Coming Attractions - Die, Monster, Die! (1965) / Planet of the Vampires (1965)

Poster Gallery - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) / 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)

US POSTER - This artwork or variants of it  was also utlised in Italian, Danish, Japanese, Australian, Greek, Spanish, Yugolsavian, West German, French and Swedish promotional campaigns. 

US POSTER #2 - This artwork or variants of it was also utilised in British and Spanish promotional campaigns. 

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Celluloid Snaps - The Deadly Bees (1967)

Director - FREDDIE FRANCIS

Country - UK

The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz (1967)

Dir: WERNER HERZOG

Country: WEST GERMANY

The Unprecedented Defence of the Fortress Deutschkreuz is a short fourteen minute film written, directed, and produced by Bavaria’s finest filmmaker Werner Herzog. It was his third film, following on from his debut short Herakles (1962) and the mysterious and totally obscure Game in the Sand (1964). The latter is a film that Herzog has consistently refused to distribute, and will almost certainly remain hidden, owning to subject matter that still leaves the director disturbed. Fortress Deutschkreuz was Herzog’s first attempt at fiction, and as such it can be seen as something of a dress rehearsal for his first feature film Signs of Life which would follow in 1968. Both films explore the psychology of warfare, as the protagonists do battle with imaginary enemies. Signs of Life benefited tremendously from its beautiful Crete locations, brought vividly to monochrome life by the cinematography of Thomas Mauch, and the brilliantly unhinged performance of Peter Brogle as the brittle fantasist Stroszek. Fortress Deutschkreuz by contrast is still a little uneven and crude in places and the quality of the transfer I viewed does not aid its cause. However it does set up a satirical attitude to warfare that Herzog would develop and refine throughout his career.

Herakles (1962)

Dir: WERNER HERZOG
Country: WEST GERMANY

This short nine minute film would be totally insignificant were it not for the fact that it marked the debut to filmmaking of Werner Herzog. The barmy Bavarian was a mere twenty years old when he wrote, directed, produced, and edited this somewhat amateurish effort. It is fair to say that Herakles was an exercise; an experiment on Herzog’s part to see if he could actually make a film. But even at this early stage Herzog’s decision to shoot on 35mm film shows that he had ambitions that far exceeded the humble nature of this production. But Herakles was an instructive lesson, especially for a young man who largely existed in a world without cinematic reference points, and whose influences were extremely limited. In this film Herzog explores the art of editing, and although Herakles is little more than an editorial exercise, it does contain a few images that will be of interest to Herzog enthusiasts. 

The Ruthless Four (1968)

Dir: GIORGIO CAPITANI
Country: ITALY/WEST GERMANY

AKA:
Chacun Pour Soi
Every Man for Himself
Sam Cooper's Gold
The Goldseekers

It’s always a pleasure to discover a hidden gem, but unfortunately it is an increasingly rare occurrence nowadays. This is especially so in a cycle as dense and derivative as the Euro-Western. But my interest in the Euro-Western was recently piqued again by the purchase of an excellent book called Any Gun Can Play, written by Kevin Grant, and published by FAB Press in 2011. If hidden cinematic gems are rare, then well written books on film are like goldust. The Ruthless Four (one of many titles it was released under) is one such discovery, and the analogy with gold is appropriate, for the film charts the damaging and corrosive effect, this particular precious metal can have on human beings. There are certain themes and concerns that are endemic in the Euro Western, and one theme this cycle returns to time and again is greed. This theme is of course also present in both traditional American westerns, and the revisionist westerns that followed in the wake of A Fistful of Dollars (1964). But the difference lies in the way that this theme is presented. The traditional western always seeks to emphasise the positive aspects of its principal themes, and greed exists as part of a cross-current of themes that ultimately serve a redemptive plot. In many European examples greed is the entire raison d’être of the film, with screenplays often allowing no room for anything else, as they explore its acidic effect.

Genocide - War of the Insects (1968)

Dir: KAZUI NIHONMATSU

Country: JAPAN

AKA:

