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Released by: Full Moon Entertainment
Released on: December 6, 2011.
Director: Ken Dixon
Cast: John Carradine
Year: 1981
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The Movie:
Released straight to video in 1981 by Wizard Video to cash in on the demand for horror and exploitation product at the time, The Best Of Sex And Violence is an early trailer compilation hosted by none other than the late, great John Carradine. Directed by Ken Dixon and based off of an idea by Charles Band himself, it's a fun collection of promo spots geared towards those with a taste for gore and nudity (you know, in case the title didn't clue you in to that).
Lurking underneath that awesome cover (featuring a young and very healthy looking Brinke Stevens) is seventy five minutes of completely random trailers presented without a whole lot of context aside from some quick quips from Carradine, sometimes related to the movie, sometimes related to something he starred in, sometimes related to something else entirely. While the emphasis is on horror and exploitation, oddly enough we get some trailers that really feature much of either (The Doberman Gang being the most obvious example).
The trailers included on the disc are presented in the following order:
Bury Me An Angel / The Doberman Gang / Tunnelvision / The Sin Of Adam & Eve / Alice In Wonderland (XXX version) / Cinderella / Fairy Tales / Emmanuelle Around The World / Tanya's Island / I Spit On Your Grave / Tourist Trap / The Boogeyman / Zombie / The Single Girls / The Working Girls / The Manhandlers / Dr. Minx / Truck Stop Women / The Twilight People / Beyond Atlantis / The Devil's Wedding Night / Sweet Sugar / Terminal Island / Ebony, Ivory & Jade / Dr. Black & Mr. Hyde / Dolemite / The Human Tornado / The Disco Godfather.
So yeah, there's a pretty eclectic and nonsensical mix here. Bury Me An Angel starts things off on a strong note with loads of action and a great seventies vibe, then we get… The Doberman Gang. Okay. We'll pretend that didn't happen and then watch things get goofy with Tunnelvision before sex once again becomes the disjointed focus as we get a few sexploitation trailers, both domestic and foreign, culminating in a great spot for the beastly love found only on Tanya's Island (starring former Prince flame Vanity and a horny dude in a monkey suit!). This segues into a batch of horror titles, some of which are pretty easy to find (Zombie and I Spit On Your Grave), others less so (Tourist Trap and The Twilight People) with some random bits of drive-in weirdness mixed in completely at random (Truck Stop Women). We close on a high note, with a triple feature of Rudy Ray Moore trailers.
Much like Mad Ron's Prevues From Hell, this is definitely a product of its time. New technology and home video formats have seen trailer compilations improve dramatically but there's definitely some low budget VHS era charm here. The trailers are all cropped sometimes to the point of incoherence but nostalgia buffs and trailer junkies will eat it all up and gladly ask for seconds (which were served up in the form of the Film Gore and Zombiethon tapes shortly after).
Video/Audio/Extras:
The fullframe presentation, with all of the original cropping intact, has been sourced from a VHS tape that has seen better days. The image is soft throughout and there is color fading aplenty. Macroblocking pops up fairly often as do random compression artifacts. The picture is generally pretty murky looking.
The audio is slightly better than the video. Though the Dolby Digital Mono English language track on the DVD is somewhat flat and prone to background hiss, at least most of the dialogue is easy enough to follow and understand. No alternate language options or subtitles are provided.
Extras include an introduction from Charles Band, a promo spot advertising the Full Moon Direct Grindhouse line, trailers for a few other Full Moon Entertainment properties, menus and chapter stops.
The Final Word:
It's a shame that more wasn't done to give this early trailer compilation a better presentation, as this one really is pretty rough around the edges. Regardless, with that fairly obvious complaint aside, this is a fun way to kill seventy-five minutes. There are some interesting trailers here and Carradine's goofy delivery in between promos make this one fun to watch even if the quality of the disc itself is pretty lousy.
