unintentionally funny about a moment or two, and not just the crazy use of zoom lensing. 

The island prison's relaxed dress code is also suspect in a campy way, sure we get the expected women prisoners without clothing, but the Warden is never seen fully clothed, not even once, when she's not parading around in her jackboots and short-shorts she's in a see-through negligee or less, and during the island escape the guards pursue the women through the jungle topless, including the a woman guard, small things like that just bring a smile to my face - it doesn't have to make sense, it just has to be fun, and despite the depravity of this lurid slice of WIP cinema, it is a good bit of ridiculous fun. 

Barbed Wire Dolls (1976) is a ton of WIP fun, it's super-sleazy even by the usual Jess Franco standards, but not quite on par with the hardcore stuff he did, but there's still plenty of tortured titties, naughty finger and whip penetration and gratuitous crotch shots, but as I've said,  it's not up there with the x-rated cut of The Hot Night of Linda, but it has loads of what a WIP needs to be salaciously entertaining.
  

Audio/Video: Jess Franco's Barbed Wire Dolls (1976) arrives on Blu-ray from the original 35mm negative, restored by Swiss producer Erwin C. Dietrich's from the original vault elements, Full Moon licensed this from Acot who also released region-free BLu-rays of these titles in the U.K.. The results look great, this is a Franco cheapie but the guy had an eye for such exploitation flare and the movie was lensed nicely, but of course there's plenty of zoom lens which Franco loved. Overall the PQ is great, grain is nicely managed, it's sharp, and the colors and flesh tones look natural, it's a great looking Blu-ray. I think it leans towards the greens but not unnaturally so. 

The only audio option on the disc is an English-dubbed Dolby Digital track, sadly we get no lossless audio option, which is unfortunate, but it's a capable lossy track with good fidelity. The dubbed English comes through nicely, with obvious dub limitations, and the Walter Baumgartner (Jack the Ripper) sounds good in the mix, there are no subtitles options.

These were released in the UK by Ascot with extras not included here what we do get is a 34-minute interview conducted by former Fangoria editor Chris Alexander with The Duke of Burgundy director Peter Strickland, whose film started out as a remake of Franco's Lorna the Exorcist (1974), he ended up going another direction but the he's still a passionate fan of euro-cult and Franco in particular.

Then we get a VHS sourced trailer reel of Franco films and a trailer for the movie itself running two-minutes and change. 

Special Features: 
- 2014 Audio Interview with The Duke of Burgundy director Peter Strickland discussing the films of Jess Franco, conducted by Chris Alexander. (24 min) 

Original Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- Vintage Jess Franco VHS Trailer Reel: The Oasis of the Living Dead, Demoniac, A Virgin Among the Living Dead, The Screaming Dead, Erotikill, The Invisible Dead 

I've been asking Full Moon to bring their Jess Franco Collection DVD releases to Blu-ray for awhile now, I'm not taking credit for it, just saying what I already knew, that I wasn't the only one clamoring for these to get the HD upgrade from a U.S. distributor, glad to see it happening with the release of  Barbed Wire Dolls (1976). I prefer Franco's more artsy and somewhat surreal erotic thrillers, She Killed in Ecstasy is still a favorite,  but I do love his seedier WIP films, from the game-changing 99 Women (1969) to this slice of sexed-up sleaze, it's all prime Franco to me.  

FRANCO FEBRUARY - DAY 17! WOMEN IN CELLBLOCK 9 (1978) (Full Moon DVD Review)

Day 17 of Franco February brings the WIP flick Women in Cell Block 9 (1978), a vintage slice of trashy women-in-prison fun that's entertaining but not a great film, heck, it's not even a good Jess Franco movie, but it delivers the usual WIP tropes in spades, including a non-stop barrage of nude, nubile flesh, which is always fun and usually why we're watching a women-in-prison movie to begin with, right? This is a review of the Full Moon Features DVD. 

WOMEN IN CELLBLOCK 9 (1978) 

(aka Frauen für Zellenblock 9 and Tropical Inferno)

Label: Full Moon Features
Region Code: Region-FREE NTSC
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 78 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital Surround 5.1, French Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono. No Subtitles. 
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Karine Gambler, Susan Hemingway, Aida Gouveia, Esther Studer, Dora Doll, Howard Vernon 

In this super trashy slice of Jess Franco women-in-prison (WIP) awfulness we have Karine (Karine Gambier, Caged Women) starring as a South American freedom fighter who along with the sympathetic driver of a fruit truck is transporting a group of freedom fighters and resistance sympathizers through the jungles, among the group are Barbara (Esther Studer, Jack the Ripper), and Aida (Aida Gouveia, Swedish Nympho Slaves). Along the way the truck is stopped by an armed group of men under the direction of wicked prison warden Loba (Dora Doll, Angel of Death) and the sadistic doctor Dr. Martin (Howard Vernon, Countess Perverse), a diabolical doc who specializes in torturing information from freedom fighters in the most painful and sexually perverse ways imaginable. 

