haineshisway
Senior HTF Member
I watched the new Blu-ray of Who Killed Teddy Bear? a new 4K transfer off the camera negative from Vinegar Syndrome, and completely uncensored. It remains one of the weirdest movies ever, and for 1965, a homoerotic fetishist's dream. You want Sal Mineo – you GET Sal Mineo, a LOT of Sal Mineo. To be fair, you also get Juliet Prowse, but somehow, it’s not quite the same. You also get Jan Murray as a bitter cop out to catch every deviate in New York, and who doesn’t mind his ten-year-old daughter listening to tapes about said deviates, not to mention all the lurid books and magazines that adorn his desk. I cannot recall any other Jan Murray movies and there’s a reason for that. This film is called “sleazy” by most who’ve seen it, and it certainly earns that moniker. Back in 1965 when it had its brief theatrical fun, there had never been anything like it – I don’t think there’s been anything like it since, frankly. Elaine Stritch is excellent as a Lesbian club owner. But aside from Mr. Mineo’s white underpants, and tight swim trunks and tighter jeans, and the endless shots of his torso, especially during the working out at the gym scene, which contains one of the funniest phallic images ever, the star of the film is New York in 1964, when the film was shot.
We see a Times Square that simply doesn’t exist anymore. Other than the legit theaters, there is nothing at all left of the Times Square of the 1960s and 1970s. Nothing. Not one movie theater, not one store. There’s a then and now extra on the Blu-ray and you can see just how true that is. It’s worth it alone for those scenes and there are a lot of them. The director, Joseph Cates, brother of Gil and daddy of Phoebe, was known more as a producer with tons of TV specials to his credit, and a Broadway producer of What Makes Sammy Run? which was running when the movie was shot. This uncensored version restores three minutes that have been lost for many years, and the main titles are not blurred as they are in most if not all of the home video releases. It’s a fascinating movie with a really good title song. The new 4K transfer is splendid and the set obviously includes a 4K UHD, which I assume looks even better. Highly recommended by the likes of me.
We see a Times Square that simply doesn’t exist anymore. Other than the legit theaters, there is nothing at all left of the Times Square of the 1960s and 1970s. Nothing. Not one movie theater, not one store. There’s a then and now extra on the Blu-ray and you can see just how true that is. It’s worth it alone for those scenes and there are a lot of them. The director, Joseph Cates, brother of Gil and daddy of Phoebe, was known more as a producer with tons of TV specials to his credit, and a Broadway producer of What Makes Sammy Run? which was running when the movie was shot. This uncensored version restores three minutes that have been lost for many years, and the main titles are not blurred as they are in most if not all of the home video releases. It’s a fascinating movie with a really good title song. The new 4K transfer is splendid and the set obviously includes a 4K UHD, which I assume looks even better. Highly recommended by the likes of me.
