April looks like being an expensive month.
The next Columbia “Icons” box set that was promised midway through last year – “Icons Of Suspense”, a collection of six thrillers from Hammer – is now tentatively slated for an April release; more details as they come to hand. This set collects Joseph Losey’s These Are The Damned (finally!), Cash On Demand (Pete! Yes!), Maniac, Never Take Sweets From A Stranger (aka Never Take Candy From A Stranger), The Snorkel and The Full Treatment (aka Stop Me Before I Kill). Once again, there is a chance to vote for your preferred cover art from the three choices shown above; the link is here.
Everyone’s probably heard this, but it’s worth repeating: Shout! Factory and New Horizons Pictures are remastering a range of Roger Corman productions. Those with confirmed release dates are Piranha (Special Edition), Humanoids From The Deep and Up From The Depths/Demon Of Paradise (double-disc) in April, and Piranha (Special Edition) (Blu-Ray), Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (Special Edition) (DVD and Blu-Ray) and Suburbia in May. Other titles listed to follow include Death Race 2000, Deathsport, Forbidden World and Galaxy Of Terror.
And in an astonishing – and astonishingly welcome – piece of news, Shout! Factory will also be remastering and releasing all eight of the “Showa” Gamera films. It is not clear yet whether these releases will include both the Japanese and American versions, but they may, at least by inference: Shout! is still trying to get hold of Gammera The Invincible, to which Kadokawa Pictures (the licensor) does not own the rights. Stay tuned for more details.
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#1 by DaveC on January 17, 2010 - 7:07 pm
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Great news! I *really* want to see “These Are The Damned”.
🙂
#2 by The Rev. D.D. on January 17, 2010 - 8:50 pm
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I’d finally get to see vs. Jiger! That’d be great. Not that remastered versions of vs. Barugon and vs. Gyaos wouldn’t be welcome.
And as a bonus, I could inflict the other ones on everyone around me! What a deal!
Even with Gamera: Super Monster.
#3 by lyzard on January 17, 2010 - 9:04 pm
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Yes, indeed: the official announcement made a particular point of saying they would be releasing Gamera: Super Monster. 🙂
#4 by El Santo on January 17, 2010 - 9:55 pm
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Doubtless I’m the only one in this position, but I’m hoping for subtitled versions of the Japanese originals, plus both US dubs for the four films that were released over here in drastically differing alternate versions. I can’t defend it, but I honestly prefer the staggeringly lousy Sandy Frank dubs to the more carefully executed ones from AIP-TV.
#5 by Cullen on January 18, 2010 - 3:48 am
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If they’re releasing Gamera: Super Monster does that mean they’re paying people to take the disc? Cause ethically that’s the only way that turkey should be released.
(Don’t mind me. My big fear is that it’ll be a collection, meaning I’m going to have to add buying/owning Gamera: Super Monster to my list of shame. Right up there with two copies of Godzilla vs. Megalon and two of the Dracula vs. Frankenstein (Collect all three!))
#6 by Braineater on January 18, 2010 - 1:23 pm
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No. No, it won’t.
As I recall, the Frank dubs are actually surprisingly close to literal translations of the originals. I remember being stunned that “This is what we scientists call a ‘Death Ray Projector'” was actually in the original of Gaos (and come to think of it, my other favorite line — “Let’s just call it a monster!” — isn’t too far off, either). My impression is that AIP tried to make sense of the scripts, while Frank just took them at face value and executed them really badly.
Considering how much re-used footage there is in the other Showa flicks, adding Gamera: Super Monster to the set really is overkill. I wish they’d include the reconstructed footage from Gamera vs. Garasharp instead.
#7 by The Rev. D.D. on January 19, 2010 - 7:22 am
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It’s great in the sense that it’s the only Showa Gamera movie I haven’t seen. I’ve heard it’s not a particularly strong entry, but I’m a completist with the giant monster movies.
I mean, hell, I own Yonggary/Reptilian and Kraa the Sea Monster. It’s not worse than those, right?
#8 by Cullen on January 19, 2010 - 8:28 am
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If you’ve seen the Gamera series, you’ve seem Gamera: Super Monster. Next to none of the big guy’s footage is new stuff, if that, and the story really isn’t that great.
Bear in mind, though, I haven’t seen the flick for better than a decade. And that half the time I watch a Gamera flick these days I wonder what the appeal was for me as a kid.
(Which, incidentally, won’t stop me from buying the movies. Remastered rather than the crap copies I got? I’m in. So in.)
#9 by The Rev. D.D. on January 20, 2010 - 9:52 am
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I actually watched it a couple of years ago; we moved and I unearthed the tape, made during the one and only showing I’ve ever encountered of it on TV. Man, those “superheroes” were useless.
Much like the rest of the movie, come to think of it.
#10 by MatthewF on January 20, 2010 - 11:26 am
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Or, as my wife would say, you’re a grown man and this is a film about a giant jet propelled turtle and you were expecting it to be good?
#11 by The Mud Puppy on January 20, 2010 - 2:59 pm
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The Shusuke Kaneko trilogy of Gamera films proves that it is perfectly valid to answer that question with, “Yes.”
Man, if I can afford it, Shout Factory will be getting a lot of my money this year. I’ll finally be able to get Piranha since I missed it before, the Showa Gamera films, and I’m even halfway tempted to trade in my copy of Humanoids From The Deep for the one they’re releasing.
I kind of hope they’ll be releasing Galaxy of Terror and Forbidden World as a double feature disc because I’ve always been curious about the latter and my inexplicable affection for the former guarantees I’ll be buying it.
#12 by El Santo on January 20, 2010 - 6:32 pm
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“I’ve always been curious about [Forbidden World]”
Forbidden World is great. Completely unpretentious and completely unrepentent, it’s a fine example of why, when you wanted something ripped off right in the 70’s and early 80’s, the smart thing to do was to go straight to Roger Corman and New World Pictures.
#13 by The Mud Puppy on January 20, 2010 - 9:27 pm
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Heh, well that’s a glowing endorsement if I ever heard one. I’ll definitely check it out.
And I forgot to mention it earlier, but I, too, am a fan of the Sandy Frank dubs for the Gamera films. Though that may be because they’re the only ones I’ve ever actually seen.