DOLEMITE 1975 On Blu - Ray

     Kicking off their series of Rudy Ray Moore releases Vinegar Syndrome has unleashed DOLEMITE on a Blu-ray/DVD combo package. A former R&B singer and nightclub entertainer/comedian, Moore in the early 70's released a series of raunchy albums featuring a character named "Dolemite" with Rudy reciting explicit stream of conscious rhymes with jazz/R&B background music.
   DOLEMITE kicked off a series of films (all starring and co-produced/written by Moore) that in the past couple of decades have achieved a legendary cult status among fans of 70's exploitation cinema.  Although labeled with the "blacksploitation" genre tag (which at their core base they are) Rudy's films seem to exist in world unto themselves. Filled with hilarious dialogue, wooden acting, inept kung-fu and head scratching editing all the while with Moore's outrageous personalty and entertainingly inflated ego front and center.

    Referred to by everybody as simply "Dolemite", Moore here plays the title character as a wrongly accused and set up nightclub owner/pimp who's freed from jail to clean up his old neighborhood by the prison warden (who appears to be in charge of the entire police investigation). Helped out by his head madam "Queen Bee" (Moore regular Lady Reed) and a gang of "expert kung-fu ladies" referred to as "The Dolemite Girls" he butts heads with new neighborhood boss "Big Willie" (director D'Urville Martin) along with passels of corrupt politicians, police and a militant local minister. As Dolemite says -"gonna clean out all those rat soup eatin' motherf*#%ers !!"

    Filled with long stretches of rambling dialogue (that do nothing to move the threadbare plot along), seemingly random scenes strung together and more big ol' 70's Cadillac cars then you can shake a stick at - all of which is punctuated by brief flashes of blood and bare skin (more of which is shown in the accompanying trailer included on the disc). DOLEMITE arrives on Blu from Vinegar in beautiful new 1.85 transfer taken from a 35mm negative which is eons ahead of the semi-legit transfers we've seen before. Also included is a passel of extras including now & then photos from the films L.A. locations, making of documentary, trailers, commentary by Rudy Ray Moore biographer Mark Jason Murray plus an open frame version complete with visible boom mikes.
    Also on schedule from Vinegar if the form of more Rudy Ray Moore goodliness is THE HUMAN TORNADO (May), PETEY WHEATSTRAW : THE DEVIL'S SON-IN-LAW (June) and the truly amazing DISCO GODFATHER in July.

All above screen captures are from the Vinegar Syndrome DVD

     

Spanish Horror Triple Feature in 35mm !

   

    Exhumed Films has something pretty cool coming up in Philadelphia on Feb. 12 at 7:30 as they kick their 2016 season with a Spanish Horror triple feature.  The lineup (all on 35mm) comprises the Blind Dead's third outing with HORROR ON THE ZOMBIES (aka THE GHOST GALLEON) and two excellent Paul Naschy vehicles including the excellent gaillo influenced THE HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN (aka BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL) and NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST (aka THE WEREWOLF AND THE YETI) in which his werewolf alter ego Waldemar Daninsky encounters lesbian vampires, bandits and an evil sadistic sorceress (plus of course a Yeti).

Happy (Belated) Birthday Caroline Munro !!

     

     A bit late with this, but a very Happy Birthday to the very sexy and talented Caroline Monro. She was born on Jan. 16 1949 in Windsor, England and in the late 60's she moved to London and became a top fashion magazine cover girl and appeared in numerous print ads as well.
    Movies soon beckoned and she appeared in in a couple of the better later period Hammer's including the very good swashbuckler/vampire hunter hybrid CAPTAIN KRONOS - VAMPIRE HUNTER and the unfairly maligned DRACULA A.D. 1972. She turned down several other Hammer roles including DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE and the unmade VAMPIRELLA because she refused to do the required nudity.
    She was also a "Bond Girl" in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, my favorite Sinbad film with THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (as a young teenage male who saw this at the theatre in 1973, I can attest that she almost made me forgot about Harryhausen's fantastic creatures), the mind bogglingly entertaining STARCRASH and the grim & downbeat grindhouse classic MANIAC where somewhat unbelievably she was a romantic interest for a crazed homicidal Joe Spinell !
    Caroline shows up frequently at fan conventions and is truly one of the nicest people you can ever hope to meet (and still looks very beautiful).

