Beat those back to school blues with a pile of Blu-rays from Arrow Video and Arrow Academy that span the globe. First off there’s two Giallo and Gelato nights in store for fans of the Italian treats. First there’s a single Blu-ray version of Dario Argento’s Deep Red for those not wanting the special features. This is the director’s comeback to the Giallo genre after making a film that very few people saw and even less care to revisit. David Hemming (Blow-Up) gets drawn into a mystery after seeing a woman get killed in his neighborhood. If you’re not sure if you will like the giallo genre, this is the one you should watch first. Also coming out is the unusual The Pyjama Girl Case in which the Italian crew flew to Australia to explore of the nation’s most legendary murder investigations. Ray Milland (Frogs) comes out of retirement to track down a woman’s murderer. Because of a lack of leads, they put her partial burned body on display for the public. It’s a very effective film with it’s split story structure.
Staying on that side of the Pacific, we get two films from Japan that aren’t the same story. Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji is the tale of a travelling samurai, his men and the people they encounter on the journey. Horrors of Malformed Men is a completely different film in tone and special effects. A man with an assumed identity runs into a mad scientist who is doing human experiments. This is engrossing weirdness that doesn’t back down. The Baby also shares this ability to entertain through strangeness. The director who gave us Hang ‘Em High called the shots on a film about an adult who acts like an infant. The Baby is perfect film for a cult following.
Day of the Jackal is a tense time as an assassin roams Paris looking to take out the leader of France. It’s a thriller at its core and is so much better than the Bruce Willis remake. The final film of the month is Peter Fonda’s The Hired Hand. This is such a beautiful film from its look to the emotional bonds between the main characters. We have already reviewed this Western masterpiece that Fonda made after Easy Rider.
Here’s the press release from Arrow Video:
New from Arrow Video US and Arrow Academy US
DEEP RED [Blu-ray] (9/4)
BLOODY SPEAR AT MOUNT FUJI [Blu-ray] (9/4)
THE HIRED HAND [Blu-ray] (9/18)
HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN [Blu-ray] (9/18)
THE PYJAMA GIRL CASE [Blu-ray] (9/18)
DAY OF THE JACKAL [Blu-ray] (9/25)
THE BABY [Blu-ray] (9/25)
via MVD Entertainment Group
Fall into Autumn with a Wonderful Selection of Films from Arrow!
The hot, hot summer heat is finally starting to come to a close with the cool, crisp days of autumn right around the corner. To help you deal with the seasonal shift and welcome in the colors of fall, Arrow is giving viewers seven new films to keep you nice and cozy.
The slate begins with a couple of new entries from Arrow Academy starting with Tomu Uchida’s Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji. This road adventure set during the Edo period is equal parts comedic and dramatic. A samurai and his two servants go on an epic journey is this hidden gem finally getting out to a wider audience. From the Far East to the far west we shift with the release of the Peter Fonda directed western, The Hired Hand. Initially disregarded by critics and audiences, the film experienced a bit of a renaissance in 2001 thanks to a release from the Sundance Channel and is now considered a western classic. The film stars Fonda alongside Warren Oates.
The Arrow Video side brings out the reds of the season with two new horror titles starting with a brand new 4K restoration of Dario Argento’s horror masterpiece Deep Red. Long regarding as one of the greatest Italian horror films of all time, this edition comes fully loaded with bonus features to cure your Argento fever. Joining Deep Red is the extremely bizarre horror entry, The Baby. This strange look at an eccentric family and the social worker assigned to deal with them is sure to leave an impression. This release of the film includes a new retrospective from film professor Rebekah McKendry.
If you’re looking for a different brand of cult, Arrow has you covered with Horrors of Malformed Men and The Pyjama Girl Case. The former is a Japanese horror film from 1969 about a medical student that is perfectly sane but somehow ends up in an asylum. This classic is praised for its stylistic approach that lands all over the map. The latter comes from director Flavio Mogherini and is the only giallo to take place in Australia. Following the true story of an unsolved Australian murder about a young girl that turned up dead on the beach in distinctive pajamas, this haunting giallo is sure to send a chill up your spine.
Arrow brings September to a close with Fred Zinnemann’s classic, The Day of the Jackal. Based on a novel written by Frederick Forsyth, this political thriller was nominated for 6 BAFTA awards, winning for best editing, and earn an Oscar nod. The Day of the Jackal received a 4-star review from legendary critic Roger Ebert, who wrote that the film is “not just a suspense classic, but a beautifully executed example of filmmaking.”
