mhgore

Truly, this isn't much of a film. It isn't the place to start on Weimar era cinema, Leni Riefenstahl, the German mountain films, or anything else for that matter. But, it still rates a look for the fantastic cinematography of snowscapes and skiers. The movie is almost a silent film. Much of the dialog was added or dubbed during editing but it was hardly needed. The total lack of background noise, the sound of skis on snow, is disturbing. I believe you could watch and understand it without knowing a word of German.

Riefenstahl is something of an innocent in "Ski Chase." It is hard to believe that she is the same person who became Nazi Germany's official film maker. Of course, we all know that the propaganda minister wanted to give the job to Fritz Lang. If only Lang hadn't turned out to have morals.

I first saw "Night of the Comet" when it first came out and I was in graduate school. At the time I loved it because it offered something different that the typical girl-killed-by-monster theme. Truly, this film is much better than the IMDb rating implies. I just bought a DVD of it on eBay and the film was as good as I remembered it being when I first saw it years ago. This is a "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" kind of film but, of course, it came out years before Buffy. It has the same kind of kick-butt take charge female characters. I give it a nine out of ten!

So, why isn't there a legitimate US DVD release of this film? Lots of much lesser films have been released on DVD. My suggestion, check out eBay or Yahoo shops for a low-priced DVD import. Thanks Hong Kong; thanks video pirates!