Pit
Stop (1969/MVD
Visual/Arrow Blu-ray w/DVD)/Spider-Baby
(1967/MVD Visual/Arrow Blu-ray w/DVD)/Wolfen
(1981/Orion/Warner Archive Blu-ray)
Picture:
B & B-/B & C+/B Sound: C+/C+ & C/B Extras:
B-/B/C- Films: C+/C-/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Wolfen
Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Here
are three films with their own cult status and reputation that not
enough people have seen, but are finally being issued in top rate
Blu-ray editions...
First
we have two films by legendary B-movie director Jack Hill. We start
with his smash-up derby auto race film Pit
Stop
(1969) shot on a real figure-8 track (which increases the danger,
something in inept Rollerball
remake also missed among its seemingly endless list of mega-mistakes)
has Richard Davalos as a troubled youth in jail who knows how to
drive and is recruited by a moneyman (Quatermass
& The Pit's
Brian Donlevy) to race one of his cars. His biggest competition is a
tough racer (Sid Haig playing it up well) and we also get women
including Beverly Washburn (Haig's Spider-Baby
co-star) and a very young Ellen Burstyn (credited as Ellen McRae) who
can handle garage tools very well... as well as she handles men!
The
race footage was at night and since (hard to believe) most color film
stock could not handle such shooting at the time, or high speed of
the time might not cut it (an essay for another time), that is why
this was shot black and white and it gives it an edge and realism it
might not have otherwise. Especially as compared to all of the
'sunny car' movies and even musicals (Elvis, beach movies) being made
at the time mostly in color, so that works in its favor.
No,
the writing is nothing special, but the cast is interesting and as a
bonus, real car people and legends play themselves in the film
including Batmobile, Black Beauty, Thrushbuster and Monkeymobile
designer, the legendary vehicle customizer George Barris. The visit
to his shop is great.
Extras
include a reversible cover with nice alternate artwork, an
illustrated booklet on the film including informative text & two
essays, while the Blu-ray adds a brand new feature length audio
commentary track with Hill & film scholar Calum Waddell, an
Original Theatrical Trailer and three new Behind
The Scenes/Making Of
featurettes: Crash
& Burn!
with Hill interviewed on camera, Life
In The Fast Lane
with semi-secret co-producer Roger Corman's on camera interview on
the film and James White discussing in excellent detail the
Restoration
Of Pit Stop.
Then
we have Spider-Baby
(1967, released four years after legalities shelved it) also issued
in a new Blu-ray/DVD set by MVD & Arrow. This official release
replaces the Dark Sky DVD-only version we covered a few year ago at
this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5988/Spider+Baby+%E2%80%93+Director%E2%80%99s
As
wacky as ever, it continues to be a curio and some are talking about
its braver content, though it is not as if it deals with any taboos
in any important or innovative way. Still, its cult keeps growing
and the 'can it be that bad?' crowd keeps looking into it. If you
need to see it, see it on this Blu-ray.
Extras
carried over from the previous DVD include an interesting feature
length audio commentary with Hill & Haig, Hatching
Of Spider Baby
making of featurette, Spider
Stravinsky: The Cinema Sounds Of Ronald Stein
about the groovy music he has created for films like this & other
notable B-films of the time,The
Merrye House
Revisited featurette, stills, amusing alternate opening title
sequence with the Cannibal
Orgy
name and even an extended scene. Arrow goes further and adds a new
September 2012 program about the film's presentation by the Oscar
people (!), Hill's half-hour short film The
Host
(1960) with Haig's film debut, a thick new booklet with great
illustrations and two essays on the film and a reversible cover with
alternate artwork. That makes this THE definitive version of the
film to own.
Last
but not least is Michael Wadleigh's Wolfen
(1981), one of three werewolf thrillers in its time that included An
American Werewolf In London
and The
Howling
(both reviewed elsewhere on this site), but something different is
going on here starting with the gruesome murder of a wealthy man, his
gal and his tough body guard. It is gruesome and even expert science
investigators (including a pre CSI-era
Gregory Hines) can't figure it out, as he explains it to his friend
and main police investigator now on the case (Albert Finney). From
there, we try to figure out the mystery of who... or what is doing
the killing and why.
