The Mario Bava Collection, Volume 1

During a directing career that spanned 20 years (1960-1979), Mario Bava appeared to be your average journeyman filmmaker, churning out Italian genre pictures—horror movies, musclemen epics, even a spaghetti western—in quick succession. But since his death, Bava has come to be recognized as a remarkable stylist, gifted with a sharp eye honed by his earlier work as a cinematographer (his fledgling black-and-white films make wonderful use of light and shadow, while his later use of blazing color is even more striking). The Mario Bava Collection, Volume 1 contains five of Bava's films made between 1960 and 1966, including his three most famous chillers: his 1960 directorial debut Mask of the Demon (better known as Black Sunday), revolving around a resurrected witch; the 1963 thriller anthology The Three Faces of Fear, starring Boris Karloff (retitled Black Sabbath for its American release); and his 1966 masterpiece, Operazione paura (also known as Curse of the Living Dead and Kill, Baby…Kill!), about a remote village haunted by the murderous ghost of a young girl. Added to these are The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963), sometimes referred to as the first giallo but actually a fairly lighthearted romantic thriller, and Knives of the Avenger (1966), an oddball adventure that transposes the Shane story to the age of the Vikings. The widescreen transfers here are all excellent (thankfully, all are Bava's cuts rather than the altered American versions), but the use of the Italian audio tracks means that in Black Sabbath, we're subjected to a bland overdubbing of Karloff rather than the actor's inimitable voice. DVD extras include audio commentaries by Tim Lucas on three of the films (but not, unfortunately, Kill, Baby…Kill!—although a separately available Dark Sky release of that film with a Lucas commentary was announced earlier this year but is delayed indefinitely), interviews with John Saxon and Mark Damon (two of Bava's American stars), radio and television spots, stills galleries, and trailers. Despite the minor quibbles, this set is highly recommended. (F. Swietek)