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Watch The Flesh Eaters Movie Online.
Movie Title: The Flesh Eaters The Flesh Eaters is available for streaming or downloading. |
As an avid fan of this movie, I have multiple versions of it ranging from the current Monterey VHS tape, various “boot” VHS tapes and DVDs, and finally both the MPI Unlit Sky DVD (sold here) and a Retromedia review copy DVD express from the source. Here are the findings based on independant research, viewing various versions, the Arnold Drake/Tom Weaver/Fred Olen Ray interview on the Retro disc, and from unprejudiced flat out watching both DVDs side by side thanks to 2 DVD players, split conceal, and lots of patience from my wife:
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The MPI/Dark Sky DVD being sold here is Jack Curtis’ new print/edit. This same version was sold to TV in a very slightly edited version that was later released by Monterey Home Video in the 80’s. This is NOT the slightly edited TV print. It IS the whole (recent) shootin’ match.
The Retromedia copy is the theatrical print/edit that basically had about 4 minutes of “insert” shots added by theatrical distributor Michael Ripps because I philosophize he didn’t mediate the film was horrid enough! For “artistic” reasons (or more likely to accomdate the extra footage and maintain the running time around 86 minutes), Ripps also re-edited some of the scenes to prefer roughly 4 minutes of footage from Jack Curtis’ reduce. Although touted as the “uncut” version, it is not uncut.
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The MPI/Dark Sky DVD print IS missing the following compared to the Retro version:
1) A 2 second insert shot of a bloody hand in the opening sequence.
2) A 1.5 second insert shot of a white note advertising “SEAPLANE CHARTER FLIGHTS” that was added to veil a scene edit.
3) A 4 second replacement shot with a close-up of “Bartell” twisting a knife into “Miss Winters”.
4) A 4 second replacement shot with a close-up of “Bartell” inserting a hypo into “Grant’s” arm.
5) About 3.5 minutes of the foul Nazi flashback sequence, which replaced about 19 seconds of Bartell’s flesh eater history speech. This has been added as a bonus feature to the disc for those who wish to glance it.
6) The red color-tinted “blood in the observe” sequence. Here, it appears in murky and white. In the Retromedia interview, Arnold Drake says that Jack Curtis did the color tint sequence before the film was turned over for distribution, so in theory, it should be here as well.
With the added Nazi sequence as a bonus feature, the disc is only missing about 10 to 12 seconds of inserted/replaced footage that wasn’t in the unusual movie to originate with and about 6 seconds of color tinting.
If you must have those 12 seconds of (not really) slit footage, search eBay. The “DVDs” sold there are usually the theatrical nick.
However, this version of the film includes everything else: ALL the footage edited out from the theatrical version, all the blood, all the gore…the cutting of the flesh eaters out of Grant’s leg, the skeleton supply boat captain, the see-through Omar, Bartell taking the “easy” plot out…EVERYTHING.
The film looks better than it ever has and the audio is crisp and definite. It appears Murky Sky had access to the fresh film elements whereas the theatrical print on the Retro disc looks a couple of generations removed. The extras include the Nazi sequence with outtakes(!), and a couple of TV spots. It is a five star disc all the method except that it is missing all the large special features the Retro disc was going to have. Retro made it all available when Unlit Sky was discovered to have pudgy distribution rights. What would’ve been nice is a 2-disc edition with both the director’s chop and the theatrical slice with all the extras. That would truly have been the definitive edition.
For not including the Retro bonus features (and possibly the theatrical slice as a bonus), I dock it a star. I would dock it 2 stars but the film presentation is too pleasant for this DVD to warrant a 3 star rating.
Apparently there may be a couple of different version of the film The Flesh Eaters (1964) floating around, but this is the only one I’ve ever seen, so it’s the only one I can comment on…I do want to remove a moment to thank another Amazon reviewer named Charles, who very clearly, and appreciatively, delineated the differences between the DVD version that was originally supposed to be released, versus the version that eventually was released. Written by Arnold Drake (Who Killed Teddy Own), and directed by Jack Curtis, whom some may know through the tedious 60s intriguing series Accelerate Racer (English version) as the voices of Pops Racer, Lionel Racer, Inspector Detector, and others, the film features perennial silver mask Nazi villain Martin Kosleck (Bomber’s Moon, 36 Hours, Morituri) and daytime soaper Byron Sanders (”The Doctors”, “Search for Tomorrow”), who, apparently, was the model for Salvador Dali’s oil painting “The Crucifixion”. Also appearing is Barbara Wilkin (I Saw What You Did), Rita Morley (”The Edge of Night”), and Ray Tudor, whose only other film credit is a movie titled Five the Hard Method (1969), better known to Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans as The Sidehackers, featuring the indomitable Ross Hagen, who doesn’t not appear in this film.
