Product Details

• Actors: Barbara Steele, Cameron Mitchell, Fausto Tozzi, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Luciano Pollentin
• Directors: Mario Bava, Salvatore Billitteri
• Writers: Alberto Bevilacqua, Alberto Liberati, Aleksei Tolstoy, Eliana De Sabata, Ennio De Concini
• Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: Italian
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 5
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
• DVD Release Date: April 3, 2007
• Run Time: 430 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000MV8ABI
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,470 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #5 in	Movies & TV > Cult Movies > Cult Directors > Bava, Mario
  #5 in	Movies & TV > Cult Movies > Anchor Bay Horror Store > Box Sets
  #11 in	Movies & TV > Cult Movies > Anchor Bay Horror Store > Special Editions

• For more information about "The Mario Bava Collection, Volume 1 (Black Sunday / Black Sabbath / The Girl Who Knew Too Much / Kill Baby Kill / Knives of the Avenger)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Five of Mario Bava's best films are included in this box set, minus his forays into eroticism, like Blood and Black Lace. Still, the lines between sexual pathos and violence blur in these selections that influenced not only other famed directors of Giallo, such as Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, but also spawned the American golden age in horror, led by directors such as John Carpenter. Three black and white films here exemplify Bava's trademark use of chiaroscuro mixed with suspense-building cinematography first developed in early horror classics like Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In the Hitchcock-inspired Evil Eye (1963), tourist Nora Davis (Leticia Roman) witnesses a murder but can't convince police of the crime. Kill Baby Kill! (1966) is the prototype for all little girl-ghost films. Dr. Paul Eswai (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) is recruited to solve the mystery of Villa Graps, where Baroness Graps (Giana Vivaldi) reanimates her dead daughter, Melissa, by killing innocent villagers. In Black Sunday (1960), the witch Princess Asa Vajda comes back from the dead to inhabit her look-alike, Katia, both played by Barbara Steele, the original femme fatale to which all brunette vamps, like Soledad Miranda (Vampyros Lesbos) and Elvira, are indebted.

In Technicolor, Bava's fantastically rainbow-lit films underpin the director's fascination with connections between our world and those imagined. Black Sabbath (1963) is a trilogy hosted by Boris Karloff, who also stars as a Russian vampire in its segment, "The Wurdalak." "The Telephone," and "The Drop of Water," in which a nurse, Helen Correy (Jacqueline Pierreux), steals a ring then fears that her dead medium patient seeks revenge, are acute studies of guilt and paranoia. The Viking saga, Knives of the Avenger (1966), like Bava's Hercules in the Haunted World, spawned several sword and sorcery films, while protagonist Rurik's (Cameron Mitchell's) knife-throwing is indeed entertaining. Screened back to back, these films provide evidence of Bava's influence in the horror genre. Moreover, they reveal Bava's deep understanding of horror's many facets, whether sexually, psychologically, or physically based. —Trinie Dalton

Product Description

More than a quarter of a century after his death, director Mario Bava remains one of international cinema’s most controversial icons. Today his influence — marked by stunning visuals, daring sexuality and shocking violence — can still be seen in the works of Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Tim Burton, Dario Argento and countless others in a legacy that extends far beyond the horror genre. This collection brings together 5 landmark movies from the first half of Bava’s career — encompassing the original giallo, a bold Viking epic, and his three gothic horror masterpieces — featuring new transfers, original European versions, and exclusive featurettes to create the definitive celebration of one of the most important filmmakers of all time.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bittersweet Box Set, April 8, 2007

By	R. Rosener "Photomatic" (St. Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's great to have all of these Mario Bava titles in one set. The transfers are really beautiful, and a revelation to those of us with memories of grainy 16mm TV prints. "Black Sunday's" monochrome atmosphere looks particularly lush in this set. "Kill Baby Kill" is a major upgrade to the crummy, desaturated DVD I have from Image.
But they really SHOULD have included BOTH US and Italian versions of the star attraction, "Black Sabbbath". Or at least cut in Karloff's actual voice to the Italian version! Why not re-edit the way it should be? I still rushed out to buy this set, but cannot give it five stars due to the pre-release publicity which stated BOTH Black Sabbath versions would be in the box set. Anchor Bay owes all of us an apology or a free DVD of the English version.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bava, Bava, Bava, February 5, 2007

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Mario Bava was one of the most underrated filmmakers of the 20th century -- not to mention the most versatile, turning out giallo thrillers, gothic horror, Viking action, Hercules, a Western, and even a Swinging Sixties crime caper. Five of these brilliant movies are brought together in the "Mario Bava Collection Volume 1," including one of his most famous horror movies ever.

The poorly-named "Kill Baby Kill" opens when a young woman leaps onto an iron fence. Dr. Eswai (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) is called in to do an autopsy, with the help of beautiful Monica (Erica Blanc). He finds a coin in the girl's heart, and none of the townspeople will tell him -- because if they do, they will suffer a similar fate.

