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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.

The 1960s were a great time for stylish heist movies, with many classics which are still loved by fans decades later. The heist genre initially sprung out of film noir, but it gradually developed its own identity, and it came to encompass romantic comedies, action thrillers and even spy movies. The 1960s marked a boom for the genre, after films like Rififi and The Killing brought about a new wave of enthusiasm in the 1950s.

Heist movies in the 1970s got much grittier and darker, in line with the trends of New Hollywood. By contrast, the 1960s delivered some more stylish and lighthearted capers, such as Ocean's 11 and How to Steal a Million. This era was defined by suave thieves pulling off intricately plotted heists, and there wasn't much of the violence and bloodshed that's usually associated with crime movies.

Related 20 Best Heist Movies Of All Time, Ranked

The...

The following reveals spoilers for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, now playing in theaters.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has proven a hit for director Tim Burton, who rocketed to fame on the surprise success of the 1988 original to become one of Hollywood's most distinctive auteurs. The film has earned praise in part for evoking Burton's early hits, when people were less familiar with his vision and his imaginative cinematic worlds felt newer. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice taps into the nostalgia without losing the energy, and delivers the most Burton-like Burton movie in a long time.

He takes advantage of the opportunity to pack it full of Easter eggs, most of which reflect the movie's kooky world. It also includes an overt reference to Italian horror movie director Mario Bava, who helmed a series of cult classics in the 1960s and 1970s. Burton is an enthusiastic fan of the director, whose influence can be felt in many of his movies.

As attention turns to the Oscars around this time every year, it’s easy to get caught up remembering some of the big winners. One of the most notable champs was The Silence of the Lambs, which took home the “Big Five” awards in 1992: Best Picture, Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins), Best Actress (Jodie Foster), Best Director (Jonathan Demme), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ted Tally), as well as Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing to round it out.

And despite owning the film rights to works of author Thomas Harris, super-producer Dino De Laurentiis saw none of that windfall, be it Oscar gold or box office riches. How could a savvy Hollywood player, responsible for making some of the most important movies of all time, make such a wild mistake?

It’s all Michael Mann’s fault.

Hannibal and the Italian

In 1981, author Thomas Harris published Red Dragon, a...

“Diabolik – Who Are You,” which has its market premiere this week at AFM, following its world premiere at the Rome Film Festival, is the third in a series of adaptations of an Italian comic-book franchise. The books, written by sisters Angela and Luciana Giussani, have sold more than 150 million copies.

Kino Lorber has picked up U.S. rights for all three instalments of the stylish crime-comic movies, written and directed by brothers Marco and Antonio Manetti. Beta Cinema is handling world sales for the films. International buyers for the third film so far include Metropolitan Film in France, Spain’s Flins & Piniculas, Plaion Pictures in German-speaking territories, and Discovery Film in the former Yugoslavia. 01 Distribution is releasing the pic in Italy on Nov. 30.

The franchise centers on Diabolik, an ingenious gentleman thief, living in the fictional city of Clerville in the 1960s and 1970s. Luca Marinelli played the master criminal in the first film,...

In the tradition of Barbarella and Danger: Diabolik comes this swinging ‘60s action orgy as bisexual super-villain Sumuru (the luscious Shirley Eaton of Goldfinger) launches a diabolical plan to enslave the male species with her army of lusty warrior women. But when Sumuru kidnaps a fugitive American playboy, she crosses a sadistic crime boss the sexes that will bring Brazil to its knees in more ways than one. Richard Wyler (The Bounty Killer) and Maria Rohm (Eugenie) co-star in this kinky cult favorite from producer Harry Alan Towers (The Blook of Fu Manchu) and director Jess Franco (Venus in Furs). Also known as Rio 70, Future Women, and The Seven Secrets of Sumuru, The Girl from Rio is now presented in a brand-new 4K restoration from the original camera negative, totally uncut and uncensored with all its eye-popping nudity, torture, and lesbianism in Dolby Vision Hdr!

Enter for your chance...

Writer/Director Joe Cornish discusses a few of his favorite movies with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Attack The Block (2011)

Rocks (2019)

Poltergeist (1982)

Gremlins (1984)

Avanti! (1972)

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)

The Last Wave (1977)

Witness (1985)

Dead Poets Society (1989)

Fearless (1993)

Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World (2003)

Gallipoli (1981)

The Year Of Living Dangerously (1982)

The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)

The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai (1984)

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)

The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

The Rescuers (1977)

Bedknobs And Broomsticks (1971)

The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Moonraker (1979)

The Adventures Of Tintin (2011)

Bambi (1942)

Dumbo (1941)

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

This Island Earth (1955)

Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956)

The Thing From Another World (1951)

Matinee (1993)

The Lord Of The Rings (1978)

The Omen (1976)

Damien: Omen II (1978)

Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

The Exorcist (1973)

The Exterminator (1980)

Friday The 13th...

