British distributors Arrow Video have officially announced that they will add
four new titles to their Blu-ray catalog in April: Jack Hill's
Coffy
(1973), Mario Bava's
Blood and Black Lace (1964), Walerian
Borowczyk's
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne
(1981), and Yasuharu Hasebe's
Massacre Gun (1967).
Coffy
Regarded as one of the best of the Blaxploitation genre along with Shaft
and Superfly, Coffy has been described as "one of the most entertaining
films ever made" by Quentin Tarantino.
With Coffy Pam Grier was catapulted to stardom and iconic status following
solid roles in earlier 'chicks in chains' films. Here she plays nurse 'Coffy'
Coffin seeking vigilante justice when her little sister is hospitalised by a
smack pusher. Coffy uses her body, bullets and blades to get justice,
working her way to the top of the criminal ring. But as she nears the top
she finds the level of corruption is closer to home than she thinks.
When American International Pictures lost the chance to make Cleopatra
Jones the studio looked for another project and turned to up and coming B-
movie auteur Jack Hill (Spider Baby, Pit Stop). Coffy was such a success that
the studio fast tracked Grier's next movie (Foxy Brown) with Hill straight
away.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
- Restored High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation, on Blu-
ray for the first time in the world!
- Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary by writer-director Jack Hill
- A Taste of Coffy - A brand new interview with Jack Hill
- The Baddest Chick in Town! – A brand new interview with Pam Grier
on Coffy and its follow up, Foxy Brown
- Blaxploitation! – A video essay by author Mikel J. Koven
(Blaxploitation Film) on the history and development of the genre
- Original theatrical trailer
- Image Gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
by Gilles Vranckx
- Booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Cullen Gallagher
and a profile of Pam Grier by Yvonne D. Sims, author of Women in
Blaxploitation, illustrated with archive stills and posters
UK ONLY RELEASE. STREET DATE: APRIL 6.
Massacre Gun
Genre icon Jô Shishido stars in this tense and violent yakuza yarn from genre stalwart and Seijun Suzuki's former assistant, Yasuharu Hasebe (Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701's Grudge Song).
Shishido stars as Kuroda, a mob hitman who turns on his employers after being forced to execute his lover. Joining forces with his similarly wronged brothers, hot-headed Eiji (Tatsuya Fuji, In the Realm of the Senses) and aspiring boxer Saburô (Jirô Okazaki, Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter), the trio escalate their mob retaliation to all-out turf war where no one will stop until one faction emerges victorious.
Strikingly violent for the period and gorgeously photographed in monochrome like genre siblings Branded to Kill and A Colt is My Passport (Shishido's other films from 1967), Massacre Gun is a bold iteration on the genre featuring some stunning compositions and the assured direction of Hasebe.
Special Features:
- Limited Edition Blu-ray (3000 copies only)
- Restored High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation, on Blu-ray for the first time in the world!
- Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Newly translated English subtitles
- Brand new interview with star Jô Shishido
- Interview with renowned critic and historian Tony Rayns
- Original theatrical trailer
- Gallery featuring rare promotional images
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan
booklet featuring new writing on the film by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp, newly illustrated by Ian MacEwan and featuring original archive stills
UK RELEASE DATE: APRIL 6.
U.S. RELEASE DATE: APRIL 7.
Blood and Black Lace
The Cristiana Haute Couture fashion house is a home to models… and backstabbing… and blackmail… and drug deals… and MURDER.
Having established a template for the giallo with The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Mario Bava set about cementing its rules with Blood and Black Lace. In doing so he created one of the most influential films ever made – an Italian classic that would spearhead the giallo genre, provide a prototype for the slasher movie, and have a huge effect on filmmakers as diverse as Dario Argento and Martin Scorsese.
Newly restored from the original camera negative and presented here in its original, uncut Italian form, this dual-format release allows fans to see Blood and Black Lace afresh and offers newcomers the ideal introduction to a major piece of cult filmmaking.
- New 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
- Optional Italian and English soundtracks presented in original uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Newly translated subtitles for the Italian audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English audio
- Brand new audio commentary by Mario Bava's biographer Tim Lucas
- Psycho Analysis – a new documentary on Blood and Black Lace and the origins of the giallo genre featuring interviews with directors Dario Argento (Suspiria) and Lamberto Bava (Demons), screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (All the Colors of the Dark) critics Roberto Curti and Steve Della Casa, crime novelist Carlo Lucarelli and others
- An appreciation by Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, the creative duo behind Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears
- Yellow - the much-acclaimed neo-giallo by Ryan Hansom & Jon Britt
- Gender and Giallo - a visual essay by Michael Mackenzie exploring the giallo's relationship with the social upheavals of the 1960s and 70s
- Panel discussion on Mario Bava featuring Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava and Steve Della Casa, recorded at the 2014 Courmayeur Film Festival
- The Sinister Image: Cameron Mitchell - an episode of David Del Valle's television series, devoted to the star of Blood and Black Lace and presented in full
- The alternative US opening titles, sourced from Joe Dante's private print and scanned in 2K especially for this release
- Original theatrical trailer, with optional English and Italian audio
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
- Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Howard Hughes, author of Cinema Italiano and Mario Bava: Destination Terror, and an interview with Joe Dante, David Del Valle on Cameron Mitchell and more, all illustrated with archive stills and posters
UK RELEASE: APRIL 14.
