In light of thread being started for Terror Vision, I figured it wouldn't hurt to have one for Film Masters, which has been around for several months now putting out worthy new editions of stuff previously stuck in public domain hell. The duo behind the label actually used run Film Detective label, which put out a few gems itself. Apparently they sold the company, then weren't happy with the direction (or lack thereof?) that the new owners took it in, so they decided to get back in the game.

Their key titles so far are the Film Group Roger Corman movies from the 50's. All have been available forever, everywhere, thanks to their public domain status, but being a modest fan of these drive-in quickies and having bought three of these Blu-rays so far, I can say they've never looked this good, probably even when they played the drive-in circuit. Each of the four Corman releases (another just came out today) have been double features, with each film on a separate disc with decent bonus features, including Ballyhoo docs, TV cuts (if available, and commentaries by veteran folks who, at least in a couple of cases, actually had contact back in the day with the people involved in the films. On the downside, Film Masters has – like far too many boutique labels these days — contracted friggin' podcasters (in this case The Monster Party) to do typically weak and jokey commentaries, so that bugs me but I can easily avoid them.

The company has also released standalone editions of the 1935 version of THE SCARLET LETTER, the 70's thriller SWISS CONSPIRACY, and just announced Bert I Gordon's clever little gem TORMENTED, which also includes the MST3K episode.

These go for around $20 each on Amazon, and I have to admit that's about what I've paid for the three I have so far, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do a sale now that they have a small library going.

Special Features:

Interview:

I wouldn’t mind some of that sci fi schlock if I start bored shopping.

Looks like Film Masters has access to the Something Weird archives now. Nice to have another label updating and distributing these. If we had to rely on VS/AGFA and the few others taking the time, we’d be waiting forever.

This pairing of COMMON LAW WIFE and JENNIE, WIFE CHILD was one of the more entertaining SWV double-feature DVDs back in the day:

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They’ve also revealed cover art for their edition of one of the craziest Taiwan / Hong Kong cult martial arts films, CRIPPLED MASTERS, on their site. They put up a restoration video and trailer last summer, but still no release date yet. Presumably the artwork means it’s close:





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Their 2024 promo reel shows Corman's NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST, plus FIVE MINUTES TO LIVE with Johnny Cash and Ron Howard (both of those are on Tubi), as well as some of the already announced stuff and some other bits 'n pieces:


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Lastly, they're launching something called the Archive Collection of single-disc DVD releases, which so far consist of three Poverty Row pictures that run barely an hour each: HERE'S FLASH CASEY (1938), CONVICT'S CODE (1939) and LIGHTHOUSE (1947). The site prices these at $14.99 list, which is ridiculous, but I'd wager these are the kinds of titles that could be distributed to dump bins and as padding to online retailer 'sales' for $5 or $6 a pop, which would then generate more income for their mainline titles. Just a guess, of course.

Trailer for the TORMENTED Blu-ray:

July 23, 2024

Features:

• Liner notes by Lawrence Carter-Long
• Full Commentary track by The Important Cinema Club
• New documentary by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures
• Original trailer recut using restored film elements

The trailer for Tormented does a pretty good job of getting me interested in this film. I suspect that I might end up picking up some of these titles up when they hopefully go on sale.

The Crippled Masters looks all kinds of fun. Never seen it before.

Film Masters did a great job with their Swiss Conspiracy Blu-ray. Neat little eurothriller from the Seventies with John Saxon and Senta Berger, not to mention a small role for screen siren Elke Sommer.

https://www.doblu.com/2024/03/11/the...lu-ray-review/

TORMENTED is a really solid thriller. My first time seeing it (after having read about it over the years) was in 2001 when Something Weird buried it as one of a million Easter eggs in their MONSTERS CRASH THE PAJAMA PARTY disc (itself worthy of a revisit from VS or AGFA). I was surprised how good it was, given SW’s treatment. And the print wasn’t bad, either, as I recall.

I’ve bought the four Corman / Film Group double-features so far (just got DEVIL’s PARTNER last weekend) and casual skims of each confirms that these films have never looked better. They’re all drive-in schlock, but the restorations and supplements were quite unexpected after so many decades of awful public domain (and/or MST3K) versions making the films look much worse than they really are as entertainment.

I do think that Film Masters will soon have enough titles in their library that they could do a sale (at which point I’ll regret jumping too soon on these four! ), and $10-15 US for them would be solid value.

I’ve seen a few good notices about their SWISS CONSPIRACY disc, too. And it’s a Jack Hill film, shot on location, so you can’t really go wrong there. Will definitely be picking it up at some point. And since I just realized I forgot to post the trailer for it earlier in this thread, here it is:


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The Important Cinema Club is yet another pair of podcaster/blogger/social media types. They’re based here in Toronto, I believe, and are also behind the Gold Ninja BD-R label, which they jokingly refer to as the “Criterion of Public Domain” or something like that. They do put some care into their efforts in terms of scans of the best prints they can find, commentaries by these two, featurettes, bonus SD films, etc. Their releases were reasonably priced in the early days, around $15 CDN a pop, but have gradually approached double that over time, which kinda stinks for public domain (or supposed public domain) stuff. They also distribute some newer fringey-indie films that otherwise wouldn’t get (and probably don’t deserve) such treatment. But their efforts have — not unlike a lot of podcaster/blogger fanboys and girls — paid off with gigs like this commentary for other labels. I’ve only picked up the Gold Ninja martial arts releases so far, but haven’t really cracked any yet, so I don’t know if their commentaries are any good.

