Quote:
A trio of atmospheric horror tales about: A woman terrorized in her apartment by phone calls from an escaped prisoner from her past; a Russian count in the early 1800s who stumbles upon a family in the countryside trying to destroy a particularly vicious line of vampires; and a 1900-era nurse who makes a fateful decision while preparing the corpse of one of her patients – an elderly medium who died during a seance.

John Knoff wrote:
Mario Bava did rather a lot in his time. He co-directed the first Italian horror movie (I Vampiri in 1957), was cinematographer on the first Italian sci-fi movie (The Day the Sky Exploded in 1958) and then, when he had five minutes to spare, he invented the giallo genre with The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963). Not only that, most of his movies were quite good and proved massively influential to boot. In 1963 he also had a bash at a horror portmanteau with I tre volti della paura (The Three Faces of Fear), as it was known in Italy. Everywhere else it was known as Black Sabbath and inspired the Birmingham band Earth to change their name. Blimey, he even invented British Heavy Metal.

The whole thing is linked together with Boris Karloff in jovial form as our host and the stories are allegedly all from literary sources (if you’re liberal with your references). The Italian and US releases are so different that the stories aren’t even in the same order, but sticking with the Italian running order, we have…

The Telephone: Slightly odd one as, in its Italian form, it isn’t even supernatural. A woman gets some disturbing phone calls from the mysterious Frank who can see what she’s up to. Set in modern times this is really just a giallo short and so the first to bring that important colour to the genre.

The Wurdalak: Boris is actually in this one (and it’s the only time he played a vampire, we believe). The longest story here and a genuinely chilling tale of vampires that only kill the ones they love.

The Drop of Water: The real gem. A nurse in (an unconvincing) Victorian London attends to the body of an old lady who was a medium before she left this mortal coil. As she also looks absolutely terrifying even as a dummy made for the film, the last thing you’d do is nick her ring. Oh, what is she doing? What did we just say? This is great fun and far more frightening than it has any right to be.

Bava’s use of colour was something of a signature and became a hallmark of giallo so in all honesty, Blu-ray is the only way to watch these movies nowadays and the quality is pretty good. You also really need both versions because the Italian version is better even if there’s only so much dubbed Boris Karloff you can put up with. In fact, the differences are so great that this disc gives you a handy 30-minute split screen feature to point out where they’re different in case you weren’t taking notes. Throw in Tim Lucas’s informative commentary and the only other thing you could want is the comedy ending with Boris Karloff on a fake horse. Don’t worry, it’s there on the Italian version.

	
Black.Sabbath.(1963).European.Cut.REPACK.720p.UHD.BluRay.SDR.DTS2.0.x264-DON-KG.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 32 min
Size: 	6.44 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1280x692 
Aspect ratio:  	1.85:1
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	8 613 kb/s
BPP: 	0.405
Audio
#1:  	Italian 2.0ch DTS @ 1 344 kb/s (DTS 2.0)
#2:  	English 2.0ch AAC LC SBR @ 48.0 kb/s (Commentary by Bava Biographer and Expert Tim Lucas (fdkaac -m 3))

https://nitro.download/view/414E4889A6FC7FB/Black.Sabbath.(1963).European.Cut.REPACK.720p.UHD.BluRay.SDR.DTS2.0.x264-DON-KG.mkv

Language(s):Italian
Subtitles:English

Many thanks to @Marcio for this copy

The post Mario Bava – I tre volti della paura AKA Black Sabbath (1963) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

This drama, based on Alexander Dumas’ novel, chronicles the doomed love between Lord Horatio Nelson and the scandalous Lady Emma Hamilton. The tale begins when luscious country girl Emma, who possesses feminine charms no man can resist, uses her beauty to charm her way into the inner circle of the social elite, eventually marrying the prominent Lord Hamilton. She then has an affair with the naval hero, Nelson, whom she marries after her first husband dies. She even has a child with her new man. When he dies, however, she is deeply hurt to discover that her aristocratic “friends” will not allow her to attend the honored man’s funeral. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Les amours de Lady Hamilton.avi

General
Container:	AVI
Runtime:	1h 33mn
Size:	999 MiB
Video
Codec:	XviD
Resolution:	688x304
Aspect ratio:	2.25:1
Frame rate:	25.000 fps
Bit rate:	1 031 Kbps
Audio
French 5.1ch AC-3 @ 448 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/BD0C05F653731AF/Les_amours_de_Lady_Hamilton.avi

Language(s):French
Subtitles:none

The post Christian-Jaque – Les amours de Lady Hamilton (1968) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

PLOT:
Starring in this bustling summer comedy are Vittorio Gassman (an army captain terrified of falling in love with Gigi, a cabaret transvestite who instead turns out to be a charming girl), Amedeo Nazzari (icon of masculine beauty of our cinema of the 40’s, which lends himself to the irony of this film going into the shoes of a fashion wearer a bit too over the years, trying to win back his girlfriend, and boss, making her jealous by bragging a relationship with a girl, Foschina, much younger than him), Philippe Leroy (nonchalant young Tuscan who teaches swimming to beautiful foreign girls and meanwhile “plays” at being a small entrepreneur in the field of advertising, causing instead lots of trouble and involving poor Luigi into them) and Sandra Milo (buxom and “generous” hot donuts vendor, who ends up taking care of an ill-fated Spanish cyclist, played by Vittorio Congia).

