Foothill Video, a public domain mail order outlet for rare titles, offers the 1920 film TRAPPED BY THE MORMONS and the first half of that movie has background music from THE BLOB! The sec­ ond half is music more befitting a silent movie. I wonder why no one ever


thought to release THE BLOB and DAUGHTER OF HORROR as a double feature video or DVD? They are sort of indelibly linked in peoples minds. Lori S. Burnett e-mail


DUNE GRIPES While 1 have great respect


for Vittorio Storaro, it ’s clear that the images on the back cover of VW #72 represent the work of Art Director, the Cos­ tume Designer, and one of the perhaps anonymous CG artists who composited the middle image. It’s all very well and good to give a Director of Pho­ tography his (or her) due in a film, but not when it mis- attributes the result to the wrong person. Undoubtedly, Mr. Storaro lit and composed the top and bottom images, nonetheless the major part of their intrinsic interest is due to the design of the scenery and, especially in the bottom image, the costume. And a minor question: when


Stephen R. Bissette rails against the so-called “Lynch” version of DUNE, is he, perhaps talking about an opinion based upon reading the script for the actual 6-8 hour film that Mr. Lynch made? Or is he talking about the shards of a movie that re­ sulted from Dino DeLaurentiis running the film through a tree-mulcher and splicing the fragments back together? One would reasonably think that most of the complaints


80


(legitimate or not, and I’m not talking about difference of opin­ ion over taste here), that Mr. Bissette has result from the DeLaurentiis butchery and not from Lynch intentions. It seems to me that the ethics of critical responsibility—especially in a well-considered magazine like yours—would be to define clearly what’s being discussed. VW has already given consider­ able coverage to what that film was or might have or should have been. It’s simply too fac­ ile and uninformed to blame the so-called “Lynch DUNE” on David Lynch and to attempt to compare the new version legiti­ mately with that one. Edward Summer e-mail


Your points about the back


cover are well-taken, Ed, but there is only so much room available for a back cover cap­ tion—and the middlemost frame of the three was actually added to the layout at the last minute, well after the caption was writ­ ten. These things happen. As for David Lynch ’s DUNE, make no mistake that the theatrical version was cut by Lynch him­ self, and not run through the proverbial tree mulcher. I have it on good authority from some­ one close to the production that Lynch was contractually bound to deliver a 2.5 hour cut, and thought he could win DeLaurentiis over w ith a “perfect ” longer cut; Dino ad­mired it, but still insisted that it be cut to its prescribed length, which Lynch did, un­ happily. In fact, I ve heard that Universal has not been able to


persuade Lynch to create a “director’s c u t ” for DVD re­


lease because he doesn’t want to touch it. It may not repre­ sent Lynch’s original inten­ tions, but u n til his actions


I answer this question at least


five times a week, so let me answer it here for the record. VCI does not “ow n” this title, which is evidently now in the US public domain. That said, Alfredo Leone has acquired the US video rights from an Ita l­ ian company showing proper chain of ownership; you would think going through the proper channels would have brought him closer to acquiring defini­ tive source materials, but this hasn’t been the case. (He did locate a fine quality print, but it did not contain the correct title sequence.) Leone and Im­ age Entertainment have a deal to produce the definitive Spe­ cial Edition of this title on VHS and DVD, and when it finally happens, it should be great. I recorded an audio commen­ tary for it nearly two years ago, and delivered my liner notes and the stills/poster gallery about a year ago, but there has been no discernible movement on the title since. In the meantime, enjoy VCI’s colorful disc,


prove otherwise, it is, in the most authentic sense, the “director’s cut. ”


OUR MOST POPULAR QUESTION


You’ve probably been asked


a million times already about Mario Bava’s KILL, BABY... KILL! but do you know if there’s going to be a special edition- uncut widescreen European version on DVD? BLOOD AND BLACK LACE and THE WHIP AND THE BODY are awesome DVDs (not to mention Image’s Mario Bava collections.) Does VCI still have the rights? Any replies would be greatly appre­ ciated. Thanks!! John Peterson e-mail

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