Monthly Archives: December 2021

JOE D’AMATO WEEK: The Devil’s Wedding Night (1973)

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Supposedly, The Devil’s Wedding Night (AKA Full Moon of the Virgins) was all Mark Damon’s idea. After being in House of Usher, Damon had moved to Italy and appeared in movies like Black Sabbath and Johnny Yuma.

Perhaps this idea was the start of his producing career, which was more successful than his acting job. Damon was planning on selling the movie an American production company. Luigi Batzella (Nude for Satan, The Beast In Heat) was picked to direct, but most people believe that Joe D’Amato stepped in and finished the film.

I’m a firm believer in this theory because there’s a moment near the end of this movie where an otherworldly Countess Dolingen De Vries rises from a bathtub of blood and fog and writhes near nude on the screen and somehow going beyond the confines of the screen to destroy my mind. I generally try my best not to turn reviews of movies with atrractive women into male gaze spectacles, but Rosalba Neri is absoutely iconic in this moment, a perfect scene that is never discussed nearly enough.

There’s also a magic vampire ring of the Nibelungen, which is gigantic costume jewelery and therefore better than any Hollywood baubles, village girls with sacred amulets of Pazuzu (yes, really), five virgins getting sacrificed all at once in an express line of bloodletting magic, three different twist endings in a row, tripped out Dr. Who looking tunnel moments, D’Amato billing himself as Michael Holloway and going absolutely wlld capturing every inch of womanly curves and an incredible setting, the Castello Piccolomini Balsorano, the same place Lady Frankenstein, Bloody Pit of Horror, Crypt of the Vampire, The Lickerish Quartet, The Blade Master, Sister Emanuelle, The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance, The Reincarnation of Isabel, Farfallon, Pensiero d’amore, Lady Barbara, 7 Golden Women Against Two 07: Treasure Hunt, C’è un fantasma nel mio letto, Baby Love and Put Your Devil Into My Hell were all shot at.

Plus, Xiro Papas, the monster of Frankenstein 80, plays a vampiric giant.

If you’re a fan of the harder side of Hammer, then allow this female vampire to obsess you as well.

Antropophagus 2000 (1999)

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Andreas Schnaas is probably best known for Violent Shit, its many sequels and Zombie ’90: Extreme Pestilence. As a homage to Italian director Joe D’Amato — who I think would kind of appreciate being ripped off — he also remade Antropophagus with this film.

Three Interpol agents explore a cave filled with bodies and find the journal of Nikos Karamanlis, a man lost at sea who was forced to eat his wife and daughter. Yes, we’re right into the same story D’Amato told, but with somehow even more unrestrained gore.

So yes, we do switch out a boat for an RV — note to Bill Van Ryn, add this to the RV horror film Letterboxd list — and Andreas Schnaas is no George Eastman (or Joe D’Amato, but talk about a tall order) but if you’d like to see someone remake a movie that already ended up on the video nasty list and say, “I don’t think that baby eating scene went far enough” have I got some good news for you. Actually, spoiler warning for anyone brave enough to watch this, but you may get to see more than one baby get eaten, which is really the definition of gratuitous, but what are you watching a low budget German remake of an Italian scumbag slasher for?

 

JOE D’AMATO WEEK: Deep Blood (1989)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: How much do we love Joe D’Amato? The first line of this article, which originally appeared on December 21, 2018, is on the back of the box for Severin‘s blu ray release of this movie.

If you thought Joe D’Amato didn’t have a Jaws ripoff in him, then you don’t know Joe D’Amato. Or Federiko Slonisko. Or Michael Wotruba. Or David Hills. Or Kevin Mancuso. Or Joan Russell. Or Raf Donato, the name he used when he directed this.

Joe D’Amato had just as many names as he made movies. Born Aristide Massaccesi, he first became known as a cinematographer on films like What Have You Done to Solange? before directing his own films like Death Smiles on a Murderer, five Emanuelle films include the absolutely berserk Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, Antropophagus, Absurd, Endgame and literally hundreds more, as well as producing films by George Eastman, Michele Soavi, Umberto Lenzi, Lucio Fulci and Claudio Fragrasso.

