Spaghetti Western 44 Movie Collection

Who knows why, but this set has 44 instead of the usual 50. However, we're including it because Mill Creek used to display this for sale on their website in the same grouping as their 50-movie packs, and because it's distributed in the same hard plastic snap cases. Several of the 44 titles below are the usual "public domain" releases familiar to any collectors of cheap DVDs, but this collection is certainly noteworthy for including some titles that used to be distributed by Wild East or Blue Underground, and therefore are seen here in transfer quality well above the norm. (And would it be a Mill Creek set without some odd choices? A couple of these titles technically aren't spaghetti westerns, but whatever.) 

I'm sure many spaghetti western fans have multiple copies of flicks like Boot Hill or Death Rides A Horse over several movie sets, because they would purchase a collection with many of the familiar staples, just because it features one or two really obscure titles not found elsewhere. This 44-pack is recommended to new or old fans of the Italian western, as it features some true undiscovered gems among the more obvious choices.

Links will be added as titles continue to be reviewed.

And God Said to Cain (1970)
Apache Blood (1975)
Ben and Charlie (1972)
Between God, The Devil and a Winchester (1968)
Beyond The Law (1968)
Boot Hill (1969)
Challenge To White Fang (1974)
China 9, Liberty 37 (1978)
Dead For a Dollar (1968)
Dead Men Don't Make Shadows (1970)
Death Rides a Horse (1968)
The Deserter (1970)
Django Kills Softly (1967)
Django Vs. Sartana (1970)
Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe (1973)
Find a Place To Die (1968)
A Fistful of Lead (1970)
Four of the Apocalypse (1975)
Four Rode Out (1969)
The Grand Duel (1972)
The Great Adventure (1975)
Hate Thy Neighbor (1968)
His Name Was King (1971)
If You Meet Sartana, Pray For Death (1968)
It Can Be Done Amigo (1972)
Jesse and Lester (1972)
Johnny Yuma (1966)
Keoma (1976)
Kid Vengeance (1977)
Man From Nowhere (1966)
Manhunt (1984)
Mannaja, A Man Called Blade (1977)
Minnesota Clay (1964)
The Price of Power (1969)
Run, Man, Run (1968)
The Stranger's Gundown (1969)
Sundance and the Kid (1970)
They Call Him Cemetery (1971)
This Man Can't Die (1968)
Three Bullets For Ringo (1966)
Trinity and Sartana (1972)
The Unholy Four (1970)
White Comanche (1968)
White Fang And The Hunter (1975)

Chilling Classics 50 Movie Pack

Chilling Classics is one of the best Mill Creek sets, featuring horror films (both foreign and domestic) that aren't the usual so-called "public domain" chestnuts found in a dozen other sets. It is strange to find Death Rage (a crime picture) and War Of The Robots (sci-fi) included here, but a lot of these sets have odd titles included as filler- part of their charm. All in all, a very nice collection.

Here is the lineup for the 2005 release (links will be added as titles continue to be reviewed). Some titles were swapped out for the 2015 release (see below).

The Alpha Incident (1978)
Bad Taste (1987) *
Bell from Hell (1973)
The Blancheville Monster (1963)
The Bloody Brood (1959)
A Bucket of Blood (1959)
Cathy's Curse (1977)
The Cold (1984)
Crypt of the Living Dead (1972) *
Death Rage (1976)

Deep Red (1975) *
The Demon (1979)
The Demons of Ludlow (1983)
Devil Times Five (1974)
The Devil's Hand (1962)
Dr. Tarr's Torture Dungeon (1972)
The Driller Killer (1979)
Drive-in Massacre (1976)
Funeral Home (1980)
The Ghost (1963)
Gothic (1986) *
Hands of a Stranger (1962)
Haunts (1976)
Horror Express (1972)
Horrors of Spider Island (1959)
House of the Dead (1978)
I Bury the Living (1958)
I Eat Your Skin (1964)
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)
Lady Frankenstein (1971)
The Legend of Bigfoot (1975)
Man in the Attic (1953)
Medusa (1973)
Memorial Valley Massacre (1989) *
Messiah of Evil (1974)
Metamorphosis (1990)
Naked Massacre (1976)
Oasis of the Zombies (1982)
Panic (1982)
The Revenge of Doctor X (1970)
Scream Bloody Murder (1973)
Silent Night, Bloody Night (1973)
Sisters of Death (1978)
Slashed Dreams (1975)
Snake People (1971) *
Track of the Moon Beast (1976)
Virus (1980) *
War of the Robots (1978)
Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory (1961)
The Witches Mountain (1973)

Note:
The 2015 re-issue swapped out some titles found in the original set, presumably because the films' public domain status was in question. The film titles asterisked above (*) have been replaced by the films below in the 2015 edition of Chilling Classics. Three of the new films (The Hearse, Land Of The Minotaur, Nightmare In Wax) are part of the Crown International library that Mill Creek had acquired since the 2005 set. 