Next up . . .

Johnny Cash isn't much of an actor, unfortunately. Likely hooked on drugs during this period as well.

Agree on both counts. From what I've read, this was his only feature film until A GUNFIGHT with Kirk Douglas ten years later, but it's still an interesting time capsule. I just recently plowed through a bunch of old Mill Creek DVD sets of Crown International Pictures movies and one of them was THE ROAD TO NASHVILLE (1967), which is basically a country/western jukebox "musical" showcasing popular acts of the day within a weak 'talent scout' framing story with Doodles Weaver. Cash is one of the showcase numbers, and he does a bang-up job, but it does seem like he might be on something.

I'm probably more interested in RIGHT HAND OF THE DEVIL. I'm always kinda fascinated by these one-guy-does-everything indie movies from back then. Sometimes these types of movies are real train wrecks, but the few reviews for this one online are modestly positive.

Next up, on October 22:

November’s double feature. I generally like Weaver’s well-researched commentaries, but it would be nice if he left his subtle Trump support out of them. Maybe we’ll luck out with these:



Film Masters also has a new series of limited editions on their site, each limited to 500 copies, with commentary and booklet.
https://www.filmmasters.com/limited-edition

I just received my copy of "It's Love Again" (1936) on blu-ray. I noticed that it is a burnt BD-R disc instead of factory pressed. Is this normal for their releases? Nothing on Amazon or moviezyng's listing suggested it would be a BD-R so I was a bit surprised.

In my limited experience with the label they use pressed BDs. Though publicity material seems to indicate they sometimes only press 500-1000 units. I wonder if they switch to BD-R if they sell out of their initial pressing? Just speculating, I don't know.

This was just released on July 27th though. Maybe they didn't think there was enough demand for this title to do factory pressed? I don't know

They have different lines. Probably best to check their site first to see where a title resides. That’s part of their ‘Archive Collection’ which was noted in this thread back when it only had a few DVDs in it (which I now suspect are DVD-R’s). Looks like they’ve simply branched out into BD-R’s. They don’t seem to draw much attention to it, nor do they mention what discs are used, which isn’t cool (unless they clarify on social media or something). I can kinda see Jessie Matthews movies being in this line. They’re usually quite good, but she’s fairly obscure nowadays. VCI had a bunch of her movies on DVD for years and I always wondered how well they sold, and whether I was in some minority that actually gave them a shot.
https://www.filmmasters.com/archive-collection


Film Masters also has the ‘Limited Edition’ line, the first three of which, on Blu, I posted a couple of weeks back. Now I’m curious if those will be burned as well.
https://www.filmmasters.com/archive-collection


Their ‘Special Edition’ line seems to be the only one that reliably consists of pressed discs with multiple bonus features and booklets.
https://www.filmmasters.com/special-edition

Film Masters just made their 4K restoration of REDNECK MILLER available for free viewing on YouTube about an hour ago (I don’t know if it’s a limited time deal or not). It’s part of their Limited Edition line of Blu-rays posted here a while back, but this might save folks a few bucks. Haven’t watched it yet, but the trailer (bottom) makes it look kinda fun:

Another Corman classic from these folks, MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR (1954) available Feb. 4. They’ve done definitive releases of his stuff so far, so hopefully this follows suit.




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Also, for those not keen on buying the Blu-rays, they’ve uploaded a few of their earlier titles to their YouTube channel, some in both film-only and film-with-commentary versions, with certain supplements. Probably worth a scroll through their offerings. For example:




A few others are there, too, mixed in with their usual uploads of fuzzy public domain offerings, and the occasional raw 4K scan, including the 1969 drive-in obscurity THE NAKED WITCH from Texas legend Larry Buchanan (and shot, not surprisingly for him, for $8,000 ):


They’ve also got EMPEROR JONES and LADY OF BURLESQUE listed as coming soon in their Limited Edition line.
https://www.filmmasters.com/limited-edition

Just noticed this new double feature ‘coming soon’ on the FM site. Apt timing, I suppose. INVASION USA (1952) is a passable ‘Red Scare’ flick, and the similarly-themed ROCKET ATTACK USA (1960) is horrible, like much of its director’s work. I like their use of the original Italian poster art on the sleeve (the old Synapse DVD of INVASION USA used the similarly eye-catching U.S. poster design). I suppose the extras will be the deciding factor on this one, once they’re announced. The Synapse DVD is still in print, so I’m assuming FM will have different supplements. Both films are on TUBI.

Film Masters has released a number of Blu-rays in the last year in their lower-tier Limited Edition (commentaries only, usually) and Archive Edition (barebones) lines for the last year or more, mostly public domain stuff that they presumably have decent surviving prints for, but it’s been at least that long since they released anything in their premium Special Edition line, but now they’ve got a fun sci-fi double feature for July.

Both of these were previously available in the Wade Williams DVDs that Image put out decades ago, so perhaps they were finally able to rescue them from his estate?





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They also released this four-film collection a couple of weeks ago featuring titles they originally put out under their Film Detective label before that got bought out and, seemingly, closed down (?). I picked this up in a store here a few days ago. The listed extras are from the older discs (which I also have - sigh) but I’ll need to spin these new ones to see if they actually ported over everything because some old supplements aren’t listed on the sleeve of this new set.