20 minutes ago I was checking the web to see if any labels had been so kind as to release a blu-ray of Joe D'Amato's highly entertaining TOUGH TO KILL (aka DURI A MORIRE, Italy 1978 - or 1979 depending on which website you check) but nope, nothing, zilch, nada!
I can't belive it's been 10 (ten!!!) years since I posted about a crappy American dvd release of the film!!! (link to the old post here). Fred Andersson - Ninja Dixon, Simon - Explosive Action, Paul Cooke all commented on that post. And we STILL haven't got a proper release!!!
Anyhoo, instead of finding a blu-ray I discovered that the crappy "widescreen" print from the dvd is now on YouTube and so I might as well post it here. Quotation marks cos I'm pretty sure they've made it to look like letterbox by covering up some "foreign" subtitles. Maybe they used one of the Scandinavian video releases for their dvd, or the Japanese tape. My own vhs is from Greece but from memory I seem to remember it's fullscreen.
I looked up the film and apparently it had a cinema run in Denmark in late 1979 as Selvmordspatruljen [Suicide Squad]. Check the old post for the Danish trailer. I found an ad-mat for the film in the Ekstra Bladet newspaper from November 12, 1979.
german label "edel" released a dvd in 2016 with a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. it might be the uncut version - it has a '16' rating, just like both german vhs releases, which were uncut. the bad news: it's in german only and i've heard the picture quality is bad - whatever that means, considering type and age of the movie. my guess would be that they used one of the german vhs releases as their source and didn't do much of a clean up job (if at all).
ReplyDeletethe barcode is 4051238040715, just in case you want to check for availability. (try german amazon at amazon.de if you don't get any results in "your" amazon). the title of the release is "tough to kill - die aasgeier kommen".
Thanks for the info, mr. Anon. A good dvd would certainly be nice, but if the German dvd is both dubbed in German AND has bad picture quality then ... I think I'll just stick with my Greek vhs for the time being. At least it's in English.
DeleteIf it makes you feel any better, I am currently assembling an extended (if low-res) composite cut culled from seven different versions.
ReplyDeleteThat DOES make me feel better! haha. That's very cool. Are you gonna make it available somewhere?
DeleteOh yes. It's still in the works, but will be made public.
DeleteIncidentally, the German DVD is a slightly trimmed-down variant of the French VHS. Interestingly, the German cut has some extra '80s synth muzak interjected into it, some of which replaces original cues.
I am proud to report the extended composite is complete (or at least as close to complete as it's going to get). It now runs upwards of 96min in NTSC, compiled from seven different sources (including the soundtrack), with a "group credit" at the end. There are subtitle tracks included for the few scenes that need them. You are welcomed to share this video or post it anywhere you like, providing you give credit where it is due. :)
ReplyDeletehttps://mega.nz/file/xz5WCApb#_vSCDY7oxRMOS9MbzgCcTehhTJmwz4gwrX9lNa3Hx3M
Enjoy!
Luigi! That's great! Thanks for lette me know and sharing it here. I'll go get it right away. (y)
DeleteLuigi, I am not on any "sites", but if you do more composites, feel free to post links here again. xD
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