Blu-Ray News #378: Tormented (1960).

Produced & Directed by Bert I. Gordon
Starring Richard Carlson, Juli Reding, Susan Gordon, Lugene Sanders, Joe Turkel

Here comes another top-notch release from Film Masters — Bert I. Gordon’s Tormented (1960) on both DVD and Blu-Ray.

Richard Carlson’s dead ex-girlfriend (Juli Reding) reappears as a ghostly, disembodied head to screw things up between Carlson and his fiancée (Lugene Sanders). That’s not a huge undertaking since Carlson is pretty much to blame for the girlfriend’s death and a blackmail scheme is quickly underway.

One of the few Bert Gordon pictures that doesn’t feature giant (or tiny) stuff, Tormented has a strong cast — Carlson’s always great and Reding is both an eyeful and a hoot. There’s some nice location work shot in Malibu and Anacapa Island (is that lighthouse still there?) by Ernest Laszlo. And the special effects are up to Gordon’s typical hit-or-miss standards. Oh, and Paul Frees overdubbed one actor’s voice.

Tormented is one of those movies us monster kids saw a thousand times on TV — and some of its shock scenes are still nailed into our heads. After years of ragged TV prints and crappy PD VHS tapes and DVDs, it was brought out in a pretty decent DVD from Warner Archive.

Film Masters will surely blow that thing away, thanks to a 4K scan of original 35mm material in its original 1.85 aspect ratio and, of course, a terrific list of extras. I can’t wait. Highly recommended.

Blu-Ray Review: The Terror (1963) & Little Shop Of Horrors (1960).

Film Masters continues their Filmgroup releases with a stunning Blu-Ray of The Terror — with The Little Shop Of Horrors along for the high-definition ride. Both get a Cadillac 4K scan from nice 35mm material.

The Terror (1963)
Produced & Directed by Roger Corman (& Francis Ford Coppola, Monte Hellman, Jack Hill)
Starring Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson, Sandra Knight, Dick Miller, Dorothy Neumann, Jonathan Haze

Roger Corman’s The Terror is a patchwork quilt of a Gothic horror movie, done in bits and pieces — beginning with Boris Karloff walking around the sets for AIP’s The Raven as they were being torn down. A busload of writers and directors messed around with it for about a year. As you’d expect, the results don’t make a whole lot of sense (Leo Gordon’s original script was altered each time it was passed from one director to another), but there’s something oddly fascinating about the whole thing.

Jack Nicholson is a French officer who winds up at the castle of Baron von Leppe (Boris Karloff) after trying to locate a mysterious young woman he met on the beach (Sandra Knight). Things get convoluted and confusing from there, with a witch and her son, a deal with the devil, a ghost and a flooded crypt added to the mix. It was not based on a Poe story, but if someone thought it was part of Corman’s successful Poe Cycle, that was fine!

Footage from The Terror turns up in Peter Bagdanovich’s Targets

I once had a fairly-decent 16mm dupe print of The Terror, and have tried out several of its previous video releases, so I’m very familiar with the movie and what it looks like. NEVER thought it would look at good as it does here. The color is vivid and consistent, and the picture is surprisingly sharp — with allowances for the crazy way it was shot. The framing is perfect (Vistascope is just the standard 1.85.) and the sound is crystal clear. Film Masters has done a terrific job with The Terror.

The Little Shop Of Horrors (1960)
Produced & Directed by Roger Corman
Starring Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, Dick Miller, Myrtle Vail, Jack Nicholson

Everybody knows the backstory on The Little Shop Of Horrors — another Corman movie shot on leftover sets (this time, from Corman’s own A Bucket Of Blood). Interiors were shot in a couple days (after a few days of rehearsal) with a budget of just $28,000. To keep things moving quickly, multiple cameras and fixed lighting were used, sitcom style.

Seymour Krelboined (Jonathan Haze) develops a man-eating plant he names Audrey, after a coworker he’s sweet on (Jackie Joseph). The plant becomes an attraction at the little flower shop where Seymour works, so his boss looks the other way when Seymour feeds it a bum who was hit by a train. Things escalate from there. Oh, and it’s all played for laughs. The picture is known for Jack Nicholson’s scene, but Mel Welles is terrific as Haze’s boss. (Of course, it spawned a musical play and a film based on that play.) 

