The Saga of Coffin Joe: Part I

Most horror fans probably haven’t heard of Coffin Joe, a character created by Brazilian filmmaker & horror pioneer José Mojica Marins, largely because not a lot of films from South America tend to get distribution wide, and if they do materialize in territories such as Region 1 land, they have to struggle to get digital and physical shelf exposure.

It also doesn’t help that the original label (Fantoma) which carried two of the three proper Coffin Joe films, went under, and extant DVDs from Brazil and Europe use poor if not mediocre source materials.

The first film, for example, At Night I’ll Take Your Soul (1964), is available in what can best be described as Bullshit Stereo 2.0, and it’s a disaster. The only source for the original scratchy but intelligible mono mix are the out-of-print Fantoma and still-in-print Australian versions. It’s a classic case, not unlike Mario Bava’s Blood & Black Lace (1964), where there still isn’t a decent transfer made from the best elements available to the broadest spectrum of the home video market.

Note awesome artwork by Rue Morgue's Gary Pullin.

The second film, This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse (1967), sounds even worse in Bullshit 2.0, and it’s maddening that the most accessible and value-added set of Marins’ work from Anchor Bay U.K. features these terrible transfers.

Most likely the reason the 9 film, 5 disc box set is selling for under 10 Pounds Sterling on Amazon.uk is due to a rejection of the set by the franchise’s key fan base.

The blame lies in the hands of the owners who authorized bad transfers, not the labels who licensed them because they simply wanted to get the movies back in circulation.

There’s a reason to complain, because scenes from the first two Coffin Joe films were intercut in select montages in the third and final installment of the trilogy, Embodiment of Evil (2008), and the clips look gorgeous. If the success of Part III can happen over the Blu-ray platform, then perhaps it’ll poke the owners to do what’s right, and not only release new HD transfers of the films, but add the generous extras from the 2002 Brazilian box set, each featuring multi-lingual translations.

Make one set available for all markets so Marins’ body of work gets the recognition it deserves.

So who is Coffin Joe?

He’s an arrogant, sadistic undertaker who abuses townspeople with absolute impunity. He’s funny, rabidly anti-religious, and thumbs his nose at the spirits of the people he killed or maimed. He also wants to be a daddy, and when resuscitated for the second film, the character was reshaped into a hellion determined to father a son who will begin a reign of terror (when he’s all grown-up, of course).

Joe’s also a sexist pig, so you have to wonder what the sonofabitch would do if the doctors handed him a baby daughter. He tests the women snatches from streets as potential mothers using a mass of tarantulas, snakes, facial disfigurement, and atrocious bedside manners.

The reason the character is so fascinating lies in the glee with which he accomplishes outrageous cruelties, and Marins’ directing style, which harkens back to the Universal monster movies of the forties and fifties, but adds a visual flair reminiscent of Mario Bava, surreal episodes recalling Alejandro Jodorowsky, and graphic violence found in some of Fernando Arrabal’s most vicious work.

Coffin Joe isn’t for all tastes, but the first film remains the best because it’s a complete portrait of a monster who gets his comeuppance… and like a classic Universal Frankenstein sequel, comes back in spite of seriously physical trauma.

I’ve reviewed the first two films, At Night I’ll Take Your Soul [M] and This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse [M], and compare the 2007 Anchor Bay and 2001 Fantoma editions, including extras.

In Part II of this series, I’ll examine the subsequent films in which Marins’ malicious character appeared in lesser (and sometimes impressionistic) roles.

"For you, I think you need some snuggle time in my porcine sleepsack!'

Also uploaded is a review of Embodiment of Evil [M], in which the character is released from prison after 40 years, and falls straight into his old groove, using more modern methods of physical trauma.

It’s a mixed bag only because it will divide fans wanting the classical aspects from the original films, and those delighted that the gore – some real – is up to flesh-tearing contemporary standards.

Synapse’s Blu-ray + DVD combo edition looks and sounds great.


Coming soon: tales of the Greek immigration experience, as dramatized in Elia Kazan’s masterwork America America (1963), and William Kyriakis and Radley Metzger’s Dark Odyssey (1961).

Seriously. There’s a strong thematic connection between the two films, and I’ll prove it.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

John Huston’s Cold War Thrillers

Not your conventional old stogie.

Just uploaded are a pair of very good – no, I’d say excellent – Cold War espionage films directed by John Huston. Known for his affinity for losers and crazy dreamers who never manage to reach their ultimate goals (or at least must severely lose a pound of flesh to get past the first border crossing), Huston’s later films weren’t always box office blockbusters, but for the most part they were interesting artistic ventures made by a big, wiry man with a grand persona.

If you’ve seen Clint Eastwood’s White Hunter, Black Heart (1990) – and you really should if you haven’t – it sort of encapsulates the director’s odd blend of filmmaking and adventurism. Huston went to Africa to make movies and shoot big game. In White Hunter, he wanted an African elephant; and in Nevada for The Misfits (1961), there was the gambling, and commandeering an over-budget production with three of Hollywood’s biggest and most expensive stars.

Filmmaking for Huston always seemed to be about the challenge, and having fun with a good cigar stuck between his grandiose, mischievous smile, or having an awesome drinking buddy like Humphrey Bogart (The African Queen) or Errol Flynn (The Roots of Heaven). One reason Huston didn’t get sick during filming in exotic locales is the booze: if you increase the alcohol percentage to borderline toxic, you make it impossible for bugs to survive long enough to infect you. (At least that’s the theory which worked with Flynn during the shooting of Roots.)

From Twilight Time comes The Kremlin Letter [M] (1970), a forgotten but really well-aged espionage thriller whose tone and meanness I swear were borrowed by John Frankenheimer and David Mamet for Ronin (1999). There’s some striking tonal similarities, but Kremlin is a much meaner film about desperate characters sharing pretty dismal futures – hardly elements that would’ve made the kind of box office hit Huston was hoping for.