This movie begins as we meet four boys, Miki, John, Jason and Alan, eating hotdogs on the beach with a Native American mystic who tells them the tale of the monstrous Wakan shark. The boys sign a blood oath that they will always be friends and help one another in times of danger.

Much like a Stephen King movie, the boys get together ten years later. However, Wakan shows up, kills John and starts randomly devouring just about everyone in his path. There’s a long extended sequence where a police chopper hovers over the guys’ boat, repeatedly saying “Go back to shore, you should be embarrassed of what you’ve done” that made me laugh so hard I fell off my couch.

If the scene of the shark blowing up at the end — sorry spoiler warning — looks familiar, it’s because D’Amato just recycled the effect from the end of The Last Shark. Yes, the Italian film industry is not above ripping itself off. Also, the effects team only built a shark head. The rest of the undersea footage comes from National Geographic.

The mystic angle adds a different take on a shark movie. And there are moments of sheer absurdity, like the sheriff being named Cody and not Brody, harpoons being shot into the cars of punkers and a fishing scene where it’s obvious that no one knows how to actually fish.

Joe D’Amato may not have delivered the Italian shark movie of my dreams, where George Eastman emerges from the inside of the shark eating its innards, but dammit if he didn’t try.

JOE D’AMATO WEEK: A Lustful Mind (1986)

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Based on the book Luxure by Judith Wexley — which probably doesn’t exist — this movie is about how a rich young man named Alessio has lost his voice after his mother dies and he goes to live in the country. Meanwhile, his dad (Al Cliver) gets remarried and still finds the time to sleep with Alessio’s aunt and an art restorer.

As for our protagonist, well, he’s indulging in the fantasy that it’s him instead of his dad.

There are only five actors in this and one location*, the very definition of a low budget. That said, Lilli Carati (The Pleasure, To Be Twenty) acquaints herself well. Neither of the other two actresses, Noemie Chelkoff and Ursula Foti, ever did anything else.

Also known as Lust, this is one of the few Italian movies I’ve seen where restoring art doesn’t lead to demons killing everyone in their way.

*It’s a great location, the Villa Parisi in Frascati where Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Blood for Dracula, Homo Eroticus, Patrick Still Lives, The Murder Clinic and many other movies were filmed.

JOE D’AMATO WEEK: The Arena (1974)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Back on January 28, 2019, we wrote about this movie but now it’s time for Joe to take over B&S About Movies and we’re here for all of it. Here’s The Arena!

The assistant director of Johnny Got His Gun, as well as the director of Big Bad Mama, Lone Wolf McQuaid and Eye for an Eye, Steve Carver directed this exploitation roughie, where slave girls become gladiators and rise against their masters. But hey — it has Pam Grier in it! And you know why it’s probably so sleazy? I blame the director of cinematography — Joe D’Amato!

Actually, in Italy, they said that this movie was made by Michael Wotruba. You know who that is? That’s right, the same man who is Joe D’Amato, Aristide Massaccesi. In the book Erotismo, orrore e pornografia secondo Joe D’Amato, the man of many names said that Italian producer Franco Gaudenzi didn’t trust Carver, who was sent by Roger Corman, so he sent D’Amato to help as needed. Carver did the talking, D’Amato did the action and we have a movie.

Speaking of Corman, he offered this movie to Martin Scorsese after Boxcar Bertha. Let that rest in your brain for a bit. Instead of making Mean Streets, Scorsese would have been working with Raf Donato. Or David Hills. Or maybe Boy Tan Bien.

In the time after Spartacus, in the ancient Roman town of Brundusium, a group of slave girls is sold to Timarchus (Daniele Vargas, Eyeball), a promoter who puts together the fights in the Colosseum. After the girls engage in a fight, she gets a big idea: make them fight to the death.

That’s when Mamawi (Pam Grier) and Bodicia (Margaret Markov) — who had just teamed up in Black Mama, White Mama — decide to team up again and get out alive. Rosalba Neri (Lady Frankenstein herself!, as well as Lucifera: Demon Lover and Amuck!) is in this too!

