The VHS Archives: Robert Slatzer's BIGFOOT (1970)

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BIGFOOT

Robert Slatzer's Bigfoot (1970)

The VHS Archives Factsheet

Label: World Video, Inc.

Catalog: WV-1013

Box Type: Clamshell

Year of Release: ?

Runtime: 83:26

Print: 1.33:1 / English / No subs

Extras: None

About the Film

Director: Robert Slatzer

Year of Release: 1970

Country of Origin: U.S.A.

Stars: Joi Lansing, John Carradine, Chris Mitchum, Judy Jordan, John Mitchum, Haji

AKAs: Big Foot; Bigfoot vs. the Rock Band; Big Foot: The Biggest Monster of All Time; King Kong's Son 

Verbatim Box Synopsis

In the wilds of the rigged Northwest, humans are captured by the legendary "BigFoot". It soon becomes evident that a whole colony of these creatures exists, and that they intend to mate with their captured prey!

An exciting and dangerous manhunt ensues...

A breathtaking, surprise ending!

U.S. World Video Pictures, Inc. sleeve! 

German Video Medien Pool (VMP) sleeve,

courtesy of Video-Museum.net! 

A selection of promotional shots from the Cinema Arcana Archives! We own the original negatives to these photos, along with the positive proofs (which is what we scanned here). They actually offer much better views of the creatures than you find in the film itself!

Fun video promo, created and uploaded by CheezyFlicks!

Looking for Bigfoot on VHS? It's available on Amazon here. There's also a bootleg DVD from those hucksters at CheezyFlicks, if you just want to see the movie. 

Investigate more titles with Project: WORLD!

For a look at other labels, check out The VHS Archives!

© 2014 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.

The VHS Archives: Brad Grinter's FLESH FEAST (1970)

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FLESH FEAST

Brad Grinter's Flesh Feast (1970)

The VHS Archives Factsheet

Label: World Video Pictures, Inc.

Catalog: WV1028

Box Type: Clamshell

Year of Release: ?

Runtime: 70:33

Print: 1.33:1 / English / No subs

Extras: None

About the Film

Director: Brad Grinter

Year of Release: 1970

Country of Origin: USA

Stars: Veronica Lake, Phil Philbin, Doug Foster, Harry Kerwin

AKAs: Time for Terror, Flesh Hunger

Verbatim Box Synopsis

A secret laboratory, located in the basement of a Miami Beach mansion, is the centerpiece of this grisly shocker. Ghastly, youth restoration experiments, using flesh-eating maggots, are being conducted under the supervision of Dr. Elaine Frederick. 

Horror and hysteria mount, and a surprise ending finally reveals the real motives of the attractive lady doctor!

Terror and Vengeance at its ultimate!

 U.S. World Video Pictures, Inc. sleeve!

U.S. GWN Video sleeve, courtesy of Earl Summerfield! Like most of the company's releases, their art is stolen from unrelated sources -- this time combining an H.R. Giger Alien design with the unidentified inner face. (I feel as though I recognize the image, but can't quite place it. Anyone know where it originates?)

U.K. Intercity Video Distributors Limited sleeve, courtesy of It's Only a Movie!

Original theatrical trailer, uploaded by "brujaria"!

Looking for Flesh Feast on VHS? It's available on Amazon here. If you just want to see it, you can also get a VHS-quality cheapo DVD, paired with William Girdler's Three on a Meathook. The last I heard, Something Weird Video have the negative to Flesh Feast, but don't have the rights to release it. Let's hope they get it sorted out eventually!

Investigate more titles with Project: WORLD!

For a look at other labels, check out The VHS Archives!

© 2012 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.

The VHS Archives: Silvio Amadio's ALPHA CITY (1970)

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ALPHA CITY

Silvio Amadio's Disperatamente l'estate scorsa (1970)

The VHS Archives Factsheet
Label: Mogul Communications, Inc.
Catalog: MOG1040
Box Type: Clamshell
Year of Release: 1987
Runtime: 83:33
Print: 1.33:1 / English / No subs
Extras: None

About the Film
Director: Silvio Amadio

Year of Release: 1970

Country of Origin: Italy
Stars: Paola Pitagora, Nino Segurini, Umberto Raho, Loris Bazzochi, Mirella Pamphili
AKAs: Desperately Last Summer

Verbatim Box Synopsis

As an ex-member of the security service he knows too much.

For a time they leave him alone in peace, but now they are after him again... He knows things he should not know.

Lisa, his girlfriend manages to warn him of the immediate danger and helps him escape. 

They find his car in a ravine.

To all concerned, he is dead.  In reality, he is safe, but...

U.S. Mogul Communications sleeve, which advertises a totally different film!

As you can see by the above trailer, Mogul actually stole its campaign from Eckhart Schmidt's Alpha City (1985)! Being a huge fan of the director's Trance (aka Der Fan), I was pretty bummed to see the company had pulled another bait & switch.

Investigate more titles with Project: MOGUL!

For a look at other labels, check out The VHS Archives!

© 2011 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.

The VHS Archives: Valentino Orsini's MISSION CORBARI (1970)

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MISSION CORBARI

Valentino Orsini's Corbari (1970)

The VHS Archives Factsheet

Label: Mega

Catalog: WV5004

Box Type: Clamshell
Year of Release: ?
Runtime: 94:31

Print: 1.33:1 / English / No subs

Extras: None

About the Film

Director: Valentino Orsini

Year of Release: 1970

Country of Origin: Italy

Stars: Giuliano Gemma, Tina Aumont, Frank Wolff

AKAs: ?

Verbatim Box Synopsis

One man against incredible odds.