The film’s been announced for a Region 2 DVD July 25 via Eureka Entertainment, but TT’s Region 1 disc (limited to 3000 copies) includes an isolated music track of Robert Drasnin’s bleak little score, and is available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment.

Those curious about TT’s upcoming Blu-ray and DVD editions of The Egyptian (1954) can read a detailed interview with Nick Redman at Blu-ray.com. Apparently the company’s licensed 100 films from Fox, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed some of those anamorphic CinemaScope productions out in Spain will finally get their due in North America. There’s no reason why The Roots of Heaven (1958) or Inferno (1953) can’t be released here. None.

Also reviewed is Huston’s second seventies espionage thriller, The MacKintosh Man [M] (1976), starring Paul Newman in a perfectly tailored role of a no-nonsense thief / spy. It as easy for the studio to package a trailer with plenty of money shots and quick quips, but selling the film was clearly tough for Warner Bros., because it moves from one genre to another within its first hour. It’s also a gem that deserves a peek, and Warner Home Video released it a few years ago as a standalone edition and in a Paul Newman-themed boxed set.

While we’re on the subject of Huston, I should also point out the late August screenings of The Misfits at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Montgomery Clift, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Eli Wallach, Kevin McCarthy, Thelma Ritter, Arthur Miller, and Alex North. Not a happy film, considering three of the leads were dead within a few years after the film’s release, but it’s a striking production that’ll look & sound great on the big screen.

Also announced in the TBL’s programme book is an upcoming salute to Grace Kelly, featuring Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), and Dial M for Murder (1954). I’m so there, but it would be amazing if the TBL could get their hands on a restored 3D print of Dial M. I’ve seen a worn print at the old Festival Cinemas’ summer 3D series, and even in WobblyVision & browning film stock, it still looked good.

Coming shortly: the saga of Coffin Joe.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

Soundtrack Reviews + News

Just uploaded are a quartet of fun action & sci-fi scores for video games. La-La Land Recorss have released a pair of beautifully mastered 2-disc sets for hans Zimmer's Crysis II [M] and Bear McCreary's SOCOM 4: Navy SEALs [M], and Bioware's released Inon Zur's music from Dragon Age II [M]. I've also added a review of Zur's score for the first Crysis [M] (Sumthing Else Music) to rounf things out.

In a recent interview in May, Winifred Philips spoke to the Sound Byte Blog regarding life as a working film and video game composer. The Q&A runs a meaty 20 mins., and it's a genial piece where Phillips discusses her career, including recent releases such as Sim Animals (2008), Spore Hero (2009), and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010).

Lastly, Universal recently released Ridley Scott's Legend (1986) on Blu-ray, and the Digital Bits noted a few extras from the DVD weren't ported over. Missing are "the 3 animated storyboard sequences, the production notes (that help to provide context for some of the extras), the standard cast & crew bios and - most importantly - the DVD-ROM features which included a script-to-screen viewer." I reviewed the DVD when it emerged in 2002, and I keep having to clarify the following: the Tangerine Dream score is NOT isolated on the DVD; it's the album tracks dumped into a separate audio track *in mono*. It's a useless feature on the DVD and BR, and Universal most likely was told by The Dream's management not to isolated the score in stereo, rather than the studio being cheap.

Those interested in the BR edition can read a Q&A between Film Score Monthly's Andy Dursin and Special Features producer Charles de Lauzirika.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

"Pilot Error"

Long before the Airport franchise entrenched the clichés of the air disaster genre from the late sixties to the late seventies, Hollywood had offered up dramas that happened to involve pilots, and in the three releases covered this weekend, we have a differing views on the value of a commercial airline pilot.

Based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s best-selling novel, Night Flight / Vol de nuit,  MGM’s Night Flight [M] (Warner Home Video) is erroneously billed as a Grand Hotel-type drama with a stellar cast enacting the struggles of air mail delivery in South America.

Operations manager John Barrymore seems to regard his handful of pilots as children – noble in skill, foolish in vices and human weaknesses – and he’s determined to push them to the limit to launch the continent's first overnight air mail service.

Unlike a similar aviation drama, Frank Capra’s Dirigible [M[ (1931), MGM’s 1933 film is steeped in melodrama and hasn’t aged too well, but it’s a significant production that weighed some of the controversies surrounding commercial aviation after audiences had become accustomed to seeing pilots on the silver screen fighting forking &  country in WWI dramas, comedic action sequences, and musicals with half-naked women and chirpy singers strapped to biplane wings.

By the early fifties, commercial aviation for passengers on an international scale was dramatized in Twentieth Century-Fox’s No Highway in the Sky [M] (1950), a British production about the need to put safety up front instead of money, time schedules, and corporate greed. It’s an unusually non-cynical film about one crusading aeronautical engineer (eccentrically played by James Stewart) who’s convinced the tail on the plane he’s travelling in will break off over the Pacific Ocean, killing everyone.

Not available on DVD, this docu-styled drama junks most of the melodrama larded into Night Flight, and eerily presaged the 1954 disaster of the de Havilland Comet planes which broke up mid-flight due to design flaws.

Lastly, we have Fate is the Hunter [M] (Twilight Time), Fox’s 1964 drama that begins after a deadly plane crash has killed all but one. Based on the novel by Ernest K. Gann, Fate feels remarkably contemporary because a good chunk of its narrative is devoted to the procedural details of gathering crash evidence and trying to determine whether the disaster was caused by mechanical malfunction or pilot error.

Seeing the wrecked craft reconstructed on a metal skeleton in a sterile hangar recalls news footage of the Air India bombing; and the heroism of the pilot’s wartime flights – cheating death and landing a plane using experience, balls, and professionalism – more immediately recalls the case of Chesley Sullenberg, who ditched his plane in the Hudson River without a single loss of life.

