Life is a comedy at times. As a homeowner, married working stiff (I expect to find myself on "Walking Dead", armed with a hammer and sheetrock as I fight off leftovers and go over the household budget with the Mrs.) and published HACK author (I hear the song, "Paperback Writer", when I find time to sit down before the computer and project warped inspiration to document!). In other words, outside of the news, I really don't have time or energy to watch too many films. But I did make an exception.
"DRACULA" (1958), best known as "Horror of Dracula", the immortal Hammer film classic has FINALLY been fully RESTORED -with the legendary censored scenes put back in-on an excellent region 2 Blu-Ray dvd. The package contains 3 discs-a Blu-Ray, Digital dvd, and a documentary disc of wonderful extras. The film, now with the title "Dracula" restored and now screened at the original 1.66:1 aspect ration (not cropped like the domestic disc), the image is beautifully shown with all the colour and shades, missing from all versions up to now. You get the 2007 BFI cut (that starts with "Universal-International") and the 2013 edit, which has the famed footage that various horror magazines talked about (and shown pictures of) of Dracula's sun-drenched death (the footage was found on a Japanese print in Tokyo). A new commentary by film historians Marcus Hearn and Jonathan Rigby, heard on both versions, is informative and keeps the interest. Lionsgate and the BFI have come through with a great release and I am sure a domestic issue will one day show up here!
"DRACULA" (1958), best known as "Horror of Dracula", the immortal Hammer film classic has FINALLY been fully RESTORED -with the legendary censored scenes put back in-on an excellent region 2 Blu-Ray dvd. The package contains 3 discs-a Blu-Ray, Digital dvd, and a documentary disc of wonderful extras. The film, now with the title "Dracula" restored and now screened at the original 1.66:1 aspect ration (not cropped like the domestic disc), the image is beautifully shown with all the colour and shades, missing from all versions up to now. You get the 2007 BFI cut (that starts with "Universal-International") and the 2013 edit, which has the famed footage that various horror magazines talked about (and shown pictures of) of Dracula's sun-drenched death (the footage was found on a Japanese print in Tokyo). A new commentary by film historians Marcus Hearn and Jonathan Rigby, heard on both versions, is informative and keeps the interest. Lionsgate and the BFI have come through with a great release and I am sure a domestic issue will one day show up here!
This post was last modified: 04-13-2013, 09:39 AM by RichE.
You are very welcome. I was able to get it on Amazon.UK. I think you will enjoy it!! Also, a restoration was also made for "THE DEVIL RIDES OUT" (U.S.: "The Devil's Bride"), with not only the same quality of image and sound/extras, but the completion of special effects that were planned (but not done due to time) in 1968. The 'Angel of Death' scene looks terrific!
This post was last modified: 04-12-2013, 01:48 PM by RichE.
one of my all-time fave horror films but it appears to be a Region 2 DVD...not sure my Sony Blu-ray will play that.
This post was last modified: 04-13-2013, 10:09 AM by fpw.
FPW
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I didn't mention this, but many of you Dracula fans out there might want to know this. The "Horror of Dracula" shooting script (from my own collection) has been published by BearManor Media. It contains not only the script but the 1819 John Polidori short story, "The Vampyre", a introduction by Michael Hartley, and, to top it off, an expanded piece on the making of the Dracula production by Ronald V. Borst (that first appeared in "Photon" magazine back in the 70's). It really is a great book as it shows the various changes made while it was being filmed!