The VHS Archives: Mario Bava's BLADESTORM (1966)

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BLADESTORM

Mario Bava's I coltelli del vendicatore (1966)

The VHS Archives Factsheet

Label: Mogul Communications, Inc.

Catalog: MOG1041

Box Type: Slipcase

Year of Release: 1987

Runtime: 81:02

Print: 1.33:1 / English / No subs

Extras: None

About the Film

Director: Mario Bava

Year of Release: 1966

Country of Origin: Italy

Stars: Cameron Mitchell, Fausto Tozzi, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Luciano Pollentin

AKAs: Knives of the Avenger, Viking Massacre, Flurry of Knives, Dagger Man, Duel with Knives, The Wrath of the Vikings, A Fistful of Knives, Rurik the Viking

Verbatim Box Synopsis

Bladestorm ... a terrifying story of brutality, horror and violence.

A powerful, emotional and violent story of war and determination, of a man's hatred as he takes on the superior firepower of the enemy.

A story of one man's burning ambition for total vengeance ... a man who will never forgive or forget.

The bloody conflict continues until Bladestorm erupts into total conflict ... a bloody war leaving death, destruction and sadistic killing in it's wake.

Nothing can stop the bloody battle as the culmination of years of hatred and vengeance finally result in a fight until death. Bladestorm will stop at nothing.

U.S. Mogul Communications, Inc. slipcase!

Friend John Grace pointed out the Bladestorm cover art is just a flipped reworking of Frank Frazetta's popular Conan the Destroyer painting from 1971. The original piece actually made news in 2010 by selling for a whopping $1.5 million!

U.S. Mega Video sleeve!

Canadian Videoline Productions, Inc. slipcase,

courtesy of Tales from the Snikt!

Spanish DGV Video sleeve!

German Spectrum glassbox cover,

courtesy of Kinofilm Online Database!

German Cannon VMP sleeve!

Greek Video Alsen sleeve!

Finnish Magna Filmi sleeve, originally scanned by "giallohunter"!

U.S. theatrical trailer (printed in B&W),

uploaded by Criterion Dungeon!

Looking for Bladestorm on VHS? It's available on Amazon here. It was also released to DVD by Anchor Bay under the title Knives of the Avenger as part of their first Mario Bava Collection, and as an earlier standalone release from Image. 

Investigate more titles with Project: MOGUL!

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

© 2013 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.

The VHS Archives: Kenneth W. Richardson's MISSION TO DEATH (1966)

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MISSION TO DEATH

Kenneth W. Richardson's Mission to Death (1966)

The VHS Archives Factsheet

Label: Super Video, Inc.

Catalog: SV23

Box Type: Clamshell

Year of Release: 1985

Runtime: 70:37

Print: 1.33:1 / English / No subs

Extras: None

About the Film

Director: Kenneth W. Richardson

Year of Release: 1966

Country of Origin: U.S.A.

Stars: Jim Brewer, James McLarty, Robert Stolper, Jim Westbrook

AKAs: Deadly Mission, Missions of Death

Verbatim Box Synopsis

In just a matter of hours and -- at any cost -- American soldiers must destroy a secret Nazi radar station in France. The Allied Air Force strike taking place in 24 hours will be shot down if the radar isn't destroyed.

As the GI's ambush a German truck, the French prisoners escape and hide in a nearby hay wagon. The Frenchmen pose as peasants and drive the hay wagon past a Nazi patrol to get their attention.

Meanwhile, the American GI's infiltrate the German lines. Once the Frenchmen are discovered they are tortured and executed by the Nazis for helping the Americans. But it's too late! Despite bloody battles with the Nazis and many casualties, the GI's demolish the radar station in time for the full blown air strike!

U.S. Super Video, Inc. sleeve!

Original trailer, uploaded by Independent International Pictures!

Looking for Mission to Death on VHS? It's available on Amazon here. (Be careful: there was another, later VHS release not from Super Video.) You can also get it on DVD from Fox Lorber, if so inclined.

Investigate more titles with Project: SUPER!

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

© 2013 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.

The VHS Archives: Michael Reeves' SHE BEAST (1966)

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SHE BEAST

Michael Reeves' La sorella di Satana (1966)

The VHS Archives Factsheet

Label: Gorgon Video

Catalog: MP3055

Box Type: Clamshell

Year of Release: ?

Runtime: 78:43

Print: 1.33:1 / English / No subs

Extras: None

About the Film

Director: Michael Reeves

Year of Release: 1966

Country of Origin: UK/ Italy

Stars: Barbara Steele, Ian Ogilvy, John Carlsen, Mel Welles, Lucretia Love

AKAs: The She-Beast, Revenge of the Blood Beast, The Sister of Satan, The Devil's Lake

Verbatim Box Synopsis

Burned at the stake in 18th century Transylvania, the diabolical witch, Vardella, lives again in the body of a beautiful young 20th century English girl who is travelling through Europe on her honeymoon. Nothing can stop Vardella's evil as her spirit transforms the pretty maiden into a hideous beast and spreads a trail of terror across the countryside. Can she be captured and the spirit exorcised? Or will the world never be safe from the horror that is The She Beast?

U.S. Gorgon Video / MPI sleeve!

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Spanish Rompeolas Film and Video sleeve, courtesy of Mondo VHS!

