Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Corruption (Blu-ray Review) - Grindhouse Releasing


England/1968
Directed By: Robert Hartford-Davis
Written By: Derek Ford, Donald Ford
Starring: Peter Cushing, Sue Lloyd, Noel Trevarthen
Color/91 Minutes/Rated R
Region FREE

The Film
Peter Cushing stars as John Rowan, a well respected surgeon who is dating a gorgeous fashion model named Lynn (Sue Lloyd). At one of Lynn's hip parties, John gets into a fight with Lynn's photographer resulting in a hot lamp burning Lynn's face badly. Desperate for a way to restore his love's face, life and career, John begins researching theories and techniques on plastic surgery and tissue regeneration. John discovers a method the ancient Egyptians used that requires a new pituitary gland for the patient. After getting one from a  body in the morgue and doing his procedure, Lynn's face looks good as new... for a short while. 

It becomes apparent to John that the gland must come from a living patient as it will be fresher and more able to do its job. Lynn pressures John into acquiring the gland she needs to regain her beauty. Of course this means John has to find women that can't be tracked as he has to murder them to get what he needs, and as the pressure on him from his lover mounts Cushing begins to break down. 


CORRUPTION could be viewed as a sleazier take on Eyes Without A Face and nobody would argue with you. It certainly is similar, but it is a different beast, in only for the fact that we get to see The Gentleman Of Horror himself, turn in to a crazed maniac that reminded me of a skinner, and less greasy version of Frank Zito from 1980's Maniac, played brilliantly by Joe Spinell. Of course this film was made over a decade earlier, but after its initial run it wasn't often available and was never seen by this reviewer until today. 

The film is better than you may expect from a short description as "a sleazier Eyes Without A Face". The performances are great, of course that isn't news for Cushing but Sue Lloyd is fantastic as the narcissistic lover who feels she can't live without her beauty and the supporting roles of Jan Waters as a prostitute, and Noel Trevarthen as Cushing's fellow doctor and fiancee to Lynn's sister. There isn't a bad performance in the bunch and the direction is also strong. Look no farther than the laser beam fight at the end of the film or the fish-eye photography when Cushing gets down and dirty.  

 
The Audio & Video
For their second Blu-ray release Grindhouse Releasing brings CORRUPTION to us with a new 2k restoration in a gorgeous anamorphic widescreen print that is free of any digital hiccups or missteps. There are no signs of edge enhancement, DNR, or unceseary tampering with the picture. Skin tones are natural, colors are balanced without any hot spots and detail level on textures and skin are strong. I love the way this disc look. The audio is also fantastic, with a perfectly clean track. There are no pops, hisses or distortions. While CORRUPTION is light on sound effects that will give your sound system a workout, you'll be able to enojoy the dialogue and score without any worry about poor mixing. 

Please note: Images taken from DVD copy of the film
 
The Extras
-Audio commentary with English Gothic author Jonathan Rigby  
-Alternate scenes for various international markets
-Video interviews with Billy Murray, Jan Waters, Wendy Varnals, and Peter Cushing
-Historical documents from the production including the director's original shooting script
-Liner notes
-Still gallery with poster art
-Trailers
-TV and radio spots
+MORE


The Bottom Line 
This is a great piece of horror and Cushing that has been lovingly rescued and re-introduced to the world by Grindhouse Releasing and I couldn't thank them more. Highly recommended.


CORRUPTION is available HERE

3 comments:

Wings1295 said...

Never heard of it. Will add it to my watch list!

DethRabbit3K said...

The trailer for this is fantastic. I definitely need to check it out.

Celluloid Terror (Seth Poulin) said...

Both of you guys will enjoy the hell out of it