Powerhouse Films

[Rob4]

I'm a bit confused for Snapshot after reading this on DVDDrive-In regarding the Vinegar Syndrome release:

"When Vinegar Syndrome announced their Blu-ray/DVD combo, it was hoped that we would see the Australian cut in a new transfer but from them we have discovered that the shorter American version is actually the film's international cut and that the original negative and other intermediary materials were conformed to this version (which may have been reissued in Australia theatrically as well)"

The Powerhouse release appears to suggest it's the other way round?

I think I remember the Australian cut being a bit ropey on the VS disc.

I like Snapshot as well but I don't think I'm likely to double dip for a LE... possibly might be tempted to get an SE in the future

[Michael Brooke]

Indicator co-founder Sam Dunn is interviewed by Musique Machine about the Michael J. Murphy box, still the most ambitious and logistically challenging project in the label's history.

Haha. Where do I start?! We faced challenges at each and every twist and turn. Delays occurred at every stage. And unforeseen surprises lurked around every corner. The unique nature of the project meant that there was really no precedent (either in our own catalogue, or indeed in anyone else’s), so, although we planned what we could, and set deadlines for delivery of the various assets and parts, the reality was that, until such time as we had those assets in-hand, and we knew exactly what we were dealing with, we really had no idea what we were actually up against (whether that’s from the perspective of image and/or sound quality, restoration problems, in/completeness, how the details in each essay and the filmographies tally with what’s onscreen, or indeed any other number of complex and inter-connecting issues). And, whilst we are obviously used to grappling with such problems on a monthly basis, and are, I’d venture to say, experts in problem-solving, the sheer scope and scale of the Murphy project made it almost impossible to plan to the degree we needed to, especially when the team was also, necessarily, attempting to manage a number of other projects at the same time.

[Michael Brooke]

Powerhouse co-founders Sam Dunn and John Morrissey are interviewed at length in the new Indicator Cast podcast (no. 46, if you're following that link weeks hence), basically ranging over their 2023 output from Michael J. Murphy to Tod Slaughter, with a sneak preview of what's coming in 2024.

I particularly recommend the Jean Rollin discussion starting at 48:00, because it covers a fair amount of ground to do with the challenges of authoring UHD releases, packaging design issues, and why a lavish box set was originally planned but quickly scrapped after it became clear that it was a logistical and financial non-starter.

[Justin101]

That was an interesting conversation definitely, but the podcast itself is hard to listen to with 6 or 7 people talking with different microphone qualities and often speaking over each other. Other people might not be bothered too much by it, but I listen to a lot of podcasts so I guess I'm used to higher production values

[Michael Brooke]

To clarify what's happening with Snapshot, the 92-minute version is indeed the official final cut - but because it's possible to reconstruct the 105-minute version, we're offering that as an extra.

What this will consist of is mostly a 1080p SDR render of the new 4K restoration, plus another 12 minutes or so of additional footage unavoidably sourced from pan-and-scan SD video. However, we're working from an authentic PAL source (for some reason, other releases use a PAL-to-NTSC conversion with dropped frames).

We've also painstakingly matched the visual geometry of the 2.35:1 material - the original PAL source was slightly squished horizontally (a common tactic to try to cram more image in), but other presentations have unsquished it too far.

We're also framing it so that the top and bottom of the SD-sourced material aligns with the 2.35:1 framing elsewhere - although this produces heavy windowboxing on all sides, it's surprisingly watchable, and certainly a lot less jarring than suddenly cutting to a largely screen-filling picture (we did extensive tests before reaching our decision). The smaller picture also helps minimise the drawback of sourcing from SD video.

Basically, it should look as good as it realistically can do given what we have no choice but to work with.

[Michael Brooke]

And while I'm on the subject of Indicator's Ozploitation releases, the Italian version of Patrick will be presented in the 102-minute cut that played in Italy - other versions feature the 112-minute cut, reverting to English where there's no Italian dub. (What's more jarring than that is the fact that those extra ten minutes feature Brian May's Herrmanesque original score rather than Goblin prog-rock on the soundtrack, and they're stylistically very different.)

We're also - and I think this is a first - subtitling it properly. For the most part, the Italian dub is a straight translation, but occasionally it goes off in its own direction - for instance, Sister Williams pries a little more into Sister Jacquard's sex life than is the case in the English-language version, and there are occasional changes of phrasing, such as Patrick being described as "the creature from the id" in the Australian version and "the sleeping beauty in the forest" in the Italian one.

We'll also be including the 97-minute US cut, complete with dubbed American dialogue. This is, of course, hideous - Susan Penhaligon just sounds wrong in an American accent - and nobody should pick it as a first viewing option, but it's a legitimate part of the film's release history.

Oh, and all three cuts will be presented in 4K HDR on the UHD discs.

[peter alex]

it's a shame they didn't get the Italian sequel Patrick still lives as well or I hope they release the Italian sequel as well cause the sequel as never hade a UK release and it would look good next to the original.

[Michael Brooke]

Let me answer that question in the form of an excerpt from producer Antony I Ginnane's memoirs, a chunk of which is reproduced in Indicator's Patrick booklet:

So successful was [the Italian release of Patrick] that a completely unauthorised sequel, Patrick Still Lives, was produced the following year without our knowledge. An ultra-violent, pornographic mish-mash, the producers found a Robert Thompson lookalike and rebuilt the Roget Clinic on an Italian stage. There was one aborted screening at Cannes in 1980 that Bill [Fayman] and I showed up for, but the film print did not materialise, and our London and Italian attorneys subsequently managed to injunct it from being screened outside of Italy.

The production company Stefano Film, run by a guy called Nicolò Pomilia, was teetering on bankruptcy. In fact, they had originally entitled their film Il Ritorno di Patrick using the distinctive ‘electric slashed’ Patrick logo we’d had designed in Australia. Our lawyers convinced them, prior to the injunction, to change the title but they kept asserting Patrick was a common name and not subject to legal protection – passing their film off as a sequel, though, was another matter.

Neither Bill nor I nor Richard [Franklin] ever saw it until 2002, when bootleg VHS copies became available in the US. It was truly appalling, but bizarrely fascinating. I got Richard and Everett [De Roche] copies. Ironically, it was finally released in the USA on DVD in 2004 in a version which includes an interview with the producer and director. It came out just as Elite released a remastered version of the original film in the USA for the first time in the original Australian-voiced version. I pondered taking legal action regarding the 2004 US DVD release of Patrick Still Lives, but, twenty-five years on, it seemed like a curio, a piece of film wallpaper that simply added to, rather than distracted from, the success of Patrick.

But despite his magnanimity above, it's a very safe bet indeed that he'd be rather less keen on including what he regards as an illegal pirate sequel on a release with which he's quite closely involved!

(Patrick was licensed directly from him, and he's contributed in various other ways, including granting us access to his hitherto unpublished memoirs.)

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by peter alex

it's a shame they didn't get the Italian
sequel Patrick still lives as well or I hope they release the Italian sequel as well cause the sequel as never hade a UK release and it would look good next to the original.

Would Patrick Still Lives get past the BBFC uncut? I'd think it were doubtful.

[Michael Brooke]

Not a question I’m ever likely to have to worry about, I suspect!

(For all sorts of reasons, not least the ongoing viability of Indicator’s Ozploitation range, I think it would be a very bad idea to pick this one up.)