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The old joke goes that the way one gets to Carnegie Hall is practice; while this is also a truism that can be applied to any tenet of life, it’s particularly ironic in The Mephisto Waltz (1971): yes, hard work is great, but it’s much easier to just have Satan put a concert pianist’s soul in your body to achieve your dreams. Not as funny, but easier.

The Mephisto Waltz (based on the novel of the same name by Fred Mustard Stewart) danced onto screens in early June to scathing reviews and tepid box office; even its support group find fault with key elements (we’ll get to the grievances in a bit) all these years later. I would say they are correct except I find the film works well enough despite its issues; truth be told there aren’t many Satanic flicks I don’t like,...

Guest reviewer Lee Broughton covers a trio of grisly horrors. The Toolbox Murders, Blood Harvest and A Cat in the Brain each feature a pop culture icon in a leading role. Hollywood actor Cameron Mitchell, oddball 1960s crooner Tiny Tim and the Italo horror director and all-round enfant terrible Lucio Fulci find themselves caught up in their own gory and disturbing splatter show. Perhaps unsurprisingly, all three films fell foul of the British Board of Film Classification at the time of their original release in the UK.

The Toolbox Murders, Blood Harvest, A Cat in the Brain

Separate Region B Blu-ray releases

All from 88 Films – Slasher Classics Collection

£14.99 each

Reviewed by Lee Broughton

The Toolbox Murders

Region B Blu-ray

1978 / Color / 1.78 / 93 min. / Street Date December 4, 2017

Starring: Cameron Mitchell, Pamelyn Ferdin, Wesley Eure, Nicholas Beauvy, Tim Donnelly, Aneta Corsaut.

Cinematography: Gary Graver

Film Editor: Nunzio Darpino

Production Designer: D. J. Bruno

Original...

Jacqueline Bisset’s in a heck of a fix. Her hubby Alan Alda has been seduced by promises of fame and fortune from creepy concert genius Curt Jurgens, and is responding to weird overtures from Curt’s daughter Barbara Parkins. The pianist’s mansion is stuffed with occult books, and he displays an unhealthy interest in Alda’s piano-ready hands. Do you think the innocent young couple could be in a diabolical tight spot? Nah, nothing to worry about here.

The Mephisto Waltz

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1971 / Color /1:85 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Parkins, Brad(ford) Dillman, William Windom, Kathleen Widdoes, Pamelyn Ferdin, Curt Jurgens, Curt Lowens, Kiegh Diegh, Berry Kroeger, Walter Brooke, Frank Campanella.

Cinematography: William W. Spencer

Film Editor: Richard Brockway

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith

Written by Ben Maddow from a novel by Fred Mustard Stewart

Produced...

A desperate satanist takes the body-switching, Freaky Friday approach to living longer in The Mephisto Waltz. Packed with surreal imagery and starring Alan Alda (M*A*S*H) and Jacqueline Bisset (Bullitt), the 1971 horror film is coming to Blu-ray this spring from Kino Lorber, and the official release date and special features have now been revealed.

From Kino Lorber: “Coming April 18th on Blu-ray! The Mephisto Waltz (1971) with optional English subtitles

• Audio Commentary by Film Historian Bill Cooke

• Audio Commentary by actress Pamelyn Ferdin, moderated by filmmaker Elijah Drenner

• Trailer Gallery”

Synopsis (via Blu-ray.com): “Alan Alda plays a classical piano player on the rise who befriends a famous player himself who’s at death’s door. Unknown to Alda, the guy is a satanist, who arranges to have their souls switch places at his death, so that he can be young again and continue to play piano...

What a Way to Go!

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1964 / Color B&W / 2:35 enhanced widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 111 min. / Street Date February 7, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Robert Cummings, Dick Van Dyke, Reginald Gardiner, Margaret Dumont, Fifi D’Orsay, Maurice Marsac, Lenny Kent, Marjorie Bennett, Army Archerd, Barbara Bouchet, Tom Conway, Peter Duchin, Douglass Dumbrille, Pamelyn Ferdin, Teri Garr, Queenie Leonard.

Cinematography: Leon Shamroy

Film Editor: Marjorie Fowler

Original Music: Nelson Riddle

Written by: Betty Comden, Adolph Green story by Gwen Davis

Produced by: Arthur P. Jacobs

Directed by: J. Lee Thompson

Want to know what the producer of Planet of the Apes was up to, before that milestone movie? Arthur P. Jacobs was an agent for big stars before he became a producer, which positioned him well for his first show for 20th Fox, What a Way to Go!

"This is the year two thousand and twenty. The place is the Challenger Sea Mount, the top of an underwater mountain, a complex beneath the sea. Two hundred and fifty men, women and children live here. Each of them, a scientist pioneer. For this is our last frontier, a hostile environment which may hold the key to tomorrow. Each day, these oceanauts meet new challenges as they build their city beneath the sea. This is Sealab 2020."

These words set the stage for the Saturday morning TV series known as Sealab 2020. The oceanauts of Sealab face seaquakes, sharks and falling satellites -- while finding the time to serve up lessons on environmentalism and teamwork. Featuring the voices of actors like John Stephenson, Ross Martin, Jerry Dexter, Pamelyn Ferdin and Ann Jillian, the TV show ran for just 13 episodes and one season on NBC.

