News

Italian child actor Enzo Staiola, best known for playing, at the age of 9 years old, the sad-faced son Bruno Ricci in Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 Neo-realist masterpiece Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves), has died. He was 85.

La Repubblica, the Italian newspaper, on Wednesday was first to report on the death of Staiola, who shot to international fame for his role in the Oscar-winning drama. No cause of death was given.

Staiola’s co-star in Bicycle Thieves in the role of Antonio Ricci, his impoverished father, was Lamberto Maggiorani, a factory worker-turned-actor, as De Sica wanted working class authenticity for his humanist drama. Antonio, with son in tow, in the film searches for a thief and his stolen bicycle, without which he cannot work and feed his young family.

The loss of the bicycle proves to be a body-blow for the forlorn father, who goes on a frantic and fruitless odyssey through the streets of Rome.

With comic book adaptations dominating the film industry today, let’s take a trip back to a time when they were neither reputable nor among the most expensive films ever made. For fans of cult movies, Mario Bava hardly needs any introduction. Since his debut directing the gorgeously gothic “Black Sunday,” he innovated several genres, including the Giallo, with “The Girl Who Knew Too Much,” paving the way for the slasher film, the horror anthology with his masterful tryptic “Black Sabbath” (In the process giving the godfathers of heavy metal their moniker), and even science fiction – the fingerprints of his “Planet of the Vampires” are all over Ridley Scott’s “Alien” and “Prometheus.” “Danger: Diabolik” was produced during the height of the James Bond and “Batman 66” craze to cash in on the cult Eurospy genre. But whereas contemporary comic book adaptations center around superheroes, Bava’s world is an altogether different one.

Double your Diabolik and double your pleasure! … this Australian import chases a domestic disc onto the market after only a few months, but of course comes with irresistible new extras to tempt collectors and completists. Mario Bava’s funny, dynamic action thriller was the first feature to really capture the graphic art ‘feeling’ of comic panels — we wish he’d directed a whole series of Diabolik adventures. The evaluation section notes the small differences between this disc and the U.S. release from last April.

Danger Diabolik

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint]

1968 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date October, 2020

Starring: John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli, Adolfo Celi, Terry-Thomas, Mario Donen.

Cinematography: Antonio Rinaldi

Film Editor: Romana Fortini

Art Director: Flavio Mogherini

Original Music: Ennio Morricone

Written by Adriano Baracco, Mario Bava, Brian Degas, Tudor Gates,

Dino Maiuri story by Angela & Luciana Giussani

Produced by Dino De Laurentiis

Directed by Mario Bava...

No, it’s not the story of the 18th President of the United States. Kirk Douglas must have been a big hit in Rome, starring in one of the first and best of the Italo epic ‘classics,’ before the musclemen cornered the market. Homer’s tale of the husband who took ten years to come back from Troy is given real star power, a splendid production and best of all, an intelligent script. This disc looks a lot better than the ragged earlier DVD, plus it offers a superior Italian language soundtrack. And don’t forget Gary Teetzel’s recommendation: as an adaptation of The Odyssey, it’s right up there with O Brother Where Art Thou!

Ulysses

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 94 104 117 min. / Street Date November 17, 2020 / Ulisse / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Silvana Mangano, Anthony Quinn, Rossana Podestà, Jacques Dumesnil, Daniel Ivernel, Sylvie, Franco Interlenghi,...

The Wonders of Aladdin

Blu ray

Kino Lorber

1961 / 93 Min. / 2:35.1

Starring Donald O’Connor, Vittorio De Sica

Cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli

Directed by Henry Levin

Henry Levin was a more than reliable director of Hollywood entertainments, most notably the unassailable widescreen thrills of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Donald O’Connor was a first-class, multi-faceted actor. Mario Bava was a visionary genre trickster. And Vittorio De Sica was one of world cinema’s greatest artists. Shocking, then, that their 1960 collaboration, The Wonders of Aladdin is just another movie… a non-event, a Saturday matinee misfire.

O’Connor promoted the fantasy with a bit of brazen ballyhoo: “The story of Aladdin has been done by everyone but this is its first time around as a comedy.” Dave and Max Fleischer would beg to differ—their 1939 Popeye cartoon, Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, serves up more laughs, not to mention more magic,...

The Thief of Baghdad

Blu ray – All Region

Colosseo Film

1961 /100 min.

Starring Steve Reeves, Georgia Moll, Arturo Dominici

Cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli

Directed by Arthur Lubin

When he shuffled off this mortal coil in 1995, Arthur Lubin’s New York Times obituary was titled “Arthur Lubin, 96, Director Of ‘Mr. Ed’ TV Series, Dies.” It’s doubtful the prolific Lubin would have complained about that particular credit headlining his accomplishments; the man who directed Karloff and Lugosi, jumpstarted Abbott and Costello’s film career and gave Clint Eastwood his first break, also had a thing for talking animals. In 1950 he bought the rights to a book about a talking mule and began a series of hit comedies starring a four-legged chatterbox named Francis and his two-legged pal played by Donald O’Connor.

Industrious to a fault, Lubin’s career was spent crisscrossing from theater to film to television and back again yet...

Oh Joy, Oh Rapture! Mario Bava’s comic book thriller makes the jump to Blu-ray in fine shape, with knockout visuals and eye-popping color. John Philip Law, Marisa Mell, Terry-Thomas and the late Michel Piccoli are all irreplaceable in this one-of-a-kind show. Bava’s film translates action comic fantasy into cinematic terms, pictorial appeal and dynamism intact. The disc comes with a pair of excellent commentaries, featuring Nathaniel Thompson, Troy Howarth, Tim Lucas and John Philip Law himself.

