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The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee Collection 2 (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review Part 1

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    Ian Jane
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  • The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee Collection 2 (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review Part 1

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    Released by: Severin Films
    Released on: July 26th, 2021.
    Director: Steno/Helmuth Ashley/Don Sharp
    Cast: Christopher Lee, Renato Rascel, Sylva Koscina, Klaus Kinski, Marisa Mell, Joan Collins, Herbet Lom, Jane Birkin
    Year: 1959/1962/1974
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee Collection 2 – Movie Review:

    After the success of their first boxed set, Severin Films brings together a second collection of content relating to the late, great Sir Christopher Lee in a feature packed edition, releasing it as The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee Collection Volume 2. Here’s a look at the feature films included in this set, before we go on to the extra content.

    Disc One – Uncle Was A Vampire:

    Helmed by prolific Italian director ‘Steno’ and made to cash in on the international success of Hammer’s 1958 film Dracula (a.k.a. Horror Of Dracula), Uncle Was A Vampire stars Renato Rascel as Baron Osvaldo Lambertenghi. Early in the film we learn that Osvaldo is broke, and to pay his debts he opts to sell of the family castle to a hotel company who agree to keep him on and let him work as a bellboy.

    Meanwhile, his uncle, Baron Roderico (Lee), suffers problems of his own when his home is bought by developers causing him to flee to Italy and take up residence at the castle he believes his nephew Osvaldo still owns. When Osvaldo gets a letter from Roderico informing him of his pending arrival, he’s elated, figured his ‘rich’ uncle will solve his money problems for him and allow him to rehire lovely Liliana (Susanne Loret), the gardener he has a not so secret crush own who was let go by the castle’s new owners.

    The hotel opens for business and, shortly after, Roderico arrives. After he does, Osvaldo realizes the truth about his uncle and sets out to kill him, but winds up being turned into a vampire himself, proceeding to then bite the necks of all the pretty female guests staying at the place and in turn confusing their husbands and boyfriends.

    A charmingly silly movie, Uncle Was A Vampire sees Lee in a supporting role, understandably playing the straight man to Rascel’s comedic lead. It works pretty well, Lee looking very much like Dracula for the bulk of his scenes, even wearing some white face paint to give him a more ghastly appearance. Rascel is pretty amusing to watch, he’s got good comedic timing and uses his body language in quirky, goofy ways. Lee is, not surprisingly, perfect as the main vampire in the film, and his interactions with Rascel are fun to watch. The film also features some lovely ladies in its cast, including the aforementioned Susanne Loret of Atom Age Vampire as Osvaldo’s love interest, Antje Geerk as a young woman named Lisa and Sylva Koscina or Hercules, Kai Fischer of the X-rated Sensational Janine (a.k.a. Josefine Mutzenbacher) and Lia Zoppelli of The Corsican Brothers in smaller supporting roles. Franco Scandurra plays Professor Stricker, a guest who Osvaldo continually harasses throughout the movie to help translate a book about vampires, one of the best running gags that occurs throughout the movie.

    The storyline isn’t especially deep and it maybe plays a little loose with the established ‘rules’ of vampirism but the film is briskly paced and nicely shot. The cinematography is solid and the castle hotel setting proves to be a nice place to stage a vampire comedy. Production values overall are quite nice and the movie is just goofy and charming and fun.

    Disc Two – The Secret Of The Red Orchid:

    The second feature, directed by Helmuth Ashley in 1962 and based on the Edgar Wallace novel "When The Gangs Came To London", begins with a well-executed (pun intended) gangland shooting in the Chicago of 1960. It’s an intense opening scene, and from there we find out that there are two rival criminal gangs who have moved to London from Chicago. They are now out to blackmail a group of well-to-do English citizens in order to make some quick and easy money. Of course, when two gangs move in on the same racket there's sure to be some bloodshed and before you know it, the bodies start piling up and Scotland Yard has to move in on the scene in an attempt to put a stop to all the killings. In order to help out with the investigation, Scotland Yard decides to enlist the help of one of the F.B.I.'s top agents, Captain Allerman (played by Lee), who seems to know all sorts of things about gangs and the way that they do business.

