FRANCO FEBRUARY DAY 29! 99 WOMEN (1969) (Blue Underground Blu-ray Review)

99 WOMEN (1969)

3-Disc Unrated Director's Cut 

Label: Blue Underground
Region Code: Region FREE
Duration: 90 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA MA 1.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Maria Schell, Mercedes McCambridge, Maria Rohm, Rosalba Neri, Herbert Lom

Strap yourself in for a raucous mix of eurocult sexploitation and filthy WIP action with the yet another Jess Franco/Harry Alan Towers team-up! This time around we are watching 99 Women (1969), wherein a new female inmate Marie (Maria Rohm, Eugenie ...the Story of Her Journey into Perversion) arrives at the infamous "Castle of Death" island women for prison, a grim place ruled with an iron fist by the wicked prison warden Thelma Diaz (Mercedes McCambridge, The Exorcist), a cruel woman who strips the women of their names and gives them a number, poor blond Maria (Rohm) becoming number "98". 

We find out that Maria was convicted and sent to the island prison for killing one of her rapists, how dare she, right? She arrives at the island via boat alongside a prostitute named Helga (Elisa Montes, The Girl From Rio) and a drug addict in withdrawal named Natalie (Luciana Paluzzi, The Green Slime), though poor Natalie is not around for too very long, dying within minutes of the start of the movie. When nice girl Maria calls on the guards for help to assist the dying woman she is punished for her troubles by the Warden who locks her away in a secluded cell with rapey-lesbian named Zoie (a very sexy Rosalba Neri, Lady Frankenstein) who forces herself on Maria. Afterward she is pimped out to the corrupt official, Governor Santos (Herbert Lom, And Now the Screaming Starts). It turns out that the Warden has been treating Santos to a steady supply of the more attractive female inmates for his own sexual delights. It just wouldn't be a WIP movie without the rape, torture and cruelty of the women behind bars, and Franco is only too happy to oblige in all department with his usual array of kinky perversity and zoom-in auteurism. However, this arrangement in threatened when do-gooder prison administrator Leonie (Maria Schell, The Hanging Tree) arrives to investigate the recent string of inmate deaths, the most recent being the drug-addict Natalie. She is appalled by the conditions at the prison after witnessing the humiliation and abuses suffered by the women, including that of Maria whom she takes a liking too. Of course, the wicked warden and naughty governor are none happy with her idea of reformation, but it seems that the reforms have come too late, and a daring escape through the jungle is hatched by Maria and the other women who are fed up with the abuse.

Maria Rohm gives a good dramatic performance in a movie with no shortage of attractive women, all of whom are used and abused by the corrupt warden. The usual WIP tropes apply here with plenty of nude women, a bit of woman on woman love/rape, a couple of cat fights, and the tropical air is thick with jailer-corruption, but it's all in good fun. To be honest the movie is not all that brutal when compared to what would follow in the coming years, but it is a seedy slice of Franco-directed WIP that is hard to forget, particularly for the troubling sexual politics/crimes perpetrated on poor Maria, who is forcibly raped by an fellow woman inmate, only to succumb to her own lust as she begins to enjoy the rape! Peckinpah (Straw Dogs) would be proud, haha.  As a slice of WIP you sort of have to expect these sort of troubling and improbable male fantasies, right? The movie is visually pleasing on all fronts with some great set decoration and tropical locations with some nice Franco lensing, including a nightmare of the rape Maria endured, the one which sent her to prison for murder, and it has a nice arthouse voyeuristic quality to it, well done Mr. Franco.

While this must have been some of the worst filth to find its way into the cinema in 1969 I will say that 99 Women doesn't have a whole lot of shock value these days, it seems quite tame compared to some of the '80s WIP flicks, but the draw for me is the allure of Jess Franco's brand of delirious exploitation, and this was notably his first foray behind bars, but it would certainly not be his last, or even his best. Also pushing this movie along are the performances of Lom and McCambridge as the corrupt prison officials, Lom is sort of quietly corrupt with a stately demeanor, but McCambridge really gets to camp it up here as the authoritarian jailer, she gives a wonderfully wicked performance that made the movie for me and keeps me coming back time and time again.

Audio/Video: 99 Women (1969) arrives on Blu-ray with a fresh 4K scan from the original negative and colors are lush and nicely saturated, skin tones look natural and the black levels are decent. Unfortunately the image looks like it has been treated to a massive dose of digital noise reduction, wiping away trace amounts of grain and smearing away fine detail, leaving behind a waxy and plasticine image that takes away from the viewing experience, which for some will be a deal-breaker. Audio on the disc comes by way of a DTS-HD MA Mono 1.0 track which sounds damn good, dialogue is crisp and clean, no issues with hiss or distortion. Notably, the cool Bruno Nicolai score comes through strong with some decent depth, even that annoying pop/theme song, optional English subtitles are provided.

Onto packaging and extras we have three discs housed within a clear Criterion-style keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork plus a 20-page collector's booklet with cast and crew info, CD track listing and chapter selection plus writing on the film from noted author Stephen Thrower adapted from his book  Murderous Passions: The - Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco, which is a great read, no one writes about Franco with such intelligent passion as Thrower. 

Onto the discs, we have a DVD and Blu-ray with the same feature and extras, plus a third disc, a CD with the Bruno Nicolai score, licensed from Beat Records. Special features begin with a 2005 interview with Jess Franco who speaks about the production, cast and his collaboration with producer Harry Alan Tower, this is a carry over from the previous BU DVD release. New is a 16-minute interview with author Stephen Thrower who speaks about the film within the context of Franco's body of work, commenting the director's collaboration with the notorious producer who would apparently wine and dine the big name stars of the movies at the expense of the shooting budget! There's also a selection of three deleted scenes, including an extended rape scene and two other scenes sources from inferior VHS sources which don't add up to much. Finishing up the extras there's a poster and still gallery, the salacious original trailer, the collector's booklet and CD soundtrack.  

Special Features: 
- Jess' Women - 2005 Interview with Director Jess Franco (17 Min) HD
- Jess, Harry and 99 WOMEN - Interview with Stephen Thrower, author of "Murderous Passions: The - Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco" (16 Mins) HD
- Deleted & Alternate Scenes (23 Min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 Min) HD
- Poster & Still Gallery (70 Images) HD
- Collectable Booklet includes writing by author Stephen Thrower
- 99 WOMEN Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD by Bruno Nicolai (27 Tracks)

A prime slice of Jess Franco WIP on Blu-ray from Blue Underground, this one slightly marred slightly by the unfortunate digital clean-up, but if you're a Franco-phile and enjoy his collaborations with the notorious producer Harry Alan Towers you're probably still gonna want to own this one. If you're a next-level perv Blue Underground have also released a 3-Disc Limited Edition Blu-ray containing the same extras and the director's cut, plus the notorious 98-minute French Version with hardcore sex inserts not shot by Jess Franco, which doesn't interest me. 3.5/5 

ASYLUM (1972) (Second Sight Films Blu-ray Review)

ASYLUM (1972) 

Label: Second Sight Films 
Region Code: B
Duration: 88 Minutes 
Rating: Cert.15
Audio: English LPCM 1.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: Peter Cushing, Britt Ekland, Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee, Barry Morse, Robert Powell 

This Amicus produced horror anthology directed by Roy Ward Baker (And Now The Screaming Starts), and written by Robert Bloch (Torture Garden), is a very fine example of the classic portmanteau-film, a collection of chilling (and usually slightly hokey) short stories blended together with a unifying wrap around story. Amicus made a wonderful assortment of them in the 70's, and Asylum is a top-tier entry. I ike that the wrap-around story evolves into it's own vignette, beginning with Dr. Martin (Robert Powell, Harlequin) arriving at an asylum, interviewing for the lead physician position. He's greeted by a wheelchair bound Dr. Lionel Rutherford (Patrick Magee, Lucio Fulci's The Black Cat) who informs him that the job interview will be a bit unusual, with Dr. Martin having to interview four criminally insane inmates who are locked away on the secured second floor, deducing which of the nutters is actually the former head doctor of the asylum, he or she having had a violent mental breakdown themselves, and if he chooses correctly he will be considered for the position. That's our wrap-around story in a nutshell, with Dr. Martin touring the second floor of the facility with an orderly named Max (Geoffrey Bayldon, The House That Dripped Blood) escorting him and offering some wry commentary along the way.

The first of the stories proper is "Frozen Fear", a tale of a unhappily married man named Walter (Richard Todd, The Secret of Dorian Gray) who is desperate to be rid of his wife Ruth (Sylvia Syms, The Tamarind Seed), to that end he has planned to ax-murder her in the basement, as you do. However, her dabblings in the occult makes her murder and dismemberment one worth remembering, with her having vengeance from beyond the grave. This one starts things off briskly as the husband chops her up rather quickly after luring her to his basement/kill-room, wrapping her torso and severed head and limbs in brown deli-wrap paper and tidily binding it with string like a well-manicured cut of meat from the butcher's shop. Stowing her remains in basement freezer he begins planning a getaway with his new lover Bonnie (Barbara Parkins, The Mephisto Waltz) only to be interrupted by his ax-whacked wife whose surprisingly re-animated pieces have a go at him. I loved this one, it's a fun opening salvo that starts things off with a wink and a nod, light-hearted perfection, if you can call wife-murder light-hearted. 

