



Upcoming Arrow Video Blu-ray Releases Posted December 11, 2015 04:31 PM by



Death Walks at Midnight and Death Walks on High Heels, Eddie Romero's Black Mama, White Mama, and Gordon Hessler's Rage of Honor.



Death Walks Twice



Emerging at the peak of the giallo boom of the early '70s, Luciano Ercoli's Death Walks films are two superlative examples of the genre linked by their shared casting of the stunning Nieves Navarro (billed under her adopted stage name of Susan Scott) as the lead woman in peril.



In Death Walks on High Heels (1971), exotic dancer Nicole (Navarro), the daughter of a murdered jewel thief, finds herself terrorised by a black-clad assailant determined on procuring her father's stolen gems. Fleeing Paris and her knife-wielding pursuer, Nicole arrives in London only to discover that death stalks her at every corner.



Returning in Death Walks at Midnight (1972), Navarro stars as Valentina  a model who, in the midst of a drug-fuelled photoshoot, witnesses a brutal murder in the apartment opposite hers. But when it becomes clear that the savage slaying she describes relates to a crime that took place six months earlier, the police are at a loss - forcing Valentina to solve the mystery alone. Offering up all the glamour, perversity and narrative twists and turns that are typical of the giallo genre at its best, Luciano Ercoli's Death Walks on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight anticipate the super-stylized trappings of Brian De Palma's early psycho thrillers (most notably, Dressed to Kill).



LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS Limited Edition boxed-set (3000 copies) containing Death Walks on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight

Brand new 2K restorations of the films from the original camera negatives

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations

Original Italian and English soundtracks in mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays)

Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtracks

Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtracks

Limited Edition 60-page booklet containing new writing from authors Danny Shipka (Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France), Troy Howarth (So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films) and writer Leonard Jacobs, illustrated with original archive stills and posters DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas

Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi

Newly-edited archive interview with director Luciano Ercoli and actress Nieves Navarro

Master of Giallo  brand new interview in which Gastaldi discusses Death Walks on High Heels and offers up his thoughts as to what constitutes a good giallo

An interview with composer Stelvio Cipriani

Original Italian trailer

Original English trailer

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas

Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi

Extended TV version of the feature [105 mins]

Crime Does Pay  brand new interview in which Gastaldi discusses Death Walks at Midnight and a career script-writing crime films

Desperately Seeking Susan  a visual essay by Michael Mackenzie exploring the distinctive giallo collaborations between director Luciano Ercoli and star Nieves Navarro

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx U.S. STREET DATE: MARCH 29.

UK STREET DATE: MARCH 28.



Black Mama, White Mama



Before her iconic turn in Coffy, Pam Grier starred alongside Margaret Markov in a grindhouse spin on Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones, fusing the Women in Prison film with the emerging Blaxploitation movement for a riotous romp of bullets, babes and blood!



Lee (Grier), a tough prostitute and Karen (Markov), a revolutionary, are admitted to a tough women's prison where almost immediately (after some playful showering that prefigures Porky's) they clash. Packed off to a maximum security prison, their transport is ambushed by Karen's guerrilla friends and the two escape into the Filipino jungle. Chained together and with differing escape plans their clash intensifies as Lee wants to retrieve a stash of stolen cash to get her off the island and Karen wants to re-join her revolutionary group. Escape isn't easy as they come up against a series of obstacles including a corrupt cop, a bounty hunter, a sadistic Drug Lord and guerrillas who threaten to turn everything upside down.



Chock full of girl fights, gun battles, nudity and humour, Black Mama White Mama, which was also known as Women in Chains and Hot, Hard and Mean, lives up to all its titles as well as featuring a brilliant Sid Haig (Spider Baby, House of 1000 Corpses) as a cowboy bounty hunter and Lynn Borden (Frogs, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry) as a lesbian guard from a script co-written by Jonathan Demme (Caged Heat) and a score sampled by Quentin Tarantino for Kill Bill.



Special Features: Audio Commentary by filmmaker Andrew Leavold, director of The Search for Weng Weng White Mama - An interview with star Margaret Markov

Sid's Filipino Adventure - An interview with star Sid Haig

The Mad Director of Blood Island - A previously unseen archive interview with director Eddie Romero

Trailer

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips

The first pressing also includes a booklet featuring brand new writing on the film by Temple of Schlock's Chris Poggiali and extracts from the original press book, illustrated with archive stills and posters U.S. STREET DATE: MARCH 22.