He's even more annoyed when local sorceress Ruth (Fabienne Dali) begins using her powers to protect a young girl from a childlike specter -- little dead aristocrat Melissa Graps. But as the bodies pile up, and Monica is plagued by bizarre nightmares, Eswai must accept Ruth's help to save Monica from the ghost, and an evil baroness.

"Black Sunday (The Mask of Satan)" is a bizarre tale of vampirism -- evil princess Asa (Barbare Steele) and her servant were executed centuries ago, for serving the devil and all-around nastiness. As usual, she places an evil curse on the Vadja family, and vows to return one day to get revenge on them, just before being impaled by the "devil's mask," a spiked mask that kills the wearer.

But in the modern day, two doctors on their way to a convention accidentally reopen her grave, and awaken her with a drop of blood. Turns out that Asa isn't QUITE dead -- and now gaining new power, as she discovers that her distant descendent Katia Vadja is a dead ringer for her. Now she's trying to possess Katia's body -- can one of the doctors save her?

"Black Sabbath" is actually three stories -- "The Telephone," a Hitchcockian giallo thriller about a woman haunted by phone calls from an ex-lover. "The Wurdalak" is a twist on typical vampire stories, with Boris Karloff turned into a wurdalak, a vampire who only drinks the blood of loved ones. And in "A Drop of Water," a nurse steals a ring from the corpse of a medium, and is unsurprisingly haunted by her.

"Knives of the Avenger" is one of Bava's lesser movies, but shows he could handle unusual genre films. A mystery man (Cameron Mitchell) who calls himself Helmut saves young widow Karin (Elissa Pichelli) and her son from some thugs, sent by a local regent who wants to marry the woman (whether she likes it or not), because she is the widow of the late king.

Helmut stays in the house to protect Karin from the regent, and becomes a sort of mentor to the boy. But Karin doesn't realize that Helmut (not his real name) has a nasty past that he's keeping hidden -- he may be the man who raped her many years ago. When Karin's husband returns, the mystery man saddles up to save the mother and child.

No, "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" was not a sequel to Hitchcock's movies, but a stylish Hitchcockian giallo. Nora Davis (Leticia Roman) arrives in Rome to care for an ill friend, only to have her expire that evening of a heart attack. As she tries to get help, she is mugged, and blearily sees a man pulling a knife out of a woman's corpse -- but of course, nobody believes her.

Nora moves in near her friend's house, and does some detecting on her own -- it seems that this murder follows the pattern of a serial killer who has haunted the area for years. They thought they caught the man who did it, but they captured the wrong man -- and now the killer is coming after Nora next.

Mario Bava didn't need massive budgets or special effects to create his brilliant movies -- just some solid actors and a haunting backdrop. Crumbling castles, the streets of Rome, sword-and-sandal countryside and misty mountains are all used in these movies, with performances that range from brilliant (Steele) to merely solid (Mitchell).

In fact, Bava was such a brilliant director that he was able to elevate anything with his cinematic touches -- colourful lighting, eerie camerawork, exquisite use of light and shadow, gory executions, and even a touch of comedy here and there. Even when the scripts are subpar ("Knives of the Avenger"), he manages to include some nice touches.

"Mario Bava Collection Volume 1" is a collection of five excellent movies, ranging from amazing to solidly enjoyable. And it's a good demonstration of Bava's talents, and the kinds of movies he could undertake. Definitely worth getting, especially for horror buffs.

39 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AAAAAAAAAGH! THE HORROR! NO US VERSIONS!!!, April 2, 2007

By	2littlemoney "somuch2buy" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Well...........in case you didn't hear, don't have frequent Net access, or whatever. This new Bava set, cool as it is, is now no longer going to have the AIP/US cut of BLACK SABBATH. All the Net reviews of pre-release copies I have seen as of this date (4/2/07) confirm the prints on both the BLACK SABBATH & BLACK SUNDAY are cleaner prints, but essentially the same as the Image releases. I don't want to knock Anchor's restoration, but it's the same ol' same ol'....what was gonna make this set pop was the release of both versions of the films. I know there is an audio distinction to BLACK SUNDAY, but it escapes me at this second. So buyers who were looking for the OTHER variants to these specific titles like I was (I already own the original Image releases and am a semi-CASUAL Bava fan I suppose...these two films being my favorites of his), make sure you do your homework to see if the upgrade is worth it to you. Luckily, the price is somewhat cheap enough depending on where you get it (cheapest here, so far). But I was expecting to run out and get this the day of release, then saw the reviews and that basically put the fire out of my little shopping purchase. This can wait.
And before anyone screams at me for not having this in hand and 'reviewing': Hey. a lot of people were expecting BOTH versions to these films to be included, and now they're not, so this might be helpful and save some disappointment. I sure was going to be ticked off.

And the film companies wonder why the bootleg market flourishes....lol