Monday Musings: The New MST3000?,Trailers From Hell, Bava Book, More!

I've been meaning to post this link all weekend, but I was too pissed off at our President: my amigo G. Michael Dobbs (Animato!) has this exclusive interview with Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo of MST3000) about the new Murphy/Mike Nelson/Bill Corbett DVD line The Film Crew -- great reading!

Mike loaned me The Film Crew's first two DVDs, and Marge and I greatly enjoyed both. Check Mike's interview with Kevin out, check out The Film Crew!

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Bigger cheaper fun every week awaits you horror/fantasy/sf film fans at Joe Dante and his compadre's Trailers from Hell site, a great way to kick off the week.

Today launches the first trailer with commentary by the director of the film itself: iconoclast Larry Cohen talks about his audacious masterwork God Told Me To aka Demon, the religious film with a difference (or two). No need to wait for the Second Coming:

Larry and his E.T. Jesus await you here & now!

Quite an amazing lineup of trailers and commentators they've amassed at Trailers from Hell, and this far along in their first year of online operation the diversity of material already covered is inspiring. While Joe and his generation of filmmakers are touchstones for me, younger Myrant reaaders note please that Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright has joined the lineup, with some juicy commentary for gems like the Amicus portmanteau classic Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1964) and others -- yours to enjoy with a click of the mouse.

The 'coming soon' lineup is tantalizing: I'm most eagerly anticipating Edgar Wright's take on Gary Sherman's recently recovered (for US audiences, via MGM's Midnite Movies release on DVD) masterpiece Raw Meat, originally released in the UK as Death Line. The film is one of my favorite 1970s horror flicks and among the seminal cannibal movies of all time.

Anyhoot, check out Trailers from Hell, and do so regularly!
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I just received the Fed X notice that my big box of Mario Bava: All The Colors of the Dark books is shipping from my dear friends -- and the book's author, editors and publishers -- Tim and Donna Lucas today. Man, I have been enviously eying

the photos of those who have already received their copies, aching to spend time with this book before the CCS school year (our third year of operation begins today with the first day of classes for the fall 2007 semester) begins.

Understandably, those of us scoring "special inscriptions" waited until last, so I've been patient, though I've been anticipating this book longer than anyone on Planet Earth other than Tim and Donna! Tim and I first made contact back in the early 1980s, upon my reading his article on Bava in Fangoria. I had written my Johnson State College independent study thesis on Bava's films (back in '75-'76), and I immediately mailed Tim my meager Mario clippings, notes, etc. in case they might be of use to him. As I recall, the Boston newspaper clippings of Hallmark Releasing's test marketing of Antefatto/Bay of Blood as Mario Bava's Carnage -- yes, the possessive directorial attribution was on the ad -- "The 2nd Film Rated 'V' for Violence!," was all that was really new to Tim and of use. Still, over the years I've continued to send him this and that (Montreal newspaper microfiche shots of the Quebec theatrical run of Four Times That Night -- a two day run!). I'm still wondering if any if that material made it into the book, but regardless, my humble efforts placed me among Tim's support group over two decades. Ah, memories.

More on the book later this week, I hope... from firsthand exposure.

To sweeten the pot, a new mega-collection of Mario Bava films is forthcoming on DVD from Anchor Bay/Starz; keep an orb out for that, too, and on Tim's Video Watchblog for updates on that impending release.

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Ideological delusions outlast retirement: former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, key to our current disastrous foreign policies and head architect of the even more disastrous wars we're mired in, thinks Afghanistan "a success" and doesn't miss his Commander in Chief.

Just thought you might like to know.

Have a great Monday...