Rage of Honor



Following his star turns in '80s actioners Enter the Ninja and Revenge of the Ninja, Sho Kosugi continued his domination of the US martial arts movie with 1987's Rage of Honor  helmed once again by Pray for Death director Gordon Hessler (The Golden Voyage of Sinbad).



Federal agent Shiro Tanaka (Kosugi) used to live for his job  now, he lives only for revenge. When his partner is killed during a bungled drug bust, Shiro throws away his badge and the rule book with it: arming himself with an array of deadly weaponry  including nunchucks, blades and ninja stars  he sets out to Buenos Aires to settle the score with the bad guys.



Packing explosions, flying kicks and somersaults aplenty (as well as some truly logic-bending stunt sequences), Rage of Honor sees Kosugi at the top of his game as he battles his way from the streets of the urban jungle to the very literal jungles of South America.



Special Features: Sho and Tell Part 2: The Domination  brand new interview with star Sho Kosugi on Rage of Honor and the later stages of his film career

Sho Kosugi Trailer Gallery: Enter the Ninja (1981), Revenge of the Ninja (1983), Pray for Death (1985) and Rage of Honor (1987)

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin

The first pressing includes a collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film and an extract from Kosugi's upcoming book U.S. STREET DATE: MARCH 15.



Cult Cinema: An Arrow Video Companion (Limited Edition) Hardback Book



Arrow Video is one of the foremost distributors of cult cinema on DVD and Blu-ray. From the classic to the obscure, the Arrow Video collection encompasses all styles and genres: horror films and Westerns, science fiction and sex comedies, yakuza epics and neo-noirs, the subversive, the transgressive and the unclassifiable.



This hardback volume brings together 25 of the world's leading genre experts and critics to guide you through the multi-faceted beast that is cult cinema. Exploring the stars, the filmmakers and the trends, Cult Cinema: An Arrow Video Companion provides an intriguing trip down the less well-trodden paths of filmdom.



Featuring the writing of: Robin Bougie, Michael Brooke, Paul Corupe, David Del Valle, David Flint, Kevin Gilvear, Joel Harley, David Hayles, Pasquale Iannone, Alan Jones, Tim Lucas, Michael Mackenzie, Maitland McDonagh, Tom Mes, John Kenneth Muir, Kim Newman, James Oliver, Vic Pratt, Jasper Sharp, Yvonne D. Sims, Kenneth J. Souza, Mike Sutton, Stephen Thrower, Caelum Vatnsdal, Doug Weir. With an introduction by filmmaker Ben Wheatley (Kill List, High Rise, Free Fire).



Binding: Hardback

Pages: 246 pages

Dimension: 22 x 2.8 x 28cm

UK RRP: £64.99

US SRP: $99.95



UK RELEASE DATE: MARCH 28.

U.S. RELEASE DATE: MARCH 29.











Source: Blu-ray.com | Permalink | [Country settings]



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troykan Dec 11, 2015 Awesome!

crow2k5 Dec 11, 2015 Im in for Black Mama White Mama

Dr_Bedlo Dec 11, 2015 Hot damn! More Pam Grier! Awesomeness!!!!

ClassicCarNut Dec 11, 2015 Still waiting for Friday Foster. Don't let me down Arrow Video!

BobbyMcGee Dec 11, 2015 Hmm...interested in that book. Kind of pricey though.

Top contributor

Top contributor Blu Titan Dec 11, 2015 All in for the Giallo movies .

Dean learner Dec 12, 2015 The book is a wee bit pricey, but I'm a sucker for Arrow, so will no doubt end up buying it. Loving that Arrow are releasing more Gialli!

PrestonXI Dec 12, 2015 Is that book simply just a collection of the writing that is already available in the booklets that come with the releases?



Ordered Black Mama. Blind bought the Giallo films.

A Prosthetic Prophet Dec 13, 2015 I just want to state again how excited I am about the Ercoli box set. Speaking of Giallo films, a couple other films I hope get released soon are The Fifth Cord, and Black Belly Of The Tarantula (along with a long list of others).

Top contributor

Top contributor 4000dvds2many Dec 13, 2015 Wish I could get rid of my No-Shame Ercoli Collector's Edition DVD now, but this doesn't have the cd soundtracks. Damn. I also want that book badly, but I can't cough up $100 for it.

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