MONDO ESOTERICA

One of the most controversial actors of his day, John Drew Barrymore was born into an acting dynasty and appeared in several films, but his hard living reputation and several spells in jail saw him unable to find work in the US and instead, like many actors during the period, he travelled to Italy to find an industry desperate for imported talent.

He appeared in several adventure films including a few Pepla and I have reviewed one of his most unique entries, the horror themed Roma Contro Roma (1964). If you want to read the full story of the Barrymore family’s black sheep, I have also uploaded an all new biography.

So I take up where I left off in August, with Spaghetti Westerns and a look at Wild East’s recent Demofilo Fidani double bill. Notorious for his low budget Spaghetti Westerns with their alluring titles, this DVD marks the first English language release of the two titles and the first time to really see their charms. Low budgeted, poorly scripted and with terrible music, they have a wonderfully innocent charm to them and Spaghetti Western fans will certainly be interested in this rare chance to see an example of the low budget exploitation films that cropped up in their dozens during the Spaghetti Western era.

The disc includes Dead Men Don’t Make Shadows (1970) and One Damned Day at Dawn… Django Meets Sartana! (1970) with their original trailers, plus a forty minute interview with star Hunt Powers which contains loads of interesting stories about making Spaghetti Westerns and is worth the price of admission alone.

I have also uploaded an all new Spaghetti Western guide and an updated biography of Fabio Testi.

Getting right back into the world of cult cinema, I take a look at the late, great Vincent Price.

An all new biography is first, but I also have new reviews of the Corman Poe productions Tales of Terror (1962) and Tomb of Ligeia (1964) and the lesser known independent anthology horror Twice Told Tales (1963). There is Price’s solo television play An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe (1972) and the 3-D horror of House of Wax (1953) which saw Price in his first horror movie leading role.

As anyone who reads my earlier blog posts will know, I am in the process of updating all of the reviews and pages on the site into a new format (its a technical thing!) and taking the opportunity to update and fix any errors on the reviews as I go. So for the last week I have been updating the Peplum pages and reviews.

I also took the opportunity to add two new reviews - a double bill of Goliath cinema, from Wild East. Goliath and the Barbarians (1959) and the utterly crazy Goliath and the Vampires (1961). Any Peplum fans should certainly pick this set up.

Its a special week of Spaghetti Westerns this week as we look at the career of one of the genre’s real legends, Sergio Corbucci

I’ve got three all new reviews:

Hellbenders (1967)

Navajo Joe (1966) - released next week in the UK by Optimum

The White, The Yellow and the Black (1975)

Plus, the Sergio Corbucci page has had an update - and I’ve updated all five of the other reviews, including an almost completely new review of Django and The Great Silence.

Born in Wales in 1928, Stanley Baker grew up to become one of Britain’s best loved actors but his career declined and he died tragically young in 1976.

We pay tribute this week to this most manly of British actors with a complete new Stanley Baker biography which includes four new film and DVD reviews.

This includes Robbery (1967) - produced by and starring Baker, retelling the story of the Great Train Robbery. It is released next Monday in the UK by Optimum, the first DVD release of the film. We’ve got a first peak at the good quality (but sadly open-matte) release.

The only Yorkshireman to play Hercules, Reg Park was a three time Mr Universe, who like many well known body-builders during the 1960s found himself acting in Italian adventure films. In the case of Reg Park, a duo of very popular titles in 1961 saw him called back to make three more before the genre decline in the middle of the decade.

Amazingly, all five of the titles are now available on DVD, although the quality, both of films and prints, varies heavily. So the complete filmography is now reviewed, along with a complete guide to the man himself at our all new Reg Park biography.

Despite only starring in two Hammer films and a trio of Roger Corman productions, Hazel Court has become a fan favourite actress from the gothic horror era.

As a tribute I am pleased to present an all new biography of the English born actress as well as new reviews of two of her AIP Horror pictures, Masque of the Red Death (1964) and Premature Burial (1962).

Stunningly handsome, amazingly muscle-bound Steve Reeves is without a doubt the hero of the Peplum and our guide to the genre would be useless without a biography of the actor.

So, to round off 2007 in style, here is the all new Mondo Esoterica Guide to Steve Reeves.

We also have all brand reviews of three of Reeves’ best performances:

• The Last Days of Pompeii (1959)
• Romulus and Remus (1961)
• The Trojan Horse (1961)

Throw away your PD discs, all three titles are available on great looking German DVDs and look out for even more Peplum entertainment in 2008!

Many people dismiss Fulci as a mere gore loving hack, but it is clear that they have not seen his early Giallo films. Between 1969 and 1977 he shot 4 of these murder mystery films.

Severin have recently obliged by releasing Seven Notes in Black (1977), while Blue Underground have recently re-released Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972). Read the all new full reviews. Nothing more to say about these films here, except that for Giallo and Fulci fans, they are both must haves.

If you want to learn more about Fucli himself, I have written an all new, and thoroughly exclusive 2,500 word biography of the director: Lucio Fulci

Watch out for more Fulci reviews, including the rest of his Gialli, his classic horror titles, and some of his lesser later work early next year.