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Criterion does nothing but release gift-quality DVDs, and so a handful of them representing a single artist’s work would be a classy Xmas gift no matter which filmmaker you chose. Or, if you wanted to go a bit skewed, try giving your loved one a triumvirate of THE BLOB, CARNIVAL OF SOULS, and FIEND WITHOUT A FACE, all low budget horror flicks that Criterion (and I) found something special about, enough so to include them in a portfolio alongside GRAND ILLUSION, 8 1/2, and CRIES AND WHISPERS.

For the holiday season, Criterion’s big release is THE COMPLETE MONTEREY POP FESTIVAL, a three disc compilation of the original filmed music fest, plus other docs spun off from the unused material. If you like music concerts, this collection feels very definitive. Disc one is 1968’s MONTEREY POP, 79 minutes long. Disc Two includes JIMI PLAYS MONTEREY (49 mins) and SHAKE! OTIS AT MONTEREY (19 mins), both released in ’86. And Disc Three contains THE OUTTAKE PERFORMANCES, released in 1997 and running 123 minutes. There’s plenty more, too, such as commentary tracks by Festival Producer Lou Adler, director D.A. Pennebaker, and music critics Charles Shaar Murray and Peter Guralnick. The new 5.1 mixes are by revered recording engineer Eddie Kramer.

And then there’s SOLARIS, which made it onto my bottom ten list of 2002. Criterion has seen fit to bring out the original Russian version to coincide with the Soderbergh release, and though I never loved that one either, it looks just great now compared with the remake. A full hour longer than the new version, and covering the same basic material, you’d think the ’72 film would become even more ponderous. Actually it seems spritely compared with the remake; go figure. What a way to realize the relative virtues of Tarkovsky!

From MPI comes the first two boxes of WAR AND REMEMBRANCE (eleven more hours will be released in March ’03). Each box contains three discs, encompassing four sections of the series in Box one, and three sections plus two documentaries in Box two.

Robert Mitchum hosts the first doc, made at the time the miniseries was filmed. The other, ‘The Making of War and Remembrance’ was shot recently, exclusively for the DVD release. Neither is much more than a hype for the mega-mini-series, though between them they assemble quite a few of the film’s stars and key personnel (it’s good to see and hear Herman Wouk). The earlier doc (’88) features exciting documentary footage of the Battle of Midway.

Curiously, nothing is seen in either doc of Barbara Steele, the most visually striking Producer ever to grace the industry. Ms. Steele, who speaks several languages, a gift that made her particularly suited to this project, was always out in front of the production, flying to the ten countries in which the film was shot, arranging for the shoots to go smoothly when director Dan Curtis and cast and crew arrived, so I guess she just wasn’t available for the original documentary filmmakers’ lens. Too bad, though, that she wasn’t in the later one, filmed in 2001. She would have had fascinating stories to tell. Her duties once had her flying the Concorde from London to New York, and back to Paris in the same day. The production scope of this series will never be seen again.

However, if you want Barbara Steele, then you shall have her, in Synapse’s DVD release of the uncut CASTLE OF BLOOD, cobbled together from four different print sources. Several years after her debut in BLACK SUNDAY, she had clearly become an object of worship both by the camera and by director Antonio Margheriti (who passed away earlier this year), much as Dietrich was worshipped by Von Sternberg, or Mercouri was worshipped by Dassin. And how lucky for us she was. In the liner notes, she is identified by her ‘strange beauty’ I’ve referred to her in print as ‘beautiful, with a satanic brushstroke.’ I’ve even heard her looks described as ‘quirky’ by Ms. Steele herself. Well, a few minutes of her in this film and all those qualifiers go out the window. She’s pure,unadulterated gorgeous. What’s more, she gets to perform quite a bit here, whereas in BLACK SUNDAY Bava had her posing in lieu of acting. In Bava’s film you certainly couldn’t take your eyes off her, but she returned the favor with living sculpture. Here, you’re equally riveted, but there’s a lot more to be riveted to: she’s cute, petulant, mannered but not self-conscious, and making unique choices. She’s earned her cult status.

And the film’s not bad either. A distant cousin of LA RONDE, which featured another horror genre fave – Simone Simon – CASTLE OF BLOOD weaves a tapestry of forlorn deaths into the old ‘night in a haunted house’ formula. The first act, set in a tavern, is really the most important, because the direction, script, and acting between the protagonist, the owner of the haunted house, and a muse-possessed Edgar Allen Poe, is surprisingly intelligent, and so allows the next two acts to unfurl without our accumulated derision. The narrative doesn’t make it all the way through without flagging, but where Bava was about form, Margheriti is about the substance of his characters, and I found myself liking this film better, albeit BLACK SUNDAY is the better film.

There are few extras, although the film itself is an extra, since it is the uncensored international version never before legitimately seen in the US, including a nude scene (don’t hurt yourself running for the store, boys; it’s not of Ms. Steele.) Tim Lucas’s liner notes give the film its due.

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