Along with QUEEN OF BLOOD, BLOOD BATH is a remarkable achievement in hybrid cinema. The fact that they were intended to be seen together as a double bill makes for a fascinating study of contrasts as QUEEN is in vivid color and BLOOD BATH is in stark black & white. Never has a movie had a more convoluted history than this film which began life as a Yugoslavian film called OPERATION TITIAN. After purchasing it Roger Corman turned it over to Jack Hill who turned it into the story of a mad painter (William Campbell) who paints women in the throes of death and then covers their bodies in wax. This is intercut with humorous statements on the nature of art using hipsters in scenes very reminiscent of Corman’s 1959 cult classic BUCKET OF BLOOD.
However Corman was not satisfied with Jack Hill’s embellishments so he hired young up and coming director Stephanie Rothman to embellish it further. This she did by incorporating a story about the artist also turning into a vampire (who looks nothing like him). Mix that in with the beatniks, the mad artist and the Yugoslavian footage and all in 62 minutes and you have one wild, bizarre movie experience that manages to hang together into a fascinating whole. It doesn’t make a lot of sense but then it doesn’t have to. Later the original film was expanded to 80 minutes with more leftover footage and turned into the TV movie TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE. The original Yugoslavian footage was reedited by a young Francis Ford Coppola as the TV movie PORTRAIT IN TERROR.
Now for the first time since its drive-in run it’s possible to see BLOOD BATH the way it was in the theaters. We’re back to the original 62 minute print with the original widescreen aspect radio restored. What really makes the movie is the astonishing black & white photography which is beautifully highlighted in this MGM Limited Edition DVD-R. Ronald Stein’s creepy score and the startling paintings (which would influence NIGHT GALLERY) make for a genuinely disturbing film. This is what creative, low budget cinema is all about and its great to have BLOOD BATH and its companion piece QUEEN OF BLOOD looking even better than they did when they were first released. Try and see them both if you can but only in the MGM Limited Edition versions.
The Capsule Critic 