Konchû daisensô

Genocide

War of the Insects 

One of the more intriguing responses to the monster movie (kaiju-eiga) boom of the 1950’s and 1960’s was the one undertaken by Shochiku. The studio was more commonly associated with the prestigious and formally precise productions of Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu, and the burgeoning formal experimentation of the politically motivated Japanese new wave. But in the late 1960’s the studio produced four science-fiction/horror/fantasy productions in quick succession in order to reap the fertile and profitable soil sown by the likes of Godzilla, Gamera, Mothra, King Kong and Ghidorah.  The first was the laughably inept The X from Outer Space (1967), a film generally regarded as one of the weaker entries in the kaiju-eiga cycle. The next was the more conceptually ambitious Goke, Bodysnatcher from Hell (1968), an intriguing blend of UFO’s, vampirism and apocalyptic disaster. The films arresting visual palette and its strong premise have enabled it to become the most visible of the Shociku quartet. The third was the peculiar The Living Skeleton (1968), which was shot in black and white, and was an eerie tale of revenge overflowing with the atmospherics of kaidan. The fourth and final effort is the film under discussion here, a revolt of nature horror film with an elaborate and complicated narrative that includes the search for an H-bomb, a man wrongly convicted of murder, communist infiltrators, a survivor of the Holocaust, and the apocalypse. It’s a heady mix, drowning in a sea of ideas, an unwieldy beast that ultimately slays itself on its own convolution.

Lobby Card Collection - The Birds (1963)



Press Book Collection - Black Sabbath (1963)

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Press Book Collection - Tales of Terror (1962)

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Press Book Collection - The Haunted Palace (1963)

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Django (1966)

Dir: SERGIO CORBUCCI
Country: ITALY/SPAIN

Although Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964) became the pin up poster boy of the spaghetti western cycle, it is arguably Sergio Corbucci’s Django which wielded the greatest influence on European westerns. The central character went on to feature in well over fifty spin offs, the vast majority of which, were unofficial. The success of the film in West Germany led too Italian actor Franco Nero forever being associated with the role, and almost every western he appeared in thereafter was promoted in West Germany as a Django picture. The reason its vast influence remains largely unrecognised, is that unlike Leone’s ‘Dollars’ trilogy, Django was not a commercial success in the United States. The influence of A Fistful of Dollars was not immediate; indeed most of the Euro-westerns released in the wake of Leone’s film were actually quite traditional. It is conceivable that this might have remained the case were it not for Sergio Corbucci who had clearly paid attention to the exaggerated style, cynicism, revisionism, and mythical anti-heroism that formed the basis of Leone’s westerns. Corbucci’s major innovation was to take these elements (minus the exaggerated stylisations) and push them to the extreme. If A Fistful of Dollars was pessimistic then Django had to be nihilistic. If the landscape seen in A Fistful of Dollars was dusty, dry, and sun baked then the landscape in Django had to be wet, muddy, and grey. The influence of A Fistful of Dollars can be felt in Django, yet at the same time Django is everything that A Fistful of Dollars is not.

Corruption (1968)

Dir: ROBERT HARTFORD-DAVIS
Country: UK

AKA:
Carnage
Laser Killer

The semi-obscure 1968 British horror film Corruption belongs to a small, but strangely pervasive, cycle of horror movies that explore the subject of plastic surgery. The film that kick started this trend was Georges Franju’s beautifully composed art/horror hybrid Eyes Without a Face (1960). Franju’s excellent and troubling production was marked by a formal precision that mirrored the cut of Dr. Génnesier’s scalpel; but even so Franju’s film was still marketed as an exploitation picture in the US where it was released under the unforgivable title of The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus. The influence of the film however was quite notable; the prolific Spaniard Jess Franco quickly recycled the themes in his surprisingly tight and atmospheric The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962), returned to them in several sequels, and capped of his interest in cosmetic surgery with the indifferent Faceless (1988). The Italian horror/science-fiction picture Atom Age Vampire (1963) was equally unexceptional, though it did give Mario Bava an opportunity to hone his skills as a producer. Other interesting examples such as Circus of Horrors (1960) and The Blood Rose (1969) took the device of plastic surgery down intriguing avenues; the former for example saw Anton Diffring play a typically cold and implacable surgical genius, who uses his gifts to extort, blackmail and control people under the canopy of the big top. More recently another Spaniard Pedro Almodóvar returned to the topic and bridged the art house gap with Eyes Without a Face with his considerably more tedious entry The Skin I Live In (2011).

