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Post by ripper on Apr 3, 2021 10:53:04 GMT
I had no idea that the Dr Phibes books had stretched to 4. I assume that the ending of Dr Phibes Rises Again matches book to film, so I am intrigued how book 3 manages to continue the story.
As far as the Hammer Draculas go, least favourite is Scars, though it is all relative as I do still enjoy it. I have a soft spot for Satanic Rites as it is the only Hammer Dracula I got to see in a cinema, on a double bill with Creatures the World Forgot in 1978.
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Post by dem on Apr 3, 2021 11:13:32 GMT
There's since been a fifth one, Rip. Dr. Phibes -The Androbots, "Book one of 'The Dr. Phibes Manifest'" was published in 2019.
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Post by ripper on Apr 3, 2021 12:56:26 GMT
There's since been a fifth one, Rip. Dr. Phibes -The Androbots, "Book one of 'The Dr. Phibes Manifest'" was published in 2019. I guess you can't keep a erm good man down! I remember being so excited when Abominable Dr Phibes was first screened on UK TV, after being tantalised by stills in various film books. Back then films had to be 5 years old before being eligible for TV showings, so it must have been 1976 or 1977 when I saw it. The sequel was screened the next year, so 1977 or 1978, and I did a review of it for a school English assignment. I don't have my old school books anymore, which is probably not a bad thing to avoid embarrassment--Barry Norman I was not lol. Not sure why our teacher seemed so keen on the class writing film reviews, but there were a number of occasions when we had to write them. I also reviewed Soldier Blue and Dirty Harry--I hadn't even seen that one, just had the novelisation and a review of it from a film book, which I cribbed shamelessly. |
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Post by andydecker on Apr 3, 2021 20:21:39 GMT
I also reviewed Soldier Blue and Dirty Harry--I hadn't even seen that one, just had the novelisation and a review of it from a film book, which I cribbed shamelessly. I bought my first VCR in 1983 or 1984. It was terrible expensive and still as basic as it could be. Play, forward, backward and record. No remote. I can't remember if I could program a record time or not. But I will never forget the very first movies I rented in the video-shop on the day I got the VCR. The shop was a hole in the wall, dark and a bit dirty. Among the movies was Dirty Harry. I was a Eastwood fan, had read so much about the movie, but never had seen it. Absolutely loved it. Video rental was a whole new world. At the time in Germany independent television was in its infancy, you only got it if you had cable. Which I didn't. The big sellers in the video-shop were American tv-series on video which were not running on any channel. Productions like Knight Rider or Airwolf. The edited pilot on one cassette, later two episodes per cassette. Hard to believe, I know.
I must have rented Nightmare on Elm Street three or four times when it came out. Back then I was not really into movie information, I never was a regular cinema customer, so I didn't know anything about the Craven. |
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Post by ripper on Apr 4, 2021 17:35:54 GMT
I also reviewed Soldier Blue and Dirty Harry--I hadn't even seen that one, just had the novelisation and a review of it from a film book, which I cribbed shamelessly. I bought my first VCR in 1983 or 1984. It was terrible expensive and still as basic as it could be. Play, forward, backward and record. No remote. I can't remember if I could program a record time or not. But I will never forget the very first movies I rented in the video-shop on the day I got the VCR. The shop was a hole in the wall, dark and a bit dirty. Among the movies was Dirty Harry. I was a Eastwood fan, had read so much about the movie, but never had seen it. Absolutely loved it. Video rental was a whole new world. At the time in Germany independent television was in its infancy, you only got it if you had cable. Which I didn't. The big sellers in the video-shop were American tv-series on video which were not running on any channel. Productions like Knight Rider or Airwolf. The edited pilot on one cassette, later two episodes per cassette. Hard to believe, I know. I must have rented Nightmare on Elm Street three or four times when it came out. Back then I was not really into movie information, I never was a regular cinema customer, so I didn't know anything about the Craven. Having films available at the click of a mouse nowadays is fantastic, but it can't compare to browsing a video rental shop's stock. There was just something about it that I can't quite put my finger on, but I so miss them. I bought my first VCR in July 1980, a Sanyo Betamax machine. It was so heavy and had no remote control, but it lasted me 15 years. At the time I bought it there were