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Arrow swings into 2023 with a disc of a horror thriller ‘with issues’ — but appointing it with intriguing extras. Sandra Dee gets her perky nose all tangled up in an inter-dimensional conspiracy run by sneaky occultist Dean Stockwell — and we know that it’s all going to lead to a sacrificial altar. Roger Corman designer Daniel Haller directed this cross between a Poe picture and a psychedelic epic, for good old American-International.

The Dunwich Horror

Blu-ray

Arrow Video

1970 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date January 10, 2023 / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95

Starring: Sandra Dee, Dean Stockwell, Ed Begley, Lloyd Bochner, Sam Jaffe, Joanne Moore Jordan, Donna Baccala, Talia Shire, Barboura Morris, Beach Dickerson.

Cinematography: Richard C. Glouner

Art Director: Paul Sylos

Film Editor: Christopher Holmes

Original Music: Les Baxter

Written by Curtis Lee Hanson, Henry Rosenbaum, Ronald Silkowsky from the story by H.P. Lovecraft

Executive producer Roger Corman

Produced by James H. Nicholson,...

Roger Corman began his boom year of 1957 with a marvelous bit of ‘way-out’ sci-fi — a ‘Tidal Wave of Terror’ no less. This note just arrived from Donald J.’s Seafood Emporium: “You puny, dunderheaded humans, don’t let the campy title fool you! Soon you will be ‘absorbed’ into our crabby super-mentalities, heh heh heh. We atom-age crustaceans are made of electric anti-matter — it’s incredible! Our telepathy is the best telepathy ever — everybody says so! It is what it is!” The new Blu-ray will charm fans seeking prime ‘fifties monster nirvana.

Attack of the Crab Monsters

Blu-ray

1957 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 62 min. / Street Date August 25 , 2020

Starring: Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, Russell Johnson, Leslie Bradley, Mel Welles, Richard Cutting, Beach Dickerson, Tony Miller, Ed Nelson, Charles B. Griffith, Maitland Stuart.

Cinematography: Floyd Crosby

Film Editor: Charles Gross Jr.

Assistants of all stripes: Maurice Vaccarino, Charles B. Griffith, Lindsley Parsons Jr., Beach Dickerson,...

If the phrase “tell-all” hadn’t been coined before 2012, Scotty Bowers’ memoir Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars would have done the job. Here’s a Marine Corps veteran of World War II born in Illinois who decided to land in Hollywood upon his return on a whim. He answered a “wanted” advertisement to work at a gas station, was hit on sexually by Walter Pidgeon while pumping gas, and realized he could use this well-trafficked locale to help pair off closeted male movie stars with young hustlers like himself for twenty bucks a pop. From there he met Cary Grant and Spencer Tracy, had a threesome with Lana Turner and Ava Gardner, and eventually spilled the beans about it all.

The book was an overnight sensation with ardent fans and vehement detractors alike. Was it his right to air so much dirty laundry?...

Look out! Here come two A.I.P. horror pix from the soggy end of the Poe cycle: the first features Jason Robards, an impressive cast and a disorganized storyline. The second is an almost-good Lovecraft horror with interesting performances from Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee.     Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Dunwich Horror Blu-ray Color Scream Factory Street Date March 29, 2016 / 26.99

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Scream Factory's new double feature disc finishes off two different American-International horror series. The first picture is the last fright film made for the company by the directing and writing team of Gordon Hessler and Christopher Wicking. It's no gem, but it's a lot more interesting on a second viewing. The second is the company's final try to make that old joker H.P. Lovecraft into a filmic horror icon, like Edgar Allan Poe. It has a lot going for it, but also its own set of problems.