Independent Film Channel is running "Indie Screams Italiano," a festival of several horror classics from Bava and Argento, on 10/30 and 10/31. Hosted by Tom Savini, the festival also includes the two documentaries, AN EYE FOR HORROR and MAESTRO OF THE MACABRE. All the titles in the festival are available on DVD, but they're running A BAY OF BLOOD, and it will be interesting to see the quality of the print they air for that. I'm hoping it will be an upgrade of the Image and Simitar DVDs. (The former disc has poor sound, and the latter is a cut print with so-so picture quality.)

Link: Indie Screams Italiano

Doesn't Image's TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE dvd have the BAY OF BLOOD title on the print itself? IFC may just be showing that, but it still wouldn't hurt to check it out. Their DEEP RED print, for instance, is the short version not the longer Anchor Bay cut (and I believe it's cropped to either full screen or close to it).

The last time that I saw DEEP RED aired on IFC it was indeed the cut U.S. version, and if I remember correctly was presented at what looked to be about 1.66:1 and the color was not so great - not sure how to explain it, but it almost looked like a poor older PAL to NTSC transcode. I didn't stick around past the first 5 minutes or so as that is no way to watch this film. What I don't understand is that when TENEBRE has been shown on IFC, it appears to be the Roan Group (and later Anchor Bay) transfer, so I'm a little puzzled that they coulldn't swing something (anything) a little better for DEEP RED. I'd personally love to see a really nice presentation of the longer English language cut one of these days, but other than the Japanese LD from the mid-80's, I don't know that it's appeared anywhere else before or since. Anyone know any more details about this?

What I'm most interested to see, though, is where they source INFERNO and SUSPIRIA from. Will they be the AB transfers (SUSPIRIA audio flaws and all) or will their source prints come from 20th Century Fox? In the promo, I see the U.S. title card for SUSPIRIA, but the IFC website states that it is 98 mins in length which would suggest the uncut English version - so really, who knows exactly what will be aired.

As for the Bava titles, my best guess would be that, like TCM before them, they will air whatever Alfredo Leone provides them with (for better or for worse). I won't be around either evening to check them out, but my Cable/DVR box is already set to record all six titles for curiosity's sake - and just in case we do get a pleasant surprise on any of these.

I got a chance to review the recordings of the three Argento films played on IFC this evening and here's what I observed (mind you, I didn't watch any of them all the way through but scanned beginning to end stopping here and there to sample a few mins):

- SUSPIRIA was an interesting anomaly. I had always heard that 20th Century Fox released this title under their International Classics subsidiary to distance itself from the film for some reason and that theatrical presentations contained nothing that would indicate to the viewer that it was a Fox property. People who have seen it recently projected seemed to also universally indicate that the prints were not in great shape and carried a mono sound mix. What IFC showed was very interesting if that is indeed all true - it opened with a 20th Century Fox logo from the era of the film's initial release, for starters. It was the US R-Rated cut of the film (which I had never seen) complete with the 'breathing letters' title card and several noticable cuts for violence that were easy to spot having only seen the uncut version. It was correctly letterboxed to a 2:35.1 ratio. But most importantly, and perhaps odd - the print was virtually flawless and the sound was absolutely thunderous and anything BUT mono. I also noticed a (recent vintage) logo for 'Fox Television' at the end. Could it be that Fox actually struck a new print of this film specifically for this broadcast (and possibly to start pushing it to the pay cable networks), or that maybe they realize (finally) what they have on their hands and may be considering a limited theatrical re-release? It just seems very odd to see a fantastic print of a film that supposedly Fox had very little interest in - and why they would go to the trouble for a cut version when transfers have been made for the domestic home video market more than once of the uncut version. Unless, of course, the theory of a possible limited theatrical release may hold some water and they don't think the uncut SUSPIRIA holds any chance of securing an R rating even today. I'm baffled by this one.