In all three films, the skills of the pilots come into question when a signal is lost, a plane crashes, or a corporation decides to wrap up a disaster by blaming the pilot.

As an airman quips in No Highway in the Sky, “Pilots and desks; dogs and Cats. Natural enemies. They’ve got one theme song… Pilot’s error. Whenever anything goes wrong with their calculations and there’s a smash-up: ‘pilot’s error.’”

Seems  cynicism towards pilots is a good 80 years old.

Coming next: reviews of four video game soundtracks.

Coming soon: a review of John Huston's nasty little Cold War thriller, The Kremlin Letter, also from Twilight Time. The new label just announced pre-order details of their debut Blu-ray release - The Egyptian, the 1954 sunburn saga Marlon Brando managed to weasel out of, but had to make amends to CEO Darryl Zanuck by playing Napoleon in Desiree. The latter film is currently available on DVD (where else?) in Spain, and if timing works out and Canada Post's current strike mess is resolved, I should have reviews of both films, so we can all learn if Marlon made the right choice, selecting a new accent and hairstyle.

Lastly, those who've received their TIFF catalogue for the summer series may have noticed a special section devoted to Montgomery Clift. Between July and August, the TIFF Bell Lightbox will screen prints of Elia Kazan's Wild River (1960), Edward Dmytryk's Raintree County (1957), John Huston's The Misfits (1961), and perhaps my favourite WWII drama, Dmytryk's The Young Lions (1958), featuring a superb Hugo Friedhofer score... and Marlon Brando playing a 'good' Nazi.

The complete list is posted at the TBL website (which still needs more design tweaking. Just saying).






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

August is Human Tomato Season

Back in late May, I did my first Doors Open Toronto (How long have I been living here, and never made the effort?) and from the observation deck of City Hall I took a few snapshots of the CN Tower.

The day was a classically grey and ugly (seemingly the norm for the city of late), but there was something alluring about heavy fog enshrouding the tower’s upper pole, where all the radio and TV gear is house.

A friend used to manage the restaurant a few levels below, and he once described going up into the main broadcast box as fascinating and creepy: all copper lined, filled with gear, and you could feel the damn tower tip swaying with the wind.

Inside the box, you ain’t gonna die; maybe just feel a bit ‘air sick’ from the motions, if you happen to have one of those inner ear issues.

From a broader view of the tower, one can see the scaffolding that was firmly implanted into the circular superstructure, which looks a bit hairy.

Closer inspection (well, not much, given the images were taken through windows splattered with pigeon poop) reveals where participants of the new EdgeWalk amusement will walk. Note how wispy the whole thing looks from afar.

Well, as reported by Torontoist, Mark Laroche, CEO of the Canada Lands Company (owners of our priapic symbol of progress), not only took a walk, but wore a helmetcam to capture the bare essence of striding at the border of one’s doom.

I’ve no doubt the amusement is safe, but there is that extreme fear of a sudden gust of wind knocking one off, the wire snapping, and getting blown over the safety netting  -netting – after which one gets to experience the same freefall ride stuntman Dar Robinson enjoyed for the Canuxploitation classique Highpoint (1982) before you become a human tomato (or pancake, depending on the type of surface your body will marry, hard and fast).

Watch the video, and note the metal brackets on the walkway that no one manages to trip over; note the edge, still unblemished by ‘the netting,’ which is supposed to save you / stop you from attempting an immediate extraction from our global gene pool.

It’s all fascinating, but seriously: there’s gonna be a human tomato / C’est fantastique, mais vraiment: quelqu’un deviendra une tomate humaine.

Tickets are now on sale for $175, and the terror begins in August.

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Mark R. Hasan, Editor

KQEK.com

Colour Noir

Merde! Les inconnus sont ici! Zut, alors!

Some purists believe there’s no such thing as a ‘colour noir’; film noir, according to their logic, must be in filled with grays because the genre began with starkly photographed black & white (‘noir’) cinematography.

It’s an oversimplification, arguing the visual palette determines the genre, which isn’t so; high contrast lighting and compositions are possible in colour and wider film ratios, but in film noir, it’s the story and characters that determine the genre.

I tend to argue Leave Her to Heaven [M] (1945) as the best example of early colour noir because it’s about bad behaviour, illicit love affairs, murder, and terrible consequences for innocents and wayward souls.

Violent Saturday [M] (1955) fits that formula perfectly because it uses colour to enhance the bleakness of the dusty Arizona environment, widescreen cinematography to emphasize the slowly crumbling stability of the town’s social order, and features a great balance of plot, tension, and sleaze designed to tease the censor board’s apparatchiks.

Directed by Richard Fleischer, this tight little gem has a superb cast, featuring Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Stephen McNally, J. Carrol Naish, Lee Marvin (he hates kids), and Ernest Borgnine in the oddest role he could possibly take after starring as a NYC blue collar Joe in Marty (1955).

Twilight Time’s DVD also features an isolated score track of Hugo Friedhofer’s music, and is the new label’s third release, after John Huston’s The Kremlin Letter (1970) and Ralph Nelson’s Fate is the Hunter (1964) - films for which reviews will be up this week.

The label’s titles are only available through Screen Archives Entertainment, and are limited to 3000, but they are commercially produced DVDs, not MOD DVD-Rs.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

New & Imminent Soundtrack Releases

You'd think there would be a slowing down of soundtrack releases, now that were in the early weeks of summer.

Not so!

Below is the latest tally, featuring May + June and a bit of July, with links to distributors / labels that have a website.

I'm starting with home video releases, followed by MOD / on demand / digital only releases, and then labels offering CD/DVD/MP3 variations.

