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A nice ele­ment of Shout! Factory’s Roger Corman DVD/blu-ray reis­sue series is that they’ve man­aged to work in some entries from his Concorde Pictures days along­side the expected New World Pictures fare.  For exam­ple, there have been qual­ity DVD releases of Jim Wynorski’s Not Of This Earth remake and The Terror Within.  More recently, they made a lot of grind­house buffs happy by turn­ing their atten­tions to the 1985 cult favorite Streetwalkin’.  The result not only looks great but also offers an impres­sive bonus fea­ture in the bargain.

The trans­fer is sur­pris­ingly strong for an 1980’s era low bud­get effort.  One of the most appeal­ing aspects of Streetwalkin’ is Steven Fierberg’s neon-drenched cin­e­matog­ra­phy and it comes across nicely here.  The anamor­phic let­ter­boxed image does well with the vivid hues as well as the fre­quent night pho­tog­ra­phy, offer­ing up an accept­able grain tex­ture that doesn’t get over­bear­ing.  It retains its gritty yet styl­ish look and fans will be happy for the upgrade from the old, fuzzy VHS edi­tions of this film.  The sound retains the orig­i­nal Dolby 2.0 mix: there’s a lit­tle age-related wear and tear here (the odd pop or crackle) but over­all it retains a solid, vin­tage sound.

There’s also a truly note­wor­thy extra on this disc: a com­men­tary track with director/co-writer Joan Freeman and her producer/co-writer hus­band, Robert Alden.  The two offer a thought­ful but no-holds-barred com­bi­na­tion of mem­o­ries and analy­sis of the Corman film­mak­ing expe­ri­ence.  Both speak frankly about how Corman was an effec­tive but oft-manipulative men­tor, right down to using spies on the set to keep tabs on the young film­mak­ers’ progress.

Better yet, there are some fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ries about the research done to give the film its sense of grit, includ­ing a great story about Freeman using her­self as bait in a pimp bar to get first-hand expe­ri­ence on deal­ing with them.  Elsewhere, tales of a real-life hooker and pimp who served as script con­sul­tants are unex­pect­edly poignant.  It all adds up to a real trea­sure of a track that fans of the film will adore.

The only hic­cup on this disc is that the back cover promises a trailer that doesn’t turn up on the disc itself.  That minor issue aside, this disc of Streetwalkin’ is another strong edi­tion to Shout! Factory’s Corman reper­toire and a must for fans of this series.  It’ll look great on the DVD shelf next to your copies of Vice Squad and the Angel trilogy.

To read Schlockmania’s film review of Streetwalkin’, click here.