Movieline Online

It’s hard to talk about Rapture without talking about the company who’s releasing it on home video for the first time…and on Blu-ray no less. Twilight Time uses a business model that might just be the future of studio catalog releases, purchasing the rights to niche films and limiting production to 3000 units. So far, the company’s library consists of a few potential sell-outs (Fright Night and Mysterious Island) and many more that will only interest classic curiosity seekers and aficionados who’ve been hunting down a particular title since its original run. But much like the Criterion Collection, there’s something appealing about putting your faith in someone else’s eccentric tastes.

It’s easy to see why Rapture, directed by John Guillermin (perhaps best known to genre fans as the director of 1976’s King Kong remake), fell between the cinematic cracks. On the surface it has all the trappings of a Bergman film: isolated setting, small cast of characters, and copious amounts of sexual tension and mental illness threatening to erupt on a moment’s notice. Even the plot, which follows the emotional mood swings of an unbalanced young girl (Patricia Gozzi) whose sheltered life becomes much more interesting with the arrival of a wayward criminal (Dean Stockwell of Quantum Leap fame), plays like a combination of The Silence and Persona. While Guillerman’s film can’t match their impact, it’s more audience accessible than either of them. And it’s certainly beautiful to look at in high definition, sporting fantastic B & W seascapes that set a unique mood of windblown desolation and great performance across the board. In keeping with the targeted collector’s market, the disc also comes with an isolated score track

It’s become somewhat hip to praise the prolific output of producer Roger Corman these days. But assigning too much creative weight to films like The Arena, with Pam Grier as an Amazonian gladiator in a toga that can barely contain her…uh, assets, sort of takes the fun out of them. I suspect that Roger, even though he loves the delayed critical respect, has to be shaking his head at some of his work being labeled a “classic.”

Shout Factory’s Lethal Ladies 2 Collection gathers three more exploitation quickies that follow the Corman formula: boobs and blood…with a side-order of more boobs. The aforementioned The Arena is the best of the lot, with Grier as part of an all-girl gladiator gang forced to kill (or die) for Roman amusement. But an uprising is in the offing, and soon the fake blood is flowing as the ladies fight their way to freedom. Although the synopsis suggests something ambitious, The Arena gets by on tight camera angles and a cast of about 20 drunken extras. I’m pretty sure I saw the same solider die 5 times in different costumes. But that’s part of the Roger Corman charm. And it’s hard to deny Pam Grier’s charisma, even if your eyes aren’t always on her face.

The other two titles, Fly Me and Cover Girl Models, are really for Corman completists only. Although I should point out none of these were actually directed by Corman himself, who at this point in his career had delegated most of the work to his regulars, including editor Joe Dante (Gremlins). The tag line “See stewardesses battle kung-fu killers!” is all kinds of brilliant, but don’t expect the films to deliver much more than flat-chested thrills and weak fight choreography. That doesn’t make the triple feature DVD any less appreciated. Shout Factory even went above and beyond to include a commentary and featurette for The Arena and hilarious trailers and TV spots for the other films. Just knowing that someone went to the trouble to create solid anamorphic transfers for movies most people couldn’t see through their fogged up windshields kind of puts a lump in my throat.

Last House on the Left, director Wes Craven’s debut feature, made such a stink in 1972 that he was spit on by strangers offended by the film’s overt sadomasochism. But that spit was actually a compliment. In the exploitation game, anything that can generate a reaction - especially outrage or disgust - means big money. And rival producers quick to spot a trend saw lots of potential in Craven’s down and dirty plot. Night Train Murders (1975) takes the same torture porn scenario but adds a few levels of dramatic and technical sophistication that House lacked, making it the superior film…but arriving three years too late to earn the same exploitation immortality.

Margaret and Lisa hop a train to spend Christmas vacation with Lisa’s parents in Italy. But during the trip they run afoul of two thugs and a perverse older woman who revels in their sexual degradation. Like Last House, Night Train Murders is not a pleasant film to watch. Its goal is to make you extremely uncomfortable and (hopefully) offended at the physical brutality depicted on screen. Yet director Aldo Lado brings a cinematic professionalism that Craven’s film lacked, serving as a buffer to shield the audience from the worst moments of violence. In short, it’s much more watchable. Macha Meril’s role as the mysteriously twisted “Lady on the Train” is the film’s most unique creation; the monstrous genetic amalgam of every femme fatale in film history. She’s just one of three actresses in the film who would later pop up in the work of Italian horror legend Dario Argento.

Blue Underground’s Blu-ray replaces their previous DVD version, bumps up the quality significantly and ports over all the extras including a short featurette, trailers and poster art.

A Darryl F. Zanuck production of a John Huston film - with Errol Flynn in his last significant role – The Roots of Heaven is yet another example of the popular Hollywood expression “the story behind the film is more interesting than the film itself.” Shot in Chad over the course of six months, the perpetual heat and diseases took their toll on cast and crew, requiring a constant stream of replacements. Both Zanuck and Huston’s biographies feature anecdotes about the experience and Flynn’s excessive drinking (the actor would die a year later). How could any fictional movie compete with that sensationalist reality?

Roots does have its strong points, but they’re a long time coming. Trevor Howard plays an idealistic elephant defender who uses guerilla tactics to defend the continent’s dwindling herds. A famous media personality (quick cameo by Orson Welles) turns him into an international celebrity and his cause is co-opted by other indigenous revolutionaries who use him for their own ends. It doesn’t help that Howard (second-billed but still the film’s star) disappears for nearly half the movie as we jump from one bland conference room conversation to the next. By the time Huston starts putting the natural beauty of Africa to use, the story has been splintered in several different directions.

Roots becomes a film of semi-successful scenes that never coalesce into a whole. The public spanking of an ivory-poaching debutante. The well-choreographed elephant hunt thwarted by Howard and his gang. And the messianic march towards justice that concludes Howard’s inevitably lost cause. When Eddie Albert enters the picture in the final third as a quick-talking freelance photographer, you almost wish the film would just follow him instead. But Roots is committed to its cause, no matter how heavy handed, and Huston is determined to see it through to the end.
Twilight Time’s limited edition Blu-ray (only 3000 copies) over-delivers in terms of visual quality. Once the film finds its visual palette, you’ll be amazed at the color and clarity popping from this transfer, originally filmed in Cinemascope. The addition of informative liner notes and an isolated music score make this one heck of a home video debut.

gwalton@movielineonline.com