Danger: Diabolik

Blu-ray

Shout! Factory

1968 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date May 19, 2020 / Available from Shout! Factory

Starring: John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli,

Adolfo Celi, Terry-Thomas, Mario Donen.

Cinematography: Antonio Rinaldi

Film Editor: Romana Fortini

Art Director: Flavio Mogherini

Original Music: Ennio Morricone

Written by Adriano Baracco, Mario Bava, Brian Degas, Tudor Gates,

Dino Maiuri story by Angela & Luciana Giussani

Produced by Dino De Laurentiis

Directed by Mario Bava

We...

It’s Tab Hunter as you’ve never seen him before! Antonio Margheriti’s limp but colorful Arabian Nights adventure romance is a real head-scratcher — it’s an entirely generic kiddie show, filmed on nice locations, and devoid of style or flash. Some of the sub-Bava effects are clever, but the only ‘magic’ element is the decision to re-voice Tab with an off-the-shelf dubbing artist… it’s as if Hunter has been sucked into a ‘scimitar & sandal’ episode of The Twilight Zone.

The Golden Arrow

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date May 28, 2019 / L’arciere delle mille e una notte / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Tab Hunter, Rossana Podestà, Umberto Melnati, Mario Feliciani, Dominique Boschero, Renato Baldini, Giustino Durano, Franco Scandurra, Gloria Milland.

Cinematography: G´bor Pogány

Film Editor: Mario Serandrei

Art Direction: Flavio Mogherini

Original Music: Mario Nascimbene

Written by Giorgio Arlorio, Augusto Frassinetti, Giorgio Prosperi,...

From their "Hammer's House of Horror" screenings to their 21-movie Mario Bava spotlight and extensive Jean Rollin retrospective, New York's Quad Cinema has been an essential source for celebrating the horror genre's past, and they will continue to do so later this month with "Perversion Stories: A Fistful of Giallo Restorations."

Taking place November 23rd–29th at New York's Quad Cinema, "Perversion Stories: A Fistful of Giallo Restorations" will showcase digital restorations of Italian titles both beloved and lesser-known, including Lucio Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, Sergio Martino's Torso, Joe D’Amato's Death Smiles on a Murderer, and more.

Read on for more details on the giallo restoration screenings, and be sure to visit Quad Cinema's official website for additional information!

"Perversion Stories:

A Fistful of Giallo Restorations

November 23 – 29

The Quad offers up a selection of salacious and sinister Italian pulp—all screening in new digital restorations!

Review by Roger Carpenter

The Italian giallo boom of the early 1970’s was mostly over by 1977, when The Pyjama Girl Case was released. But that’s not the only odd thing about this film. The writer/director was Flavio Mogherini who mostly specialized in comedies. He was a longtime production designer and art director, who collaborated with the likes of Fellini and Pasolini, and came to actual film direction rather late in his career. The film was set and filmed in and around Sydney, Australia, quite a different setting than traditional gialli which were typically set across Europe and in metropolitan American cities. Finally, there is only one murder in the entire film, and very little actual violence. For a genre which thrived on its murder set pieces, The Pyjama Girl Case is remarkably bloodless. In fact, the film is more a character study of two very different people who...

The Pyjama Girl Case (1977) will be available on Blu-ray September 18th From Arrow Video

Throughout the late 1960s and into the 70s, the Italian giallo movement transported viewers to the far corners of the globe, from swinging San Francisco to the Soviet-occupied Prague. Only one, however, brought the genre s unique brand of bloody mayhem as far as Australia: director Flavio Mogherini (Delitto passionales) tragic and poetic The Pyjama Girl Case.

The body of a young woman is found on the beach, shot in the head, burned to hide her identity and dressed in distinctive yellow pyjamas. With the Sydney police stumped, former Inspector Timpson comes out of retirement to crack the case. Treading where the real detectives can t, Timpson doggedly pieces together the sad story of Dutch immigrant Glenda Blythe and the unhappy chain of events which led to her grisly demise.

Inspired by the real-life case which...

He’s fast on his feet, quick with a gun, and faster with the to-die-for beauties that only existed in the swinging ’60s. The superspy exploits of Oss 117 were too big for just one actor, so meet all three iterations of the man they called Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath . . . seriously.

Oss 117 Five Film Collection

Blu-ray

Oss 117 Is Unleashed; Oss 117: Panic in Bangkok; Oss 117: Mission For a Killer; Oss 117: Mission to Tokyo; Oss 117: Double Agent

Kl Studio Classics

1963-1968 / B&W and Color / 1:85 widescreen + 2:35 widescreen / 528 min. / Street Date September 26, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 59.95

Starring: Kerwin Matthews, Nadia Sanders, Irina Demick, Daniel Emilfork; Kerwin Matthews, Pier Angeli, Robert Hossein; Frederick Stafford, Mylène Demongeot, Perrette Pradier, Dominique Wilms, Raymond Pellegrin, Annie Anderson; Frederick Stafford, Marina Vlad, Jitsuko Yoshimura; John Gavin, Margaret Lee, Curd Jurgens, Luciana Paluzzi, Rosalba Neri, Robert Hossein, George Eastman.

Cinematography: Raymond Pierre Lemoigne...