Michael Caine’s heist comedy has been rated one of the top UK movies ever. It’s a flip Swingin’ England slapstick thriller, lavishly produced and with an emphasis on fancy cars. Caine is a cockney crook with an insane scheme to steal millions in Red Chinese gold in Turin. Slick stuntwork combines with ‘Team Brit’ humor for a wild escape in a rush hour traffic jam. The lavish goes for show-off spectacle — its real stars are a trio of undersized, underdog UK automobiles.

The Italian Job 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date January 31, 2023 / Available from / 39.95

Starring: Michael Caine, Noël Coward, Benny Hill, Raf Vallone, Tony Beckley, Rossano Brazzi, Margaret Blye, Irene Handl, Michael Standing, Harry Baird, Robert Rietty, Lelia Goldoni, Valery Leon, Lisa Shane.

Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe

Production Designer: Disley Jones

Art Director: Michael Knight

Film Editor: John Trumper

Stunt Driving:...

Established during the early heyday of motion pictures, the "star system" is an informal rule of thumb that most movie producers still swear by, even though the elements of a film's package deal in order to get a green light and raise funds have changed in the last 20-odd years. Nowadays, while having an actor with an established fanbase or persona is still a boon to getting a project off the ground, Hollywood is awash with risk-averse producers using an IP to get a movie made — and that IP is usually comic-book superhero material.

Arguably the film that started Hollywood on this superhero-saturated path, 1978's "Superman," was ironically far from a sure-fire hit when producers Pierre Spengler, Alexander Salkind, and Ilya Salkind were attempting to put it together. Since the Superman character himself wasn't enough to raise the money, the production needed an established star and a seasoned director.

As...

Hello, everyone! We’re back with another rundown of this week’s horror and sci-fi home media releases. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Don Mancini’s Chucky TV series, you can finally catch up with it as of this Tuesday. Arrow Video is giving Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the 4K treatment, and Kino Lorber is keeping busy with an assortment of releases on the 12th as well, including New Year’s Evil, Tentacles, and a Dr. Phibes Double Feature. IFC Films is also set to release their psychological thriller The Novice on Tuesday, too (and it’s great).

Chucky: Season One

The notorious Chucky slashes his way to television in a killer new series written and executive produced by creator Don Mancini, who penned the iconic film franchise. After teenage loner Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur) discovers a vintage 'Good Guy' doll at a suburban yard sale,...

Monica Vitti, one of Italy's most honored film stars, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 90. Known for her collaborations and love affair with director Michelangelo Antonioni, Vitti became one of the "it" actresses of the 1960s and her image graced the covers of countless magazines. In the 1960s, Vitti was perfectly poised to be part of the mod generation and was widely photographed in the latest fashions. She was also enlisted in the spy movie craze of the period, starring in the title role in "Modesty Blaise" and in Mario Bava's "Danger: Diabolik".  The above video, created in 2021, provides interesting insights about her life and career. For more, click here.

Features the voices of: Elizabeth Gillies, Stephanie Beatriz, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Kelly Hu, Jonathan Banks, Keith David, Lauren Cohan, Jacqueline Obradors, Zehra Fazal, Jonathan Frakes, Steve Blum, Andrew Kishino | Written by Greg Weisman | Directed by Shinsuke Terasawa

Catwoman: Hunted is the latest film in the rebooted DC Animated Movie slate and is, like Batman: Soul of the Dragon, heavily influenced by films of another era. In …Dragon it was 70s kung-fu cinema and here it’s 60s spy and crime thrillers – films like Danger: Diabolik and shows like The Saint, with an opening title sequence that screamed the work of Seijun Suzuki, the man responsible for a swathe of 60s crime films in Japan. Which is apt given the plot of the film, one that sees Catwoman attempt to steal a priceless jewel puts her squarely in the crosshairs of both a powerful consortium of villains called Leviathan, Batwoman and Interpol…...

"Diabolik" is the new live-action crime feature directed by the Manetti Bros, based on the best-selling comic book title by Angela and Luciana Giussani, in the second film adaptation of the character, opening December 2021:

"...'Diabolik', taking his name from a dangerous black panther, steals from criminals...

"...courtesy a set of lifelike masks he uses to fool opponents...

"...assuming alternate identities at will...

"...thanks to a deep knowledge in many scientific fields...

"...including mechanics, computers, chemistry...

"...and his deep friendship with lover 'Eva Kant'..."

Click the images to enlarge...

