The Definitive Mario Bava Thread

[Nigel K]

Wish I could say more about him, other than the fact that what little I've seen of his films has been great. I've seen Blood And Black Lace, Bay Of Blood, Black Sabbath, and Black Sunday in their entirety (look at all those B's!). Blood And Black Lace has to be my favorite so far.

[Al Edwards]

Now that I think about it, Lisa and the Devil does feel like a modern Greek tragedy tale with the main protagonist suffering a fate very similar to many heros and heroines in Greek mythology.

[K August]

Wow. In and around school I finally finished watching Rabid Dogs last night.

In a word, Amazing! I much prefer Mario's take on the real world than the fantastic as it seems like he had the perfect grasp on the underhanded mechanisms of the criminal mind.

Did not see the ending coming at all.

The only flaw, the actor who played Blade. Otherwise, this is a great, great movie I hope AB does release somewhere down the line (with easier to read subtitles).

This is officially my favorite Italian psychos on the road film, hands down.

Thanks Jonny for arranging for me to see this

[Graeme C]

Were there two different English dubs made of Bava's "Maschera del Demonia"?
I've just been watching the German EMS DVD and among the extras are 3 different titles sequences. Two are in English, for "Mask of the Demon" and "Black Sunday". The Mask of the Demon dub sounds like the one on the Image DVD, but I was more impressed by Black Sunday dub which sounded much better to me. The Black Sunday titles had a Sam Z Arkoff credit at the end.

[Troy Howarth]

I can't remember his name offhand, but the star of Dario Argento's Five Days of Milan (a sort of "Italian Elvis") performed "Furore" for The Girl who Knew Too Much. No CD release that I know of, though.

[Torstein Karlsen]

I was waiting for you to pop up with info

Sad that there ain't a cd release though, that song has really stuck in my head the last days

[Troy Howarth]

Sadly, the music to Bava's films is VERY POORLY represented on CD. There's a nice release that pairs the scores for Hatchet for the Honeymoon and Nicolosi' Black Sabbath score, as well as a CD of Baxter's rescores for Black Sunday and Baron Blood. There's also been releases of Umiliani's music for 5 Dolls and Roy Colt, as well as Libra's Shock score. That's pretty much it, I'm afraid.

[Chris Workman]

So, has anyone bought the new PAL release of Bava's DR. GOLDFOOT film? I know it ain't all that good a film, but Bava fans must own this film. I keep hoping that it gets announced as a Midnight Movie, but if it doesn't soon, I may go with the foreign release.

I hope Image tinkers with BARON BLOOD, TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, LISA AND THE DEVIL, and HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON. Not only do most of those titles need anamorphic releases here in the states, they either need remastered video or audio.

[Troy Howarth]

I'll definitely be picking it up. The American version, titled Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, is NOT a Mario Bava film so far as I'm concerned. It was extensively reedited, rescored and rewritten during the dubbing process, without his input. The original Italian version isn't all that good, either, but it's much, much better - and Bava's signature is much more readily apparent.

I agree with Chris on all those titles, but in the meantime, luckily, there's an excellent R2 release of Hatchet as well as Raro's new release of Lisa, which I imagine will be an improvement on the Image release.

Does anyone here own the new Rarovideo release of Lisa and the Devil, who could comment on the image quality and of the documentary about 'Lisa' included?

[Torstein Karlsen]

interested in how that documentary is myself, Rarovideo is italian right? would the extra have english audio/subs?

[Troy Howarth]

I'm told the extras include English subs, while the feature includes the English track. I've no desire to watch the film in Italian - the English dubbing is perfect, with Sommer, Savalas and Valli even providing their own voices.

[Chris Workman]

Thanks for the info, Troy. I will now probably pick up the PAL release of GOLDFOOT.

[Jari K]

The Mask Of Satan (AKA "La Maschera Del Demonio") R0 Italian 2-disc set looks good (from "Ripley's Home Video""):

Anamorphic 1.66:1
Italian and English 5.1
Italian and English 2.0 mono
English and Italian subs

Extras:
"Mario Bava, Maestro of the Macabre" (60min) = (Same as in the UK "Hatchet"-release probably)
Interview with Barbara Steele
Homage of Camillo Mastrocinque -featurette
Photo gallery
Production notes/biographies
Italian trailer
English trailer
Booklet (in Italian)

Specs should be "confirmed".

[Ray Kanne]

Originally Posted by Jari K

The Mask Of Satan (AKA "La Maschera Del Demonio") R0 Italian 2-disc set looks good (from "Ripley's Home Video""):

Anamorphic 1.66:1
Italian and English 5.1
Italian and English 2.0 mono
English and Italian subs

Extras:
"Mario Bava, Maestro of the Macabre" (60min) = (Same as in the UK "Hatchet"-release probably)
Interview with Barbara Steele
Homage of Camillo Mastrocinque -featurette
Photo gallery
Production notes/biographies
Italian trailer
English trailer
Booklet (in Italian)

Specs should be "confirmed".

Nice! I've been waiting for a good release of this one. It's really a hell of a lot better with the Italian language track.