The Day Of The Jackal
Street Date: 09/25/18
In 1971, Frederick Forsythe shot to bestseller status with his debut novel, The Day of the Jackal – taut, utterly plausible, almost documentarian in its realism and attention to detail. Two years later, director Fred Zinnemann (High Noon) turned a gripping novel into a nail-biting cinematic experience. August 1962: the latest attempt on the life of French President Charles de Gaulle by the far-right paramilitary organization, the OAS, ends in chaos, with its architect-in-chief dead at the hands of a firing squad. Demoralized and on the verge of bankruptcy, the OAS leaders meet in secret to plan their next move. In a last desperate attempt to eliminate de Gaulle, they opt to employ the services of a hired assassin from outside the fold. Enter the Jackal (Edward Fox, Gandhi): charismatic, calculating, cold as ice. As the Jackal closes in on his target, a race against the clock ensues to identify and put a stop to a killer whose identity, whereabouts and modus operandi are completely unknown. Co-starring a plethora of talent from both sides of the Channel, including Michael Lonsdale (Munich), Derek Jacobi (The Odessa File) and Cyril Cusack (1984) and featuring striking cinematography by Jean Tournier (Moonraker), The Day of the Jackal remains one of the greatest political thrillers of all time.
Bonus Materials
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original uncompressed mono audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
New interview with Neil Sinyard, author of Fred Zinnemann: Films of Character and Conscience
Two rare archival clips from the film set, including an interview with Fred Zinnemann
Theatrical trailer
Original screenplay by Kenneth Ross (BD-ROM content)
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mark Cunliffe and Sheldon Hall
Deep Red
Street Date: 09/04/18
YOU WILL NEVER FORGET IT!!! From Dario Argento, maestro of the macabre and the man behind some of the greatest excursions in Italian horror (Suspiria, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage), comes Deep Red – the ultimate giallo movie. One night, musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings, Blow-Up), looking up from the street below, witnesses the brutal axe murder of a woman in her apartment. Racing to the scene, Marcus just manages to miss the perpetrator… or does he? As he takes on the role of amateur sleuth, Marcus finds himself ensnared in a bizarre web of murder and mystery where nothing is what it seems… Aided by a throbbing score from regular Argento-collaborators Goblin, Deep Red (aka Profondo Rosso and The Hatchet Murders) is a hallucinatory fever dream of a giallo punctuated by some of the most astonishing set-pieces the sub-genre has to offer.
Bonus Materials
Brand new restoration from a 4K scan of the original negative
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original Italian soundtrack in DTS-HD MA mono 1.0 and lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, and original English soundtrack in DTS-HD MA mono 1.0*
English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
Audio commentary by filmmaker and Argento expert Thomas Rostock
Introduction to the film by Claudio Simonetti of Goblin
Profondo Giallo, a new visual essay by Michael Mackenzie featuring an in-depth appreciation of Deep Red, its themes and its legacy
Rosso Recollections: Dario Argento’s Deep Genius – the Deep Red director on the creation of a giallo masterpiece
The Lady in Red: Daria Nicolodi Remembers Profondo Rosso
Music to Murder For! Claudio Simonetti on Deep Red
Profondo Rosso: From Celluloid to Shop – a tour of the Profondo Rosso shop in Rome with long time Argento collaborator Luigi Cozzi
Italian theatrical trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
* The English audio track has some portions of English audio missing. English audio for these sections was either never recorded or has been lost. As such, these sequences are presented with Italian audio, subtitled in English.
The Baby
Street Date: 09/25/18
Still traumatised by the loss of her husband, well-meaning social worker Ann Gentry (Anjanette Comer, The Loved One) throws herself into her latest assignment: the case of “Baby”, a 21-year-old man with the mind of an infant – who crawls, cries and has yet to make it out of nappies. But Baby’s family – the tyrannical “Mama” Wadsworth (Ruth Roman, Strangers on a Train) and her two demented daughters – aren’t the only ones with a warped conception of familial relations, and the full horror only begins when Ann sets her sights on liberating the drooling man-child… and in so doing unleashes the wrath of the Wadsworth women.
45 years after its original release, this film remains one of the most bizarre horror movies ever committed to celluloid. Directed by Ted Post (Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Magnum Force) and co-starring Marianna Hill (Blood Beach, Messiah of Evil), The Baby is a twisted, psychedelic nightmare of suburban depravity.
Bonus Materials
Down Will Come Baby – a new retrospective with film professor Rebekah McKendry
Tales from the Crib – archival audio Interview with director Ted Post
Baby Talk – archival audio Interview with Star David Mooney
Theatrical Trailer
Brand new audio commentary by Travis Crawford
Sales Points
1.85:1 and 1.33:1 versions of the feature
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original uncompressed PCM mono audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Kat Ellinger
The Hired Hand
Street Date: 09/18/18
Having been at the forefront of America’s here-and-now with Easy Rider and the counterculture movies of Roger Corman, Peter Fonda retreated to the past and the American West for his directorial debut, The Hired Hand. Fonda plays Harry, a man who deserted his wife and child to explore the wide-open plains with his best friend Archie (Warren Oates). “Tired of the life” he decides to finally return home in order to rekindle his marriage and reacquaint himself with his daughter. Scripted by Alan Sharp (Ulzana’s Raid, Night Moves), shot by Vilmos Zsigmond (Blow Out, The Long Goodbye) and with a standout score by folk musician Bruce Langhorne, The Hired Hand is a beautiful, elegiac picture that ranks alongside The Outlaw Josey Wales and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid as one of the finest Westerns the seventies had to offer.