Markov met her husband, producer Mark Damon, while making this movie, but couldn’t date until production was over, as director Steve Carver had made a rule regarding cast and crew intermingling.

Your enjoyment of this will depend on how much you enjoy watching women battle as gladiators. I wrote that a while ago and come on, everybody loves that. They didn’t call this movie Naked Warriors for nothing.

KINO CULT CELEBRATES THE HOLIDAYS WITH MORE MIDNIGHT MOVIE MADNESS FOR DECEMBER

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There are twenty new films available to stream as of today on Kino Cult, the new free ad-supported streaming destination for genre lovers of horror and cult films. These films join a growing list of hundreds of new and rare theatrically released cult hits, all presented in beautiful high definition. Additionally, Kino Cult is now offering an ad-free subscription plan for $4.99 per month for the first time.

Here’s what’s new:

Babylon (director Franco Rosso) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/babylon

Young reggae DJ Blue (legendary singer Brinsley Allan Forde) is trying to make a name for himself in the 1980s London music scene. He has a steep uphill battle: not only is he a total unknown, but he has to fight against Thatcher-era politics both artistically and personally. Babylon is an intimate and raw look at the racism, xenophobia, and police brutality of the 1980s.

Black Gravel (director Helmut Kautner) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/black-gravel

Helmed by Helmut Käutner (Port of Freedom), Black Gravel is hard-boiled cinema at its most cynical. In this gripping Cold War noir, tensions simmer between residents of a small German village and the soldiers of a U.S. military base. Postwar economic hardship has turned the town of Sohnen into a vice district. The women serve as entertainment for the GIs, while the men struggle for survival in the black market. Black Gravel continues the gritty tradition of “Trucker Noir” begun by They Drive by Night, The Wages of Fear and Thieves’ Highway.

The Devil Lives Here (director Rodrigo Gasparini, Dante Vescio) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/devil-lives-here

Three teenagers go on a trip to visit their friend Apolo at his family’s farm for a weekend of fun. At the same time, Sebastião and his younger brother Luciano are getting ready to perform the spiritual ritual their family has been tasked with every nine months, for centuries. On the night the two groups meet, they find out that what they thought were scary tales becomes more than real. It is now up to them to prevent evil from being born and taking over the world.

The Frontier (NOIR) (director Oren Shai) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/frontier

A neo-noir neo-Western in the spirit of the Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino, The Frontier follows a female drifter (The House of the Devil’s Jocelin Donahue)as she steps into a desert motel run by a mysterious woman (Kelly Lynch), inhabited by a violent gang of thieves vying for control of a stash of cash. An official selection of SXSW 2015.

German Angst (director Jorg Buttgereit, Michal Kosakowski, Andreas Marschall) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/german-angst

German Angst consists of three short tales, each more depraved than the last. Final Girl details the exploits of a lonely girl, her guinea pig, and a secret in the basement. Make a Wish is a supernatural entry about a deaf couple and their magical talisman. Finally, Alraune follows a man whose hedonism takes him on a horrific journey. It’s a horror anthology that’s not for the faint of heart.

Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (director Sophie Fiennes) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/grace-jones-bloodlight-and-bami

The life and career of Grace Jones—prolific musical artist, androgynous icon, and glam pop staple—documented in a film just as bold, unpredictable, and dedicated as she is. The film follows Jones everywhere, onstage and off, revealing a determined artist navigating the pitfalls of a professional music career, a woman returning to visit her family and cultural homeland, as well as the massive on-stage legend she’s become.

Happy Times (director Michael Mayer) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/happy-times

A boorish Israeli-American couple plans a Sabbath dinner party for a group of fellow ex-pat friends and family in their Hollywood Hills mansion. What could possibly go wrong? Well, start with a deadly mix of alcohol, add inflated egos, some inappropriate lust and top with raging jealousy and the result is a cauldron of murderous mayhem. A shotgun, garden shears, kitchen knives and even a garbage disposal are used as weapons of choice as these deranged guests turn on each other in director Michael (Out in the Dark) Mayer’s outrageous and bloody comedy.

