New to View: July 27

By Bob Bloom

The following titles are being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise noted:
The Dead Zone: Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray)
Details: 1983, Scream Factory
Rated: R, graphic violence, language, sexual situations
The lowdown: David Cronenberg directed this adaptation of the Stephen King novel about Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) who, after a car accident, awakens after a five-year coma to discover the world has moved on.
Smith is devastated that, in the interim, his fiancée, Sarah (Brooke Adams), has married and has a child. He also must contend with a newfound psychic power to allows him to see a person’s future just by touching him or her.
The film is more psychological than horror or supernatural as Smith must reconcile himself to this gift that he does not want.
Yet, when he touches the hand of aspiring politician Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen, in a hammy performance), Smith sees a dangerous future if Stillson succeeds and realizes he is the only one who can stop him.
Walken gives, for him, an almost restrained performance. You feel sorry for Smith who must become a reluctant hero to save the future.
Critics enjoyed the movie, rewarding it with an 89 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; English SDH subtitles.
Don’t miss: Supplemental materials include an interview with Adams, a commentary track with director of photography Mark Irwin, and four behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Hydra (Blu-ray)
Release date: July 20
Details: 2019, Well Go USA Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: The movie’s title refers to a bar in Tokyo, not the infamous group defeated by S.H.I.E.L.D. and various Marvel heroes.
The film centers on a cook at the bar, whose past is rather vague. He winds up fighting to protect the woman who owns the bar and is being threatened by a group called the Tokyo Life Group, a black ops-like organization that arranges murders and the subsequent removal of evidence.
It is revealed, of course, that the cook has the right skills — he is a former assassin — to battle the Tokyo Life Group goons.
The movie features more narrative than martial arts action, but at 78 minutes runs at a decent pace.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.39:1 widescreen picture; Japanese 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 Dolby digital; English subtitles.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage: Limited Edition (4K Ultra HD)
Details: 1970, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Dario Argento made his directorial debut in this giallo thriller about Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante), an American writer living in Rome with his girlfriend, Julia (Suzy Kendall).
While visiting an art gallery Dalmas witnesses an unsuccessful murder attempt by a hooded figure. The assailant is believed to be an infamous serial killer, and Dalmas soon becomes a key witness in the police investigation.
He soon begins searching for clues to the killer’s identity and discovers that he may be the next victim.
After many dead ends and twists, the killer is revealed and apprehended.
Argento’s movie was a financial and critical success, earning a 93 percent fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Technical aspects: 2160 4K Ultra HD, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; Italian and English DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English SDH and English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include a commentary track with author Troy Howarth, author of “So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films”; an interview with author and critic Kat Ellinger looking at the film’s themes and its relationship to giallo and “The Screaming Mimi,” the novel of which the movie is based; a visual essay on the cinema of Argento; interviews with Argento and actors Gildo Di Marco and Eva Renzi; and an illustrated collector’s booklet.

The Phantom of the Air (Blu-ray)
Release date: July 6
Details: 1933, VCI Entertainment-MVD Visual Entertainment
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Regular readers of my website may have realized that I am a big fan of the serials of the 1930s and ’40s, so when it was announced that “The Phantom of the Air” was being released, I was very excited.
The biggest gap in my serial collection are early 1930s Universal Pictures serials such as “Phantom of the Air,” “Jungle Mystery” and “The Airmail Mystery.”
Universal, in fact, produced several aviation-themed serials. Beside the two already mentioned, the studio released two serials featuring the character Tailspin Tommy as well as “Ace Drummond.”
“The Phantom of the Air’s” plot centers on an invention, a gravity-defying device called “Contragrav,” created by scientist Thomas Edmonds (veteran actor William Desmond).
Edmonds, aided by his daughter, Mary (Gloria Shea), recruit Capt. Bob Raymond (Tom Tyler) of the Border Patrol to demonstrate the device.
Mortimer Crome (perennial bad guy Leroy Mason), is owner of the International Import and Export Co., which is actually a front for his smuggling activities.
Crome learns about Edmonds’ invention and is determined to get it so he can make a fortune by selling it to a foreign power.
The serial’s 12 chapters basically revolve around Raymond and Edmonds trying to protect the device, while Crome and his henchmen, one of whom is played by a young, unbilled Walter Brennan, attempt to steal it.
The movie is heavy on aerial sequences, some of which become repetitious, but overall the serial is exciting and fun to watch.
The digital transfer is first rate; the picture quality is solid and the audio track is clean.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.33:1 full-screen picture; English Dolby digital monaural; English SDH subtitles.

Alias Jesse James (Blu-ray)
Details: 1959, Kino Lorber Studio Classics
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Bob Hope stars as cowardly and inept insurance salesman Milford Farnsworth who foolishly sells a six-figure policy to outlaw Jesse James (Wendell Corey).
Farnsworth’s boss is enraged and orders his salesman to repurchase the policy. James, however, continually outsmarts Farnsworth, who rides with James to try preventing him from being killed.
In a plan to collect on his own policy, James pairs Farnsworth with the outlaw’s sweetheart, Cora Lee Collins (Rhonda Fleming), but his scheme backfires when the salesman and Cora Lee actually fall in love.
The movie’s finale features a bevy of guest stars, including Gary Cooper, Fess Parker as Davy Crockett, James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon, Gail Davis as Annie Oakley, Roy Rogers and Trigger, Jay Silverheels as Tonto, Hugh O’Brien as Wyatt Earp, Ward Bond as Major Seth Adams from “Wagon Train” and, of course, Bing Crosby.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English DTS-HD Master Audio; English subtitles.

The Daimajin Trilogy: Limited Edition (Blu-ray)
Details: 1966, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: The monster in this short-lived series is unlike Godzilla, Rodan, Gamera or others in that Daimajin is a Golem-like avenger brought to life to wreak vengeance on a usurper who overthrew and killed a benevolent feudal lord and his wife.
The lord’s young son and daughter escape and flee to the mountains, where they are raised by an elderly priestess.
When she is slain by the evil usurper, the ancient god who was sleeping beneath the crumbling idol of the god, awakens and kills the ururper.
In “Return of Daimajin,” the vengeful deity is roused from his new home on an island in a lake by the violent incursions of a vicious warlord, whom he dispatches.
In “Wrath of Daimajin,” the final movie in the series, four young boys journey to elicit the god’s help in freeing their families who have been enslaved by a tyrannical lord.
These movies were not shown theatrically in the United States, though they did turn up on television under different titles.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture; Japanese and English dubbed 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio monaural; English subtitles.
Don’t miss: Commentaries on all three movies; an introduction to “Daimajin” by critic Kim Newman; a video essay about the three movies’ special effects; alternate opening credits for the U.S. release of “Majin — The Monster of Terror” and “Return of the Giant Majin”; a featurette about the production of “Return of Daimajin”; a storyboard to screen comparison for “Return of Daimajin”; an interview with cinematographer of the trilogy; and a 100-page illustrated collector’s book with essays.

Born for Hell (Blu-ray)
Release date: July 20
Details: 1975, Severin Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This brutal film was loosely based on the 1966 murders of nine nurses in Chicago by Richard Speck.
“Born to Hell” (also known as “Naked Massacre”) is set in Belfast and centers on a traumatized returning Vietnam War American veteran, played by Mathieu Carrière, who is adrift in the Irish city.
The veteran breaks into a home shared by eight student nurses and begins brutalizing, torturing and killing them. The movie is very intense and hard to stomach.
The movie was re-edited by its video distributor and released as “Naked Massacre.”
This Blu-ray includes both versions of the film.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 1.85:1 widescreen picture; English and French LPCM monaural; English closed-captioned subtitles.
Don’t miss: Extras include an interview with Carrière; a featurette with filmmakers John McNaughton and Gary Sherman about the Speck murders; a podcast with Esther Ludlow about the Speck killings; a video essay about the movie with filmmaker Chris O’Neill; an artist Joe Coleman on Speck featurette; and “Inside the Odditorium” with Coleman featurette.

Vengeance Trails: Four Classic Westerns (Blu-ray)
Details: 1966-70, Arrow Video
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: Using the word “classic” to describe this quartet of spaghetti Westerns is generous.
Sure, genre fans will enjoy these films, but they are not in the same class as those directed by John Ford or Sergio Leone.
The films in this set are: “Massacre Time” (1966), “My Name Is Pecos” (1966), “Bandidos” (1967) and “And God Said to Cain” (1970).
They feature familiar names such as Franco Nero and Klaus Kinski, and all four films feature some sort of revenge motif.
Nero stars as Tom Corbett in “Massacre Time.” He is Django-esque in character and apparel. The film also features another spaghetti Western favorite, George Hilton, as Corbett’s brother, Jeff.
Robert Woods stars in “My Name Is Pecos” as a lone gunman who takes on a band of outlaws who have taken over a town.
“Bandidos” has a visual flair because it was directed by Massimo Dallamano, who filmed Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars” and “For a Few Dollars More.” The plot centers on onetime sharpshooter Richard Martin (Enrico Maria Salerno), wounded in a brutal train robbery in which he is shot through his hands.
The shooter was a former protégé of Martin’s, Billy Kane, so Martin is out for revenge. He enlists a young man named Ricky Shot to help give Kane his comeuppance.
Kinski stars as Gary Hamilton in “And God Said to Cain” as a wronged innocent man sentenced to several years on a chain gang. When he is finally released, he sets out for revenge.
Technical aspects: 1080p high definition, 2.35:1 widescreen picture (“Massacre Time,” “My Name is Pecos” and “Bandidos”) and 2.39:1 widescreen picture “And God Said to Cain”); English 2.0 LPCM monaural, Italian 2.0 LPCM monaural and alternate English dubbed LPCM monaural (“Massacre Time”; English SDH and English subtitles (“Massacre Time”): English and Italian LPCM monaural and English subtitles (“My Name Is Pecos); Italian and English DTS-HD monaural and English SDH subtitles (“Bandidos” and “And God Said to Cain”).
Don’t miss: “Massacre Time” extras include a 2020 interview with Nero and an archival interview with Hilton, a commentary track with C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke and a featurette about the movie; “My Name Is Pecos” includes a commentary with Joyner and Woods, a 2020 interview with actress Lucia Modugno; and a featurette about the movie; “Bandidos” features a commentary by Kat Ellinger, interviews with the movie’s assistant director and actor Gino Barbacane, a “Western Bandits” featurette and an alternate end title sequence; “And God Said to Cain” features a commentary with Howard Hughes, a featurette about the movie and an interview with actor Antonio Ostermeier.
The set also includes a booklet about the movies.

The New Deal for Artists (DVD)
Details: 1979, Corinth Films
Rated: Not rated
The lowdown: This documentary, which premiered on PBS in 1981, follows how President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal helped the nation’s artistic community.
The film, narrated by Orson Welles, looks at how the Works Progress Administration provided relief and jobs for artists of various disciplines.
Among those discussing the era are Norman Lloyd, Studs Terkel, John Houseman, Arthur Rothstein, Howard Da Silva and Will Geer.
The documentary has been remastered from its only remaining 16mm negative.
Technical aspects: 1.33:1 full-screen picture; English Dolby digital stereo.

Other titles being released on Tuesday, unless otherwise indicated:
American Gods: Season Three (Blu-ray + digital & DVD) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Brotherhood of the Wolf (Blu-ray) (Scream Factory)
Joey & Ella (DVD) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Midnight in the Switchgrass (Blu-ray & DVD) (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
Siege (Blu-ray) (Severin Films, July 20)

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, STREAMING or VOD
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part 2 (Warner Home Entertainment)
Hail to the Deadites (Shout!! Studios)
Profile (Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
The Boy Behind the Door (Shudder, July 29)
Resort to Love (www.netflix.com/ResorttoLove) (Netflix, July 29)
Schmigadoon!: Episode 4 (Apple TV+, July 29)
The Wine Show: Season 3 (Sundance Now, July 29)
Enemies of the State (IFC Films, July 30)
Fully Realized Humans (Gravitas Ventures, July 30)
In the Heights (Warner Home Entertainment, July 30)
Lilith (Terror Films, July 30)
Lorelei (Vertical Entertainment, July 30)
Masquerade (Shout! Studios, July 30)
Outer Banks: Season 2 (www.netflix.com/outerbanks) (Netflix, July 30)
Tailgate (Film Movement, July 30)
Twist (Saban Films-Lionsgate Home Entertainment, July 30)
Jack Irish: Season 3, Episode 4 (Acorn TV, Aug. 2)

I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.