David J. Howe's Blog, page 19

Review: Too Late For Tears (1949) And Woman On The Run (1950)

These two
late-period film noirs became available in the UK from Arrow Films in June 2016
as a matching pair of dual-format Blu-Ray and DVD combos, essentially replicating
equivalent US releases from Flicker Alley the previous month. Both movies are
presented in top-notch new high-definition restorations courtesy of the UCLA
Film & Television Archive, and their release was made possible by the sterling
efforts of the Film Noir Foundation, an admirable organisation dedicated to the
preservation and appreciation of film noir.

            Too
Late for Tears stars two noir icons, Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea. Scott’s
character, Jane Parker, is out driving in the Hollywood Hills one evening with
her husband Alan, played by Arthur Kennedy, when a suitcase full of illicit
cash lands in their laps – almost literally, as it is thrown into the back of
their moving car by a member of a criminal gang in a bizarre case of mistaken
identity. She then proceeds to stake her claim as one of the most mercenary
women ever to be depicted on screen, as she does everything in her power to take
possession of the money and keep it from being recovered by its intended
recipient, Duryea’s character, Danny Fuller. Alan is just the first of several
people who come to a sticky end when they try to oppose her …



In
Woman on the Run, struggling artist Frank
Johnson, played by Ross Elliott, is the chance witness of a supposed gangland
murder, but makes himself scarce before the police can take him into protective
custody. His semi-estranged wife, portrayed by the movie’s star Ann Sheridan,
then plays a cat-and-mouse game with the police as they both try to track Frank
down before the murderer can get to him and eliminate him.

One
of the main things that these two movies have in common, and that makes their
pairing-up for release coincidentally rather apt, is their inclusion of strong
female lead characters, who are both equally determined and unrepentantly
single-minded in their own individual ways. Scott’s character in particular is
an archetypal femme fatale, and certainly not a woman anyone would want to
cross! Scott and Sheridan give excellent, career-highlight performances in
their respective roles, and the movies as a whole are both extremely enjoyable,
although Woman on the Run, with its
unusual fairground-set climax, probably just has the edge.

The
Film Noir Foundation deserves much kudos for its dogged and ultimately
successful campaign to get these movies restored and then commercially
released, and any noir aficionados unfamiliar with the organisation’s work
would be well advised to check out its website at www.filmnoirfoundation.org
and consider making a small donation to its ongoing cause, in return for access
to regular downloads of its superb quarterly magazine Noir City.

These
Arrow releases both come highly recommended; and each is rounded off with a
strong package of extras:







Too
Late for Tears








Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Audio commentary by writer, historian and film programmer Alan K Rode
Chance of a Lifetime: The Making of ‘Too Late for Tears’, a new behind-the-scenes examination of the film’s original production, produced by Steven Smith and the Film Noir Foundation and featuring noir experts Eddie Muller, Kim Morgan, and Julie Kirgo.
Tiger Hunt: Restoring ‘Too Late for Tears’, a chronicle of the multi-year mission to rescue this lost noir classic, produced by Steven Smith and the Film Noir Foundation.
Gallery featuring rare photographs, poster art and original lobby cards.
Reversible sleeve featuring original poster artwork on one side, and newly-commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin on the other.
Booklet featuring new writing by writer and noir expert Brian Light.









Woman
on the Run



Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Audio commentary by author, historian and noir expert Eddie Muller.
Love is a Rollercoaster: ‘Woman on the Run’ Revisited, a new featurette on the making of the film, from script to noir classic, produced by Steven Smith and the Film Noir Foundation.
A Wild Ride: Restoring ‘Woman on the Run’, a stranger-than-fiction featurette on the film’s restoration, produced by Steven Smith and the Film Noir Foundation.
Noir City, a short documentary directed by Joe Talbot about the annual Noir City Film Festival, which the Film Noir Foundation hosts at San Francisco’s historic Castro Theatre.
Gallery featuring rare photographs, poster art and original lobby cards.
Reversible sleeve featuring original poster artwork on one side, and newly-commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin on the other.
Booklet featuring new writing by Eddie Muller.
















Stephen
James Walker

Review: Dead End Drive-In (1986)

This is another Arrow Blu-Ray/DVD release and another film I'd never heard of before ... and probably with good reason.  It seems to be Australian-made, with no known actors in, and is a sort of Mad-Max-esque low budget tale of low-lifes.



