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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Movies  |  Bad Movies  |  Elvira's Movie Macabre Double Feature DVDs « previous next »
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Author Topic: Elvira's Movie Macabre Double Feature DVDs  (Read 4410 times)
Yaddo 42
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« on: October 02, 2006, 06:51:11 AM »

Picked these up at Wally World over the past week. They appear to be six episodes of Elvira's syndicated Moive Macabre show from the 80s in three 2-DVD sets. The sets are:

The Doomsday Machine/Werewolf of Washington - picked this one up last haven't watched it all, but I saw WOW years ago. I 'll check back on this one once I've seen it all.

Count Dracula's Great Love/Frankenstien's Castle of Freaks - A so-so Paul Naschy vampire flick with a slipshod plot (the dubbing couldn't have helped) with lots of nudity (from a nice looking female cast) and odd character interactions. Naschy makes a better werewolf than Dracula, but the story does no one any favors. The second film is a cheesy variation on Dr. Frankenstein (who is a count rather than a Baron here) wher he attempts to experiment on a Neanderthal Man as his team of deformed sidekicks conspire against him and pick on each other. Most a dull mess of cobbled together scenes that don't add up to a whole story, mostly just filler between set pieces usually fights, nude beauty bathing, or women being abducted. Stars Rosanno Brazzi and Michael Dunn (who is badly dubbed with a completely wrong voice. Costars "Boris Lugosi" as Ook the Neanderthal Man. He bears a remarkable facial resemblence to one of my old bosses.

Legacy of Blood/Devil's Wedding Night - The first film is a tired, cheap-looking, and very dull retread of the old story of heirs who must stay on the grounds of a house to earn their share of the estate as murders and creepy goings-on occur. Not even a supporting role by John Carradine can save this one, and the twist could be seen coming by Stevie Wonder. The second film is a tale of two brothers who wind up mixed up in the Satanic dealings of locals at a mysterious castle. Black magic rituals (with copious skin), skullduggery, and vampirism ensue.

All films are viewable as standalone films or with the Elvira segments, which are cute time capsules of the era of corny humor horror hosts who mock the films they show. Nobody was watching Elvira for the brilliant writing after all, but shows like hers did lead to shows like MST3K. All films are full frame for TV, except Devil's Wedding Night which appears to be black bar cropped. The prints of most are rough, especially DWN which has lots of green scratches running through the whole film. These are probably just straight transfers of the tapes of the original shows. No extras or even a scene selection menu (but you can scroll through them as you watch) beyond the home screen where you select to watch the film alone or hosted by Elvira

I only saw her show once when it originally aired (while visiting out of town), saw her as a guest on other shows talking about her show all the time in her heyday. So I have a question for anyone who saw the original shows? Were the gore and nudity left in when they first aired? There are no edits here that I can see, especially considering what they do show. There are several jumps in the Frankenstein film, but since the prints are all pretty rough they are just jumps where footage was damaged or missing. It is a shame that DWN is in the roughest shape since it is the best of the films I've seen, best camerawork, music, atmosphere, and lighting. Some of the others like Legacy of Blood border on the incompetent.

Overall I'd say well worth the little more than $5 per film, and perfect films for this site.
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Menard
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« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2006, 09:13:32 AM »

The TV episodes cut out any nudity, and some gore. Her earlier straight to video releases also cut out nudity. I am happy to hear that these are uncut as I was wondering about that. Does she still cut in and do her routines during the movie, or is it just an introduction and wrap-up?
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Andrew
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« Reply #2 on: October 02, 2006, 05:28:17 PM »

I had not heard about these coming out, but remember watching "Elvira" now and then on late night.  She was very corny, but...bountiful in ways that even a 12 year old could recognize.  It is very cool that you can watch the movies with her or without and that they are uncut.  I know that the movies I used to watch were cut, especially since they were on one of the normal TV channels.  It was either TV 29 or TV 17, either was out of Philadelphia.
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Andrew Borntreger
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Yaddo 42
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« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2006, 10:58:54 PM »

The version with her alternates like coming back from or going to commercials, like wraparounds or bumpers I guess they're called in the business. With her the film have about 16-20 chapters and run 95-102 minutes, without they all seem to have 10 and the films are between 82-90 minutes. The opening looks like the intro to a real show (I never saw the opening before) and after her last segment there are credits for the show's production and address for fan mail, etc. Like I said they appear to be vintage episodes: cheesy video graphics, lots of video glare off of light colored objects (maybe tape degrade as well) like white or yellow letters she holds up, Reagan-era jokes about "an actor in the White House".  

Well worth the price for fans of her or bad movies but again some of the prints are really rough, which kind of adds to the nostalgia factor a little, but not for puritists looking for the best quality.

The character and her look seemed designed for the 12 year old in most of us. I know Elvira a her bountiful charms use to turn up in discussions at work from time to time. One of my old bosses (not the one who looked like Ook) used to watch her when he lived elsewhere. But he was convinced her outfit was Victorian, when I said it was more proto-Gothic, he was too lost in mammary memories to try to argue the point.
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Scott
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« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2006, 12:24:39 PM »

Frankenstien's Castle of Freaks - Is a really bad film. Just dumb. Could barely finish it.

Count Dracula's Great Love - Is a good film. Not great, but worth a look.

The other films I haven't seen, but I'd like to see how Elvira did her shows. Never saw her as "horror host". Only saw her movies.
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Menard
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« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2006, 08:18:59 PM »

I watched Movie Macabre regularly when it was on in the early 80s. It didn't matter what movie she was showing, she always made it interesting.

In a review on Amazon, someone had mentioned that segments with 'breather' have been cut from these episodes. Can anyone confirm this. That would be disappointing if they did cut out breather's segments.
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Yaddo 42
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« Reply #6 on: October 04, 2006, 03:23:42 PM »

What is "breather"? Sounds like a "heavy breather" or obscene phone caller, that sounds like something I tink I saw her do during a guest shot on another show or in one of her movies. Didn't see anything like that in the ones I've seen so far, but since I've this is my first real exposure to more than a taste of Movie Macabre, I'm not an expert.
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Menard
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« Reply #7 on: October 04, 2006, 08:36:05 PM »

Breather was this seriously greasy looking character who would call her during a commercial break and usually tell some corny joke, or just gross her out.
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Yaddo 42
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Where's that brick.......


« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2006, 05:43:02 AM »

Didn't see anything like that on the films I've seen, but I still haven't seen the last two, rel life has actually been busy this week for me.
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Ash
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« Reply #9 on: October 10, 2006, 03:25:14 PM »

You know...Elvira has her own Myspace page.
I sent a friend invite to her earlier.

Still waiting for her to accept.
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