The Hitch-Hiker (director Ida Lupino) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/hitch-hiker

Beyond its obvious cultural significance as the only classic film noir directed by a woman (actress Ida Lupino), The Hitch-Hiker is perhaps better remembered as simply one of the most nightmarish motion pictures of the 1950s. Inspired by the true-life murder spree of Billy Cook, The Hitch-Hiker is the tension-laden saga of two men on a camping trip (Edmond O’Brien and Frank Lovejoy) who are held captive by a homicidal drifter (William Talman). He forces them, at gunpoint, to embark on a grim joyride across the Mexican desert. 2K Restoration from 35mm elements preserved by the Library of Congress.

House of Mortal Sin (director Pete Walker) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/house-mortal-sin

Pete Walker continued his series of religious-themed exploitation films with the scathing House of Mortal Sin. Father Meldrum (Anthony Sharp) is a Catholic priest more dedicated to the word than most. His strict belief in “divine justice” influences him to take rather extreme measures to redeem the lost and punish iniquity.

House of Whipcord (director Pete Walker) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/house-whipcord

House of Whipcord follows fashion model Ann-Marie (Penny Irving) as she is lured into a private reform school to be punished for her sexual liberation. Disciplined by a zealous warden (Barbara Markham) Ann-Marie must rely on her will and the help of her roommate (Ann Michelle) to escape this school of horrors. An undeniable influence on Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, Pete Walker’s film was at the time a reaction to the rising conservatism in British media.

Lips of Blood (director Jean Rollin) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/lips-blood

Jean-Loup Philippe stars as Frederic, a maternally-dominated young man who by chance is awakened to a dormant childhood memory by attending a launch party for a new perfume. A chateau pictured in the poster reminds him of a night, long ago, when he was lost and a beautiful young woman (Jennifer, played by Forever Emanuelle‘s Annie Belle) came out of nowhere to protect him through the night. Later, the woman—unaged—magically appears and beckons to him, and Frederic finds his way back to the chateau and to her, uncovering some dark secrets about his family’s past along the way.

The Living Dead Girl (director Jean Rollin) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/living-dead-girl

Catherine Valmont (Françoise Blanchard), a wealthy heiress dead before her time, is accidentally reanimated when some unfortunate movers attempt to store drums of chemical waste in the neglected burial vaults below her uninhabited chateau. Bloodier and more violent than his own tastes preferred, Living Dead Girl forced Rollin to work against the grain in his own preferred genre—and he transformed himself in the process.

Losing Ground (director Kathleen Collins) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/losing-ground

The first feature film directed by an African American woman, Losing Ground follows a black professor of philosophy as she embarks on an intellectual quest just as her painter husband, sets off on an exploration of joy. Victor decides to rent a country house away from the city, but the couple’s summer idyll becomes complicated by their extramarital explorations. The film is notable to genre fans as the second pairing of actors Duane Jones (Night of the Living Dead) and actor/filmmaker Bill Gunn, after their 1973 cult classic Ganja and Hess.

Miss Zombie (director SABU) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/miss-zombie

In a not-so-distant future, zombies have been partially domesticated by scientists and sold to rich families in Japan as slaves. One of these undead indentured servants—lucid enough to vaguely remember her past—becomes the pet of an influential Japanese family. Disrespected by her owners and abused by citizens, Miss Zombie’s animalistic instincts kick in, leading her to rise up against her oppressors.

Night Tide (director Curtis Harrington) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/night-tide

Prepare for Guillermo Del Toro’s’ Nightmare Alley with this carnival-themed psychological mystery. Dennis Hopper (Blue Velvet) plays a young sailor on leave who meets a woman working as a sideshow mermaid, who is rumored to have caused the deaths of her previous two lovers. The sailor must balance his growing affection for the siren and the increasing number of warning signs. Featuring occultist Marjorie Cameron as the Sea Witch.

Post Mortem (director Pablo Larrain) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/post-mortem

Mario (Alfredo Castro) is an unassuming state employee who transcribes notes during autopsies. Furtive and lonely, he becomes obsessed with his neighbor, the dancehall girl Nancy (Antonia Zegers), who is involved with a group of left-wing activists. With the coup, and the death of President Salvador Allende, Nancy’s friends are hunted down, and Mario’s hospital becomes clogged with the bodies of dissenters. Soon the violence filters into Mario’s psyche, and he begins to break down, much like his country.

