I know we're all waiting on the LISA AND THE DEVIL/HOUSE OF EXORCISM disc from Columbia Tri-Star/Raro Video and here's some more that might be of interest also upcoming from the above Columbia Tri-Star Italy

REAZIONE A CATENA (BAY OF BLOOD)
GLI ORRORI DEL CASTELLO DI NORIMBERGA cOLLECTOR' S EDITION (BARON BLOOD)
LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO (BLACK SUNDAY)
IL PROFUMO DELLA SIGNORA IN NERO COLLECTOR' S EDITION (Francesco Barilli - well reviewed by Tim Lucas in Video Watchdog via a dupe of a Greek tape)

and an English horror from some distributor called Mondo: BLACK HORROR LE MESSE NERE (aka CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR).

I'm told that L'AVVENTURA DI GIACOMO CASANOVA -- an extremely rare Steno comedy notable for being cameraman Mario Bava's first work in color and the first feature film appearance of Ursula Andress -- is also coming to Italian DVD. This will likely originate from a 35mm French print master, which I understand is the last surviving element of this movie, and which (very unusually for a mid-'50s film) features some female nudity.

thats great Tim....would love to see it, and own it.

I recieved Raro's LISA AND THE DEVIL/HOUSE OF EXORCISM set two days ago (BAY OF BLOOD has been pushed back). I've only had time to spotcheck it.

LISA and HOUSE are both English language prints with an Italian audio option. While Image's HOUSE was a new digital transfer and LISA made from the same source as the laserdisc, Raro's LISA looks every bit as good as HOUSE (which looks as good as it did on the Image disc).

Does anyone know what Raro (or Leone) did to the LISA transfer? It looks incredible. The colors are bolder and movements are very smooth. Even the audio is improved. While viewing this disc, I heard for the first time Telly Savalas' muffled voice as Lisa leaves the shop saying "you'd think she'd seen the devil himself."

I am amazed that LISA (as opposed to the latter HOUSE) has an Italian language option, I didn't think that one was ever recorded.

Apparantly, I am sure we will find out in Tim's up and coming and much awaited Bava tome, the Spanish version of LISA is considerably longer and slightly different from the released versions out there. If this is true, and Leone has access to his vault materials (hence the presence of the longer stronger erotic scene between Koscina and Tinti) - what happened to all this footage as well?

Out of interest Eric - whats the documentary like, and who is interviewed for it. When I spoke to Alessio Orano about 4 months ago - he had never seen the film (nor had Alida Valli until recently) - and was delighted to talk about Mario Bava and his memories of the film. Did they interview anyone from the film - given that Savalas, Koscina, Von Treuberg and Tinti are all dead, Sommer lives in LA and Fajardo is retired in the south of Spain, and Orano never mentioned that anyone had come to talk to him about it.

Thanks.

The documentary is about thirty minutes and features interview snippets with Roberto Natale (who co-wrote the script with Roberto Migliorini, though they are not credited in English prints at least - how about Euro prints?), Lamberto Bava, and Roy Bava. The documentary is not all that informative. We already know the differences between the two films which and the clips are too long.

"FACTS" FROM THE DOC:
Leone wanted Bava to make the film look like an exorcised person's dream. Bava said no.
Lamberto Bava directed the scenes that Leone wanted to add in (as well as the death scene of Sylva Koscina) even though Leone said in his commentary on the Image disc that he shot the scenes that Mario Bava set up.
The mannequins were made by Fabrizio Sforza (Leone in his commentary said they were made by Carlo Rambaldi).
The biographer (forgot his name) who was interviewed believes that LISA is a TV version of HOUSE because it has tamer erotic scenes and that the HOUSE footage really is irrelevant to the ending (I guess he would be unfamiliar with LISA if it had never been seen in Italian before). He mentions the influence of Klossowski's BAPHOMET which is about the souls of the Knights Templar as well as a bit of possession.

It's worth the purchase for the transfers and the addition of Italian language tracks but we've seen the trailers before as well as the deleted scene (meant for a risque Japanese version according to Lamberto Bava - though wouldn't it have been fogged anyway?)