MAD DOG MORGAN (1976)
Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Duration: 98 Minutes
Rating: MA 15+
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.40:1)
Director: Philippe Mora
Cast: Dennis Hopper, Dennis Gulpilil, Frank Thring, Jack Thompson
Mad Dog Morgan (1976) tells the true tale of the notorious Irish immigrant Daniel "Mad Dog" Morgan who was a "bushranger" (that's Aussie speak for an outlaw) in the mid-1800's, opening on a scene of Dan "Mad Dog" Morgan enjoying the thrills at an opium den in a Chinese encampment. The den is attacked by a group of racist locals, killing nearly everyone and burning the village to the ground, the violence is brutal and shocking, including a splattery shotgun to the face that still packs a wallop.
Morgan just barely makes it out alive and shortly after falls on desperate times, resorting to highway robbery which lands him in prison where he endures rape and a vicious branding with a hot iron. Hopper with a thick Irish brogue pleads for help during the rape and the desperation in his voice always makes me cringe, it's harsh stuff.
Morgan is released after six years for good behavior but immediately falls back into a life of crime, swearing vengeance against the corrupt colonial government. This time he aligns himself with an Aboriginal tracker named Billy played by David Gulpilil (Walkabout) who saves his life. The friendship between the pair is the highlight of the film for me, with Billy nursing him back to health and building his strength back up. Afterward the outlaws become the torment of the wealthy landowners in the area and begin to be seen as Robin Hood type figures by the locals, quickly drawing a bounty on their heads leading to Morgan shooting and killing two officers of the law in pursuit of him.
Morgan's anti-hero status in Australia was a natural fit for Hopper who at the time was a bit of a rebel-actor in Hollywood, this being shot during what is known as his "lost years". Crazy though Morgan may be Hopper portrays the Irishman as fair and just in his own way, sympathetic and haunted by personal demons and a tinge of insanity. This has become my favorite performance from Hopper, it's right up there with Frank Booth from Blue Velvet (1986). The film is definitely pushing the sympathetic anti-hero status of the outlaw.
The narrative style is a fragmentary assembly of highlights from Morgan's life, it doesn't exactly flow evenly from start to finish, but the episodic nature of the film paints an overall portrait that works and the ending of the film packs a powerful punch as Morgan is needlessly gunned down, thereby cementing his legendary status. One of the last lines of the film comes from Superintendent Cobahn played by the venerable Frank Thring (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome) who says to the mortician as Morgan lays there on a slab "by all means, off with his head... and don't forget the scrotum" which he has claimed for his own tobacco pouch. Thring is perfectly cast as the epitome of corrupt colonial rule.
Visually the film is splendorous, showcasing Australia's rugged and natural beauty throughout with gorgeous rural locations and set-pieces that keep you in the period from start to finish. The film shares a lot in common with American western films; the anti-hero aspect, the rugged setting, indigenous people and the gold rush. I think Mora really gives us a 'what if Sam Peckinpah made an Australian western?' here, and Hopper's performance is outstanding.
Audio/Video: Mad Dog Morgan (1976) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment as part of their Ozploitation Classics line-up, presented in 1080p HD and framed in 2.35:1 widescreen, advertised as a new 4K scan of the 35mm interpositive. The cinematography from Mike Malloy (Shock Treatment) looks fantastic. Comparing it to the previous Umbrella DVD we see much richer grain and detail throughout with stronger lines. Gone is the green/blue leaning of the previous DVD, leaning more on warmer tones, though skin tones and whites can look a bit hot at times, which may or may not have been inherent to the cinematography, or maybe it's a tad bright, either way, I am very pleased with the upgrade here.
Audio on the disc comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 track with optional English subtitles, both the film score from Patrick Flynn (Caddie) and dialogue were crisp and clear throughout, there were no issues with distortion that I could detect. .
Umbrella really pack this one with extras, carrying-over all the extras from their previous DVD release, beginning with an audio commentary from Director Philippe Mora who delivers a ton of colorful anecdotes throughout, relaying his experiences working with notoriously difficult Dennis Hopper.
The 24-min To Shoot a Mad Dog is a behind-the-scenes look at the film narrated by director Mora with on-set interviews with Hopper with some thrilling footage of legendary Aussie stuntman Grant Page shooting the "man-on-fire" stunt that appears in a hallucinatory dream sequence in the film. There are several times during the featurette that you bare witness to Hopper's legendarily eccentric behavior.
The 28-min That's Our Mad Dog - A Conversation with Dennis Hopper and Philippe Mora is a 2008 sit down interview with Hopper and the director, it's great to see the late Hopper looking back at the film recalling that the Australians were not to keen about an American playing their folk anti-hero, plus remembrances of actor David Gulpilil who had his own eccentricities, as well as Hopper's art career.
Rounding out the vintage extras is a 14-min radio interview with Philippe Mora who speaks about the film, aboriginal actor David Gulpilil, the real Mad Dog Morgan, and bush ranger films in general.
