  Further
to our news story last week, we can now confirm that the second of Sony's Hammer
Film collection sets is being released in October in the USA. The dvd will be
region 1 encoded, and each of the films will be digitally remastered, in the
original aspect ratio. LIkely extras include commentaries.
The set
includes Taste of Fear, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, Two
Faces of Dr. Jekyll and The Gorgon.
With the
exception of The Gorgon, each of the films was made in a scope ratio of
approximately 2.35:1, whilst The Gorgon should be around 1.66:1. All bar
Taste of Fear are in colour.
There is
some uncertainty regarding which print is being used for Taste of Fear -
also known as Scream of Fear. The film has previously been available on
dvd in Japan, whilst Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, long available on
laserdisc and video in a fullscreen transfer, was released in a scope print on
dvd by Sony in the UK a couple of years ago.
The Two
Faces of Dr. Jekyll has never been released on dvd, and has had few
television screenings in recent years.
Following
on from some of the meagre and irrelevant extras (the non-Hammer material) on
the recent Icons of Adventure set, Unofficialhammerfilms.com hopes that
Sony might put some extra effort in for this release. Further commentaries would
be welcome, and we'd like to see as a minimum theatrical trailers and if
possible galeries or pdfs of advertising material, posters, pressbooks etc.
Enthusisastic fans would probably appreciate having an option to view both the
Taste and Scream of Fear titles (which could be provided via
seemless breaching).
 Something
similar could be tried with The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll which has a
troubled history. Released in the UK as The Two Faces... in the US it was
retitled as both House of Fright and Jekyll's Inferno. We'd like
to see the alternate titles available on the dvd as well.
Fans will
take some comfort in an attempt to design a better cover than the woeful
Icons of Adventure box offered. Amazon are currently holding a poll on their
website to determine which of three covers is going to grace the dvd. The three
options are republished on this page.
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