Visionary, an independent video distributor, is best known for its obscure music videos, which chart the territory stretching from Alien Sex Fiend and Link Wray to Johnny Cash. But buried in the back of its catalog, you'll Þnd a selection of B-movie classics, most of which were previously unavailable on video. The most renown is Tod Browning's Freaks, the extraordinary 1932 circus film featuring a cast of deformed actors that caused outrage wherever it was shown despite (or perhaps because of) its strong moral message. But dig deeper to find Erle C. Kenton's Island of Lost Souls and Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour.
In Island of Lost Souls (1933) Charles Laughton plays Moreau, a twisted scientist and symbol of colonial oppression who fills his domain with genetically engineered plants and animals he has mutated roughly in the direction of humans. "Do you know what it means to feel like God?" Moreau asks clean-cut hero Edward Parker before trying to fix him up with Lota the panther woman. As sexual and political tensions intertwine, the great buildup is marked by lots of "the natives are restless tonight"-style comments, and eventually the doomed creatures - led by Bela Lugosi in an extraordinary hairpiece - trap the evil Moreau on a ledge before carting him off to his own House of Pain. Fantastic.
Detour (1946) is a different kettle of fish. Edgar Ulmer - a set designer and Viennese contemporary of Erich von Stroheim, Fritz Lang, Zoltan Korda, and Billy Wilder - ended up in Hollywood making B movies by choice because of the increased artistic freedom they allowed (he made 128 films in all). A road movie shot in six days inside a Poverty Row studio, Detour charts the downfall of Al Roberts (Tom Neal) as he hitchhikes from New York to Los Angeles to join his sweetheart. The accidental death of a guy who gives Roberts a lift leads him to the clutch of Vera (Ann Savage), the most fatale of movie femmes, and the grim existential outcome echoes the unvoiced sentiments of many who returned from the war that year. It also contains one of the greatest of noir exchanges. Al: "Of course, your interest wouldn't be financial would it? You wouldn't want a small percentage of the profits?" Vera: "Well, now that you insist, how can I refuse? A hundred percent'll do." Al: "Fine. I'm relieved. I thought for a moment you were going to take it all." Vera: "I don't want to be a hog." But you will once you see Visionary's eclectic celluloid collection.
Visionary Communications:+44(125)371 2362, email king@visicom.demon.co.uk. Also available at select video stores.
