TWO EVIL EYES (Blue Underground Blu Ray 3 Disc Limited Edition)

TWO EVIL EYES (Blue Underground 3-disc Ltd Edition Blu-Ray/4K Restoration) $49.99 Special Edition Release Date October 29,2019 Region A.

Original Theatrical release U.S.A. -Taurus Entertainment ,1990.

Color.  120 mins.
https://www.amazon.com/Evil-Eyes-Blu-ray-Harvey-Keitel/dp/B07VGTYMKB/

 

• Warning -review illustrated with gruesome effects shots. No animals and we suspect few actors were harmed

 

When TWO EVIL EYES came out, George Romero had just worked with a major studio on MONKEY SHINES (Orion,1988) but had a bad experience wherein his work was edited without his permission. *

Argento ‘s last feature OPERA (aka TERROR AT THE OPERA) was a huge success in his native Italy but was denied a theatrical release in the U.S. by Orion, instead letting the small video company Southgate release the film in an R and Unrated version.

The two filmmakers decided to go independent again to retain control of the final product and picked two different Edgar Allan Poe tales to adapt.

 

 

Romero chose “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” (published simultaneously in The American Review and Broadway Journal ,December 1845) . The story had been adapted previously in an Italian short film (Il caso Valdemar,Italy,1936 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3qGwCPKhdI ) as well as segments in the portmanteau films MASTERWORKS OF TERROR (Argentina ,1959, redubbed and released by Jack H Harris as MASTERS OF HORROR ,1965) ,Roger Corman’s TALES OF TERROR (AIP,1962) and on the Spanish horror series Historias para no dormir (Stories to Keep You Awake, Televisión Española 1966). It also is one of the stories in the recent EXTRAORDINARY TALES (Mélusine Productions 2015 ).

a 1969 Japanese Illustration, inspired by TALES OF TERROR

 

The Black Cat by Alphonse Legros 1860

Argento chose “The Black Cat” (first published August 19, 1843 in The Saturday Evening Post). The story has been adapted with varying degrees of faithfulness, starting in 1934 with both Universal’s THE BLACK CAT as well as MANIAC (Roadshow), Universal again in 1941, AIP’s TALES OF TERROR again, the 1966 THE BLACK CAT (Falcon) ,Lucio Fulci’s 1981 version(Italian Int.) and recently a marvelous independent short in 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKN_I6ouswg .

 

The film :

Warning -turn your sound down for the opening credits of Pino Donaggio’s dissonant title theme.

The film opens with a succession of quick shots of Edgar Allan Poe’s statue, one of the great author’s home and burial plot, as a narrator intones: “To Edgar Allan Poe, whose stories have inspired this motion picture.”

 

We then immediately go to

THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR (screenplay by Romero ; Dir of Photography  Peter Reniers, who has worked on such television series as LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, Dick Wolf /Universal ,1999- ).

Jessica Valdemar (Adrienne Barbeau, returning to work with Romero again after CREEPSHOW, Laurel/WB ,1982) is hoping to inherit the money from her mortally ill husband Ernest (the wonderfully named Bingo O’Malley ,who also appeared in CREEPSHOW, and sadly in real life passed away June 2 ,2019).

 

To that extent, she gets Dr Robert Hoffman (Ramy Zada, tv’s DARK JUSTICE, Lorrimar,1991) to hypnotize the sickly Ernest to better control him. Dr Hoffman is most willing to do so, partly from a past relationship with Jessica, and partly from the desire to share in the millions that she will inherit. The problem is that Jessica has been taking money from Ernest’s account, so much so that if anything were to happen to her husband over the next three weeks, the police will surely investigate the wife.

E.G. Marshall as a lawyer warning Barbeau

Of course, Ernest dies, and the pair dump his body into a basement freezer. During the night she hears moaning and discovers that due to the hypnosis, the spirit of her dead husband is trapped between worlds, and that other entities wish to use his corpse to enter our sphere!

 

THE BLACK CAT (Screenplay by Argento & Franco Ferrini, who worked together on OPERA ; director of Photography Beppe Maccari, who was the camera operator on the Visconti classic THE LEOPARD, Titanus 1963)-
Argento’s take on the famous tale is a delirious and trippy over the top gorefest that references several other Poe tales.

