- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,424
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
Arrow Video has created an interesting product, that I presume will be quickly sold out to fans of 1970s/1980s Italian horror films.
The concept is that both films are based upon the same Poe horror short story, The Black Cat, originally published in 1843 in The Saturday Evening Post.
Hence, The Black Cats...
While I'm not a fan of the era's Italian horror, nor the gialli, I can appreciate a high quality product when it arrives, and this one has it in spades.
Separately packaged, with both Blu-ray, as well as DVD, the two films are:
Sergio Martino's 1972 Your Vice is a Locked Room, and Only I Have the Key, and;
probably the better known (at least in the Colonies),
Lucio Fulci's 1981, far more easily entitled, The Black Cat, starring Patrick McGee and Mimsy Farmer.
Especially, for collectors of Mr. Fulci's work, the arrival of The Black Cat on Blu-ray will be cause of celebration.
The most important point of this discussion, however, is not simply "arrival," but arrival in style.
Both films have been nicely digitally cleaned, and restored, where necessary by L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna, and supervised by UK archivist James White, whose work has been acknowledged in these words previously.
Both films have been scanned from their original camera negatives in 2k resolution. Their tracks have come from optical track negatives, and while that is unusual for films of this era, as opposed to working from mags, things seem fine.
Both films possess a pleasing grain structure, with superb shadow detail, and color that I can only presume is representative of the filmmaker's wishes.
While both look lovely on Blu-ray, I might give a slight nod to The Black Cat in terms of overall quality.
Make no mistake, this is a boxed set for fans of the films, and it's street price, around $60 may seem steep for the genre, but for the amount of work involved in preparing the films, especially for a limited market, and also, the major addition of a quality 75+ page paperback book, included with the set, I feel that the value is definitely in place.
Your Vice is a Locked Room, and Only I Have the Key
Image - 4
Audio - 4
4k Up-rez - 4
Pass / Fail - Pass
Recommended
The Black Cat
Image - 4.5
Audio - 4
4k Up-rez - 4.5
Pass / Fail - Pass
Recommended
RAH