Rating: 
Summary: EURO-HORROR CLASSIC on DVD !
Review: This is definitely a MUST PURCHASE DVD for any die-hard euro-horror fan! This ridiculous and extremely entertaining 1965 Italian horror-romp stars Mickey Hargitay (Jayne Mansfield's husband) as "The Crimson Executioner". He struts around bare-chested wearing red tights and admiring his muscular body in the mirror as he rubs it all over with oil. When a film crew comes to his castle, he starts torturing and killing them off one by one, overacting all the way! Mickey is a true ham and jumps around the screen like a lunatic throughout. One great highlight is a room with a giant spiderweb and a hungry spider. And then, of course, there's the torture chamber. There's a rotating torture device that Mickey ties bikini-clad women up to and as it turns a sharp blade rips and tears at their skimpy brassieres and lightly scrapes their flesh! And with Mickey running around half-naked throughout in his red tights, were they also going for a gay audience? It's all quite tame by today's standards, but at the time, this must have been quite a sensation! It's a great sleaze-trash classic NOT TO BE MISSED! The DVD presents the film in it's U.S. 73-minute abbreviated version. 9 minutes were trimmed out of the complete version ("A Tale of Torture") by it's American distributor. The deleted scenes are included as a supplement (including the alternate title sequence), but it's too bad they didn't restore the footage back into the film. Something Weird offers the complete 83 minute version "A Tale of Torture" on VHS under the "Bloody Pit" title so you would have thought this would be the same print. BUT it's not... maybe because the print used here looks a lot better than the "Torture" print and it's fully letterboxed whereas the "Torture" print was only marginally letterboxed. Also, the movie has never looked better than this transfer...the colors are vibrant and sharp and the detail is quite good (although there is some minor artifacting). So, having the deleted scenes as a supplement only was probably a good decision. Other extras include a rather worn (and kind of lame) U.S. trailer, a clip from the movie "Primitive Love" with Jayne and Mickey shot around the same time and another clip called "Cover Girl Slaughter" which shows a lurid magazine cover photo shoot featuring women staged in murder or death scenes (mildly amusing). The best extra is the gallery of exploitation art and ad-slicks for lots of ultra-rare horror and trash flicks from the 60's and 70's. It's accompanied by an audio track of rare radio spots including the notorious "Last House on the Left" - It's Only a Movie spot, the "Mark of the Devil" - Vomit Bag spot and many more! All in all a great DVD. Buy It Now!
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE MOST CRAZIEST MOVIES!!!!!!!!!
Review: This movie is the one of the best movies of all time. The gore needs some work. But, I must say the movie is overall pretty cool. So, don't wait BUY IT!
Rating: 
Summary: GET THE OTHER VERSION
Review: Unless you need to save a few bucks, get the Image Entertainment version. I purchased this version and was acutually suprised by the plot and acting, it's pretty good. The picture and sound quality are terrible. The images seem bleached and washed out. Many of the opening credits are not discernable.
Rating:
Summary: Deliciously Demented!!
Review: What a great package! I sniggered and chortled my way thru all 73 odd...very odd... minutes of this Euro-trash classic at 5 a.m. one morning...aided by huge cups of coffee and a pile of raisin toast...with the wife still dead to the world in the other room. The only way to go!! Mickey Hargitay plays a cracked actor "who used to be in muscleman films". When he sees his ex-fiance among a group of models who have come to his castle hide-away for a photo shoot, he completely flips out and starts torturing and killing off the whole cast...all the time imagining that he is the 'Crimson Executioner' and raving about the "harmony of my perfect body!" His henchmen (in striped T-Shirts) remind me of The Penguin's minions in the old Batman TV series. Some nice touches here! I like the fellow being roasted alive and also the dead guy in the sports car driving around in circles with an arrow thru his neck. After your brain has been sufficiently fried upon movie's end, you can enjoy the extra features. My favorite is the clip from "Primitive Love" which has some Polynesian babes doing the hula to a song by Annette Funicello. Jayne Mansfield (in a black wig) is among them and a moustacheod Mickey Hargitay appears to carry her off yelling "Get back to work, you idiots! Get back to work, you idiots!" HOW CAN YOU RESIST THAT?? BUY IT NOW but be warned...THIS STUFF IS ADDICTIVE!!
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