Keitel in a Corman-like dream sequence with an Argento touch

 

 

Rod Usher (Harvey Keitel, TAXI DRIVER, Columbia,1976) is a police crime scene photographer who we first meet when he is taking pictures at a murder scene. This killing  was a bit extraordinary, since it is a scene of a nude women bifurcated by a huge pendulum blade. To Usher, it is just work as usual, and he tries to frame the scenes with a sense of aesthetics that belie the horror of the scene.

 

At home, his girlfriend Annabel (Madeline Potter ,THE SUICIDE CLUB, Angelika Films ,1988) has brought in a black cat that Rod takes an instant dislike to. This mutual hatred comes to its zenith when Rod viciously and cruelly strangles the animal during a photo shoot. Rod, however, in a sort of A BUCKET OF BLOOD (AIP,1959) moment, decides that the murder deserves to be the over of his newest photo collection.

Sally Kirkland has a new kitty for Rod .

When Annabel sees the cover some time later in a store window, she realizes what has happened, and rushes home to confront Rod. Rod , in the interim , has been given a cat that is identical to the one he killed ).He takes the animal home to destroy it once and for all, but Annabel comes home ,saves the creature but she herself is killed gruesomely.

Rod conceals the body behind the wall, but suspicion continues to grow against him, resulting in more murders and gore before Rod receives poetic justice.

John Amos as a detective who grows suspicious of Usher

 

A huge title assures us that none of the animals were harmed in the making of the film as the picture’s end credits roll.

The film, which reportedly cost over $ 9 million to make,  opened in only 150 theatres throughout the U.S. for just one week, taking in only $349,000.

 

It was released on VHS through various companies (Anchor Bay, budget label Video Treasures) as well as DVD and Blu Ray previously by Blue Underground.

Now , Blue Underground has gone back to the original camera negatives and given it a 4K 1080p restoration. The colors, especially in the Argento segment, really seem to jump out.

 

Martin Balsam  & Kim Hunter,Spanish Lobby Card

The audio is available in either English: 7.1 DTS-HD, or to duplicate the theatrical release sound, English: 2.0 DTS-HD (or in French: Dolby Digital Mono). Again, watch that opening bit of music in the beginning!
Optional subtitles are English SDH, French or Spanish.

Where this becomes the must have edition of TWO EVIL EYES is the immense number of extras, some ported over from BLUE UNDERGROUND’s previous release of the title, but many brands new and exclusive to this limited edition.

Extras include

Disc One Blu Ray- a brand new audio commentary by Troy Howarth (author of the upcoming book “Murder By Design: The Unsane Cinema of Dario Argento “). Troy has done audio commentaries on other Blu ray releases, and his love and well researched talks always have the feel of a well-informed fan joyfully sharing his thoughts and insights throughout the running time of a film, and this one is no different.

Theatrical Trailer

Poster & Still Gallery

Disc 2 Blu Ray
• Two Masters’ Eyes – Interviews with Directors Dario Argento & George Romero, Special Make-Up Effects Supervisor Tom Savini, Executive Producer Claudio Argento, and Asia Argento. These are ported over from the 2003 Blue Underground 2-disc Blu Ray release.

Savini as a Poe like character who digs up corpses to steal teeth.Or is it just his character from THE RIPPER (United Ent.,1985 ) reprised?

• Savini’s EFX – A Behind-the-Scenes look at the film’s Special Make-Up Effects. Also, from the 2003 release, Savini takes us on a behind the scene tour of how some of the effects work was done.

• At Home With Tom Savini – A personal tour of Tom Savini’s home. From 2003, this segment is not only a master of his craft but also a fan sharing with fellow fans.

• Adrienne Barbeau on George Romero.- From 2003. The still lovely and charming actress shares her thoughts about working with the director.

Tom Atkins makes a horrific discovery

 

NEW! Before I Wake – Interview with Star Ramy Zada. The actor talks about his career and working with Romero.

NEW! Behind The Wall – Interview with Star Madeleine Potter. The very busy actress, who shuttles back and forth from the U.S. and London to perform, talks about Harvey, Dario and cats.

NEW! One Maestro And Two Masters – Interview with Composer Pino Donaggio. Subtitled. The composer talks about his career

NEW! Rewriting Poe – Interview with Co-Writer Franco Ferrini, who has often worked with director Argento, as well as upon the screenplay ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (W.B.,1984) .

NEW! The Cat Who Wouldn’t Die – Interview with Assistant Director Luigi Cozzi (who also directed the cult hit STAR CRASH, New World, 1978).

 

NEW! Two Evil Brothers – Interview with Special Make-Up Assistant Everett Burrell (who has worked with Savini several times, as well as Greg Cannom, and Kevin Yagher.).

