VHS Lives! ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER (1969)

Today's VHS release may, I suspect, be a bootleg. Please don't call the police, I didn't know at the time. Okay, I might have suspected, but come on, I really wanted to see it. The tape just has a plain white label with ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER IN ENGLISH printed on it, while the box looks like a colour copy of a rental release. If it's an official release, it's not a very impressive one.

But on to the film. If you read the previous entries in this VHS Lives series, you'll know that I was promising another Marisa Mell appearance (that's her above). This is it. Once again there's sleaze galore but in a surprisingly classy cult movie that marked the beginning of a sustained period of quality movies by legendary Italian cult cinema maestro Lucio Fulci.

Although Fulci is most famous for his gore films, such as ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS, THE BEYOND and HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, this one is more of a Hitchcock-style thriller. In fact, if there's one film it owes a real debt to, it would be VERTIGO. That's not to say that this is in the same league as Hitch - it isn't - but it is a highly competent and taut thriller that proves what all of his fans (including me) always knew. Fulci was more than just a cheap hack with a gore fetish.

That's not to say that it's kiddy-friendly by any means. Aside from the storyline being rather complex - Jean Sorel is the young man who becomes involved with a stripper (Mell) who resembles his dead wife - there are a lot of, er, "adult situations" and the goremeister does at least manage to get one decomposing corpse in. Sleazy women, rotting bodies... actually, maybe it's a more typical Fulci movie than I thought.

To say much more would be to risk spoiling it for you. Suffice to say it's a tightly-directed thriller with plenty of twists, including a great unexpected ending, and also happens to boast a rather wonderful swinging score by Riz Ortolani, the Italian composer responsible for setting MONDO CANE and CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST to music.

The film has had a tricky history due to censorship and alternate cuts floating around over the years and so it's hard to say which version is definitive, if any. The good news however, especially for folks wishing to replace their VHS copies, is that Severin Films in the USA have just released a 2-disc region-free DVD version (the second disc in the set being a copy of Ortolani's score) which finally gives us a wonderfully remastered widescreen copy of the film, looking better than it ever has before. Again, it's not necessarily the complete or definitive version, but it does boast more of Mell (though not necessarily more clothing) and will certainly keep fans of the film happy.

And yes, I have bought a copy (this alternate cut now being released under the title PERVERSION STORY - that's where I took the above picture from, which is why it's rather nicer than VHS).

So now I can bin my possibly shady copy and you don't need to call the police after all.

The VHS marathon concludes tomorrow!

VHS Lives! DIARY OF AN EROTIC MURDERESS (1974)

With a title like that, you just know this film is crying out for a DVD release but so far no such luck. Given the pedigree of some of the talent involved though, it's probably only a matter of time before some enterprising DVD company adds it to their Euro-cult slate though.

Like yesterday's DR BLACK, MR HYDE (okay, it was actually two days ago - sorry), this tape is yet another NTSC copy from the USA (released, appropriately enough, by the wonderful people at Something Weird Video - a favourite company of mine), although the film is Italian/Spanish in origin.

The story concerns an old man (Richard Conte) who hires a beautiful young woman (Marisa Mell) to look after his son (Anthony Steffen). Just to make things more interesting though, the woman secretly seduces the son, the son happens to be mad, and the old guy happens to be very rich, something that the young woman is banking on.

It's got a decent cast but the stars are undoubtedly Mell and Steffen.

Steffen was the star of numerous cult Italian movies, particularly spaghetti westerns (yes, I'm a fan) but also, notably, THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE. I mention this film in particular because, with its blend of insanity, sleaze, a big house, a sinister woman, and a seriously mind-bending story, it's a very similar movie to this one.

Mell, a favourite of mine, has also starred in several cult European movies. Most notably she appeared in Mario Bava's classic comic caper DANGER: DIABOLIK!, undoubtedly one of the main inspirations for the AUSTIN POWERS movies. She has also graced such films as BEN AND CHARLIE (a rubbish spaghetti western which improved for the few minutes she was on screen) and several other cult classics which, rather annoyingly, I've just forgotten. Well, except for one other one, but I'll not mention that because it's going to feature in this series.

Sinister though Mell's character may be, you can almost forgive some of her actions given that she is systematically mistreated at least once by every man in the film. It almost makes it acceptable that her sole mission seems to be to get rich off the suffering of men.

I already mentioned the EVELYN connection, and it's fair to say there's a similar kind of vibe to YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY, another Euro-cult classic that boasts a suitably crazy title and totally insane storyline. The story this time round involves sex, murder, the corpses of the Templar Knights (seriously) and yes, even the titular diary, all of which brew away in a delightful cauldron of Eurosleaze, served with a side order of lounge-tastic "oooh aaaah" music and garnished with a fantastically nutty ending. Marvellous.

Oh yeah, and one more thing I just remembered. BEAST WITH A GUN. That's another cult Italian movie that Marisa Mell appeared in. Just in case you were wondering.

More VHS goodness tomorrow!