U.S. RELEASE DATE: APRIL 15.
Blood and Black Lace SteelBook Edition
The Cristiana Haute Couture fashion house is a home to models… and backstabbing… and blackmail… and drug deals… and MURDER.
Having established a template for the giallo with The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Mario Bava set about cementing its rules with Blood and Black Lace. In doing so he created one of the most influential films ever made – an Italian classic that would spearhead the giallo genre, provide a prototype for the slasher movie, and have a huge effect on filmmakers as diverse as Dario Argento and Martin Scorsese.
Newly restored from the original camera negative and presented here in its original, uncut Italian form, this dual-format release allows fans to see Blood and Black Lace afresh and offers newcomers the ideal introduction to a major piece of cult filmmaking.
Special Features:
- Limited Edition SteelBook featuring original artworks
- New 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
- Optional Italian and English soundtracks presented in original uncompressed mono PCM audio
- Newly translated subtitles for the Italian audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English audio
- Brand new audio commentary by Mario Bava's biographer Tim Lucas
- Psycho Analysis – a new documentary on Blood and Black Lace and the origins of the giallo genre featuring interviews with directors Dario Argento (Suspiria) and Lamberto Bava (Demons), screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (All the Colors of the Dark) critics Roberto Curti and Steve Della Casa, crime novelist Carlo Lucarelli and others
- An appreciation by Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, the creative duo behind Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears
- Yellow - the much-acclaimed neo-giallo by Ryan Hansom & Jon Britt
- Gender and Giallo - a visual essay by Michael Mackenzie exploring the giallo's relationship with the social upheavals of the 1960s and 70s
- Panel discussion on Mario Bava featuring Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava and Steve Della Casa, recorded at the 2014 Courmayeur Film Festival
- The Sinister Image: Cameron Mitchell - an episode of David Del Valle's television series, devoted to the star of Blood and Black Lace and presented in full
- The alternative US opening titles, sourced from Joe Dante's private print and scanned in 2K especially for this release
- Original theatrical trailer, with optional English and Italian audio
- Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Howard Hughes, author of Cinema Italiano and Mario Bava: Destination Terror, and an interview with Joe Dante, David Del Valle on Cameron Mitchell and more, all illustrated with archive stills and posters
UK RELEASE DATE: APRIL 13.
U.S. RELEASE DATE: APRIL 14.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne
"Potent and poetic, mischievous and macabre, Borowczyk's film shows how many imaginative worlds the horror movie can open up when the right artist holds the keys" (Nigel Andrews, Financial Times)
It's the engagement party for brilliant young Dr Henry Jekyll (Udo Kier) and his fiancée, the beautiful Fanny Osbourne (Marina Pierro), attended by various pillars of Victorian society, including the astonishing Patrick Magee in one of his final roles. But when people are found raped and murdered outside and ultimately inside the house, it becomes clear that a madman has broken in to disrupt the festivities - but who is he? And why does Dr Jekyll keep sneaking off to his laboratory?
We know the answer, of course, but Walerian Borowczyk's visually stunning adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's much-filmed tale is crammed with wildly imaginative and outrageously perverse touches characteristic of the man who scandalised audiences with Immoral Tales and The Beast, not least the explicitly sexualised nature of Mr Hyde's primal urges.
Special Features:
- Brand new 2K restoration, scanned from the original camera negative and supervised by cinematographer Noël Véry
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the film, released on both formats for the first time anywhere in the world
- English and French soundtracks in LPCM 1.0
- Optional English and English SDH subtitles
- Introduction by critic and long-term Borowczyk fan Michael Brooke
- Audio commentary featuring archival interviews with Walerian Borowczyk, Udo Kier, Marina Pierro and producer Robert Kuperberg, and new interviews with cinematographer Noël Véry, editor Khadicha Bariha, assistant Michael Levy and filmmaker Noël Simsolo, moderated by Daniel Bird
- Interview with Marina Pierro
- Himorogi (2012), a short film by Marina and Alessio Pierro, made in homage to Borowczyk
- Interview with artist and filmmaker Alessio Pierro
- Video essay by Adrian Martin and Cristina Alvarez Lopez
- Eyes That Listen, a featurette on Borowczyk's collaborations with electro-acoustic composer Bernard Parmegiani
- Jouet Jouyeux (1979), a short film by Borowczyk based on Charles-Émile Reynaud's praxinoscope
- Introduction to Jouet Joyeux by production assistant Sarah Mallinson
- Returning to Méliès: Borowczyk and Early Cinema, a featurette by Daniel Bird
- Reversible sleeve with artwork based on Borowczyk's own poster design
- Booklet with new writing on the film by Daniel Bird and archive materials, illustrated with rare stills
- More to be announced!
UK STREET DATE: APRIL 20.
U.S. STREET DATE: APRIL 21.