A Big Helping of RAW MEAT (aka Death Line) in 4K

RAW MEAT aka Death Line (4K UHD)

1972 / 87 min

Blue Underground

Review by Josey, the Sudden Cat🙀

Back in the mid-70s, my friends and I snuck into auditorium #4 of the old Southgate Quad for a double feature consisting of Squirm and Raw Meat (both titles released in the U.S. by American-International Pictures). Killer worms and flesh eating zombies? Sounded like an afternoon well spent. 

At least Squirm delivered as promised. As for Raw Meat…man, talk about false advertising! Sure, there were a few gross bits, but for a thrill-seeking 13-year-old, watching an old, bald, Chatty Cathy cop berate suspects was decidedly less entertaining than the pinball machines in the theater lobby. Which is precisely where we headed after about 30 minutes.

Wisdom may not always come with age, but I eventually wised up to the unscrupulous practice of rebranding movies with gonzo new titles to snooker folks who judge books by their covers (which the likes of AIP and Roger Corman’s New World Pictures often did with films they acquired for the grindhouse crowd). Case in point, Raw Meat was originally called Death Line (still the onscreen title) and was never intended to compete with ravenous worms for a middle schooler’s attention.

While flesh eating is inferred, there are no zombies in Death Line. It’s got a pretty cool premise, though. While the London subway system was being constructed in the late 19th Century, a cave-in trapped several workers who resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. A century later, one of their descendants has been snatching commuters to feed himself and his dying mate. When a prominent MBE member goes missing, Inspector Calhoun (Donald Pleasence) investigates, but spends a lot of his time grilling Alex (David Ladd), the guy who brought it to his attention in the first place. It also turns out a lot of folks have gone missing in the subway lately. 

"I thought I paid this."

Part horror film, part police procedural, Death Line is atmospheric and well made on a low budget, with good direction by Gary Sherman (who’d later go on to helm Dead & Buried, one of the best underseen movies of the ‘80s). But it's Pleasance who steals this one. His amusing performance suggests he had great fun playing his character, which I didn’t fully appreciate as a kid, but now think he’s the best part of the entire movie. And while not nearly as gory as it’s reputed to be (or as we were expecting back in the day), some of the violence is pretty potent.

Blue Underground has given the film an impressive 4K facelift with a nice video restoration. There are also four audio options to choose from, including a new Dolby Atmos track. With the exception of a new audio commentary, the bonus features (mostly interviews) are all carried over from the original Blu-ray release, and they provide a revealing look back at the production. 

But, alas, the deceptive advertising continues even today. While Christopher Lee is featured along with Pleasance above the title on the cover, he appears in only one scene…for about two minutes. Other than that bit of deception, Raw Meat/Death Line is an entertaining slice of ‘70s British horror that has certainly aged better than Squirm.

EXTRA KIBBLES

4K & BLU-RAY COPIES

FEATURETTES - Tales from the Tube is an entertaining conversation between director Gary Sherman and executive producers Jay Katner & Alan Ladd Jr.; From the Depths is an interview with actor David Ladd and producer Paul Maslansky; Mind the Doors is an interview with actor Hugh Armstrong.

2 AUDIO COMMENTARIES - 1) By director Gary Sherman, producer Paul Maslansky and AD Lewis More O’Ferrall; 2) By historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troyhowarth.

TRAILERS, TV & RADIO SPOTS

POSTER & STILL GALLERY

REVERSIBLE COVER - With the original title, Death Line.

Revisiting GET CARTER in 4K

GET CARTER (4K UHD)

1971 / 112 min

Warner Archive Collection

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😺

A strong argument can be made that 1971’s Get Carter is the best British gangster movie ever made. And even though it wasn’t nearly as revered at the time of release, many critics and historians have claimed that very thing. This excellent new 4K transfer only strengthens that argument…at least aesthetically.

And aesthetics are a big deal here. If it didn’t look and sound like writer-director Mike Hodges rolled over a boulder to examine what thrived in the dark beneath it, Get Carter wouldn’t have the same impact. In that sense, the film conveys the same feeling we get from watching Taxi Driver, where being immersed in its drab & gritty setting is a major part of what makes it effective.

Essentially a complex tale of revenge, Michael Caine is Jack Carter, a London mob enforcer who returns to his hometown of Newcastle to investigate the death of his brother, Frank, supposedly while driving drunk. While Carter’s convinced he was murdered, his boss warns him not to step on the toes of other gangsters. He does, of course, once it turns out that the biggest of them, Cyril Kinnear (John Osborne), has a motive for murder (related to the rape and exploitation of Frank’s teenage daughter, Doreen).

"No talking. You're in 'time out'."

Caine’s role in Get Carter is unlike anything else he’d done at the time (or since, really), playing an unlikeable, irredeemable and cold-blooded killer whose tough exterior is almost impenetrable (save for a solitary moment when he sees Doreen forced to appear in a porno film). He’s also banging his boss’ wife, Anna (though that aspect of the story smacks of a an excuse to gratuitously show Britt Eklund masturbating). While we don’t necessarily like Carter, his antagonists are worse. And since there are a lot of ‘em, the film is chock-full of violent, satisfying payback. Best of all, Caine nails the part.   

