Offered for your pleasure by Oldies.com (click on the banner at the bottom of this blog to go to their website) is the latest in Alpha Video's vast catalog of cinematic sensations. With an emphasis on nostalgia, there's sure to be a title for every viewing taste. From classic cult to classic caca, here's just a sampling from the new stuff:
LUGOSI: HOLLYWOOD'S DRACULA
DVD-R Details
- Number of Discs: 2
- Run Time: 2 hours
- Video: Color and Black & White
- Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)
- Released: January 25, 2013
- Originally Released: 1999
- Label: Alpha Video
Performers, Cast and Crew:
| Starring | Bela Lugosi | |
| Directed by | Gary D. Rhodes | |
| Narrated by | Robert Clarke & Rue McClanahan | |
| Subject: | Bela Lugosi |
Description:
"Brilliantly dramatic documentary... a wealth of rare footage... will make you feel as if you lived with Lugosi through his triumphs and tragedies." ? Greg Mank, author of It's Alive and Karloff and LugosiLugosi and Dracula are inseparable images from the heyday of Hollywood. More than any other actor in film history, Lugosi is the master of the macabre, the king of the vampires, and the cult hero of horror movies. And yet he was also a man who fought in wars and revolutions, who married five times, and who mastered stagecraft and film arts in Hungary, Germany, and the United States. He remained an enigma in Hollywood even as his career dwindled into the weird worlds of drug abuse and filmmaker Ed Wood. And Lugosi's fusion with the famed vampire became more permanent than ever when he was buried in his Dracula cape in 1956.
Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula unravels the truth behind the legendary star by interweaving rare film footage from 1918-1956, home movies, and previously-unseen photographs with narration by Lugosi costar Robert Clarke and Lugosi fan Rue McClanahan. Numerous oncamera interviews span family members, Academy-Award winning director Robert Wise, legendary producer Howard W. Koch, and a host of Lugosi's film costars and personal friends.
The film has won awards and accolades at film festival and theatrical screenings across the globe. Film historian Michael H. Price, author of Forgotten Horrors, has proclaimed that "Gary D. Rhodes' Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula is the first life-story to give Lugosi his generous due, to treat Lugosi as something greater than a martyr, and to mingle an academic thoroughness with an unabashed enthusiasm toward its troubled and majestic subject."
FEATURES:
Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula unravels the truth behind the legendary star by interweaving rare film footage from 1918-1956, home movies, and previously-unseen photographs with narration by Lugosi costar Robert Clarke and Lugosi fan Rue McClanahan. Numerous oncamera interviews span family members, Academy-Award winning director Robert Wise, legendary producer Howard W. Koch, and a host of Lugosi's film costars and personal friends.
The film has won awards and accolades at film festival and theatrical screenings across the globe. Film historian Michael H. Price, author of Forgotten Horrors, has proclaimed that "Gary D. Rhodes' Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula is the first life-story to give Lugosi his generous due, to treat Lugosi as something greater than a martyr, and to mingle an academic thoroughness with an unabashed enthusiasm toward its troubled and majestic subject."
FEATURES:
- 30 minutes of deleted footage
- Filmed interview with Bob Hope
- Richard Sheffield filmed interview
- 1932 Lugosi interview
- 1949 Lugosi TV show excerpt
- 1918 Lugosi film fragment
WORLD GONE MAD, THE
DVD-R Details
- Run Time: 1 hours, 43 minutes
- Video: Black & White
- Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)
- Released: January 25, 2013
- Originally Released: 1933
- Label: Alpha Video
Performers, Cast and Crew:
| Starring | Pat O'Brien, Evelyn Brent, Neil Hamilton, J. Carrol Naish, Richard Tucker | |
| Directed by | Christy Cabanne |
Description:
Wall Street investment banker Graham Gaines has made millions from his pyramid swindles. When the district attorney gets wind of his criminal activities, Gaines has him murdered. Lionel Houston is appointed as the new D.A. and his good friend, reporter Andy Terrell, is determined to help him uncover the identity of the murderous C.E.O.Hollywood legend Pat O'Brien appeared in over 100 films often portraying a Catholic priest or an Irish cop. He starred with life-long pal Jimmy Cagney in 9 films including Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) and Ragtime (1981). He is probably best remembered for his role as a detective in Some Like It Hot (1959) and for delivering the famous "win just one for the Gipper" speech in Knute Rockne All-American (1940).
Starting in the silent era, Christy Cabanne became one of the most prolific directors in American film history. Some of his most notable productions include Jane Eyre (1934), the Mummy's Hand (1940) and Scared To Death (1944).