Barbara Steele has one of her better performance showcases in Camillo Mastrocinque’s classy ghost story with a somewhat dispiriting twist. Steele’s fan-collectors won’t need extra encouragement, as she’s in most every scene and gets to play a variety of moods from delicate to seductive to outright poisonous. Quality performances flatter a flawed screenplay, and the fine direction and attentive cinematography clearly inspired Steele to give it everything she had. Severin’s quality HD transfer is everything we’d want, with dual language tracks and good extras including a Kat Ellinger commentary and a second track featuring stellar input from Ms. Steele herself.

An Angel for Satan

Blu-ray

Severin Films

1966 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 96 min. / Street Date October 26, 2021 / 34.95

Starring: Barbara Steele, Anthony Steffen, Claudio Gora, Mario Brega, Marina Berti, Ursula Davis, Vassili Karis, Aldo Berti, Betty Delon, Antonio Corevi, Antonio Acqua, Livia Rossetti, Halina Zalewska, Giovanna Lenzi.

The Venice Film Festival is gearing up to take place as a full-fledged physical event in September with a back-to-normal atmosphere and what could be a high-profile selection of films.

While the Toronto Film Festival, which runs Sept. 9-18, is sticking with a combination of digital and in-person screenings, as is Sundance 2022, Venice’s upcoming Sept. 1-11 edition is on track, barring complications, to run as a completely in-person celebration of cinema with hundreds of journalists and dozens of film delegations expected to make the trek to the Lido from all over the world.

That’s the scenario the fest’s parent org, the Venice Biennale, is looking to pull off for its upcoming Architecture Biennale which has the timely theme of “How Will We Live Together?” and opens in Venice on May 22.

Delegations representing more than 100 Architecture Biennale projects are expected to soon arrive in Venice from 46 countries, along with more than 400 international journalists.

Italy is among the first countries in the world where film and TV production restarted after the peak of the pandemic and the country is now trying to become among the first in Europe to reopen movie theaters.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini in late February announced tentative plans to reopen Italian cinemas on March 27 in areas with lower Covid-19 infection and death rates, using new stricter social distancing norms. Though it remains to be seen whether Franceschini’s plan will pan out, what’s clear is that “Italy’s trade organizations and the government are engaged in a fruitful dialogue,” says producer Carlo Cresto-Dina, whose Tempesta Film is best-known for regularly shepherding pics by Cannes regular Alice Rohrwacher such as “The Wonders” and “Happy as Lazzaro.”

Cresto Dina points out that “right now in Italy it’s tough to find available crew, since they are all taken,” thanks to the...

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...

“The Bike Thief,” “Hello Again – a Wedding a Day” and “Karnawal” are among the hottest titles on Beta Cinema’s sales slate for the virtual version of the American Film Market, which starts Monday.

The Munich-based sales company will give Matt Chambers’ “The Bike Thief” its market premiere at AFM, following its world premiere this week in competition at the Tokyo Film Festival. Beta recently showed the film to select British buyers in a private screening in London and is now negotiating the U.K./Ireland deal.

The movie, starring Alec Secareanu (“God’s Own Country”) and Anamaria Marinca, explores the question of how far a father would go in present-day London to support his family when his only means to provide, his bike, is stolen.

“Hello Again – a Wedding a Day,” another completed title, is attracting strong interest too, Beta Cinema tells Variety. Hot on the heels of its appearance at Rome’s Mia market,...

Having completed the long-awaited Diabolik, brothers Marco and Antonio Manetti are now producing a horror comedy on behalf of Mompracem, directed by a former colleague of theirs. After the hiatus caused by the health crisis, the Manetti brothers (Love and Bullets) are back on set in a producing role for Il Mostro della cripta, a horror comedy directed by Daniele Misischia. A former cameraman and second unit director for Marco and Antonio Manetti, in 2017 Misischia signed his name to his first work The End? - an apocalyptic horror film set almost entirely inside an elevator - which was also produced by the Manetti brothers, in league with Carlo Macchitella, for Mompracem. The Manettis, who only recently completed the hotly anticipated work Diabolik (read our news), also penned the screenplay to the present work, alongside Paolo Logli and Alessandro Pondi. Starring Lillo, Tobia De Angelis and Amanda Campana in lead...

Versatile film, avant-garde classical, jazz and pop composer Ennio Morricone died in a Rome hospital after falling and breaking his leg, his lawyer Giorgio Assumma announced, according to Variety. He was 91.

Known as “the Maestro,” Morricone is best known as the composer of the scores and themes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and his Academy Award winning soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He also toured frequently, and expanded his sonic visions to reflect contemporary sounds. Besides his collaborations on the spaghetti Western films of Sergio Leone, Morricone composed for Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento, Don Siegel, Brian De Palma, and John Carpenter. He composed for such diverse artists as Andrea Bocelli, Sting, k.d. lang, and Pet Shop Boys. Morricone never became fluent in English. When he won his 2007 honorary Oscar, his speech was translated by Clint Eastwood.