The Little Shop Of Horrors went out in a double feature with Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, then again with Corman’s Last Woman On Earth (both 1960). Then it became a staple on the late show and cheap VHS tapes. Again, Film Masters has come through with a small miracle — though it doesn’t glow quite like The Terror, this is the best I’ve ever seen The Little Shop Of Horrors look. It’s clean and sharp with nice, solid blacks. I saw things I’ve never noticed before, giving new life to a film I’ve seen a couple dozens times. And the proper framing makes a huge difference.

Film Masters has given us some nice extras, with the prize going to the second part of Ballyhoo’s documentary on Corman’s Filmgroup, his independent production company he operated while he was doing the Poe pictures for AIP. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’ve written this a thousand times: an upgraded transfer can transform an old film. Film Masters proves that here, twice, showing that The Terror and The Little Shop Of Horrors weren’t as raggedy-looking as we once thought. I was blown away. This two-disc set comes highly, highly recommended.

Blu-Ray News #358: Cushing Curiosities (1960 – 1974).

Peter Cushing and Randolph Scott are my favorite actors, and it’s always good news to find out more of their films are coming to video (especially in high definition). Today belongs to Mr. Cushing, with Severin Films’ announcement of the Cushing Curiosities Blu-Ray set, a real wealth of riches coming in October.

Cone Of Silence (AKA Trouble In The Sky, 1960)
Directed by Charles Frend
Starring Peter Cushing, George Sanders, Michael Craig, Elizabeth Seal, André Morell, Bernard Lee 

Cushing plays an airline pilot who tries to interfere in the investigation of a deadly plain crash — because he’s the one who was actually at fault. Based on an actual crash.

Suspect (1960, AKA The Risk)
Directed by Roy & John Boulting 
Starring Tony Britton, Virginia Maskell, Peter Cushing, Ian Bannen, Donald Pleasence

Cushing plays a research biologist who just might be selling government secrets to a foreign power. The cast includes Thorley Walters and Spike Milligan!

The Man Who Finally Died (1962)
directed by Quentin Lawrence
Starring Stanley Baker, Peter Cushing, Mai Zetterling, Nigel Green

After World War II, Stanley Baker journeys to Bavaria to find out what happened to his father. He’s told that his dad is dead, but he starts to believe there’s a coverup going on. Peter Cushing plays a doctor who knows a lot more than you think. In black and white Dyaloscope. 

Sherlock Holmes (1968)
Starring Peter Cushing, Nigel Stock, Madge Ryan, Ann Bell, Nick Tate

After Hammer’s Hound Of The Baskervilles (1959), Cushing was back as Sherlock Holmes in a 1968 BBC TV series — with Nigel Stock as Dr. Watson. Cushing Curiosities will include the entire series, from BBC tape protection masters, on two discs.

Bloodsuckers (1971, AKA Incense For The Damned, Freedom Seekers)
Directed by Robert Hartford-Davis
Starring Peter Cushing, Patrick Macnee, Alex Davion, Edward Woodward

Halfway through production of Incense Of The Damned, the money ran out and everything ground to a halt. When more dough was rounded up, filming resumed with a new script and additional actors, resulting in the usual jumbled-up mess of a movie. The key differentiator here is that it’s a jumbled-up mess of a movie with Peter Cushing in it (along with a restored orgy sequence).

Tender Dracula (1974)
Directed by Pierre Grunstein
Starring Peter Cushing, Miou-Miou, Alida Valli, Bernard Menez

Cushing plays a horror star who says he’s going to quit making horror pictures. Two screenwriters and a couple of starlets head to Cushing’s castle to talk him out of it. If any of these films is a true curiosity, it’s this one.

All these pictures are scanned from the finest materials available, from camera negatives to fine grains. Of course, this being a set from Severin Films, you can count on a stunning array of extras — hours and hours of commentaries, trailers, interviews, newsreels, alternate titles and more. Don’t think any of the “Blood-Sucker Rings” will be included.

This thing sounds like a monster kid’s dream come true (well, this one’s at least). Can’t wait!

