Icarus Films Picks Oct. 13 For The DVD Debut Of The Wolf House • Papicha Arrives On DVD On Oct. 27

Icarus Films will be joining forces with the KimStim Collection on Oct. 13 for the DVD debut of the writing and directing team of Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León’s mind-bending animation treasure, The Wolf House.

Done in a mixture animation and stop-motion paper mache-like characters, we are introduced to the “Colony,” a German outpost in Chile, which is a very sinister place, but much of that is left to our imagination.  

Escaping from there is Maria (voiced by Amalia Kassai — as Almendra in the Chilean Casa de Muñecos television series), who was being punished for letting some pigs escape and takes off into the spooky woods.   She comes upon a house and her surreal adventure begins in earnest.

It is absolutely guaranteed that The Wolf House is like nothing you’ve ever seen.  One minute, Maria can be in “solid” form, the next, morphing into a painting.  The same with the creatures that come and go in her nightmare world … it is very unsettling.   The only “real” inhabitants of the house are two adult pigs, which also change, sometimes evolving into human form, which is both surreal and creepy.   

Meanwhile, Maria’s oppressor, “The Wolf” (voiced by Rainer Krause), lurks outside and tries to temp Maria into joining him. 

The Wolf House is a basic “Little Red Riding Hood tale,” with sexual and political overtones, but honestly, they are second in every way to the visuals that filmmakers Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León conjure-up during the film’s swiftly-paced 75-minute running time.

It is presented in Spanish and German (switching back-and-forth) with English subtitles.   As to bonus goodies, there are deleted scenes, a video session with the filmmakers and two short animated films — Weathervene and Der Kleinere Raum.

In other release news from Icarus Films this week, France’s premiere film production and distribution company, Distrib Films, will be bringing to the domestic marketplace on Oct. 27 writer/director Mounia Meddour’s award-winning debut feature film, Papicha.

The film opened at the Cannes Film Festival in May of last year and continues to work the film festival circuit — nearly 18 months in continuous release.   The awards piled up … so too, the critical praises.   But with Covid-19 lurking Icarus Films and Distrib Films have elected to go ahead and move Papicha to the DVD market so that as many as possible can enjoy it.

The action takes place in 1997, in Algiers, with the constant and growing threat of Islamic “purity” seeping into the culture.   Counter to this is Nedjma/“Papicha” (Lyna Khoudri — The Blessed, Luna, The French Dispatch), a young, vivacious fashion design student, who could easily avoid the coming storm by simply studying in France, but she wants to remain in “her” country and succeed in Algeria, not some alien place.

Even her parents urge her to re-think that.   And each day, in some way, we see the gathering storm.   People giving in an inch here, an inch there.   Avoid trouble, wear the hijab … maintain a low profile.   That, of course, is not who Papicha is … and therein lies the conflict.

Papicha is presented in French and Arabic with English subtitles.

 

 

 

Franklin & Bash: The Complete Series On DVD From Mill Creek Entertainment On Nov. 17

Mill Creek Entertainment looks to Nov. 17 for the release of Franklin & Bash: The Complete Series on DVD.   All four seasons … all 40 episodes (ten per season) are included in this eight-disc collection.

In this comedy series, we are introduced to Jared Franklin (Breckin Meyer — five-time Emmy Awards nominee for his work in the Robot Chicken animated series, plus such films as Road Trip, Kate & Leopold, Blue State, etc.) and his sidekick Peter Bash (Mark-Paul Gosselaar — perhaps best known as Zack from the Saved by the Bell series), who are “loose lawyer cannons” when it comes to the practice of the law.

After embarrassing the super- prestigious law firm of Infeld Daniels, they are actually recruited by Stanton Infeld (played by Malcolm McDowell) to join the firm, with one the condition understood that they will be allowed to continue to do their thing!!   As the series unfolds, we come to learn that Stanton Infeld has ulterior motives in bringing these two pranksters into the film.

It is all great fun, with a great surprise to kick off the third season (hint, hint: Heather Locklear) … and Franklin & Bash comes loaded with guest stars, including the likes of Jason Alexander, Beau Bridges, Tom Arnold and the late Fred Willard!!

 

 

 

 

Arrow Video Announces He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection For Release On Blu-ray On Nov. 24

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a very cool collection of films heading home on Nov. 24 from cult filmmaker William “Wild Bill” Grefé.  