Morricone...

Scoring over 500 movies and television shows, as well as over 100 classical works, film composer Ennio Morricone (who passed away at 91) wrote, orchestrated, and toured ceaselessly, refining and expanding his repertoire to accommodate different visions and the ever-shifting sounds of the day. Yet despite its eclecticism — or rather, because of it — the music of “the Maestro,” as many called him, was unmistakably Morricone after the first few bars. His name would become synonymous with the spaghetti Western, particularly his collaborations with director Sergio Leone on films like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,...

Ennio Morricone, the Oscar-winning composer of Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” and several high profile Spaghetti Westerns, has passed away at the age of 91. According to the Italian news agency Ansa (via Variety), Morricone died early in the morning on Monday, July 6 in Rome after suffering a fall that caused a hip fracture.

Over his six decades as a film composer, Morricone is best remembered for shaping the sound of the Spaghetti Western genre thanks to his legendary work on the films in Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy,” which include “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964), “For a Few Dollars More” (1965), and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (1966). Morricone and Leone would continue to work together on films such as “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968). Throughout his esteemed career, Morricone collaborated with the likes of Terence Malick (“Days of Heaven”), John Carpenter (“The Thing”), Roman Polanski (“Frantic”), William Friedkin...

Sales agent Beta Cinema is launching its Cannes Market slate, which is headlined by psychological thriller “Corvidae,” with a playful and novel approach. The company has produced an entertainment show, in the style of a late-night chatshow, featuring its sales team pitching its films and presenting exclusive clips from them. Variety has been given an exclusive sneak peek at the show before it goes live on Friday.

Beta Cinema CEO Dirk Schürhoff is the charismatic host of chatshow “The Beta Cinema Show,” filmed at the company’s offices in Oberhaching, near Munich, while Thorsten Ritter, exec VP acquisitions, sales and marketing, leads the house band on electric guitar. Its sales executives beam in their reports from around the world, while the kangaroo from the hit film “The Kangaroo Chronicles” assists. The tone is fun and tongue-in-cheek, but it’s a serious attempt to add a bit of showbiz pizzazz to the virtual market format.

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...

This week at Tfe we're celebrating the centennial of one of cinema’s most prolific and legendary producers, Dino De Laurentiis. In part one we looked at his breakout Italian hit, in part two an expensive epic flop. Here's Mark Brinkerhoff as Dino crosses the Ocean...

Dino in 1970, and Al Pacino in Serpico (1973) Dino De Laurentiis stormed Hollywood in the early ‘70s, quickly on the heels of fantastic successes like 1968’s Barbarella and Danger: Diabolik, which essentially closed out his previous decade. Having branched from Neo-Italian into more international, English-language cinema, De Laurentiis set his sights on riding the New Hollywood wave then cresting. While still making the occasional spaghetti western and period piece, his films began to dabble more in contemporary themes. In fact, aside from The Valachi Papers (1972), his The Godfather manqué, De Laurentiis’ initial forays into filming stateside resulted in his grittiest, most modern productions to date.

Freshly divorced from American-International Pictures, Roger Corman leaps into the filmic mainstream with a fairly large-scale World War One aviation picture. He competes with the big studios but retains his nonconformist attitude: his retelling of the story of the Red Baron fixates on the theme of the death of chivalry in combat. For his star player Corman picks John Phillip Law, whose on-screen persona is a good fit for one of the first warrior aces of the sky.

Von Richthofen and Brown

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1971 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date May 21, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: John Phillip Law, Don Stroud, Barry Primus, Corin Redgrave, Stephen McHattie, Hurd Hatfield

Robert La Tourneaux, Ferdy Mayne, Peter Masterson, Clint Kimbrough, George Armitage.

Cinematography: Michael Reed

Film Editor: Alan Collins

Original Music: Hugo Friedhofer

Written by John William Corrington, Joyce H. Corrington

Produced by Gene Corman, Jimmy T. Murakami

Directed by...

Ingmar Bergman’s The Serpent’S Egg will be available on Blu-ray December 4th from Arrow Academy

How Do You Measure Your Own Sanity In A World Gone Mad?

In 1977, legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman teamed up with the equally legendary Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis for what would be the director s one and only Hollywood feature.

Berlin, 1923. Out-of-work circus performer Abel Rosenberg is living in poverty. When his brother commits suicide, he moves into the apartment of his cabaret singer sister-in-law, but the pair soon attract the attentions of both the police and a professor with a terrifying area of research when they start to make enquiries about his mysterious death.

One of Bergman s darkest and most unlikely films, The Serpent s Egg is a hypnotic, Kafkaesque tale of paranoia in a poisoned city.

