Hickey & Boggs (1972)/Incredible
Melting Man (1977)/Master Of The
World (1961/MGM Limited Edition Collection DVD)/Maniac Cop (1988/Synapse Blu-ray)/The 10th Victim (1965/Blue Underground Blu-ray)
Picture: C+/C+/C+/B/B- Sound: C+/C+/C+/B-/B- Extras: D/C-/C-/B-/C+ Films: C+ (Boggs: B)
PLEASE
NOTE: The
MGM releases featured are online-only exclusives from MGM and can be purchased
from Amazon.com, which you can reach through the sidebar of this side.
We have
some more films to recommend, including three never officially on DVD before,
two now on Blu-ray you may have also missed and all that are worth seeing at
least once and much more.
Robert
Culp and Bill Cosby, co-stars of the big 1960s TV Spy show I Spy reunited for a hard-edged police thriller called Hickey & Boggs (1972) which Culp
directed and was written by Walter Hill (The
Getaway, 48 HRS, Last Man Standing), a film we very much
enjoyed even when we cover it in this older DVD when we thought we would never
see it on the market otherwise:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1204/Hickey+&+Boggs
Turns out
MGM has the rights and I knew they had the original camera materials. Though there is not even a trailer, this
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 presentation is much better than the older DVD
and except for darker scenes looking a little weak, the transfer has fine
color, some nice shots and shows what a good film it really is. Cosby would never do anything this challenging
again and this remains one of Hill’s best scripts. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono also sounds
improved over the previous DVD and the score by Ted Ashford is very good.
William
Sachs directed The Incredible Melting
Man (1977) as a straight out B-movie and it works on that level well, but
the big highlight (very strangely missing from the DVD case) is that this
features remarkable early make-up work by the multiple Academy Award winner
Rick Baker, making this another long-overdue key release. An astronaut returns to earth and is not
well, so he is put into a hospital to recuperate. However, he is much sicker than anyone could
imagine, suffering from a flesh-eating virus that is slowly causing him to
entirely deteriorate.
No, it is
not a great film and some people think it is even awful, but its approach, pace
and odd feel make it something different and interesting in the genre,
especially so many years later. Alex
Rebar and Michael Allredge are among the pretty unknown cast and like Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes the same year, it
marked the end of a long line of raw independent genre films that started in
the early 1960s and were willing to be unconditionally no holds barred. I hope people get to see the film for what
does work and understand what it actually has achieved.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1 image looks easily the best since I had seen the film way
back when it first hit movie theaters and drive-ins, having more of a unique
look (partly by accident) than it gets credit for. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also in better
shape than I expected. A trailer is the
only extras, though it is one of several I have seen.
William
Witney directed genre films and serials for decades when he took on turning
Jules Verne’s Master Of The World (1961)
into a feature film that was more successful than many may remember. Vincent Price is the title character,
terrorizing the world from his deadly zeppelin (ironically called The
Albatross) determined to become its new ruler.
Though it may be on a comic book level, the film asks questions about
power and life that makes it all the more fun and among the good supporting
cast is a young Charles Bronson. The
screenplay is by the great Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) and the results are a underrated, entertaining film
that may be dated, but it was dated to begin with by sticking with the older
technology of the books and celebrates that older technology in a way sadly
missing from current films set in the past (like the 2011 Captain America) in ways that are even embarrassing. Price is one of the greatest character actors
of all time, bringing his uniqueness into all of his work and remains one of
the great big screen icons. He could act
in real life in even more challenging work (Witchfinder General and extending to his TV and radio drama work,
which is massive) and pulls off a performance here that helps make this grander
than it otherwise would be. He is one of
the first actors to make villains sympathetic because he was that good.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1 image has some flaws, but looks really good here and the
other star of the film besides the script, ideas, cast and blimp is the Magnacolor
(a process from the makers of TruColor) by Pathe which furthers the surreal
look and feel of the film, pumping up the otherworldly aspects in ways that
makes this winning B-movie filmmaking at its best. Oh, and this was also made in “Dyna-magic”,
which is its attempt to make its special effects more special in the mode of
Ray Harryhausen’s DynaMation, his advanced version of stop motion
animation. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
sounds really good and I was very pleased it sounded so clean and clear for its
age down to the Les Baxter score.
William
Lustig’s very interesting Maniac Cop
(1988) had a great DVD release and now, Synapse has wisely chosen it as one of
their first Blu-rays and once again, they have improved on one of their ace DVD
releases. You can read our coverage of
that DVD at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4847/Maniac+Cop+(Special+Edition/Synapse
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer is even cleaner, sharper and
clearer than the DVD and seems sourced from the same solid 35mm print. The have done a nice job here of making this
as solid a presentation as possible for a film made with this budget at this
age. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio)
lossless mixes are here in 6.1, 4.0 and 2.0 Stereo from the original Ultra
Stereo analog (a cheaper and more distorted version of Dolby’s old analog
A-type process) and likely other audio sources.
The result is mixed and you can experiment with the three options to see
what sounds best yourself. Extras are
the same, but four of the features are now in High Definition.
You can
also read more about Lustig’s older indie thriller, the controversial Maniac (1980, not related) in our
Blu-ray coverage at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10468/Maniac+%E2%80%93+30th+Annivers
Finally
we have Elio Petri’s The 10th
Victim (1965), the first of what we would now call the “death sport” films
which were particularly popular by the 1970s (think Rollerball, Death Race 2000
and even parts of Logan’s Run) with
Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress paired together at their popular peaks
in a wacky, funny, satiric, unintentionally funny and campy thriller about “The
Big Hunt” a game of legal murder in that future, the 21st
Century. In one of its better moves, the
Austin Powers franchise also sent
this one up and though it is not a great film it is a fun one and this Blu-ray is
the best edition yet of the film and is likely to be for a long time, with only
small reservations and this is the compete film. You will also enjoy the weird chemistry the
film achieves at times.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image can show off the great color intended,
but the film was originally issued in three-strip, dye-transfer Technicolor and
those prints (especially in great shape) are worth quite a bit of money if you
can find one, even in 16mm! The shots
that are good here shine, but some have more grain than expected and others
looks almost a generation down, so I have to fault the disc for those, but you
will be impressed otherwise, The DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) lossless 2.0 Mono mixes are here in English and Italian
versions that both work.
Extras
include Poster & Still Gallery,
U.S. Trailer,
Italian Trailer, Mastroianni Still Gallery and a great vintage 90+ minutes featurette
Marcello: A Sweet Life that shows the
international star at his peak of power, class, chic and charm. I only wish there was a retrospective on
Andress in the 60s, which could have included this film and really rounded out
this solid Blu-ray release.
Catch
them all!!!
- Nicholas Sheffo