Titled He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection, this four-disc Blu-ray collection showcases seven of his classic genre films … filmed and distributed theatrically over the course of a decade, beginning in 1966 with both Sting of Death and Death Curse of Tartu and concluding with the 1977 film, Whiskey Mountain.  

Seven film treasures for film buffs and genre fans to savor.  So, what do we have here?  

William Grefé started out as a writer and delivered the script to producer Herb Vendig’s The Checkered Flag in 1963, but — according to legend — the original director took ill and since Grefé had written the script, he was told to go ahead and direct it.   What could go wrong with a film budgeted for just $30,000?

The film was a success, critically, who knows, but financially for sure and William Grefé’s directing career was born.   Along with Herschell Gordon Lewis, Fred Olen Ray and even Bob Clark, Florida, not Hollywood, is where Grefé made his mark way back in the day.   

The first in the collection, Sting of Death, was shot down there. 

You have to love Sting of Death.   You’ve got marine biologist, Dr. Richardson (Jack Nagle — Darker than Amber, Lenny, Mako: The Jaws of Death), who is studying the Portuguese man-of-war, who are often mistaken for “jellyfish,” but are actually their own genus … equipped with venomous stingers, which makes them really scary.   

In any case, his research assistant, Egon (John Vella — The Wild Rebels), goes rogue, sets up his own lab and turns himself into a half-man/half- Portuguese man-of-war.   The timing for his transition is perfect as Richardson’s daughter, the lovely Karen (Valerie Hawkins — Sylvia’s Girls, The Delta Factor), and four of her college friends show up, which genre fans will immediately recognize as the victim pool. 

These “eye candy” victims are known only as Louise (Sandy Lee Kane), Donna (Lois Etelman), Susan (Blanche Devereaux) and Jessica (played by Deanna Lund, the only friend of Karen who actually had a film career, and who is perhaps best known as Valerie Scott from the Land of the Giants television series).

There was a problem, the film’s distributor couldn’t find a co-feature to go with it (double-bills for theatres back then), so if the elements worked for Sting of Death, then why not make another Florida Everglades creature-feature?   That’s exactly what William Grefé did with Dead Curse of Tartu … as he tells it, he wrote the script in one long day and filmed the whole thing in just seven.   It worked like a charm.

A would-be archeologist, Ed Tison (Fred Pinero) and his wife, Julie (played by Babette Sherrill … both her and Pinero also “starred” in Grefé’s The Devil’s Sisters), bring four of their “students” with them to help with some research — think: grave-robbing.   And sure enough, this victim pool meets Tartu, who mutates into creatures of the Everglades and munch, munch, munches them all up!

It was the late ‘60s and Grefé quickly got in on the action with The Hooked Generation, starring Jeremy Slate as a vicious drug runner (he was fresh from The Born Losers and The Mini-Skirt Mob … his long film career included two Elvis films, two John Wayne Westerns — The Songs of Katie Elder and True Grit — and a ton of TV series work).  

At some point during this period, he made his was to Southern California and directed Electric Shades of Grey for producer Terry Merrill, who didn’t have a script … just go out and shoot the “hippie scene” … it was shelved and didn’t see the light of day for 30 years.  When it finally surfaced, it was re-titled The Psychedelic Priest … it too is included in this collection.

After this diversion, Grefé landed Rita Hayworth for The Naked Zoo, a lurid drug-infused tale of adultery and murder.   Hayworth’s co-star was Steve Oliver (Peyton Place, Bracken’s World television series to his credit at the time) … it was a quick production, which features not only Rita Hayworth being murdered (yikes), but there was a nifty twist worked in for the ending.

This amazing collection wraps up with a shark movie that actually was made before Jaws.   It is, of course, Mako: Jaws of Death, which Grefé wrote in 1973, but couldn’t find any takers until Spielberg’s movie chewed up the box office, and then, as Grefé puts it, “the phone rang off the hook.”  

What’s really cool is that Grefé used real sharks in his film.   They’d catch sharks using cement blocks, a hook and bait, bring those that had been caught into a small bay on Bimini Island in the Bahamas and, are you ready for this, tie a rope to the tail of the shark and have it make a run at the camera!!   Spielberg used a big, million-dollar mechanical shark … Grefé used the real thing!!

