Happy Birthday Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing

  A belated Happy Birthday to Christopher Lee (May 27 1922) & Peter Cushing (May 26 1913).  Cushing passed away in 1994, but Christopher Lee is still going (and working in movies) at the age of 90. Close friends in life they appeared in 22 movies together starting with Hamlet in 1948 and all the way thru 1983's House of Long Shadows.

Rosalba Neri News # 6

 A bit late with this but Mondo Macabro recently released American exploitation director William Rose's  1973 Italian thriller The Girl in Room 2A which features Rosalba in a supporting role.  A pretty decent example of 70's explotation Italian cinema this movie has a little bit of everything - horror, mystery and of course gore and nudity. The film doesn't have a lot of the great stylistic flourish that was in the better gaillo from this period, but does have a couple memorable moments.
  It stars former Mrs. Italy Daniela Giordana, who is also featured in an interview on the disc extras.  Producer Dick Randall was also behind Don't Open Till Christmas (also from Mondo Macabro) and the infamous slasher Pieces.

Carroll Baker In Italy

  I've always loved this still of Carroll Baker and Erika Blanc from Umberto Lenzi's So Sweet....So Preverse (1969). In the 60's following a legal battle with Paramont Studios and a divorce from her husband Baker settled in Italy and appeared in a number of sexy/giallo thrillers including The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968), The Devil Has Seven Faces (1971) ,Baby Yaga (1973) and the above mentioned So Sweet...So Preverse.  She even did some nude scenes.

  She did two more movies for Lenzi in 1969. Orgasmo was released in the U.S. as Paranoia and the second one for Lenzi was titled Paranoia, so that was released in the U.S. under the title of A Quiet Place To Kill (kinda confusing).  Baby Yaga was recently released by Blue Underground ,however the rest of Carroll's Italian "oeuvre" is hard to find on legit releases, but is floating around "out there".

  Years ago I got the chance to meet Carroll at a Chiller Convention in NJ. I had brought my copy of Blood & Black Lace : The Definitive Guide to Italian Sex & Horror Movies for her to sign. I kind of cautiously approached her with it as I had heard she wasn't all together comfortable with some of her work during that period. To my delight she happily signed a picture of a lobby card from So Sweet...So Perverse and laughing said "I can't believe somebody did a book on those" !  She was a very nice lady.

Big Heat Blu

  Twilight Time has just released Fritz Lang's 1953 noir The Big Heat on blu. Limited to 3000 copies and features a great nasty bad guy performance by Lee Marvin.  Also with the always wonderful Gloria Graham.  What Marvin does to Graham with a hot coffee pot still packs a jolt to this day. Plus you gotta love that cover.