American Genre Film Archive's latest Something Weird vault raid nets a pair of horror-tinged monochrome sleazefests in LOVE AFTE DEATH and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL on Blu-ray.

Waking up in a state of catatonic paralysis Mr. Montel (Guillermo De Córdova) realizes in horror that his wife Sofia (Carmin O'Neal), his doctor Anderson (Roberto Maurano), his best friend Manuel, and the doctor's secretary Arturo (Angel Mario Ramirez) are going to bury him as dead despite knowing his history of catalepsy. Montel manages to claw himself out of his grave only to discover that Sofia and Anderson have headed to the city, Sofia having promised Anderson her virginity and Montel's fortune in exchange for marriage (although she also has Manuel and Arturo wrapped around her finger). Montel takes a break from searching for them to get his revenge in order to solve his sexual problem, first abducting a prostitute (Yolanda Signorelli) and stripping her before fleeing his captive audience ("If I were ten years younger…" says the frumpy woman into whose apartment Montel has dragged the girl) and then spying on two other couples for inspiration – including lesbians Jennifer Welles (CONFESSIONS OF A YOUNG AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE) and Cherie Winters (THE EROTIC CIRCUS) and straight couple Sheila Britt (LUSTING HOURS) and Dan Machuen (ALL THE SINS OF SODOM) – before finally bedding a shopgirl (Gloris Garcia). After learning that Montel's grave is empty, Sofia and Anderson must find him and dispose of him while dodging the investigation of a police detective (Juan Torres).

An obscure Argentinian production riffing on Poe's "The Premature Burial" by way of GALLERY OF HORROR's "Monster Raid" story, LOVE AFTER DEATH in its American incarnation is nothing like THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP. In the case of this film, it appears as though director Glauco Del Mar and his cast lensed much of the film stateside (Córdova does indeed share the frame with the American softcore performers), and much of the film's story was always conveyed in voiceover with some short instances of spoken dialogue overdubbed and more than a bit spoken off-camera or from behind Doris Wishman-style. More dull than sleazy, LOVE AFTER DEATH's only real novel point is its quasi-supernatural twist that is more of a headscratcher than a shock.

The year after LOVE AFTER DEATH's American release, producer/distributor Charles Abrams (CARGO OF LOVE) and Phil Parisi (DEEP THROAT PART TWO) next released THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL. Speculation about senatorial candidate Bruce Harrington (Harold Herbsman) being forty and unmarried seem to be immediately alleviated when he weds charming Helen (Janis Young, THE BOSTON STRANGLER). With Harrington set to make his bid for election at an upcoming social event, his advisor Michael Hammit (Robert Heinz) is as suspicious of spies and reporters looking for dirt as he is wary of Helen's mental fragility following a hospital stay after a nervous breakdown the year before. Under his very nose, housemaid Elizabet (Jennifer Welles) is lusting after her employer while trying to fend off the forceful attentions of chauffeur Moreno (Allen Garfield, SKATEBOARD: THE MOVIE). Harrington and Hammit are away, however, when Ralph (Osgood Scott) turns up on the doorstep with photos of doped-up Helen as the centerpiece of an orgy and demanding money and her body lest he ruin her husband's political career.

Lensed in black and white 16mm somewhere in upstate New York, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL feels as much like a regional independent film as a sexploitation quickie in which the kinkier aspects are only mildly-realized; so much so that one wonders just how many years before its 1970 release it was shot (especially with its cast of future film and television character actors). Young, Garfield, Heinz, and Scott give the only compelling performances but the film's few sex scenes pad out a thin story which culminates in an unrelated chase scene and an ambiguous non-ending to a film of frustrated expectations. Sexploitation starlet Uta Erickson (THE ULTIMATE DEGENERATE) has a small role as a prostitute.

Both LOVE AFTER DEATH and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL turned up on VHS from Something Weird Video, with only LOVE AFTER DEATH making the leap to DVD in a triple feature with THE ATOMIC BRAIN and THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD. Like the SWV transfer, AGFA's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen transfer of LOVE AFTER DEATH bears the alternate title UNSATISFIED LOVE (we have no idea whether the LOVE AFTER DEATH version had fewer sex scenes or if there was an Argentinian original version). The transfer is as variable as the original photography with some scenes having a noir-ish range of blacks, whites, and grays, others looking flatter (the American sex scenes), and others looking more contrasty (particularly the last reel in both its interior and night exterior scenes). Damage is intermittent, and one cannot help but wonder if some of the shallow scratches and dings might have occurred during the cutting of the negative rather than the only surviving 35mm prints various projection dates. The entirely post-dubbed DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track sounds clean enough and optional English SDH subtitles are also provided. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL makes its digital debut here – unless one counts Something Weird's own streaming site – and despite coming from "the only known 16mm print in existence" looks quite crisp and clean in the 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 pillarboxed fullscreen presentation, and the English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track is in similarly good condition. The optional English SDH subtitles, on the other hand, have some transcription errors, but nothing crucial.