I avoided seeing the Steve Martin Pink Panther movie, because I grew up on the Peter Sellers ones as a kid. A Shot in the Dark, the second Clouseau movie, is one of my top ten favorite comedies. However, upon seeing Kung Fu Panda this weekend, I was witness to a truly depressing long-form comedy sketch/promo for Pink Panther 2. This involved Martin’s Clouseau cutting in line (?) at a movie theater, and trying to buy a ticket, and then sneaking in after being told they were sold out. From this I can only deduce that Martin’s Panther films are/will be far more terrible than even I had anticipated. Seriously, the thing was so bad it actually made me angry.
The Complete Sopranos set has been announced, 28 discs and all 86 episodes, along with three soundtrack CDs, for an MSRP of $400 MSRP (figure around $275-$300 street, or something like that). The entire package will weigh in at 10 pounds. Out November 11th.
Fox is going to start offering (unless they have been but I didn’t notice before now) weird three-packs of movies only vaguely connected. For instance, a Alligator People / Swamp Thing / Lake Placid pack. One ’50s creature feature, an ’80s (sorta) superhero movie, and a lame giant alligator flick. Other such packs include Club Dead /Killer Klowns from Outer Space / Killer Tomatoes Strike Back; Darkwolf (?) / The Howling / Perfect Creature, and Motel Hell / Needful Things / Wrong Turn.
The Halloween DVD announcements have started to arrive. No word yet on (we can only hope) more MGM Midnite Movie selections; especially for the long but so far fruitlessly awaited Green Slime. Also perhaps another Universal Sci-Fi Classics set, especially since they now hold the rights to the unreleased on DVD The Island of Lost Souls. Here’s hoping. Anyway, announcements include.
“On October 14, Sony Home Entertainment will release ICONS OF HORROR: HAMMER FILMS which will contain the following Hammer Films classics: THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL, THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY’S TOMB, THE GORGON and SCREAM (TASTE) OF FEAR. Expect the set to include trailers and newly remastered transfers. The retail price is $24.96. Cover art and more details coming soon.”
Aside from The Gorgon, I think ‘classics’ is a tad much (even for The Gorgon, really, although it is nifty), even given a field where nearly every movie is called a classic. The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, however, does offer a nice riff on the story, with Edward Hyde actually being handsomer and thus far more seductive than the film’s scruffy Dr. Jekyll. It’s a revision that has flips things around in several interesting ways. Scream of Fear has a rep as one of Hammer’s better “psycho” movies. However, I find Hammer’s Mummy films, save the superlative first one, a generally dreary lot.
“Fox has set the Fox Horror Classics: Volume Two DVD box set for release on 9/9 (SRP $19.98). The set will include three classic films, including Chandu the Magician (1932), Dr. Renault’s Secret (1942) and Dragonwyck (1946). In terms of extras, Chandu the Magician will include audio commentary by author Gregory William Mank, the Masters of Magic: The World of Chandu featurette, a restoration comparison and a still gallery. Dr. Renault’s Secret will include the By the Book: Horror, Suspense, and Literary Inspiration featurette, a restoration comparison, the film’s trailer and a still gallery. And Dragonwyck will offer the A House of Secrets: Exploring Dragonwyck featurette, audio of a Dragonwyck radio show performed by Vincent Price and Gene Tierney on 10/7/1946, an isolated score track, a restoration comparison, the film’s trailer and multiple still galleries.”
Chandu is really a serial-type adventure movie with Lugosi as a mad scientist (oddly, a couple of years later they made a sequel which Bela assumed the heroic Chandu part!); while Dragonwyck is more of a “Had She But Known” Gothic than a horror flick. Fox just didn’t make a lot of horror movies; even the great trio of suspense films that made up their first “Fox Horror” set barely, at best, earned that description. Still, the more the merrier.
