Indicator/Powerhouse blu rays: Allan Fish Online Film Festival Day #8

Dearest Allan:

In pondering my submission for the third annual online film festival at Wonders in the Dark, my mind drifted back to some of our classic four-way e mail correspondences.  Jamie Uhler of Chicago and Maurizio Roca of Brooklyn always helped to make said communications lively, opinionated and sometimes rowdy.  Roughly about two years before you departed this earthly realm to accept your current position as celestial authority of all things cinematic you were hot to trot to discuss DVD-blu ray labels and how in your view a then up and coming Region 2 UK company named Arrow had practically eclipsed longtime poll position occupants Criterion as the most exciting label out there with the most passionate and discerning film aficionados.  I’m sure you will fondly recall how we lined up on this matter and how we presented our cases for our champion.  In proclaiming Arrow as the top dog for collectors circa 2014 you cited some persuasive facts that at the time I was hard-pressed to dispute, regardless of where I stood when posting my numerical list.  After all, Arrow gave us sparkling new blu ray transfers of the Roger Corman Poe series, the Mario Bava collection, the lion’s share of Italian giallos, killer box sets on Walerian Borowcyck, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, Rainer Warner Fassbinder, and your all-time hero Yoshida not to mention some world classics like The Bicycle Thief, Ashes and Diamonds, The Night of the Hunter, Sweet Smell of Success, The Apartment, The Human  Condition and The Naked City among others in countering Criterion with even more extensive Region 2 incarnations of these masterpieces.  While we can safely assert that Arrow began as a niche label specializing in horror -and their more recent 4K transfer of John Carpenter’s The Thing, City of the Dead, and Horror Express have sustained that commitment.  Their catalog horror like the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Last House on the Left, The Hellraiser Trilogy, Carrie, The Hills Have Eyes, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Theater of Blood and The Crazies to name just a few continue to sell and remain in print.  Arrow have released superlative editions of Network, Donnie Darko, Children of Men and Gosford Park as you know well matching and surpassing their Region 1 counterparts on whatever label.  Allan, you always evaluated the complete package, and rightly pointed to the fabulous Arrow booklets which continue to surpass Criterion who have now downgraded to leaflets, the art (Jamie as I recall had mixed feelings on that front) and a bevy of desirable extras on nearly every release.  Since you moved on to better places where new students sit before you daily waiting to be enlightened, Arrow has maintained their strong reputation and impressive release schedule, but I suspect we’d be in accord that their product hasn’t been quite as captivating.  Heck, how could it be?  The blu ray business in general isn’t now what it used to be, though few are thinking it is on  an irreversible downswing.  Collectors like you and I are there and in a niche market, buyers like the passionate herds of book lovers who still haven’t warmed to kindle or e book alternatives and repeatedly contend a 500 year old technology still reigns supreme there are die-hards will never trade allegiance.  If Arrow has held the stage among blu ray aficionados, it has now been topped albeit marginally by another Region 2 company who have gone above and beyond in catering to a collectors market who want the best possible quality but also all those extras that fans are hoping for but do not always receive due to financial constraints.

A British company named Indicator, who also go by Powerhouse emerged on the scene around the time you moved on.  You had of course seen and acquired their earliest releases but like me had no idea of what direction they would be taking nor how much they would be ultimately giving to their customers.  Presently they have been religiously releasing four new titles every month and have particularly focused their attention on British film from the 50s, 60s and 70s, generally well-reviewed titles that have previously never seen the light of day on blu ray on either side of the Atlantic.  The vast majority of their releases are still in print several years later, though the one many consider their crowed jewel because of the incredible extras -including an 80 page booklet, archival documentaries, interviews, featurettes and isolated Herrmann and Rozsa scores- is “The Sinbad Trilogy”, which you did see announced.  The set, which finally appeared in early 2017, was limited and is now selling for hundreds at amazon and on ebay.  It includes The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.  Those who ordered and obtained it early on were especially thrilled that they could secure all three films in this definitive incarnation for around $60, what with the US editions from Twilight Time long out of print and selling for extortionate prices on ebay.  Buoyed by good sales the publishers moved forward with back-to-back Harryhausen sets, each containing three films and similarly armed with more extras you could bat a stick at.  Again the releases came after Twilight Time had given the titles –Mysterious Island, The Three Worlds of Gulliver and the celebrated Jason and the Argonauts among them-blu ray debuts that quickly sold out their own 3,000 limited edition runs.  The TT releases were lovely but Indicator upped the ante in presentation, elaborate booklet, and a slew of supplemental materials.  Both sets are still in print as are three volumes of Hammer films offering more obscure titles than those headlining the studio’s output.

I was surprised but thoroughly delighted when Indicator announced two volumes of William Castle films produced during the horror icon’s Columbia Years, including pristine prints of Straight-Jacket, Homicidal and The Tingler.  Though the most passionate devotees lamented the exclusion of the beloved House on Haunted Hill, which you and I always favored as his piece de resistance it was cool to get all the rest of his gems in such celebratory packages.  I always remembered how you hounded me to order Jacques Tourneur’s seminal horror film Curse of the Demon/Night of the Demon, a film I adored but was skeptical to buy on a French blu-ray without English subtitles.  Ha, I can just hear your response to me now:  “Sam, why do you need English subs for a film made in English” and the sure rejoinder “Oh that’s right you are as deaf as a post.”  Needless to say as you know I did take your advice and order it and in fact I still have it here despite my Indicator upgrade in the ultimate package of this brilliant film which is housed in a boxed package and includes both the American and British cuts of the film and again mind-boggling extras.  It was nice too that they released the fine Amicus omnibus Torture Garden, which I know you liked though rightfully not as much as The House That Dripped Blood or Dr. Terrors’ House of Horrors.

While Indicator initially, like Arrow, concentrated on horror, science fiction and fantasy they, like their UK brethren moved on to drama and film classics, and in addition to superlative box sets on Samuel Fuller and Budd Boetticher they have released the best blu rays out there from anyone on The Snake Pit, Little Murders, Ship of Fools, The Effect of Gamma Rays on man-in-the-moon Marigolds, The Passenger, Charley Varrick, The Reckless Moment, Missing, Ministry of Fear, The Pumpkin Eater, Lilith, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Age of Consent, Psyche 59, A Dandy in Aspic, The China Syndrome and Georgy Girl. Unlike the obsessively cost-conscious Region 1 labels like Criterion, Kino and Warner Archives with their notorious plastic cuts to lesses the overhead on the cases, Indicator like their UK counterparts BFI, Eureka and Second run always seem to have the customer in mind with the elaborate booklets and sturdy product material.  More than any other label -and I know you are thinking this strategy is rather ludicrous since “the film’s the thing, not the label” Indicator has tempted me to blind buy.  Just two weeks ago I pre-ordered the never seen films of the box set “Bloody Terror: The Shocking Cinema of Norman J. Warren,” a move that even the horror expert Jamie Uhler thought rather over the top in our group e mail conversation.  Be rest assured Allan, that my collector’s bug notwithstanding I was more tempted by the certainty of an elaborate presentation than by the films themselves.  I know, this is a philistine’s way of thinking.  Add on to that the “snort value” that you and I spoke about when we assessed brand new product in the Masters of Cinema series when we first got a sniff of those booklets off the press.  As you well know DVD and blu ray collections appeal to all the senses!  Ha!

Regards,  Sam