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FILM MUSIC ON VIDEO:

Aaron Copland: Fanfare for America (Arthaus Musik) --- DVD

Evening with Dave Grusin, An (Telarc) --- Blu-ray

Michel Legrand: Legrand Jazz – Live from Salle Pleyel Paris (2009) (Arthaus Musik) --- DVD

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ISOLATED SCORES ON VIDEO:

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Fate is the Hunter / Jerry Goldsmith (Twilight Time) --- DVD

Kremlin Letter, The  / Robert Drasnin (Twilight Time) --- DVD

Violent Saturday / Hugo Friedhofer (Twilight Time) --- DVD

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ONLINE ONLY VIA Amazon.com (Soundtracks):

Green Lantern (James Newton Howard) --- June 16

Priest (Christopher Young)

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REGULAR RELEASES:

Alhambra (Germany)

L’ultimo Paradiso (Angelo Francesco Lavagnino) --- June, ltd. 500

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Aleph (USA)

Invocation: Jazz meets the Symphony #7 (Lalo Schifrin)

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Beat Records (Italy)

Fire Star Dances (Luis Bacalov, Piero Piccioni) --- mid-June

Il Sesso Degli Angeli (Giovanni Fusco) --- ltd. 500

Prigione di Dionne / Riot in a Woman’s Prison (Albert Verrecchia) --- mid-June

Zombi 2 + un gatto nel cervello (Fabio Frizzi)

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BSX Records (USA)

Ken Wannberg Film Music Collection, The --- June, 2 CDs

Parasomina (Nicholas Pike) --- mid-Jine

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Capriccio (Naxos Germany)

Metropolis (Gottfried Huppertz) --- mid-June

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Chandos Records (UK)

Miklos Rozsa: Orchestral Works, Vol. 2 --- June 28

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Colosseum (Germany)

Family Way, The (Paul McCartney) --- July 26

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Cometa (Italy)

Il planeta d’acqua (Ennio Morricone --- ltd.

Invito allo sport (Ennio Morricone) --- ltd.

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DigitMovies (Italy)

Anche gli angeli mangiano faglioli (Guido and Maurizio De Angelis)

Anche nel west c’era una volta dio / Between God, the Devil, and a Winchester (Carlo Savina) --- mid-June

Bruciatelo vivi / Land Raiders (Bruno Nicolai) --- mid-June

Franco e Ciccio sentiero di Guerra (Roberto Pregadio)

La moglie di mio padre (Guido and Maurizio De Angelis) --- June

La notte degli dquali / Night of the Sharks (Stelvio Cipriani)

Oedipus Orca (James Dashow) + Una spirale di nebbia (Ivan Vandor) + la orca (Monti Arduini)

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Disney (USA)

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Hans Zimmer, various) --- score + source + remixes

Thor (Patrick Doyle)

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Disques Cinemusique (Canada)

L’Enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot / Inferno (Bruno Alexiu)

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Film Score Monthly (FSM) (USA)

Belle of New York, The (Johnny Mercer, Harry Warren) --- ltd.

Comedians + Hotel Paradiso (Laurence Rosenthal) --- ltd.

Pretty Maids All in a Row (Lalo Schifrin) --- ltd.

Kenner + More Than a Miracle (Piero Piccioni) --- ltd. 1500, 3CDs

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Finders Keepers Records (UK)

Frisson des vampires, Les (Acanthus) --- CD + LP

Jeunes filles impudiques (Pierre Raph) --- LP

Mala Morska Vila (Zdenek Liska) --- CD + LP

Saxana – The Girl on a Broomstick (Angelo Michajlov) --- CD + LP

Solla Solla (various) --- CD + LPs

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GDM (Italy)

Curse, The /aka The Farm + Black Demons (Franco Micalizzi) --- early July, ltd. 500

Ballata per un pistolero (Marcello Giombini) --- ltd. 300 copies, reissue

Cattiva / The Wicked (Armando Trovaioli) --- ltd. 500

La cugina / The Cousin (Ennio Morricone)

Il diavolo nel cervello / The Devil in the Brain (Ennio Morricone) --- late June

Il deserto dei Tartari / The Desert of the Tartars (Ennio Morricone) --- expanded

I Quattro pistoleri di Santa Trinita / Four Pistols for Trinity (Roberto Pregadio) --- ltd. 500

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Howlin' Wolf Records (USA)

Bunker, The (Robert Feigenblatt) --- ltd. 1000

Cry, The (Dean Parker) --- ltd. 500

Cyborg: The Director’s Cut (Jim Saad, Tony Riparetti) --- ltd.

Mean Guns (Tony Ruparetti)

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Intrada (USA)

Battlestar Galactica (Stu Phillips) --- ltd. 3000 copies

City of Fear (Jerry Goldsmith) --- ltd. 2000

Destination Gobi (Sol Kaplan) --- ltd. 1000

House of Usher, aka Fall of the House of Usher (Les Baxter) --- ltd. 1200 copies

Masada (Jerry Goldsmith, Morton Stevens) --- 2 CDs

Observations (Arthur B. Rubinstein)

Sleuth (John Addison) --- ltd. 1500, same music & dial. contents as LP

Straw Dogs (Jerry Fielding) --- ltd. 2000

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (Ron Goodwin) --- 2 CDs, ltd. 2000 copies

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Kind of Blue (Switzerland)

Ennio Morricone: Gangster Movies --- May

Ennio Morricone: Quentin Tarantino Movies --- May

Ennio Morricone: Spaghetti Western --- May

Ennio Morricone: The Dollars Trilogy --- May

Nino Rota: The Godfather Trilogy --- May

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Kritzerland Records (USA)

Audrey Rose (Michael Small) --- ltd. 1000

Berlin Affair, The (Pino Donaggio) --- ltd. 1000

Black Sunday (Les Baxter) --- ltd. 1000

Camelot (London Cast) --- ltd. 1000

Marco Polo (Les Baxter) --- late June, ltd. 1000

Mulholland Falls (Dave Grusin) --- ltd. 1000

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Lakeshore Records (USA)

Hoodwinked Too! (Murray Gold)