The armed guards are told by Karine that they are just transporting fruit, that all their papers are in order, but a search of the truck's cargo reveals the women hidden away in the back, which is when the guard says "this is the kind of fruit my soldiers like!", haha, so cheesy. The women are roughed up, some are raped by the soldiers, and Karine, Barbara and Aida are brought back to Loba's jungle prison, chained by the neck in the standing position, where they await interrogation and further torture at the hands of the sadistic Dr. Milton, played with a wonderful demented glee by Franco alum Howard Vernon.

Also imprisoned at the camp is a young university student named Maria (Susan Hemingway, Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun), who is also subjected to the gruelling sexual tortures of Loba and the doc. Dehydrated and dying for a drink of water Maria if forced to perform oral sex on Loba while an overly-pleased Dr. Milton watches, the scene ends with Maria drinking a flute of champagne laced with salt, and that's one of the nicer displeasures seen onscreen. 

The women are subjected to various tortures including the infamous Spanish donkey torture, which if you're not familiar, one of the women are forced to sit on a sharp edged wooden horse, ouch! Other tortures include electrocution through nipple clamps, and a few even harsher and weirder ones, one of the more demented one features an inclined seat with what looked like an ox-horn mounted on it that penetrates the lady parts, old doc Martin makes it a point to say that most men he's subjected to the same torture have turned homosexual! When that doesn't work a starved rat is introduced into the same orifice of the victim through a metal tube, which looks uncomfortable to say the least, oh boy. Now most of these aren't too graphic, thank the Lord, but these women victims are nude for the entire damn film, you kind of get numb to it after a half hour or so, and the tortures most graphic stuff tends to be blood trickling down the thigh and buttocks, and some foaming at the mouth, not too graphic, late in the film a headshot is pretty much a trickle of blood without any wound, silly stuff, but the idea of the tortures makes the mind reel with horror, Franco really amps up the icky factor with this WIP sleazefest. . 

Eventually one of the women cracks under the pressure of the horrific tortures and reveals the names of her contacts in the city, and the women decide they must break free and warn their contacts before they are captured and killed - leading to an escape that begins with the women feigning a group sex scene, inviting one of the more lustful guards to join in on the fun. When the foolish horn dog unshackles them he is knocked unconscious, the four women escaping into the jungle, still completely nude, of course, and armed with a rifle. One of them women is killed and another is shot and seriously wounded, slowing the others down.Eventually the women make their way to an ancient ruin in the jungle, where a final confrontation with Loba and Dr. Nilton takes place, and boy is this finale a dour one.  

Women of Cellblock 9 (1977) is a pretty threadbare WIP entry, even by the already low standards of WIP movies, the driving force of the film are nude women and horrific torture, and it delivers the goods on both ends with plenty of gorgeous women being treated subhumanly throughout. This feels like a Franco rush job, a movie made on the fly, for cheap, for some quick cash, there are no real leanings towards his artsier smut films from the 70s, and nothing as extravagant as is first WIP film, 99 Women (1969). 

Not sure where this one was shot, but the jungle locations worked for me, they're obviously not too deep in the jungle, but just deep enough to look green and lush, with plenty of luscious green fauna, and some supposedly croc infested waters from which our heroines just barely seem to escape, though they never even share a frame with the crocs, we just get some rather poorly matched stock footage of the toothy creatures. Funnily, just after evading the crocs the three women take a nap/sunbath right on the grassy edge of the water, apparently these crocs don't ever come out of the water, and they're not in too much of a hurry to evade their captors, haha.  

The movie benefits from a rather good score by composer Walter Baumgartner, who scored a load of 70s Franco movies, including Jack the Ripper (1976), Wanda the Wicked Warden (1977) and Marquise de Sade (1976). As threadbare as the story is this is enjoyable as a sleazy WIP entry, some decent enough lensing from cinematographer Ruedi Küttel (Wanda the Wicked Warden), who captures the flesh and lush jungle nicely even if it's a far cry from Franco's more artful and thoughtful productions of the era. 