Up next we have "The Weird Tailor" wherein a cash-strapped tailor named Bruno (Barry Morse, The Changeling) on the verge of being evicted from his home is approached by a seemingly wealthy patron named Mr. Smith (Peter Cushing, Corruption), tasked with stitching together a custom fitted suit with the odd instructions that it must only be sewn in the early morning hours after midnight and before dawn. Strange though the request may seem Bruno dutifully fulfills the order per the curious instructions, however, upon delivering the finished suit to his patron he finds that Mr. Smith not only doesn't have the promised money but has some weird occult resurrection in the works! Anything with Peter Cushing in it is gonna be worth a watch, but it's Barry Morse who steals the show this time around. I love his performance as the tailor, and the twist involving a store mannequin was pleasantly unexpected, if a bit goofy.  

Orderly Max next introduces Dr. Martin to a young woman named Barbara (Charlotte Rampling, Orca) in the segment "Lucy Comes To Stay", she relays to him the story of how she was formerly incarcerated at an asylum before being freed, released to her brother George (James Villiers, Otley) who sets her up at home under the supervision of a nurse named Miss Higgins (Megs Jenkins, The Innocents), but having the defacto babysitter watching over her frustrates her. When Barbara's friend, the prankster Lucy (Britt Ekland, What The Peeper Saw), shows up unexpectedly it cheers her up a bit, but when Lucy's pranks turn to murder most foul she blames Lucy, but there's a problem with that scenario we come to find out.

The last of the stories proper is "Mannikins of Horror" starring the always great (no matter how bad the film may be) Herbert Lom (Count Dracula) as a patient at the asylum who is working on some sort of soul-transference process, obsessed with the notion of sending his psyche into that of a tiny automaton, which looks for the most part like a cheap wind-up toy with a well-crafted likeness of his own head on it. Let's just not think about why a mental health facility would encourage such a thing and let him keep the damn toy in his room, but it has a decent payoff that works better than it should. Herbert Lom is fantastic, and the premise works better than the cheap looking robot would have had me believe, this one tying directly into the wrap-around story at the asylum, and then we finish-up with a fun (though not shocking) conclusion with orderly Max addressing us, the viewers, directly, as a new candidate arrives at the asylum for the same sort of interview.    

Audio/Video: Asylum (1972) arrives on region-B locked Blu-ray from Second Sight Films, this looks to be the same 2K scan as released by Severin Films as part of their The Amicus Collection. Framed in 1.85:1 widescreen the 1080p HD image is a bit on the soft side but acceptable given the source, looking to be a theatrical print, colors look good and the grain field is nicely managed for the most part, while looking overly abundant at times, it's not pristine but still a vast improvement over the Dark Sky Films DVD. The English DTS-HD MA 1.0 Mono audio exports the orchestral score from Douglas Gamely nicely,including his wonderfully bombastic rendition of "Night on Bald Mountain" which opens the film. Optional English subtitles are provided.  

Onto the extras we get the same set of extras from the U.S. Scream Factory release beginning with a lively vintage commentary with Director Roy Ward Baker and camera operator Neil Binney moderated by Marcus Hearn, many facets of the production are covered, good stuff. We then get a vintage on-set featurette by the BBC filmed during shooting of the film. New stuff begins with an appreciation of writer Robert Block (Psycho) by writer David J. Schow (Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III), plus a remembrance of Amicus' Milton Subotsky by his widow. The 20-min Inside The Fear Factory Featurette is a nice overview of Amicus Films as told by Directors Roy Ward Baker, Freddie Francis and Producer Max J. Rosenberg, if you're a fan of British horror and Amicus in particular this is a fun watch. The disc is finished up with two trailers for the film.

The single disc release comes housed in oversized black Blu-ray keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork, the a-side featuring new artwork from by artist Graham Humphreys, the b-side featuring the original illustrated artwork for the film, without the blemish of the ratings logo obscuring the front cover and the spine, with the Humphrey's artwork option also being featured on the disc itself.

Asylum (1972) was previously issued by Second Sight Films as a limited edition release with a rigid slipcase along with a 40-page booklet with new essays, and While that edition is now out-of-print the film has kindly been reissued by Second Sight as this attractive standard release. 