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Original English mono audio (uncompressed Lpcm) Optional English...

Above: French poster for Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot!. Artist: Enrico de Seta.Starting today, the Quad Cinema in New York will be playing what must be the most entertaining and esoteric genre series of the summer. In advance of the release of the delirious nuovo spaghetti western crime thriller Let the Corpses Tan, the Quad has invited directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani to program ten personal favorites that have influenced their new film.The resulting curation is a fabulous mix of genres and locations, with films both well known (John Boorman’s Point Blank) and relatively obscure. The majority are from the filmmakers’ favorite period of the late ’60s and early ’70s—as the Quad’s introduction says, “apart from Quentin Tarantino, few writer/directors active in film today have the lifeblood of 1960s and 1970s cinema coursing through their veins as fulsomely as Hélène Cattet and...

Look out! Gamma Gamma Hey! It’s the attack of screaming, arm-waving green goober monsters from a rogue planetoid, here to bring joy to the hearts of bad-movie fans everywhere. Just make sure your partner is agreeably inclined before you make it a date movie — this show has ended many a good relationship, even before the immortal words, “We’ll never make it chief, it’s coming too fast!”

The Green Slime

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 90 min. / Gamma sango uchu daisakusen / Street Date October 3, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Robert Horton, Luciana Paluzzi, Richard Jaeckel, Bud Widom, Robert Dunham.

Cinematography: Yoshikazu Yamasawa

Film Editor: Osamu Tanaka

Original Music: Charles Fox, Toshiaki Tsushima

Written by Bill Finger, Ivan Reiner, Tom Rowe, Charles Sinclair

Produced by Walter Manley, Ivan Reiner

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku

It’s a summer evening in 1969. Unable to get into a showing of Butch Cassidy...

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...

When a filmmaker creates a number of movies that qualify for masterpiece status, it becomes nearly impossible to quantifiably conclude which one stands above the rest as his or her single greatest achievement. We have our favorites, of course, but can any of us really name which of Hitchcock’s films is his definitive best? Or Kurosawa’s? Or Spielberg’s? The same is true of Mario Bava, the great Italian director who made films across a number of genres but who is best known for his work in horror. How does one name a single “best” movie from the man responsible for Black Sunday and Blood and Black Lace and The Whip and the Body and Black Sabbath? It’s like naming a favorite child.

While his 1966 movie Kill, Baby... Kill! isn’t always named as being one of Bava’s best, it absolutely deserves to be part of the conversation and is,...

Back in May, The Quad Cinema in New York celebrated the diverse works of director Larry Cohen, and they're now devoting the big screen to filmmaker Mario Bava in a massive retrospective series featuring screenings of 21 of the influential Italian director's films. Currently underway and running until July 25th, the Bava retrospective is highlighted by 35mm screenings of films such as Black Sabbath and Black Sunday, a 4K restoration of Planet of the Vampires, and much more.

Details on the Bava screenings can be found below, and to learn more, visit the Quad Cinema's official website.

"The Quad celebrates the Italian maestro of the macabre with a near-complete retrospective of his work—21 titles with 13 on 35mm—plus the U.S. Premiere of a new 4K restoration of Planet of the Vampires

Over the course of more than two dozen features, Mario Bava’s distinctive style developed from baroque manipulation of...

Above: Us one sheet for Black Sunday (Mario Bava, Italy, 1960).Earlier this week I featured Francine Spiegel and Dylan Haley’s terrific new poster for the re-release of Mario Bava’s Kill, Baby...Kill!, which has been playing at New York’s Quad Cinema in a 50th anniversary, 2K restoration. (Full disclosure: this week I started working for the film’s distributor, Kino Lorber, although I can take no credit for that design.) Today, the Quad follows up that run with Mondo Bava: 20-film retrospective of Bava’s films with many of the films on 35mm.Though Bava made over 30 films in various genres over the course of more than two decades, he is best known as perhaps the greatest stylist in horror, the maestro of the macabre. The posters for his horror films may not always convey Bava’s sense of style (notable exceptions being the French posters...

“The gods of Greece are cruel! In time, all men shall learn to live without them.”

Sunday, May 7 marks the 4th anniversary of the legendary visual effects guru Ray Harryhausen’s death. Read what We Are Movie Geeks thinks are Harryhausen’s top ten films Here

To celebrate this master of illusion, Comet TV (www.COMETtv.com) is running a Ray Harryhausen Marathon of movies on Sunday, May 7 beginning at 11:30am Est/8:30am Pst. The complete marathon will run as follows:

11:30am Est / 10:30am Ct / 8:30am Pst – The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

In many ways the ultimate combination of stop motion animation, adventure, and overall production quality, 7th Voyage Of Sinbad is still one of Harryhausen’s most popular works. It was also a turning point for Harryhausen, establishing the framework for not only his other Sinbad films, but all animated adventure films in general...

