Mondo movies for $5.99 at DDD, but are these public domain? (1 Viewer)

[Brian Thibodeau]

I just noticed that single disc DVDs of the Mondo movies are being released in March for $5.99 each (MSRP $9.99). They include:

Mondo Cane
Mondo Cane 2
Africa Blood and Guts
Slave Trade In The World Today
Kwaheri
Mondo Magic
Of The Dead (not sure if this is one or not)

Here's a link to one of them. No picture available yet on these:

http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=WDE047510

Judging from the product numbers on these, they're not single disc releases from the Blue Underground box set, so I'm wondering if certain prints of these films were public domain or if another company now has the rights to release bare-bones editions on DVD? I've always been curious about these, but couldn't really justify buying the box set, but at these prices, I might give them a shot.

Anybody have any info on these?

 

[Damin J Toell]

Of your list, only the first three are "real" Mondo films by Italian filmmakers Jacopetti and Prosperi. The rest are not included in the Blue Underground set, as that set focuses only on the Jacopetti/Prosperi films. Interestingly, those 3 films bear a 1984 copyright date on the back of their respective cases (which is ~20 years after these films were made), leading me to believe that the Italian rights holder had to re-assert their copyright in the films at some point. Earlier versions may well be under license to other entities or even in the public domain for some reason. On the other hand, earlier questionable DVD releases have gone out of print, so perhaps BU does have the only legitimate US license to these films.

And while these discs may be legit, their quality won't be able to touch BU's work, although they may be worthwhile to you at that price, anyway. If you like what you see, I wholheartedly recommend getting the boxset while you can (DeepDiscountDVD seems to still have it in stock at the best price around), as BU themselves are completely sold out of it.

DJ

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

Thanks Damin.

Yeah, the box set was tempting, I'll admit, and still is, but I'm just not sure how much mileage I'd get out of it. I remember a thread over at Mobius (perhaps you were in on it) where someone who was dating a black girl was wondering if he'd be able to justify having it in his house. My girlfriend's Asian (Korean to be exact) and though the Uncle Tom movies might not make a lot of sense to her, I worry that they and others in the set might push her threshold of tolerace (and thus her tolerance of my hobby). And my desire to see them, quite honestly, amounts to a mild curiosity at best. So whereas if I was just to pick a couple of these up at $5.99 a pop, I could pawn them off and at least be able to say I've seen them without worrying too much about the long-term effects.

Then again, my girlfriend's a doctor and, ironically, doesn't bat an eye at surgical procedures and gooey wounds and whatnot, so she MIGHT just have a stonger stomach for it than I would. I can barely stomach the surgery programs that pop up on Discovery sometimes because I know it's real! It's the gory horror movies she can't handle (the girl getting stabbed in the leg in the Korean horror flick Bloody Beach stuck with her for days, and that by my standards was rather tame!)

Boy, now I'm really torn