I finally caught up with the export version of BARON BLOOD via Raro's Italian DVD. It's letterboxed at 1.85:1 with English and Italian audio (and English subs). The widescreen framing restores Bava's compositions (with better views of the castle than AIP's version - does anyone know where this castle is? it turned up in THE VAMPIRE HAPPENING and CASTLE OF THE CREEPING FLESH). The eyes in the portrait of the baron stand out more as "actual" eyes set into the canvas rather than painting.

While I would like to see AB further restore this version (better color - it is a Technicolor film - cleaner audio), I think that the AIP version really REALLY needs to be made available more so than any of the other altered Bavas. Les Baxter's scoring is more appropriately spooky throughout - especially during the two incantation attempts (the scariest scenes) in conjunction with the sound effects and the title sequences. On the other hand, the seance sequence (the most effective) with Rada Rassimov is effectively scored in both versions (if only Stelvio Cipriani's Magia Nera track was more prominent on the soundtrack - I'm not sure if it was mixed low or if the music and effects tracks are muffled) and both have very different tones with the Cipriani version seeming a little trippy. Does Rassimov also play the witch?

The alternate and more sparse scoring on the Italian track does highlight the artificiality of the English dubbing. The accents are awful (particularly the ones by the artists dubbing Massimo Girotti and Nicoletta Elmi).

I'm assuming this will be part of Anchor Bay's Bava Set volume 2 since its a Leone property. On the other hand, I'm assuming that MGM owns the AIP rescored version.

How do other Mobians feel about the two different versions of BARON BLOOD?

BTW, is the figure on the tower at the end of the film supposed to be the baron's ghost or the witch?

I always thought that was the witch at the end of the film, like "I'm back!" after finally getting a little revenge.

I do prefer the Les Baxter score ... when I was a kid and saw this movie for the first time, it was that music that made a lot of scenes pretty scary. The original score -- not so much, when I finally got to see the original version many years later. I don't remember all the footage tampering, mostly an alternate version of a doctor's death, and for some reason the three characters escaping the castle at the end is shortened ... there's an edit in Baxter's music that's pretty obvious, like AIP thought "this escape is too long -- make it shorter!" :P

I've got the Image/HBO laserdisc still, but I'd love to have a better copy of the AIP version. All the better to see Elke! :D

Some of the Baxter's music for BB showed up in BLACK SUNDAY when it shown on cable ... so maybe Leone owns the music to this as well? Its also one of the very few Baxter movie scores to show up on CD, other than BLACK SUNDAY and CRY OF THE BANSHEE (that I can think of right now) so maybe it was easier to get the license to release that particular score than the others at MGM (or Sony) -- just a guess.

The AIP version is much better, I think. And yes, Rada Rassimov plays both roles.

There does exist an alternate cut of BLACK SUNDAY that Alfredo Leone created in defense of his copyright, altering the soundtrack with a new hybrid score by Baxter and Nicolosi. One hopes that this version (which has red titles overlaid on the opening scene) will vanish from circulation now that he's proved his ownership of the picture in court.

Are any of the AIP Bava's showing up on HDTV? I was wondering if anything else other than PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES had been restored. If they were available then wouldn't it be easy for Sony to dump them onto Midnight Movie DVDs as double features?

Besides the self-referencing to Bava's own films that people have mentioned in this one (iron maiden = BLACK SUNDAY, scalpel slashing, swinging phone and multicolored fog = BLOOD AND BLACK LACE), I also saw sort of a reference to BAY OF BLOOD in this film as well at the beginning of the seance sequence: the combination of Cipriani's music with out of focus shot of the water.

PLANET is the only Bava film to turn up on Monsters HD so far.