It takes an age to get going ... we are introduced to our unlikable cast of characters, and two of them, Crabs (Ned Manning) and Carmen (Natalie McCurry) decide to go to the Drive-In to make out. Except that the Drive-In has no Drive-Out, and after they identify themselves as Unemployed, the Police come and take the wheels from their car, thus trapping them inside the Drive-In along with all the other unemployed scum from the city. The fences and gates around the place are electrified - it's a sort of unofficial prison for these people, though they do get vouchers they can exchange for food and drink ... there's a whole community here!





And so the action unfolds with car chases and explosions, '80s punked up outfits and cars and graffiti ... as Crabs tries to get some wheels for his car, but then runs out of petrol ... so he has to get some more petrol before he can try and make a break for freedom.



Somewhere in all this there's a good idea struggling to escape - the concept of luring undesirables to a place with a cheap offer for the unemployed, and then trapping them there. But the film is slow to get going, and then when it does get going, it's not sure where it wants to go.  It's not clear how the Police get away with what they're doing ... does no-one realise that you never leave the Drive-In - there seems to be no 'word on the street' that people who go there never come back ...





It's nicely made though, and the action sequences are pretty good. It's not a film I'll rush to watch again though, and while it's set in a nominal future, there's nothing particularly 'horror' or 'science fiction' about it ... it could be happening now, or 20 years ago ...




SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

 


Brand new 2K restoration from original film materials


High Definition (1080p) Presentation


Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing


Audio commentary by director Brian Trenchard-Smith


The Stuntmen, Trenchard Smith’s classic television documentary on Grant Page (Mad Max, Road Games) and other Australian stunt performers


Hospitals Don’t Burn Down, Trenchard-Smith’s 1978 public information film told in pure Ozploitation fashion


Behind the scenes gallery by graffiti artist Vladimir Cherepanoff


Theatrical trailer


Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon



First pressing only: fully-illustrated collector’s booklet containing writing on the films by Cullen Gallagher and Neil Mitchell

Review: The Official Doctor Who Cookbook

It's been some time since we had a Doctor Who cookbook produced under official license. The last time was way back in 1985 when Gary Downie, partner of the then-television producer of the show, John Nathan-Turner, and sometime choreographer, produced one for W H Allen, at a time when it seemed that anything with Doctor Who on the front could be published ... On that occasion the recipes were sourced from people who had appeared in or had some other connection with the show and was basically their favourite dishes, but with 'who-ified' names. No attempt was made to make the dishes look like actual monsters or aliens and so on ...



Then an unofficial book appeared a couple of years back in 2012, self-produced by Chris-Rachael Oseland and available on Amazon. What's interesting here is that in this new official cookbook, the author seems to have had some identical ideas as Oseland.  So both books feature Bow Tie Pasta, Jammie Dodgers and, of course, fish fingers and custard, but then I guess that some things are too obvious. The main difference is that Oseland includes loads and loads of recipes inspired by just about every story of the new series. There's an updated and revised edition of this book in the works, which Oseland wants to publish in a better format than the original self-published one ...





In this new BBC book, which contains just 40 recipes, one distinctly gets the idea that the recipes are way too hard for most kids to make, and the decoration relies on you being an expert and professional artist, sculptor and painter. Most of the recipes are shown in finished form as perfect cakes, pastries and dishes, but to get them looking like that would just not be possible for most mortal cooks. I'm reminded of the many internet sites which show the 'aspiration' against the 'reality', showing just how hard it is (here's an example ... http://www.hexjam.com/uk/food-drink/18-expectation-vs-reality-cooking-fails). There's an 'Exterminated Jelly Skeleton' which requires you to make perfect-looking bones from meringue ... which is the stickiest and hardest to shape substance known to man! The recipe says: 'Pipe an 8-9cm length of meringue onto the paper. Pipe an extra blob at each end to create a bone shape.'  Hmmm ... can't see the result looking even remotely like the perfect bone shapes shown in the photograph ... as for the bread baked to look like an Ood head ...!



So I'm not quite sure who this book is aimed at.  Even something which should be simple, like making little biscuit Doctors, relies on having a cutter in the right shape (or you have to trace a shape provided in the book onto paper and then somehow use it to cut each little man out ... But then you need a rock-steady hand, lots of different colours of icing, and a thin icing pipette to be able to decorate them ...



On the Cyberman head open sandwiches, there's a blob of hoisin sauce for the eyes, but in the picture, it is perfectly positioned and even has the little 'tear drop' present on the bottom corner ... not something that I suspect is even remotely possible to do in the real world!



The Snowman cake has perfectly jagged icing teeth ... again I feel that the actuality would be something looking more like the Snowman had been battered with a hammer and then partially melted in real life ... all the images show the results as being too perfect and finished. In fact to the extent that I wonder how much photoshop has been employed to make the images look perfect. The credit reads: photography and prop styling - Haarala Hamilton ... but what does 'prop styling' mean?



