Wicked Shop FBI jagt Phantom (OT: The Human Duplicators) (Edition Hände Weg! - Phantastische Rariatäten Nr. 1) (Blu-ray) [Germany]

[pygospa]

Release Date: October 16, 2020

Price: 20,99€

Purchase Link: Wicked Shop

 

 

Normally I don't post about Amarays, because normally I don't buy Amarays. Here I made an exception, because it's a new series by a great (but pretty discontinous releasing) German Label named Edition Hände Weg! (Edition Hands off!) - and just for my friend that always gets these wrong (*caugh* @Grendel *caugh*) - this is an independent label, not related to Anolis or Wicked Vision. They are however befriended with Anolis and in extension therefore also with Wicked Vision, which is why Wicked will carry them - but you will probably also get them anywhere else (Amazon, etc.).

Regarding the Label I cannot tell you anything, which - if you know me - is not due to a lack of trying. I am a bit obsessed in that regard: if I find something interesting, I try to learn as much as I can about it; with movie labels I look them up to find a website, something about their history, their previous releases, etc. But with "Edition Hände Weg!" there is no information around. They don't have a website, they don't have social media, no one keeps list of their back catalogue, there is no imprint, etc.. You know them only because every other year or so, a release by them hits the market - which you probably even miss. A few years back Anolis started advertising their releases as well, ever since they had a cooperation release a while back. So, instead of talking about them, we have to talk about their releases, which are mostly DVD releases, with their most famous ones being "Blood and Black Lace" (6 donne per l'assassino) by Mario Bava, "Cemetery Without Corsses" (Une corde, un Colt) by Robert Hossein, as well their "SciFi & Horror Classics" releases in Hardboxes, which include films like "Queen of Outer Space", "The Dark Eyes of London", "First Man Into Space", "2+5: missione Hydra", "Space master X-7", or "Rocketshop X-M" - I think this might give you a good feel about what this label focusses on: Classics from the time around the 1950s. On Blu-ray, as far as I can tell, there was until now just one release, "Lady Frankenstein".

 

With "Phantastische Raritäten" (Fantastic rarities) this label once more starts a series of releases (the above mentioned DVD series "SciFi & Horror Classics" just lasted 7 releases), and here comes what makes it interesting: The movies they want to focus on (according to Anolis) are those that studios and producers do not pay much attention to, which is why the availability of Masters is not optimal! The idea is to get movies on Blu-ray where no HD master has existed worldwide and where negative copies are not available(?). Therefore, they'll create own masters from 35mm positive copies, which do not yield perfect results, but they'll also put a lot of effort in restoring, so while you will have a lesser quality than you are used to with other HD releases, these releases will still be of rather good quality (and will not show hacks and treads in the picture, etc.). This explains the slightly higher price (21€) for a "simple" Amaray release. Yes, unfortunately, for packaging these releases will only be available on Amarays, however they opted for the higher quality(?) 14mm ones, and they'll also come with slip cover. Because there was no information about it, and I found the picture a bit suspicious I asked about the FSK seal and if it will have a flip-cover, but Anolis responded (5 Minutes after I asked!), that both, O-Ring and Cover artwork will not have an FSK seal (so this will probably be a removable sticker, hopefully on the shrinkwrap). They will however include a booklet, but that will be of course in German, and apparently they will also get an audio commentary, which of course also is just in German. Other than that, there won't be many bonuses, as these films never got any.

 

"The Human Duplicators" (German title translates to "FBI hunts phantom"), is an American science fiction movie from the year 1965 by Hugo Grimaldi and Arthur C. Pierce (uncredited) and produced by the now discontinued Woolner Brothers Pictures Inc, and was only released in cinemas as a double feature with "Mutiny in Outer Space". It features George Nader (who played Jerry Cotton) and Richard Kiel (Jaws in James Bond movies "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker"), and in the short 80 minutes runtime the movie tells the story about aliens trying to replace Humans with androids in order to take over the earth. As per their mission statement, this movie has never been released on Blu-ray before, I only found a DVD release, that sells between $10-$20 USD on different stores (but not on amazon.com). Plus, to make things even more difficult, there is also another movie called "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Human Duplicators" from the same year, which often show up as well.

