Topic: Mario Bava marathon

[Achim]

Well, I believe I finished a week's quantum by Tuesday before, but I may be wrong.

The main reason here was: As it's a single-sided double-feature I "can" only mark it in DVD Profiler as watched once. Therefore I didn't want to havew too much time between the two movies to keep the data as close to reality as possible

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Lisa and the Devil (1973)

Genre: Horror
Director: Mario Bava
Rating: Unrated
Length: 1h35
Video: Widescreen
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Telly Savalas
Elke Sommer
Silva Koscina
Alessio Orano
Eduardo Fajardo

Plot:
Telly Savalas and Elke Sommer star in this surreal tale that unfolds as both waking dream and elliptical nightmare, a lush and disturbing meditation on love, death, identity and the machinations of evil. Now recognized as Il Maestro's final masterpiece, LISA AND THE DEVIL has been fully restored and remastered from the original camera negatives recently discovered in a Rome lab vault.

My Thoughts:

This is one of those movies that get better after each viewing and to be honest this movie is a visual masterpiece. There are so many beautifull image in it like the mannequin, the image of Leandro in the broken wine bottle, the Sophia's dress movement when she's killed or the sleeping beauty awakening in the forest. The score is so wonderfull and romantic that I would like to get it one day, it fits perfectly in the dream like mood of this film. The acting is quite good also, some of it looks weak but you understand the reason why at the end. Talking of the end, this is certainly a good and surprising one... Without selling it I can say that the meaning of it (at least for me) is that you can't change the past whatever you try to do. This film was a box office failure and this is probably because it was badly marketed as an horror movie since this isn't really one, but more a romantic film with a supernatural approach.

Rating :

[Jimmy]

I've wait untill the last minute for watching The House of Exorcism and like the last time I won't wrote a real review for it. Why? Because it doesn't deserve one.

For me this movie is an insult to the original masterpiece that is one of the best film directed by Mario Bava. This is just stupid to transform it as a cheap Exorcism carbon copy (believe me those new scenes are cheap). The original story loose all its sense in this and to be honest the new possesion storyline make no sense. How in hell Lisa can remember those events when the devil posses her since they didn't happen. All the events happened after she talks to Leandro the second time and it doesn't happened in this version. I hate this movie with all my heart, even the nudity make me angry... This isn't necessary at all and that make the film looks more cheap (I prefer the eroticism of the original).

  

[Jimmy]

Last one for this week
Kidnapped (1974)

[Achim]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Cani arrabbiati
Year: 1974
Director: Rabid Dogs, Mario Bava, Kidnapped, Mario Bava
Rating: NR
Length: 191 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: Italian: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Riccardo Cucciolla
Don Backy [Aldo Caponi]
Lea Lander
Maurice Poli

Plot:
It was to be the most startling film of Bava's entire career: After a botched payroll heist, a trio of vicious criminals take hostages in a desperate getaway that explodes with cruelty, degradation and shocking violence. But when the film's financier was killed during the last stages of production, his entire estate -- including the sole unfinished work print of RABID DOGS -- was seized and impounded by an Italian court. Mario Bava's final masterpiece -- one of the most intense EuroCrime thrillers of all time -- would remain locked away for nearly 23 years.

This presentation includes both the finished version known as KIDNAPPED featuring footage shot by producer Alfredo Leone and Mario's son and longtime assistant Lamberto Bava as well as RABID DOGS -- Bava's original unfinished film -- now with a newly created opening credit sequence.

Extras:
Scene Access
Trailers
Featurettes
Production Notes

My Thoughts:

After a successful robbery a group of four gangsters is on the run, with the police hot in pursuit. One gets shot They took three hostages, a young woman and a man with his sick son, who he wants to bring to the hospital for urgent surgery. Going around the police roadblocks the tension in the car rises, with the leader of the thugs being tough but calm headed and reasonable and the two younger ones getting more and more heated up.

Bava tells this simple story that concentrates on the different characters and their interactions. There is several scenes with high tension in which Bava builds up the suspense excellently. Camera work is great and on par with the best of Bava's other films. The good acting is here only hindered by the almost mediocre dub-work. Especially Maurice Poli as the leader of the gang nicknamed "Doc" shifts moods nicely. The car chase in the beginning is excellently done, funnily enough without any over-the-top action and rather at a more realistic "medium" speed.