NEW! Working With George – Interview with Costume Designer Barbara Anderson who worked with Romero from KNIGHTRIDERS (Laurel/UFD, 1981) up to THE DARK HALF .

Finally,

Disc 3-A CD of Pino Dinaggio’s score. This alone might be enough for some to wish to buy this collection, as this soundtrack it seems has never been issued legitimately before. It is a sharp moody score, which fits the film perfectly, but many pieces can be listened to and enjoyed on their own.

 

Adding to the welcome extras is an informative booklet by Michael Gingold, who was one of the guiding forces of Fangoria magazine from 1990 (when the film came out) until 2015.

Fango #95 ,which covered the film 

 

Once again, BLUE UNDERGROUND has put to shame many major studios Blu Ray releases, due to the care and multiple goodies adding entertainment, value and collectability for horror film lovers.

RECOMMENDED
For fans of
ROMERO
ARGENTO
EDGAR ALLAN POE
BLU RAY EXTRAS!

-Kevin G Shinnick

*-right after filming TWO EVIL EYES, he worked upon THE DARK HALF for Orion, which sat on a shelf for two years.

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“Ligeia” Elizabeth Shepherd’s CD ,Redfield Arts

“Ligeia” Reborn: A Review of Elizabeth Shepherd’s CD recording of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Ligeia”

by Robert Klimowski

LIGEIA $13.99 . 55 minutes Audible https://www.audible.com/pd/Edgar-Allan-Poes-Ligeia-Audiobook/1645551318?fbclid=IwAR1ZGKAzN85VzgDNrNmIc7yETcLf8WDc2n6BisOaSBUNPFKSQUeowaDNIxY

 

How does one properly evaluate an oral interpretation of a written work? The first qualification, of course, is an intimate knowledge of the work itself, but preferably from an actor’s point of view. A scholarly knowledge of the text alone does not enable one to perceive or appreciate the vocal nuances required “to bring the work to life.” As the actor reads the text, she faces an unrelenting flow of choices that must be made in the service of efficient, but deeper comprehension. The critic or reviewer, few of whom are actors, must also be familiar with such choices when evaluating a performance. Critics and audiences agree that the actor who consistently perceives the most suitable interpretive choice, and then successfully executes their intention, is the actor most worthy of praise.

 

Actor Elizabeth Shepherd has just released a new recording of Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “Ligeia,” through Redfield Arts Audio(RedfieldArtsAudio.com). In 1964, she starred with Vincent Price in the Roger Corman film version of the tale, TOMB OF LIGEIA  (A.I.P.1964), and played a double role as both the deceased Lady Ligeia, and as her pert successor, the Lady Rowena Trevanion, of Tremaine. She has been deservedly remembered and recognized for this superb performance, and so brings a wealth of experience to her reading.

 

But Robert Towne’s screenplay to TOMB OF LIGEIA, faithful as it is to the spirit of Poe, is not, of course, Poe’s original text. In this recording, Ms. Shepherd has had to radically shift gears to inhabit an entirely different character: the nameless male narrator of Poe’s “Ligeia.”

Some may hesitate, at first, to accept the viability of a female actor portraying a male writing his remembrances of his deceased wife. But such apprehension immediately proves itself groundless. We accept the gender switch unconsciously and instantaneously due primarily to Ms. Shepherd’s intense and utter immersion in the obsessed persona of the narrator, aided by her marvelous facility in the lower vocal range.

Before commenting further on Ms. Shepherd’s performance, however, it’s important to first consider the nature of this story that Poe himself considered his “best tale.”

 

Unlike the first-person narrators of “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” the narrator of “Ligeia” is explicitly writing, rather than speaking his story (“And now, while I write, a recollection flashes upon me…” [paragraph 1]). By its very nature as a written document, then, “Ligeia” is inherently more reflective than Poe’s more orally inclined tales. And as such, “Ligeia” requires a different type of delivery – an “internal narration,” if you will, in which the actor speaks the thoughts of the narrator in the process of writing them on paper. In short, it’s the difference between reading a diary aloud and reading dialogue aloud. The first is inward-oriented, while the latter is outward-oriented. And while these distinctions may appear subtle in print, they are much easier to detect in performance. Ms. Shepherd’s performance succeeds, in large part, due of her recognition of the narrator’s literary, rather than conversational, mode of communication, and the resultant intense, yet intimate, “internal narration” she so convincingly delivers.

