THE BÖTTCHER BOX AND MORE
I was interested to read in
“The Watchdog Barks” [VW 104:3] about the boxed set of Martin Böttcher’s music for the German/Yugoslavian Westerns like OLD SHATTERHAND that you have recently acquired. Because I arranged the distribution of those films through Columbia Pictures in USA (except one title that went to Warner Bros.), I was fortunate to receive a visit from Böttcher when he came to New York around 1966. He brought me several long-play- ing records with music from the soundtracks of those Westerns. They were lavishly illustrated with color photo- graphs of Lex Barker, Stewart Grainger, Pierre Brice and scenes from the films. I still have them in my collection. I would love to obtain a boxed set if you can tell where to or- der it. I am told that some of those Westerns have recently started to appear on the West- ern channel of the Encore television network. The theat- rical distribution by Columbia at the time was understand- ably a disaster in America, although we tried our best in dubbing the films into the En- glish language—to eliminate some of their anachronisms. It is heartening to see, in the Letterbox of VW 104, the interest that is spreading with regard to MGM’s DVD release of THE GHOUL (1933). I must admit that I was never aware of either the exhibition on British television or the exist- ence of 16mm prints for book- ings in USA during the years that the film was regarded as “lost,” nor for that matter that
Sinister Cinema and others had any version of the film available other than the mis- erable copies that originated with the Czechoslovakian print that William K. Everson redis- covered.
Mike MacCollum’s letter about the novel on which the film was based is informative and amusing. I would like to become the second person known to Kim Newman who has read it. I have had a hard- cover edition in my collection since a number of years. It was published in New York by Grosset & Dunlap, presum- ably in 1929 as it lists a copy- right notice of that year in the name of G. Howard Watt. Whether this was the real name, or a pseudonym, of the author who is otherwise known as Frank King, I do not know. The Karloff film bears little resemblance to the novel. In my opinion, the film’s sce- nario is infinitely more inter- esting. This is not surprising since the film credits Roland Pertwee, L. DuGarde Peach, John Hastings Turner and Rupert Downing, along with Frank King, as its authors. The comedy version of the novel which was made in 1961
under the title WHAT A CARVE-UP! (renamed NO PLACE LIKE HOMICIDE in USA) resembled
the book more closely. Its screenplay was written by Ray Cooney and Tony Hilton, and it was directed by Pat Jack- son for producers Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman. It was moderately successful in England because of its all-star cast of British film favorites.
Kim Newman’s review of NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES
[VW 105:50] is most interesting to read in the context of survey of Mexican-made horror
the
films. Someone should re- search the brief but success- ful career of Jerald Intrator, who shot its most bloody in- serts in New York for the En- glish-dubbed version. Intrator produced the underrated early-
1960’s sexploitation feature SATAN IN HIGH HEELS [VW 20:21, 92:64] and was much in demand by independent distributors who needed addi- tional inserts for films from Europe and elsewhere. He even shot some extra scenes for an early Ingmar Bergman picture!
Richard Gordon New York NY
I obtained my copy of the 3-disc
boxed set DIE SCHÖNSTEN KARL MAY FILMMELODIEN
give each film (Winnetou, Old Surehand, Old Shatterhand) its own disc. Otherwise, it’s
(Polydor 980 935-5) from Screen Archives Entertain- ment, a service I’m happy to recommend: PO Box 550, Lin- den VA 22642-0500; 540- 635-2575 / Fax: 540-635-8554;
www.screenarchives.com. I do have a complaint about the set, though; the discs run un- der 30m each and could have easily been compressed to a cheaper two-disc set. The pro- ducers evidently preferred to
very nice. While watching THE TREASURE OF SILVER LAKE
on Encore Westerns, I was surprised to hear the unmistak- able voice of Blacula himself, William Marshall, coming out of the mouth of the Indian chief! Dick, we would love to know more about your involve- ment in dubbing imported fea- tures, like these and the Edgar Wallace films, and any anec- dotes you may remember about the actors participating in the sessions.
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