sworn themselves to the noble cause of providing definitive la­ serdisc editions of horror films. Their next releases will be a no­ frills disc of John Llewelyn Moxey’s HORROR HOTEL aka CITY OF THE DEAD (1961), and a letterboxed edition of William Lustig’s MANIAC (1980) with au­ dio commentary and extras. Most exciting of all, Elite recently signed a contract with producer Alfred Leone to create a letterboxed two- disc set containing Mario Bava’s BARON BLOOD (the director’s cut) and LISA AND THE DEVIL (containing additional footage not included in the British Redemp­tion Video release). We wish them good luck in their enterprise, which they have launched so very well.


THE ADDAMS FAMILY


1964, Voyager/Criterion #CTV1004L, D/MA/+, $49.95, 49m 45s


This “Criterion Television”


sampling of the famous ABC-TV sitcom ( 1964-5) may seem some­ what less exciting today than when it was first announced, now that Lumivision has released a half-dozen volumes of the series on disc (each containing four epi­ sodes) and Paramount’s popular motion picture series has—with the recent untimely death of Raul Julia—run its course. But if you haven’t seen the show in awhile, and especially if Stephen Cox’s affectionate book THE ADDAMS CHRONICLES somehow failed to make your reading list, this is a wonderful and informative way of getting reacquainted with one of the most imaginative and ground­ breaking programs of the 1960s. The disc is packaged in a


gatefold sleeve that begs some explaining. The front cover letter­ ing is inconsistent, with two let­ ters that appear to have been mangled, and the framed color


58


John Astin et Carolyn Jones dans THE ADDAMS FAMILY.


photo looks like it has spent con­ siderable time in a musty attic, or on the bottom of a birdcage. A photo of Wednesday and a cross­ eyed Pugsley is blown-up and obscured in the background un­ der an ugly green tint. The entire sleeve design is obscured with murky, clashing colors, which render David Marc’s excellent liner notes difficult to read (they are continued inside the gatefold, though the sleeve doesn’t say so). The Addamses would prob­ ably love it. Featured are two hilarious


episodes, “Cousin Itt Visits the Addams Family” (Episode 20) and “Amnesia in the Addams Family” (Episode 22), in fine transfers identical to those found in Lumivision’s THE ADDAMS FAMILY, VOLUME 5 and 6, re­ spectively. Both shows are thor­ oughly chapter-encoded. The second analog track contains audio commentary by stars John Astin, Lisa Loring, Ken Weather- wax and Vito Scotti, producer David Levy, associate producer Herb Brower, composer Vic Mizzy and sound recordist Tony Magro (who devised the voice of Cousin Itt). While reminiscing about the


show’s origins, development and eventual cancellation, the com­ mentators evoke the warm and loving working atmosphere that the show itself suggests, and their separately recorded voices share a common bittersweet ache when the subject turns to Carolyn Jones, who died in 1983 and was obviously much beloved. (It’s of­ ten forgotten, amidst the verbal jousting of Vampira and Elvira, that Charles Addams drew Morticia first, in the late 1930s— and Jones remains the definitive Morticia.) Feeling portraits are also sketched of the late Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester) and Ted Cassidy (Lurch), both of whom created indelible characters while harboring deep-seated unease about playing “monsters.” (On Side Two, Cassidy can be heard bemoaning his casting in a short sound bite.) Astin, who in addi­ tion to being a superb actor comes across as a genuine re­ naissance man, speaks with Gomezian relish about the spe­ cific talents of all the cast mem­ bers, but humbly leaves his own vast contribution out of the dis­ cussion. In this regard, it’s fasci­ nating to learn that the ADDAMS

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