Tweet
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released On: November 25th, 2016.
Director: Joe Sarno
Cast: Sue Akers, Morris Kaplan, Maria Lease, Peggy Steffans, Marianne Prevost, Cherie Winters
Year: 1968
Purchase From Vinegar Syndrome
The Movie:
All The Sins Of Sodom (which also played under the title All The Evils Of Satan) previously released on DVD by Secret Key Motion Pictures now receives a gorgeous HD facelift from Vinegar Syndrome. A treat for the director's legion of fans, this melodramatic black and white tale of a photographer and the obsession that leads to his inevitable downfall is ripe with allegory, atmosphere and ample bosoms!
The film follows the exploits of a well known New York City photographer referred to only as Henning. His agent wants him to shoot a portfolio of simple nudes and he agrees, but Henning is more interested in shooting his pet project - a photo shoot that he hopes will capture the inner evils that hide within women. He starts by taking some provocative shots of Leslie (Maria Lease), a pretty young thing with short dark hair, who sheds her duds and poses with some strings that hang from the ceiling. After their shoot they go to bed together, where Henning tells her that generally after sleeping with a woman he never wants to see them again, but things are different with her, because he does want to see her again.
When Henning's agent brings him a new model named Joyce (Sue Akers), Henning winds up taking pity on her. She tells him she's out on the street with no money and he allows her to stay in the spare room of his studio. As Henning goes about shooting the various models that come into his studio, becoming increasingly disenchanted with the results, he turns to Joyce, seeing in her the evil he is so intent on capturing, but Joyce isn't all she appears to be and her manipulative ways soon prove to be Henning's undoing…
Filled with some interesting foreshadowing through biblical references (Henning quotes scripture more than once when he tells us about his preacher father), All The Sins Of Sodom is a pretty interesting picture. Beautifully shot by cinematographer Steven Silverman, it makes excellent use of its high contrast shadowy photography to build a wonderfully noirish atmosphere with plenty of tension. We know from the minute Joyce walks into Henning's life what's going to happen, but just how it's going to happen is where the twist lies, and it's a pretty good one that will keep you guessing.
Performance wise, the film is also pretty strong. The man who plays Henning, an unidentified actor with a whole lot of body hair, isn't so much sympathetic as he is obsessive and while it's maybe a little hard to feel sorry for him, he does make for an interesting character, especially because in a way he predicts his own downfall very early on in the picture. The female cast steals the show, however, with Maria Lease and Sue Akers (a pseudonym, likely) oozing sensuality, both women lit and shot with an almost fetishistic eye for composition. The dialogue that goes back and forth between these two apples of Henning's eye is venomous! Peggy Steffans and Morris Kaplan both have supporting roles in the picture, the bulk of which takes place inside Kaplan's studio save for a couple of nice exterior shots that show off Midtown New York City in late 1967 or early 1968.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Vinegar Syndrome presents All The Sins Of Sodom on a 25GB disc in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer taken from a new 2k scan of the film's original 35mm negative and it looks excellent. Contrast is spot on, with nice clean whites, dark inky blacks and plenty of grey to fill in the mid-tones. Detail is quite strong here, not just in close-up shots but medium and long distance shots as well and the picture is remarkably clean showing very little print damage outside of the odd speck here and there. Grain appears naturally, never overpowering the image or distracting, it looks just fine. There are no obvious issues with noise reduction nor are there any problems with edge enhancement or compression artifacts.
The only audio option on the disc is a DTS-HD Mono track, there are no alternate language options though English closed captioning is offered. Dialogue is clean and clear and easy to follow and the levels are well balanced. This isn't a fancy track but it suits the movie just fine and it sounds quite good.
Aside from menus and chapter selection, there are no extras on the disc although this is a combo pack and as such it comes packaged with a DVD version of the movie.
The Final Word:
A beautifully shot and unexpectedly compelling slice of softcore soap operatic drama, All The Sins Of Sodom receives a very nice Blu-ray upgrade from Vinegar Syndrome that rightly places it alongside some of Sarno's better known efforts as a fine example of his directorial talent. And if that don't sell ya, it's got a lot of naked hotties in it.
Note that this release is limited to 1,000 pcs and is available exclusively through the Vinegar Syndrome web store.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