The Hearse (1980)

Land Of The Minotaur (1976)
Murder Mansion (1973)

Nightmare In Wax (1969)

A Passenger To Bali (1950)

Shock (1946)

Snowbeast (1977)

The Lucifer Complex (1979)

Dirs: David L. Hewitt, Kenneth Hartford

Scr: David L. Hewitt, Dale Skillicorn

Executive Producer: James T. Flocker

Cast: Robert Vaughn, Merrie Lynn Ross, Keenan Wynn, Aldo Ray

I first saw The Lucifer Complex on late night TV, paired with  Invasion From Inner Earth (reviewed here), which made for an unforgettable double feature of Grade Z movie badness. (Of course, both of these movies are offered up on Mill Creek's movie pack sets.)

Over the years, Invasion from Inner Earth has grown on me. And as for The Lucifer Complex? Uh-uh. After "taking one for the team" and rewatching it for review on this site, it is still the lifeless mess that I remembered. 

Gold Key Entertainment, who possessed the uncanny ability to find the most inert genre fare, added this title to its package of films sold for television. This, and other Gold Key wonders like Captive, Target Earth? and Ghosts That Still Walk, would be banished to the witching hours as late-night TV filler that would usually lull even the most ardent insomniac channel surfer to sleep. 

For The Lucifer Complex, someone had lying around a (presumably) unfinished, dreary espionage adventure, featuring Robert Vaughn, in a sorry attempt to recall The Man From UNCLE, as he foils a Neo-Nazi plot to clone world leaders, with the help of some women prisoners who are held captive for experimentation (or something). And then in order to make it feature-length, someone else shot a wraparound story of a man on a south Pacific island (presumably the last survivor of this planet) who has the history of mankind preserved on these disks that can be watched with a laser stylus (predating laserdisc technology by a few years). Twenty solid irritating minutes of stock footage and the man's dreary voiceover occur before our main story, as he watches moments from World War II, and Woodstock (well, not really- it's someone called The Edward Kelly Band) before watching the movie we're about to see. 

And not that the Vaughn footage is any great shakes. It is an equally insufferable task to view this smeary dreck with dismal attempts at suspense. Even a sudden third act change to "women's prison" conventions fails to light any sparks. Its sole novelty is the revelation that the mastermind behind this plot is none other than Adolf Hitler in an attempt to start the Fourth Reich! Otherwise the only other memorable moment is the inevitable, dramatically ironic moment when Vaughn faces his own clone. In an inspired bit of bad filmmaking, the two Vaughns fight... in a shot that is so underexposed that you can't see either one of them! 

And forget about the inclusion of Keenan Wynn, Aldo Ray and (uncredited) Leo Gordon: their roles are just stupid, glorified cameos. The story becomes anticlimactic, and more so with the tacked-on wraparound footage of the sole man watching the other film. It adds nothing but running time.

If nothing else, this film provides a tantalizing mystery to solve, as it involves a holy trinity of Grade Z moviemakers behind the camera: David L. Hewitt (auteur of such 60s microbudget fare as Wizard Of Mars and The Mighty Gorga), Kenneth Hartford (Monstroid) and James T. Flocker (Ground Zero, Ghosts That Still Walk).  One wonders which footage each was responsible for, especially Dave Hewitt. Despite the shortcomings of his previous work, he could at least be commended for attempting to make something ambitious out of little means. My gut tells me that he may have been responsible for the Nazi prison footage, as it feels similar to his work in 1971's The Tormentors, but I can't be sure. But the fascination quickly evaporates as one sits in front of this mess. 

The Lucifer Complex is just kind that movie that would be banished to the 2AM time slot, or the back of a mom and pop video store (ie - the video box art above, from its VHS release by United Home Video), or on mega-movie DVD sets like this, foisting the familiar names of Robert Vaughn, Aldo Ray and Keenan Wynn, enticing one to take a chance. Enter if you dare.

MMM Rating: 1/5

Located on: Suspense Classics (now out of print, but still for sale on the web), and Mad Scientist Theater. Enter if you dare.