Scream 4 (various) --- song + score CD

Tree of Life (Alexandre Desplat)

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La-La Land Records (USA)

Blob, The (1988) (Michael Hoenig) --- ltd. 2000

Breakdown (Basil Poledouris) --- 3 CDs, ltd. 3000

Copernicus’ Star (Abel Korzeniowski) --- ltd. 1000 copies

Crysis 2 (Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe) --- 2CDs

DC Showcase: Superman + Shazam! The Return of Black Adam + Jonah Hex + Green Arrow + The Spectre (Jeremy Zuckerman, Benjamin Wynn) --- ltd. 1000

First Knight (Jerry Goldsmith) --- 2CDs, ltd. 5000

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Ernest Gold) --- 2 CDs, ltd. 2000

Medal of Honor (Christopher Lennertz, Michael Giacchino, Ramin Djawadi) --- 8CDs

Socom 4 (Bear McCreary) --- 2 CDs, ltd. 2000

X-Files: Vol. 1 (Mark Snow) --- 4 CDs, ltd.

X The Man with X-Ray Eyes + Tales of Terror: Morella (Les Baxter) --- ltd. 1200

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Legend Records (Italy)

Bible, The (Toshio Mayuzumi) --- 2 Cds

La donna del fiume / The River Girl + La Risaia / The Rice Girl (Angelo Francesco Lavagnino) --- late June, ltd. 1500

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Madison Gate Records (USA)

Soul Surfer (Marco Beltrami) --- CDR

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Mask Records (Italy)

Salon Kitty (Fiorenzi Carpi) --- ltd. 1500

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Milan Records (USA/Europe)

Angelo Badalamenti - Ghent International Film Festival and Brussels Philharmonic + The Orchestra of Flanders

Craig Armstrong - Ghent International Film Festival and Brussels Philharmonic + The Orchestra of Flanders

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Monstrous Movie Music (USA)

It! The Terror from beyond Space (Paul Swatell, Bert Shefter) --- ltd. 1000

Monster That Challenged the World, The (Heiz Roemheld) --- ltd. 1000

Project Moonbase + Open Secret (Herschel Burke Gilbert) --- ltd. 1000

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MovieScore Media (Sweden)

Age of Heroes (Michael Richard Plowman)

Almighty Thor (Chris Ridenhour, Chris Cano)

Dawning (Nathaniel Levisay)

Heartless (David Julyan)

Lion of Judah (Greg Sims)

Rainbow Suite: The Choral Music of Mikael Carlsson [non-film]

Stake Land (Jeff Grace)

White Lion (Philip Miller)

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Music Box Records (France)

Comment le seduire + Les strip teasueuses + Les combinards (Francois de Roubaix) --- mid-June, ltd. 1000

Le bon plaisir (Georges Delerue) --- mid-June, ltd. 1000

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Music for Moving Images (USA)

Piano Music from the Movies (Stephen Edwards)

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Naxos (USA)

Monster Music: Classic Horror Film Scores (various) --- June 28, 6 CDs

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Perseverance Records (USA)

Secret Adventures Of Jules Verne (Nick Glennie-Smith) --- 2 CDs, ltd. 1200

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Phantom Soundtracks (USA)

Alien Terrain (Darren Callahan)

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Quartet Records (Spain)

Appassionata (Piero Piccioni) --- 2 CDs, ltd. 500

Grace Quigley (John Addison) --- ltd. 1000

Il giardino dell’eden (Stelvio Cipriani) --- ltd. 500

Happets in the Kingdom of the Sun, The (Zeltia Montes) --- ltd. 500

Killing Me Softly (Patrick Doyle) --- ltd. 1000

Knack… and How to get It, The (John Barry) --- ltd. 1000

War Goddess / aka Le guerriere dal seno nudo and Le amazzoni (Riz Ortolani) --- ltd. 500

What’s New Pussycat? (Burt Bacharach ) + Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You (Lalo Schifrin) --- ltd. 1000

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Silva Screen (USA / UK)

Eagle, The (Atli Orvarsson)

Historic John Barry, The

Music of Pixar, The (various) --- digital album

Symphonic Celtic Album, The (various)

Theme Tunes of Hanna Barbera, The (various) --- digital album

Trailer Tunes (various) --- digital album

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Sony (USA)

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Rachel Portman) --- July 12

X-Men: First Class (Henry Jackman) --- June 21

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SPV (Germany)

Popol Vuh Revisited and Remixed 1970-1999 --- July 26 (USA)

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Universal Music / Polydor (Germany)

Botschaft Der Götter / aka Mysteries Of The Gods (Peter Thomas)

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Universal Music (Italy)

Habemus Papam (Franco Piersanti)

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Varese Sarabande (USA)

Alfred Hitchcock Hour: Volume 1, The (Bernard Herrmann) --- June 6, 2 CDs, ltd. 3000

Another Year + Happy Go Lucky (Gary Yershon)

Cowboys and Aliens (Harry Gregson-Williams) --- July 26

Fast Five (Brian Tyler)

First Grader, The (Alex Heffes)

Game of Thrones (Ramin Djawadi) --- June 14

I am Number Four (Trevor Rabin)

Jerry Goldsmith 80th Birthday Tribute Concert – Filmucite 3 (DVD + CD) --- June, ltd. 2000

Jig (Patrick Doyle) --- July 12

Kung Fu Panda 2 (Hans Zimmer, John Powell)

Monte Carlo (Michael Giacchino) --- June 28

Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Rolfe Kent) --- June 28

My Demon Lover (David Newman) --- June 6, ltd. 1000

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Patrick Doyle) --- TBA

Scream: The Deluxe Edition (Marco Beltrami) --- June, ltd. 2000

Super 8 (Michael Giacchino) --- June 28

Too Big to Fail (Marcelo Zavros) --- June 28

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Warner Bros. Records (USA)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Steve Jablonsky) --- June 14

