Mickey Spillane IS Mike Hammer... in HD!

On October 14th, Scorpion Releasing presents the 1963 film, The Girl Hunters, starring author Mickey Spillane as his own hardboiled P.I. hero, Mike Hammer, on Blu-ray and DVD. The Blu-ray version will be a limited edition and will be sold only on the Kino-Lorber website. It will feature a brand new 16x9, 2:35 HD master, as well as an audio commentary with Max Allan Collins, and vintage on-camera interviews with Mickey Spillane and Shirley Eaton (Goldfinger). MSRP for the Blu-ray is a hefty 29.95, while the DVD edition will retail for 19.95.

I am deeply annoyed that this will be an expensive Limited Edition online exclusive, but I'll have to get it anyway. I'm a big fan of the movie, and it'll be nice to finally have a quality video edition

Interesting note: back around '95, when I was working at TeknoComix as editor of the comic book series, Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger, I gave Mickey my personal VHS bootleg of this movie because he didn't have a copy and said he hadn't seen it in a decade or two!

Now, if only somebody could release the 1982 version of I, The Jury on Blu-ray...

Nine B-Movies I (Still) Want On DVD

Here's one of my periodic lists of B-movies and cult films that I still want on DVD (or even Manufactured-On-Demand DVD-R) for my video collection. Most of these are favorites from my days haunting mom & pop video stores in the Eighties.

As far as I know (and I hope someone will let me know if I'm mistaken), none of these titles are currently available on authorized, Region 1, DVDs or Blu-ray. (Don't talk to me about R2 or other foreign editions. I know it's difficult to believe, movie buff that I am, but I don't own a region-free player and couldn't afford import discs even if I did).

This was originally a list of ten movies, but I just found out that the 1984 Tom Selleck film Lassiter is due out on DVD later this month. 

Arena (1989)

Avenging Force (1986)

Eliminators (1986)

Force: Five (1981)

Godzilla (1985)

I, The Jury (1982)

Ninja III - The Domination (1984)

PeaceMaker (1990)

The Soldier (1982)

I have about half of these titles on VHS, but aside from the fact that they're all pan & scan versions, they're all so old that the tapes are starting to demagnetize (is that a word?) and the image quality is significantly degraded....

Filling In The Gaps

Thanks to some recent freelance income, we were able to catch up on our overdue medical and veterinary bills, and even had a little left over. I've used some of that small surplus to fill in holes in my various pop culture collections. Specifically, I've bought the handful of seasons of the WB/DC Animated series Batman Beyond (seasons 2 & 3) and Teen Titans (seasons 3-5) that we were missing. I'm a big fan of both programs, and I'm grateful that I now have the complete runs of those shows on my shelves, especially since I missed the last couple years of both shows when we chose not to get cable TV here.

I also ordered the last Mickey Spillane/Max Allan Collins "Mike Hammer" novel, Kiss Her Goodbye. It came out last year, but I was unable to purchase it when it was released. Now I'm nearly caught up with my Collins collection... just in time to look forward to the next Spillane/Collins collaboration, Lady, Go Die! - which is due out in May.

Since I stopped buying comics on a regular basis several years ago, I have still tried to follow a couple of ongoing titles in trade paperback form. One of these is The Walking Dead, the other is Dark Horse' Conan. Unfortunately, money's been so tight the last couple of years, that I've fallen behind on both of them. I'm still behind (I think they're up to Volume 11 or 12... or maybe even beyond), but I was able to find volumes 7 and 8 of Conan on sale online at a very reasonable price, so I'm closing the gap slightly.

The two books arrived today, and I'm really eager to read them.

Hammer Time!

I finally received the Darren McGavin Mike Hammer series DVDs that I ordered from Amazon a couple weeks ago, on Saturday. I watched the first disc last night. The picture quality on the DVDs is excellent (much better than the M Squad transfers). A&E did a great job on these discs. 

The first three or four episodes were fairly pedestrian (though still entertaining), but then things really picked up with a handful of fairly tough stories from Evan "Ed McBain" Hunter (as "Curt Cannon") and pulpster Frank Kane. I always enjoyed Kane's "Johnny Liddell" private eye novels, and his Hammer scripts are a lot of fun.

I think I'll alternate episodes of Mike Hammer and M Squad for the next couple of weeks, possibly a with a few Peter Gunns tossed in for variety....

If I Had A Hammer...

I was over at Amazon on Thursday night, checking the tracking info on an order I placed a week or so ago, when the site helpfully informed me that one of the items that I'd had on my "Wish List" since last Fall - the A&E Home Video DVD collection of the 1956-57 Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer television series - was currently on sale, at more than 50% off its suggested retail price.

So, I did what I usually do in such situations: I whined to Brandi until she couldn't take it anymore and told me I could order it, just to shut me up.

What can I say? It works.

Anyway, I've placed the order, and I can't wait to get my hands on this set. It should come as no surprise to anyone that I'm a huge fan of actor Darren McGavin, and ever since I found out back in the 80s that he had played Hammer on TV, I've wanted to see the show. According to the customer reviews over on Amazon, the audio and video quality of this DVD set is excellent. I'm especially glad that A&E released all 78 episodes in one set (even if I couldn't afford it until it went on sale); frankly, I'm still disappointed/annoyed that they never finished releasing Peter Gunn on DVD.

Now if only someone would release the 80s Stacy Keach Mike Hammer series - and the 1981 version of I, The Jury - on disc, I'd be one very happy Spillane fan.

More Mike Hammer coming to DVD!

2011 has been a good year for Mike Hammer on DVD so far, even if the Armand Assante I, The Jury and the 80s Stacy Keach TV series (both of them) are still among the missing. We've had Criterion's amazing restoration of Kiss Me Deadly (my review HERE), and the MGM Limited Edition Collection has made available the rather less-than-stellar (but still appreciated) My Gun Is Quick (my review HERE) on manufactured-on-demand DVD.

Now, it looks like A&E Home Video will be releasing the 50's syndicated television series, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, starring the incredible Darren McGavin to DVD in September, with a 12-disc set containing the entire series. The suggested retail price is astronomical (at least, for me), but at least they're releasing the whole series at once, so if I do manage to scrape up the lettuce, I won't have to wonder if the rest of the seasons will come out.

Yeah - damn right, I'm still burning about their Peter Gunn DVD releases ten years or so back, which dried up incomplete after two volumes.

Thanks to Bish's Beat for the head's up. You can pre-order the set from Amazon (at a slightly less astronomical discounted price) here: Mickey Spillanes Mike Hammer-Complete Series

Still Missing on DVD: I, The Jury (1982)

So, Robert Aldrich's Mickey Spillane film "adaptation," Kiss Me Deadly came out on Blu-ray last week (I haven't picked it up yet, but it's a priority purchase, and I hope to get my hands on it soon), and My Gun Is Quick came out on Manufacture-On-Demand DVD from MGM earlier this month (you can read my review HERE), but there's another Spillane-based film that has never been released on DVD that I would very much like to add to my library, and that's 1982's I, The Jury, directed by Richard T. Heffron from a screenplay by Larry Cohen.

Starring Armand Assante as Mike Hammer and Barbara Carrera as the flick's femme fatale, I, The Jury takes great liberties with the Spillane source novel (as do the other films mentioned above), but is chock-full of sleazy, drive-in movie energy. The cinematography has something of a TV movie look (at least, it does on the pan & scan VHS print; the only one available for the last thirty years - presumably, it would look better in its correct theatrical widescreen aspect ratio), but it's gleefully violent, filled with gratuitous nudity, and Assante plays Hammer with a nice psychotic edge. Cohen's script is wryly humorous and damned sexy, and the supporting cast - which includes Laurene Landon, Paul Sorvino, Judson Scott and Geoffrey Lewis - is great. I also love Bill Conti's jazzy score.

It was not a box office success, and it's not really remembered fondly by most people (at least, not on the IMDb), but I've loved it ever since I first rented the tape as a teenager. It's not at all faithful to Spillane's novel (except the ending), but it's not a 50s period piece, either. As a product of the early 80s, I think it updates the Spillane style quite appropriately. Everything's more cynical and graphic - and that was the early 1980s, all over.

It was originally released by American Cinema, one of the first "big" films from the scrappy little studio that had made the early Chuck Norris vehicles A Force Of One and The Octagon. The VHS was issued not long after its theatrical showings by CBS/Fox - but that particular entity no longer exists, with CBS and Fox having long ago gone their separate corporate ways. A few of the American Cinema titles made it to DVD a few years ago (albeit as pan & scan, budget-priced discs from Trinity Entertainment), but I, The Jury wasn't among them, so I wonder if the rights are tied up elsewhere?

I'd love to see I, The Jury make it to DVD (or, better yet, Blu-ray); maybe a quality cult label like Blue Underground or Severin Films could untangle the rights and give it a digital upgrade.

I hope so - my VHS tape is nearly worn out.

Private Eyes on Netflix Instant

Just discovered a couple of private eye flicks that I've never seen before are now available on Netflix Instant: Blake Edwards' 1967 Peter Gunn feature, Gunn, and the 1957 Mickey Spillane adaptation, My Gun Is Quick, "introducing" Robert Bray as Mike Hammer.

Weirdly, Netflix's print of Gunn has French titles and credits, and is, unfortunately, presented in pan & scan instead of its proper 1.85:1 aspect ratio. This makes certain scenes very cramped, and, in the case of a love scene between Craig Stevens and Laura Devon (replacing the TV show's Lola Albright as Gunn's main squeeze, Edie), disturbingly intimate. Still, I'm grateful for the opportunity to finally see it; to the best of my knowledge, it's never been released on U.S. home video, and I've never stumbled across it on TV.

My Gun Is Quick has a bad reputation among Spillane fans and film buffs, but as it's a 50s Mike Hammer film, I've wanted to see it for years. Even if it's bad, it will be cool seeing the Mike Hammer character in his proper time and setting, shot while the books were still the hottest things on the shelves. Like Gunn, I don't think it's ever been on video, and it eluded me for decades on cable TV. It is coming out on manufactured-on-demand DVD-R from the MGM Limited Collector's Edition line in a month or so, but I'd like to see it before shelling out cash to buy a copy for my collection... so....

I found both of these completely by accident - Netflix's instant titles are infuriatingly difficult to search through. There are some surprising - and rare - gems hidden in there, but they're damned hard to find.

Missing Mickey

Today is Mickey Spillane's birthday. If I counted right (never a sure thing), he would have been 92 years old this year. I discovered Mickey's work - specifically I, The Jury - when I was in high school, and I've never been the same since.

I had the great good fortune to work tangentially with Mickey back in the 90s, when I edited the monthly comic book Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger, co-created and written by Max Allan Collins, for Tekno*Comix. I spoke with Mickey several times over the phone, he graciously signed my few Mike Hammer hardcovers, and we met in person just once, when he visited the Tekno offices in Boca Raton.

Ironically - or at least interestingly - that was on his birthday, too. We all went out to lunch, and when the waitress brought him his complimentary birthday dessert, he thanked her and sent her on her way with a charming smile. He then turned to me and slid the dish across the table. "This isn't on my diet," he said. "Here. You have it."

Conscious of my steadily expanding girth, I declined. That's when he fixed me with his gunsight eyes and said, in a gravely semi-whisper: "Eat it."

I flashed on the scene in the movie The Girl Hunters, where Spillane, playing Mike Hammer, popped a bullet out of the clip of his .45 and rolled it across a bar to a greasy sleazebag with an icepick. "Eat it," he growled. The punk did.

I was no braver - and that cheesecake was much more palatable than a .45 bullet. I ate the damned dessert.

I miss you, Mick. For that story and all the others you gave me - and millions of other grateful readers.