Lucio Fulci Poster Gallery [Part 1]

I ladri AKA The Thieves (1959) - Italian Poster
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Ragazzi del Juke-Box AKA The Jukebox Kids (1959) - Italian Poster

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Urlatori alla sbarra AKA Howlers at the Dock (1960) - Italian Poster

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I due della legione straniera AKA Those Two in the Legion (1962) - Italian Poster

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Press Book Collection - The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

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The Red Circle (1960)

Dir: JURGEN ROLAND
Country: WEST GERMANY/DENMARK

AKA:
Der Rote Kreis
The Crimson Circle

The Red Circle was the second Edgar Wallace krimi produced by Preben Phillipsen under the auspices of Danish studio Rialto. The surprise commercial success of The Fellowship of the Frog in West Germany necessitated a continuation of the series, and by and large The Red Circle faithfully follows the formula set up in the previous film. The novel was published in 1922 under the title The Crimson Circle, and has proved one of the most durable and oft adapted of Wallace’s crime novels. The first version appeared in the same year the book saw print, and was a British film directed by George Ridgwell. In 1929 a second version appeared, an Anglo-German production helmed by Frederic Zelnick. In 1940 another sole British venture appeared directed by Reginald Denham. These three treatments remain obscure and hard to find, and the 1960 version directed by Jürgen Roland is the most successful and visible. In saying that though, the Rialto film can still be a pain in the arse to track down for a reasonable price, but part of the fun of researching an area such as this is the leg work involved in securing a decent print. I may be in a minority in thinking that this is a culturally significant movie, and the poverty of critical thinking, or even cursory reviews in the English language on the internet, would seem to confirm my minority status. It’s a status I share with fellow scribe and krimi enthusiast Holger Haase, and I doff my hat to him for treading the dark and shadowy streets of Wallace’s London before me.

Planet of the Vampires (1965)

Dir: MARIO BAVA
Country: ITALY/SPAIN

AKA:
Terrore Nello Spazio
Planet of Blood
The Demon Planet
The Haunted Planet
The Planet of Terror

Perhaps more than any other work in Mario Bava’s diverse and fascinating filmography, his 1965 science-fiction/horror effort Planet of the Vampires best illustrates the Italian’s unerring ability to utilise the limited resources at his disposal in a positive fashion. Planet of the Vampires, like the majority of Bava’s pictures, was a threadbare production made on a poverty row budget. It did however have the benefit of Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson as executive producers, and a subsequent guarantee of US distribution through their company AIP. The source material was a short story by Renato Pestriniero entitled One Night of 21 Hours, a story which remains as obscure as the man himself. If anyone knows anything more about Mr. Pestriniero please feel free to leave a comment. This was subsequently adapted for the screen by Mario Bava, Alberto Bevilacqua, Callisto Cosulich, Antonio Roman, and Rafael J. Salvia. A consequence of being in partnership with AIP however was the necessity of an English language version; herein lies one of the great tragedies to afflict Planet of the Vampires. The English version was handled by Danish novelist/screenwriter/director Ib Melchior (The Angry Red Planet [1959], The Time Travellers [1964], Robinson Crusoe on Mars [1964]) and Louis M. Heyward (writer of such masterpieces as Pajama Party [1964], The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini [1966] and Dr. Goldfoot and the ‘S’ Bomb [1966]). My assessment of their contribution to Planet of the Vampires is thus; watch the original Italian language version!

Euro Crime Poster Gallery [Part 1]

A Ciascuno il Suo aka We Still Kill the Old Way (Elio Petri, 1967) - US Poster

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Il Giorno Della Civetta aka The Day of the Owl aka Mafia (Damiano Damiani, 1968) - Italian Poster

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Gli Intoccabili aka Machine Gun McCain (Giuliano Montaldo, 1968) - US Poster

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The Brigand of Kandahar (1965)

Dir: JOHN GILLING
Country: UK

British director John Gilling holds a curious position within the history of Hammer Film Productions. He was the main creative force behind two of their most successful and fondly remembered titles; The Plague of the Zombies (1966) and The Reptile (1966). Yet the other films he made for the company have become outright obscurities. It is only in the last couple of months that two of his films - The Scarlet Blade (1964) , and The Brigand of Kandahar - made their debut on DVD; whilst The Shadow of the Cat (1961) still awaits a legitimate DVD release. Even his single entry into the ongoing saga of Egypt’s favourite mummified corpse The Mummy’s Shroud (1967) is largely overlooked and ignored despite being very entertaining. When one compares Gilling to other directors Hammer regularly employed such as Terence Fisher, Freddie Francis, or Val Guest, his marginalisation becomes more apparent. Of course an obvious answer for the relative disappearance of these films might be that they’re dreadfully incompetent. Unfortunately The Brigand of Kandahar does little to dispel that reading.

Lobby Card Collection - Once Upon a Time in the West (1969)

I thought I'd continue on with the films of Sergio Leone, and following on the heels of lobby cards for A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, I present 12 cards used to promote his most operatic of westerns Once Upon a Time in the West. The film features excellent performances from Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale and Jason Robards, a wonderful score from Ennio Morricone, and an early screenwriting credit for none other than Dario Argento. If you haven't already picked it up the blu-ray from Paramount is well worth a purchase.