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MUSIC FROM PLUTO via label Dnigbat:

Tributares di  planeta Pluto (Ennio Morricone) --- Knpthssst audio format only, ltd. 12, orders placed before June 30 cannot guarantee delivery before 2988

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This handy-dandy list was compiled from various sources, including catalogue announcements at Screen Archives Entertainment, Soundtrackcollector.com, Chris’ Soundtrack Corner, and Intrada.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

Soundtrack Reviews

Another quartet of soundtrack reviews are up including Andrew Hewitt’s Submarine [M] (MovieScore Media), a film just released in Canadian theatres; Martin Phipps’ wonderful Brighton Rock [M] (Silva Screen Records), come soon to home video in England; Marco Beltrami’s Scream 4 [M] (Varese Sarabande); and Darren Callahan’s second score for a non-existent film, Alien Terrain [M] (Phantom Soundtracks).

Hewitt’s score is quite sparse (due in large part to the film’s heavy song content), but MSM’s decision to release the score digitally is a good move towards demonstrating brief soundtracks deserving some commercial release – with digital being the most widespread and cost-effective.

Phipps’ music for Brighton Rock is one of the most refreshing scores in years, and while the movie hasn’t gotten effusive reviews, the score deserves a generous nod. Gorgeous chorals and an addictive, simple little vocal theme that doesn’t leave the head for days. When the film makes its U.K. home video debut at the end of June, I’ll have a review of the original 1947 film, which remains unavailable in Region 1 land due to utter neglect. It’s a fine early work by a young (and non-balding) Richard Attenborough as Graham Greene’s famous child-thug, and features one of the emotionally cruelest endings ever.

Scream 4 may not have been a necessary film (no one seemed to care during its theatrical run, but many franchise efforts are made for home video and ancillary markets, so it doesn’t really matter in the long run), but the release of a score and song album certain rekindled an interest in the original Scream (1996) score. Yes, the first film, which brought Beltrami into the spotlight as a new talent to watch. Varese’s CD Club has issued the score – complete – as a limited CD (2000 copies) – so the wait is over.

One can presumably toss away the bootlegs that emerged when it was clear no one was willing top spend the cash to issue a score-only CD, but the 15 year wait is finally over. Seriously. FIFTEEN YEARS for the music from a contemporary horror film, acknowledged by most critics as a modern classic soon after its theatrical release, to get its proper CD release. ‘Bout bloody time. Watch for my review in Rue Morgue Magazine.

Alien Terrain as a film only exists in the head of composer Darren Callahan, but it’s such a well-crafted score that one can easily imagine characters, situations, and conflicts (though the track titles help make things a bit more precise). Like Spikes [M] (2010), it’s music inspired by a idea rather than an actual film, and it works beautifully, evoking vintage primordial synth gear.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

Deep, Deep, Down

As journalists from over the world listen intently, Jimmy explains the mystical meaning of "a Mongolian clusterfuck."

Way back when theatres were periodically carrying movies bearing a “Francis Ford Coppola Presents” banner, the resulting films were generally good: The Black Stallion, The Grey Fox, The White Cabbage – wait, scratch that last one.

Francis picked the films (if not co-funded them with monies from his American Zoetrope treasury) and it was a form of branding: Coppola = Qvalitaats Film Produckte.

It's a very simple form of self-promotion under a quasi-benevolent aura, and soon afterwards, the procedure was oft-imitated by others for similarly part-genuine, part egotistical, part easy-money reasons.

An easy money example is Wes Craven whoring his name for crap like the Wishmaster cycle; partly egotistical is Quentin Tarantino using his name to instill himself among burgeoning cult film aficionados as the premiere screener and purveyor of things hip, cool, and cultish; and genuine is James Cameron’s guiding hand in the development of Sanctum [M].

Written by novice screenwriters John Gavin (who has a small part in the film) and Andrew Wight (who co-produced), the story is based on the latter’s real-life adventure when a team on a cave diving expedition in 1988 was trapped after a freak storm. That’s essentially the hook of the film, but unlike the 1989 documentary Wight produced on the incident (Nullarbor Dreaming), Sanctum’s six producers either mandated their own few cents of mandatory ‘creative suggestions’ or the writers simply patterned the script after Cameron’s own template, going as far as emulating his hokey dialogue.

When Cameron writes bad dialogue, it’s amusingly laughable (except in Titanic, where it’s interminable); when it’s imitated, it’s just plain bad, and therein lies the biggest challenge for viewers: if you can stomach the first 25 mins. of rubbish chatter & profanity (such as the aforementioned 'Mongolian clusterfuck'), and tolerate cardboard characters that never deepen nor blossom during the course of the film, it’s a passable adventure B-movie.

During it’s theatrical run, Cameron’s name was nail-gunned into every form of advertising, leading some to believe Jimmy made another watery movie, but while his influence is felt in the film’s script, the production and focus on diving minutia is more Wight, himself a veteran documentary producer on Things Oceanic.

Both Cameron and Wight have collaborated on several documentaries regarding iconic ships rusting on dark, benthic ocean plateaus (Titanic, Bismarck, and more guilt-studded, Titanic odes). One suspects that as Jimmy and the other four producers realized Wight was following Jimmy's own template and style during the final rewrite process, there was a collective sense the script was coming together just fine.

I’ve uploaded a review of Universal’s Blu-ray, which happily includes Nullarbor Dreaming among the extras. The doc’s been long off the radar since its rare airing on PBS stations, and cave diving fans stuck with terrible TV dubs can finally enjoy the eerie cinematography and compelling narrative of the vintage doc in its pristine tube camera glory. Ahem.

Oh, and just in case you’re still doubting, Sanctum has no monsters. It’s The Descent, minus bug-eyed creatures, aliens, mutants, viruses, underwater cabbage patches, etc. Just people slowly breaking under the stress of being trapped kilometers underground.

