VCI Entertainment Unearths The Name Of The Game Is Kill For DVD On Apr. 2

Oh yes!  The truth is that anything is possible in the world of home entertainment!   And VCI Entertainment proves just that on Apr. 2 with the more-than-exciting news that was announced this past week … the thought-to-be-lost psycho-thriller, The Name of the Game is Kill, has been unearthed, remastered and is ready for its DVD debut.

Jack Lord, who hadn’t hit it big yet with Hawaii Five-O (that would come later in the same year as the theatrical release of The Name of the Game is Kill, 1968), stars as an Eastern European drifter who is picked up out in the Arizona desert (filmed in around Jerome, Arizona) by a beautiful young woman named Mickey (Susan Strasberg — Picnic, The Cobweb … and as Sally in The Trip opposite Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern and Dennis Hopper — damn, what a cast!) and taken to the family-run gas station.

Once there he meets Mickey’s sisters, Diz (Collin Wilcox — To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch-22, etc.) and Nan (Tisha Sterling — Coogan’s Bluff) and their “mother” (played by drag legend T.C. Jones — Head, 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt).   With eyes for Mickey, he’s bit slow to pick up on the nuttiest of the whole operation, but eventually begins to suspect that the girl’s father might have met with a sad ending, especially when no one seems to be able to keep their respective stories straight about what happened to dear old dad.

If you enjoyed the shenanigans of Norman Bates in Psycho (1960) or Miriam in Homicidal (1961), then you are in the right part of the desert for what goes on at Mickey’s gas stop … the question is will Symcha (Jack Lord) survive the “experience!”

Bonus features include commentary from screenwriter Gary Crutcher (Stanley, Superchick), who is joined by moderator Daniel Griffith, plus two featurettes — “Psycho’s Sister: Making The Name of the Game is Kill” and “Schlockmeister: Joe Solomon on Reels” — and an “Extensive Promotional Gallery” (we assume that would be a collection of posters, lobby cards, stills and promotional ads).

Also on the Apr. 2 DVD release calendar from VCI Entertainment are four sexploitation comedies being teased under the “Spring Break Film Festival” promotional banner.    

Priced at just $9.99 each are: Homework (1982, with Joan Collins), Summer School (1979, teaming John McLaughlin with Shelly Horner), Rockin’ Road Trip (1986) and Getting It On! (1983, Heather Kennedy and Martin Yost).

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report