The Pete Walker Collection

One of Britain's great genre filmmakers Pete Walker finally gets some much-needed respect here in the States via Redemption's terrific new Blu-ray box set, The Pete Walker Collection, which hits stores on November 20th. While the films in this collection, Die Screaming, Marianne (1971), House of Whipcord (1974), Schizo (1976) and The Comeback (1978), have all been available on DVD before in the States they have never looked quite as incredible as they do on this new Kino Lorber/Redemption collection.

The essential Walker works gathered together for this new box-set were previously released by both Image entertainment (as part of their EuroShock line) and Shriek Show (who assembled their own box several years back).  While those releases were notable in that they did bring some of Walker's most shocking visions to Region 1 DVD, the prints utilized left a lot to be desired and were in some instances quite dismal.  While the Shriek Show releases did include some valuable commentary tracks with Walker the films in general looked too dark and grimy and sounded too muffled and muddy.

The new high-def tranfers of Die Screaming, Marianne, House of Whipcord, Schizo and The Comeback are real wonders to behold.  Remastered in HD from the original negatives, these Walker classics have never looked quite as colorful or held such a visual allure.  While some print damage is apparent in each film these new transfers represent a huge visual and audio upgrade from those older Image and Shriek Show DVDs.  House of Whipcord especially benefits as we can now actually see what is happening on screen in some of the films darker and more notorious moments.  

The supplements that have been gathered together for this new Pete Walker Collection are also quite superb.    The original audio commentary tracks for House of Whipcord, Die Screaming Marianne and The Comeback have all been thankfully carried over from the older releases and are all highly recommended.  Walker is an intelligent, well-spoken and witty artist and all of these tracks are a pleasure to listen to.  Schizo is the only film here lacking a commentary, which is a shame as it is such a strong film.  Original trailers also accompany each film and the only older extras not carried over from the Shriek Show releases are some 'photo galleries', which honestly weren't all that essential in the first place.

New to this set are several fascinating recently shot interviews with Pete Walker conducted by the great filmmaker Elijah Drenner.  Each chat gives us some great insight into the films, Walker's style and how demanding it can be operating as an independent filmmaker working with lower than needed budgets.  Each talk helps solidify Walker's place as a true independent, and visionary, and Drenner should be quite proud of his work here.

The Pete Walker Collection continues Kino and Redemption's major winning streak for the classic exploitation and horror film market.  Walker's works are now at a home with a company in charge of other maverick filmmakers like Rollin, Bava and Franco and genre-film fans should be very grateful.  The Pete Walker Collection is yet another essential purchase and would make an ideal stocking-stuffer for the cult-film lover in your life, or as an early Christmas present for yourself!

American Grindhouse on DVD

American Grindhouse, one of the most entertaining and essential documentaries in recent memory, finally hit DVD this past month courtesy of a splendid special edition from Lorber and I highly recommend it to everyone reading. Jam-packed with insightful, and often humorous, interviews with filmmakers like John Landis, Joe Dante, Jack Hill, Fred Williamson and Larry Cohen, as well as film historians like Kim Morgan, American Grindhouse traces the history of Exploitation films in the United States from the silent years up through today. Narrated wonderfully by legendary Robert Forster and running a concise, if frustratingly short, 82 minutes, American Grindhouse is a fast, but surprisingly exhaustive, run through more than eight decades of fringe cinema.

One of the most valuable aspects of American Grindhouse is director Elijah Drenner's wise move to not take the easy route and start in the late-fifties. Some of the most powerful, and eye-opening, footage present in the film comes in the early clips that remind viewers that exploitation is as old as cinema itself, and that most of the seventies more infamous sub-genres can in some way be traced back to the pre-code Hollywood that was as wild as it was uncompromising. Not including these early sections on the Silents and Pre-Code Films would have been the equivalent of a punk documentary leaving out Sun Records and The Velvet Underground.

I also really appreciated that American Grindhouse takes its lead from the films it is paying tribute to as it is refreshingly R-Rated and loaded with all the nudity, sex and violence that these films were known for. Drenner's film is also completely smug-free, which is tremendous as I can't think of anything worse than watching on a film on exploitation cinema that is over intellectualized or at all snobby.

A valuable making of segment on American Grindhouse's special features makes clear that this film was a real labor of love for Drenner and one that took nearly a decade to get completed. Starting out life as a documentary on the films of Jack Hill, American Grindhouse took Drenner all over the United States on a quest to track down some of the most maverick and uncompromising filmmakers in cinema history. Drenner's love and passion for exploitation film comes through in every frame of American Grindhouse and the interviews he got definitely don't disappoint as figures such as Herschell Gordon Lewis, Ted V. Mikels, James Gordon White and the late Don Edmonds (to whom the film is dedicated) come across as adventurous as the films they directed. While I felt that certain favorites of mine including Radley Metzger, Joe Sarno, Bob Chinn, Roberta Findlay and even Russ Meyer got short-changed it is hard to complain about a film that has Don Edmonds recounting his experiences prepping Ilsa: She Wolf of the S.S.!

My only real complaint about American Grindhouse is its extremely short length. Thankfully the DVD is loaded with extra-features including many extended and deleted interviews that make the package feel all the more comprehensive. With the added on extras, American Grindhouse takes its place, along with the Ozploitation exploitation work Not Quite Hollywood, as probably the best documentary about film released in the past five years. Check it out immediately if you haven't already.