Easily
the most ambitious of the three 'wolf' films of the time, it has its
moments and has aged in interesting ways, but it was never a total
success. I still to this day think it takes more than a few awkward
cues from several episodes of Kolchak:
The Night Stalker
(see elsewhere on this site) and one too many unnecessary moments of
political incorrectness seem to be artificially stretching out the
plot when it needed new ideas. Yet, the great shots of New York City
and a solid supporting cast that also includes Edward James Olmos,
Diane Verona, Tom Noonan, Dick O'Neill, Ralph Bell, Reginald
VelJohnson, James Tolkan and an uncredited Tom Waits make this one
worth visiting and revisiting.
Sadly,
the only extra is an Original Theatrical Trailer, but this one
deserves more at some point.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 black and white digital High Definition image on Pit
looks amazing for its age and budget with solid nighttime shooting
and a painstakingly restored HD master, but from the way the 35mm
monochrome film stocks look, you would think this was from the early
1960s. However, it is a resurrection of the film that will surprise
many including those who have seen the film, even if it was decades
ago. With a few spots where the stock looks older or
second-generation, they do not last long. Car fans will love it too.
The anamorphically
enhanced DVD version is passable, but not match for the Blu-ray.
The
1080p 1.66 X 1 black and white digital High Definition image on Baby
is also an amazing revelation, looking a bit better though the film
actually is 5+ years older than Pit,
has undergone the same thorough restoration without making it look
odd or dishonestly fresh and is superior to both the Dark Sky DVD and
the also anamorphically
enhanced DVD included in this set. Hill said he bought any prints of
the film, any he could find and the best was a Geavert 35mm
monochrome print (misspelled in the booklet, sorry guys...) in one of
their last years alone before the belgian company merged with Agfa in
Germany in 1964. As reliable as a DuPont b/w print, no wonder this
looks so rich and clear with real film black that does not look grey
and no print shrinkage.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Wolfen
includes the 'Wolfen-vision' shots where night looks like odd
semi-daylight and gets weird highlights. Shot in real 35mm
anamorphic Panavision by Director of Photography Gerry Fisher (who
just recently passed on; he lensed All
The Right Noises,
The
Go-Between,
A
Doll's House,
the original Highlander,
the Mick Jagger Ned
Kelly
and Lumet's The
Offence
with Sean Connery) uses the scope frame to suspenseful effect and is
why the film can still thrill in part. But the print has some minor
detail and color flaws, so expect that too.
All
prints used here can show the age of the materials used, but these
copies is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the
film on video and can challenge most film prints out there.
The
PCM 2.0 Mono on Pit
and Baby
were obviously recorded low budget and weer theatrical mono releases,
but they sound the best they ever have or will on these Blu-rays,
also both superior to the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono versions on
their respective DVDs, even narrowly so at times.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Wolfen
is well mixed and presented in this upgraded mix from the 6-track 4.1
Dolby magnetic soundtrack and Megasound for 70mm blow-up print
presentations. Warner added the bass-enhancement Megasound to four
of their films officially, including this one and three already in
regular Blu-ray release: Superman
II
(recently restored), Altered
States
(sounding great on Blu-ray as well) and Outland
(which sounds good on Blu-ray, but could use a bit of a sonic
upgrade) to increase fidelity and impact (The
Exorcist's
1979 70mm reissue might have had some test screenings as well as a
few of Blade
Runner
when it opened, but we could not confirm as of this posting). DBX
sound technology was also involved in Megasound, which is always a
plus.
Some
screening even had the 70mm interlocked with a 35mm print. Either
way, because of the way this film was recorded, there is no more room
for upgrading, so this is the best it will likely ever sound and
that’s not a bad thing. Like a musical, the regular dialogue
recording sounds like it is of its time, but when the super-hearing
that goes with the 'Wolfen-vision'
kicks in sounding younger than its actual age. This is well done and
fans of the film and sound format will be impressed.
To
order the Wolfen
Warner Archive Blu-ray, go to this link for it and many more great
web-exclusive releases at:
https://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo