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SEASON OF THE WITCH/THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA Starring Jan White, Raymond Laine and Judith Streiner
In the early part of George A. Romero's film career (in between Night of the Living Dead released in 1968 and Martin released in 1976), he experienced an experimental, and unfortunately, unsuccessful period. The films that were made in this period included There's Always Vanilla (aka The Affair), Season of the Witch (originally titled Jack's Wife), and The Crazies. The first two films from this period were considered his "lost" films due to their lack of availability. Both films were seen by few people. Season of the Witch had a short period of availability on home video during the 1980s while There's Always Vanilla had become sparsely available in recent years on VHS. Anchor Bay Entertainment has delivered both films in a DVD double feature that has been long-awaited. SEASON OF THE WITCH Joan is an aging housewife whose hippie daughter has run away from home, is attracted to her daughter's pothead, wisecracking college professor, and is estranged from her ignorant, businessman husband. After realizing that she has had no adventure in her life, she decides to explore the emancipating world of witchcraft, where a woman is the master of her own destiny.
While her husband is on a business trip, Joan casts a few spells, has an affair with her daughter's professor, and has recurring nightmares about a demonic intruder stalking her in her house. On the eve of her husband's return, it is evident that her nightmares have come to life..... Season of the Witch is an interesting film in that it deals with issues felt by many women from the time period in which it was released. The film deals a woman who feels trapped in a dull marriage and wants to rebel by entering the world of free love and black magic. The premise that a woman who feels like she has no control and takes control of her life on her own terms gives the viewer an empowering feeling. Season of the Witch is presented 1.85:1 and is not anamorphically enhanced. The picture quality of the main credit sequence appears to have been taken from a decent film source and bears some wear. This footage is bright and colorful and shows promise to the viewer. However, after about three minutes into the film, the image is dull and fuzzy, and seems to be from a video source. Anchor Bay displays a disclaimer at the start of the film, stating that the best sources available were used, but the master materials were not up to the usual standard.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound is as good as the master it was taken from. This film would not have benefitted from surround sound enhancement because much of the sound comes in the form of dialogue and light ambience. The first extra included for the main feature is Season of the Witch: The Secret of Jack's Wife. The featurette is an interview with Jan White, the actor who portrayed the main character. She talks about her early career, her experiences with the film, and her business ventures after she left her film career. She speaks very fondly of the film and seems like a very down-to-Earth person. The next featurette on the disc is The Director's: The Films of George A. Romero. Consisting of interview footage with Romero and several actors with whom he had worked, clips and stills from his films, The Directors is a pleasant hour-long documentary reflecting Romero's career. Romero gets to speak about his films, the effect of his films, and a period of time during the late 1990s, when he had developed several films for studios that were never produced. Romero had expressed his disdain for this particular period at conventions; it is finally documented here for all fans to finally realize what had actually happened when he wasn't making films while the horror genre was "booming." Two trailers for the film are included, presented 1.33:1, and both under a different title. The Season of the Witch version of the trailer portrays the movie as a horror film, accentuating the supernatural elements of the film along with the action sequences. The Hungry Wives trailer focuses on the adult-oriented dramatic themes, appearing to be an exploitative drama. It is interesting how editing can communicate and market a different message to an audience.
There are two additional credit sequences, one for Jack's Wife and one for Hungry Wives. The Hungry Wives credit sequence is presented 1.33:1 and appears to be from a film source. There is a considerable amount of wear and the colors are fairly washed out. The Jack's Wife credit sequence is windowboxed at 1.33:1 and it is likely that it has been taken from a video source. The image is fuzzy and dark. There is a poster and still gallery that includes press info for the Hungry Wives and Season of the Witch campaigns, along with B&W and color production stills for the film. The materials are generally in good shape for a film of its age. The last bit of "extras" on the disc consist of trailers for other Anchor Bay releases, including Evil Dead, All Souls Day, It Waits and Demon Hunter. All of these films are of the same genre as the feature films on the DVD. THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA Chris is a musically inclined slacker who does not have any idea as to what he wants to do with his life. He has left home and dropped out of school, been a pimp, fought in Vietnam, and basically become a drifter. Chris has a chance meeting with Lynn, a model/actress with whom he falls in love. They have an affair and seem to be living in paradise. When Chris finds out he is going to become a father (after already fathering a child with an old girlfriend), he decides that he is going to get his act together.
However, things do not go as planned. Chris tries to make a go of it in commercial advertising, but feels that he does not have what it takes. At the same time, Lynn has serious doubts about the whole relationship when she is told about his other child. Just as Lynn is about to go ahead with an abortion (a heavy topic with regard to the state of affairs at the time), Chris wonders whether or not it is worth his time to return home..... By far the rarest of Romero's films, There's Always Vanilla is the director's only full-length feature that departs from the horror/fantasy/action genre. Unfortunately, the film's distribution was handled poorly and it was not seen by too many people. The film is presented 1.77:1 in non-anamorphic widescreen, and looks fairly well for a film that had been shot on a shoestring budget during the early 1970s. The mono audio is relatively clean, and is only limited by the master materials.
Digging Up the Dead: The "Lost" Films of George A. Romero is a 16-minute interview with Romero covering the origins of the films on this disc and his opinions on their fine-cut state. Romero expresses that these films do not hold much of a special place in his career other than a hard-lesson learning experience. Romero indicates that the money had run out on both pictures and that he would like to remake Season of the Witch with a proper budget. Romero further indicates that There's Always Vanilla had been the work of an absentee scriptwriter and that he needed to patch the footage together with narrative shots of Ray Laine's character in order to create a coherent film. The trailer for There's Always Vanilla is quite ordinary, containing pieces of key scenes in the film. There is also a lengthy text bio on George Romero. However, this is the same bio found on other Anchor Bay discs of Romero's films.
For fans, this release is a treat. Although the materials used for the presentation are below Anchor Bay's standards, fans can get a look into the artistic eye of George Romero's early film career. The extras are plentiful, and hopefully fans will not be put off by Romero's views of his own films on this disc. The disc is a two-sided release, but the low price for this double feature make it a worthy purchase for collectors. |
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