Original theatrical trailer, uploaded by Sinister Cinema!

Combo trailer with Dino Tavella's The Embalmer (1965), uploaded by MrPsycho313!

Looking for She Beast on VHS? It's available on Amazon here. There's also a really nice special edition DVD available from Dark Sky. 

Investigate more titles with Project: MPI!

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

© 2012 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.

It's Name that Movie Monday! Challenge #23!

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Welcome back to Name that Movie Monday!

It's time for Challenge #23 here at the ol' Arcana! Can you identify this week's mystery photo, scanned direct from The Holecheck Archives? If you think you recognize it, post a comment below. As the week goes on, if no one guesses correctly I'll begin adding some pretty useless hints. Easy, right?

Here ya' go -- good luck!

UPDATE:

I guess I’m just not making these hard enough!

Congrats to Todd Bridges, who ties things up at four by whipping Olga’s Dance Hall Girls (1966). This anonymously-directed fifth and final entry in George Weiss’ popular S&M-flavored series strays a bit from the blueprint laid by its predecessors, shifting the action to the suburbs where housewives are being pushed to boogie down with some shifty clientele. However, the gang’s true purpose is soon revealed as a front for a satanic cult specializing in human sacrifice! While certainly no classic, fans of NYC’s roughie movement will find some worth in Olga’s Dance Hall Girls. Audrey Campbell is sorely missed in the titular role, but at least sexploitation vet Larry Hunter shows up to keep the sleaze cranked to an appropriate level, and smaller roles are played with familiar faces like Linda Boyce and Uta Erickson. Plus, who can take umbrage at underwear catfights?

Gaining theatrical distribution in 1966 from sleaze merchants American Film Distributing Corporation, it received some surprisingly belated Canadian playdates as late as 1973 courtesy of Cinepix. Passed over for VHS release during the format’s boom years, it was considered lost until personal heroes Something Weird Video found the film’s original negative and issued it to tape in 1997. 2003 saw the Girls get a digital makeover on DVD as part of an Olga Triple Feature, partnered with earlier entries White Slaves of Chinatown and Olga’s House of Shame, which naturally comes highly recommended.

Practice your safe word, because more Olga-inspired posts are coming soon!  Newspaper ad taken from TCM's Movie Morlocks.

For a look at our last entry, click here. All of our past Challenges have now been solved, but we still have quite a few unidentified Grab Bag photos, if you really want to show your stuff. And don't forget, our Upcoming Releases List (the best on the 'net) is constantly updated, so stop by and preorder some cool stuff!

© 2011 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.

In Search Of... #1: William Grefe's THE DEVIL'S SISTERS (1966)

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Welcome to a new occasional feature here at Cinema Arcana, one I decided to call In Search Of... (In tribute to my favorite childhood cryptozoology show, of course.)  In it, we'll be documenting currently "lost" films through whatever means I have available in the Archives -- photos, pressbooks, trailers, etc.  Granted, sometimes I may only have a single still or newspaper ad, but it's the thought that counts, right?

For the inaugural outing (unless you count our previous Love Cave query), we're taking a look at William Grefe's The Devil's Sisters (1966).

The film is closely based on the then-recent exploits of "Las Poquianchis," a pair of Guanajuato-based sisters who lured Mexican women to their remote hacienda with promises of waitressing or housekeeping employment. Instead, they were beaten, forced into prostitution and hooked on drugs; when they couldn't perform their duties any longer, they were murdered.  Grefe's effort apparently doesn't pull its punches; women are wrapped in barbed wire, corpses burned, rape and knifings aplenty...  It certainly seems darker in tone than his ludicrous one-two punch of Sting of Death and Death Curse of Tartu!

Released at the tail-end of 1966 by distributor Thunderbird International (though the AFI guide suggests it played Miami earlier in the year, a claim that seems unlikely given the production schedule of the aforementioned pair of horror flicks), The Devil's Sisters was reissued in 1968 by Trans-International Films under the title Sisters of the Devil.  Unfortunately, not much has been seen of it since.

Presented here are a group of photos from the film, the only pictoral evidence I know of.  I have thirteen 8x10 still negatives (and separate caption strips) in the Archives, though most of these scans are taken from their accompanying positives (some of which are way too contrast-y for my liking, but I don't have a proper negative scanner yet).  Enjoy!

So what hopes do we have that Grefe's The Devil's Sisters will turn up some day?  In a recent posting at the Cinehound Forum, the director had this to say:

"Of all the films I have directed, The Devil's Sisters is the only one I have no print, video or DVD of. I have looked for over 25 years, with no luck. But just recently, via the internet, I discovered a collector in Germany who has a print and am currently in negotiation to purchase said print. If I am successful, we will be putting out a DVD. The one problem is that the last 8 minutes of the film is missing...

"If, for any reason, you know any film collectors or companies that might know where we could obtain a print, DVD or video, please let me know. This film was released big in Germany and other parts of Europe, the German title being Die Schwestern (Sklavinnen der Eotik), also released under the title The Psychedelics. It was also released about 15 years ago on video."

Further postings by collectors claim no knowledge of the supposed video release, but that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't out there somewhere. Hope springs eternal.

(For some newspaper ads and a look at the film's pressbook, be sure and check out Temple of Schlock's "Endangered List" case file.)

© 2010 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.