Just last week, Koch Media in Germany brought out another three spaghetti westerns (honestly, these guys are right up there with Wild East as the SW fan's best friend) and again stuck with their practice of releasing the majority of them with unadvertised English subtitles.

I got two of them today. The one I didn't pick up is a remastered edition of A Bullet For the General, as I wasn't in the mood for a double-dip (I've got AB's release rather than Koch's previous release) but from what I've heard this one is an improvement over previous releases in terms of both picture quality and the fact that they've included two separate English dub tracks. Extras include a couple of interviews but no English options on them.

The ones I did receive are Sergio Martino's Arizona Colt Returns (with Anthony Steffen, Rosalba Neri and Aldo Sambrell), which looks okay and sounds reasonable, and Tinto Brass's Yankee, which looks like Koch have done a reasonable job with a print that is showing some wear. I had no idea Tinto Brass had even set foot in this genre and had no idea what to expect - until a quick flick through it revealed a semi-naked sexbomb tied to a post and a man being tortured. A Tinto Brass movie, in other words. Both discs certainly look pleasing in quality anyway and as mentioned, contain only German and Italian audio, but with optional (secret!) English subs.

There are no extras on Yankee except for a couple of trailers and a photo gallery; Arizona Colt Returns has a couple of interviews as well, but again no English options.

The packaging has changed on these releases too - they're now in a glossy, slimline card case which looks very nice but I imagine will wear badly with age. I am also assuming that Koch are seeing this as a relaunch of sorts since the two discs I've got carry numbers 2 and 3 on the sleeves. Guess I might need to double-dip after all now just to own the set!

I guess now the only problem is that I have no time to watch them at the moment - since I started that "what Eurocult have you been watching" thread I've not managed to watch another one. Not helped by the fact that I couldn't resist adding to my spaghetti order a copy of Koch's relatively recent release of Inglorious Bastards, which also looks rather nice. I'll chuck it in the pile with the three other spaghetti war movies I've not got time to watch...

Edit: I should add that my opinions of the discs' quality are based solely on a very brief skip through them. If anyone has more detailed opinions, please let us know.

One slight correction: The interview with Lou Castel on the A Bullet for the General disc is in English. If memory serves, this is identical to the one on Wild East's Requiescant, though.

Aha, you're right - thanks for the correction. There appears to be slightly more detail than I provided over on a thread on the SW Web Board. (running times, compete contents, etc.).