According to Movies Unlimited's website, the film THE SKULL with Cushing and Lee is scheduled for DVD release on June 3, 2008. It will reportedly be widescreen/enhanced. However, I haven't heard this news reported anywhere else as of yet, so I'm maintaining a healthy skepticism. The Movies Unlimited site doesn't mention which studio is supposedly releasing the DVD.

I just telephoned Movies Unlimited, and they refuse to name the studio or label that is supposedly releasing THE SKULL in June! They claim that they "don't have that information," and that I would find out the answer after receiving the product.

After the recent brouhaha over THE DEVILS, I am even more skeptical about this "release." I suspect that this may be coming from some private individual or small company that is simply filmchaining a 16mm print. If it is coming from a major studio, such as Paramount for example, why all the secrecy?

Another forum mentioned this and that some other Paramount titles listed below are also shown as coming soon. It looks like either Paramount themselves are putting these out, or that they licensed out a package deal of some of their still-unreleased (and some much anticipated) films to an outside company. Or none of it will happen! We'll just have to wait and see I guess.

KING OF THE GYPSIES. THOSE DARING YOUNG MEN IN THEIR JAUNTY JALOPIES, STUDENT BODIES, THE ONE AND ONLY, THE OPTIMISTS, THE POSSESSION OF JOEL DELANEY, THE WHOOPEE BOYS, ZPG, SOME KIND OF HERO, JEKYLL AND HYDE TOGETHER AGAIN, HOUDINI (George Pal), and VILLA RIDES.

I'd be very surprised if Paramount issued THE POSSESSION OF JOEL DELANEY given the current climate for such things, as it contains a scene where (as I recall) a pre-teen boy is stripped naked and humiliated by a maniac in front of his family. Male prepubsecent nudity, presented in a more wholesome context, is what got SCHOOLGIRL REPORT 3 into distribution hot water recently.

...which leads me to a question. The Possession of Joel Delaney has been released on DVD here in the UK but (never having seen it) I found it difficult to believe that the scene Tim mentions would get past the BBFC today. I'm wondering if anyone knows for certain if it's cut or not? I've heard some say it is, some say it's not and I have a vague recollection of someone mentioning the possibility of an I Spit on Your Grave-style re-framing, but I've never heard a definitive answer.

The comments on the Amazon UK page and on the BBFC website suggest it's not cut, but that doesn't always mean that it's not been tampered with in some way.

Anyone know?

According to the BBFC website, it's uncut.

BBFC: THE POSSESSION OF JOEL DELANEY

Movies Unlimited also lists as upcoming:

The Witchmaker (1969) and Mandingo (1975)

And, of course, the same title that's never mentioned as a Paramount possibility isn't mentioned in this alleged group either, namely BLOOD AND ROSES.

It's been a while since I've watched the old JOEL DELANEY vhs tape from Paramount, but if I remember correctly, I think it was an open-matte presentation. The credits were properly matted widescreen, but the rest of the film was full-frame and appeared to have a bit more headroom than necessary. Thus, the 'offending' below-the-waist child nudity may likely have been intended to be matted for theatrical as I think it's mostly at the very bottom of the screen (of course). I have never seen this film theatrically so I am just guesstimating all of this, but if the UK widescreen DVD is uncut without showing genitals, it may just be that it is properly matted. A side-by-side of the tape against the DVD could solve the issue.

As far as all these rare Paramount titles coming out all at once on DVD, I am still a bit skeptical. I hope it all comes to fruition, but there are some red flags. No company listed is the first one. MoviesUnlimited is also not the most reputable retailer on the planet - although the majority of what they sell are legit releases, they also carry quite a few 'shady' releases from less reputable sources, and even have their own sub-label called "Video Attic" of titles that are unlicensed and come in generic sleeves/cases. (I've been burned by them in the past on such issues, but don't feel the need to go into details here and turn this into a personal MU bash as that's not the main topic here anyway.) In any event, until these DVD's show up for sale elsewhere, that is a big second red flag in my eyes.

Paramount is not known for their attention to catalog titles, especially recently. If they have licensed these out to another company, why isn't that company touting their upcoming slate of these cool films? Something just seems a bit fishy. I hope it's not another Jef Films/Televista/NewStar situation. I'll wait and see what develops and hopefully in a few months we'll all have really cool legit releases of STUDENT BODIES, JOEL DELANEY, THE SKULL, ZPG, JEKYLL & HYDE, VILLA RIDES, etc. In the interim, I'll hang on to my STUDENT BODIES and ZPG tapes.