- INFERNO opened with a modern-day 20th Century Fox logo, rather than the vintage one featured on the Anchor Bay DVD. It is a tough call on this one as to whether or not it is the transfer from the AB disc or not. It certainly is NOT the print that was used for the VHS version under their Key Video label, as the colors are far more vibrant and the title card does not wobble in the gate, nor does it feature some of the sloppy splices from that print either. It was also shown correctly letterboxed to a 1.85:1 ratio, and was the full 107 min version that has always been available domestically. I don't have enough of an eye for detail I don't think to spot if this was a different transfer from the AB one, I'll let someone else make that call - but I can say that it did look very nice as did SUSPIRIA. It does seem that Fox no longer seems to have a porblem with slapping their name on their two Argento properties. The question is if they have indeed woken up to the fact that their is a significant audience for their two Argento properties (and perhaps a growing one thanks to these IFC airings), will they be as willing to license these films out to other distributors for domestic video releases in the future?

- DEEP RED was again, a disappointment. It was the shorter of the two English language versions (the cut US release) - interestingly with no studio logos of any kind before or after. This time again it was severely cropped at 1.66:1, but the colors were not as off as I thought I had remembered, but still faded when compared to the AB disc. But it did have the closing credit roll (with motion reflected in the pool of blood) intact. Strange points here - there was a digitally generated subtitle 'European Conference on Parapsychology' in the first shot after the credits and no subtitles at all during Helga's telephone conversation. Didn't the US VHS have burnt-in subtitles in both of these instances? I have no idea where they sourced this, but it did show a couple of analog dropouts here and there. I'm just puzzled why they continue to show such a severely cropped transfer of this film, when the other two were exactly right. Surely, they are not oblivious to this. I think we'll be left wondering about that one.

Nothing really new to any of us - just some interesting variations on a theme. I'm very interested, however, as to what tomorrow's Bava airings wil hold after some of the controversy generated by the Leone supplied masters for TCM airings a year or two ago.

I remember about eight years ago catching a pan-scan broadcast of SUSPIRIA on the Sci-Fi Channel that opened with a modern Fox logo, followed by the old "International Classics" title card and the breathing letters. I think Fox just took advantage of new opportunities to exploit a title that could not previously be used in say, syndication movie packages.

I would suspect that Fox only has the right to use their R-rated edit of the movie for exploitation in theatres and on television, despite there being uncut 16x9 masters of the uncut version. In fact, when the movie was released by Magnum Entertainment in the '90's, they did not get access to the Fox print for their "Blockbuster-friendly" R-rated tape version; they had to use a dub of it and recreate the edits by cutting the uncut master provided by Argento's company.

As for other interesting variances:
*Not that most fans of the movie like the breathing letters, but they have never been present in any official U.S. tape or DVD release of the film. Either they know we don't like them or maybe that's a Fox-trademarked logo. (One surmises the letters can be preserved in the trailer though, since trailers seem to have a PD loophole until the '80's)
*Only the PAL-speedup Fox Lorber tape licensed from Sacis presented the film with its original Italian credits.

Anyone with IFC and a stereo hookup in their home who can vouch if this supposed stereo print is using the original 4.0 mag stereo mix? Vincent? :D

I enjoyed watching that Bava documentary. Is that out on DVD as a supplement or anything like that? Or was that made specifically for the IFC channel? I wish I knew ahead of time so I could have taped it.

I'm being sheer-ignorant here, but since nobody's made a comment on the Bavas as shown yet, I'll begin by mentioning that the BARON BLOOD presented was prefaced by an Elite Entertainment card. It looked good compared to what I've seen before (which doesn't include a DVD so I'm of no help there). The last shot of the castle was frozen with credits rolling over them...which appeared to be original, not newly imposed anytime since first USA release (see comment below)

I came into BAY OF BLOOD 15 minutes late so there goes the pretitle/credits clue. All I can say was the print looked fine (and end credits were in the period manner -there's a font that was used over and over again in those days which I recognize from a dozen other films, and is also used in BARON BLOOD)...and the Sound was fine too unlike the Image DVD (the only one I've seen)

I'm taping the MAESTRO documentary currently (nice to finally see what Tim Lucas looks like or did a couple years ago, incidentally; more to the point it's fun and very informative), and the Barbara Steele offering is coming up any minute now.

Have both that and the Argento docu on dvd from Image as solo releases. Bit overpriced(Amazon's shipping estimate on the Bava disc is long). No extras. 16x9 Enhanced though.

Mario Bava: Maestro of the Macabre

Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror

Fortunately BLACK SUNDAY wasn't the fudged-with Leone version that TCM ran a Halloween or two ago, with the red "A Mario Bava Film" and other red title overlays during the Inquisition and the newly recorded introductory narration. The version shown was the MASK OF SATAN version released by Image.