 

As for their first release, this are the details:

• Movie in original Language (English) with German dubbing and optional German subtitles
• Audio commentary with Ingo Strecker and Mirko Rekittke [German]
• German trailer, US trailer, German advertising advice, picture gallery
• 24p booklet by Jörg M. Jedner [German]

 

And last but not least, here is the trailer, in the best version that I was available to find:

 

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by ShadowWarrior

[pygospa]

@Grendel and @Veum, I'll tag you here, because I now you take a liking in those old scifi classics. I am not too sure about @RAK, @Hollywood E Rock and @Casiusco - if I remember correctly you were also interested in old sci-fi classics? If not sorry for the mention, but I guess, better safe then sorry

Does anyone of you know this movie? Are you interested in getting it? I just pre-ordered it with two other titles I wanted to get anyways, so once it's here I can tell you about the picture quality of the release, if there's interest from your side - I am curious how making a HD master from a 35mm positive copy (i.e. the one used for cinema projections) affects the quality in comparison to the way it is done usually. And of course, liking those classics, especially SciFi and Horror flicks, is another reason for getting it  

[RAK]

While I do enjoy older movies (I’m 43 in a month)

it just depends on the movie. I wouldn’t mind a tag, and if it peaks my interest then I can grab it.

[Casiusco]

Honestly, I've never heard of it, but the comments will be interesting to read.

[pygospa]

One of the things that has many people interested in this release on their toes is the comment that these releases will not have the usual HD quality, which is due to the fact that there are no HD masters available and that scans will be done from positives (which to my understanding would mean the film rolls that go through the projectors at cinemas, doesn't it?).

 

Quote

In den letzten 2 Wochen habe ich viele Anfragen bzgl. der Bldqualität von FBI JAGT PHANTOM bekommen. Damit sich jeder einen Eindruck verschaffen kann, gibt es hier mal 6 Screenshots.

Bitte beachten: Diese wurden vom unkomproimierten TIFF in ein komprimiertes jpg verwandelt. Außerdem bin ich nicht sicher, was FB den Bildern noch "antut".

 

And my translation of it: In the last two weeks I got many questions regarding the picture quality from FBI JAGT PHANTOM. To allow you to get an impression regarding the quality, here are 6 screenshots. But please keep in mind: These pictures where encoded from uncompressed TIFF format into compressed JPG. Also I don't know what "mischief" Facebook adds.

 

And here are these pictures. Not sure if anyone here is at all interested in this release, but if you are, this might be interesting for you, as this release will be the very first and maybe only blu-ray release of this movie.

[pygospa]

My copy arrived today, so naturally the first thing I did, was make some photos for you (as long as the sun is still up - these days that yellow steaming ball makes itself rather rare). Here you go, enjoy

Oh, and a few notes up front:

• FSK seal sticker was just on the shrinkwrap, pretty neat!
• Its the typical rather thin cardboard for the slip cover, the innser cover sheet uses thick paper, as does the booklet
• It uses the early days 14mm original Amaray keep case.
• Strangely it uses a 2-disc mount case, but it is just a single-disc release
• Especially as they use a "inner print" I would have loved a clear transparent package; but given that it is a 14mm package, one could actually even swap the ugly blue amaray with a Scanavo full-sleeve package. You would of course then need to print your own cover inlay - the original one would be too short. But it would be a possiblity if you are like me and dislike the blue package so much.
• The booklet looks from the design and content like your typical Anolis booklet, so I guess there was some cooperation there. It does however not bear the Anolis logo at all.

All in all it makes a good impression, and I am looking forward to seeing what other titles they might dig up that have been long forgotten. And finally, here are the pictures: