Due to my work commitments I rarely get the time to build fan DVDs anymore.  This is my most recent effort.  Manhunt in the City is one of Lenzi's little known poliziesco films.  Like Enzo G Castellari's excellent earlier film Street Law (1974), this film was influenced by the popularity of revenge films such as Death Wish (Michael Winner, 1974).  Henry Silva stars as David Vannuchi whose daughter is killed during a jewel robbery.  Vannuchi then has to decide whether to trust the police to bring her murderers to justice or to take the law into his own hands.  I am sure you can guess the decision he makes.  I have always enjoyed the film and find the ending to be particularly thoughtful, better than many poliziesco in fact.

An Italian DVD release surfaced last year.  As per usual, there were no English options and the video was not 16x9 enhanced.  I converted the widescreen video for 16x9 playback, added an English audio track taken from a VHS release of the film and synchronised English subtitles created by DjangoLi to the film.

Jonny over at Lovelockandload has made yet another Euro-Cult inspired T-Shirt. His design is inspired by the Euro-Cult film
Top Sensation and features Euro starlet Edwige Fenech. Great quality as usual.

Thanks to Simon for bringing this to my attention.  Italian artist Frederico Mancosu has designed a number of 'minimalist' posters for a number of classic Euro-Cult films, and other cult films.  These minimalist posters draw on the iconography of the films, offering some unique interpretations.  Some of them are very nice indeed.  Some of his designs can be found below.  His designs can be purchased from Imagekind and Thrauma.  I would love to see some of these designs printed on t-shirts.

It is fitting that my first Blu-Ray purchase of 2011 is my all time favourite film. Early reviews of this Blu-Ray have been positive, mentioning the welcome presence of grain and the extra detail offered. I will be giving it a spin shortly. Thoughts to follo

A welcome surprise.  On 22 November, Optimum will be releasing Michael Powell's Peeping Tom on Blu-Ray.  Early reviews suggest that disc is a winner, featuring high quality video and two documentaries.  I have just ordered the Blu-Ray from MovieMail, using their 5% off voucher (code: DVDPC5).  I cannot wait to see this again, it has been a while.

When I turned thirty last month, I decided to have my Locandina poster for my favourite film Profondo Rosso (Dario Argento, 1975) restored and framed.  When I purchased it off of eBay I was a bit disappointed to find that it had more damage than I had antipated; the seller's vague description and low resolution pictures being mostly to blame.  Intially I had decided to locate a Locandina that was in better quality but all that turned up on eBay were of a similar condition; unsurprising for a film that is now 35 years old.

So, I decided to use the services of London based poster restorer Alain Bourgouin.  Alain is regularly recommended on discussion fora and by those in the poster collecting community.  I asked Alain to linen-back the poster and restore it to the best quality possible.  This was done for a lower price than I had expected.  After a few weeks wait, I recieved the poster and was stunned by the quality of the restoration.  Gone were the tears and the creases were minimised to such an extent that they are pretty much unnoticeable.  The biggest difference, however, is that made by the deacidification process.  The colours are now much more vibrant and the poster looks brand new.  It is easy to see why Alain is regarded as one of the best poster restorers in the country.

I took the poster to the ever reliable Birmingham company The Framers who are based in the Custard Factory and they have perfectly framed the poster and used a high quality 'museum glass' to protect the poster from UV light and help to preserve the poster.  Their prices are unbeatable. 

The restored, framed Locandina now hangs proudly on my home office wall.  Before and after pictures can be found below.

This news came as something of a surprise.  The 'grey market' company Midnight Video appear to have gone legit and have started up a label called Midnight Legacy that will specialise in releasing uncensored Euro-Cult films in limited editions on Blu-Ray and DVD.  They have announced their first release: Alien 2: On Earth (aka Alien 2 sulla Terra, Ciro Ippolito, 1980).  As can be determined from the title, this is an unofficial sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and is one of a number of Italian takes on the Alien film series, other examples being Luigi Cozzi's entertaining Contamination (1980) and Bruno Mattei's Shocking Dark (1990.  Initially, Midnight Legacy announced that they would be releasing 30,000 copies.  Whilst their optimism is very much welcomed, shifting 30,000 units of an obscure cult film on a relatively new home video format is a little unrealistic.  From some of the interviews I have done with DVD labels for my PhD, sales over 500 in this current environment would be a success.  Though obscure, the choice of film might help peak curiosity with the upcoming Ridley Scott Alien prequel being given some media attention.  From their mission statement and the apparent attention to detail they are awarding this title I wish Midnight Legacy every success and look forward to giving this disc a spin when it comes out.

No, it's not my handiwork but I did help get them produced. 

The Blue Underground Region A Blu-Ray of Sergio Corbucci's Django (1966) arrived on Friday and I was able to watch it over the weekend.  This could be one of the best HD remasters of an older film I have seen on the Blu-Ray format.  Film grain has not been removed and the image has a high amount of depth.  The screenshots over at DVD Beaver say it all, specially when compared to the DVD.  This is a must own Blu-Ray.

I am pleased to find that another one of my past fan DVD projects will be rendered obsolete as the German label Camera Obscura have announced that they will be releasing the giallo Tropic of Cancer on DVD later this year.  It would be good if the artwork for the DVD is as good as the one Sutekh produced for my fan DVD (pictured below).