Red Christmas (director Craig Anderson) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/red-christmas

Horror legend Dee Wallace (The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling, E.T., Cujo, Critters) stars as the stressed-out mother of a squabbling family, gathered together in a remote Outback estate on Christmas Eve. When a misshapen young man named Cletus appears at their door, things soon change from petty insults to bloody, imaginatively orchestrated violence as Wallace attempts to protect her family from the vengeful intruder. The film deliriously infuses comedy, dark family secrets with outlandish gore and adds the always controversial subject of abortion in its blood-stained mix.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (director Nicholas Webster) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/santa-claus-conquers-martians

Renowned as a holiday cult classic, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is one of the most amusing films ever made. It tells the story of the depressed children of Mars, who can only be brought out of their funk through the jolly cheer of Old St. Nick. So the Martian leaders travel to Earth and kidnap two local kids (one played by an 8-year-old Pia Zadora) and Kris Kringle himself. Brought back to the Red Planet, they are forcibly installed in a factory to make toys. But you can’t manufacture happiness, with Santa having to teach his alien overseers the true meaning of Christmas.

Un Chien Andalou (director Luis Buñuel) https://www.kinocult.com/feature/un-chien-andalou

With its closeup shot of the slicing of an eyeball, Un Chien Andalou is a cinematic gauntlet thrown down by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali. Almost a century old, the surrealist short masterpiece has lost none of its power to confound and shock an audience.

You can download the Kino Cult app in the U.S. and Canada and watch free on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Google TV, iOS, Android and at www.kinocult.com.

KINO LORBER BLU RAY RELEASE: Mr. Majestyk (1974)

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Directed by Richard Fleischer (Compulsion, Fantastic Voyage, Soylent Green, Mandingo, The Jazz Singer) and written by Elmore Leonard (Get Shorty, Out of Sight), this film finds our pally Charles Bronson playing Vincent Majestyk, an ex-con, former U.S. Army Ranger instructor and current watermelon farmer who just wants to get his crop in on time.

Bobby Kopas (Paul Koslo, Vanishing Point) tries to get Majestyk to pay protection money and ends up on the end of his own shotgun. He turns the table on our hero by bringing assault charges against him and Majestyk goes to jail before he can harvest his crops, potentially ruining his finances. So he does what you or I would: when gangster Frank Renda’s (Al Lettieri, The Godfather) men try to busy him loose, he kidnaps the crook himself and holds him for hostage. All he wants is to pick his melons.

The rest of the film finds the two men continually going at one another. Well, to be fair, Majestyk is only concerned with melons, whether in the field or owned by his love interest Nancy Chavez (Linda Cristal, who was on the TV show The High Chaparral and in the TV movie The Dead Don’t Die). Every time Renda, Kopas or any of their underlings try to take him down, he just laughs and gets over on them. Hey — it’s Bronson, you know?

I also love Lee Purcell in this movie, playing the gangster’s moll who carries a Bible everywhere she goes.

You have to love the tagline for this film: “Last year Billy Jack became one of the most popular pictures of our time. Walking Tall thrilled audiences across the nation. Now the movie everyone’s talking about is Mr. Majestyk.”

They also tried: “Why are they saying it’s the one movie you should see this year? Ask anyone who’s seen it. Anyone.”

This came out the same month as Death Wish and to show what a star Bronson was, when The Man with the Golden Gun underperformed, Mr. Majestyk played as a supporting feature underneath that Bond picture. I mean, there’s even a Turkish remake of this movie, Karpuzcu, which shows you just how big Bronson’s appeal was worldwide.

The Kino Lorber blu ray of this film has a gorgeous brand new 2K master, commentary by film historian Paul Talbot, the author of Bronson’s Loose*,  interviews with Director of Photography Richard H. Kline and Lee Purcell, TV commercials and a trailer. You can get it from Kino Lorber.

