Here is the clamshell box that housed Prism Entertainment's VHS release of INFRA-MAN. Oddly, this particular tape eluded me the entire time it mattered to me. Oh, I had the short-lived Sinister Cinema semi-widescreen version, and I later picked up the LP speed Goodtimes tape. That one, by the way, included a new sequence in the opening credits that highlighted the monsters right at the outset. I have never quite figured that out. Was it done because Power Rangers mania was in full bloom at the time? Or was it a strategy to establish definitive copyright? The world...may never know.
Prism's INFRA-MAN had no such foolishness, at least as far as I'm aware. It was just a straight full-screen transfer of the venerable Shaw Brothers superhero movie in its English-dubbed Joseph Brenner version. Assuming it is complete, that would make it the closest thing to the original release. Sinister's copy looked great, but it was missing a minute or two. And we've already talked about Goodtimes. I wonder if this particular iteration of INFRA-MAN will see a legitimate release? And by that, I don't mean having a mono version of its soundtrack tacked onto the Hong Kong edit. That was welcome, but it wasn't the American version.
I would love to see an actual presentation of Infra-man, from a 35mm print. Sinister did some weird pseudo-scope print, and this clamshell was my first exposure to the movie.
ReplyDeleteit is not a great presentation, since it's not even pan and scanned. didn't matter to me at the time, I was just happy to see it.
My recollection is that all of Sinister Cinema's "scope" titles at the time were in that odd ratio. I don't know if it was because of how they did their transfers or if they were just trying to create a larger screen image. I do remember thinking it was odd that it was in widescreen and yet the titles were cut off.
ReplyDeletethat's true, all of their "widescreen" stuff looked like that. and we loved it at the time, since we were sure we'd never get it any way else.
ReplyDeleteAlpha seems to have purloined most of their titles now, huh?
Well, Alpha has used some of their transfers, since the tiny "SC" bug is visible on some of their DVDs. But Sinister Cinema is still chugging along! I get their updates pretty regularly.
ReplyDeleteSinister Cinema