Starting in the silent era, Christy Cabanne became one of the most prolific directors in American film history. Some of his most notable productions include Jane Eyre (1934), the Mummy's Hand (1940) and Scared To Death (1944).
WEIRD WIDE WORLD
DVD-R Details
- Run Time: 1 hours, 44 minutes
- Video: Black & White
- Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)
- Released: January 25, 2013
- Originally Released: 1936
- Label: Alpha Video
Performers, Cast and Crew:
| Directed by | Armand Denis, Leila Roosevelt |
Description:
Anglo/Belgian filmmaker Armand Denis rose to fame with the 1934 release of Wild Cargo, a documentary about big game hunter Frank Buck. In 1935, he set off for Africa with his wife, Leila Roosevelt (niece of Teddy) in a caravan of specially equipped Dodge trucks designed to carry tons of camera equipment, as well as provisions for the eighteen month journey. Their purpose was to film and record the exotic, the unusual and the amazing which could then be used as stock footage in Hollywood "Africa" productions. The result was the film Wheels Across Africa. Several years later they would repeat the process on another mysterious continent producing Wheels Across India.
WHEELS ACROSS AFRICA (1936): Fire eaters, glass eaters, snake charmers, ancient cities, French Foreign Legionnaires and breathtaking vistas are a few of the many high points as the cameras traverse the Dark Continent. Natives who carve designs on their faces, the pattern of scars considered the paramount of beauty, are documented. This film also contains the first recordings of the authentic dances and music of the Tutsi and Mangbetu tribes. Incredible footage of the wildlife of Africa is climaxed when a huge lion unexpectedly charges the camera with intent to kill!
WHEELS ACROSS INDIA (1940): Spectacular vast ancient temple complexes and exotic architecture form the backdrop as the cameras travel across the exotic land of India. Immense water wheels handmade from bamboo that supply entire communities, a magnificent ancient ghost city, abandoned in the jungle for centuries, and the "Giraffe Women" who use an elaborate system to elongate the necks of young girls to twice their normal length, are but a few of the curiosities visited. The cameras roll to a breathtaking conclusion as they film the priestess who must kiss the Snake God, an enormous deadly Cobra to restore fertility to her village.
BONUS: PERILOUS PARADISE (1937)
WHEELS ACROSS AFRICA (1936): Fire eaters, glass eaters, snake charmers, ancient cities, French Foreign Legionnaires and breathtaking vistas are a few of the many high points as the cameras traverse the Dark Continent. Natives who carve designs on their faces, the pattern of scars considered the paramount of beauty, are documented. This film also contains the first recordings of the authentic dances and music of the Tutsi and Mangbetu tribes. Incredible footage of the wildlife of Africa is climaxed when a huge lion unexpectedly charges the camera with intent to kill!
WHEELS ACROSS INDIA (1940): Spectacular vast ancient temple complexes and exotic architecture form the backdrop as the cameras travel across the exotic land of India. Immense water wheels handmade from bamboo that supply entire communities, a magnificent ancient ghost city, abandoned in the jungle for centuries, and the "Giraffe Women" who use an elaborate system to elongate the necks of young girls to twice their normal length, are but a few of the curiosities visited. The cameras roll to a breathtaking conclusion as they film the priestess who must kiss the Snake God, an enormous deadly Cobra to restore fertility to her village.
BONUS: PERILOUS PARADISE (1937)
LURE OF THE ISLANDS
DVD-R Details
- Run Time: 1 hours, 1 minutes
- Video: Black & White
- Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)
- Released: January 25, 2013
- Originally Released: 1942
- Label: Alpha Video
Performers, Cast and Crew:
| Starring | Margie Hart | |
| Performer: | Gale Storm, Robert Lowery, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Ivan Lebedeff, Warren Hymer | |
| Directed by | Jean Yarbrough |
Description:
When the screen is filled with former stripper Margie Hart and sexy young Gale Storm attired in scanty bathing suits, story lines dissolve like smoke. But, for the record, two American sailors are sent undercover to a South Seas island paradise to investigate Nazi infiltrators. While serving their country, they manage to romance two beautiful native girls and thwart a Japanese invasion.Lure of the Islands showcases the ample charms of burlesque queen Margie Hart in her first and only starring role. Beautiful Gale Storm went on to stardom as TV's "My Little Margie" in 1951. Robert Lowery appears in a rare turn as the comedic leading man, and "Big Boy" Williams trades in his Stetson for a sailor's cap.
Journeyman director Jean Yarbrough is best remembered for "The Abbott And Costello Show" but worked on many other hit series including "The Life of Riley," "The Adventures Of Wild Bill Hickok," "Captain Gallant of The Foreign Legion," "My Favorite Martian," "Petticoat Junction" and many others.