And last, but certainly not least in the He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection from Arrow Video on Nov. 24 is Whiskey Mountain, starring Christopher George (Chisum, The Train Robbers, Day of the Animals, Grizzly) and Roberta Collins (Women in Cages, Wonder Woman, Caged Heat), as a couple who go off in search of long-buried Civil War muskets in the hills of North Carolina, only to run smack-dab into a bunch of inbred hillbillies!!

As to bonus goodies, each film in the series features vintage commentary from filmmaker William Grefé, numerous production featurettes and the documentary titled They Came From the Swamp: Extended Cut.

 

 

 

Paramount Home Media Sets Nov. 17 As The Street Date For The Release Of The Blu-ray Collection Of Mission: Impossible – The Original TV Series

WOW!   Now that is a very, very big Blu-ray box set.  If you don’t believe it check out what Paramount Home Media has in store for fans Mission: Impossible – The Original TV Series on Nov. 17.

All seven seasons, 171 episodes complete, or should we call them “impossible missions,” in a stunning 46-disc package.   First time on Blu-ray.

From Sept. of 1966 through March of 1973, the IMF team of secret government agents took on all enemies with the understanding … “Should you or any of your IM force be caught — or killed — the “Secretary” will disavow any knowledge of your action!!”

Also, of interest on the Blu-ray release front, Paramount Home Media has added a five-film collection titled 5 Movie Collection from the Written Works of Stephen King to its Sept. 15 release calendar.

The collection includes both of the Pet Sematary films (1989 and 2019), plus Silver Bullet and The Dead Zone.   And, for the first time under the Paramount banner, the mini-series, The Stand, starring Rob Lowe. 

 

 

 

Writer/Director Francis Xavier's Less Than A Whisper Makes Its DVD Debut On Nov. 10 Courtesy Of Bayview Entertainment

Bayview Entertainment announced this past week that writer/director Francis Xavier’s haunted house thriller, Less Than a Whisper, will be making its DVD debut on Nov. 10.

 

You’ve made it.   Robert Usher (Francis Xavier — Johnny Come Lately, Poe, The Tango Dancer) has a beautiful, exotic bride, Taylor (Sonia Monroy) and a lovely new home out in the San Fernando Valley.   

 

There’s just one little problem, the home comes with a history.   It seems that there was an “incident” a few years ago and the former residents were slaughtered.   The house, which is not one of those spooky old gothic mansions, but a modern home with large windows and is nicely landscaped.   It’s been off the market for a time, so the price was attractive.

 

No sooner have Robert and Taylor moved in when strange people begin to stop by.   The creep lady who seems to know way too much.  There are times when you are not even sure if Robert is actually having a real conversation when the weird guy just pop ups.   No matter, it is enough to spook the Ushers into calling the cops.

 

Soon, Robert begins to suspect that it’s the house behind his that is source of the visitations.   Maybe, maybe not.   The police stop by and in no time, there are forensics people digging up old bones … it’s a nightmare.   

 

Less Than a Whisper is a ghost story; a haunted-house story … a story of a husband and wife slowly losing their minds.   Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to leave, but like those before them, you can move in … but getting out is so much more difficult.

 

 

 

 

Dark Force Entertainment Looks To Dec. 15 For The Blu-ray Double-Bill Of Hollywood High And Teenage Mother

Dark Force Entertainment, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has tabbed Dec. 15 as the Blu-ray release for the latest installment in its popular “Drive-In Double Feature” series.

 

Getting the retro treatment, with new film transfers from the only known surviving 35mm prints (with “extensive scene by scene color correction,” we might add) is the exploitative double bill of director Patrick Wright’s 1977 teenage classic, Hollywood High and the Jerry Gross produced, written by and directed by 1967 sleaze-gem, Teenage Mother.

 

Hollywood High, features the sex-tease shenanigans of four Hollywood High School co-eds by the names of Jan (Susanne Severeid, in her film debut … she would continue her career with the likes of Van Nuys Blvd., Don’t Answer the Phone, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare, etc.), Candy (Sherry Hardin) Monica (Rae Sperling) and Bebe (Marcy Albrecht), who drive around, go to the beach, smoke some grass and attend class on occasion.