Umbrella go above and beyond with new extras created exclusively for this Blu-ray beginning 33-min Hopping Mad: Looking Back on Mad Dog Morgan, a brand new interview with director Philippe Mora who discusses mad man Dennis Hopper, how being so naive about working with actors probably prevented him from going crazy working with madman Hopper. Discussing Ned Kelly and his infamy, and Hopper's method of inhabiting the character. This interview looks to have been filmed during the same session that gave us an interview for the recent Howling III release.
There are also 66-min of extended interview from the Not Quite Hollywood doc with
director Philippe Mora, producer Jeremy Thomas, camera operator John Seale and cast members Jack Thompson, Roger Ward and Graeme Blundell, plus a revisit to the location used in the film, shot quite nicely via drone by director Jamie Blanks (Urban legend) with a wonderful optional commentary from Mora playing over it. There's also plus a brand new audio commentary with Director Philippe Mora and author Jake Wilson, which I have sunk my teeth into yet.
The disc is buttoned up with a trailer for the film, plus an extensive image gallery with over 190 images of posters and home video releases, press books and promotional material, stills and the screenplay.
The single-disc release comes in an oversized Blu-ray case with a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring the same illustration on both sides, looking to be a new design based on on an original movie poster, one side with the Australian rating logo, the other without, the same artwork is featured on the disc.
Special Features:
- NEW! All-new audio commentary with Director Philippe Mora and Jake Wilson, author of Australian Screen Classics: Mad Dog Morgan
- NEW! Hopping Mad: Looking Back on Mad Dog Morgan (33 min)
- NEW! Extended interviews from NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD: Philippe Mora, producer Jeremy Thomas, camera operator John Seale and cast members Jack Thompson, Roger Ward and Graeme Blundell (66 min)
- NEW! Mad Country: Shooting Locations Revisited with optional Director's commentary (14 min)
- To Shoot a Mad Dog: Making of Mad Dog Morgan documentary (24 min)
- Dennis Hopper interviewed by Philippe Mora (28 min)
- Audio Commentary by Director Philippe Mora (98:44)
- Radio Interview from 1976 with Philippe Mora (14 min)
- Image Gallery (22 min)
- Trailer (4 min)
Mad Dog Morgan is a rousing Australian Western, and a gritty slice of ozploitation as well, with a wonderfully unhinged performance from star Dennis Hopoper, who paints touching and unhinged portrait of a lunatic who has been pushed to his limits. Umbrella's Blu-ray looks terrific and it's loaded with extras, making this a very easy recommend.
THE HOWLING III - THE MARSUPIALS (1987)
Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: M
Duration: 98 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Philippe Mora
Cast: Barry Otto, Imogen Annesley, Max Fairchild, Leigh Biolos, Dasha Blahova, Ralph Cotterill, Barry Humphries
The third film in the wildly scattershot Howling franchise is absolutely one of my favorites of the series, it was a staple of basic cable in the 80s and 90s, so I grew up on a steady-diet of this crazy werewolf film. It's a lycan movie un-lycan any other, dealing with an Australian strain of the canine beast descended from the long extinct Tasmanian Tiger, and being from Australia you just know they had to be marsupials as well!
The film is directed by Phillipe Mora (The Beast Within) who also directed the fairly awful - though not un-entertaining - The Howling II: You're Sister Is A Werewolf (1985), for this third film he went full on ozploitation, filming in Australia with a largely Australian cast, making a full-tilt slice of weird werewolf movie making the likes of which the cinema world had not seen before, or since.
The film establishes that there's a lost tribe of marsupial werewolves living in the rural outback of Australia, and when the government becomes aware of their existence they send agents them with orders to exterminate them on site. We have a sympathetic American scientist Harry Beckmeyer (Barry Otto, The Punisher) who working with the Australian government, plus the gorgeous teen-aged lycan named Jerboa (Imogen Annesley, Queen of the Damned) on the run from her abusive stepfather Thylo (Max Fairchild), who is the leader of their werewolf clan. While on the run she encounters American teenager Donny Martin (Leigh Biolos) who is in the city filming a horror movie with director Jack Citron (Frank Thring, Mad Dog Morgan), catching the director's eye, who casts her in his latest film, a cheesy werewolf film titled Shape Shifters Part 8.
Jerboa and Donny begin to fall in love while filming, with her admitting to Donny that she is a werewolf, though he doesn't believe her at first blush, though when he finds her fur-lined marsupial pouch - if you know what I mean! - while she sleeps he starts to comes around to the idea. Later on at the movie premiere party a strobing light triggers her transformation, while fleeing the party she is hit by a passing car, and ends up in the hospital where the doctors and government agents discover her lycanthropic secret and marsupial pouch. She's kept against her their for further observation, with the doctor's also noting that she is pregnant with Donny's child.
Meanwhile her abusive stepfather Thylo has dispatched three of his lycan clan to return Jerboa to him, three female werewolves disguised as nuns, which is a very nice touch of nunsploitation, who eventually make their way to the hospital where she is being kept and free her, spilling a lot of blood in the process.