This action-filled story concerns one man who would stop at nothing to win the struggle against the tyrannical jackboot rule of the Nazis.  Hi name was Corbari.

U.S. Mega sleeve! 

Italian SSV Video sleeve! 

Swedish Trocab Film sleeve, originally scanned by "Jonas"! 

Swedish Trix Videofilmer sleeve!

Danish Dana Sound Video sleeve, courtesy of Hans-Jorn Reimer and his Danish Ex-Rental VHS Appreciation group!

Investigate more titles with Project: MOGUL!

For a look at other labels, check out The VHS Archives!

© 2011 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.

Coney Island Carnage -- Unseen Sex & Gore from Leonard Kirtman's CARNIVAL OF BLOOD (1970)!

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A little hyperbolic, for sure, but hopefully you'll dig what we've turned up!

Leonard Kirtman's Carnival of Blood (1970) is an odd duck of a movie -- a pre-slasher slasher heavily influenced by the gore trade of H.G. Lewis. The "plot," as it is, ostensibly follows an assistant D.A. and his girlfriend as they attempt to solve a series of gruesome mutilations centered around a game booth at New York's Coney Island.  In reality, it's just scene after scene of annoying character after annoying character badly improvising their way through extended stretches of travelogue footage, bitching and complaining until they're relieved of a body part or two. Rinse. Repeat.  Its singular mindlessness is actually quite fascinating, and the vintage footage of the popular tourist trap is a great time capsule of an era long gone.  (Bonus points for a pre-Rocky Burt Young as Gimpy, the Hunchback!)

Submitted for a rating in 1970 by the director's Kirt Films International, the MPAA's website states Carnival of Blood was initially branded an R but edited down to a GP rating. I have no idea which version currently survives; I find it hard to believe the entrail-yanking sequence would've ever made it past the censors with anything less than an X!  Did the R cut ever play by itself?  Materials from its 1972 release with Curse of the Headless Horseman show a PG version definitely circulated.  There's currently no nudity, and the choppiness of the violence makes one wonder what exactly we're seeing. 

Gaining a small VHS release in the early '80s courtesy of Wizard Video, the film was rescued for the digital age by exploitation saviors Something Weird Video, who found and transferred a rare 16mm element.  In 2002 they issued a packed DVD replicating its original drive-in double-bill, supplementing it with tons of cool trailers (including a U.S. spot for Hunchback of the Morgue!) and some hilarious Super8 home horrors.

The below images are scanned from my personal collection; the Arcana Archives hold a varied assortment of fifteen 8x10 negatives and a separate caption strip.  Some are simply unused promotional shots, presenting a detailed look at a few of the gore effects that are practically subliminal in the film as it exists now.  The second still down actually has a surprising nipple appearance, indicating the love scene originally went longer than displayed in the final product.  The cop characters seen in the fourth still are only visible in the background of the film proper. Also mixed in are a some behind-the-scenes photos: you can see the make-up artist blacking out the actress' sockets for the eye-gouging segment, the photo of the drunken sailor reveals the crew and lighting stands in the background, and you have to love the actor holding the fake head in place for the funhouse decapitation!  Enjoy!

Poster image courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

© 2010 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.

The Mystery of Big Mike's Girls.

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After the past few weeks' Name that Movie Monday challenges, I thought it was only fair to present a movie that I want more information about!

I recently acquired an original of the one-sheet you see to the right.  (Strangely, reprints seem to be readily available.  I wouldn't have thought this to be a hot-ticket item for college dorms!)  I mainly grabbed it for Jess Franco's bottom-half contribution to the double-bill but was clueless about Big Mike's Girls, so I decided to do a little digging.

Nothing comes up on internet searches for Big Mike's Girls other than the aforementioned reprint sales.  The poster itself contains no copyright or distributor information.  Which leaves us with the listed cast:  Betty Harrison and Art Roberts.  A quick googling points to an easy ID of Pakistani expatriate Amin Chaudhri's Sweet Vengeance (1970), which follows a scorned woman's trail of bloody revenge after the mob offs her boyfriend.  Highlights reportedly include pseudo-prostitute throat slitting and climactic castration.  The syndicate head goes by the moniker Big Mike.  Mystery solved, right?  Not so fast.  This is where it gets interesting.

Feeling the film still had some legs, someone apparently decided to give it another go a few years later, and blaxploitation porn was the route they chose.  Adding new characters, a Shaft-esque score and several lengthy sex scenes, this new mutation ended up on theatre screens from Chancellor Films as Dirty Trick.  Given the 'X' rating on the poster and its release date, I can't imagine this version wouldn't have been hardcore.  

But that's not what turned up on video.  In 1988 the film saw its only domestic VHS release that I'm aware of, from Active Home Video as Deadly Vengeance, of course capitalizing on an early appearance by the one and only Grace Jones.  (Exploitation at its finest!  I can't imagine too many of her followers were thrilled with the movie that unfolded!)  It indeed presents the redux edition, but doesn't contain any penetration shots. 

So now I'm completely fixated on this movie.  Was the Dirty Tricks version actually hardcore?  If so, were they additional inserts, or were they filmed with the cast's participation?  Has the original version been released on home video anywhere?  Why doesn't the director's family want this listed on his official website?

Any help would be much appreciated; surely someone out there has to know something!  Hell, I'd even settle for a DVD-R.  I've probably passed up the tape dozens of times, never knowing what I was missing.  Kind of like when I finally caught Blood Games on cable a few months back.  Best redneck rapists vs. women's softball team movie ever.  Ever.

Poster scans courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

© 2010 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.