You know, Jimmy stuff.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

Let’s go to Italy: Mimsy Farmer, Part I

"Leave Mimsy alone, you filthy swine!"

After appearing in several sexpot roles in the United States, Mimsy Farmer must have seen the signs that staying in Hollywood would either have yielded a lot of banal TV guest roles, or tumbling into obscurity, with the odd U.S. B-flick coming up now and then.

A good case in point is British actress Pamela Franklin, who began as a child actress in the classic shocker The Innocents (1961), had significant roles in her teens in film such as the lurid The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), and made sure viewers cared for the terribly victimized psychic in Richard Matheson’s chilling supernatural shocker The Legend of Hell House (1973), but once she settled in Hollywood and began to appear in TV series, she slid away from feature films, and spent the bulk of her career wasting perfectly good acting chops in the Idiot Box – a role here, a mini-series there, but nothing memorable compared to her heyday in the sixties.

Farmer’s move to Italy probably began innocently – a few opportunities to work with new Italian talent, and a trip to Italy. Actors such as Frank Wolff (Salvatore Giuliano, The Lickerish Quartet [M]) and Brett Halsey (The Atomic Submarine, Four Times That Night) realized they could spend a chunk (the rest?) of their careers in more B-movies, or have fun making arty films, programmers, and B-films in Italy, with good food, wine, weather, and a slightly different pace of life.

For them, it became a no-brainer, and they enjoyed fairly steady work until the genres – giallo, spaghetti westerns, police thrillers, cannibal films, zombie films, etc. – had been exhausted by good and hack directors. Halsey went back to the U.S., whereas Farmer chose to stay until she probably felt it was time for a change; most likely, many of the more interesting directors from the late sixties and early seventies were no longer as active, and what remained were hack directors and TV work.

And maybe genre smasher Joe D’Amato, but he was the ultimate last resort for actors wanting to remain in film regardless of what they were doing.

Farmer eventually shifted gears after 1991, and now focuses her energies on painting and sculpting, but it is peculiar she’s never been approached by genre historians to discuss her work during a unique period when ex-pats were working quite actively in Italy, and for a while, having fun.

'Dinner is served.'

Like Franklin, Farmer’s early career included child and teen roles in TV series such as My Three Sons (1962), Lassie (1964) and Mister Roberts (1966) before making a splash as the high-strung, long-mane sexpot in Hot Rods to Hell (1967). Her shrill character is an experience rather than a performance for audiences, but her career opportunity changed when she appeared in Barbet Schroeder’s More (1969), Georges Lautner’s Road to Salina (1970), and Dario Argento’s Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971).

What followed was a flurry of roles in genre films, and among the more interesting was the little-seen 1974 giallo Perfume of a Lady in Black [M] (Raro Video) by newcomer Francesco Barilli, a screenwriter (Who Saw Her Die?), and perhaps influentially, a working painter and sculptor.

Perfume is one of the dreamiest gialli ever created, and Farmer’s perfectly cast as a woman who notices her reality is starting to crack into little jagged pieces. It’s also a film that upon first viewing will baffle; the second viewing, like Psycho (1960), yields little clues to the evil plot underway; and a third viewing will probably convince one that Barilli’s weird film is a mini-masterpiece.

It’s a giallo in the sense of a character tormented by a past horror that blossoms unconsciously and compels her to see, fear, and perform things new and awful, but it’s also an art film with a wonderful mood, superb early score by Nicola Piovani, and amazing cinematography. If Raro Video gets into Blu-ray, this has to be one of their first endeavors, because Perfume is one of the most beautifully lit, Bava-esque films around.

Mimsy is quite puzzled by sun spots.

1974 could be read as a turning point for Farmer, in terms of a career that was cresting, because where Barilli exploited what subtleties the actress could deliver to meet the demands of a giallo and create a sympathetic character, director Armando Crispino just used her body and femininity in Autopsy / Macchie solari [M] (1975), a junk giallo by a patented hack.

There’s no artistry or clever direction at play in Autopsy (Blue Underground), just a teasing concept that’s abandoned in favour of a weird misogynistic streak, where men are constantly in heat, and all women need to keep a machete in one hand in case they hear from behind a zipper being undone.

Crispino’s film has a fromage factor, but it’s such exploitive rubbish, and I’ve reviewed it for contrast: artistry vs. lecherous commerce, and the kind of choices actors had to face if they stayed too long in one groove, and their options narrowed severely.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

Abandoned Matinees VI: The Regal Cinema, Camberley, U.K.

It’s been a while since the last Abandoned Matinees post, though not due to a lack of new finds, but merely time, and a strange phenomenon known as Klathwathiusmus Constrictus, which actually causes the months to move beyond the Earth’s rotation, pushing us from January to June. Pity the phenom is merely a freak of interstellar nature and cannot be harnessed to hasten moments of exceptional dullness.

The latest installment focuses on The Regal Cinema, which opened in August of 1932 in Camberley, U.K., under the ownership of the Robins Cinemas, then became an Odeon cinema, followed by the Cannon circuit until the idiot team of Golan & Globus overextended themselves, causing the collapse of their once potent indie company. (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Michael Dudikoff, Lucinda Dickey, and J. Lee Thompson could only do so much with Cannon scripts, you know.)

The Robins repurchased the cinema, and what was once a 1000+ seat single screen venue was twinned and tripled, uglifying the once beautifully exotic Art Deco building.

Most abandoned buildings tend to sit and rot, with passersby losing their curiosity and concern in favour of indifference, particularly when the edifice is part of a daily walk. To some, a dying building maintains an allure, and for urban explorers, an opportunity to check out the hidden and the forgotten knowing the wrecker’s ball will likely raze the building into rubble very soon.