 

Those who journal regularly well know that the very process of penning one’s thoughts tends to prompt unexpected connections, and in “Ligeia”such unforeseen realizations and speculations by the narrator are frequent. In an oral performance, then, we would expect these moments to seem as surprising and fresh to the actor as they are to the narrator, and Ms. Shepherd does not disappoint on this count. Her delivery is very much “present” and “in the moment” rather than “retrospective” in character. Let’s examine now some of the more specific aspects of Ms. Shepherd’s performance, restricting ourselves to the story’s first paragraph, both for ease of reference and as representative of her artistry throughout the story’s telling.

 

 

From the outset, Ms. Shepherd begins her narration forcefully and abruptly, in a state of exasperation (“I cannot, for my soul, remember…”), as if the lapse of time and “much suffering” have robbed the narrator of memories once so dear. By foregrounding this frustration, Ms. Shepherd immediately suggests that the narrator is mentally impaired. It is, after all, unusual for someone to forget how, when, and where they met the very person they so idolize. So, by initially assuming a forceful vocal attitude of vexation, Ms. Shepherd emphasizes the fact that we are listening to the thoughts of an unreliable narrator and signals the listener not to accept everything that he relates at face value.

As the story progresses, we learn the probable cause of the narrator’s disability: he “had become a bounden slave in the trammels of opium” and “was habitually fettered in the shackles of the drug.” And as he writes this account of poignant mania, Ms. Shepherd’s reading leads us to suspect that he still is.

 

Identified and footnoted below, are six “creative pauses” Ms. Shepherd makes in her narration of the first paragraph. These pauses are motivated purely by character concerns rather than what punctuation or natural phrasing would suggest. And it is just such touches as these (which the actor often unconsciously employs) that lift a performance from the adequate to the engrossing. The footnotes attempt to explain the reasons behind Ms. Shepherd’s creative choices.

 

 

“I cannot, for my soul, remember how, when, or *[1] even precisely where, I first became acquainted with the lady Ligeia. Long years have since elapsed, and my memory is feeble through much suffering. Or, perhaps, I cannot now bring these points to mind, because, in truth, the character of my beloved, her rare learning, her *[2] singular yet placid cast of beauty, and the thrilling and enthralling eloquence of her low musical language, made their way into my heart by paces so *[3] steadily and stealthily progressive that they have been unnoticed and unknown. Yet I believe that I met her first and most frequently in some large, old, decaying city near the Rhine. Of her family — I have surely heard her speak. That it is of a remotely ancient date cannot be doubted. Ligeia! Ligeia! Buried in studies of a nature more than all else adapted to deaden impressions of the outward world, it is by that sweet word alone — by *[4] Ligeia —that I bring before mine eyes in fancy the image of her who is no more. And now, while I write, a recollection flashes upon me that I have never known *[5] the paternal name of her who *[6] was my friend and my betrothed, and who became the partner of my studies, and finally the wife of my bosom.”

One could catalog many more instances of Ms. Shepherd’s expressiveness in this recording. Suffice it to say that 55 years after her tour de force performance in TOMB OF LIGEIA, she has significantly widened the scope of her accomplishments in the Poe-interpretation sphere.

Note: The reviewer strongly recommends comparing Ms. Shepherd’s reading with that of Vincent Price’s 1977 recording of “Ligeia” on Caedmon records – a rare and fortunate opportunity to hear the stars of a film adaptation independently interpreting its literary source text.

Robert Klimowski is a retired school teacher from Des Moines, Iowa, currently researching the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe.”

 

This is Robert’s first piece for SCARLET ,but we hope not his last-Kevin

 

 

[1] This pause in a series (“how, when…”) suggests the writer’s own surprise at his failure to remember details which, especially regarding significant relationships, are usually indelibly imprinted on one’s consciousness.

[2] Another pause in a series (this time of descriptive phrases) which may be intended to highlight the narrator’s initial difficulty in describing Ligeia’s “singular yet placid cast of beauty,” or simply to emphasize it.

[3] A pause intended to emphasize the subtle nature of Ligeia’s growing influence.

[4] A pause to emphasize “that sweet word alone.”

[5] This pause signals the narrator’s sudden surprise on realizing that he has “never known“ Ligeia’s last name. This pause, however, comes after the italicized phrase is spoken, not before.

[6] This pause may reflect the narrator’s temporary difficulty in trying to sum up his rich and various relationships with Ligeia.

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