Overall it's a nice looking book, full of colour pictures, and the ideas are good and cover all elements of food from snacks to savoury to desserts, sweets and cakes.  £14.99 is also not too expensive for the book, making it maybe an impulse Christmas buy for someone who loves cooking?  But to be honest I'd hate to have to try and actually make some of the recipes as I just know that my results would bear little resemblance to the perfect images in the book.



DOCTOR WHO: THE OFFICIAL COOKBOOK is published by BBC Books. £14.99 hardback

The Doctor Who Experience - July 2016

Alongside our amazing visit to the TARDIS set, we also enjoyed an afternoon at the Doctor Who Experience, a semi-permanent Doctor Who exhibition and museum which is sited pretty much next door to the BBC's Roath Lock Studios ...



The Experience is part-interactive and part-walk-around-museum, and it's built on previous exhibitions such that it is now very impressive, and very well done indeed! I remember the early days of Blackpool and Longleat where the best you got was a video of Tom Baker wishing you well! But these days it's all dry ice and 3D video as you are walked through and immersed in your very own adventure.



I won't say too much lest it spoil it for future visitors, but it's all about an invasion by something called the Crinis, and the 12th Doctor is there on the screen, talking to your guide, and helping you through the various challenges you face. Are there Daleks? Of course there are!  Are there Weeping Angels? You betcha! But you come through (mostly) unscathed and enter the main exhibition through a nice pair of junkyard doors with the name I M Foreman written on ...





An Ice Warrior in the entrance foyer

There is so much in the exhibition, that the best way to explain it is just to show all the pictures I took! There are Daleks and Cybermen, Sontarans and Zygons, Doctor and Companion costumes galore, and four (count them!) FOUR TARDIS control rooms: We have the one from the Mark Gatiss Docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time from 2013, which replicates the William Hartnell console (which was used up until 'The Ambassadors of Death'); then there's the Davison model (used from 'The Five Doctors' until the end of the Classic series in 1989); and finally the Eccleston/Tennant 'coral' model. Opened since we visited (we missed it by a day!) is yet another console, this time the T Baker/Davison model (used from 'The Invisible Enemy' until 'Enlightenment'). **I might have some of these stories wrong ... info is from http://www.themindrobber.co.uk/tardis-console-history-details.html :)



Overall everything is really nicely displayed, with one or two larger props present as well as the costumes. The Experience focuses on the current series, so there's lots of Clara's outfits, and items from many of the most recent episodes, like the Mire, Me's outfits, Costumes and props from the 'Under the Lake' and 'Sleep No More' episodes, plus the hooded creature (the Veil) and teleport booth from 'Heaven Sent' ... overall an excellent set of artefacts which covers probably as much of the series as it can.







The K1 Robot

It was very nice to see some earlier costumes there, which have been repaired, reconstructed and refurbished by Mike Tucker and his team at the The Model Unit ... especially the magnificent K1 Robot from 'Robot' and a Zygon from 'Terror of the Zygons' ... not to mention a Tetrap from 'Time and the Rani' and Omega from 'Arc of Infinity' ... There's not that much that exists from earlier adventures (there's a lovely Yeti from 'The Web of Fear') and what does exist tends to be in private hands ... indeed, several of the items on display are noted as coming from private collections, so it's to be applauded that those who own these pieces have allowed them to be displayed and appreciated by everyone!



On our visit to the Experience, we were in very good company. Frazer Hines, who played Jamie McCrimmon alongside the second Doctor, was with us, and also Paul McGann, the eighth Doctor, popped down to Cardiff to join us on our day out. So we battled the Crinis with them, and then wandered the Exhibition, cooing at all the marvellous items on display.  As I said to Paul and Frazer though, what was needed was more Jamie and more eighth Doctor items ... unfortunately there just aren't many of them around to display!





Paul McGann and Frazer Hines

Because we had these two gentlemen with us, the staff were very kind and allowed us to take some pics on the sets themselves - these are roped off to protect the fragile consoles and, indeed, Bessie the yellow roadster, and visitors are not permitted to get too close to them. We were very careful however, and under the watchful eyes of the Curator and staff the whole time ... otherwise who knows where Paul might have navigated the console to!  So if you go to the Experience yourself (and I heartily recommend you do!) then please don't try and pass the barriers yourself, lest you feel the long arm of the security staff on your collar!



We had a simply marvellous time, and even managed to buy some interesting things in the shop at the end (I love a little shop!).