Blu-Ray News #347: Beast From Haunted Cave (1959) & Ski Troop Attack (1960).

Over five weeks in 1959, Roger Corman and his brother Gene shot two films in Deadwood, South Dakota — Monte Hellman’s Beast From Haunted Cave (1959) and Roger Corman’s own Ski Troop Attack (1960). Film Masters is bringing them to Blu-Ray in October.

Beast From Haunted Cave (1959)
Directed by Monte Hellman
Starring Michael Forest, Frank Wolff, Richard Sinatra

They say this is a reworking of Key Largo, but with a monster stirred in. It was the first time Monte Hellman worked for Corman, and they’d go on to do several things over the years.

The picture was shot in an abandoned mine, and its plot involves crooks, gold bars, snow and a haunted cave with a beast in it. It was released in a double bill with Wasp Woman (1959).

Ski Troop Attack (1960)
Directed by Roger Corman
Starring Michael Forest, Frank Wolff, Richard Sinatra, Wally Campo

This time, Roger Corman puts uniforms on kids from the local high school ski teams and makes a World War II movie. A ski instructor was going to play the head of the German squad, but he had an accident right before shooting began, so Corman took a ski lesson and played the role himself. Shooting took place in the afternoons and on weekends since the “soldiers” had to go to school.

Film Masters has announced a stack of great-sounding extras for this disc, which I can’t wait to get ahold of. Recommended!

A Night At The Movies, Halloween ’64.

One more of these before I start saving ’em for next year. The D&R Theater in Aberdeen, Washington, went all Universal International. Brides Of Dracula (a Hammer import) and The Leech Woman (both 1960) had been paired by U-I when they were originally released.

A Night At The Movies, Halloween 1961.

Folks in the Kansas City area really had it going on around Halloween of 1961. Blood And Roses (1960), Circus Of Horrors (1960), Hammer’s The Mummy (1959) — and depending on which theater you chose, either Blood Of The Vampire (1958), Jack Arnold’s Monster On The Campus (1958) or The Thing That Couldn’t Die (1958).

Tough decision, but I think I would’ve chosen Blood Of The Vampire (for Barbara Shelley) at the Dickinson Theater. What would’ve been your pick?

A Night At The Movies, Halloween 1960.

Happy Halloween from Springfield, Missouri, 1960. Why is #2 a George Montgomery Western?

DVD News #408: Samuel Fuller Collection (1943 – 1960).

There’s so much written about Samuel Fuller (above, with John Ford). My suggestion is just watch his films — they’ll tell you about all you need to know — and maybe read his autobiography A Third Face. Watching his movies is a little easier thanks to a cool little set coming later this month from Critics’ Choice and Mill Creek. He didn’t direct all these films, but his fingerprints are on ’em for sure.

Power Of The Press (1943)
Directed by Lew Landers
Story by Samuel Fuller
Starring Guy Kibbee, Gloria Dickson, Lee Tracy, Otto Kruger, Victor Jory
A corrupt New York newspaperman murders his partner over his pro-war stance. A small town journalist gets to the bottom of things.

Scandal Sheet (1951)
Directed by Phil Karlson
Based on the novel The Dark Page by Samuel Fuller
Starring Broderick Crawford, Donna Reed, John Derek, Rosemary DeCamp, Henry Morgan, James Millican
A newspaperman tries to bury a murder story since, uh, he’s the murderer!

The Crimson Kimono (1959)
Written & Directed by Samuel Fuller
Starring James Shigeta, Glenn Corbett, Victoria Shaw, Anna Lee
Two cops — Korean War veterans and friends — wind up in a love triangle with a witness to the murder of a stripper. Into this sordid tale, Fuller deftly weaves a message of racial tolerance. One of his best.

Underworld, USA (1960)
Produced, Written & Directed by Samuel Fuller
Starring Cliff Robertson, Dolores Dorn, Beatrice Kay
A young man infiltrates the mob to get the mobsters who murdered his father.

I’m really looking forward to this. Highly recommended if you don’t have ’em elsewhere.

Assignment: Outer Space (1960, AKA Space-Men).