Chicago – If you’re like me, you forgot how totally weird the cult horror classic “The Toolbox Murders” actually is. Perhaps the dull, by-the-numbers Tobe Hooper remake (with the otherwise great Angela Bettis from “May”) warped our minds, but this is a trippy slasher film, a notable entry in the slasher genre now available in glorious B-movie High-Def for the first time.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

Reportedly based on a true story (aren’t they all?), “The Toolbox Murders” caused quite a stink in 1978 when it was released. It’s not that graphically violent, but it is easy to see what turned people off in a film that, for almost the entirety of its first act, consists of intercut shots of a power tool and a screaming woman being murdered by said tool. Watching a woman masturbate before being killed by a masked man with a nail gun is not for everyone.

DVD Playhouse—December 2009

By

Allen Gardner

Public Enemies (Universal) Johnny Depp portrays legendary Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger in co- writer/director Michael Mann’s take on America’s first “Public Enemy Number One.” Like many big studio releases today, Public Enemies has it all: A-list talent before and behind the camera, but lacks a heart or soul that allows its audience to connect with it. Film plays out like a “true crime” TV show with re-enactments of famous events cast with top actors and shot by the best technicians in the business, with little, if any, character or story development to hold it together in between. A real disappointment from one of our finest filmmakers and finest actors. The lone standout: the great character actor Stephen Lang as a hard-eyed lawman who’s seen a lot, but manages to retain a tiny piece of his heart. For a better take on the same subject,...

Final specs have been announced for the Anthem Pictures DVD of the Bill Moseley-starrer Dead Air, arriving October 27. And indie filmmaker Gary Ugarek sent over cover art and details on two different discs of his own zombie opus, Deadlands 2, also arriving from Anthem on the 27th.

Directed by actor Corbin Bernsen and featuring Moseley’s Night Of The Living Dead 1990 co-star Patricia Tallman, Dead Air is set in a radio station where shock jock Logan Burnhardt (Moseley) and his staff receive increasingly frightening reports from outside of a terrorist bio-weapon attack and the resulting flesheating ghouls. The movie is accompanied by:

Audio commentary by Bernsen “The Making of Dead Air” minidocumentary Behind-the-scenes interviews with cast and crew In addition, the first 1,000 people to pre-order the DVD via the film’s official website will receive a limited-edition autographed mini-poster, hand-numbered by the director. Retail price is $19.95; see Fango #288, on sale in October,...

Blue Underground is revisiting the 1978 film Toolbox Murders on Blu-Ray. The distributor has a January 25, 2010 release date planned. According to Blu-Ray.com, the video will be presented in 1.66:1 1080p resolution, audio specs have not been finalized. Special features include an audio commentary with producer Tony Didio, Gary Graver (director of photography) and actress Pamelyn Ferdin; an I Got Nailed in The Toolbox Murders featurette; TV/radio spots; and a theatrical trailer.

W.C. Fields once said, "Never work with children or animals." Well, one of the world's most famous canines is returning to television and it looks like producers will get to avoid working with both real-life kids and dogs.

The character of Lassie the collie first appeared in a 1938 short story, written by Eric Knight. It was later expanded into a novel called Lassie Come-Home. An MGM film based on the book, starring Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor, hit theaters in 1943. That spawned additional Lassie stories in print, on radio and in movie theaters.

In 1954, the Lassie TV show debuted on CBS. Aside from the famous canine, the family show features the talents of Tommy Rettig, Jan Clayton, George Cleveland, Jon Provost, June Lockhart, Hugh Reilly, Robert Bray, Jack De Mave, Jed Allan, Ron Hayes, Larry Wilcox, Pamelyn Ferdin, Cloris Leachman, and Jon Shepodd. Lassie had a number of human friends...

That bomb that dropped in Los Angeles about a month ago? That wasn’t the Land Of The Lost feature film. It was the revelation that 1970’s/80’s teen idol Wesley Eure, the original “Will Marshall” from the television version, the star of Days Of Our Lives, the shower nozzle masturbation fantasy material (to quote Heathers) for legions of teenage girls, is gay.

Perhaps I overstate. But Eure’s AfterElton.com interview was certainly a “Holy sh*t!” moment for many 40-something women whose dreams were crushed, and many 40-something men whose dreams came true.

Honestly, this one wasn’t a shocker for me. Although he wasn’t out in the press, the signs were there. His nonstop charity work with various AIDS charities (which include live theater extravaganzas featuring drag queens and muscle boys), the fact that he now lives in Palm Springs (Says Eure, “If you live here you’re either old,...

The actress who voiced the character of Lucy in cartoon Peanuts is facing jail after a Los Angeles judge found her guilty of harassment.

Pamelyn Ferdin, 49, appeared in a Santa Monica, California court on Thursday, where she was convicted for protesting against animal researchers at UCLA.

A judge ruled her actions violated an injunction taken out against her by handing out fliers on the university's campus containing full contact details for research scientists.

She could now be sentenced to up to five days behind bars, reports website TMZ.com.

Ferdin also appeared on a variety of TV shows in the 1970s, including Star Trek and The Odd Couple.