Here, for example, is a snapshot of the Regal in 1980, with its façade painted stark white, and rebranded as The Classic Cinema. Now note its present condition in the first image of this set, taken in April of 2010. Compare that with additional angles (3) which gradually reveal the fires which destroyed significant portions of its superstructure.

Now lets examine the interior in this detailed set, taken in August of 2009, which seems to precede at least some of the more damaging fires set by vandals. Note the projector (near end) which is still standing… and was likely toppled (images 12 - 16) by vandals prior to April, 2010.

It’s a classic idiot teen moment preserved in pristine dust: ‘Hey! Look! A still-standing large object that appears heavy! Let’s make it fall over! Because if we can, it’s all brilliant! 20 years from now, the memories of that great day will feel as good as buying our first legal beer!’

While the building was still erect as of January, 2011, the fencing and demolition signage are likely precursors to the end. Every city has had a building like this, dying slowly and coming to an ignominious end.

Pity.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

The Car in Motion: Racing Films, Part I

This week saw the release of two major Formula One racing films on Blu-ray – Grand Prix (Warner Home Video) and Le Mans (Paramount).

I reviewed Le Mans way back in 2003 for Told You So Productions, a site whose content (mostly mine) was absorbed into what became KQEK.com. The mandate for the now-defunct site was to keep reviews under 500 words, which is why some of the older reviews written between 2001-2005 tended to be much more compact and free of blather.

I’ll cover the Le Mans Blu-ray in greater detail shortly, but let’s start with Grand Prix [M] (1966), because it’s the film that I’d frankly avoided until now because I was concerned its fusion of Grand Hotel-type melodrama would make an otherwise striking racing film interminable.

MGM had repeated the Grand Hotel formula from its 1932 classic into a number of variations, including Weekend at the Waldorf (1945) as well as the sappy adaptation of Arthur Hailey’s novel Hotel (1967), and while some could argue the melodrama in Grand Prix isn’t unique, screenwriter Robert Alan Aurthur certainly evoked the formula, in which the lives of a handful of leading characters become intermingled with each other, as well as numerous secondary characters.

Arthur, though, used conflicts tailored to racers: their groupies, tired wives, not to mention leggy sports journalists who perhaps used their job to get into the jumpsuits of certain drivers.

James Garner, driving solo at 120 mph.

The character dramas in Grand Prix make up a third of the film’s content; the rest is docu-drama styled moments; and what may be the most beautiful widescreen in-your-face racing footage ever put on film.

Director John Frankenheimer really showed his knack for tackling a complex production by insisting problems be solved in order to put audiences in or alongside the driver’s seats of Formula One machines. The visuals, supervised by the great Saul Bass,  are extraordinary, and the sound of roaring engines gives a rush to car enthusiasts who like the sound, feel, and delight of moving fast in vehicles  they control all by themselves.

Released in single camera Cinerama (basically Super Panavision 70mm, exhibited in Cinerama using specially adapted prints for the curved screens). Grand Prix’s racing scenes are kinetic, elegant, and erotic because they were designed and executed by people who loved cars in a pre-CGI era.

At 176 mins., Grand Prix is arguably monstrous in length, but more than half of the running time involves some of the most amazing racing sequences committed to film.

Saul Bass' clean, simple title design begins with a Formula One roar.

I’ve reviewed the film in detail, and added a link to a rare interview with TVO's Elwy Yost and Saul bass regarding the making of the film. It's online, free for streaming, so check out the film review.

In the coming weeks I'll follow-up with Le Mans and several related racing films to show how different filmmakers at different periods in film history handled the car in motion.

What I do wish is that through the creation and release of these HD masters, the prints used for the Blu-rays are available for rental, because if you have the chance to catch Grand Prix on the big screen, as a car lover, it’s your duty to see it.

Anyone at the TIFF Bell Lightbox listening? The 70mm projection system needs some exercise…






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

Mondo in HD

"More than the greatest love the world has known," says Riz.

Contrary to what the BBC may have envisioned, Human Planet [M] (2011) owes a great deal to Paolo Cavara and Gualtiero Jacopetti’s Mondo Cane (1962), the debut of what’s been branded the mondo genre.

A literal translation of the Italian film means ‘a dog’s world’ but it’s not the title that defined the genre, but the format: a travelogue documentary not unlike the early Cinerama films where exotic locales and odd cultural quirks were captured in widescreen glory. The emphasis was on authenticity, or at least conveying a sense of being party to things striking, exotic… and odd.

What makes a mondo film are globe-trotting locations, jumping from one group of odd human behaviour to another within a city or country, and making sure there’s a balance of the visually beautiful, bizarre, the shocking, and the serene. Contrasts for the sake of provocation. Cults or primitive tribes, and western values rational put upside-down. Man behaving like a wild creature, or learning from the wild world to gain a slight upper hand.

Why live in a world of extremes? Why get food that way? Why earn a living when it’s going to kill you faster than cancer?

Physical and cultural isolation, perhaps, and no need to adopt aspects of western lifestyles because it’s unsuitable or impractical. Not every village has electricity, and maybe living in a tree house is more satisfying without mortgage, utility and property tax payments.

Warner Home Video released Human Planet on DVD and Blu-ray, and fans ought to be happy it’s the U.K. version rather than the Discovery Channel edit (which is ostensibly the same series, retrofitted with a new narration track and music score because middle America only likes the Brit accent when it's packaged inside Miramax Oscar bait).

Mastered at 1080i, the series looks grand, and Nitin Sawhney’s music is a welcome stylistic change from the more orchestral scores that have dominated prior series such as Planet Earth (2006) and Blue Planet (2001). There was nothing wrong with George Fenton’s music; we just needed a fresh sound for this atypical BBC production.

Because it’s mondo!

And yes, this blog – mondomark – espouses to the odd, eclectic elements native to the mondo genre as they flow from my brain (which is quite big). I just haven't written an Oscar nominatable song yet to make the transition complete.






Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com