Special Features:
- Two’s A Company: 1972 On-set report from BBC featuring Interviews With Producer Milton Subotsky, Director Roy Ward Baker, Actors Charlotte Rampling, James Villiers, Megs Jenkins, Art Director Tony Curtis and Production Manager Teresa Bolland (18 min)  
- David J. Schow on Robert Bloch (21 min)  
- Fiona Subotsky Remembers Milton Subotsky – Featurette (10 min)
- Inside The Fear Factory Featurette with Directors Roy Ward Baker, Freddie Francis and Producer Max J. Rosenberg (20 min) 
- Audio Commentary with Director Roy Ward Baker and Camera Operator Neil Binney
- Theatrical Trailers (3 min) 

I have always loved the Amicus horror anthologies, the short-story format is appealing to me, and while there's usually a dud among the three or four stories I find that the occasional bad apple doesn't spoil the whole basket of vignetted-fruit. While none of the stories in Asylum (1972) are particularly horrifying or overly clever they all bring a smile to my face, even the wrap around story is great fun, plus we have an outstanding cast that includes Herbert Lom and Peter Cushing. A well-crafted and stylish series of vignettes that flow well, making this a classic slice of British anthology horror. Asylum gets a wonderful UK release from Second Sight Films, highly recommended to UK readers who have not imported the Scream Factory release. 

 

AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS (1973) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS (1973) 

Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 91 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0, Spanish Dolby Digital Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: Peter Cushing, Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee, Stephanie Beacham

Gothic shocker And Now The Screaming Starts (1973) was directed by Roy Ward Baker (Asylum) and was a bit of a stylistic departure for Amicus in that it was not an anthology film and it's a Gothic period piece, which was first and only for them. Set in the 1700's we have Charles Fengriffin (Ian Ogilvy, The Witchfinder General) bringing his gorgeous new bride Catherine (Stephanie Beacham, Schizo) back to his ancestral home, there she is almost immediately spooked by a portrait hanging on the wall, one of Charles grandfather Sir Henry Fengriffin (Herbert Lom, 99 Women). She gets woozy at the sight of it and imagines a bloodied hand erupting from the painting... and that's when the screaming starts. When it turns out to be nothing her doting husband chalks it up to newlywed nerves and as they settle in for the night, when Charles steps out of the room for just a moment she is attacked in bed by a disembodied hand, and once again there's no proof of what frightened her and they move on as though nothing had happened.   

Elsewhere on the sprawling  property lives a woodsman (Geoffrey Whitehead) who lives rent free, telling Catherine that his grandfather was bequeathed the small property by Sir Henry Fengriffin himself, when she inquires to Charles about why the woodsman's family was gifted the land he refuses to say, but it has something to do with a dark family secret, which is revealed in flashback during the latter half of the movie, and boy is it terrible stuff. This might be one of Herbert Lom's most despicable characters, and that's saying something as he also starred in Jess Franco's 99 Women and Mark of the Devil!

Charles doesn't seem to believe his new bride's frightful visions are real - including an eyeless phantom who looks a lot like the woodsman - but nonetheless he calls in Doctor Whittle (Patrick Magee, Lucio Fulci's Black Cat) to assess the situation, but when he dies her must call in yet another doc, Doctor Pope (Peter Cushing, Frankenstein Created Woman) who both begin to look into the root cause of his new bride's frightful visions - and of course it all goes back to Sir Henry's debauchery fifty years earlier. . 

And Now The S Creaming Starts is reported to have been Amicus's most expensive production and it shows, this is the only Gothic period piece they did and they went all out, trying to out-Hammer Hammer with lush visuals, from the painterly rural locations to the atmospheric wafts of morning fog drifting across the property, this thing is dripping with Victorian melodrama and Gothic chills in every frame. The pace is a bit languid by Amicus standards which might be why this one is sort of relegated to lower-tier Amicus appreciation status in my opinion, it's just not a film I think gets it's due when one thinks of Gothic British horror. 

The direction from Roy Ward Baker (The Vampire Lovers) is top notch as usual, reuniting him with actors Peter Cushing, Partrick Magee and Herbert Lom who also appeared together in Baker's Amicus anthology Asylum (1972). I won't get anymore spoilery that I already have but Herbert Lom's character is absolutely the worst human being, he's the key to the curse that haunts the Fengriffin family and the comeuppance at the end is twistedly wonderful, I love the ending of this one and how it all comes full circle.  
   
