Island Monster & Chamber Of Fear (Dvd) *New* and 12 similar items

Brand new factory sealed special edition of two RARE Boris Karloff features. Out of Print (OOP) and no longer being manufactured. ISLAND MONSTER (1953 B W) full screen: Lt. Mario Andriana (Franca Marzi), an upstanding family man, is sent to an island off of Naples to go undercover and investigate a drug smuggling ring. Don Gaetano (Boris Karloff), who is known for building a home for sick babies, has drugs ("cocaine, hashish and marijuana") smuggled in the false bottoms of milk cans. He also has Mario's little girl (Patrizzia Remiddi) kidnapped and held captive in a cave by the ocean. Boris (who dubbed his own voice) frequently quickly switches his expression from kindly to sinister and back. His character dumps one man in the ocean for asking for more money and he threatens the life of the kid and even her little dog. Cigarette girls sell drugs at the Dancing Siren Nightclub. Sexy singer Gloria (Renata Vicario) eventually agrees to help Mario and his wife save their daughter -- and has a near topless scene. Filming was done on location and in a Rome studio. Although some books claim that this only played in Italian language theatres, Romana released it (dubbed) in America in '57. It's interesting to see, if you go in not expecting a horror movie. Director Roberto Montero later made 'Slasher is the Sex Maniac' and 'Caligula's Hot Nights' and his son Mario carried on in the long family exploitation tradition. Next up is the real find, it's an evil Blob movie with a surprising amount of go-go sleaze found only here on the Retromedia label in it's totally uncut and letterboxed version (use zoom on widescreen TVs). CHAMBER of FEAR (1968 color): Dr. Carl Mandel (Boris Karloff) supervises a program of experimentation on a living rock found near the center of the Earth; this creature feeds on a substance generated by fear in the female brain, leaving young chicks shrivelled into dead old women when its rocky tendril siphons the stuff. Mandel dresses up as a Devil-worshipper and presides over one Satanic ceremony to scare a test subject, but then reverts to fatherly and decent for the rest of the film. Helga (Isela Vega), Mandel's lab assistant, takes over as abductor and torturer of young women, aided by Roland (Yerye Beirute), a diamond-obsessed Lenny-like minion who thinks the rock thing is his friend and will make him "king of the world". The climax has a change-of-heart Karloff and his family return to the mansion and reverse the computer program of the creature's life-support system, thus reducing it back to stone. It's sort of fun but makes no sense. The transfer is letterboxed (widescreen owners use zoom mode) and colorful, offering credits in Spanish and the real names of the filmmakers that are mangled or Anglicised in previous releases. Also, the Elite version looks slightly better but it is missing some go-go sleaze that is found only in this version, a topless girl ageing rapidly while doing a go-go routine.