    A few plot twists here and there keep the movie moving along at a decent pace, and we soon find out that Allerman has dealt with some of these hoods before. In fact, he believed one of the gang leaders to be long dead before he resurfaced here, across the pond. Allerman will have to work very closely with Scotland Yard to stop these ruthless thugs before they take down all the old rich guys once and for all.

    This second feature may not be flashy or super-fast paced, but don't let that make you write it off as it really does have a fantastic cast. Aside from the aforementioned Lee, Werner Herzog's muse Klaus Kinski (sadly, underused in this picture) shows up here in a supporting role as gang leader Pretty Boy Steve, as does a young and very attractive Marisa Mell, best known for her leggy appearance in Mario Bava's Danger! Diabolik. Adrian Hoven of Jess Franco's Sadisterotica and Kiss Me Monster plays one of the Scotland Yard detectives. While a great cast is no substitute for a great story it at least makes this one more than watchable, which it probably wouldn't be otherwise thanks to some poorly executed comic relief scenes that aren't even remotely funny so much as they are just bad. But hey, you've got a handful of Euro-cult favorites in this one and a great opening scene as well as a few other cool bits and pieces scattered throughout. It's not a masterpiece, but you could do worse with your time.

    Lee is in fine form here and it’s great to see him in a lead role where he isn’t playing the villain even if the movie has some pretty big plot holes in it. He’s quite dashing as the F.B.I. agent in question, but the motivations for the gangsters crossing the Atlantic from Chicago to London isn’t ever really properly fleshed out. Helmuth Ashley’s direction is fine, not amazing, but fine and the movie benefits from decent cinematography and a pretty solid score. On top of that, it’s probably the only movie where you get to see Lee twirl his guns after shooting a man down, which is pretty rad.

    Disc Three – Dark Places:

    Directed by none other than Don Sharp in 1979, Dark Places tells the semi-sordid tale one Edward Foster (Robert Hardy), a man who once worked as an administrator at a mental hospital who inherits a massive old home from Andrew Marr (Hardy again!), a form patient. While Foster isn’t completely convinced that the stories of the home’s hauntings are nonsense, he decides to pack things up and move in anyway – after all, it’s a nice old place with plenty of room, and given that he inherited it, well, the price is right.

    Once he’s moved in, Foster decides to do some renovations and update the old place. What he doesn’t know is that his onetime physician, Dr. Ian Mandeville (Lee, of course!), has been scheming with his sister Sarah Mandeville (a very fine looking Joan Collins) and a lawyer named Prescott (Herbert Lom) to try and excavate a load of money that they believe to be stowed away somewhere in the confines of the massive old abode. Mandeville would really like to get his hands on the cash before Foster finds out that it’s there, and to do that will require, at the least, some subterfuge.

    As the plot evolves, we learn that Foster was once a patient in the hospital where he was so recently employed, so when starts hearing things seeing visions tying into Marr’s time at the house, we have to wonder if he’s really seeing these things or if he’s losing his mind. Soon enough, Foster becomes enthralled in Marr’s crumbling marriage to wife Victoria (Jean Marsh) and a murder plot she launched to do away with the younger and prettier Alta (Jane Birkin), hired by the couple to tend to their two children but who is, in fact, carrying on an affair with the man of the house. It’s a story that doesn’t end well for anyone involved and one that ties into Mandeville’s efforts to relieve Foster of the sizeable amount of cash he has stowed away.

    Originally rated X by the BBFC, Dark Places is an imperfect but plenty entertaining thriller made far more interesting than it should be thanks to a top notch cast. Financed by ‘one and done’ producer James Hannah Jr., the movie wouldn’t even come close to getting an X by today’s standards, but it does suggest, and to a lesser degree display, a fair bit of seedy behavior on the part of a few of its characters. It doesn’t take a genius to read into the brother/sister relationship shared by Lee and Collins some rather obvious incestuous overtones, thought despite their top billing in the picture they really only have supporting roles here (decent supporting roles, but supporting roles none the less). Regardless, they’re good here, quiet fun to watch even if the material isn’t the best of either one of their careers. Lee’s ability to play upper crust works well here, and Collins’ sexuality allows her to basically coast through the movie looking good, and for some of us, that’s good enough. She vamps it up well and is definitely memorable in the role.

