Tuesday 5 February 2013

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

031 THE TERROR (1938) Directed by Richard Bird *

A truly creaky old adaption of Edgar Wallace's old dark house mystery with phantom organ playing, spectral monks, master criminals and, if you like English character actors, a cast to relish. To be brutal it is only the cast that makes this terribly dated film of interest - there's Bernard Lee, Alastair Sim, Henry Oscar, Wilfred Lawson, Richard Murdoch, Irene Handl and Kathleen Harrison amongst others.



032 LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO/Mask of the Demon/Black Sunday/Revenge of the Vampire (1960) Directed by Mario Bava. ****

A welcome release on Blu-ray of Bava's classic directorial debut. A three disk set that includes both the original European version with a choice of English or Italian dialogue (with subtitles) with the original score and the American dubbed BLACK SUNDAY with the Les Baxter score. Disc 2 is the same but on DVD. Disc 3 contains Riccardo Freda's I VAMPIRI on DVD. Some really nice extras include an interview with Barbara Steele and a 50 minute Mario Bava trailer reel. The set comes with a nice booklet that includes material by Bava biographer Tim Lucas and Stephen Jones amongst others, another interview with Barbara Steele in which she talks about Bava, Freda and Margheriti etc and Riccardo Freda's memoirs of working with his friend Bava.  While unsure whether whether the transfer is better that a DVD release this  set is a nice replacement for my from tv recordings of both the Bava and the Freda films.

La Maschera del Demonio

Also Viewed :

032 A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964) Sergio Leone ****

A Fistful of Dollars

1 comment:

Cerpts said...

Odd's bodkins, I remember getting THE TERROR from Sinister Cinema back in the late 80's and being bored to tears; in fact, I've never watched the VHS since LOL! You're comments don't make me want to search it out anytime soon, either!