So thanks to the Curator and staff at the Experience for a truly out of this world experience ... and to my fellow travellers: Sam Stone, Amy Windham, Howard Hayes, Ken Deep, James Naughton, Frazer Hines and Paul McGann ... And we hope readers head over to Cardiff to have your very own Doctor Who Experience!



And now ... the pictures ... And for reasons best known to itself, Blogger has put them all in reverse order! And they are all of course (c) me so no pinching!





A Lego Dalek!





A happy group of time travellers ... Don't touch that switch Frazer!



Paul and Frazer clown about in Bessie





Sam and Paul ... Travellers in Time!





But which box?





A Doctor will teleport in momentarily ...





























The Doctor's Confession Dial





















Something very strange about the face of this

new series Zygon.













A Doctor skull





The Veil ,,, coming for you





Eye-sand monster





























The Dalek in which Clara was installed





























Amy Pond's collection of dolls













































This is my moment ...









Tellytubby Dalek









Tetrap





Superb recreation of an original Zygon





Omega













The Special Weapons Dalek









Melkur





Original sixties Yeti, complete with ball





Original Ice Warrior





'The Two Doctors' style Sontaran





Davros as the Emperor Dalek





Davros!





The Face of Boe









































Just hanging around





Outfits for the Paternoster Gang









The Doctor's crib









































































I didn't remember this thing from the show but

apparently it was there!













Beautiful original console





Three TARDISes together ,,,





Five Doctors console





Coral console









A display of the Radiophonic Workshop's work on the show.









Three Daleks





























A Menoptra from 'An Adventure in Space and Time'





'Five Doctors' console





Bessie





K9!

















Entering the exhibition





Don't Blink!

















A Weeping Angel in the foyer









A Smiler booth in the Cafe area





Artwork in the cafe area

Transdimensional TARDIS Visit at Cardiff

Sometimes the world tilts in just the right way, and you find yourself enjoying something which is exclusive and amazing and which just ticks one of those bucket items on the long list of aspirational things to do ... Such it was on a recent trip to Cardiff, where we had the opportunity to visit the actual working TARDIS set from Doctor Who, the one that the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi, actually uses for his travels in Space and Time!



This was due to Ed Russell, Brand Manager for Doctor Who, who generously offered to show us around the set while the main Doctor Who team was off filming in Spain. He arranged for the lights to be put on especially for us, and we had no restrictions or limitations placed on us (except for a 'no video' rule, which of course we complied with). I'm told that there is a TARDIS tour that you can pay for as an 'add on' to a visit to the Doctor Who Experience, but this is only when they are not recording the show, and on these visits, the console and upper level is roped off ...





The entrance to the TARDIS ...

My first impression of the set was that it was massive. It rests in its own studio at Roath Lock, and takes up most of it! You enter through the actual external TARDIS doors, which is a lovely touch, and inside, it's like a bubble of Time Lord Technology.



I actually love this control room. It feels functional and right in a way that the Eccleston/Tennant/Smith ones didn't ... and I was very impressed that the console is indeed fully functional, with switches and levers and buttons that mostly make lights light up and things move. There's a gorgeous illuminated cog arrangement on one panel which is a work of art, and another has the interface to the TARDIS' telepathic circuits: a Zygon-like latex/silicon panel of bumps and grooves into which you can plunge your fingers.



On the upper level there are bookcases full of books, tables piled with magazines and other things, blackboards covered with arcane scribblings ... skulls, ornaments ... all manner of exotic ephemera. It's lovely! You can walk around the whole room, with staircases down to the main console area, and there are also blocked off exits to the rest of the TARDIS as well ...  We were told that sections of the upper area can be removed to allow cameras in, but it works brilliantly as an enclosed space as well.





Under the main area there's the lower floor, which again has tables covered with bits of junk and equipment, there's a hatstand, chairs ... and the under-console area, which again is fully practical in that each section lifts up allowing access to the tubes and pipes and whatever else they want to put down there. I was so impressed at the thought which has gone into making the whole set as practical and tactile as possible, so that pretty much any future requirement can be incorporated depending on what the scripts demand. Very clever. This also helps to ground the TARDIS as a real object, a solid and practical space where the Doctor and companions can live and travel and which feels like home.





Under the console ... just doing a little rewiring ...

This is of course the whole point and indeed ethos of the TARDIS from the early years of the show, and it's great to see that reflected again here. At no point does this feel like a set!  You are actually in the TARDIS, and it's all lit up! Magnificent!



