VW-026 J/F 1995

Andrea (Luciano Gaspar), a cru sading newspaper reporter who somehow never goes near a pen or typewriter, escorts a volup tuous tour guide (Maureen Lid- gard Brown) around town with a flock of shapely teenage school girls (led by Gin Mart)—tempting bait indeed for the Embalmer! The film jumps back and forth

between the excursions of its hero and villain with no particular sense of style; whatever pleasures it imparts come from the furtive thrill of preempted eroticism (ie., brief shots of the Embalmer feel ing the covered breasts of his collection were cut from the (JS version), the presence of some familiar dubbing voices, and its unique view of Venice itself. Of all the death-obsessed films made in Venice (with interiors shot in Trieste), this is by far the sunni est, and it presents a refreshing, native view of the country that is wholly at odds with those made by symbolists and foreigners. Even the nightclub guitarist who takes the stage in an upright cof fin seems more offbeat than a morbid figure. The climax in the

Embalmer’s lair is exquisite spook-trash, and the rest of it moves along more briskly than you may remember. (How those travelogue passages taxed my youthful patience at the original double bill!) If your video collec tion extends to the lovably low likes of SLAUGHTER OF THE VAMPIRES and ATOM AGE VAMPIRE, that’s the shelf where THE EMBALMER belongs. T aken from anextremely rare

35mm source print, Sinister’s tape is in excellent condition, with only two brief instances of a dis tracting scratch. Aside from a full-screen “Walter Manley Presents” title sequence, the image is attractively letterboxed at 1.66:1. Add an extra 50 cents, and Sinister will package your cassette in a color clamshell box (recommended). Preceded by trailers for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF and CASTLE OF BLOOD Video Search of Miami offers

the original Italian language ver sion, a PAL conversion which runs an even 77m [24 fps translation: 80m 17s]. —TL

FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON

1970, Redemption Video (UK), HF/LB, £12.99, 78m 19s

Mario Bava once described

this TEN LITTLE INDIANS clone as his worst film, and, after seeing it, his own daughter asked if he was crazy when he made it—yet it has a slippery charm all its own. William Berger stars as scientist Jerry Farrell, who, along with his wife (Ira Furstenburg), is invited to vacation on a remote island by a group of competing businessmen (Maurizio Poli, Howard Ross, Teodora Corra) and their wives, determined to acquire his new industrial resin formula with seven figure checks and extramarital sex. To complicate the scenario, Farrell is a down-to-earth type, uninterested in money; he dresses in sweaters and sandals, whereas his companions seem to have stepped out of a quasi-futuristic, Jetsons fashion nightmare. Once Farrell makes his bohemian atti tudes known, the competitors and their wives (and their lovers) start turning up dead—whose bodies

Teodora Corra ties one on with Edwige Fenech in Mario Bava’s FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON.

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