Throughout the 60s, exploitationeers Lee Frost and Bob Cresse brought the Mondo genre into cinemas across the globe, disturbing and titillating audiences in equal measure. On January 29th, Severin Films is partnering with legendary exploitation film archaeologists Something Weird Video to bring four of Frost and Cresse’s most shocking collaborations to home video in double feature sets, replete with new 4K scans and fascinating extras!

MONDO FREUDO/MONDO BIZARRO: In 1966, the notorious producer/director/distributor team of Lee Frost and Bob Cresse (HOT SPUR, THE SCAVENGERS) combined the extremes of the Mondo genre with their own depraved aesthetic to create two shockumentaries that put Olympic International on the map and changed the face of exploitation forever. Cresse himself narrates MONDO FREUDO, “a world of sex and the strange & unusual laws that govern it” featuring Hollywood strippers, Tijuana hookers, London lesbians, Times Square Satanists, and topless Watusi clubs. In MONDO BIZARRO, the team’s “hidden cameras” go “beyond the beyond” to expose Bahamian voodoo rites, Japanese massage parlors, Nazi theater, and an Arab sex slave auction that looks suspiciously like LA.’s Bronson Canyon. Both films have been scanned in 4k from the original Something Weird 35mm vault negatives.

ECCO/THE FORBIDDEN: In 1963, nudie/roughie filmmakers Bob Cresse and Lee Frost (HOUSE ON BARE MOUNTAIN, LOVE CAMP 7) saw the U.S. grosses of MONDO CANE and quickly imported and adapted one of the most provocative – and successful – shockumentaries of the decade. Narrated by Academy Award® winner George Sanders (ALL ABOUT EVE) and featuring a legendary soundtrack by Riz Ortolani (Oscar®-nominated for MONDO CANE’s More), ECCO explores a world of sadism, delinquency, roller derby, extreme piercing, appalling stereotypes, and the infamous Lapland-women-castrating-reindeer-with-their-teeth sequence, now scanned in 4k from the original internegative. Bonus feature THE FORBIDDEN is Frost & Cresse’s rarely seen – and totally insane –1966 fake Mondo, packed with staged scenes of Swiss lesbians, L.A. rapists, Parisian tarts, and Nazi strippers, newly-transferred from the only known 35mm print in existence.

Mondo Freudo/Mondo Bizarro Special Features:

  • Audio Commentary with Johnny Legend and Eric Caidin
  • The Cadaver Is Infinity: Bob Cresse, Lee Frost and the Birth of American Mondo – Interview With Chris Poggiali
  • Mondo Bizarro Trailer
  • Mondo Freudo Trailer

Ecco/The Forbidden Special Features:

  • The Bandit: Producer David Goldstein Remembers Bob Cresse
  • I Want More – Short Film
  • Ecco Trailer

 

About Sheri White

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