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Showing posts with label Dimension Pictures Inc.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dimension Pictures Inc.. Show all posts

Monday, October 4, 2010

It's Name that Movie Monday! Challenge #15!

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Welcome back to Name that Movie Monday!

It's time for Challenge #15 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:

Congrats to William Wilson, who ties it up at three by identifying this week's flick as Constantine S. Gochis' The Redeemer: Son of Satan (1977). An oddball proto-slasher with quasi-religious leanings, the film tells of a high school reunion gone bad, as six returnees are whittled down in numbers by a costume-changing killer with a pretty straight-line view about sin. A strange and sometimes confusing outing, The Redeemer is nevertheless one of those rare gems that succeeds more on vibe and atmosphere than logic. Give it a shot with an open mind and you should find a lot to like.

(Writer William Vernick once told me even he didn't know what was going on for most of it.  The additional thumb subplot was brought about by the producer, who traced his hand on a copy of Bill's script, added the extra phalange and said, "Put this in there!" Maybe I'll need to throw together an interview...)

Submitted for MPAA approval in 1977, Dimension Pictures didn't actually release the film theatrically until 1978 in an attempt to steal some publicity from that Summer's official Omen sequel.  The company's typically misleading ad campaign highlighted a Damien-esque kid with the phrase "First 'The Omen'... Now 'The Redeemer'" above his head. At home, Continental Video popped out a nice version on VHS in 1985 as Class Reunion Massacre, the title the film is most commonly assocatiated with. Later (and rarer) tape editions from VCI and Genesis reverted back to the film's original moniker.

Aside from some bootleg DVD appearances, that's been it for the last 25 years -- until now. Code Red recently gave the film a new digital transfer from a 35mm print (reportedly the source is a little beat up, but I'll take a new 35mm transfer over a decades-old tape master any day!) and it's streeting next week! Hopefully this time around it'll find its audience.


For an interview with star T.G. Finkbinder, check out Justin Kerswell's Hysteria Lives

The newspaper ad comes courtesy of Temple of Schlock.

For a look at last week's entry, click here. And don't forget, our Upcoming Releases List (the best on the 'net) is constantly updated, so stop by and preorder some cool stuff!

© 2010 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.

Monday, August 30, 2010

It's Name that Movie Monday! Challenge #10!

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Welcome back to Name that Movie Monday!

It's time for Challenge #10 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?  (Apparently not, as Challenge #9 is still up for grabs!)

Here ya' go -- good luck!


UPDATE:

Congrats go out to Rod Barnett for identifying this week's photo as belonging to Brunello Rondi's Black Emmanuelle / White Emmanuelle (1976), a rather odd sexploiter that tries to shoehorn itself into Joe D'amato's Black Emanuelle series, and nearly succeeds! 

Fashion model Laura takes a trip to Africa and is pressured to pose with dog carcasses and camel dung, and before you know it she's banging mystics and drinking goat blood.  All in a day's work, right?  Starring a Eurotrash dream-team of Laura Gemser, Annie Belle, Al Cliver, Gabrielle Tinti and Susan Scott, this one adopts a more artsy and surreal atmosphere than Joe's efforts, but remains worth a watch.

Dimension Pictures slapped it up on U.S. screens in 1977 under the name Smooth Velvet, Raw Silk, and gave it a rerelease in 1979 under the title Naked Paradise.   The '80s were less kind, as the film was badly cropped for its VHS releases from Continental Video (as Emanuelle in Egypt) and Cult Video (as Smooth Velvet, Raw Silk).

Severin Films came to the rescue in 2007 and finally issued it to DVD in its proper screen ratio, and as an added bonus they restored the film to its full European length!  Included as part of their second Black Emanuelle collection or available as a standalone release, the disc sports a good looking transfer and an interview featurette with Cliver, mixed with audio memories from Gemser and Belle. 

I couldn't find the domestic trailer online (which I know I have on one of my Something Weird tapes), but you can check out the import one here.  As expected, it's not safe for work.

For a look at last week's entry, click here. And don't forget, our Upcoming Releases List (the best on the 'net) is constantly updated, so stop by and preorder some cool stuff!

© 2010 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.

Monday, August 16, 2010

It's Name that Movie Monday! Challenge #8!

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Welcome back to Name that Movie Monday!

It's time for Challenge #8 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 (which hasn't been a problem lately...) I'll begin adding some pretty useless hints.  Easy, right? 

Here ya' go -- good luck!


UPDATE:

Congrats go out to Chris Poggiali (Temple of Schlock), who nailed Harry E. Kerwin's Tomcats (1976) in ten minutes flat!  (And here I was thinking this would be a tough one...) 

The film, a financial follow-up by the Kerwin Bros. to their prior year's slaughter-in-the-sticks outing God's Bloody Acre, is a mean and sleazy little effort detailing a brother's vendetta against the quartet of rapists who abused and murdered his waitress sister.  As expected, things get violent.

Distributed theatrically by Dimension Pictures in 1977 with an ad compaign that downplayed its rougher aspects, Tomcats turned up on VHS in 1985 from Continental Video under the much more fitting title Avenged.  (Great cover art, too!)  Out of print for decades, a 35mm print was turned up by Something Weird Video in 2005 and they now offer it on tape and DVD-R.  While no mass market DVD is available, Code Red claim to have licensed the film but haven't been able to locate acceptable elements.  Hopefully they'll work something out, as the film is an unexpected treat for fans of '70s exploitation cinema and deserves a wider audience.

Here's the hilariously hyperbolic trailer! (Definitely not safe for work.)



(Since this post was originally written, Code Red did release Tomcats on DVD, double-billed with God's Bloody Acre.  You can find it at Amazon here.)

Poster image courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.

For a look at last week's entry, click here. And don't forget, our Upcoming Releases List (the best on the 'net) is constantly updated, so stop by and preorder some cool stuff!

© 2010 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.