"The Legend of Hell House" on blu (1 Viewer)

[FrancisP]

Scream Factory is releasing "The Legend of Hell House" on blu-ray on Aug 2014. I am a little surprised as I thought the movie belonged to Fox. Did not realize they had a pipeline into Fox.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

There is a licencing agreement between Fox and Shout! Factory, as Scream Factory will also be releasing Phantom of the Paradise.

 

[TravisR]

Yeah, Scream/Shout has already released other Fox-owned titles like Terror Train, Prison, The Burning, The Howling, Lifeforce, The Fog, Swamp Thing, The Amityville Horror box set, the Vincent Price box set, Bad Dreams/Visiting Hours and the just announced Motel Hell.

 

[ahollis]

Yeah, Scream/Shout has already released other Fox-owned titles like Terror Train, Prison, The Burning, The Howling, Lifeforce, The Fog, Swamp Thing, The Amityville Horror box set, the Vincent Price box set, Bad Dreams/Visiting Hours and the just announced Motel Hell.

Whoa some of those titles are not Fox. The Howling, The Fog, Swamp Thing. The Amityville Horror and Vincent Price Sets along with Motel Hell belong to MGM. MGM has an agreement with Fox to release titles just as they have with Shout and Twilight. However, you are correct in the Shout has an agreement with Fox and has had one for about five years.

 

[TravisR]

Whoa some of those titles are not Fox. The Howling, The Fog, Swamp Thing. The Amityville Horror and Vincent Price Sets along with Motel Hell belong to MGM.

Except for James Bond and maybe a handful of other exceptions, I thought Fox now owned all MGM titles? If they don't then it's only Terror Train and Bad Dreams that are owned by Fox.

 

[ahollis]

Doesn't Fox own all those MGM titles now?

No. They just have a distribution agreement.

 

[TravisR]

^ Learn something new every day. I thought MGM had financially collapsed to the point that they had had to sell their library.

 

[SilverWook]

Sweet that were getting this less than a year after The Haunting.

Does anyone know if the 4.0 track on the DVD is original? I noticed a missing line of dialog versus the mono track last time I watched it.

 

[ahollis]

^ Learn something new every day. I thought MGM had financially collapsed to the point that they had had to sell their library.

At one time they had their library up for sale, about three or four years ago. Warner's, Fox, Lionsgate, and a couple others made offers but the offers were so low and not near the value they had on the books for those films that they took it off the market and they ended up doing a distribution deal with Fox. They eventually expanded deals with Shout, Criterion, and now Twilight. While I bemoan the quality of some of their transfers and hate what they are allowing to happen to THE ALAMO, I'm kinda glad Warner's did not get the titles since they have so many already.

 

[FrancisP]

Shout is also looking into a second Vincent Price collection. Nothing official yet but they are interested.

 

[JoeStemme]

in honor of the passing of actress Gayle Hunnicut a look back.

One of the screen's supreme Ghost Stories. Richard Matheson's script (based on his novel) is about a cursed mansion where dozens have mysteriously died. Four investigators are hired to unlock the mysteries within including a Physicist (Clive Revell) and his wife (Gayle Hunnicut), a psychic (Pamela Franklin) and a previous 'survivor' (Roddy McDowall).

The quartet quickly encounters the spirits of the satanism, death and debauchery which Emieric Belasco, the original owner, was said to have engaged in. Aleister Crowley was an inspiration for the character, and there are certain elements in common with Shirley Jackson's Legend Of Hill House (filmed as THE HAUNTING). Matheson's tale takes a more scientific approach to the proceedings, but there are plenty of supernatural touches.

McDowall turns in another superb genre performance here and Franklin is excellent as a very receptive psychic. Michael Gough has a memorable cameo. John Hough's direction is taut, Alan Hume's cinematography is suitably sinister as is the electronic score by a trio of composers. This was only one of two feature films that legendary AIP Producer James H. Nicholson lived to complete after parting with Samuel Z. Arkoff.

The lovely and talented Hunnicut passed away recently. Her career included several other genre items including FRAGMENT OF FEAR, EYE OF THE CAT, The Martian Chronicles and episodes of Tales From The Crypt and Tales of the Unknown. She also had a recurring role on Dallas. She was 80.
RIP.