Bonus Materials
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the feature, transferred from original film elements by Universal
Uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM Audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary by actor-director Peter Fonda
The Return of The Hired Hand, a 2003 documentary containing interviews with Fonda, cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, composer Bruce Langhorne, actor Verna Bloom and others
Deleted scenes
The Odd Man, Charles Gormley and Bill Forsyth’s 1978 documentary portrait of Scottish screenwriters, including Alan Sharp [Blu-ray exclusive]
Interview with Martin Scorsese
Warren Oates and Peter Fonda at the National Film Theatre, an audio recording of the actors’ appearance at the NFT in 1971
Stills gallery
Trailers
TV spots
Radio spots
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips
Bloody Spear At Mount Fuji
Street Date: 09/04/18
Praised by Japanese film critics and much admired by his contemporaries Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirô Ozu, Tomu Uchida nonetheless remains a little-known in the west. His 1955 masterpiece Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji is an excellent entry point for the newcomer. Set during the Edo period, Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji is a tragicomic road movie of sorts, following a samurai, his two servants – including spear-carrier Genpachi (Chiezô Kataoka) – and the various people they meet on their journey, including a policeman in pursuit of a thief, a young child and a woman who is to be sold into prostitution. Winner of a prestigious Blue Ribbon Award for supporting actor – and Kurosawa regular – Daisuke Katô, Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji is a film deserving of much wider international recognition.
Bonus Materials
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original uncompressed mono audio
Optional newly translated English subtitles
Brand-new audio commentary by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp, recorded exclusively for this release
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Corey Brickley
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic and filmmaker James Oliver
Horrors Of Malformed Men
Street Date: 09/18/18
Cult director Teruo Ishii (Shogun’s Joy of Torture, Blind Woman’s Curse) presents a nightmarish, hallucinogenic tale drawn from the feverish pen of Japan’s celebrated pioneer ofero-guro (“erotic grotesque”) literature, Edogawa Rampo. Medical student Hirosuke Hitomi slips out of the asylum in which he has been wrongfully confined and stealthily assumes the identity of a recently deceased nobleman with whom he bears an uncanny resemblance. Hirosuke eases his way into the nobleman’s household and his dead double’s marital bed. But as long-repressed memories begin to bubble to the surface, he soon finds himself drawn to a remote isle where he is confronted by a mad scientist and his malformed men, and discovers the key that will unlock some long-suppressed mysteries of his own. A dark labyrinth of the monstrous and perverse that fuses mystery and horror while incorporating motifs from a myriad of Rampo’s tales, Horrors of Malformed Men boasts astonishing carnivalesque art design and haunting performances. Withdrawn from cinemas by its own studio after its original scandalous release nearly fifty years ago, the film is among the very best screen interpretations of the author’s macabre brand of horror-fantasy fiction, and a unique oddity of Japanese cult cinema.
Bonus Materials
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
Original uncompressed mono 1.0 PCM audio
Optional English subtitles
Two audio commentaries by Japanese cinema experts Tom Mes and Mark Schilling
Malformed Movies: a new video interview with Toei exploitation movie screenwriter Masahiro Kakefuda
Malformed Memories: Filmmakers Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo the Iron Man) and Minoru Kawasaki (The Calamari Wrestler) on the career of director Teruo Ishii
Ishii in Italia: Ishii and Mark Schilling visit the Far East Film Festival
Poster Gallery
Theatrical trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Dan Mumford
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Jasper Sharp, Tom Mes and Grady Hendrix
The Pyjama Girl Case
Street Date: 09/18/18
Throughout the late 1960s and into the 70s, the Italian giallo movement transported viewers to the far corners of the globe, from swinging San Francisco to the Soviet-occupied Prague. Only one, however, brought the genre’s unique brand of bloody mayhem as far as Australia: director Flavio Mogherini (Delitto passionale)’s tragic and poetic The Pyjama Girl Case. The body of a young woman is found on the beach, shot in the head, burned to hide her identity and dressed in distinctive yellow pyjamas. With the Sydney police stumped, former Inspector Timpson (Ray Milland, Dial M for Murder) comes out of retirement to crack the case. Treading where the “real” detectives can’t, Timpson doggedly pieces together the sad story of Dutch immigrant Glenda Blythe (Dalila Di Lazzaro, Phenomena) and the unhappy chain of events which led to her grisly demise. Inspired by the real-life case which baffled the Australian police and continues to spark controversy and unanswered questions to this day, The Pyjama Girl Case is a uniquely haunting latter-day giallo from the tail end of the genre’s boom period, co-starring Michele Placido (director of Romanzo Criminale) and Howard Ross (The New York Ripper), and featuring a memorably melancholic score by veteran composer Riz Ortolani (Don’t Torture a Duckling).
Bonus Materials
Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks
Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
New video interview with author and critic Michael Mackenzie on the internationalism of the giallo
New video interview with actor Howard Ross
New video interview with editor Alberto Tagliavia
Archival interview with composer Riz Ortolani
Image gallery
Italian theatrical trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