Audio/Video: And Now The Screaming Starts (1973) arrives on Blu-ray from Severin Film remastered in 4K, and looking to have been sourced from a quality print, easily surpassing Ayslum (1973) in terms of picture quality. The grain is better managed, colors are more robust and the image density more uniform, with some scenes showcasing some very fine detail. There's some minor print damage by way of small scratches, white speckling and at least one cigarette burn I noticed, nut overall this is a very pleasing HD upgrade of this Amicus Gothic chiller. 

Audio on the disc comes by way of an English language DTS-HD MA Mono track, capably exporting dialogue without issue, the score from Douglas Gamley sounds great, the lush arrangements complimenting the Gothic visuals nicely. Also included is the option to watch the film with a Spanish-dub track presented in Dolby Digital mono, which is expectedly a much flatter audio presentation without the depth and separation of the DTS-HD audio. 

Onto the extras Severin have carried over the theatrical trailer and a pair of audio commentaries from the previous Dark Sky Films release, the first with Director Roy Ward Baker and Actress Stephanie Beacham moderated by  director Marcus Hearn (Marcus Hearn, Hammer Horror: The Warner Bros. Years) and a second with Star Ian Ogilvy moderated by film archivist Darren Gross. 

Onto the new stuff, the 15-min Haunting of Oakley Court is a look at the iconic filming location known as Oakley Court, a Victorian mansion used in literally hundreds of films ranging from Brides of Dracula, to Girly and the cult-classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, one look at it and you will recognize it from multiple movies and television appearances, even if you cannot place the film you will know the unmistakable facade. The tour is a walk about the grounds with authors Allan Bryce and David Flint, walking and talking as clips from various movies made there play out, along the way they offer a history of the location, which was favorited by both Amicus and Hammer through the years. There's also a 12-min audio interview with Actor Peter Cushing By Denis Meikle that touches on his work with director Freddie Francis, Christopher Lee, and working with both Amicus and Hammer Films. Journalist Denis Meikle shows up for a brief 4-min dress-down of the film, he doesn't have a high opinion of it, speaking about the oddity of an Amicus Gothic production at a time when such things were on the down turn, as was the British film industry, also speaking a bit about Cushing's fragile state of mind following his wife's death. 

The single-disc release comes housed in a nifty black Blu-ray case with a single-sided sleeve of artwork, which looks to be the original VHS artwork, the disc features an excerpt of the same artwork. If I could have my everything I do wish we had a reversible option featuring the original movie poster illustration of a hand pulling back bed sheets, which Dark Sky used on their previous DVD edition. 

This release is also available as part of Severin's 4-disc limited edition of The Amicus Collection which also features the anthology Asylum (1972), the werewolf whodunit The Beast Must Die (1974), as well as a bonus disc stuffed with a complete set of Amicus trailers, TV commercials, rare interviews and more. The Beast Must Die and the bonus disc are exclusive to the limited edition set (of 3500) which is now sold out on the Severin site but still available for about $60 at various online retailers right now, so act quickly on this one if you want the 4-disc set, it's worth it, I'm glad I ordered mine the day that set went live at the Severin site!  

  Special Features:
- The Haunting Of Oakley Court – Featurette with Allan Bryce, Author of “Amicus: The Friendly Face Of Fear”, and David Flint, Author of “Ten Years Of Terror”, visit the classic horror film location (15 min) HD 
- Audio Commentary with Director Roy Ward Baker and Actress Stephanie Beacham
- Audio Commentary with Star Ian Ogilvy
- Archive Audio Interview with Actor Peter Cushing By Denis Meikle (12 min) 
- Horror Journalist Denis Meikle Recalls And Now The Screaming Starts – Featurette (4 min) HD
- Theatrical Trailer (1 min) HD
- Radio Spot (1 min) HD

And Now The Screaming Starts (1973) is an overlooked gem of British horror, a creaky Gothic tale of debauchery and ancestral revenge that is worth re-evaluating if you've passed it by previously, Lord know I have through the years. Maybe because I've acquired a taste for slow-burning Gothic chillers as I've grown older this played gangbusters for me, right up to the shocker finale that features a fevered desiccated corpse desecration. The new Blu-ray from Severin is the best this has ever looked on home video by a Gothic mile, so have no fear, this is worth the upgrade and some serious re-evaluation. 

