Digi-Schlock: LETHAL LADIES COLLECTION VOL. 2 (Shout! Factory 2-DVD Set)

By this point, it seems like Shout Factory has cov­ered most of the key gems in their dvd/blu-ray tour through Roger Corman’s New World Pictures fil­mog­ra­phy.  Key films like Death Race 2000, Piranha and Battle Beyond The Stars have all been treated to deluxe edi­tions that offer newly stel­lar pic­ture qual­ity and a host of worth­while sup­ple­ments new and old.

That said, those who really know their New World his­tory are savvy enough to under­stand that there’s always a gem wait­ing to be redis­cov­ered.  In the case of Lethal Ladies Collection Vol. 2, it uncov­ers a much-coveted title in The Arena and gives it an impres­sive treat­ment.  Better yet, it adds a few more lesser-known titles and main­tains the fan-friendly prices that Shout Factory’s New World reis­sues are known for.

All three films fea­tured on this set — The Arena, Fly Me and Cover Girl Models — all ben­e­fit from new anamor­phic trans­fers taken from gen­uine cel­lu­loid source mate­ri­als.  The Arena is restored to its full Techniscope (2.35:1) glory for the first time on American home video: the source used has a few emul­sion scratches and two brief snip­pets that had to be taken from a full-frame mas­ter but the major­ity of it looks quite impres­sive, boast­ing rich col­ors, nice black lev­els and a solid level of detail.  Mono audio is retained for this and it sounds fine, reflect­ing the above-average dub that was done for this film in Italy.

The ele­ment used for Fly Me is a lit­tle beat-up in spots, par­tic­u­larly around reel changes, but most of it boasts vivid col­ors and an a level of detail that is leagues beyond its past VHS incar­na­tions.  Cover Girl Models looks pretty great from start to fin­ish, hav­ing the least amount of ele­ment issues and impres­sively crisp lev­els of detail and color through­out.  Like The Arena, the mono audio mix is used for both of these titles and each sounds fine.

As is usu­ally the case with Shout! Factory’s multi-title pack­ages, a nice effort has been made to pro­vide some bonus mate­r­ial here.  The key ben­e­fi­ciary of the extras-minded atten­tion here is The Arena, which boasts a trailer, a new com­men­tary track and a new fea­turette.  The trailer here comes from what appears to be a latter-day reis­sue under the title Gladiator Women and func­tions as a sort-of high­lights reel, com­plete with a red-band intro.

The com­men­tary pairs direc­tor Steve Carver with mod­er­a­tor Katarina Leigh Waters, who is bet­ter known to cult DVD fans for the recent line of cult/horror DVD’s she has done with Scorpion Releasing.  If you’ve ever heard a com­men­tary with Carver, you know he has a good mem­ory and is gen­er­ous with his behind-the-scenes sto­ries.  His track for The Arena is no excep­tion to the rule and he talks at length about the chal­lenges of shoot­ing a film on an “under­cover” basis in Italy while deal­ing with the dif­fer­ent cus­toms and super­sti­tions unique to an Italian crew.

Along the way, he reveals a ton of fas­ci­nat­ing tid­bits, like how Pam Grier’s glad­i­a­tor getup was mod­elled after Woody Strode’s in Spartacus and a great story about how Federico Fellini, who was shoot­ing Amarcord nearby, ended up vis­it­ing the set and ogling the women.  Waters does a solid job mod­er­at­ing, ask­ing the occa­sional ques­tion to keep the track mov­ing but mostly giv­ing Carver room to share his plen­ti­ful mem­o­ries.  It’s a strong track and a must for any fans of the film.

The fea­turette does a nice job of fill­ing in the gaps not cov­ered in the com­men­tary.  Carver appears here and his mem­o­ries are fleshed out by the likes of pro­duc­ers Roger Corman and Mark Damon as well as actor Margaret Markov.  A lot of great mate­r­ial is packed into a tight 12-minute run­ning time: Corman reveals he paired Markov with Grier to cap­i­tal­ize on the suc­cess of Black Mama, White Mama, Damon offers some tart rec­ol­lec­tions about Corman’s infa­mous tight­ness with a bud­get and Markov talks about how Carver demanded the actress not get involved in dat­ing off the set to ensure he’d get his film in the can.  Markov and Damon ended up mar­ry­ing after work­ing on this film and that is addressed dur­ing the end cred­its of this seg­ment.  All in all, it’s a worth­while lit­tle fea­turette that will in some gaps for b-movie historians.

There’s only one extra on the disc with Fly Me and Cover Girl Models: it’s a fun 30-second t.v. spot for Fly Me that sug­gests the hero­ines “fly out of the screen and onto your lap”(!).  That said, given the gen­eros­ity of a two-films/one-disc setup, there isn’t much room to complain.

All in all, the Lethal Ladies Collection Vol. 2 is another strong addi­tion to Shout! Factory’s slate of Corman releases and a good value for the cost-conscious cult movie buff.  If bat­tling babes is your plea­sure, you really can’t go wrong here: The Arena alone makes it worth the money and the other films fur­ther up the set’s value.

For Schlockmania’s film review of The Arena, click here.

For Schlockmania’s film review of Cover Girl Models, click here.

For Schlockmania’s film review of Fly Me, click here.