 

Oh yes, and they have boyfriends, including “The Fenz” (Kevin Mead), who can’t seem to “score” with these hot young things, but they do manage to tag along when the girls are invited over to the mansion of Hollywood High alumnus — a former “silent era” movie star by the name of June East (Marla Winters) — who schools the “boys” in the art of seduction … and proceeds to take advantage of each of them!! 

 

There are running jokes, plenty of “money” shots (involving topless young women), a lot of double-entendre snippets of dialogue and a twist ending involving Hy Pyke (The First Nudie Musical, Blade Runner, Nightmare in Blood, etc.) that perfectly wraps things up.

 

Teamed with Hollywood High is a film that came before I Drink Your Blood, I Eat Your Skin and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, all of which were soon-to-be indie hits from producer, showman and film distributer Jerry Gross.   This is his 1967 exploitation flick, Teenage Mother.

 

Shot on a dime, using non-union talent — and as legend has it, he filmed in remote locations to avoid run-ins with the Screen Actors Guild — Teenage Mother is basically a shakedown story about a high school girl named Arlene who feigns being pregnant to entrap her boyfriend.   

 

“Arlene” is played by Arlene Farber, who would remain close friends with Jerry Gross until his death in 2002 … she also starred in other Jerry Gross films, including Girl on a Chain Gang, I Drink Your Blood and Female Animal (and was Angie in The French Connection).

 

A new teacher has arrived from Sweden, Miss Peterson (Julie Ange), who teaches sex-ed classes, and when Arlene pulls her stunt, Peterson is blamed for getting the “poor” girl pregnant.   

 

Now Jerry Gross realized at some point that he was going to need a “hook” to market this film and he came up with a doozy.   He found footage of an actual woman giving birth to a child and inserted the footage into the film as part of Miss Peterson’s sex-ed class.   He bicycled what few prints he had around the country … Teenage Mother played for a solid year!!

 

 

VCI Entertainment's 4K Film Restoration Of Director Edward Dmytryk's Mutiny Sails To DVD And Blu-ray On Dec. 15

VCI Entertainment announced this past week that director Edward Dmytryk’s 1952 War of 1812 swashbuckler, Mutiny, has undergone a new 4K film restoration from the film’s 35mm negative (filmed in glorious Technicolor) and will be ready for release as both DVD and Blu-ray product offerings on Dec. 15.

 

This independent film production from brother Frank and Maurice King (aka: King Brothers Productions — Dillinger, Gun Crazy, Drums in the Deep South, among others) was something of a gamble in that the film’s director, Edward Dmytryk, who had been nominated for Best Director in 1947 for Crossfire, had run afoul of House Committee on Un-American Activities.  

 

He served a year in prison and had been out of Hollywood for three years … this was his first film back.

The King brothers shopped the completed film around for distribution (filmed off the coast of California and on the sound stages of the Samuel Goldwyn Studio in Culver City), with at least RKO in the mix, but ended up back with United Artists, the company that had distributed a number of their previous films.

 

With that said, the United States has just declared war on Great Britain and with that the War of 1812 is underway.   The Concorde, under command of Captain James Marshall (Mark Stevens — The Dark Corner, The Street With No Name, Torpedo Alley) has orders to sail to France (which is currently neutral) and pick up a shipment of gold.   The British have set up a blockade and it will be a dicey proposition sailing there and back … and at all costs, the mission is to be kept secret.

 

Second in command is a former British naval officer, Captain Ben Waldridge (Patric Knowles — as Will Scarlet in Robin Hood, plus such films as How Green was My Valley, Of Human Bondage, From Earth to the Moon, etc.), who was drummed out of the navy for theft.   The two “captains” tend to butt heads over how a proper ship is run, but that’s the least of their problems.

 

Waldridge wasn’t particularly keen on voyage, but he had the incentive of bringing his former lover, Leslie (play by none other than Angela Lansbury, who by this time in her career had Oscar nominations for Gaslight and The Picture of Dorian Gray), back with him if things go as planned.   She is currently living in Paris.

 

There’s your set-up, a risky mission to sail to France and back, pick up a fortune in gold and reunite lovers.   What could possibly go wrong?    Vicious sea battles with the Royal Navy, double-crossing crew members and a woman who also wants in on the action and is willing to kill to get her share of the loot … those are just a few of the things that can go wrong!!  

    

Dec. 15, DVD or Blu-ray, Mutiny … stand by for plenty of action!!