Awesome news. Great time to be a Bava fan with all these great re-releases. I'm glad to see I can get rid of my Jef Films copy of Rabid Dogs. Hopefully they crank out Vol. 2 quickly.

I always hold on to my OOP dvds when re-released. There always seems to be something on the old discs (transfer, extras, etc.) that never makes it to the re-issues.

Some bad news:

http://www.videowatchdog.blogspot.com/

I've just been notified by Ed Peters, the publicist for Anchor Bay Entertainment's MARIO BAVA COLLECTION VOLUME 1, that "the specs [for the set] have changed."

There's no nice way to break the news, so I'll just come out with it: I am now told that the English versions of BLACK SUNDAY, BLACK SABBATH and EVIL EYE will not be included in the set, after all. I'm not privy to the behind-the-scenes story, so don't ask; I've just been asked to make the announcement. I'm as surprised and disappointed as you must be. All I can say is that I hope my audio commentaries for the three films (and the attendant release of RABID DOGS/KIDNAPPED) will be added incentive enough for Bava fans to support the release of the new ABE transfers.

The U.S. versions of Black Sunday and Black Sabbath are AIP titles now owned by MGM/UA. Black Sunday should still have English track if it's the international version that was on the Image disc. Evil Eye(U.S. version) is also an AIP title.

Fuck!

That's why I'm holding on to my old Image releases. Something like this always happens...though I did order the new set at DD for $29.99. At $6.00 a disc, it's still a good bargain.

So this "set" only contains 2 movies? wth.....??

you gotta be kidding me...

Guys, read it carefully. It says "I am now told that the English versions of BLACK SUNDAY, BLACK SABBATH and EVIL EYE will not be included in the set, after all." It's just the english versions of those films that won't be there, not the original Italian versions. All five films are still in the set like they always were. The English versions of those three will not be included, which most people didn't think was coming in the first place when they announced the titles. It's still a great deal.

Hopefully the Midnight Movies will be ressurrected by MGM/UA and the English versions will be included. Otherwise I don't think we'll ever get them.

Then why did he make it sound like such doom and gloom?

I am actually quite surprised the alternate cuts will not be included. I thought Fox had a pretty good relationship with Anchor Bay. Maybe as rw2516 stated, they are saving them for a Midnight Movies relaunch. Sony let the Midnight Movies line languish. Hopefully, Fox has more interest in the AIP/MGM/UA/Orion genre back catalog.

Fox's apparent willingness to sublicense Salo and Stranger Than Paradise back to Criterion gives me a little hope that there may still be time to work out a deal to include the alternate Bava cuts. (Although, the Stranger Than Paradise deal may have more to do with Jarmusch than Fox.)

Because,
 

to fans of the films, it's a big deal because they've been released before, and the English versions are something fans really wanted. If you go to many of the "genre" websites, some fans have already said they won't be buying the set because of this. So it IS a big deal to some people, but others...not so much. FYI, if you look at Tim's blog where this info came from, he lists the new specs for five films in the box set.

Gotcha.... okay, I'm better. I was worried for a bit :)

Lucas received more information from Anchor Bay late today, but he was told to hold off posting it because "apparently, there's a new wrinkle."

Well, there is no incentive for me to buy what I already own. What a shame. Guess I'll be passing on this one after all...

let's hope that the news is that they are including BOTH versions of the films after the resulting backlash. presently the only one i have is black sunday (snapper). would like to upgrade to the new set but will hold off selling my old copy to see how this pans out.

It's too bad the Tim Lucas commentary for "Kill Baby Kill" will not be included on the AB release. Is Dark Sky an affiliate of Image Entertainment? Since the commentary is on the Dark Sky release I'm assuming it's a contractual issue w/Image if they are indeed business partners.

Dark Sky Films is a wholly owned subsidiary of MPI.

Not to get off topic here, but is Criterion putting out an edition of Stranger Than Paradise?

It's on the list of "Certainties":
http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23

The "new wrinkle" that Tim Lucas mentioned on his blog regarding the pending ANCHOR BAY press release for the Mario Bava set turned out to be much ado about nothing. Sadly, these coming releases seem to have little to offer those of us with the Image editions....we who had hoped for the English soundtracks/versions, particularily for BLACK SABBATH. Its really a shame to have the announcment made and have the rug pulled out.

I don't understand it.

Not the first time AB has announced titles that are the obvious property of a major studio. Remember THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. ?

AIP routinely picked up foreign language films for U.S distribution. They would then record new soudtracks, add new titles, and often change the title of film. Sometimes they would even film new footage. AIP now MGM/UA still retain ownership to their "modifications" even if not the film.
This was just for the U.S. There is sometimes an english language version that was released for english speaking Europe by someone else. This is the case with BLACK SUNDAY. The dvd of ATRAGON contains the european english track, not the U.S. one because AIP released it in the U.S. and still own the soundtrack they recorded.

Looking forward, I hope the second box set has a properly recorded "Twitch of the Death Nerve." The sound on the old Image release is not very good.

The sound is Dolby Digital mono and is mostly free of hiss, but the dialogue is very low and suffers from distortion, while music track is high. This is unfortunately due to the source materials and is no fault of Image. In addition, these Euro-films were poorly dubbed in a single day with out much care (Look at the lip movements). Image does the best they can do with what they have to work with and while it's not the best, it's passable.

Source:
http://www.dvdmaniacs.net/Reviews/Q-...ath_nerve.html

The audio problems on the Image "Twitch of the Death Nerve" DVD has nothing to do with how the audio was originally dubbed for the film. If Image received poor or damaged audio tracks, they should have looked elsewhere to find one in decent shape. The audio also sounds like it was over-filtered somewhere along the line. The old VHS from Gorgon had perfect sound so good audio tracks are out there somewhere. By the way, that Image "Twitch" DVD has the absolute worst audio I have ever heard on any DVD and it should have been recalled (or never released at all).