just 2 video rental shops in my area, but within a few years there must have been 7 or 8. Some lasted only a few months, while a few lasted decades. I actually totted up all the video shops I rented from from 1980 to when the last went out of business around here about a decade ago, and it came to over 20. I think I still have membership cards for a few somewhere or other. The independents were the best imo. The chains like Blockbuster were okay, but I liked the quirkiness of those independents. Their selections were usually more interesting and diverse, and didn't concentrate on big name movies like the chains tended to do. The owner of one shop I rented from was really into war films and he had lots of obscure titles for rental that other places just wouldn't stock, like How Sleep the Brave, a Vietnam war movie shot in the UK and American Commandos, a cheesey Filipino flick starring Robert Mitchum's son. Never saw them at any other store. Andy, did video movies carry certificates in Germany? Prior to the Video Recordings Act in 1984 or 1985, anyone could rent or buy a film in the UK, irrespective of whether they would have been able to see it in the cinema due to it being banned or the age of the person wanting to see it. Then the tabloids started to kick up a fuss about kids seeing inappropriate films on home video and blaming it on teenage and child crime (shades of the blame horror and crime comics got in the 50s). After the Video Recording Act, all videos had to be given a certificate, U, PG, 15 or 18 originally I think, and renters couldn't rent a movie that was age inappropriate. Also, the BBFC began banning video movies and cutting drastically many others. It took several decades for sense to prevail and for the BBFC to certify films with no or minimal cuts. Did anything like that happen in Germany? Yeah I remember TV series being released onto video at one or two episodes per tape. Lots of shops seemed to stock the 1980s Twilight Zone series on tape for some reason. Perhaps it was popular, I don't know, but I can't recall it being on terrestrial TV back then, so maybe lots of people rented them. |
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Post by andydecker on Apr 4, 2021 22:13:54 GMT
Andy, did video movies carry certificates in Germany? Prior to the Video Recordings Act in 1984 or 1985, anyone could rent or buy a film in the UK, irrespective of whether they would have been able to see it in the cinema due to it being banned or the age of the person wanting to see it. Then the tabloids started to kick up a fuss about kids seeing inappropriate films on home video and blaming it on teenage and child crime (shades of the blame horror and crime comics got in the 50s). After the Video Recording Act, all videos had to be given a certificate, U, PG, 15 or 18 originally I think, and renters couldn't rent a movie that was age inappropriate. Also, the BBFC began banning video movies and cutting drastically many others. It took several decades for sense to prevail and for the BBFC to certify films with no or minimal cuts. Did anything like that happen in Germany? Basically it was the same process. Only age certificates on videos were there from the start, but the process was handled differently as most video-stuff never got on the big screen any longer. I don't remember the particulars without checking, but the development here was pretty much the same. You had to be 18 to even be allowed in most or all video-shops, even if it didn't had porn. In later years there existed shops with seperate entrances, one for all ages stuff, one for adult stuff. Of course the control in a lot of video-shops was pretty lax at the start, if you looked old enough and had the membership card of your parents, chances were high you could rent what you wanted. At the beginning there was no such thing as videos for sale. Sometimes old copies which had to be pulled because they were no longer fit for renting were sold for ridiculous prices at shops.
So kids got access to horror videos, which soon fueled a political debate about "cannibal trash movies which corrupted the youth". It was the stuff of heated editorials and talk shows, a whole generation of politicians was appalled about the "vile garbage" which became a huge business over night. Controls of the content became stronger, a few laws were changed, a few videos even were confiscated by the authorities. As time went by, the standards changed. After the videos violent video games became the next target, and the whole circus began from the start. Every time I see the first episode of The Walking Dead on tv, the very first scene in which Rick kills the zombie child with a head-shot,I am reminded how cut up Dawn of the Dead or The Blind Dead were. In 1985 a tv episode like that would have been unthinkable, even in a video-shop.
All those shops are gone, I honestly don't know if there still is a shop in my vicinity where you can rent DVDs.