The movie opens on a young couple frolicking on a good-sized boat. They kill up going for a swim, followed by some ominous, yet kookie sound effects…that can’t be salubrious…and it isn’t, for the couple, at least. Next we’re at a seaport somewhere in Modern York City (peep the Empire Set Building in the skyline? ) and we meet a hunky, granite jawed, all American charter sea pilot named Grant Murdoch (Sanders) . Seems Grant’s has some fiduciary issues (he’s in hock up to his eyeballs), and is forced to get a business proposition to soar a boozy actress named Laura Winters (Morley), and her buxomlicious secretary Jan Letterman (Wilkin) to a spot called Provincetown, despite a inappropriate awesome tropical storm exciting into the plot. The trio occupy off, but soon accelerate into difficulties as the plane’s engine conks out, and they had to state down on the beach of what they contain to be an uninhabited island…turns out the island isn’t completely uninhabited as no sooner do they land than they meet Professor Peter Bartell (Kosleck), a marine biologist camped on the beach studying shellfish, or so he claims. The group shacks up in the Professor’s tent while the storm blows over, some stuff happens, the plane is eventually lost, Ms. Winters is in need of her `medicine (one of her suitcases, left on the plane, was filled with nothing but booze), the beach is cloak with the bones of fish corpses, and Grant begins to suspect the Professor has more of an interest on the island than unprejudiced crustaceans. Soon it’s discovered the waters around the island are teeming with runt, parasitic flesh eating life forms, and the group has no means of escaping. But wait, there’s some dingus on a raft coming towards the island, a really annoying hepcat, beatnik, be-bopping fool named Omar (Tudor), who sadly makes it to the beach intact…eventually Bartell’s relationship with the parasitic creatures along with his contaminated plans becomes definite, all leading up to a accurate doozy of a finale.
This movie definitely had its flaws, the main one being the didactic, expository scripting, but in terms of sleazy, schlocky sci-fi cinema, it most definitely hit the place. One of my common scenes keen Grant getting some of the parasites on his leg, and Professor Bartell performing some on the beach surgery with his knife…after removing the creatures from Grant’s badly injured leg, Bartell yells to Jan for bandages, to which she promptly removes her shirt…hello see candy…hotchie mama! Okay, she was wearing a bra, but smooth, you gotta treasure a woman of action, willing to doff her clothing in a time of need. As far as the performances, I view most did very well (I really hated Tudor’s beatnik character, but found solace in his eventual fate) . Were they predictable? Perhaps, but predictable with flair… Kosleck’s played a similar character in numerous films, but I never seem to rep tired of it…you wacky angry scientist types, how could I not esteem you? As far as Sanders, well, he objective seemed like a soap opera actor in a sci-fi/horror film, his strong features placing him squarely in the role of the hero. I mediate my well-liked character was of Laura Winters, played by Rita Morley. I couldn’t choose if I liked her character better drunk or sober. Drunk, she was splendid silly, while sober, she was kinda smarmy, condescending, and honest a lot of fun to stare. Some aspects of the film didn’t really jibe for me, like after Grant’s incident with the parasitic creatures chewing up his leg and subsequent hack surgery, we study him bounding about like he was never distress (perhaps the filmmakers forgot to snarl him he was supposed to be injured, or his character was a snappily healer) . Also, if Ms. Winters was the complete boozehound she was made out to be, I would have fully expected her to be suffering from a serious case of the D.T. (delirium tremors) once she was gash off…one last thing, what the hell was Bartell doing with a giant solar collector on the beach? Ah well, given how mighty fun I had with the rest of the film, I explain these were relatively minor points. The special effects were pure bargain basement, mostly fascinating someone manipulating the film negative (scratching it or such), but it worked for me (when you’re dealing with minimal budgets, you sometimes have to resort to the most economical methods) . The creature effects approach the slay were most friendly, and I was surprised to scrutinize a couple of fairly gory sequences. All in all, given this was director Curtis’ one and only film, I’d say it was one hell of an misfortune, and definitely worth checking out if you dig this sort of thing. One tantalizing credit has Radley Metzger as the film editor here…if you’re unusual with Metzger, he’s basically one of the pioneers of adult cinema, and the inspiration for Burt Reynolds’ character in the Paul Thomas Anderson Boogie Nights (1997) .
The widescreen (1.85:1) anamorphic describe on this Gloomy Sky Films DVD release is most profitable in terms of clarity, distinguished better than I would have expected, and the audio is very distinct. Extras include two trailers for the film, along with a deleted, lurid, Nazi experiment sequence, and outtakes. It seems Fred Olin Ray’s Retromedia group was originally going to release this DVD, and they even got film historian Tom Weaver to do a commentary track, but that didn’t execute it to this release, which is too dreadful as I’m determined he would have a lot of spirited bits of information to recount.
Cookieman108
By the method, the artwork on the DVD case for this film may give the impression the film is in color, but it’s not…it’s beautiful dark and white, through and through (I guess there was a color sequence advance the extinguish in one version of the film, but that’s not the version on this DVD) .
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