It creeps and leaps and slides and glides along the wall… and then it eats your face, dude. Mario Bava and Riccardo Freda’s ultimate monster mastication epic now looks sensationally gory, thanks to a full restoration. Arrow’s disc has pretty much everything, including two transfers and two audio commentaries. And Savant has a guilty admission to make — it was the tripe, the whole tripe, and nothing but the tripe.

Caltiki, The Immortal Monster

Blu-ray + DVD

Arrow Video USA

1959 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 76 min. / Caltiki, il mostro immortale / Street Date April 11, 2017 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95

Starring: John Merivale, Didi Sullivan (Perego), Gérard Haerter, Daniela Rocca, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Daniele Vargas, Arturo Dominici, Gay Pearl

Cinematography: John Foam (Mario Bava)

Special Effects: Mario Bava

Film Editor: Mario Serandrei

Original Music: Roberto Nicolosi

Written by Filippo Sanjust

Produced by Bruno Vailati

Directed by Robert Hamton (Riccardo Freda) & Mario Bava

Who says that Blu-ray is dying?...

Sometimes a movie is simply too good for just one special edition… Savant reached out to nab a British Region B import of Georges Franju’s horror masterpiece, to sample its enticing extras. And this also gives me the chance to ramble on with more thoughts about this 1959 show that inspired a score of copycats.

Eyes Without a Face (Bfi — U.K.)

Region B Blu-ray + Pal DVD

Bfi

1959 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 90 min. / The Horror Chamber of

Dr. Faustus, House of Dr. Rasanoff, Occhi senza volto / Street Date August 24, 2015 / presently £10.99

Starring: Pierre Brasseur, Edith Scob, Alida Valli, Francois Guérin,

Béatrice Altariba, Juliette Mayniel

Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan

Production Designer: Auguste Capelier

Special Effects: Charles-Henri Assola

Film Editor: Gilbert Natot

Original Music: Maurice Jarre

Written by Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac, Pierre Gascar, Claude Sautet from a novel by Jean Redon

Produced by Jules Borkon

Directed by Georges Franju

Savant has reviewed Eyes Without a Face twice,...

Can radical theater make a good movie? Elio Petri continues his string of biting social comment movies with a black comedy about rich people, thieves, and the notion of ownership — it’s a caustic position paper but also a funny satire, with quirky yet believable characters. Ugo Tognazzi is terrific as scheming capitalist, as much a prisoner of his wealth as a poor clerk is of his poverty.

Property is No Longer a Theft

Blu-ray + DVD

Arrow Video USA

1973 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 126 min. / Street Date March 28, 2017 / La proprietà non è più un furto / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95

Starring: Ugo Tognazzi, Flavio Bucci, Daria Nicolodi, Mario Scaccia, Orazio Orlando, Julien Guiomar, Cecilia Polizzi, Jacques Herlin, Ada Pometti, Salvo Randone.

Cinematography: Luigi Kuveiller

Film Editor: Ruggero Mastroianni

Original Music: Ennio Morricone

Production design / Costume design: Gianni Polidori

Written by Elio Petri, Ugo Pirro

Produced by Claudio Mancini

Directed by Elio Petri

Essere o Avere?...

The Lair of the White Worm

Blu-ray

Lionsgate / Vestron

1988 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 94 min. / Street Date January 31, 2017 / 34.97

Starring Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, Peter Capaldi, Sammi Davis, Stratford Johns, Paul Brooke, Imogen Claire, Chris Pitt, Gina McKee, Christopher Gable, Lloyd Peters.

Cinematography: Dick Bush

Film Editor: Peter Davies

Special Effects makeup: Stuart Conran, Paul Jones

Original Music: Stanislaus Syerewicz

Written by: Ken Russell from the novel by Bram Stoker

Produced and Directed by Ken Russell

Wild man director Ken Russell struck back against commercial indifference with this alternately elegant and outrageous horror offering, that excepting a few hard- ‘R’ moments, comes off as a real (snake) charmer. Few horror movies have a real sense of wit, and fewer still can laugh at themselves without crumbling into sad parody. As if reclaiming horror as a British-made product, Russell’s The Lair of the White Worm shows us what a next-generation Hammer...

