Joe Spinell beautifies the scalp applied to a prized member of his mannequin collection in William Lustig’s MANIAC.


segment was always the most popular and least “pretentious.” Apparently nobody wants an experimental modern dance film to be pretentious.


The film was mostly shot in 1952, then heavily tinkered with. An entire segment about popu- lar songs was cut. When INVITA- TION TO THE DANCE was finally released two years after its completion, MGM took a bath on it. Revealingly, it did more than twice as much business overseas as in the US, and Kelly won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. He would star in only one more MGM musical, George Cukor’s LES GIRLS (1957), be- fore turning his attention more fully to directing comedies and musicals for film and television, and was unable to sing and dance onscreen again until Jacques Demy hired him in the


French musical THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT (1967). A soft 1.33:1 image has no-


table damage at the very opening of the second segment. A trailer is included. Like Vincente Minnelli’s equally underappreciated, bold, expensive, personal and gor- geous flopperoo YOLANDA AND THE THIEF (1945), this movie cries out for restoration and Blu- ray. Also like that film, it ain’t bloody likely.


MANIAC


1980, Blue Underground, $24.98 (DVD), $34.98 (BR), 87m 52s


By John Charles


William Lustig’s grimy, dis- turbing, unrated slasher thriller has had several home video re- births since we reviewed the Elite laserdisc back in VW 32:64. Three


DVD editions from that label, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Lustig’s Blue Underground (the latter two sharing the same THX approved anamorphic transfer) have lead to the film’s HD debut through the latter company. Lustig has always strived to present his movies as slickly and extra-laden as possible on disc and the Blu-ray incorporates no less than seven hours of bonus materials. Although the new transfer has some issues, this package lavishes all possible at- tention on the film, while also providing interesting context about its place in pop culture his- tory and the prevailing attitude toward horror films in the main- stream media at the time. MANIAC was shot on Super 16 and then blown up to 35mm and is presented in 1080p 1.85:1 from the original negative. Due


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