Directed by Antonio Margheriti (Anthony Dawson)
Screenplay by Antonio Margheriti & Ennio De Concini
Cinematography: Marcello Masciocchi
Music by Lelio Luttazzi

Cast: Rik Van Nutter (Ray Peterson, IZ41), Gabriella Farinon (Lucy, Y13), David Montresor (George the Commander), Archie Savage (Al, X15), Alain Dijon (Archie, Y16), Franco Fantasia (Sullivan)

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Antonio Margheriti worked on documentaries, did special effects work and wrote screenplays before directing his first feature, Assignment: Outer Space (1960). This kicked off a career that went from whacked-out Italian science fiction and spaghetti westerns to peplum and horror movies to spy movies and action films.

When you crank out more than 50 fad-chasing genre pictures, it’s understood that quite a few of them will be less than great. But Margheriti had a real knack for no-budget special effects — and he loved science fiction. He certainly knew how to get a movie done quickly and efficiently — using multiple cameras to get everything from master shots to closeups at the same time. With the Gamma One series, for instance, he shot four films simultaneously, using the same actors, props and sets — shooting scenes from four color-coded screenplays each day. Margheriti’s ingenuity and love of cinema is baked into most of his films, especially the ones from the 60s, and it helps put a lot of them over.

Space-Men — or Assignment: Outer Space, as it’s known in the States — is a picture with more ideas and scope than its budget could bankroll, but Margheriti manages to make it work.

Antonio Margheriti (from a 1970 interview): “Back then, Titanus was a big production company and one day they asked me if I wanted to make this film. I said yes, obviously… I made the film in 14 days and I spent 41,000,000 lire, which is very little money.”

The story is pretty basic — a broken-down spaceship is on a collision course with Earth, and the team on a single space station are mankind’s only hope. The special effects are passable, nothing more. And its pacing is pretty leisurely for a story with so much natural suspense.

But these liabilities become assets in Margheriti’s hands. The story serves as a framework for some imaginative sequences that may, or may not, advance the story. Margheriti devotes lots of screen time to showing us the (speculative) ins and outs of space travel, in a way that plays a bit like a precursor to Kubrick’s 2001: a space odyssey (1968) — with a waking-up-from-suspended-animation scene that was clearly an influence on Alien (1979). The special effects are quaint, cool, surreal and charming — especially for those of use who consider CGI a nail in cinema’s coffin. (Larger models would’ve made a big difference, no pun intended.) It’s a very visual experience throughout, which makes it a real shame that it looks so consistently, and internationally, lousy on video.

They say that while Margheriti was shooting Assignment: Outer Space, Mario Bava was hard at work on Black Sunday (1960) on the soundstage next door at Scalera Film studios. One thing I found brilliant was the use of letters and numbers on the characters’ uniforms and space suits, so we know who’s who in longer shots — much like numbers on a baseball jersey. And one more thing: Rik Van Nutter would go on to play Felix Leiter in Thunderball (1965) — and was married to Anita Ekberg.

Antonio Margheriti would follow this with Battle Of The Worlds (1961), which is on its way to Blu-Ray from The Film Detective, and a few years later would come the Gamma One pictures (available from Warner Archive). In between, some spaghetti westerns and gothic horror — all of it worth your time. And though his work from the 70s and 80s doesn’t have the same ingenuity and creativity, it’s a real shame that Margheriti isn’t better known, and appreciated. 

Blu-Ray News #375: Son Of Samson (1960).

Directed by Carlo Campogalliani
Starring Mark Forest, Chelo Alonso, Vira Silenti, Angelo Zanolli

Kino Lorber has announced that they’re prepping another Italian peplum picture for Blu-Ray, Son Of Samson (1960). It will be available later in 2022.

Inspired by the success of Hercules (1959) starring Steve Reeves, Italian producers starting hiring American bodybuilders — Mark Forest, in this case — and putting them in sword-and-sandal “peplum” pictures as fast as they could. Son Of Samson is one of the better ones.

Those of us who saw these movies on TV have no idea what they looked like in theaters — many in Scope and Technicolor. And that’s why Blu-Ray releases like this are such a treat. Thanks to Kino Lorber for wrestling up so many of these!