Continuing with my attempts to rip my otherwise unavailable VHS tapes to DVD, it occured to me that the Barbara Steele Italian outings remain unrepresented on the media. I know CASTLE OF BLOOD has a fine Synapse release, but what of LONG HAIR OF DEATH and NIGHT OF THE DOOMED/NIGHTMARE CASTLE? The UK Redemption NOTD tape is great but this longer cut of NC would benefit hugely from the increased resolution and clarity of DVD. As for LHOD, I appear to have mislaid my tape from UK TV but I long to see it again. If only someone could put a boxed set together with the kind of care and attention PANIK HOUSE applied to their PINKY VIOLENCE COLLECTION.

Although I can rip my UK PAL release of TERROR OF DOCTOR HICHCOCK, my DVD recorder can't handle colour NTSC so I can't record my Sinister Cinema version of THE GHOST. I don't suppose there's any chance of a nice double bill in the pipeline?

Victor.

PS. Other Euro rips I did at the weekend that would gladly be replaced with proper AR releases include LEGEND OF BLOOD CASTLE (Jorge Grau), and SO SWEET SO DEAD. Still got piles of obscure Italian westerns and crime thrillers - that were dumped on the UK market in the VHS explosion - to get through. It's hard work though, because creases in the tape (usually at the end credits where impatient renters ejected the tapes) cause the recorder to stop recording with the loss of signal. Sometimes, the tape has to be played through several times. Anyone else having the same trouble or is it just my recorder?

You probably already know this, so apologies for redundant info, but THE GHOST has already seen a DVD release in region 1 from Image, co-billed with the krimi DEAD EYES OF LONDON. Possibly a "grey market" deal, so quality likely won't be up to Synapse standards but if it's just an upgrade of a VHS tape you're after in the short term it might be worth the investment...I forget now, but someone here may have indicated that the pre-credits sequence had been relocated to its proper place in the film on this disc...



I'm pretty sure I saw a recent preview for a LONG HAIR OF DEATH DVD (perhaps at DeVilDead.com?), but it may have been a French release from Neo Publishing (and therefore unlikely to carry an English dub, just Italian with French subs or a French dub track). Still, if you like the film enough...

Thanks for that Steve,

If I did notice the release before, it didn't stick in my mind because I probably wrote it off as a marginal upgrade from the Sinister tapes I have of both titles. If it's to be had pretty cheaply, I might just pick it up as the tape's prologue misplacement is an annoyance.

Victor.

There's a really weak representation of Steele on NTSC DVD...

there's no

The Horrible Doctor Hitchcock
The Long Hair of Death
An Angel for Satan

of the one's we do have only Black Sunday & Castle of Blood could be called quality releases...

The others have come from Retromedia and Alpha with pretty poor quality: The Ghost, Nightmare Castle, The She-Beast, etc...

I wish someone; BU, Anchor Bay, SS or NoShame would come up with a quality box set for Ms. Steele's gothics...

Long Hair of Death is listed as being part of the "Tales of Terror 50 Movie Pack Collection" -- though at this point, we can probably guess what the quality of the print will be.

Though THE GHOST is distributed by Image, it's actually a Retromedia release (which seldom means good things). Here is my Image Review from digitallyobsessed.com of the Retromedia double feature DVD with DEAD EYES OF LONDON: