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Released by: Arrow Video
Released on: May 31st, 2016.
Director: Jack Hill, Stephanie Rothman
Cast: William Campbell, Sig Haig, Lori Saunders
Year: 1966
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The Movie:
1966's Blood Bath, co-directed by Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman, tells the horrifying tale of an artist named Antonio Sordi (William Campbell) who we learn very early on in the film is quite insane. How do we know this? Well, he claims to be an old ancestor of his, reincarnated many years after being sentenced to death and burned at the stake for nefarious activity.
Antonio spends most of his time squirreled away in his gloomy, dank studio but finds time to break away from his painting from time to time in order to head out into the streets clothed in a dark cloak in hopes of picking up chicks. For such a weird dude, he actually does pretty well in this department. Once he's got a foxy lady's attention, he seems to have all the luck he needs in order to convince them to go back to his place. This routine of his doesn't stop there though, nor does it stop with a romp in the sack - nope, once Antonio gets his chosen hottie back to his pad he paints them! And his paintings, referred to by certain art collectors as 'red dead nudes' prove to be quite popular. This seems innocent enough until he finishes his painting and then kills the women, before covering their bodies in wax!
Antonio's bizarre hobby is going swimmingly until, while out on the prowl one night, he meets a gorgeous young woman named Dorean (Lori Saunders). It doesn't take him long to start to suspect her as the reincarnated form of his reincarnated self's former lover. It's complicated.
Though it was also released with roughly ten minutes worth of extra footage under the alternate title of Track Of The Vampire (it was padded out for TV broadcast), the shorter Blood Bath cut of the film runs a quick sixty-two minutes and represents the theatrical version of the movie. It's a choppy picture to be sure, and a large part of why that is stems from the fact that it was basically cut together from three different sources. Corman originally backed a Yugoslavian horror film called Operation Titian (which he insisted by shot in English) but wasn't happy with the way it turned out - you'll spot this footage very easily as it has a very surrealist tone to it. He recycled some of that footage and so he threw some money at the ever reliable Jack Hill to come up with some new material to use in conjunction with the Yugoslavian footage. Hill used a few of his regulars, and so that's why you wind up seeing Sid Haig and a few other familiar faces in the movie. Corman wasn't happy with Hill's work and so he kicked him off the project and got Stephanie Rothman to take over where he left off. So basically the film is a bit of a mess, but it's a fascinating mess.
In addition to the main plot there are subplots about missing siblings, random scenes of surrealism that feel like they were lifted out of a Fernando Arrabal movie, and wacky dubbing and synch issues galore. The whole thing has a really strange vibe to it in that none of the performances are particularly good, and yet somehow there's this really bizarre, morbid atmosphere to the whole production that will certainly appeal to fans of black and white gothic horror. At just over sixty minutes in length the film doesn't overstay its welcome and it goes by before you realize it's even really started. Blood Bath is choppy, erratic, periodically nonsensical but it's also rather fascinating and definitely worth seeing for Corman/Hill fans. And it's all the more fascinating once you delve into the back story behind it... but more on that in the next few paragraphs.
Video/Audio/Extras:
On this limited edition two-disc set, Arrow presents all four versions of the movie in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.66.1 widescreen. The Operation Titian cut has been reassembled from various film elements and standard definition inserts and looks noticeably weaker than the other movies but it is still very watchable with decent contrast, strong black levels and solid, if occasionally inconsistent detail. The Portrait In Terror, Blood Bath and Track Of The Vampire cuts have all been transferred from original film materials in new 2k restorations and they all look quite good. Some shots do look cleaner and crisper than others, which makes sense given the cut and paste nature of the production's various histories but by and large detail is strong throughout. Print damage is minimal while grain looks nice and natural. Blacks are solid and deep and there are no problems with any compression artifacts (the four cuts are presented on two BD50's and are afforded decent bit rates here). There are no problems with any obvious noise reduction or edge enhancement and typically the four transfers all look nice and film-like. Operation Titian and Portrait In Terror are paired up on the first disc, while Blood Bath and Track Of The Vampire are contained on the second disc.
Each film gets the English language LPCM Mono treatment. There are no problems to note here, dialogue is clean, clear and easy to follow and the tracks are properly balanced. Hiss and distortion are non-issues and there's about as much depth as you could realistically expect. Optional English SDH subtitles are included on all four versions of the movie.