As a bit of trivia, apparently the movie has steadfastly been refused classification by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) for home video release because actress Susan Hemingway was barely sixteen years old when she made the film, here's the official reason for the BBFC rejection and glorified sexual violence: 

Under the Video Recordings Act 1984,the Board is required to consider any harmful effect that a video work may have upon potential viewers or,through their behaviour,to society by the manner in which it deals with (amongst other things) violent behaviour,horrific behaviour and human sexual activity. Women in Cellblock 9 contains many sequences depicting the abuse,torture and humiliation of naked women. These sequences were found to be in conflict with the Board's published classification guidelines,which prohibit scenes that eroticise or endorse sexual assault. The Board's strict stance on titillatory sexual violence is supported both by public opinion and by a large body of media effects research. In addition,The Protection of Children Act,as amended by the Sexual Offences Act 2003,makes the distribution and showing of indecent photographs of a child under the age of 18 a criminal offence. One of the lead actresses in Women in Cellblock 9 was just over 16 at the time the film was made. The Board was in no doubt that many of the sexualised scenes involving her would therefore be illegal. Although the amendment will not take effect until May 2004,the BBFC cannot classify material which would be in circulation in breach of the Act. The Board considered the option of cutting the work. However,the quantity of scenes involving eroticised sexual violence,combined with the indecent photographs of a person under 18,meant that cuts were not a viable option.,Dubbed,Widescreen

Audio/Video: Franco's Women In Cellblock 9 (1978) arrives on DVD from Full Moon as part eight of their ten volume Jess Franco Collection. The uncut transfer struck directly from producer Dietrich's own archival negative, restored, and looking quite nice in standard-definition. Colors are vibrant, jungle foliage looks good, and the amply seen flesh tones are natural looking. The source is in great shape without any notable defects, white speckling is kept to a minimum, I saw what looks like some telecine wobble at certain points, but overall this is very pleasing. 

Audio on the disc includes an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track and French Dolby Digital 2.0, the English dub on this is atrocious, the French dub isn't perfect either but the performances seemed a bit more nuanced and not so clumsily assembled, but there are no English subtitle for the French track, which is the biggest mark against it. That said the English dub has more oomph to it, it's more robust and full bodied. There are no subtitle options 

Extras on the disc include a 40-min audio interview with Franco from 1976, conducted in Spanish with English subtitles. There's also a trailer for the film and a 7-min VHS trailer reel of Franco films. 

Special Features:
- Franco, Bloody Franco: An Interview with Jess Franco (Spanish with English Subtitles)(40 min) 
Trailer (3 min) 
- Vintage Jess Franco Trailer Reel(7 min) 

This vintage slice of WIP is trashy fun, though it's not a great film, it's not even a good Jess Franco movie, but it delivers the usual WIP tropes in spades, including a non-stop barrage of nude, nubile flesh, which is always fun and usually why we're watching a women-in-prison movie to begin with, right? I love that these Erwin C. Dietrich produced Franco films getting a release in the U.S., and I am hoping we see them make the leap to Blu-ray soon. 

FRANCO FEBRUARY - DAY 1! ANGEL OF DEATH (1987) (Full Moon Features Blu-ray Review with Screenshots)

We're kicking of Franco February 2024, a celebration of prolific Euro-sleaze titan Jess Franco, with a look back at the Jess Franco & Andrea Bianchi directed late-80s Nazisploitation mind-boggler Angel of Death (1987). Look for more Franco-tastic spotlights throughout the month, including new reviews for Voodoo Passion (1977), Blue Rita (1977), Downtown Heat (1990) and Countdown to Esmerelda Bay (1994), plus a few other surprises. 

ANGEL OF DEATH (1987) 

aka COMMANDO MENGELE

Label: Full Moon Features

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 97 Minutes 

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.67:1) 

Director:  Jess Franco, Andrea Bianchi

Cast: Jack Taylor, Christopher Mitchum, Fernando Rey, Howard Vernon, Dora Doll

Written and co-directed by Jess Franco (Barbed Wire Dolls) Angel of Death (1987) (aka Commando Mengele) is a slightly daft nazisploitaion entry that riffs on The Boys From Brazil (1978) with Nazis hiding in South America plotting their return while indulging in some horrific science experiments. In it Nazi hunters Aaron Horner (Jack Taylor, Pieces) and Marc Logan (Antonio Mayans, Devil Hunter) are in Uruguay on the hunt for the escaped Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele (Howard Vernon, Countess Perverse) who has set-up shop down in sunny South America. 

