Noticias

Starting out in 1939 as the little studio that could, Hammer would finally make their reputation in the late fifties reimagining Universal’s black and white horrors as eye-popping Technicolor gothics – their pictorial beauty, thanks to cameramen like Jack Asher and Arthur Ibbetson, was fundamental to the studio’s legacy. So it’s been more than a little frustrating to see such disrespect visited upon these films by home video companies happy to smother the market with grainy prints, incoherent cropping and under-saturated colors. The House of Hammer and the film community in general deserve far better than that.

Thanks to Indicator, the home video arm of Powerhouse films based in the UK, those wrongs are beginning to be righted, starting with their impressive new release of Hammer shockers, Fear Warning! Even better news for stateside fans; the set is region-free, ready to be relished the world over.

Hammer Vol. 1 – Fear Warning!

This early gore-horror picture has a remarkable emphasis on human values, believe it or not, with a ‘monster’ that nevertheless is a paragon of loving gentleness. Add Donald Pleasance as a surly, posh-hating police inspector, and the shock value makes the Hammer films of the early ’70s taste like weak tea.

Death Line

Blu-ray + DVD

Blue Underground

1972 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 87 min. / aka Raw Meat / Street Date June 27, 2017 / 39.98

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney, Hugh Armstrong, June Turner, Christopher Lee.

Cinematography: Alex Thomson

Art Direction: Dennis Gordon-Orr

Film Editor: Geoffrey Foot

Original Music: Jeremy Rose, Malone Wil

Written by Ceri Jones from a story by Gary Sherman

Produced by Paul Maslansky

Directed by Gary Sherman

In 1972, making a horror film was a safe way to start a career: almost anything screen-able could get a release, and if your show had enough shock value, it might even get positive critical attention.

“May you live to be a thousand years old, sir.” Still the most widely unheralded great movie on the books, John Patrick Shanley’s lightweight/profound fable is an unmitigated delight. See Tom Hanks at the end of the first phase of his career plus Meg Ryan in an unacknowledged career highlight. How can a movie be so purposely insubstantial, and yet be ‘heavier’ than a dozen pictures with ‘big things to say?’

Joe Versus the Volcano

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1990 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date June 20, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Abe Vigoda,

Dan Hedaya, Barry McGovern, Amanda Plummer, Ossie Davis

Cinematography Stephen Goldblatt

Production Designer Bo Welch

Film Editors Richard Halsey, Kenneth Wannberg

Original Music Georges Delerue

Produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Steven Spielberg and Teri Schwartz

Written and Directed by John Patrick Shanley

I think I found...

A breezy five-episode compilation movie about swindles plays out in five film capitals, under the eye of five different directors including Claude Chabrol and Jean-Luc Godard. But Roman Polanski’s Amsterdam segment couldn’t be included, which is a shame. It’s in B&W ‘scope, and everybody gets to bring their favorite cameraman and composer along.

The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1964 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 95 108, 124 min. / Street Date April 25, 2017 / Les plus belles escroqueries du monde / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring: Mie Hama, Ken Mitsuda, Nicole Karen, Gabriella Giorgelli, Jan Teulings, Arnold Gelderman, Guido Giuseppone, Giuseppe Mannajuolo, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Catherine Deneuve, Francis Blanche, Sacha Briquet, Jean-Louis Maury, Philomène Toulouse, Charles Denner, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Seberg, László Szabó.

Cinematography: Raoul Coutard, Tonino Delli Colli, Jerzy Lipman, Asakazu Nakai, Jean Rabier

Film Editor:

Original Music: Serge Gainsbourg, Pierre Jansen, Krzysztof Komeda, Michel Legrand, Keitaro Miho, Piero Umiliani...

This horror almost-classic has Christopher Lee and great atmosphere. Keep a sharp lookout for All Them Witches: they're not easy to spot... if you're as unobservant as Venetia Stevenson's sexy grad student. Were she studying sharks, this girl would wrap herself in fresh meat and jump into the middle of a mess of 'em. The City of the Dead Blu-ray Vci 1960 / B&W /1:78 widescreen / 78 min. / Horror Hotel / Street Date March 29, 2016 / 24.99 Starring Patricia Jessel, Dennis Lotis, Christopher Lee, Tom Naylor, Betta St. John, Venetia Stevenson, Valentine Dyall, Ann Beach, Norman Macowan. Cinematography Desmond Dickinson Production Designer John Blezard Film Editor John Pomeroy Original Music Douglas Gamley, Kenneth V. Jones Written by George Baxt from a story by Milton Subotsky Produced by Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky, Donald Taylor Directed by John Moxey

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Interest has been high for Vci's new The City of the Dead, a movie...

Cannon Films, like any other studio yesterday or today, wanted to keep a good thing going, and for them in the 1980s it was the ninja movie. After two early successes for the studio in Enter the Ninja and Revenge of the Ninja (recall this film’s flashback here), success wasn’t guaranteed a third time in their Ninja III: The Domination. The studio took a break, as did director Sam Firstenberg, but in 1984 the studio wanted to revisit the genre, but with a twist. The deadliest art of the Orient is now in the hands of an American.

Killer Film catches back up with director Sam Firstenberg for an Action Packed Flashback for 1985′s American Ninja.

After the lukewarm reception to Ninja III: The Domination both critically and financially, Sam took a break from the genre with Breakin’ 2. “It was the company’s decision to keep the Ninja series alive,...