FILE INFO
Name : Frenesia dell'estate (1964).avi size : 1.22GB Duration : 01:45:08
ENCODING INFORMATION
VIDEO : AVI, XviD, 1500 Kbps 2pass, 704 x 384, AR 1.833, 25.000 fps, bpp 0.222
AUDIO : MPEG Audio, MP3, 160 kbps CBR, 48 KHz, stereo

https://nitro.download/view/77E1224389FF715/Frenesia_dell’estate_(1964).avi
https://nitro.download/view/0C72E98A8E9CB8B/Frenesia_dell_estate.srt
https://nitro.download/view/86ED8FA07AA98DC/Frenesia_dell’estate_(1964).Ita.srt

Language(s):Italian
Subtitles:Italian, Russian

The post Luigi Zampa – Frenesia dell’estate (1964) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
The awkward and often hilarious reunion between a divorced father and his precocious eight-year-old son is beautifully observed in Risi’s tender comedy.
Walter Chiari, a good-for-nothing who dreams of building an empire selling Encyclopedia Brittanicas, embellishes his life to impress his son (effortlessly played by child actor Roberto Cicciolini), only to discover that the boy, whom he hasn’t seen in years, harbors his own share of restless loneliness.

	
Il giovedi (1964).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 40 min
Size: 	1.99 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	716x550 ~> 1017x550
Aspect ratio:  	1.85:1
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	2 580 kb/s
BPP: 	0.262
Audio
#1:  	Italian 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s (Stereo)

https://nitro.download/view/1866817D63FA313/Il_giovedi_(1964).mkv

Language(s):Italian
Subtitles:English, French (muxed)

The post Dino Risi – Il giovedì AKA The Thursday (1964) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

One of the frequent themes in the films of Melville is loyalty between men, so it should come as no surprise to Melville fans that Michel and Ferchaux develop an usual, and even unhealthy bond–you could apply the term ‘co-dependency’ here, but while Melville’s film is ultimately positive when it comes to analyzing the relationship between the aging millionaire and Michel, the Simenon novel on which the film is based is far darker. If there’s any truth to the idea that a relationship can be judged by the way it alters the people involved with each other, then the relationship between Simenon’s characters Ferchaux and Michel Maudet is toxic.

Laine.des.Ferchaux.1963.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-SbR.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 45 min
Size: 	3.49 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	4 599 kb/s
BPP: 	0.093
Audio
#1:  	French 2.0ch AAC LC @ 137 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/3B0FD0B877D2D5A/Laine.des.Ferchaux.1963.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-SbR.mkv

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English (Hardcoded)

The post Jean-Pierre Melville – L’aîné des Ferchaux AKA Magnet of Doom (1963) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
‘Léandre Brassac is an ageing veterinary who lives in a large house near to Nantes with his wife Marie, whom he openly despises and frequently abuses. Léandre resents the fact that his wife has failed to bear him any children, and as a result he has become a violent and moody old man, contemptuous of others and all too willing to drown his sorrows in alcohol. Whilst he may loathe people, Brassac shows a remarkable tenderness for animals, especially the dogs who have become his closest companions in his declining years. During one of his night-time excursions to Nantes, Brassac runs into a prostitute named Simone. Concerned by the young woman’s plight, he invites her to live with him and his wife.’
– James Travers

	
Le.tonnerre.de.Dieu.1965.DVDRip.x264.AC3.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 25mn
Size: 	1.46 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	704x432 ~> 1015x432
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	2 077 Kbps
BPP: 	0.273
Audio
#1:  	French 2.0ch AC-3 @ 384 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/2AC0A3D59A51BD9/Le.tonnerre.de.Dieu.1965.DVDRip.x264.AC3.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/0C854C10CC88980/Le.tonnerre.de.Dieu.1965.DVDRip.x264.AC3.eng_v2.srt

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English

The post Denys de La Patellière – Le tonnerre de Dieu AKA The Thunder of God (1965) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
Pierre (Robert Hossein) is a fortysomething attorney who falls for a young woman (Michele Mercier) who dances in a discotheque to work her way through medical school. He is invited to her apartment where he observes the woman is living in relative luxury with the latest lavish fashions, but the lovestruck lawyer can’t bring himself to leave his wife over the young woman, who obviously has another man on the string. When her wealthy suitor is murdered, Pierre is accused and put on trial for the man’s death. Even when he is acquitted, Pierre is persecuted by those who still believe he is guilty. He soon realizes that the woman he loves may be the one who committed the murder in this emotional crime drama.

679MB | 1h 24m | 544×240 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/6C4568BBB5E7770/La_seconde_verite.AVI

Language:French
Subtitles:None

The post Christian-Jaque – La seconde vérité aka The Other Truth (1966) first appeared on Cinema of the World.