Coming to DVD: The Fly Collection 1958-1965

This week 20th Century Fox will be unleashing their all new NTSC Region-1 The Fly DVD Collection which will include The Fly (1958), The Return of the Fly (1959) and The Curse of the Fly (1965). This terrific 4 disc DVD set features all new transfers of each of these classic science fiction thrillers and the films are presented in their original widescreen aspect ratios. This is also the first time that The Curse of the Fly has been made available on DVD in the U.S.

Besides the three movies mentioned above, The Fly Collection also includes a bonus DVD with a Vincent Price A & E Biography made in 1997, a short feature called Fly Trap: Catching a Classic, still galleries, poster art galleries and more!

The Fly Collection promises to be a real treat for anyone interested in classic science fiction films and monster movies. Few films have been as influential as the original Fly (1958). The film spawned numerous sequels and remakes, but it still has plenty of surprises to offer first-time viewers.

For more information about The Fly Collection please see Amazon

- Kimberly Lindbergs

Coming to DVD: Warner Cult Camp Classics

Warner Home Video is releasing a huge batch of campy cult classics on NTSC Region-1 DVD next week that are sure to entertain B-movie fans. The films are available in four different collections and each collection contains 3 different movies.

Cult Camp Classics 1 - Sci-Fi Thrillers: Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (1958), Giant Behemoth (1958), Queen of Outer Space (1958).
Cult Camp Classics 2 - Women in Peril: The Big Cube (1968), Caged (1950), Trog (1969).
Cult Camp Classics 3 - Terrorized Travelers: Hot Rods to Hell (1966), Skyjacked (1972), Zero Hour! (1957)
Cult Camp Classics 4 - Historical Epics: The Colossus of Rhodes (1961), Land of the Pharaohs (1955), The Prodigal (1955)

Many of the films have never been released on DVD before and most of them will be presented in Anamorphic Widescreen for the first time. Some titles will also include Audio Commentaries and Original Theatrical Trailers. Each volume retails for $29.98, but they are currently available from Amazon for a low pre-order price of $20.99.

For more information please see Amazon.

DVD Review: Insignificance (1985)

The premise of Nicolas Roeg’s oddity Insignificance is improbable and instantly compelling: over the course of a muggy night in New York City in 1953 a famous actress, baseball player, physics professor and senator interact with varying degrees of civility. It is clear to anyone familiar with post-war American culture that these are Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, Albert Einstein and communist-rooter-outer Joe McCarthy respectively, though their names are never mentioned. Like author Don DeLillo, Roeg here attempts to digest an era using a sample of its most celebrated sons and daughters.

Most of the action takes place in the Professor’s hotel room (betraying its origins as a stage play). He is recovering from a sinister visit from the oleaginous Senator – efficiently played by Tony Curtis – when he receives another unexpected guest, the Actress a.k.a. Ms. Monroe (Theresa Russell). She is fresh from another subway-vent photoshoot, miserable, weary of being treated and portrayed as a brainless sexpot.

She surprises the Professor (Michael Emil) by showing a high respect for, if not a precise grasp of, his work in physics. For his part, he is largely speechless in the presence of her beauty, which he has no equations to describe. Just as their conversation is about to move from the verbal to the physical, the Ball Player (a brilliant Gary Busey) thunders in in search of the Actress, his wife.

Cult Clip: The Mysterians (1957)

The Mysterians (aka Chikyu Boeigun, 1957) is a great Japanese science fiction film produced by Toho Studios in 1957 and directed by Ishiro Honda, who's mostly remembered for his Godzilla movies.

The story involves a group of aliens called the Mysterians who arrive on earth from the planet Mysteroid with their giant destructive robot and immediately demand three-square kilometers of land and some Earth women to breed with. Naturally they are refused and humanity declares war on the Mysterians.

The Mysterians was one of the first Japanese films shot in anamorphic widescreen. Toho Studios called their anamorphic system "TohoScope" and they specifically made The Mysterians to showcase this new process. You can enjoy some vintage TohoScope space action in this great trailer for The Mysterians:

- Kimberly Lindbergs

The Ed Wood Collection - A Salute to Incompetence

Filmmaker Edward D. Wood Jr. (1924-1978) is a B-movie icon and best-known for the cult classic Plan 9 from Outer Space. During his lifetime he had numerous jobs including cinema usher, U.S. Marine, circus “freak” and pulp novelist. Wood started writing and directing movies in the early 1950s, but he was generally ignored throughout his filmmaking career and sadly died penniless. In the 1980s he gained a reputation as the “worst director of all time” who made movies that personified the phrase "so bad they're good" and after Tim Burton made a film about Wood’s life (Ed Wood, 1994) starring Johnny Depp, his reputation and cult status became legendary.

On March 13th Passport Video is releasing The Ed Wood Collection - A Salute to Incompetence, which contains six of Ed Wood’s full-length films and an original documentary called The Ed Wood Story featuring exclusive interviews with Martin Laudau, Johnny Depp, Bela Lugosi Jr. and Dolores Fuller, among others.

Mexican wrestling movies

Ever wanted to know more about Mexican wrestling movies but were afraid to ask? Well, you're in luck if you happen to be in the Manchester area, as local arthouse cinema The Cornerhouse is hosting an introductory talk about the movies, followed by some examples of these low budget gems.

How Santo saved the world: an introduction to the world of Mexican wrestling movies is a one hour programme covering the world of Lucha Libre. Enormously popular in their native Mexico, these low budget films often pitted an assortment of masked wrestlers against an array of evil doers. Come along and see the likes of Santo and Blue Demon save Mexico, and hear about their cultural significance from Andy Willis of the University of Salford.

In addition, the cinema is showing some vintage classics, including Santo in the Wax Museum, Santo vs The Invasion of the Martians and Santo and Blue Demon vs the Monsters.

For details of the showings and prices, check the Cornerhouse website.

DVD review: Destination Moon (1950) and Invaders from Mars (1953)

Released this week for the first time in the UK on the shiny silver disc are two sci-fi classics that no serious fan of the genre should be without. Both were early pioneers of the science fiction movie format, but approached the world of the fantastic from completely opposite directions.

Destination Moon, widely considered the first serious sci-fi movie, was based on Robert Heinlein's novel and took a fiercely realistic approach to the concept of space travel. As the title suggests, the story revolves around the first manned mission to the moon - with the drama arising from the technical challenges of achieving such a goal (then still the stuff of a madman's dream, admittedly) rather than aliens and laser guns...