Still, it’s sort of understandable why Get Carter was underwhelmingly received back in the day. To be honest, I didn’t care for it much when I first watched it, either. But it’s one of those movies that gets better the more you see it, when you don’t go in with preconceived narrative expectations and appreciate what the filmmakers are trying to do, which is toss the audience into an ugly world filled with terrible people (including its protagonist). And as gangster movies go, it’s the goddamn Godfather compared to the pointless Stallone remake. 

EXTRA KIBBLES

4K & BLU-RAY COPIES

FEATURETTES - Mike Hodges in Conversation is an enjoyable Q&A with the director before a live audience; In The Sound of Roy Budd, music analyst Jonny Trunk discusses the score; Don’t Trust Boys is an interview with actor Petra Markham, who plays Carter’s 16-year old niece; Klinger on Klinger features the son of producer producer Michael Klinger.

2 AUDIO COMMENTARIES - 1) By actor Michael Caine, director Mike Hodges and cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky; 2) By critics Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw.

INTRODUCTION BY MICHAEL CAINE - From 2022.

ORIGINAL & RE-RELEASE TRAILERS

LADY OF VENGEANCE and the Rambling Red Herring

LADY OF VENGEANCE (Blu-ray)

1956 / 73 min

From MGM

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😼

Man, talk about your red herrings! 

I hate red herrings. Hence, 1956's Lady of Vengeance is two-thirds of a decent film noir. I used to teach middle school, and if I were to grade this like an assignment, two-thirds of the possible points is a little over 66%...a D. But if a kid’s work wasn’t quite up to snuff but the effort was there, I sometimes bumped it up to a passing grade (especially if said-kid bestowed me a Starbuck’s gift card at Christmas).

And for a quick & dirty potboiler, this British film reflects some real effort on both sides of the camera. It starts off with a bang, when Melissa Collins (Eileen Elton) commits suicide by throwing herself in front of a train. Before that, she sent a letter to her estranged guardian, newspaper magnate William Marshall (Dennis O’Keefe), asking him to exact revenge on the man who ruined her life, presumably irresponsible, womanizing musician Larry Shaw).

"No need to pack your bags, good sir...I only have One Ticket to Paradise."

Headstrong and accustomed to getting what he wants, Marshall hires/blackmails master criminal Emile Karnak (Anton Diffring) to develop a flawless plan to make Shaw suffer at-length, after which Marshall will shoot the man himself. The scenes with these two men are intriguing, with cool calculating Karnek providing a neat contrast to Marshall’s vindictiveness. Neither character is particularly likable, but since when has that ever mattered in film noir?

Unfortunately, the story dedicates way too much screen time to Shaw, who does little but blow his trombone, belittle women and complain about his life. If it weren’t for a single brief scene he shares with Karnak, he’s not really even part of the ongoing narrative. And when the film reaches its climax, we realize why. Out of the blue, with absolutely no foreshadowing, the story throws in a plot twist that feels more like a suckerpunch.

I don’t want to give anything away because, up to that point, Lady of Vengeance is kind of fun, especially its well-conceived partners-in-crime. But not only does it end with a whimper, we suddenly realize the film didn’t play fair by wasting time on a rambling red herring. Still, two-thirds of a decent movie at least reflects some effort, so I guess I can give it a pass.

THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM & ALBERT R.N.: Two Lesser-Known British War Films

THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM / ALBERT R.N. (Blu-ray)

1953-1954 / 181 min (2 movies)

FROM COHEN MEDIA GROUP

Review by Mr. Paws😽

Two British World War II dramas by director Lewis Gilbert (who did quite a few of these things back in the day) are paired for this double feature. Neither of them stand out as exemplary, but are solidly entertaining films with good ensemble casts.

In 1954’s, The Sea Shall Not Have Them, a British plane goes down in the North Sea. The crew and Air Commodore Waltby (Michael Redgrave) ditch the plane in a liferaft. Finding them is crucial because Waltby possesses secret German rocket plans. So the search is on, mostly by Air Sea Rescue 2561, commanded by Officer Treherne (Anthony Steel). The narrative continuously switches back and forth between the air crew’s effort to stay alive and complications on-board 2561, but is most interesting when it focuses on the latter, particularly the conflicts and pitfalls.

"We don't talk anymore."

Fans of Stalag 17 might appreciate 1953’s Albert R.N, a POW drama which at-times achieves a similar tone. This one focuses on an eclectic batch of captured allies in a German prison camp. Led by Captain Maddox (Jack Warner), they regularly try - and fail - to escape, at least until Lt. Ainsworth (Anthony Steel) builds a lifelike dummy (dubbed Albert), which will allow men to escape, one at a time, without throwing off the prisoner count. More character driven than the first film, Albert R.N. is (by turns) funny, suspenseful and occasionally tragic, with a truly hateful antagonist in Schultz (Anton Diffring), a sadistic prison guard.

Gilbert directs both with the workmanlike skill that served him well throughout a five decade career. Like most of his films that don’t feature British secret agents, neither had much of an impact on this side of the pond and remain fairly obscure, but are certainly worth checking out. On an amusing sidenote…the PR folks at Cohen Media must have also noticed the similarities between Albert R.N. and Stalag 17, since the press release & back cover synopsis actually summarizes the latter! How did nobody catch that?

EXTRA KIBBLES

ALBERT R.N. TRAILER