Joseph Losey doesn't normally make trendy, lighthearted genre films, and in this SuperSpy epic we find out why -- an impressive production and great music don't compensate for a lack of pace and dynamism, not to mention a narrow sense of humor. Yet it's a lounge classic, and a perverse favorite of spy movie fans. Modesty Blaise Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1966 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 119 min. / Street Date August 23, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp, Dirk Bogarde, Harry Andrews, Michael Craig, Clive Revill, Alexander Knox, Rossella Falk, Scilla Gabel, Tina Marquand Cinematography Jack Hildyard Production Designer Richard MacDonald, Jack Shampan Film Editor Reginald Beck Original Music John Dankworth Written by Evan Jones from a novel by Peter O'Donnell and a comic strip by Jim Holdaway Produced by Joseph Janni Directed by Joseph Losey

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

When I first reviewed a DVD of Modesty Blaise fourteen years ago,...

Ranked: All 22 Mario Bava Movies Unknowingly, I first encountered director/cameraman Mario Bava (1914–1980) in the summer of 1999 when the Sci-Fi Channel aired the final episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 featuring the superhero film Danger: Diabolik. In that condescending context the film didn’t really make an impact, but a few years later in college…

The post Ranked: All 22 Mario Bava Movies appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

Mario Bava turns from spooky gothic tales to a relentlessly violent murder spree in the glossy world of high fashion. The large cast gives us a fistful of prime suspects, while the main draw is Bava's powerful direction and razor-keen images - and in this excellent transfer, the colors can only be described as hallucinatory. Blood and Black Lace Blu-ray + DVD Arrow Video U.S. 1964 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 89 min. / Sei donne per l'assassino / available through Mvd Entertainment / Street Date July 5, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok, Thomas Reiner, Ariana Gorini, Dante Dipaolo, Mary Arden, Franco Ressel, Claude Dantes, Luciano Pigozzi, Lea Lander, Massimo Righi, Francesca Ungaro, Giuliano Raffaelli, Harriet White Medin. Cinematography Ubaldo Terzano Editor Mario Serandrei Original Music Carlo Rustichelli Written by Marcello Fondato, Giuseppe Barilla, Mario Bava Produced by Alfredo Mirabile, Massimo Patrizi <Directed by Mario Bava

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

When Arrow Video released a U.K. Blu-ray...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen, whose dazzling and innovative visual effects work on fantasy adventure films such as Jason And The Argonauts and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad passed away in 2013 at age 92. In 1933, the then-13-year-old Ray Harryhausen saw King Kong at a Hollywood theater and was inspired – not only by Kong, who was clearly not just a man in a gorilla suit, but also by the dinosaurs. He came out of the theatre “stunned and haunted. They looked absolutely lifelike … I wanted to know how it was done.” It was done by using stop-motion animation: jointed models filmed one frame at a time to simulate movement. Harryhausen was to become the prime exponent of the technique and its combination with live action. The influence of Harryhausen on film luminaries like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and...

It's an All Star monster rally -- Lon Chaney Jr.!, John Carradine!, Bela Lugosi!, Basil Rathbone!, Tor Johnson! -- with Akim Tamiroff in there pitching as well. It's considered a must-see picture, and this HD presentation is nothing to sniff at. Added bonus: a Tom Weaver commentary. The Black Sleep Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1956 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 82 min. / Dr. Cadman's Secret / Street Date March 22, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Basil Rathbone, Akim Tamiroff, Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, Bela Lugosi, Herbert Rudley, Patricia Blake, Phyllis Stanley, Tor Johnson, Sally Yarnell, George Sawaya. Cinematography Gordon Avil Film Editor John F. Schreyer Original Music Les Baxter Written by John C. Higgins, Gerald Drayson Adams Produced by Howard W. Koch Directed by Reginald Le Borg

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Older monster kids know that the 1956 chiller The Black Sleep existed for years only through stills in Famous Monsters magazine. We saw tantalizing...

This is definitely the time of year when film critic types (I’m sure you know who I mean) spend an inordinate amount of time leading up to awards season—and it all leads up to awards season, don’t it?—compiling lists and trying to convince anyone who will listen that it was a shitty year at the movies for anyone who liked something other than what they saw and liked. And ‘tis the season, or at least ‘thas (?) been in the recent past, for that most beloved of academic parlor games, bemoaning the death of cinema, which, if the sackcloth-and-ashes-clad among us are to be believed, is an increasingly detached and irrelevant art form in the process of being smothered under the wet, steaming blanket of American blockbuster-it is. And it’s going all malnourished from the siphoning off of all the talent back to TV, which, as everyone knows,...