Outside the set, there are the usual boxes of unidentified stuff, and even a Dalek sits forlornly there too ... whether waiting for use in future episodes, or the sole remnant of a Dalek attack on the TARDIS we don't know ... it's cool to see it there though!



There is also another set under construction in the same studio, but this is for the next season and thus is top secret ... Apparently it's supposed to tie in and match with something on location, but as we don't know what that is either, it's all a bit bewildering ... I'm sure it will come clear when the episodes are transmitted ...





We landed safely!

We ended our visit feeling uplifted and privileged that we got to visit the Doctor's TARDIS ... we may not have travelled in time and space, but in our minds we battled Daleks and Cybermen and Zygons as the Doctor rushed around the control room in a haze of blue velvet and scots accent ... Magnificent!



Here's a selection of pics from the visit ...



Sam checks out the books





A lone Dalek outside the TARDIS set





We enter the TARDIS for the first time ...





The top part of the console.





Blackboards and arcane scribblings





The amazing central console





Another view





Trying to get us home ...





External view of one of the exits from the
Console Room ... this would lead to the
rest of the ship ...





Beautiful section of the ship





Sam checks in with the Doctor ...





We all need some help!





Sam under the console!





The amazing cog and gear panel on the console





Sam is in da Ship!





Making sure the Doctor got his sums right ...





Another view of the console room. The external door is in the
middle.





Sam links into the telepathic circuits ...

The Reprint Conundrum: Target Doctor Who Novelisations

I was tagged in a Facebook post today (On the Doctor Who Collectors Group) about reprints of the Target Doctor Who novelisations as some collectors were getting very confused about the reprints, how you could identify them and so on. And as it's a far more complex subject than you might imagine, and as Facebook is very transient, I thought it was worth putting some thoughts and explanations on the Blog so that they can be referred to going forward, maintained and updated with new information, and generally remain accessible to anyone who wants to know.



Throughout this piece I will refer to the Toybox site.  This is an online resource for Doctor Who collectors which attempts to catalogue every item of Doctor Who merchandise ever released ... and of course this includes the Target Books. But also, for the Targets, we also tried to document every reprint we knew about or could find. It's not complete, but it's a pretty good starter for ten and also has cover images showing variances and so on ... so it's a good place to go. www.doctorwhotoybox.co.uk



Okay. First things first. These are books, and books have an identifying number called an ISBN. This stands for International Standard Book Number, and is (or should be) a way to uniquely identify a given book. The rules say that every book should have a unique ISBN. If you change the book's format (ie it's physical size) or it's Cover Image, or it's content (significantly rather than minor corrections), or it's language, or it's publisher, or it's title then you should give it a new ISBN. The 'rules' can be found here if you're interested ... https://www.isbn-international.org/content/isbn-assignment.



In practice, however, this doesn't happen, and you get all manner of things going on. But as a general rule of thumb, the ISBN for the Target books follows this pattern.  So the first editions will each have their own ISBN. and that ISBN remains constant until they change the cover art ... most of the time.



If we look at the Book Covers now, and obviously each book has it's own cover. The first 12 books have the Pertwee Doctor Who logo. Which looks like this:





They they changed it to the T Baker logo like this ('The Giant Robot' was the first title to use this logo but that has Tom Baker's face over the 'O' so is not really representative):



:

Before moving on to the Davison logo:





Then the McCoy Logo:





And finally, to a totally different cover design for the last couple of books:





First editions (and we're talking first edition paperbacks here. Most of the Target books had hardback editions as well, some of which were published prior to the paperback editions, some of which were published at the same time as the paperback editions, but NONE of the hardbacks were badged as 'Target') will have specific colours for the logos and text, and these changed for reprint editions. So on the Toybox site, you will see that we try to highlight what is different or specific about which edition of the book.  Some reprints changed the logo style as well, and also the artwork changed for a reprint ... but not always.



But be careful when checking cover colours and spine/back cover colours as they can fade and change to different colours with extended exposure to sunlight.



So usually you can initially spot what might be a first edition from the cover, the logo, and the colourings ... but there can be some other changes too ... You see that first edition cover of 'The Daleks' above? Well the tagline under the Author Name 'Based on the popular BBC television series' ... that line is missing off some of the reprints.









There's also part of the ISBN number printed on the first edition spine of the first three titles only, and this is missing off some of the reprints ... so you have to be observant and diligent to be able to spot a first edition.



The other good identifier on the books is the cover price.  The books started at 25p each, but then rose in price, pretty much each year. So the price will give an indication as to which year the book originated from. And bearing in mind the confusion over the insides (see later) this is very helpful indeed.



