Toga Party Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		1.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.0

Toga Party Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 5, 2021

Note: This film is available as part of The Dungeon of Andy Milligan.

Lovers of what might be charitably termed Grade Z Cinema have had a number of outstanding releases by a variety of labels over the past few years. Arrow has offered fans surprisingly deluxe-ified (that's a word, I insist) editions of The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast and Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection, among others, while Severin Films has gotten into exploring this decidedly odd nook and/or cranny with releases like Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection. Severin's back with more, um, "masterpieces" with this inventively packaged homage to the late Andy Milligan, a kinda sorta auteur whose professional life had more than its fair share of hurdles, and whose personal life unfortunately ended up not being much better. The 14 films (with one bonus film in HD, Toga Party) aggregated in this set are exploitation outings at their "finest" (?), which means those with more patrician tastes are probably well advised to steer completely clear of this release. Those with grittier sensibilities will find some at times oddly entertaining movies and Severin's usual supply of appealing supplements.

Perhaps hilariously, some prefatory text explaining the history behind Toga Party that presages the actual presentation of the film may be more entertaining than the actual movie. Milligan was tasked with shooting inserts for a pre-existing semi-musical film called Pelvis, and the result is about as haphazard as might be expected. The results were so bad that this prefatory text states that the cast invited to the premiere screening walked out en masse in protest. The basic story here follows a kind of hayseed quasi-Elvis on the hunt for fame and fortune.

Toga Party Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Toga Party is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Severin's booklet included with this release has the following information on the transfer:

Toga Party was scanned in 2K from a severely faded theatrical print.

The above just about says it all, though it leaves out the manifest damage that is regularly on display here, since it's more than obvious the print utilized was never curated carefully, if at all. Along with the lack of robust suffusion, there are recurrent issues with scratches, nicks and other blemishes. Detail levels can be at least decent in some of the close-ups, but the overall look here is less than inspiring.

Toga Party Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Perhaps because it's being offered as an ostensible "supplement", only a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono track is included. The track probably doesn't have the same levels of damage seen on the video side of things, but there are variances in fidelity and near distortion in some of the musical moments. Dialogue is generally cleanly delivered. No subtitles are available on this feature.

Toga Party Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements associated with this film.

Toga Party Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Toga Party is a mess, and as such probably serves as well as anything for a wrap up to an Andy Milligan Film Festival. This offers the least pleasing video and audio overall in the Milligan set.