The Del Tenney Collection (Dark Sky Films DVD)
Picture:
B-/C-/C+ Sound: C Extras:
B- Film: C+/C-/C
Violent Midnight (aka Psychomania)
The Curse of the Living Corpse
The Horror of Party Beach
Dark Sky
puts together quite a nice package of films here - a collection that most
people wouldn’t expect to see, due to the relative obscurity of the films,
outside of the cult success of Horror of
Party Beach. Historically, however,
this is a wonderful product to see release. Admittedly, I hadn’t paid much attention to
the output of this particular filmmaker, and while I personally hold a copy of
the Horror of Party Beach photo-play
in my collection of Famous Monsters of
Filmland Magazine, I had never actually gotten a chance to watch the movie.
Upon receiving this for review, I
immediately checked all of the applicable film books on my shelves for mention
of Del Tenney and his output of camp classics to read up and get a little
insight to his career.
Out of
the half dozen or so books pertaining to this period of genre filmmaking, not
one made reference to him or his films. If
memory serves me correctly, a scene from “Party Beach” did make the cut of the
lost 80’s clip-show, It Came From
Hollywood, during a piece hosted by the late Gilda Radner. Sadly, this excellent movie (which served as a
precursor to the Mystery Science Theater
3000 format) has been caught up in legal entanglements over the use of some
clips contained within it, so it’s anyone’s guess as to when this will turn up
again outside of illegal bootlegs. A
shame, considering it was a catalyst in my growing interest with the B movies
and horror pictures of the past.
This
brings me back to Dark Sky, who deserves credit for releasing these films with
such care, and each with its own commentary track from Del Tenney. While these aren’t loaded up with extras, and
the picture and sound quality isn’t mind-blowing - they are presented clearly,
cleanly, and with contribution from the director. Thankfully, time hadn’t gotten the better of
us before it would be too late to get perspective from this filmmaker, as Mr.
Tenney is alive and well, and still producing and directing films in the DVD
age.
My only
gripe might be that his other major film from this era, I Eat Your Skin, is not included in this set, which should have
been possible, as it seems to be in public domain. But, it could be possible that another company
is working on a special edition, or simply that no suitable prints could be
found in time for this release.
The best
of the films presented here is without question Violent Midnight - otherwise known as Psychomania, in another attempt to capitalize on a certain Alfred
Hitchcock hit. It seems to have been
co-directed by Del Tenney and Richard L. Hilliard, though Mr. Hilliard receives
sole directorial credit. It concerns a
young war veteran who has become a mildly eccentric, but very successful
artist. A series of killings erupts, and
he is caught in the middle - accused from all sides as the murderer. Though youth-oriented, this production
features a lot of skillful shots and Hitchcockian camera setups, as well as
decent performances from many of the actors.
The Curse of the Living Corpse takes a similar premise to that
of Violent Midnight, but adds the
aspect of an undead father, returned to kill off his heirs. Though it may seem supernatural in nature,
from the very beginning of the murders, you feel as though it is simply a
step-by-step “whodunit” murder mystery. Perhaps its biggest detractor is that while
intended as a period piece taking place in the 1890’s, it all feels rather
modern, and the actors and camerawork don’t accurately depict the time period
enough to get the audience in on it. Noteworthy
at least for being the screen debut of late actor Roy Scheider, who does put in
an entertaining performance.
Lastly, The Horror of Party Beach - the one
with the gill-men who seem to have half-ingested hot dogs crammed into their
oversized maws. This classic drive-in
picture is purely for camp fun - with greasers, beach babes, surf music and
radioactive mutant-men terrorizing the beach scene. Logic gets thrown out the door on this one,
but it’s a fun summer film, and rightly a success at the time, as it perfectly
captures everything that made up movie and pop culture at that moment in
history.
The Curse of the Living Corpse and The Horror of Party Beach are presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic
widescreen, while Violent Midnight
is block-style 1.33:1, all looking good except Corpse, looking softer than one
would like. All three films are in Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono that shows its age.
You can’t
go wrong picking up this video collection - its nicely done, and offers some of
the only readily available insight to this filmmaker that I’m aware of. Surely there are some books out there covering
the genre that do deal with he and his films - one or two even being mentioned
during the commentary; but hopefully a career retrospective from the likes of Cinema Retro Magazine or another such
publication is forthcoming, as it would be a shame not to glean all you could
for future record.
- David
Milchick
