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Had I been in the US it would have been of no concern.I was too young 
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Definitely not my genre, as I swore off slasher movies after SUSPIRIA. However, that did play commercially in Chicago in 1978, at the dawn of the homevideo era. But even earlier, Argento's THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE had a first-run Chicago booking in late 1970 (and did well, running for a few weeks if I remember correctly); then CAT O'NINE TAILS opened widely here (meaning not opening first at a prestigious single theatre) in '72. In '72 or '73 I saw BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA at a drive-in theatre in my small college town in a corner of New Mexico, of all places. So I expect all of those got national U.S. distribution well before the era of video stores.
What can I say? I was still a young Morricone fan then. At least I enjoyed CRYSTAL PLUMAGE as a film at the time.
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Posted: |
Mar 28, 2020 - 12:14 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Yes, all three of the films Steven Lloyd mentions received national distribution, reviews in The New York Times, etc. But the mainstream attention seemed to wane with each film.
Dario Argento's THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE was picked up for U.S. release by small distributor UMC in 1970. It received fairly good critical notices, and did good box office.
Based on that success, the fairly new, but larger distributor, National General Pictures imported Argento's CAT O' NINE TAILS in 1971. It also received a first run release, but the reviews were not nearly as good as for THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE.
It was staid old MGM that acquired Paolo Cavara's THE BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA for release in June 1972. The reviews were fewer, and so were the first run bookings.
In August 1972, Paramount brought in Argento's FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET. It received the same poor critical reception as did CAT O' NINE TAILS.
By the time it came to distributing Mario Bava's BAY OF BLOOD in most areas of the U.S. in 1973, even American International Pictures didn't want its name associated with the film, and so released it under their Hallmark Releasing Corp. subsidiary. They also re-titled the film TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE and released it mainly to drive-ins and second run houses. The film had a memorable advertising campaign which eschewed any mention of stars or director and focused on the likely effect the film would have on its audience. They even added a William Castle-like gimmick: The Final Warning Station.
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