Blood Bath

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AfterTheRain
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:42 pm

Blood Bath

#1 Post by AfterTheRain » Tue Feb 09, 2016 5:53 am

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Synopsis:
The films of Roger Corman are often as well-known for their behind-the-scenes stories as they are the ones unfolding on the screen. He famously made Little Shop of Horrors in just two days using sets left over from A Bucket of Blood and shot The Terror over a long weekend because bad weather prevented him from playing tennis. But none of these tales is quite so complex, or quite so extraordinary, as the making of Blood Bath.
The saga began when Corman invested in a Yugoslavian Krimi-like picture entitled Operation Titian just prior to it going into production. Insisting it be filmed in English, he sent actors William Campbell and Patrick Magee, and uncredited story editor Francis Ford Coppola (all fresh from Dementia 13), to Dubrovnik to make a US-friendly movie but wasn’t satisfied with the end results. First it was re-cut and re-scored to create Portrait in Terror, a film more in line with drive-in tastes, then it was handed over to Jack Hill (Spider Baby), followed by Stephanie Rothman (Terminal Island), each undertaking reshoots that resulted in a vampire picture by the name of Blood Bath. One final twist was provided when a TV version was required, chopping scenes and adding others to create Track of the Vampire.
For this release Arrow Video has searched through the vaults to bring you all four versions of Blood Bath, newly restored from the best materials available to provide a definitive release of one of Corman’s craziest ventures.

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
Limited Edition collection of the complete ‘Blood Bath’
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of four versions of the film: Operation Titian, Portrait in Terror, Blood Bath and Track of the Vampire
Brand new 2K restorations of Portrait in Terror, Blood Bath and Track of the Vampire from original film materials
Brand new reconstruction of Operation Titian using original film materials and standard definition inserts
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing on all four versions
The Trouble with Titian Revisited – a brand new visual essay in which Tim Lucas returns to (and updates) his three-part Video Watchdog feature to examine the convoluted production history of Blood Bath and its multiple versions
Bathing in Blood with Sid Haig – a new interview with the actor, recorded exclusively for this release
Outtakes from Track of the Vampire, scanned from original film materials
Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artworks
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Dan Mumford
Limited edition booklet containing new writing on the film and its cast by Peter Stanfield, Anthony Nield, Vic Pratt and Cullen Gallagher

DETAILS:
Release Date: May 30, 2016
Region: A / B
Rating: TBC
Cat No: FCD1302
Duration: TBC
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio: TBC
Audio:Mono
Discs:2
Colour

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antnield
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
Location: Cheltenham, England

Re: Blood Bath

#2 Post by antnield » Fri May 27, 2016 3:41 am


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domino harvey
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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Blood Bath

#3 Post by domino harvey » Sun Jun 12, 2016 8:42 pm

No other label makes such elaborate labor of love special editions for films I never want to see again! Watched Operation Titian (which, from the looks of the bonus materials, wasn't my best bet despite being the "first" version of the film, though it will still likely be my last), a dull and shoddily-made Euro murder mystery/spy whatever, and Tim Lucas' excellent 81-minute essay, which is really a visual audio commentary hybrid thingy. After Lucas' exhaustive exploration and explanation of what happened to the film, I feel no great pang of disappointment in not having watched the other three, but how wonderful for fans as feverishly devoted to this curio as Lucas to have them all on hand (plus speculation on a fifth, never fully-formed Jack Hill-version reconstructed via stills in the essay). Lucas' examination is really the calling card here, and I think it would take a truly dedicated fan/completist to watch all four of these in full (or, even more so, to have the desire to do so!), but it's a release I can applaud and appreciate having dallied with, even if I have no desire to watch any of the other iterations included. But I imagine Corman fans and those receptive to the pleasures of scrappy 60s-era drive-in cinema must/will be over the moon with the package Arrow's presented here.

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Forrest Taft
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: Stavanger, Norway

Re: Blood Bath

#4 Post by Forrest Taft » Mon Jun 13, 2016 11:08 am

I had intended to watch all four versions. So far I've made it about an hour into Operation Titian, and have already decided to skip Portrait in Terror, and move on to Blood Bath next. I doubt I'll watch Track of the Vampire in it's entirety, but I'll probably sample a few of the added scenes (the chase sounds particularly tedious! Must watch!). I watched the Lucas essay before the Titian, and it really is excellent. Time flew by.

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cdnchris
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Re: Blood Bath

#5 Post by cdnchris » Mon Jun 13, 2016 12:16 pm

I watched them all but admittedly zoned out a bit during Portrait in Terror and more so with Track of the Vampire, which is easily the worst of the bunch. Though I thought it had a handful of things going for it Operation Titian is still pretty bad but (sadly) the best one. I was hoping Blood Bath would offer something (since it was the main title) but good God, it was lame. Hill's version, which Lucas touches on in his feature, actually sounded interesting so it's a shame it's apparently gone. Despite the overall awfulness of the films it was actually still fun going through them to see how they manipulated the footage (the only thing interesting in Track is how they shoehorn in the Magee footage) but Lucas' piece clearly touches on all of this anyways.

I really have no urge to watch any of these again (though I might watch Lucas' piece again), but it was hard not to love this release, which was obviously, as domino said, a labour of love. I think Arrow did a spectacular job on it.

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tenia
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Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: Blood Bath

#6 Post by tenia » Mon Jun 13, 2016 12:28 pm

I still need to try and watch this for my review. I don't know where to start to avoid falling asleep in front of these. :x

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Blood Bath

#7 Post by zedz » Sun Jul 10, 2016 6:00 pm

domino harvey wrote:No other label makes such elaborate labor of love special editions for films I never want to see again! Watched Operation Titian (which, from the looks of the bonus materials, wasn't my best bet despite being the "first" version of the film, though it will still likely be my last), a dull and shoddily-made Euro murder mystery/spy whatever, and Tim Lucas' excellent 81-minute essay, which is really a visual audio commentary hybrid thingy. After Lucas' exhaustive exploration and explanation of what happened to the film, I feel no great pang of disappointment in not having watched the other three, but how wonderful for fans as feverishly devoted to this curio as Lucas to have them all on hand (plus speculation on a fifth, never fully-formed Jack Hill-version reconstructed via stills in the essay). Lucas' examination is really the calling card here, and I think it would take a truly dedicated fan/completist to watch all four of these in full (or, even more so, to have the desire to do so!), but it's a release I can applaud and appreciate having dallied with, even if I have no desire to watch any of the other iterations included. But I imagine Corman fans and those receptive to the pleasures of scrappy 60s-era drive-in cinema must/will be over the moon with the package Arrow's presented here.
The best film in this set is hands down the Tim Lucas extra, which is a really fascinating piece of archaeology.

I watched Operation Titian, which was indeed a bog-standard 1960s Eastern European thriller slightly elevated by very nice cinematography and a wonderfully photogenic location.

Then I watched Blood Bath, which is a complete dog's breakfast that didn't even make interesting use of the recycled footage. There's a reasonably striking fantasy / dream sequence in the middle set in a desert, but otherwise it's just a whole lot of contradictory bundles of nonsense thrown together in a sack. After seeing glimpses of the other versions in the Lucas extra, I'm sparing myself.

But this is nevertheless a remarkable release: best ever edition of a genuinely terrible film.

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