So, right. Arrow has dug up all four films that play a part in what would become Blood Bath. Let's start with 1963's Operation Titian (1:35:22), which is set on a beautiful, scenic coastal town. As warmer weather arrives and the townsfolk expect a host of tourists to arrive, a strange old man named Ugo Bonacic (Vjekoslav Afric) is found dead, the victim of murder most foul! The detective in charge of solving the case starts to piece together what he can and eventually winds up suspecting a man traveling with a visiting American diving team may have played a part in this. But the motive? It seems to relate to a rare painting that Ugo had in his possession. This is interesting in that it was shot on location in Yugoslavia with a primarily eastern European cast, but it also features William Campbell, as a hard drinking artist named Toni, and none other than Patrick Magee as the mysterious Morisijus. Corman had just used these two actors in The Young Racers and was able to get them onboard this project quickly enough to cash in on their name recognition. It was all shot fast and cheap but there's a lot of really beautiful location footage included here. It plays out more like a murder mystery than the horror movie that Blood Bath would eventually turn into, but it's interesting to see the footage presented in its original context.
A few years later in 1965, the film would be recut again into Portrait In Terror (1:21:23). The plot more or less remains the same here but this version runs about fourteen minutes shorter than the ninety-four minute Operation Titian. This was recut again, so that nine minutes or so would be used in Blood Bath (1:02:04, already covered), which brings us, finally, to Track Of The Vampire (1:19:23). As mentioned earlier, this is the TV version of Blood Bath so it's been padded out a bit and has had some of the stronger murder set pieces slightly softened. Some of the additions here include a chase scene early in the film where the vampire chases a lovely lady only to kill her on the beach. There's also a random dance scene inserted here, again on a beach, as well as some additional footage in which Campbell and Magee talk to a dancer in a bar (taken from the Portrait In Terror cut).
All of this is covered in a ridiculous amount of detail in the feature length documentary, The Trouble With Titian Revisited. Presented as a 'visual essay' this is essentially Video Watchdog's Tim Lucas presenting an updated version of an article originally presented in three parts years ago early in Video Watchdog's history. Lucas starts out by explaining his personal history with the film, how at a young age he realized that there were multiple movies out there using the same footage, which led to his quest to uncover the history of the different versions. And that's exactly what he does here, putting it all into context by explaining how Corman came to be involved in the original Yugoslavian production, how and why Campbell and Magee turned up in the movie, background information on all of the key players (including some interesting bits about Francis Ford Coppola's involvement early on), why the four versions of the movie came to exist in the first place and quite a bit more. This is very thorough, very comprehensive and it serves as pretty much the last word on the history of Blood Bath and its different incarnations. Lucas' narration is accompanied by plenty of archival stills and clips and this is quite well put together.
If that weren't enough, we also get a five minute interview with Sid Haig entitled Bathing In Blood. Here he shares his side of the story as to how he came to be involved in the production, his thoughts on the movie, some stories about who he worked with on the picture and more, including an interesting story about some camera tricks that were done in the movie. A quick three minute archival interview with Jack Hill is also found on the disc. Here he talks about the footage he shot for the movie, working with Corman, writing the script and padding out a movie that was already made, Coppola's work on the picture and more. All of this supplemental material is included on the second disc in the set. Both discs included animated menus and feature/chapter selection.
What's on the two discs in the set is already worth shelling out for but on top of that we also get a double-sided fold-out poster that features the awesome original poster art on one side and the newly commissioned artwork (that serves as this release's cover art, seen up top) from Dan Mumford on the flip side. This is tucked away inside the cardboard slipcover that the Blu-ray case also fits into along with a pretty impressive full color booklet that contains essay on the film, the filmmakers and some of the cast members from writers Peter Stanfield, Anthony Nield, Vic Pratt and Cullen Gallagher.
The Final Word:
Arrow's two disc limited edition Blu-ray release of Blood Bath and all its respective variants really goes the extra mile to present fans with what is pretty much a definitive release. The transfers are very strong and the extras do an excellent job of putting the convoluted history of these productions into the proper context. On top of that, we get some interesting bonus interviews and, a slick poster, gorgeous packaging and a nice insert booklet with some well written background information included inside. All in all, this is a fantastic package.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