ASYLUM (1972) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

ASYLUM (1972) 

Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-FREE
Duration: 88 Minutes 
Rating: PG
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Roy Ward Baker
Cast: Peter Cushing, Britt Ekland, Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee, Barry Morse, Robert Powell 

This Amicus produced horror anthology directed by Roy Ward Baker (The Vault of Horror) and written by Robert Bloch (Psycho) is a very fine example of the classic portmanteau-film, a collection of chilling (and usually slightly hokey) short stories blended together with a unifying wrap around story. Hammer's arch-rival Amicus made a wonderfully robust amount of them in the 70's, and Asylum is one of the best of the bunch. The wrap-around story - which evolves into it's own vignette - begins with Dr. Martin (Robert Powell, The Asphyx) arriving at an asylum for a job interview for the lead physician position. He's greeted by a wheelchair bound  Dr. Lionel Rutherford (Patrick Magee, A Clockwork Orange) who informs him that his job interview will be a rather unusual one, he will have to interview four criminally insane inmates kept locked away on the secured second floor and deduce which is actually the former head doctor of the asylum, he or she having had a violent mental breakdown, if he chooses correctly he will be considered for the position. That's our wrap-around story in a nutshell, with Dr. Martin touring the second floor of the facility with an orderly named Max (Geoffrey Bayldon, Tales from the Crypt) escorting him and offering some wry commentary along the way.

The first of the stories proper is "Frozen Fear", a tale of a unhappily married man named Walter (Richard Todd, Bloodbath) who is desperate to be rid of his wife Ruth (Sylvia Syms, The Tamarind Seed), to that end he has planned to ax-murder her in the basement, as you do. However, her dabbling in the occult makes her brutal dismemberment one worth remembering, she having her vengeance from beyond the grave. This one starts things off briskly as the husband chops her up rather quickly after luring her to his basement/kill-room, wrapping her torso and severed head and limbs in brown deli-wrap paper and tidily binding it with string like a well-manicured choice cut of meat fresh from the local butcher's shop. Stowing her remains in freezer he begins planning a getaway with his new lover Bonnie (Barbara Parkins, The Mephisto Waltz) only to be interrupted by his ax-whacked wife whose surprisingly re-animated pieces have a go at him. I loved this one, it's a fun opening salvo that starts things off with a wink and a nod, light-hearted perfection, if you can call wife-murder light-hearted. 

Up next we have "The Weird Tailor" wherein a cash-strapped tailor named Bruno (Barry Morse, Funeral Home) on the verge of being evicted is approached by a seemingly wealthy patron named Mr. Smith (Peter Cushing, Corruption), tasked with stitching together a custom fitted suit with the odd instructions that it must only be sewn in the early morning hours after midnight and before dawn. Strange though the request may be Bruno dutifully fulfills the order per the instructions,  however, upon delivering the finished suit to his patron he finds that Mr. Smith not only doesn't have the promised money but has some weird occult resurrection in the works! Anything with Peter Cushing in it is gonna be worth a watch, and this segment is no different, but it's Barry Morse who steals the show this time around, I love his performance as the tailor, and the twist at the end involving a store mannequin at his shop was rather unexpected, and a bit goofy.  

Orderly Max next introduced Dr. Martin to a young woman named 
Barbara (Charlotte Rampling, The Night Porter) in the segment "Lucy Comes To Stay", she relays to him the story of how she was formerly incarcerated at an asylum before being freed, released to her brother George (James Villiers, Otley) who sets her up at home under the supervision of a kindly older nurse named Miss Higgins (Megs Jenkins, The Innocents), which frustrates her. When her friend prankster Lucy (Brit Ekland, What The Peeper Saw) shows up unexpectedly it cheers her up a bit, but when Lucy's pranks turn to murder most foul she blames Lucy, but there's a problem with that scenario we come to find out.

The last of the stories proper is "Mannikins of Horror" starring the always great (no matter how bad the film may be) Herbert Lom (And Now The Screaming Starts) as a patient at the asylum who is working on some sort of soul-transference process, obsessed with the notion of sending his psyche into that of a tiny automaton, which looks for the most part like a cheap wind-up toy with a well-crafted likeness of his own head on it. Let's just not think about why a mental health facility would encourage such a thing and let him keep the damn toy in his room, but it has a decent payoff that works better than it should. Herbert Lom is fantastic, and the premise works better than the cheap looking robot would have had me believe, this one tying directly into the wrap-around story at the asylum, and then we finish-up with a fun (though not shocking) conclusion with orderly Max addressing us, the viewers, directly, as a new candidate arrives at the asylum for the same sort of interview.    

