A selection of lobby cards for Dario Argento's nightmarish fairy tale Suspiria from France, Spain, and the United States.
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I remember when Magnum Entertainment announced they were releasing this on VHS in the late 80s horror fans treated it like it was the Second Coming. This was back when tapes were expensive. I think it retailed for $89.99. I have the flyer somewhere here.
ReplyDeleteIn comparison, a similar degree of antici.....pation was greeted ROCKY HORROR around the same time when it was announced it was finally hitting VHS tape.
Horror fans have always treated SUSPIRIA that way, and I can understand that to a certain degree. $89.99 is absurd, but obtaining VHS or BetaMax videos in the UK in the early 1980's was a very expensive business as well - You could easily pay £40 sell through around 1982-4. Speaking of the early video days do you remember the strategy employed by some record labels to release video singles? My mother had one or two of them.
ReplyDeleteYou mean music videos? If so, yes, I remember them. There were also tapes that were anywhere between 1 and 2 hours that was nothing but music videos from a particular singer or group. I had a few, too. Now, they cram lots of concerts and other assorted footage on DVDs per band. I have all but one of the multi disc sets for this metal band called Manowar. Christopher Lee was touring with them not long ago. He may still be as far as I know, lol.
ReplyDeleteVenom, I remember the late '80s 'Magnum' release, too - advertised prominently in the pages of 'Fangoria' (with lovely cover art, too). It was quite a big thing at the time, I agree (although here in Australia, Argento's films in VHS release always seemed to be passed by our censorship board with no cuts, which is rather astounding in retrospect).
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see Joan Bennett (Madame Blanc) feature prominently in two of those lobby cards. I only knew her from 'Suspiria' when I was younger, but in recent years, as more film noir became readily available on DVD, I was astounded to recognise her (largely due to her distinctive voice) in two masterful Fritz Lang films from the 1940s: 'The Woman in the Window' and 'Scarlet Street' (both highly recommended!). Of course, further reading revealed her extensive film work stretching back to the 1920s - but apparently 'Suspiria' was her last film.
A distinctive onscreen presence, indeed...
I can certainly vouch for Joan Bennett in SCARLET STREET...one of the most distinctive and impressive noir films of the 1940's. I must get around to reviewing some classic film noir.
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