UNDEAD (dvd) *NEW* MSTK quips on Roger and 12 similar items

Brand new factory sealed dvd of Mystery Science Theatre 3000's screening with their usual smart crack commentary. Their segments are in color while the film is B W. Out Of Print (OOP) in all formats and no longer being manufactured. No aspect ratio is given so it is probably full frame. UNDEAD is ambitious and well-intentioned but also laughable on some levels (bring in the MSTK crew!), not least of all for its atrocious faux Old World dialogue, which bespeaketh much that is queer to mine ear and groweth hoary with hastiness of dispatch. One character--the likeable gravedigger Smolkin (Mel Welles), who is seen carting the corpse of Paul Blaisdell around--speaks almost entirely in macabre verse, prefiguring Donald Sutherland's witch in 'Castle of the Living Dead' (1964) which Welles dubbed. Some of the chuckles are for insiders only, as when Allison Hayes and Billy Barty turn into bats and the production resorts to using the bat-like alien props left over from 'It Conquered the World'. Despite these weaknesses, the film has more to offer on a serious level: It is one of the earliest films to suggest that not all witches, nor even all ugly witches, are evil, and it can be read as a "past life" form of Corman's the 'Trip' (1967) in the way it also depicts a subject awakening to their innermost selves under the supervision of a trusted guide. The scene introducing Pamela Duncan has a strong 'Daughter of Horror' vibe about it, and the studio forest "exteriors" conjure a somewhat prototypical 'Black Sunday' atmosphere; though this medieval fantasy predates Bergman's the 'Seventh Seal' by a full year, it enables us to see Corman's pre-disposition to the great Swedish maestro's coming influence. There is also a fun bit of throw-away choreography involving three Vampira-like dancers in celebration of the Sabbath. The excellant supporting cast includes Dorothy Neumann, Bruno ve Sota, (to whom Hayes says, "Rest thy corpulence--I'll take the ale") and Dick Miller (bringing some nice dramatic shadings to a walk-on role as a leper, despite less than a minute of screen time).