Journeyman director Jean Yarbrough is best remembered for "The Abbott And Costello Show" but worked on many other hit series including "The Life of Riley," "The Adventures Of Wild Bill Hickok," "Captain Gallant of The Foreign Legion," "My Favorite Martian," "Petticoat Junction" and many others.
BEAST OF BORNEO, THE
DVD-R Details
- Run Time: 59 minutes
- Video: Black & White
- Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)
- Released: January 25, 2013
- Originally Released: 1933
- Label: Alpha Video
Performers, Cast and Crew:
| Starring | May Stuart, John Preston, Eugene Sigaloff, Alexander Schonberg | |
| Directed by | Harry Garson |
Description:
Convinced that the glands of the orangutan secrete a substance that will inhibit human aging, Dr. Boris Borodoff travels to Africa to capture a specimen. He enlists famed big-game hunter Bob Ward, who at first refuses, but then succumbs to the charms of the doctor's beautiful assistant, Alma. Eventually the trapper catches one of the elusive creatures. Bob has been promised that the primate will be unharmed, but Borodoff immediately prepares for surgery. A fight ensues in which Bob is carried off deep into the jungle by the huge orangutan. Alma finally realizes that her employer has gone completely insane, and rushes off in a desperate attempt to rescue Bob.Beginning in 1920 with The Forbidden Woman, ultra low-budget producer Harry Garson directed a string of exploitation features which would culminate with 1933's The Beast Of Borneo. Many of these sexually provocative features starred actress Clara Kimball Young including What No Man Knows (1921) and The Worldly Madonna (1922). Speculation has it that following Karloff's rise to stardom in Frankenstein (1931), "Boris" became the "go-to" name for screen villains as in Beast of Borneo's Boris Borodoff.
DANGER! WOMEN AT WORK
DVD-R Details
- Run Time: 58 minutes
- Video: Black & White
- Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)
- Released: January 25, 2013
- Originally Released: 1943
- Label: Alpha Video
Performers, Cast and Crew:
| Starring | Patsy Kelly, Mary Brian, Wanda McKay, Betty Compson | |
| Directed by | Sam Newfield | |
| Written by | Edgar G. Ulmer, Martin Mooney |
Description:
The laughs come a mile a minute when a trio of Southern California gals decide to "do their part" for Uncle Sam - and earn a few bucks - by working as truckers during WWII.When Terry Olsen inherits a ten-ton truck, she and friends Pert and Marie plan to make a living hauling freight. Their first customer is a gambler with gaming equipment bound for Las Vegas. Now the gals are being trailed cross-country by rival gangsters out to hijack the equipment, and by finance company reps trying to repossess the truck. Additional craziness is provided by a succession of passengers, among them a crystal gazer, a runaway rich girl and a bejeweled, aristocratic amnesiac who thinks the back of the truck is her drawing room. The end of the road for all these screwball characters is a Nevada courtroom and a trial with a wild climactic twist.
Poverty Row craftsman Edgar G. Ulmer co-wrote this film's story two years before directing the classic film noir, Detour.
Poverty Row craftsman Edgar G. Ulmer co-wrote this film's story two years before directing the classic film noir, Detour.
10 VIOLENT WOMEN
DVD Details
- Audio Commentary by Ted V. Mikels
- Theatrical Trailer
- Contains Nudity and Adult Situations
- Rated: Not Rated
- Run Time: 1 hours, 37 minutes
- Video: Color
- Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)
- Released: March 27, 2007
- Originally Released: 1979
- Label: Alpha Video
Performers, Cast and Crew:
| Directed by | Ted V. Mikels | |
| Written by | Ted V. Mikels | |
| Produced by | Ted V. Mikels |
Description:
Driven to fury by their slimy, abusive boss, a group of foxy female gold miners ditch their picks and go for the gold the easy way - by stealing it! They snatch a million dollars in gems from a jewelry store, then pay a quick visit to Leo the Fence (played with macho brio by flamboyant director, Ted V. Mikels). When Leo tries to give them bags of heroin instead of cash for their booty, they drive a spiked heel into his heart and ride off with the jewels AND the drugs. Desperate to unload their contraband, they deal the dope to undercover narcs and get busted. Sent to prison, they fall under the sadistic thumb of a female warden with a taste for leather whips and submissive girls. After a few weeks of this depraved debasement, the girls plot their escape!Cat fights and cold showers give the hardcore crew of 10 Violent Women plenty of chances to show off their "talents." This infamous late-70s "women-in-prison" film was directed by Ted V. Mikels, the legendary creator of The Astro-Zombies (1967), The Corpse Grinders (1971) and Blood Orgy of the She Devils (1974).