Audio/Video: Asylum (1972) arrives on Blu-ray from Severin Films, this is a film that hasn't had an update on home video since Dark Sky Films gave it a special edition DVD polish years ago, so this is a welcome HD upgrade, sourced from a new 2K scan of "vault elements" which judging by the image was a good quality theatrical print. Framed in 1.78:1 widescreen the 1080p HD image is a bit on the soft side but acceptable given the source, colors look good and the grain field is nicely managed for the most part, while looking overly abundant at times, it's not pristine but it's the best we've had on home video so far. The English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono audio exports the orchestral score from Douglas Gamely nicely, dialogue is clean and clear, everything well-balanced without distortion. A Spanish-dub track is also included as an audio option. 

Onto the extras we get a nice selection, beginning with a lively vintage commentary with Director Roy Ward Baker and camera operator Neil Binney moderated by Marcus Hearn, many facets of the production are covered, good stuff. We then get a vintage on-set featurette by the BBC filmed during shooting of the film. New stuff begins with an appreciation of writer Robert Block (Psycho) by writer David J. Schow (Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III), plus a remembrance of Amicus' Milton Subotsky by his widow. The 20-min Inside The Fear Factory Featurette is a nice overview of Amicus Films as told by Directors Roy Ward Baker, Freddie Francis and Producer Max J. Rosenberg, if you're a fan of British horror and Amicus in particular this is a fun watch. The disc is finished up with two trailers for the film.

The single-disc release comes housed in a nifty black Blu-ray case with a reversible sleeve of artwork, of which I preferred the b-side. The disc features an excerpt of the a-side artwork.

Reversible Artwork 

This release is also available as part of Severin's 4-disc limited edition of The Amicus Collection which also features the Gothic-shocker And Now the Screaming Starts (1973), the werewolf whodunit The Beast Must Die (1974), as well as a bonus disc stuffed with a complete set of Amicus trailers, TV commercials, rare interviews and more. The limited edition set (of 3500) copies is now sold out on the Severin site but still available for under $60 at various online retailers, so act quickly on this one if you want the 4-disc set, I'm glad I ordered mine the day that set went live at the Severin site!  

Special Features:
- Two’s A Company: 1972 On-set report from BBC featuring Interviews With Producer Milton Subotsky, Director Roy Ward Baker, Actors Charlotte Rampling, James Villiers, Megs Jenkins, Art Director Tony Curtis and Production Manager Teresa Bolland (18 min) HD 
- David J. Schow on Robert Bloch – Featurette (21 min) HD 
- Fiona Subotsky Remembers Milton Subotsky – Featurette (10 min) HD 
- Inside The Fear Factory Featurette with Directors Roy Ward Baker, Freddie Francis and Producer Max J. Rosenberg (20 min) 
- Audio Commentary with Director Roy Ward Baker and Camera Operator Neil Binney
- Theatrical Trailers (3 min) 

I love the Amicus horror anthologies, in fact I watch them a lot more than I do the Hammer Films truth be told, the short-story format is appealing to me, while there's usually a dud in the three or four stories I find that the occasional bad apple doesn't spoil the whole basket of vignetted-fruit. While none of the stories in Asylum (1972) are particularly scary or overly clever they all wok for me as a whole, even the wrap around story is great, plus we have an outstanding cast that includes Herbert Lom and Peter Cushing. That the film doesn't culminate with the usual 'they're already dead' trope we've seen several times from Amicus is a bonus, but even this twist here is nothing all that original, it's just a well-crafted and stylish series of vignettes that flow well, making this a classic slice of British horror. 

KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1985) (Blu-ray Review)

KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1985)

Label: Olive Films
Region Code: A
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 100 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 with Optional English subtitles 
Director: J. Lee Thompson
Cast: Herbert Lom, John Rhys-Davies, Richard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone

Wowzers, I had not re watched this one since the 80s, and while I always knew it was a low-rent Indiana Jones knock-off from the dubiously awesome Cannon Films, I guess I remembered it more fondly than it deserved to be, but that's often the way it goes with movies largely remembered with the warm-lacquered veneer of youthful nostalgia. The film based on the Victorian adventure novel of the same name by author Henry Rider Haggard, but is largely perverted to cash-in on the 80s success of Stephen Spielberg's runaway success with Indian Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark, whose titular star was actually a riff on Haggard's original creation, the adventurer Allan Quatermain, but make no mistake, this version of the character, based on the original source material, is ironically, a pale image of the imposter Indiana Jones. 

