LVC "Animaniacs" Cameo

From the popular mid-90's cartoon.  Click to enlarge.

 

 

Updated with video.  Thanks DCG!



Barquero Coming to Blu-ray! (US)

Kino Lorber Studio Classics announced that Barquero will be coming to blu-ray in the United States this coming April.  No further details are currently available.  Kino recently released Sabata on blu here in the US.

 

If you can't wait until April, Barquero is available on blu-ray in Australia, and is fully compatible with US players (and looks great!).  The price is about double that of what I am sure the US disc will cost.

 

2015 is already looking like a great blu-ray year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

25 Years...

This week, we remember Lee Van Cleef, on what has been 25 years since his passing. 

I plan on celebrating LVC by watching one of his favorite films, El Condor.  How do you honor "The Best of The Bad"?

Commandos - Posters

Click to enlarge!

 

 

 

 

Blu-ray Update: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - Corrected Mono

The much maligned 4k restoration of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, has now had it's proper original mono soundtrack restored on the new standalone version of the film available now.  It is suspected that future versions of "The Man With No Name" collection will have the updated disc with the correct mono.  Previous versions had a mono downmix of the new 5.1 track.

The image quality still looks like piss.  Literally.

 

Captain Apache - NY Times Movie Review - October 1971

By HOWARD THOMPSON

Published: October 28, 1971

Two Spanish-made Westerns, "Captain Apache" and A Town Called Hell, make for hard, double-bill sitting, take it from us. Thundering, clanging, spilling blood like catsup, they run for exactly 189 minutes. Neither amounts to a hil of beans. One of them, the least painful, doesn't even try. 

This is "Captain Apache," whose mean, funny opening line, not suitable to a family newspaper, pegs the entire jape. Anyway, this slapdash slaughterfest has Lee Van Cleef, as an iron-jawed Indian captain in the Union Army, trying to solve an officer's murder. Peering in, under the broiling sun, are such artists as Carroll Baker and Stuart Whitman, who must have been hankering for Hollywood greenery. 

Generally, under Alexander Singer's direction, the film simply lets fly, as the chips and bodies fall. In the last reel the story rather snugly works in a surprise or two aboard one of those old-time trains, carring the principals. You can't criticize a choo-choo. 

"A Town Called Hell" could have used one. Simulating Old Mexico, it looks even more sun-baked than the other picture, with some revolutionaries, soldiers, civilians and a priest murderously bunched up inside a fortress. With Robert Parrish's direction trying to add tone and dignity, the film lumbers uneasily between allegorical drama and bang-bang adventure. 

How a fine actor like Robert Shaw got trapped into this stumps us. It's a strange cast, indeed—Stella Stevens, Martin Landau, Michael Craig, Fernando Rey, Telly Savalas and Dudley Sutton, all of them looking about as Mexican as Fifi D'Orsay. The wonder is she didn't turn up in it somewhere.
 

CAPTAIN APACHE, directed by Alexander Singer; screenplay by Philip Yordan and Milton Sperling, based on the novel by S. E. Whitman; produced by Mr. Yordan and Mr. Sperling and released by Scotia International Films. At neighborhood theaters. Running time: 94 minutes. (The Motion Picture Association of America's Production Code and Rating Administration classifies this film: "GP—all ages admitted, parental guidance suggested.")  

Captain Apache . . . . . Lee Van Cleef
Maude . . . . . Carroll Baker
Griffin . . . . . Stuart Whitman

A TOWN CALLED HELL, directed by Robert Parrish; screenplay by Robert Aubrey; produced by S. Benjamin Fisz and released by Scotia International Films. At neighborhood theaters. Running time: 95 minutes. (The Motion Picture Association of America's Production Code and Rating Administration classifies this film: "R—restricted, under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.")  

The Priest . . . . . Robert Shaw
Alvira . . . . . Stella Stevens
The Colonel . . . . . Martin Landau
Don Carlos . . . . . Telly Savalas
Paco . . . . . Michael Craig
Blind Man . . . . . Fernando Rey
Spectre . . . . . Dudley Sutton

 

Big Gundown - French Lobby Cards

Click to enlarge

 

 

 

Captain Apache - Spanish Pressbook

Click to enlarge!

Death Rides a Horse - Poster Gallery

Click to enlarge

 

Day of Anger - Blu-ray Update!

Arrow films have released their first trailer for Day of Anger, and the quality of the transfer looks pretty amazing.

 

 

While the complete list of extras have not been announced, per their Indiegogo website, here is what we do know about the release-

Our newly restored edition of Day of Anger will be a 3 disc set (1 Blu-ray, 2 DVDs) AND will include two different versions of the film! We are working hard on finalising the rest of the extras now so expect another announcement about these soon.

 

Looks promising!

Arrow continues an Indiegogo campaign to fund the US expansion, and for a $25 pledge you will receive a Day of Anger blu-ray/DVD combo in February 2015.

 

For details go here:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/arrow-video-usa

 

 

 

El Condor - Spanish Pressbook

Click to enlarge!

Day of Anger Coming to Blu-ray! (US)

Cult label Arrow Video, which up until now was only putting out discs in the UK, is expanding into the US in early 2015, and one of their first titles that will be released is the LVC classic, Day of Anger!

 

Arrow has begun an Indiegogo campaign to fund the US expansion, and for a $25 pledge you will receive a Day of Anger blu-ray/DVD combo in February 2015.

 

For details go here:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/arrow-video-usa

 

Extras are unknown at this point, but I have reached out for information.  This title has been long out of print on DVD, and the only current blu-ray version out of Japan is mediocre quality at best (review here).

 

More to come!



Bad Man's River Coming to Blu-Ray! (Spain)

 

Technically, it came out on Sept 11, but I cannot find any reviews.  Based on the specs I have seen, it is Region B locked, and only in Spanish, Italian, and French.

I would be very interested in seeing the quality of the print.  If I find any reviews I will update!

http://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B00N1Q1414?ie=UTF8&tag=thespagwest01-21

God's Gun - Spanish Pressbook

Click to enlarge!

 

Angel Eyes Re-Edit!

Here is an amusing edit of the scene between Angel Eyes and Stevens from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.  It actually starts out pretty creepy but ends with a laugh.

Amazing how a few changes can change the whole scene!

 

 

Commandos - Black and White Press Photos

Click to enlarge!

Kid Vengeance - Spanish Pressbook

Click to enlarge!

Day of Anger - German Lobby Cards

Here are some German lobby cards from Day of Anger.

Click 'em to make 'em bigger!