I wasn't able to see the titles on the version of TWITCH/BAY they showed, so can't help there.

DEEP RED was not the shorter version but the SUSPERIA 2 print. I scanned it last night and all the violence is intact. The ratio is weird as its dead center with no panning and lots of picture info is missing. All in all not a horrible way to see it, but far from correct. And you get the original end credits.
I'll take a look at BAY OF BLOOD today and see what the beginning looks like.

Marc - About those breathing letters in that title card, they almost appeared to be spliced in as the image quality for that couple of seconds was a bit below par to the rest of the opening credits. And a big thank you for confirming to me that I'm not TOTALLY insane - my first exposure to SUSPIRIA was when I bought (having never seen the film) the Fox Lorber VHS, which I scrapped for the Japanese DVD (only to find out it was also mono and not exactly vibrant in color) which has collected dust since I found a nice copy of the Magnum/Image LD (which cost an arm and a leg used at the time when it appeared the title was not to be licensed anytime soon for the US). But the point being that I remember the question being raised here quite a while back if there were actually any Italian language credits for SUSPIRIA since it was said to be produced in English - and I could have sworn that my old Fox Lorber tape had those Italian credits, but no longer had it to verify.

John - I only skimmed DEEP RED, but I had assumed that it was the US cut because I could have sworn it only ran about 98 mins or so. Time compression, perhaps? I hate now that I've already deleted it, would have been interesting to check it out - bad framing and all. Thanks for that info, though!

Updating the Bavas, from a quick scan, the original English release credits for all seem intact. BAY OF BLOOD is preceded by a dated 2001 card "International Media Films Presents" followed by the film.

BLACK SUNDAY has the old Jolly Film etc. production credits as superimposed long, long ago. I commented on BARON BLOOD already.

BTW, what was the museum outside of Vienna used for BARON? It's a fantastic set, and one of the better details from the documentary. Other goodies are the JP Law interview and cave interior details; the opticals with Rada and flame in BARON, the Rambaldi trick that ALMOST came off during a TV interview featuring him, the director and journalists.

The only -by now- demerits are all the same talking heads from every horror dvd extra (Tim L's being a welcome addition to those spiked on the castle ramparts already, of course!), and the usual montage at the end of converging homages and appreciations juicing what are just interviews after all into triumph of the human spirit Oscar uplift, an annoying tendemcy throughout here -to make conventional movie sense of it all- when a more strictly chronological and categorical approach at twice the length would have been even more welcome (but no complaints about John Saxon and how he utters the word 'Brillante' in perfectly pronounced and understood Italian to describe the kind of comic-horror he was cast in, nor the clips from PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES, though a little ALIEN comparison goes a long way, ditto for FRIDAY 13th, when more about what's original rather than copied would be welcomed...but I'm already converted, and this is to enroll new faithful, a good cause, so disregard my quibbles)

BARON BLOOD's principal location was a castle in Korneuburg, Austria known as the Museum der Stadt Korneuburg.

Thanks! Going through my files, it appears that Korneuburg (just outside of Vienna/Wien) is chockablock with dramatic castle-museums. There's also the imposing Schloss (or Burg) Kreuzenstein on its own hill. I think I'll plan a Goth vacation round such sites one of these days...

If Fox has struck a new R-rated print of SUSPIRIA for TV, they certainly haven't made it available for theatrical rental. I just saw a slightly faded, damaged at reel-changes but otherwise good quality print at Lincoln Center yesterday afternoon (a small audience of probably 35-40 people) that's probably the same one that's made the rounds the last few years. Not sure if the print has a 4.0 magnetic track or not since I didn't hear anything surround activity but the sound and music is LOUD and clear.

On the last viewing via the AB DVD I've actually found of the movie dull...not this time. Everything came off as lively and vital, truly cinematically exciting and effective. It was the first time I realized how well the frames were composed, how "wide" the movie was (complete with distortions at the edges during the dance practice sequences). Now if only someone could just strike a new print and do a wide revival of this...

FWIW, there were two guys who sat on the row in front of me who found Pavlo and Daniel extremely amusing. I feel these characters are kind of goofy too, but do they really need to laugh with their mouths wide open at their every onscreen appearance? :P