It's a strange film indeed, and then we have Professor Beckmeyer falling in love with a Russian dancer name Olga (Dagmar Bláhová) who is of course a werewolf, with him changing allegiances and running off with her to start their own hybrid furry family in the outback.
Dagmar Bláhová has a very unique look, she's wide eyes with an even wider Cheshire cat grin that is just creepy, she has a gypsy vibe, but still not as creepy as those werewolf nuns.
Eventually we have the government agents tracking the werewolves back to Thylo's compound, in the village of Flow - you know, Wolf spelled backwards (ugh) - launching a military assault and taking Thylo prisoner. Thylo eventually escapes after being tortured, praying to the gods to transformed into a giant wolf, which he absolutely does. The big beast savages the government soldiers, but is only seen in a fleeting glimpse before being blown to smithereens by a rocket launcher!
I've seen this film so many times, on TV and on home video, but I always seem to forget the epilogue involving the Hollywood career of Jerboa and Donny, with their now teenage son and reunion with Beckmeyer. It's a strange stinger that culminates with a Golden Globe type awards show that sort of mirrors the ending of the first film, with Dee Wallace transforming on during a live news broadcast. This scene features ozploitation legend Barry Humphries (Les Patterson Saves the World) as his character Dame Edna presenting at the awards, making this possibly one of the most Australian movies ever made.
I love the weirdness of this one, there' so much about it that makes so very little sense, but it moves fast and is hugely entertaining. I'm not sure why there's a scene paying homage to the chest-burster scene from Alien but there it is! On top of that you get the marsupial birth of a werewolf baby, plus aboriginal actor Burnham Burnham (Dark Age) as a ferocious Tasmanian Tiger striped werewolf - which is pretty darn cool!
Audio/Video: Howling III - The Marsupials arrives on region-FREE Blu-ray from Umbrella Entertainment as part of their Ozploitation Classics line-up with a 4K transfer sourced from the OCN, sponsored by The National Film And Sound Archive Of Australia, presented in 1080p HD and framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. This is the same HD master used by Scream Factory for their U.S. release, and the presentation is identical down to framing and color-timing. Grain is well-managed, but it can be a bit obtrusive in darker scenes, and the image has some inherent softness throughout. However, the colors are generally strong and warm looking, with the adequate black levels.
Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo, a dynamic and well-balanced track that offers up good stereo separation throughout, optional English subtitles are provided.
Onto the extras, we get nearly identical extras as the Scream Factory release, beginning with an audio commentary with Writer/Director Philippe Mora, moderated by filmmaker Jamie Blanks (Urban Legend) , which mirrors a lot of what is touched on in the interviews on the disc, but is a great track just the same. There's also a 15-min interview with the director speaking of how he was inspired by the vintage black and white footage of the now extinct Tasmanian Tiger, this interview looking to have been edited down to a shorter running time that the 27-min interview on the Scream Factory disc. We also get about 17-min of extended interviews with the director and special make-up FX artist Bob McCarron from the Not Quite Hollywood! ozploitation doc.
Unlike the Scream Factory disc Umbrella carry-over the vintage audio commentary for director Philippe Mora that appeared on the 2000 DVD from Elite Entertainment, plus we get an expanded selection of VHS trailers and a TV spot,and an image gallery of press clippings, home video releases and promotional images. There's also a 2-min Easter Egg of Mora discussing horror icon Christopher Lee.
The single-disc release comes housed in over-sized Blu-ray keepcase with sleeve of reversible artwork featuring the very familiar home video artwork, differentiated from Scream's use of the same image by boosting the colors a bit, especially the yellow, and using "The Marsupials' subtitle. The reverse side features a new illustration from Umbrella's in-house designer Simon Sherry, the new illustration is also featured on the disc. This is a movie that's always had bad artwork in my opinion, so it's nice to have display options, but to be honest the new artwork is no great shakes either.
Special Features:
- Vintage Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Philippe Mora
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Philippe Mora, Moderated By Filmmaker Jamie Blanks
- Colonial Lycanthropy: A Conversation With Philippe Mora (15 min)
- Vintage Interviews From The Documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! By Director Mark Hartley (19 min)
- TV Spot (1 min)
- Trailers (8 min)
- Gallery (4 min)
- Easter Egg (2 min)
Howling III - The Marsupials (1987) is a gonzo ozploitation version of a werewolf film, it's never boring but it also doesn't make a lick of sense. It's almost like a nightmare, the kind where you cannot quite recall how you transitioned from one strange scene to the next. It has a hallucinatory dream logic about it that I just dig a bunch. That's not to say it's a great horror film, it ain't, but it's a demented watch that doesn't skimp on the strange. About the only thing I don't care for is that we don't get a real satisfying werewolf transformation in the whole dang film, though we do get loads of cool looking werewolves, but never do get a wholly satisfying transformation, which for a typical werewolf film would spell certain doom, but this ain't your average werewolf film, not by a long shot. Great to this Australian b-movie gem getting an extras packed release from an Australian label, very cool!