(click to show/hide)

While it's mildly hinted at twice in the movie, I didn't see the end coming and was pleasantly surprised.

My notes on Rabid Dogs:
While Kidnapped is the advertised feature here, I am not entirely sure why Anchor Bay chose this one over Rabid Dogs. Rabid Dogs, as seen in the cover text, is the film as Mario Bava intended it. There seems to be no content missing, so shooting had apparently wrapped, and we'll never know how far away Bava was from completing the film when it was ripped out of his hands. The transfer on the disc looks basically the same, only a few shots are obviously more heavily deteriorated; I assume they actually used the Kidnapped print, removed what shouldn't be there and then added only the needed shots from the work print. The music may have gotten some changes as well, we may never know. (Unless my guesses are actually clarified in the documentary I am about to watch .)

Rabid Dogs is only slightly different than Kidnapped. The opening credits are presented in a stylized fashion, much better than the simpler ones in Kidnapped. There is a two short scenes missing in the film, which hinted at the ending and were ultimately more irritating than they helped and the ending runs a little longer than Kidnapped, adding one more reveal at the end. While the changes don't necessarily make it a worse film, they are not Bava's choices and therefore simply shouldn't be there. Had I found that one discussion on IMDb earlier than I would have watched Rabid Dogs as the main attraction and Kidnapped as the special feature, not the other way around.

[Achim]

  Wow, Kidnapped is easily my favorite Mario Bava film from the sets. Visceral film making as I like it.

I am going to have to watch the "original version", Rabid Dogs, right away tomorrow.

[Jimmy]

It's make the fact that this movie was unreleased and "lost" for so many years even more sad. The career of Mario Bava would have had a complete different ending if this would had been released in 1974.

[Achim]

Jimmy, I am confused. The DVD appears to offer me an alternate version besides Kidnapped, namely Rabid Dogs. I tried to find out a bit more, but IMDb at least was little helpful here. Which is the "original" version, supposedly closer to Bava's vision? Which one is the one with the additional material by his son and the Producer as well as the modified score?

Maybe the commentary might clear this up, but I am at work now and want to watch Rabid Dogs forst anyway...

[Jimmy]

Not 100% sure for the title right now, but the original Bava's film is the one without

(click to show/hide)

the woman watching through the window at the beginning (or the end I ain't sure)

. I will try to watch the film today, so I will give you a definitive answer later.

[Achim]

Not 100% sure for the title right now, but the original Bava's film is the one without

(click to show/hide)

the woman watching through the window at the beginning (or the end I ain't sure)

. I will try to watch the film today, so I will give you a definitive answer later.

Well, I just finished watching and added the differences to my original review.

[Jimmy]

Had I found that one discussion on IMDb earlier than I would have watched Rabid Dogs as the main attraction and Kidnapped as the special feature, not the other way around.

Sorry for my little mixed-up in the title
It's clear that the film to watch is the original one, so Rabid Dogs. In fact I've never watched the modified new version, because of the scene added in the beginning who gives the end and the changed music score. Sorry again.

Jon, I hope that you will read our posts before watching this one.

[Jimmy]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Rabid Dogs (1974)

Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Director: Mario Bava
Rating: Unrated
Length: 1h36
Video: Widescreen
Audio: Italian
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Riccardo Cucciolla
Lea Lander
Maurice Poli
Don Backy
George Eastman

Plot:
It was to be the most startling film of Bava's entire career: After a botched payroll heist, a trio of vicious criminals take hostages in a desperate getaway that explodes with cruelty, degradation and shocking violence. But when the film's financier was killed during the last stages of production, his entire estate -- including the sole unfinished work print of RABID DOGS -- was seized and impounded by an Italian court. Mario Bava's final masterpiece -- one of the most intense EuroCrime thrillers of all time -- would remain locked away for nearly 23 years.