Moving to the insides of the book, and the first thing to note is that these books were all produced back in the days when the covers and the insides were printed separately, and then brought together when the books were bound. What this means is that sometimes the publisher found themselves with stacks of covers, and no books to put in them ... or sometimes it was the other way round, they had lots of what are called 'book blocks' and no covers to wrap around them.



So what they would do, was to reprint either the covers or the insides so they could bind the books and get them out to shops.  BUT when they did this, they sometimes made changes to the insides or the covers ... so you can have a first edition cover, with a second edition book block inside it ... or a first edition book block with a reprint edition cover around it.



This makes it VERY hard to try and definitively pin down what edition is what ... there are so many changes!



Another point to note is that when covers were reprinted, they sometimes didn't go back to the original plates and artwork, and instead used a previous cover to reprint from. This means that some subsequent reprint covers are 'zoomed in' and lack detail. Also the colours can be harsher ... all these things are because they just took an earlier cover and used that as the basis for the new reprint.



Look at page 4 of a given book, and you will find the publishing information. This is supposed to tell you which edition it is, and sometimes publishers will print in it 'Second Edition' or 'Reprinted 1996, 1997 (twice), 1999' or whatever to show which this copy is.  Another way this is done is by printing a sequence of numbers like this '2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3'. That sequence would indicate a second edition as the '2' is the lowest number there ... Others might have '3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12' which would indicate a third edition as '3' is the lowest number there.



Here's an example of a First Edition Target:





You can see that it DOESN'T SAY it's a first edition.  Some books will however note this.



Here's the same page from a reprint edition:







You can see the FIRST PUBLISHED information, and that it also says SECOND IMPRESSION and REPRINTED IN ...  So this is possibly a second edition, or possibly a third edition (the information can be interpreted to mean that the Second Impression was then reprinted again ... making this a third impression).



However, sometimes they didn't update the information on this page when they reprinted, meaning that while the cover might have been different, with a different price, the insides remained the same.



Here's another example of a reprint interior:



Here you can see the four reprints are noted.



If you look on the Toybox site, you'll see that some of the books have loads and loads of reprints, while others have very few indeed, and some have none!  This is simply because as the range continued, the publishers learned how many to print, and if they got their sums right, then no reprint was ever needed. Especially too as they got to the end of the range, when they knew that they couldn't afford to end up with loads in stock ...  Again, the print runs, where known, are noted in the Toybox listings.



I think those are the main points ... to summarise:



Check the cover:




Is the logo correct
Is the colour correct
Is the cover image correct
Is the cover price correct
Is the ISBN correct





Check inside:




Does it indicate any reprint editions?
Is the ISBN the same as the cover?





If all these are confirmed, then congratulations, you probably have a first edition!

Review: The Trollenberg Terror (aka The Crawling Eye) 1958

We watch a lot of films here ... some of them come in for review, others are just for pleasure ... and with this one, I found it lurking on a new-ish TV Channel called Talking Pictures ... and I had to see it.



The last time I saw it was a long time ago - so long in fact that I couldn't really remember any of the details ... but gosh it's a good film. It's actually quite a surprise that this has never been remade ... one wonders what modern effects could manage which might surpass what is presented here.



Made in black and white in 1958, it stars Forrest Tucker as a UN Troubleshooter-type who is heading to Trollenberg to check up on a scientific viewing station there, led by Warren Mitchell with a great Germanic accent!  On the train are a couple of sisters, one of whom is psychic and who collapses, insisting that they get off at the stop.





They're all soon embroiled in a mystery on the mountain, where a strange mist or fog seems to move about of its own volition. It's radioactive too, and people who find themselves caught in the mists are then found with their heads torn off.



The film, from a screenplay by Jimmy Sangster (who has more superb credits to his name than I have had hot dinners: just check out his credits on Wiki here), mixes together a lot of things which seem familiar. It's a little like a classic Doctor Who adventure in a way, and even has a gruesome prologue where a hapless climber is killed. The moving fog, and whole 'something in the fog' trope has been used of course in films like The Fog, The Mist and Silent Hill ... and the idea of radioactive aliens being behind it all is just classic 50's sci fi.





But boy are these aliens good. The film was called The Crawling Eye in America and for good reason, as that's just what these creatures look like. They are amazing. Their bodies are lit from within, and they have waving, seeking tentacles. A single eye is mounted on the front, and it moves about, seeking the victims out. It looks like a real human eye, and I suspect that the creatures were built around a human head, incorporating the eye into their design. They are amazing, original and very creepy.  They also make a sort of screeching and wailing sound as they approach which is also quite terrifying.  I wonder if anyone has any behind the scenes pictures of them?