*Check out our interview with Paul here.

ARROW VIDEO SHAW SCOPE BOX SET

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From Movietown, their privately-owned studio outside Hong Kong, the Shaw Brothers produced some of the most incredible movies of all time. Now, Arrow Video has carefully curated and gorgeously presented a selection of all-time Shaw Brothers classics in their Shaw Scope box set.

With twelve Shaw Brothers films included — each in high definition (1080p) blu ray quality along with seven new 2K restorations by Arrow Films — this set is perfect for those just discovering the studio and their films or long-time fans.

It comes with an illustrated 60-page collectors’ book featuring new writing by David Desser, Terrence J. Brady and James Flower,  as well as cast and crew listings and notes on each film by Simon Abrams. There’s also new artwork by Sam Gilbey, Matthew Griffin, Chris Malbon, Jacob Phillips, Ilan Sheady, Tony Stella, Darren Wheeling and Jolyon Yates.

Plus, you’ll enjoy hours of never-before-seen bonus features, including several cast and crew interviews from the Frédéric Ambroisine Video Archive and two CDs of music — exclusive to this collection — from the De Wolfe Music library as heard in six of the films.

The films include (click on any of the links to see a full review of the movie):

King Boxer: Retitled 5 Fingers of Death in the U.S., Chung Chang’s tale of redemption and revenge ignited the international kung fu craze and made Shaw Brothers’ name known worldwide. After his master is attacked, Zhao Zhihao signs up to a fighting school to help improve his chances at winning the top prize in a national boxing tournament, as well as the hand of the master’s daughter. Speaking of hands, Zhao Zhihao learned the Iron Palm technique and uses it to destroy his enemies.

The Boxer from Shantung: The final battle in this movie is the stuff of martial arts legend. A story of a man overcoming poverty yet falling to temptation, which is a story that Chang Cheh told many times but always told so well.

Five Shaolin Masters: Also known as Five Masters of Death, this sequel to Shaolin Temple shows what happens when the Shaolin gather their forces, train and get revenge.

Shaolin Temple: With an all-star cast featuring the second and third generations of Chang Cheh’s stable of actors and cameo appearances by several of the actors that would later become collectively known as the Venoms Mob, this film is absolutely packed with fighting.

Mighty Peking Man: How would Shaw Brothers make a kaiju movie? Watch this and you will know this secret knowledge. This was Roger Ebert’s favorite Hong Kong monster film and that dude loved Infra-Man, so that should tell you how good this is.

Challenge of the Masters: Is there anything better than revenge in a martial arts movie? Alright, training sequences. Well, this one has both and it’s directed by the master of these types of movies, Lau Kar-leung.

Executioners from Shaolin: That “Tiger style!” Wu Tang sampled? It came from this movie. And so does an incredibly brutal fighter who is able to pull his manhood back into his body.

Chinatown Kid: Tan Tung barely survives the street battles of Hong Kong when he discovers that the same temptations exist on the streets of San Francisco.

Five Deadly Venoms: A dying master sends his last student to check up on five former apprentices who each know a special style of kung-fu. Sure, that sounds simple. The results are transcendent martial arts magic.

Crippled Avengers: These fighters’ bodies may have been broken, but not their spirits. This is as wild as Shaw Brothers martial arts cinema gets and worth the price of the entire box set.

Heroes of the East: When a Chinese martial artist and a Japanese fighter marry, cultural issues and the challenge of whose style is strongest make the regular issues of newlyweds seem small by comparison.

Dirty Ho: Gordon Liu plays a man of pleasure who is truly a martial arts master (and a prince) who lures a jewel thief into being his disciple.

I absolutely loved this set and keep coming back to it on my shelf, looking it over and just being so excited that it exists. Let it bring that same joy to your life.

You can get this set from MVD.

You can also stream these movies on the Arrow player. Visit ARROW to start your 30-day free trial. Subscriptions are available for $4.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly. ARROW is available in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland on the following Apps/devices: Roku (all Roku sticks, boxes, devices, etc), Apple TV & iOS devices, Android TV and mobile devices, Fire TV (all Amazon Fire TV Sticks, boxes, etc), and on all web browsers at https://www.arrow-player.com.