My Thoughts:

One of the last movie directed by Mario Bava and very different than his precedents one. This is a pretty good crime film that follow the escape of the three criminals and not really the crime himself that happen fast in the beginning (by the way I don't like the speed up frame when it's happen, but since it's a working print it's understandable). So we have a "psychological" study of the characters. The viewer can easilly feel the tension through all the course of the film, the fact that 90% of it happen in the car interior sure help to create the claustrophobic mood. The acting is particullary good and this is certainly the best career performance of George Eastman (he had used his real name for this film, but you are certainly familliar with his works in many Italian horror films). The actors do a real good job to act obnoxious (Backy and Eastman characters looked completly crazy and dysfonctional) and even Dottore (the gang leader) who sounds so calm is a cold blood killer. Lea Lander plays the hostage perfectly also, you feel her desperation and her breakdown completly. The movie had also a real surprise ending that had completly took me off guard the first time I've watched the film (at least in its original version).

In fact what we have here is the best Bava's film after Four Time That Night (at least for me).     

Rating :

[Najemikon]

Had I found that one discussion on IMDb earlier than I would have watched Rabid Dogs as the main attraction and Kidnapped as the special feature, not the other way around.

Sorry for my little mixed-up in the title
It's clear that the film to watch is the original one, so Rabid Dogs. In fact I've never watched the modified new version, because of the scene added in the beginning who gives the end and the changed music score. Sorry again.

Jon, I hope that you will read our posts before watching this one.

Jimmy, thank you very much for this DVD!  And I have read the posts carefully, so watched Rabid Dogs. It's a shame that between the two films is a perfect version, but still, bloody good thriller all round...

After watching, I watched Kidnapped almost completely in fast-foward, to get an idea of what had been changed. It reminds me of the situation with Payback, almost the opposite way around. The producers sacked the director and added/reshot stuff because they were worried about the tone. Luckily he was able to re-edit it later on with his original footage. Have you seen the Straight Up version, Jimmy? I know you're probably not a Mel Gibson fan, but it really is a great film. There is a review on here...

[Najemikon]

Rabid Dogs (1974)
4 out of 5



This is an incredible piece of raw, genre film-making on a budget. Sums up the guerrilla style 70s, feeling a little like The Getaway (in fact, Al Lettieri was lined up to play Riccardo) and turning into what Last House on the Left could have been. Like Taxi Driver, it is a claustrophobic journey into hell, with all the action focusing on one group of characters in a cramped car, driven by Riccardo who was trying to take a sick child to hospital before he was hijacked by three viscous criminals and their terrified hostage (Lea Lander).

It’s a great story, though it sags in the middle as its simplicity is almost ruined by the length, but the last half really picks up with a nasty, grimy scene as Lander is humiliated and almost raped, and then a fantastic memorable ending. In the making of feature, they called it “cynical” and that is a great way to describe it, but it doesn’t put across just what fun it is!

The film is available in two versions and this is the better one, except it doesn’t seem finished! The opening heist and resultant car chase is brilliantly staged (wonderful use of slow motion, like Peckinpah or Kurosawa), but the editing clearly needed tightening up in several moments as Jimmy pointed out and the music is so repetitive you might wonder if it was supposed to be replaced.

This version was locked away for over 20 years before being rescued by Lea Lander and it feels like the workprint it is. The other version, Kidnapped, does re-edit it, but that small improvement is poor consolation for losing the evocative opening credit sequence, adding superfluous scenes and replacing the music. Yes, I know I said it needed replacing, but not like this! While the new sequences are competent and well integrated, they are spoon-feeding the viewer and spoiling the claustrophobic atmosphere.

Maybe Bava had wanted those sequences in and simply ran out of money, so producer Alfredo Leone’s intentions shouldn’t be questioned, but I can’t help feeling the intended finished article wouldn’t have looked so much different to the Rabid Dogs we have now. Losing the opening credits and replacing footage to keep the running time the same is proof even Kidnapped was a compromised production.

[Jimmy]

Jimmy, thank you very much for this DVD! 

Glad that you have liked it, but I was certain that you would appreciate the movie. Now you know what you have to do? go buy the second set (maybe for the halloween marathon) and post your review of them, since I enjoy reading your oppinion.

It reminds me of the situation with Payback (...) . Have you seen the Straight Up version, Jimmy? I know you're probably not a Mel Gibson fan, but it really is a great film. There is a review on here...

I think that I've seen this on vhs when it was released, it was about Mel Gibson wanting to retrieve some money after he get out of prison no? If it's the one you talk about I've enjoyed it, but not enough for buying it (of course this version is certainly very different than the one I've seen years ago).