In the story at hand we have professional adventurer Allan Quatermain (Richard Chamberlain, Shogun) having been hired by professional helpless-blond Jessie(Sharon Stone, Deadly Blessing) to track down her father, who has gone missing somewhere on the African continent. Her father was in search of the legendary mines of King Solomon and it's mythical treasure, but the old has run afoul of the German adventurer/Colonel Bockner(Herbert Lom, 99 Women)and his Turkish slave-trading henchman Dogati (John Rhys-Davies, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark). 

What transpires is a dizzying array of African adventure action set pieces with very little story to provide any connective tissue, it's just non-stop vignettes. We have a bizarre train ride, a high-flying aerial duel in a bi-plane with a German fighter pilot, a horse drawn vegetable cart chase through a village square, and our duo nearly ending up as dinner for a cannibal tribe and run afoul of several others, plus Quatermain shooting a would-be rapist in the balls with a double-barrelled shotgun! Layered into that we have loads of 80s awful racial stereotypes, and vintage sexism, plus the supernatural threat of a giant spider, a water demon, and the Queen of Sheba encased in a crystal tomb - this damn movie has a bit of everything, but at the same time is anemic in so many ways.
This Cannon-produced action-adventure monstrosity is stuffed to the gills with  ridiculous action-adventure silliness, with a lot of primitive people stereotypes, our hero calling various people "towel-heads" and "camel-jockeys", which makes it a bit hard to love Chamberlain's Quatermain character, the guys an arrogant prick, which is sort of fun but he falls a few hundred yards short of our beloved Indie, which is strange when you think about how much Indie was a riff on Quatermain. 

Chamberlain is just ill-fitted for the role of an action hero,  he had a slim build,not the most athletic guy in the world, and his attempts at physicality are weak. sure, he gets few good quips (and a lot of real groaners), but the scripted dialogue is tired, and there's only so much his charm can make up for. The worst of the dialogue is saved for poor Sharon Stone, sure, she's not great here, but the script has her utter some real stinkers as the blond damsel in distress, at one point screaming “I don’t want to die with dignity!”. The romance between these two is way overwrought, the two have zero chemistry, the budding romance is laughably forced, reportedly the pair loathed each on-set, and it shows in nearly every scene, I cannot believe they made it through two movies filmed back to back. 

It was nice to see Herbert Lom show up as Colonel Bockner, the German baddie character is not far removed from similar characters he played often, and he does it with the right amount of camp, his hate-hate relationship with the Turk Dogati is fun as the two hurl insults at each other. 

Like the sequel, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1987), the movie is low-rent, a slice of cheap exploitation cinema, a cheesy knock-off adventure flick, uninspired, 80s goofy and, a good bit of fun in how awful it all is, if you love the Cannon Film aesthetic you will probably have a blast with this one. Director J. Lee Thompson, director of the original Cape Fear (1962), was a director whose star was fading fast at this point, he was known mainly for a series of Charles Bronson revenge flicks, but my favorite of his later era stuff was the slasher movie Happy Birthday To Me (1981), which I love a ton. If you crave more of Thompson uninspired action-adventurer knock-offs from the 80's also check out his  Chuck Norris/Lou Gossett team-up Firewalker (1986), also featuring an appearance from John Rhys-Davis. 

Audio/Video: King Solomon's Mines (1981) arrives on Blu-ray from Olive Films, who also released the sequel on Blu-ray last year. The was licensed from MGM and is presented in the original widescreen aspect ratio (2.35:1) and looks pretty solid, the grain is nicely managed, colors are robust, black levels are pleasing, no serious complaints. The 80s cinematography can be a bit soft focused in some scenes, but overall this is a nicely sharp presentation, as I said about Olive's presentation of the sequel, it's not Criterion-worthy, but it is definitely Cannon-worthy, haha. 

Audio is the disc comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 track with optional English subtitles. The stereo track doesn't have the most dynamic sound design about it but the Jerry Goldsmith (The Omen) Indiana Jones knock-off score with some fun heroic themes sounds quite nice. The disc is bare bones, no even a trailer on this one, but I do like that Olive Films used the original one-sheet poster art for the new Blu-ray, it's very nice, way better than the actual film. What this release needed is a making of doc, I would love to hear the cast and crew talk about making this pair of action-adventure flicks for Cannon Films, that doc would probably be more entertaining than the movies.   

As much shit as I talked about this movie (and it sequel) it does all go back to the veneer of youthful nostalgia for me, I love it in a bad movie sort of way, it's goofy, campy, oh so bad, but it's also fun, I had fun with it, and like the sequel I am glad to see it preserved in all it's Golan and Globus glory in HD, long live the legacy of Cannon Films! 2/5