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Post by ripper on Apr 5, 2021 13:08:04 GMT
Andy, did video movies carry certificates in Germany? Prior to the Video Recordings Act in 1984 or 1985, anyone could rent or buy a film in the UK, irrespective of whether they would have been able to see it in the cinema due to it being banned or the age of the person wanting to see it. Then the tabloids started to kick up a fuss about kids seeing inappropriate films on home video and blaming it on teenage and child crime (shades of the blame horror and crime comics got in the 50s). After the Video Recording Act, all videos had to be given a certificate, U, PG, 15 or 18 originally I think, and renters couldn't rent a movie that was age inappropriate. Also, the BBFC began banning video movies and cutting drastically many others. It took several decades for sense to prevail and for the BBFC to certify films with no or minimal cuts. Did anything like that happen in Germany? Basically it was the same process. Only age certificates on videos were there from the start, but the process was handled differently as most video-stuff never got on the big screen any longer. I don't remember the particulars without checking, but the development here was pretty much the same. You had to be 18 to even be allowed in most or all video-shops, even if it didn't had porn. In later years there existed shops with seperate entrances, one for all ages stuff, one for adult stuff. Of course the control in a lot of video-shops was pretty lax at the start, if you looked old enough and had the membership card of your parents, chances were high you could rent what you wanted. At the beginning there was no such thing as videos for sale. Sometimes old copies which had to be pulled because they were no longer fit for renting were sold for ridiculous prices at shops.
So kids got access to horror videos, which soon fueled a political debate about "cannibal trash movies which corrupted the youth". It was the stuff of heated editorials and talk shows, a whole generation of politicians was appalled about the "vile garbage" which became a huge business over night. Controls of the content became stronger, a few laws were changed, a few videos even were confiscated by the authorities. As time went by, the standards changed. After the videos violent video games became the next target, and the whole circus began from the start. Every time I see the first episode of The Walking Dead on tv, the very first scene in which Rick kills the zombie child with a head-shot,I am reminded how cut up Dawn of the Dead or The Blind Dead were. In 1985 a tv episode like that would have been unthinkable, even in a video-shop.
All those shops are gone, I honestly don't know if there still is a shop in my vicinity where you can rent DVDs.
As far as I can remember, there was never a time here when you had to be a certain age to go into a video shop. After the VRA came into force you had to be 18 to rent an '18' cert film or 15 to rent a '15' cert film, but were free to wander around and look at whatever you wanted. Also, provided there was someone with you of appropriate age and was a member, then you could just get him/her to rent a film for you. I don't think any of our video shops had anything hardcore in their adults section. Maybe there were specialist shops, but certainly none in my area. In the early days of video rental shops a few actually would rent a video player along with your film rentals if you didn't own your own VCR. So, you would pick your movies and ask for a player as well, and return movies and player when your rental period was over. My neighbour rented a player when he rented his movies until he got his own machine. They were quite small and had no recording ability, and were built into what looked like a briefcase from the outside--this would have been around 1983. |
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Post by andydecker on Apr 5, 2021 21:39:22 GMT
Interesting infos, ripper! I seem to remember that some shops also offered players, but am not sure. Video rental became a booming business fast, and the Adult stuff made a lot of money. That it became avaiable outside special shops sure gave its success a boost.
From Betamax to watching on your telephone in less than 40 years. And the development created and killed an entire industry. Unbelievable!
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Post by dem on Apr 6, 2021 10:51:00 GMT
"A brass unicorn has been catapulted across a London street and impaled an eminent surgeon. Words fail me!"
All finished now and must say, the novel is a lot of fun. Dr. Kitaj's protracted death in the air - far gorier and plain unpleasant than the movie version - predates the graphic violence served up by James Herbert in The Rats. Nurse Allan's demise - coated in honey and fed upon by red ants and locusts; the ravenous horde even devour furniture and fittings - is almost worthy of GNS (there's no way he'd have granted her the mercy of sedation). Of course, like any MAD GENIUS worth his salt, Phibes leaves the most fiendishly exquisite torture-murder - that of Dr. Vesalius's first born - 'til last. The enigmatic Vulnavia is, of course, magnificent throughout.
Will maybe get around to another of the books some day in the hope they are an improvement on the - from memory - disappointing Dr. Phibes Rises Again movie.
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