THE MASK 1961

 PUT ON THE MASK !....PUT ON THE MASK !....PUT ON THE MASK !....

    Although they came kind of late to the game, for their first entry in the horror genre Canada came up with this interesting cult curio that is finally getting a nice release courtesy of Kino on Nov. 24. Directed by Julian Roth this 1961 feature while not technically a "3D movie" does contain several hallucinatory 3D sequences that are brought about by the characters putting on a creepy ancient mask. Movie patrons were given a cardboard replica of the mask and intoned during the course of the film to "Put on the mask !" (along with the characters in the movie) during the 3D sequences.
    There was a nice DVD released in Germany (with the 3D sequences intact) a few years back, but for the most part this has been represented by only an old VHS release from Rhino and a couple questionable quasi bootleg DVD. Fully restored with both anaglyph and actual 3D (as seen in the theatres), this is will be a pretty cool release.

DEMONOID : MESSENGER OF DEATH 1981

   

     Coming out Oct. 13 from Vinegar Syndrome is this 1981 Mexican/U.S. co-production which is one of the truly great cheesy horror films of the 1980's and one that back in the VHS days seem to show up in every mom & pop video store.
     Directed by Alfred Zacarias (who also responsible for the equally mind bending THE BEES from 1978) this features Stuart Whitman as a priest on the trail of a possessed hand unearthed from a cursed mine in Mexico.  Helping out Whitman is Samantha Eggar (who was just coming THE BROOD and the THE EXTERMINATOR) and Russ Meyer starlet Haji (FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!) makes an appearance along with stuntman/third heavy on right (and member of the Sam Peckinpah stock company) Roy Jenson.
    To spice it up for the American market Jim Wynorski was hired to film a pre-credit sequence that featured some satanic ritual footage that had some back story for the processed hand (which during the course of the movie shows it self to be an expert at throwing craps in Vegas). Vinegar Syndrome has said the release will contain both the U.S. and International cuts of the movie along with some extras. Demonoid Diplomas were handed out to lucky recipients during the films initial run.

Happy Birthday Barbara Bouchet

    

     Born 71 years ago on this day in Germany, her family emigrated to the United States after WWII and settled in San Francisco where she become a regular on the KPIX Dance Party as teenager and later become actress.She started out in television with small roles and moved into movies such as IN HARMS WAY (1965) and CASINO ROYALE (1967) where she played Miss Moneypenny.
    In 1970 she moved to Italy and made a name for herself appearing in the exploding Italian exploitation market including BLACK BETTY OF THE TARANTULA (1971), the sleazy & delirious AMUCK (1972) with Rosalba Neri and THE LADY IN RED KILLS SEVEN TIMES (1972). In 2002 she had a small role in Martin Scorsese's GANGS OF NEW YORK. Here she is in Fernando Di Leo's excellent 1972 crime drama CALIBER 9 where she's plays the belly dancing girlfriend of a recently paroled convict who's at the center of a cache of missing mob money. Its one of the best examples of the Italian poliziotteschi genre (in addition Barbara looks stunning in it) and was just released in a spiffy new region B blu-ray from Arrow.

  

SLAUGHTER 1972

  

    Coming on blu-ray from Olive Sept. 22 is this 1972 blacksploitation action classic. After his parents are killed by the mob ex-green beret captain Jim Brown (only ever referred to by his surname of Slaughter) vows vengeance and after being recruited by the U.S. Government he goes on a one man rampage which leads to mob boss Dominic Hoffo (played by a weaselly Rip Torn).

    Directed by master drive-in director Jack Starrett (RACE WITH THE DEVIL & CLEOPATRA JONES) the film is anchored by Brown's commanding presence and also features Don Gordon (BULLITT), Cameron Mitchell (THE TOOLBOX MURDERS), Marlene Clark (BLACK MAMBA) and Stella Stevens (CLEOPATRA JONES AND THE CASINO OF GOLD). The nude lovemaking scenes between Brown and Stevens (who spends most of her time in various states of undress) caused quite a stir at the time of release.