fully-fanged Pete Walker we’ve come to expect. On the other hand, SCHIZO (1976, 108m 53m; reviewed separately in VW 83:65) was not part of the UK set and thus comes to us with neither com- mentary track nor trailer, but Elijah Drenner is faithfully on the case once again as Walker re- flects on the story behind this none-too-surprising thriller. (He allows that the title alone tended to defeat the point of David McGillivray’s giallo-flavored script.) SCHIZO is also the least satisfying of this batch from a Blu-ray standpoint: while the new negative transfer (a constant in this set) is perfectly letterboxed and at least on par with the OOP American DVD release, it never quite achieves the true depths of darkness the film requires in plenty.
Wrapping up the set is a per-
fectly acceptable transfer of Walker’s THE COMEBACK 91978, 100m 19s), which some believe prefigured Lucio Fulci’s ZOMBIE thanks to its maggot- infested corpses and an appear- ance by Richard Johnson. It’s singing star Jack Jones who takes center stage here, and
Jones himself gets to participate in Drenner’s all-new interview supplement (although his seg- ments were recorded separately from Walker’s). Walker realizes that audiences simply didn’t re- spond to Jones as a victim nearly as much as they sympathized with the usual young ladies in peril, but doesn’t regret the ex- periment, while Jones recalls that the biggest hurdle he had to over- come in the eyes of his fans was his most unbecoming use of the f-word late in the film! The theat- rical trailer and Walker/Rigby commentary are included here, as well.
THE PETE WALKER COL-
LECTION is an erratic if en- couraging step forward in the availability and presentation of the director’s work on these shores—it’s only frustrating in that it offers so little of Walker at his best. As such, the price tag may seem a bit steep for double-dippers and newcom- ers, who will be relieved to note that various online outlets offer this set at considerable dis- counts. More selective buyers may prefer Redemption’s indi- vidual releases of these titles, priced at $24.95.
ROCCO: DER MANN MIT DEN ZWEI GESICHTERN
aka SUGAR COLT
“Rocco: The Man With Two Faces” 1967, Koch Media, 96m 40s, €9.99, PAL DVD-2 By Lloyd Haynes
Directed by Franco Giraldi, Sergio Leone’s assistant on A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, SUGAR COLT is a minor though enjoy- able Italian western now available as a German import disc. In 1866 New Mexico, Sugar Colt (Jack Betts), a former detective of un- likely name, is brought out of self- imposed retirement to trace the whereabouts of a battalion of soldiers, who had disappeared a year earlier en route to Alama- gordo. Posing as an eccentric doctor, Colt arrives in the town- ship of Snake Valley and discov- ers that the sharpshooters are being held prisoner by a crooked businessman, Colonel Haber- brook (Giuliano Raffaelli), who is extracting a $10,000 ransom from each of the mens’ families. The film is mainly of interest for an early appearance by Soledad Miranda, only a couple of years away from her career defining (and, sadly, all-too-brief)
Soledad Miranda tends to Jack Betts’ wounds in Franco Giraldi’s SUGAR COLT, available on German import as ROCCO: DER MANN MIT DEN ZWEI GESICHTERN.
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