Ben (Duane Jones), dead but not the enemy, is readied for the bonfire in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.


“Trick or Treat,” “Devil’s Advo­ cate” and “The Circus”), and the film’s cast and main crew mem­ bers. A theatrical trailer and (simi­ lar) TV spot for NOTLD are followed by a 6/3/94 videotaped interview with Judith Ridley (who didn’t participate in the audio commentaries), conducted by Marilyn Eastman; these are fol­ lowed by a proposal and budget­ ary breakdown for AT PLAY WITH THE ANGELS, which became Romero/Streiner/Ridley’s second feature, THERE’S ALWAYS VA­NILLA aka THE AFFAIR (1970), two interesting clips from which close Side One. Side Two of the supplemen­


tary disc opens with excerpts from two NOTLD scrapbooks, respec­ tively assembled by Eastman (who recalls meeting Bela Lugosi backstage at a Pittsburgh staging of DRACULA, when she was only 10!) and Vince Survinski. One


of the scrapbooks contains some embarrassing correspon­ dence between Russ Streiner and the Miller Brewing Com­ pany (Streiner, as producer of NOTLD, heard that Miller’s latest commercial was inspired by his film and asked to see a copy “for internal use only” ; the executive to whom the letter was addressed passed it onto a flunky, who wrote back that Miller Brewing doesn’t supply their commercials to “the private sector” and suggested that he record it off of television!). There’s also a look at various surviving props and costumes from the film, and miscellaneous tie-ins and memorabilia, includ­ ing the cover art from various international editions of Russo’s NOTLD novelization (the Dutch edition—Chapter 11, Frame 190—features artwork cribbed


from the Italian horror movieTHE EMBALMER!). This particular area


of the supplement is in sore need of captioning; a comedy album entitled THE LAST OF THE FIRST FAMILY, a spoof of the Carter Administration and family, is shown without identifying it as a Hardman/Eastman enterprise, and some curious Italian foto­ buste [poster-sized lobby cards] are shown, containing mis­ placed images of Julie Harris (from THE HAUNTING) and Pe­ter Vaughn and Stephanie Pow­ers (from Hammer’s DIE! DIE! MY DARLING)—which the disc producers point out by enlarging, but fail to identify. Another amus­ ing inconsistency worth noting: if you look closely, you’ll see that the fotobuste give star billing, over Duane Jones, to “R. Burr”—giving the impression that NOTLD stars Raymond Burr of GODZILLA fame! (Actually, Randy Burr is the last name on the cast list at the end of the movie.) The second side ends with


Kevin S. O’Brien’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING BREAD (1990), a comedic student film apparently included to illustrate NOTLD’s impact on popular culture (though a complete list of hom­ ages would have served just as well), and a generous excerpt from Tim Ferrantes FANGORIA inter­ view with Duane Jones, repro­ duced not in text, but from the original audio cassette record­ ing. The latter is a fascinating document, capturing the late actor as a unique individual, full of pride and rage, pain and con­ tradictions; it’s interesting that Jones says no one ever asked him an original question about the film, and also tragic, because Elite’s eye-opening disc presen­ tation certainly prompts new ways of looking at it. Stay tuned after the end credits for a surprise postscript. Elite Entertainment’s Vini


Bancalari and Don May, Jr. have 57

Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84