Gian Maria Volonté has a big part in this prime quality Italo crime thriller blessed with a great score by Ennio Morricone. But the movie belongs to Robert Hoffman as the real-life public enemy who earned the alias 'The Machine Gun Soloist.' Director Carlo Lizzani's realistic treatment glamorizes nothing and implicates the police in shady policies as well. Award-winning co-star Lisa Gastoni is the woman who loves Hoffman, and is tempted to betray him. Wake Up and Kill Blu-ray + DVD Arrow Video (UK) 1966 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 124 98 min / Svegliati e uccidi; Lutring; Wake Up and Die / Street Date November 24, 2015 / 29.95 Starring Robert Hoffmann, Lisa Gastoni, Gian Maria Volonté, Claudio Camaso, Renato Niccolai, Ottavio Fanfani, Pupo De Luca, Corrado Olmi. Cinematography Armando Nannuzzi Film Editing Franco Fraticelli Original Music Ennio Morricone Written by Ugo Pirro, Carlo Lizzani Produced by Jacques Bar, Joseph Fryd, Carlo Lizzani Directed by Carlo Lizzani  

Reviewed by...

Trey Parker and Matt Stone's 'outrageous, irreverent' comedy is the gusher of pointless profanity and smut that will cheer the myriad fans of South Park. The ultimate message of this cringe-worthy spectacle is that liberals are dupes and traitors, foreigners are either evil or morons, and kicking ass around the world is our national birthright. Go team! Team America: World Police Blu-ray Warner /Paramount 2004 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date October 13, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 9.98 Starring voices of Trey Parker, Matt Stone, others. Cinematography Bill Pope Film Editor Thomas M. Vogt Original Music Harry Gregson-Williams Written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Pam Brady Produced by Trey Parker, Scott Rudin, Matt Stone Directed by Trey Parker    

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Team America: World Police looks like a show designed for the kids, yet it's too raw for most adults. It is an optimal feature concept for Trey Parker and Matt Stone,...

30. Lady Snowblood Part 1 and Part 2

While American comic books have struggled for legitimacy as adult entertainment for decades, their Japanese counterparts have long enjoyed acceptance as legitimate elements of mainstream culture. So while the American comic book movie only properly took off in the last fifteen years, jidaigeki adaptations of popular manga have been a staple of Japanese pulp cinema since the early 1970s. The best of these remains Lady Snowblood, director Toshiya Fujita’s two part revenge opera of a woman checking off a kill list of the gangsters who killed her family and left her for dead. Any familiarity to Kill Bill is entirely intentional, with multiple visuals, soundtrack elements and plot points lifted whole cloth by Tarantino. But even for those only familiar with the update, Fujita’s films remain feats of hard edged efficiency, actress Meiko Kaji a goddess of death in a world of opposing colors and sudden violence.

We want to take a moment and welcome the DVD Savant himself, Glenn Erickson, to our guest blog. Glenn's critical and technical insights make him unique in the vast sea of movie reviewers and we couldn't be happier that he's sharing the wealth here at Tfh. Enjoy!

Mad Max: Fury Road 3-D Blu-ray, 2-D Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD

Savant Review

Mad Max: Fury Road 3-D Blu-ray, 2-D Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD Warner Home Video 2015 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 120 min. / Street Date March 24, 2015 / 44.95 Starring Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Josh Helman, Nathan Jones, Zoöe Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, John Howard, Richard Carter, Iota, Angus Sampson, Jennifer Hagan, Megan Gale, Melissa Jaffer. Cinematography John Seale Editor Margaret Sixel Original Music Tom Holkenborg Written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nick Lathouris Produced by George Miller, Doug Mitchell, P.J. Voten Directed by...

Bourne and Mission: Impossible, right back to Harry Palmer and Danger Diabolik - meet the many pretenders to James Bond's throne...

Since 1962, the James Bond franchise has come to define the spy genre, for good or ill. More broadly, every thriller and action film that comes out now either uses them as inspiration, or attempts to ignore or re-work the tropes that have come to be associated with the series.

Coming off the release of Kingsman: The Secret Service, and with the release of a new Bond film this year, now seems like the perfect time to take a look at a sample of the films which have been inspired by James Bond — either as homages, parodies or reactions.

The Ipcress File (1965)

Produced by James Bond producer Harry Saltzman as a more grounded alternative to the largesse of Bond, The Ipcress File is more concerned with the intricacies of real spy-work — the endless paperwork,...

Three intriguing sounding series have been put into development.

First up, Sky Deutschland, Sky Italia and BSkyB are developing a ten-episode live-action series adaptation of hit Italian comic book "Diabolik".

The comic follows a master thief who steals from other criminals and can take on any identity he wishes. The property was previously adapted into Mario Bava's 1968 film "Danger: Diabolik".

Next, A&E Network is reportedly developing the high-concept drama series "The 36" from "Immortals" scribes Charley & Vlas Parlapanides. Michael London will produce.

The story is set in New York City, in a world of Biblical fallen angels (the Nephilim). These dark angels are only kept in check by The Righteous 36. The latter is a mystical Jewish concept which says that at all times there are 36 people in the world possessing special powers.

Finally remake rights to "Prisoners of War", the Israeli drama that was remade in the U.S.