The first time we see one of them is when a small child is cornered by one in the hotel. This is a very daft scene in many ways as previously no children were seen or even mentioned ... and suddenly there is one in danger! But the whole thing is so well done, that you can forgive a lapse like this and just go with the flow!



Overall it's quite a superb piece of filmmaking, with some brilliant effects to cap it all. Well worth a watch.



There's a trailer for the film here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un84y-zrGNs



And the full film seems to be here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1980q5_trollenberg-terror-the-crawling-eye-1958_shortfilms

Review: Satan's Blade (1984)

Yet another Arrow release from the 80's slasher camp, and another that I'd never heard of before. I wonder where they keep finding them! Unfortunately it might have been better if this one had stayed lost!



It's a puzzling story which suggests that a knife is cursed, and that anyone who comes into contact with it turns into a bloodthirsty maniac. We open with two girls robbing a bank, killing people there, heading for their hideaway, stashing the loot, before one kills the other, and then she herself is slaughtered by an unseen assailant. We then leap five years later to when two couples, and a group of five girls, are checking into a holiday lodge which is where the earlier murders were committed. Of course the murders start up again, with people being stalked and killed ... but is it the old fisherman by the lake? Or someone else committing the murders? And what about that stash of money which stays hidden throughout the film ... ultimately it's pointless as it has no bearing on anything ...



Of course who the killer is, is the big payoff, but it's not that much of a surprise.  Elsewhere the film has a lot of nudity, so much so, that it veers into soft porn territory at times ...





Unfortunately the cast are uniformly terrible, with bad delivery and poor acting at every turn. The blood looks like tomato sauce (it probably was) and overall it's a mess of a film. In fact it's the sort of film you get if you have the same person writing, directing and producing it, and the culprit here is one L Scott Castillo Jr. But not him alone as Thomas Cue wrote the screenplay and also acts in the film.



There's an extra in which Castillo Jr, interviewed by a mystery woman called Pam, shows us some of the 'artifacts' from the film, which include reels of the actual film, and old video covers, and a knife which looks nothing like the one in the film ... It's all rather painful.





As you can tell, I really wasn't enamoured with this one, and it's a struggle to come up with anything to praise it for. Even the music score is a synthesised mess ...



It's independent filmmaking at its most raw and unfocussed.









SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS



•Brand new 2K restoration of the film presented in both 4:3 (1.37:1) and 1.85:1 versions

•High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations

•Original Mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)

•Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

•Brand new audio commentary by podcast The Hysteria Continues

•Interview with writer-director L. Scott Castillo, Jr.

•Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Ryan Tobin

•Fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Brian Albright, author of Regional Horror Films, 1958-1990

Review: Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988)

This is a great little film! And one which I'd not seen before. I've not even seen the original Killer Tomatoes film, so had no preconceptions as to what this might all be about. But as sequels go, this is pretty enjoyable and well done fare. It's streets above other 'so bad they're good' type films, and I'd almost go so far to say that this is 'so good it's good'!



The basic plot is that there's a mad scientist, Professor Gangreen superbly played by John Astin (the original Gomez Addams), who has discovered a way to turn tomatoes into people. So he has created Rambo-esque guards for his house, and also a hot female assistant (Karen Mistal). In fact she is so hot she's steaming! Except that said assistant falls for one of the lads from the local high school, and he and his mate (played by a young George Clooney) decide to try and liberate her ...



It's generally a nonsensical romp of a film, with some brilliant '80s moments. I love how it starts as a beach movie, with a whole bevvy of unfeasibly hot babes in bikinis, and then moves into sideswipes at consumerism as they try product placement of all types to try and get enough money to finish the film ...  Tomatoes are bad as well and are smuggled in, while people run around screaming if there is even a hint of tomato! Chad (Anthony Starke) and Matt (George Clooney) work in a pizza place and pizzas are made with every ingredient but tomato as well - strawberry jam being one such replacement, and the whole film is silly and yet compelling.



As mentioned, I was somewhat entranced by Karen Mistal who plays Tara Boumdeay (Professor Gangreen's assistant). She is stunning and with a body ... what a body ... The '80s fashions really work to her advantage in this regard. We even get a return of the bikini girls at the end as Matt uses the Professor's machine to create some hot girlfriends for himself.





I loved the film. I liked the sense of self-awareness that it has, the breaking of the fourth wall, the insanity of the plot, and the gorgeous girls of course. For the ladies, there is of course George Clooney, and another assistant of the Professor called Igor, who is a handsome blond chap with a very educated speaking voice (Steve Lundquist).



