The roar of hands clapping! That’s the sound of both the delight and the whole-hearted approval of genre fans about the release news coming Film Masters this past week.
Mark it down, Oct. 22, the next double feature on Blu-ray (and DVD), both starring Klaus Kinski … both films had domestic theatrical releases and both of these genre entries are new 4K scans from their respective original 35mm film elements.
OK, so what’s heading home — as a double-feature — during this upcoming Halloween promotional season from Film Masters that will have film buffs and genre fans cheering?
Topping the double-bill is the 1967 film release of director Alfred Vohrer’s Creature with the Blue Hand, which was dubbed and reworked a bit by famed film distributor Samuel M. Sherman for a domestic double-feature rollout in 1971 with filmmaker Eddie Romero’s Beast of the Yellow Night.
Creature with the Blue Hand, which based on writer Edgar Wallace’s 1925 novel, “The Blue Hand,” also had a second life — with extra footage — as The Bloody Dead. Film Masters has included both films here.
The second feature in this marvelous Kinski collection is the super rare presentation of director Antonio Margheriti’s 1971 haunted house thriller, Web of the Spider, which was dubbed and released theatrically in the domestic market in 1975 by Cinema Shares International (dubbed versions of several of the “Godzilla vs.” movies … and notably the domestic release of director Richard Franklin’s Patrick and writer/director Jeff Lieberman’s Blue Sunshine).
Bonus delights included with this twin bill begins with Stephen Jones and Kim Newman teaming for commentary on Creature with the Blue Hand and an archival commentary from Samuel M. Sherman on The Bloody Dead.
Both Jones and Newman team up for the commentary on Web of the Spider.
And, as a special bonus, Ballyhoo Motion Pictures contributes to new documentaries — A Man of Mystery: Inside the World of Edgar Wallace and Kinski Krimis: Inside the Rialto Film Adaptations.