Since the fall of The Third Reich Mengele has kept himself busy, continuing his horrific human experimentation with the help of his Arian-bitch assistant Gertrud (Shirley Knight, White Cannibal Queen), working on the next step in human evolution... a human-chimp hybrid with a unibrow? Anyway, he has also been rebranding the Nazi party as The Fourth Reich (there are 4R logos all over the place) - very clever - and building an army of mercenaries trained by a fascist-loving crippled American Vietnam vet named Wolfgang von Backey (Christopher Mitchum, Murder In A Blue World - the son of Hollywood icon Robert Mitchum). The Nazi hunters are aided by Eva (Suzanne Andrews, Mania Killer) who is a mole working inside Mengele's base of operation, but when she is discovered to be a traitor she is beaten and thrown into his experiment Hell hole by Mengele who subjects her to... well, I am not too sure to be honest, but she has a band aid on her cheek so it must have been awful. The final leg of the film features the Nazi hunters storming the lair of Mengele. 

The demented action flick doesn't quite feel like a true Jess Franco production, his heart doesn't seem in it, especially for something he wrote. The sleaze-factor is non-existent with no nudity and we don't get the usual wild lensing either. While Franco wrote the screenplay under the name D. Khunn and directed some of the film, at some point Italian trash legend Andrea Bianchi (Naughty Teen) was brought in to snazz things up, with the directing credit  being credited to "Frank Drew White". Legend tells that the notorious directors were apparently too nervous to take credit for making it because of the subject matter, mmm hmm. I think the truth is probably that they were both embarrassed by it, as it didn't live up to either of their reputations as far as WTF-ery, for better or worse. 

It's very a very low-stakes watch but not without it's share of demented fun with Nazi hunters storming the Fourth Reich's castle lair with lots of explosion, gunshots and crossbow bolts flying, plus some silly kung-fu shenanigans. It's got a deep cast of euro-cult stars and never-weres, including Fernando Rey (Companeros) who literally phones in a cameo as an off-site Nazi hunter. I'll tell you, it's be a deadly drinking game if you took a shot every time you saw someone on a phone in this flick, you'd be dead forty-minutes into it. While we don't get the wild Franco cinematography what we do get is a painful amount of slow-motion action, especially during the finale. 

Angel of Death is a cheaply made straight-to-video bit of Nazisploitation with a terrible synth score, shit acting and even shittier action, alongside plaintive cinematography that is credited to Roger Fellous (White Fire) and Juan Soler (Cries of Pleasure), but somehow it all comes together in a euro-cult mélange of mayhem and destruction that is sure to please fans of trash cinema and glorious VHS-era crap-ola. 

Audio/Video: Angel of Death (`1987) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Full Moon Features as part of The Eurocine Collection in 1080p HD and framed in 1.66:1 widescreen with a "Commando Mengele "Angel of death" title card. This is advertised as "a beautiful, uncut master culled from the original 35mm camera negative" and the flick actually looks quite good in HD. Grain levels are solid, colors are vibrant and there's a nice depth and clarity to the image throughout with some occasional softness, but overall this is a quite pleasing Blu-ray image. 

Audio comes by way of lossy (c'mon Full Moon, you can do better!) English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround without subtitles of any kind. I preferred the stereo, but both are clean and free of distortion, and English seems to be the original language spoken during the film. The score is a half-hearted series of repeating synth-blurbs credited to Norbert Verrone, it's pretty awful and doesn't sound great but somehow it perfectly suits the cheesy action flick. 

The only extras on the disc is the same set of euro-cult trailers that have accompanied most of The Eurocine Collection releases from Full Moon. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single sided sleeve of artwork featuring the illustrated VHS artwork which is excerpted on the Blu-ray disc as well. 

Special Features:

- Euro-Cult Trailers: Naked Girl Murdered in the Park (2 min), Barbed Wire Dolls (1 min), Love Letters To A Portuguese Nun (3 min), Satanic Sisters (1 min), Voodoo Passion (1 min), Women In Cell Block 9 (1 min) 

Angel of Death (1987) is a mind-boggling daft slice of Nazisploitation with an array of euro-cult talent both behind and in front of the camera. If you're already a fan of Jess Franco and Andrea Bianchi, or just a fan of cheaply made but action-packed exploitation, it's worth a watch. Kudos to Full Moon for the pleasing HD image, now if they could just commit to compressed audio and some extras I think we'd all be even more grateful.

Angel of Death is available as either a stand alone Blu-ray or as part of the 6-film Eurocine Collection Vol. 1 box set from Full Moon Features, 

Screenshots from the Full Moon Blu-ray: 

Purchase the Angel of Death (1987) Blu-ray through our Amazon Affiliate link, Commissions Earned: https://amzn.to/3SFqgkH - it also available as part of the 6-film Eurocine Collection Vol. 1 Blu-ray box set: https://amzn.to/45lLjgo