It's Name that Movie Monday! Challenge #24!

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Welcome back to Name that Movie Monday!

It's time for Challenge #24 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!

Solved! Update coming soon!

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.

It's Name that Movie Monday! Challenge #13!

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Welcome back to Name that Movie Monday!

It's time for Challenge #13 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? 

(It must be, as all past challenges have now been beaten, including #11 and The Champ, #9, which remained undefeated for a record 26 days!)

Anyway, here ya' go -- good luck!

UPDATE:

Congrats to Chris Poggiali (Temple of Schlock) for scoring win Numero Two-o, identifying this week's photo as William Fruet's Death Weekend (1976). This way-above-average Canadian rapesploiter showcases a battle of the sexes when fashion model Brenda Vaccaro (on a getaway with her swinger dentist!) outraces local rough Don Stroud and his gang of creeps. Not thrilled with getting showed up by a chick, a Straw Dogs-esque home invasion scenario ensues and the not-so-happy couple is forced to fight for their survival.

Gaining a Stateside release in 1977 by American International Pictures, they retitled the film The House by the Lake to capitalize on its Last House on the Left similarities, while North of the Border (and pretty much everywhere else) it remained Death Weekend. In 1985 Vestron Video released it under this title, and that's unfortunately been the last word so far. (At least it's a decent, open-matte print!) A frequent staple of "Why Isn't This on DVD" lists, one can only hope the future will bring us a nice, new remaster. I would think MGM still control the rights; at the very least let's get an HD cable screening!

Newspaper ad stolen from Fred Adelman's Critical Condition.

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.

It's Name that Movie Monday! Challenge #7!

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Welcome back to Name that Movie Monday!

It's time for Challenge #7 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 go out to the man, the myth, Marty McKee, for identifying this week's challenge in a half-hour flat, smashing our prior record!  The still above is indeed from Alberto De Martino's Strange Shadows in an Empty Room (1976), a surprising little gem with a killer cast (including Stuart Whitman, Tisa Farrow, John Saxon and Martin Landau) that doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves.  Known to the rest of the world as Blazing Magnum, this poliziotteschi (with some giallo trappings) features, as AIP's pressbook states, "one of the most breathtaking and destructive car chases ever seen on the screen," as well as, "a crashing helicopter, a transvestite crushed in a cement mixer, fights and falls from a skyscraper, and all sorts of shootings." 

American International Pictures issued it theatrically in 1977, oddly playing up the thriller elements more than the action.  (To be fair, their publicity did devote some space to Whitman's stuntwork, along with his exercise regimen of handball and horseback riding...)  On VHS the title found release in the '80s from Vestron Video, whose onscreen title dropped the word "Strange." 

Unfortunately, the film is still lacking a proper DVD release; an unlicensed version turned up as part of VideoAsia's Grindhouse Experience, Vol. 2 set, but it's a crummy transfer a few generations removed from VHS.  We can only hope that one of the boutique labels will roll the dice and give it a shot.

I couldn't find the trailer online (even though I know I have it on a compilation somewhere; perhaps one of the Something Weird tapes?), but plenty of folks have uploaded the car chase! 

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.