It reminded me a lot of the more recent Sharkanado movies, with the same sense of the absurd and rollicking fun which they embody.



My one disappointment here is in the extras on this new Blu-Ray release from Arrow. Usually Arrow stuff their disks with tons of material, but here there's only a recent interview with Anthony Starke to round it off (there's a trailer and a couple of other minor elements, but no documentary or behind the scenes information. Ah well.



Worth getting to watch with your mates on a beer and pizza night. Just watch out for the tomatoes!









SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS




High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
Original Stereo audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary with writer-director John De Bello
Brand new interview with star Anthony Starke
Original Theatrical Trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin
Fully-illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by critic James Oliver

Short Stories on TV

I love short stories ... they're great in collections, and anthologies, and the very best make you think and feel emotions ... they can also be experimental in a way that might be tricky at a longer length, but they can also be varied and range from funny to horrific to gut-wrenching, to sad ... there really is no limit!

No surprise then that some of my favourite television is in the 'Short Story' field. Anthology series which take a the form of stand-alone tales of terror (or science fiction). Among such series in the past have been Out of the Unknown, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Hunger, Tales of the Unexpected and Urban Gothic. All of them presented some great material during their runs, and all managed to make the most of what modest budgets they had available.



Unfortunately, in more recent years, this sort of Anthology series has all but vanished. All people seem to want are character-driven series with season arcs and cliffhanger endings to each season ... the idea of telling discrete stories each week doesn't exist. There was Black Mirror of course which took a more political slant on the genre, but it's hard to think of any others.





Which is why I was excited to see, first, a little series of films based on the work of H G Wells - The Nightmare Worlds of H G Wells, and, more recently, four of Neil Gaiman's short stories presented in similar fashion. I suppose one could also include here Mark Gatiss' brilliant M R James adaptation of The Tractate Middoth from a couple of Christmasses ago ...

The H G Wells stories were an interesting bunch, and I have to admit to not being very familiar with his short works. From what was presented, I got the feeling that they struggled to find ones which were actually adaptable to television. The themes seemed a little muddled in each, and the outcomes very obvious. I liked a lot the one about the old man who 'jumps' into the body of a younger man as he seeks immortality, and I also liked the one about the poisonous mushrooms, in which Shaun Parkes shines.





The direction of these was also well thought through, with largely black drapes taking the place of backgrounds, and the action taking place in a sort of theatre set, slightly removed from reality.  This was, presumably, a cost-saving measure, but it worked in the telling of the stories, making them slightly spiky and unreal. I'm not sure though that I could believe Ray Winstone as H G Wells. His accent being somewhat offputting, and not how I had ever imagined Mr Wells to sound (I have to admit, I have no idea what Wells' accent would have been, however!)





The four stories chosen were: The Late Mr Elvesham, The Devotee of Art, The Moth and The Purple Pileus.



Overall, however, I enjoyed Sky's presentation of these tales, and it was very refreshing to see proper short stories dramatised on television.



The Neil Gaiman stories were given the overall title of Likely Stories, and there were again four chosen: Foreign Parts, Feeders and Eaters, Closing Time and Looking for the Girl.



Unfortunately I was less taken with these adaptations, though for the most part they were well made and cast. I liked seeing Montserrat Lombard in every one - she's a superb actress and brings a full range of emotion (and accents) to each role. I was less enamoured with comedian Johnny Vegas telling stories in a gentleman's club though.





Probably the best of them was Feeders and Eaters where Lombard plays a girl waitressing in a cafe who hears stories from her clientele. One such comes from a young man who has met and is looking after an old, old woman (excellently played by Rita Tushingham) ... but she needs fresh meat to survive, and the implication, very subtly done, is that she is literally eating him alive. It's so subtle though that you could miss it - I only knew because I published Gaiman's story in one of Telos' anthologies a few years back!





This is basically the problem with them though, there's not much story there. Gaiman is a brilliant writer and novelist, but the short stories they chose are perhaps not his best. But then I'm not the director/producer and don't know what criteria they were looking for. It's certainly true that all four are seedy and dark and dwell on the human condition ... so perhaps this was what they were aiming for. And if so, they succeeded!



Foreign Parts in particular made me feel quite grubby - it's about a venereal disease which takes over its host and makes them a better person somehow ... very strange.





I really hope that these two series have been successful for Sky and that they are moved to widen their net and seek out more authors and more works to bring to the small screen. There is such a wealth of potential out there that it seems a shame to limit it to just two authors ...