Fun City Editions Unearths Writer/Director Matthew Chapman's Stunning Strangers Kiss For Release As Both Blu-ray And DVD Editions On June 25

Fun City Editions, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has tabbed June 25 as the street date for both Blu-ray and DVD editions of writer/director Matthew Chapman’s Strangers Kiss.

This is a 4K film restoration from the original 35mm internagtive.

Strangers Kiss is one of those “forgotten” little films that came and went with a whisper.   With the exceptions of the Thorn EMI Video VHS release, some UK PAL DVD product offerings and an August of 2019 “Helper” DVD edition, Chapman’s Strangers Kiss has for all intents and purposes has been MIA in the physical media world.   Fun City Editions fixes that on June 25. 

As the story goes — as with any Hollywood film story, it is partly truth, partly fiction — Blaine Novak, the co-writer, came up with the idea for Strangers Kiss and shared it with Chapman. 

The production is often compared to that of Stanley Kubrick’s 1955 film Killer’s Kiss, but it also touches upon Novak’s own real-world experiences having appeared in and having also received a co-scripting credit for Peter Bogdanovich’s 1981 film, They All Laughed. 

The key to it — and why it mirrors Strangers Kiss — is that Bogdanovich, while filming They All Laughed, was having a torrid relationship with Dorothy Stratten, who played Dolores in the film.  While making the film, her husband, Paul Snider (who had something of a checkered background), got wind of the affair and murdered her.    

This “Hollywood” affair played out in three separate films over the years and was well-documented in Bogdanovich’s controversial 1984 book, “The Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten 1960 – 1980.”

Which brings us back to Chapman’s film.  It is a film-within-a-film where the director “Stanley” (played by Peter Coyote) and the film’s producer, Farris (Dan Shor) are trying to cast their film about a boxer, who falls in love with a “dancer,” who is fixated upon by the owner of the club where she works.   That’s where Kubrick’s Killer’s Kiss comes in (boxer, dancer, club owner/gangster). 

The real-world part of the film has Coyote encouraging the film’s boxer, Billy (played by Blaine Novak as Stevie Blake), to have something of a romantic relationship with the untested female lead, Betty (Victoria Tennant as Carol Redding) so that it would translate to the screen as being authentic.   The problem is that Carol (Betty) has a jealous “boyfriend” by the name of Frank Silva (Richard Romanus), who is providing the funding for the production.

One branch of Strangers Kiss follows the plot line of Kubrick’s film (including the train station ending), while the other “branch” (the real world) follows the events that transpired between Bogdanvich, Stratten and Snider (although the fate of Betty/Carol Redding is left somewhat up in the air as Strangers Kiss ends).

This is a fascinating movie that Fun City Editions has rescued and it should be high up on every film fan’s “must see” list on June 25.

Bonus goodies include commentary by film critic Walter Chaw and newly prepared video sessions with members of the cast and crew (unspecified at this time).