ARROW VIDEO SHAW SCOPE BOX SET: Dirty Ho (1979)

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Master Wang (Gordon Liu) is really the eleventh prince of Manchuria in disguise, trying to discover which of the other fourteen heirs to the throne are trying to kill him. He’s pretending to be a jewelry dealer which brings him into the world of jewel thief Dirty Ho (Wong Yue). Also, Wang is such a good fighter that he’s able to defeat people without ever seeming to be fighting them!

Wang conspires to get Ho to ask him to teach him in the ways of fighting. After Master Wang is injured, he demands that Ho take him on a journey to a ruined city battered by the wind in an astounding segment of this movie.

While so much of this Lau Kar-Leung-directed movie is given to comedy and wine-tasting, the last fights of the film make it worth a watch. It’s also a film that subverts the usual master and student story and has a Manchu character as the hero.

The Arrow Video Shaw Scope Volume One box set has a brand new 2K restoration of Dirty Ho from the original negative by Arrow Films. There are uncompressed Cantonese, Mandarin and English original mono audio, as well as newly translated English subtitles and English hard-of-hearing subtitles for the English dubs.

It also has alternate English credits, an appreciation of the movie by film critic and historian Tony Rayns, a Hong Kong trailer and an image gallery.

You can get this set from MVD.

You can also stream this movie on the Arrow player. Visit ARROW to start your 30-day free trial. Subscriptions are available for $4.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly. ARROW is available in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland on the following Apps/devices: Roku (all Roku sticks, boxes, devices, etc), Apple TV & iOS devices, Android TV and mobile devices, Fire TV (all Amazon Fire TV Sticks, boxes, etc), and on all web browsers at https://www.arrow-player.com.

ARROW VIDEO SHAW SCOPE BOX SET: Crippled Avengers (1978)

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Released in the U.S. as Mortal Combat and The Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms, this is the story of how Chu Twin and his son Chu Cho Chang have started a reign of terror. It all begins when Chu Twin returns home to find his wife murdered and his son critcally injured, with his arms amputated from the elbows down. Making him iron arms and training him in kung fu, the two find that revenge is not enough and now they have become the villains, crippling four men who get in their way.

The town’s blacksmith is forced to drink a burning liquid that takes his voice whole a ear clap from Chu Twin makes him deaf as well. A travelling salesman is blinded by Chu Cho Chang and another has his legs torn off just for bumping into Chu Cho Chang. When kung fu Yuan Yi, he attempts to make the evil doers pay for this damage, but instead finds his head crushed inside a vice, reducing his intelligence to that of an idiot.

As they escape to the temple of Yuan Yi’s master, they each find ways to use their injuries to their advantage, with the blacksmith increasing his vision, the salesman being able to hear a leaf hit the ground and the legless man gains iron legs and feet. As for Yuan Yi, he now sees fighting as a child’s game, happily laughing even in the face of death.

The four men return on Chu Twin’s 45th birthday and exact their revenge, battling a series of kung fu experts before challenging the evil master and his iron fisted son.

Four of the Venoms — Kuo Chui, Lu Feng, Sun Chien and Lo Meng — show up in this film and it’s quite literally a living and breathing cartoon. Movies like this are why you seek out the films of Shaw Brothers and director Chang Cheh.

The Arrow Video Shaw Scope Volume One box set has a brand new 2K restoration of Crippled Avengers from the original negative by Arrow Films. There’s uncompressed Mandarin and English original mono audio, as well as newly translated English subtitles and English hard-of-hearing subtitles for the English dubs.

There’s also a Hong Kong trailer and image gallery.

You can get this set from MVD.

You can also stream this movie on the Arrow player. Visit ARROW to start your 30-day free trial. Subscriptions are available for $4.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly. ARROW is available in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland on the following Apps/devices: Roku (all Roku sticks, boxes, devices, etc), Apple TV & iOS devices, Android TV and mobile devices, Fire TV (all Amazon Fire TV Sticks, boxes, etc), and on all web browsers at https://www.arrow-player.com.