    The rest of the main cast members are also noteworthy. Herbert Lom has done better work than he does here but he’s still plenty amusing in his part as the shifty solicitor in cahoots with the Mandeville siblings. Jean Marsh chews a bit of scenery here and there but we thank her for it by the time the movie is all over as she, too, is a lot of fun to watch. Jane Birkin, often cast in more androgynous roles, is definitely more feminine here than she is in something like Je T’aime Mai Non Plus, and we can definitely see why Hardy’s Marr would be drawn to her. As to Hardy himself, he’s maybe not anyone’s first choice to carry a film but he’s definitely watchable here, playing the dual role well enough.

    There are some pacing issues and the film’s finale is more of a whimper than a bang, but the sometimes very bitchy dialogue is a treat and the production values, overall, are pretty decent. Mostly though, this is one you watch simply for the cast, and one that level it definitely delivers.

    The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee Collection 2 – Blu-ray Review:

    Uncle Was A Vampire is framed at 2.39.1 with the uncut theatrical version of the film scanned in 2K from a dupe negative and presented in AVC encoded 1080p. A disclaimer warns us ahead of time that some image stability problems are basically baked into the surviving elements and can’t be fixed. This results in some shudder in a few scenes, more obvious earlier in the film. Taking up 30.8Gbs of space on a 50GB disc, the colors look a bit faded but, shudder aside, the image is pretty stable. Detail isn’t reference quality but it’s definitely much better than a standard definition offering would have provided. Compression artifacts aren’t ever a problem and the image always looks properly film-like, showing no noticeable noise reduction or edge enhancement issues.

    The Secret Of The Red Orchid has been scanned in 2K from the dupe negative and is presented framed at 1.66.1 widescreen in AVC encoded 1080p. Taking up 23GBs of space on the 25GB disc, this is a nice improvement over the previous DVD release from Image Entertainment that came out years ago and was in 1.33.1 fullframe. The framing looks good and the picture quality is, overall, quite strong. The black and white image shows good black levels and decent contrast, occasionally looking just a tad hot here and there but for the most part quite balanced. Detail is solid if a step or two below the best the format can offer, while the image is free of all but minor print damage, relegated to the occasional small scratch here and there. Compression is not a problem, nor is edge enhancement or noise reduction.

    Dark Places is framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and scanned uncut in 4K from an internegative recently discovered in a London lab vault, presented in AVC encoded 1080p. Using just short of 28GBs of space on the 50GB disc, the picture quality on this feature is very strong. The image is clean and crisp and clear but always film-like in appearance, with a nice amount of natural grain present but not much at all in the way of actual print damage. Colors look really nice as well, they’re reproduced very naturally and never look boosted at all. Black levels are strong and skin tones look accurate. Detail is generally really nice throughout, with plenty of depth to the picture and good texture noticeable throughout.

    The only audio option on Uncle Was A Vampire is a 24-bit DTS-HD Italian 2.0 Mono track with optional English subtitles. Audio quality is fine. It isn’t going to floor you but the levels are properly balanced and if things lean a little flat, there are no issues with any hiss or distortion to note. The score and the film’s ridiculously jaunty theme song, which plays over the end credits and the menus screen, sound quite good.

    The Secret Of The Red Orchid is presented with its English and German-language tracks for the first time ever in America, with removable subtitles provided for each option. Both tracks are presented in 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono and are clean, clear and nicely balanced. No problems to note here.

    Audio options for Dark Places include English and French Mono tracks, both in 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono, with separate removable subtitle options provided for each track. The English track is the way to go here as the French track is dubbed, but it’s nice to have it included here for posterity’s sake. Both options are clean and properly balanced, without any distortion or hiss to complain about.

    Extras are spread across the set as follows:

    Disc One – Uncle Was A Vampire:

    Extras start off with an alternate cut taken from an Italian broadcast master. This version runs 1:37:13 compared to the theatrical version at 1:40:35 and offered up in 480i standard definition with 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono Italian audio and optional English subtitles. Obviously the quality drop between this and the dupe negative-sourced feature presentation is significant but these would seem to be the only existing elements of this version so it’s nice to have it included here for the sake of completion.

