BLOOD
BATH (1966)Directors: Jack Hill, Stephanie Rothman
MGM Limited Edition Collection
BLOOD
BATH (1966)Finally making its official home video debut via the MGM Limited Edition Collection, BLOOD BATH is a the Roger Corman-executive-produced AIP film that was finally released theatrically in 1966 after being assembled from three different projects. The perplexing plot concerns insane artist Antonio Sordi (DEMENTIA 13's William Campbell, who just recently passed away) who thinks that he's the reincarnation of his ancestor, a madman burned at the stake centuries ago. Sordi periodically changes into a sharp-toothed rain-coated vampire, lures women to his studio atop a bell tower, paints their portraits, kills them, and then dips them in wax. He also believes that ballerina Lori Saunders (later on “Petticoat Junction”) is his ancestor's long-lost love.
An extended version of BLOOD BATH, known as TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE, runs well over 10 minutes longer than this original theatrical incarnation, which was orginally double-billed with Curtis Harrington's QUEEN OF BLOOD. The film has an interesting history. It began as a Yugoslavian production called "Operation: Titian" that was helped set up by Corman himself. William Campbell and Patrick Magee starred, and a very young Francis Ford Coppola was involved with the screenplay. Corman found the film to be un-releasable, but it later showed up on TV as "Portrait of Terror" in an AIP film package.
Corman
hired Jack Hill to shoot new scenes in California with Campbell, Sid Haig, Jonathan
Haze, Karl Schanzer, former playmate Marrisa Mathes and others. Using filler
from "Operation: Titian" (which only appeared in the TRACK OF THE
VAMPIRE version) Patrick Magee appeared briefly (and uncredited), in ridiculously
re-dubbed scenes that have him on the trail of his drifting wife. He and Campbell
are shown arguing with unfitting voices that are totally out of sync! Stephanie
Rothman was brought in to film even more scenes, mostly involving a subplot
with Sandra Knight (FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER, THE TERROR) and the search for
her missing sister. Rothman (who would later helm THE VELVET VAMPIRE for New
World Pictures) is also responsible for making it a "vampire" picture,
so an unidentified actor stands in for Campbell when his character transforms
into a bloodsucker. She also padded out the running time for the TV cut with
a tedious ballerina scene on a beach that lasts for over 3 minutes (fortunately,
that too is not present here)!
As
legend has it, Hill was actually fired by Corman and replaced by Rothman. Some
years ago, Hill told me and Keith J. Crocker in an interview (The Exploitation
Journal, Vol. 2, No. 6), “It was just my job at the time. I was a
hired hand. In fact, with most of the movies I made, I was a hired hand. I just
tried my best to give people what they wanted, which was to make money. To me,
the way to make money was to entertain an audience. The only real objective
measurement of a movie’s value is how many people came to it, and that’s
what measured dollars at the box office. So I always felt that if you had success,
you did something right.” If you want to read more about the film that
both Hill and Rothman disowned, get a hold of Video Watchdog issues
4, 5 and 7 (originally published in 1991). There's an excellent detailed breakdown
of the whole affair.
A
cross between art film and schlock, BLOOD BATH (a “second feature”
in the true sense of the word, running just over an hour) repeats a semi-successful
beatnik/loner artist formula found in such AIP cheapies as BUCKET OF BLOOD and
the aforementioned DEMENTIA 13. With MGM’s MOD disc, the good news is
that it’s the best the film ever looked, preserving its original brisk
62-minute theatrical running time (though the back cover erroneously lists it
at 80 minutes) and presenting it in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with anamorphic
enhancement. The black and white image looks crisp and well-detailed, with occasional
sheets of grain and only some scattered print blemishes. The mono audio is also
in fine shape. Those who want to also check out the extended (and decidedly
far inferior) TV version should track down Madacy Entertainment’s “Creature
Double Feature” DVD featuring NIGHTMARE CASTLE paired with TRACK OF THE
VAMPIRE in a watchable, albeit sometims choppy version.
Where can you purchase these MGM Limited Edition Collection releases? So far they can be found for purchase online at Amazon.com, Deep Discount DVD, Oldies.com, Movies Unlimited and Screen Archives Entertainment. (George R. Reis)