I picked this up in one of their earlier sales. Similarly hadn’t heard much about it. It’s an interesting movie, but a pretty huge misfire and missed opportunity. It starts off great with escaped (and innocent) prisoner Raymond St. Jacques eluding a manhunt and getting picked up by seemingly random driver Kevin McCarthy, who’s really after a patsy to murder his wife (Dana Wynter, McCarthy’s costar in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) so he can gain her inheritance. It’s a really great set-up, with strong potential for cat-and-mouse games between the leads underscored by social commentary a la, say, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT. The slick visuals in the opening sequences – set partly during a rainstorm as I recall – really draw you in but then it derails extremely fast, with a plot that gets more implausible and frustrating as it goes, with cheap and (with the exception of McCarthy’s house and a jazz club St. Jacques visits in a flashback) poorly-dressed backlot sets and locations that are photographed in the style of just about every TV series back then: flat, ugly, and fake (pics at IMDb). This isn’t a Universal film but it reminded me, visually, of a slew of Universal movies from the 60’s that were blandly shot on their increasingly unconvincing backlot sets. This one might have been shot there too. Even the supporting characters are stock TV cutouts. It’s sometimes labelled as an early Blacksploitation film and while that theory holds water, writer-director Charles Martin very clearly had loftier ideas in mind but lacked the filmmaking chops to deliver them in a visually compelling or coherent fashion. Apparently it was based on a novel by noted black author Chester Hines but based on the Wiki synopsis of the book, the movie bears virtually no resemblance to it story-wise and barely touches on its themes.

One thing it does have is a rather surprising – for 1968 – and extended full nude scene from Barbara MacNair, a TV actress making her feature debut. She did a Playboy pictorial as a tie-in. Both are easily found online and might spare folks any time watching the film.

Charles Martin made another film called HOW TO SEDUCE WOMEN which similarly had potential to ‘say something’ about contemporary culture, but yet again was a contrived mess largely and flatly shot on a swanky apartment set that literally looked like something out of a TV sitcom. It’s on one of the discounted Dark Force Drive-In double features with the (slightly) better CLASSROOM TEASERS, which looks like a teen sex comedy but has an interesting and borderline sci-fi hook to it. Apparently Dark Force found the previously missing original camera negative for that one and will be putting out a 4K set down the road, which is probably overdoing things a bit.

Shout's next big sale:

Quote:

Shocktober is going to be 10/4 to 10/17, barring any last minute unforeseen changes.

Dark Force has some bundles right now and free shipping until the end of the day.
https://darkforcesuperstore.com/

The Hong Kong Bundle seemed like a good deal in comparison to the regular prices of the 3 titles.

Not bad. I’d wager they might be available longer, too, though I may not test that theory (even though I suspect the HK titles might get cheaper down the road). Some of the items on sale last month (with the pumpkin images) were up longer than originally announced. I think it’s just the lo-fi way he runs the site.

Barnes and Noble has 40% off select titles from 88 Films. That applies to next week’s Project A collection too.

This sweetens it for you.
LADIES & GENTLEMAN WELCOME TO DARK FORCE!!
FREE US SHIPPING EXTENDED TO 10-8 AT MIDNIGHT!!
CANADA 24-HOUR SPECIAL OFFER!! FREE SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS OVER JUST 20.00!! SAVE 18.00 SHIPPING!!!
Support your local Dark Forces so we can continue to bring you the finest in cult home video releases on blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD!! THANK YOU: darkforcesuperstore.com

That would’ve been cool, but he offered it after I ordered the bundle to my U.S. mailing address, which I have to visit in the next couple of weeks anyway for other parcels. It would be nice if he offered that again in the future. At least the U.S. shipping was free, which helped. Dude really needs to get an assistant or someone to run a more consistent show - it often seems like a one-man operation since ‘Banana Man’ passed.

Eureka Horror Sale, until Monday (free shipping from the UK, I believe):

https://eurekavideo.co.uk/promotions/horror-2024-sale/

And a small sale on Fun City Editions at Grindhouse:

https://grindhousevideo.com/collections/fun-city-sale

MVD Halloween Sale, until Nov. 1. Free shipping at $75+
https://mvdshop.com/collections/hall...e-october-2024

Also at Oldies:
https://www.oldies.com/collection-vi...rror-Sale.html

The Mondo Macabro sale is live!

It's just DVD, but I picked up "Lady Terminator" because it's one of my favorite kookfests.

I recommend this one for anybody looking to pad out an order, and for a fun kookfest, as noted. For ten bucks it’s worth a view at least. I’ve had it for years and I do wish Mondo would upgrade it to Blu-ray and maybe add some extra supplements, but I won’t hold my breath. Same goes for DANGEROUS SEDUCTRESS (same director), which was likewise only released by Mondo on DVD and also in a DVD combo pack with LADY TERMINATOR and both are kinda pricey now.

I've only seen "Lady Terminator" on a streaming channel I love ( "B-Zone" ), & I'm pretty sure there it's a VHS rip. So a DVD copy is gonna be fan-cy.

Halloween Sale at Flicker Alley until Oct. 31, with 25% off select titles (all great ones) that appear to be going OOP (??). The discount brings them to about $26 apiece. Free shipping over $75:

Had a feeling something was off in the Flicker Alley sale, especially considering NEVER OPEN THAT DOOR just came out recently. They sent a clarification today :

Upcoming ‘Black November’ sale at Grindhouse Video:

Imprint Australia is having a decent sale.

Imprint Sale

https://eurekavideo.co.uk/promotions...i-sale-25-off/

Huge savings alert! Enjoy a fantastic 25% discount on selected Limited Edition Blu-rays at the Eureka Store. Don't miss out, act fast before sale ends on Monday 18 November at 10 am (GMT). Grab your favourites now while stocks last!

Are Eureka’s releases region free?

They only started doing US releases relatively recently, with BLACK MASK (which is in the anale) and CAT AND THE CANARY (which isn’t), and maybe certain titles since then. So BLACK MASK is Region A+B, while the other sale titles are all Region B. If they do this sale again next year, there’s a better chance of it having multi-region titles.

Their US-friendly editions can be seen here. I bought most of these from the UK site (with rating logos on the slips and ‘Region B’ logo on the back) and they likewise play on my Region A player.

Even though I have what I want from their label so far (foolishly without waiting for discounts ) I do wish their sales included more titles overall, rather than a small selection of newer ‘waves’ each time with no option to stock up on older releases.

I like that Valley Girl set, but I already have the Shout. Not really worth importing for just that title.

For what it’s worth, they don’t charge shipping, so what you see listed is what you pay. Not sure how they can do that when other companies with similarly-priced discs like 88 don’t. I’m sure it’s baked in to their pricing, but it certainly makes it more appealing to order single discs if needed.

Thanks for the info. That definitely makes it more appealing.

50/50. Less since they opened a USA store.

I wish they would lose the Kung Fu, & focus more on classic German like they used to.

If one only buys from the U.S. store, then the catalog is indeed virtually all Asian stuff (albeit not all kung fu). The UK store is more varied (but being region-free is mandatory) even if they don’t exhume old German films anymore. I’m assuming the Asian stuff simply outsells them, for now, so presumably that’s become a key market for them.