    The alternate cut includes an audio commentary with Christopher Lee biographer Jonathan Rigby and Hammer historian Kevin Lyons that starts off by noting the similarity of the opening scene here to the opening of Hammer's Dracula. From there, they go over the film industry's tendency to quickly cash in on commercially successful films with parodies, other Dracula knock offs that came out of Italy in the wake of Hammer's work, the grim humor featured early on at the train station, the locations that were used for the film, details on the different cast and crew members that worked on the picture, details on Steno's career and box office success, how the film was received and reviewed over the years, the naming (or lack thereof) of certain characters, Lee's work in the picture, Renato Rascel's life and times, the sex comedy elements that are worked into the picture and quite a bit more.

    Also included on the disc is a thirteen minute featurette titled Commedia Dracula All'Italiana, which is a piece with European film scholar Dr. Pasquale Iannone that goes over how the film was made quickly to cash in on the success of Hammer’s Dracula in Italy, background info on prolific director Steno, Renato Rascel’s career, how Lee wound up in the movie and quite a bit more.

    Disc Two – The Secret Of The Red Orchid:

    The first of the two audio commentary tracks on this disc once again pairs up Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson and author Troy Howarth. They start off by discussing how this is the first Krimi to get a special edition Blu-ray in the United States, the film's place in the Krimi cannon, the influence of gangster films on the movie, shooting locations, Edgar Wallace's life and times, the international flavor of this and other Krimi movies, details on the different performers that appear in the picture and thoughts on how they play their characters, the joy of seeing Lee and Kinski on camera together in one of five films that they played together (this being the only one where they shared the screen together), the influence of Krimi's on giallo cinema, Lee's work in the picture, when and where Lee has been dubbed at various parts in his career, the quick pace that the Krimi films were made at and Kinski's frequent appearances in them, the quality of the film's eccentric score and plenty more.

    A second commentary gets film scholars/authors Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw behind the microphone to discuss the film's different alternate titles, the influence of Edgar Wallace on pop culture and his overall fame in Germany, Wallace's failure to break the American market the way he did in the UK and Germany, why the Krimi films aren't as well known outside of Germany as they maybe should be, the way that Britain is depicted in the Krimi movies and Wallace's depiction of the upper crust, Wallace's approach to telling stories around protection rackets, the speed with which Wallace cranked out his novels and his problems with creditors, Lee's presence in the film, the English dubbing in the movie and how Lee's dubber sounds like Adam West's Batman, the different cast members that pop up in the picture, Mell's career and presence in the movie, Wallace being influenced by American news headlines of his era and quite a few other pertinent topics.

    A trailer for the feature finishes up the extras on this disc.

    Disc Three – Dark Places:

    Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth provide an audio commentary on this third feature as well. They talk about the film's impressive cast, the work of the movie's producers, the film's title and how it can be a bit confusing given that there are a few other movies that use the same title, Don Sharp's work behind the camera, Lom's career both on screen and in musicals, the incestuous subtext that exists between Lee and Collins in the movie, Lee's work in the picture, how Lee was happy to work right up until the very last days of his life, some of the elements of the movie that don't really quite work the way that they should but also where the film really does connect, Sammy Davis Jr.'s admitted love of Lee's work and the storied actor's ability to deliver solid work even in lesser projects.

    The Cadogan Conversations is an interview with Jonathan Rigby, the author of Christopher Lee: The Authorised Screen History, which runs for twenty-four minutes. He talks about how he first came to be familiar with Lee's work after seeing Dracula Has Risen From The Grave after a seventies television viewing as a kid, and the impact that it left on him. From there, Rigby talks about the importance of Lee's work as Dracula and his Hammer output, the impressiveness of his physicality as an actor, Lee's tendency for melodramatic but controlled performances, how he came to become highly involved in the Christopher Lee fan club scene, skipping out on school to meet Lee at Tower Records, getting to know Lee and writing about his work over the years and more. He tells quite a few interesting anecdotes about the time he spent with the man over the years, it's interesting stuff.

    Finishing up the extras on disc three are a U.S. teaser trailer and a Brazilian TV spot.

    The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee Collection – The Final Word:

    The first half of The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee Collection Volume 2 from Severin Films offers up three lesser scene movies from the actor’s catalogue in fine shape and with some nice extra features as well. There are some fun surprises stored in here and the plentiful bonus features do a nice job of exploring the histories of their respective feature presentations. More to come in part two….



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