In the anime Borfuri, the adorable heroine Maple admits to her friend Sally that “limited edition items have always been my weakness.” So too for me. Also, in the recent past I have let several items get by me, not understanding just how limited an edition these products had gotten. This made me prone to quick decision-making lest another one escape.
Even so, when Severin put out their recent Christopher Lee Eurocrypt Blu Ray set, featuring digitally restored scans of (generally) five fairly obscure horror films, taken from the original master prints, it was an iffy purchase given the $100 plus sales price. Although it also included a TV series, so that helped. And don’t get me wrong, the base product including the extremely spiffy closed box containing the discs is gorgeous, which is typical of Severin.
However, it was the fact that the set had an even pricier limited edition version, with only 250 sets—yes, 250—available, that clinched the deal. Faced with that, I had to make a snap decision, because 250 sets was not going to last long. Buy it, or let it go? I bought it.
So what did I get additionally for my roughly forty extra dollars? An enamel pin featuring a drawn likeness of Christopher Lee. (Severin specializes in these pins; I nearly bought their one portraying the monster from The Horror of Party Beach during their recent sale. However, I am adverse to poking holes in my shirts, so I let it go.) Also added was an art print featuring Lee in various appropriate guises.
The main add-on, though, was a hard cover biography of Hammer director Terrence Fisher. My slight fears that this volume would prove unimpressive upon arrival were gloriously baseless. It’s a very handsome tome indeed. The thick black dust jacket is extremely nice. The book’s pages, nearly 500 of them (no slender volume this), are printed on nice slick heavy stock. The book is profusely illustrated, with photos on nearly every page. I look forward to reading it. I can’t imagine they lavished this sort of care on a book that isn’t well written.
So that’s the extra extras. On to the contents of the box set itself. As noted, this is itself quite a beautiful object.
The box also contains its own squarebound, Blu Ray case-sized volume entitled Christopher Lee The Continental Collection. Although I’ve only glanced through it, I believe it details more films than are included here, as I saw one still from Horror Express. The text is a bit small (although again that indicates a decent volume of material), and again abundantly illustrated on every page, with black and white as well as full color photos, stills and poster reproductions. It’s a very pretty little volume indeed. It is perfectly sized to fit snugly, but not too snugly, with the Blu Ray cases in the box.
There are six Blu Ray cases included. The cases themselves are black and look very spiffy.
The order I watch the films and list them below is dictated by the amount of extra afforded each film. I trust the company that they know how to rank each picture’s importance, save for the first entry.
I’ll start with Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace. This is Lee’s sole cinema portrayal of the Immortal Detective, in a film directory by Fisher. I haven’t seen this (or either of the above two films), but a clip I’ve seen makes it look rather like a krimi. DVDDrive-In—a site I’ve been visiting for years—proclaims “What a wonderful Holmes.” Lee himself enjoyed the chance to play Holmes as written, “…a very intolerant, argumentative, difficult man.” That certainly sounds up Lee’s alley, as cold characters were his meat and potatoes. The only special feature, but a good one, is an audio commentary with film writers Kim Newman (yay!) and Barry Forshaw.
Sadly, though, the film itself has a reputation of being a bit of a dog’s breakfast. Terence Fisher certainly hadn’t many fond memories of the picture nor of the making of it, which took place in Germany. He seldom talked about it in the years that followed. DVDDrive-In’s enthusiastic view of Lee’s performance is a minority one, especially when compared to Peter Cushing’s turn in the role in Hammer’s (and Fisher’s) far more popular The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Moreover, the producer of Necklace couldn’t afford (or didn’t think it necessary) to fly Lee back to dub the movie, which was shot Mittout Sound. Thus even if Lee’s performance as Holmes was spectacularly good, we wouldn’t know because another actor dubbed in the character’s. This needless to say, is rather obviously, given Lee’s famously stentorian voice. Thorley Walters’ Watson suffered the same fate. I’m a bit of a Holmsian (as is GalaxyJane), so my disappointment on this front is rather profound.
It should be noted this tended to be a problem with Lee’s continental films, or at least with the English dubs. Lee would generally give his performance in the native language of the producing country, say, French or German. He generally balked at also recording another track in English, however, unless he was compensated for what he considered to be an entirely second performance. These demands were seldom met, and so the English versions of the films, the ones that played on TV or in drive-ins back in the day, again forwent Lee’s voice, which is very offputting.
Anyway.
My second watch will be Crypt of the Vampire. “THE FIRST OFFICIAL U.S. BLU-RAY RELEASE NOW SCANNED FROM A FINE-GRAIN 35MM MASTER.” DVDDrive-In, a site I’ve been visiting for years, calls it “Truly haunting….Brimming with atmosphere.” And hey, it’s a vampire film I haven’t seen. The disc’s sole extra is the film’s trailer.
Third will be Challenge The Devil. Quotes provided by the Blu Ray herald the picture as “Lee’s journey into perversion,” and “A very bizarre film.” Aside from the trailer, the film boasts an interview with Italian film historian Roberto Curti, and a discrete interview with co-star Giorgio Ardisson.
The fourth watch will be The Torture Chamber of Dr Sadism. I’m pretty sure I saw this as a kiddie on my 19 inch b&w TV set way back in the day. Quite possibly I was it on Svengoolie’s (the original one) Screaming Yellow Theatre , probably off a battered and poorly broadcast 16mm print. I rather expect it will look better here. They pulled out the stops for this one. There’s an audio commentary from two film writers, an audio interview with (krimi) actress Karin Dor, a location featurette, two German super 8 digest shorts taken from the film, German theatrical and teaser trailers, a behind-the-scenes still gallery, a poster gallery, and a restoration slideshow.
The film that gets the most love, though, is Castle of The Living Dead, via “The first-ever authorized release of the original uncut version of the film scanned in 4K.” The movie costars a young Donald Sutherland playing two parts, including a female witch. The disc offers two discrete commentaries by film writers, a career interview with producer Paul Maslansky, an interview with film historian Roberto Curti on the film’s writer/director, and finally the case also boasts a CD of the film’s original score.
Finally, there’s a two-disc case featuring 24 half hour episodes of the Polish (but I believe English language) horror suspense anthology series Theatre Macabre, which Lee hosted. It’s described as being akin to Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Boris Karloff’s Thriller. Neat.
Is it worth the money? Well, obviously, it is to me. I bought it after all. And again, if I decide to sell it one day I’ll surely at least get my money back.
Do the math, though. If you figure five movies at $20 each (not outrageous by any means), $10 for the wonderful little book that accompanies them, a two-disc 24 episode TV show collection at, say, $25, and the gorgeous Fisher biography at, say, $30, I think it’s a pretty reasonable package. That covers the cost right there. Toss in the wonderful Blu Ray box, the soundtrack CD, the enamel pin and the art poster purely as extras, and, well, I really don’t think you can reasonably call it overpriced.
But feel free to call it overpriced. Again, you guys are meant to jeer at my profligate ways.
