Hollywood After Dark/The Rotten Apple [Special Edition]

Synopsis of Hollywood After Dark/The Rotten Apple [Special Edition]

Rue McClanahan is best known for her performances as the saucy, man-hungry Blanche on the long-running sitcom The Golden Girls, and it's somehow appropriate that McClanahan has a few a few exploitation films hiding in her past. While none of them qualify as blackmail material -- her level of exposure and behavior barely qualifies for a PG rating today -- her co-stars on The Golden Girls weren't playing hookers or strippers in their early days on screen, and two of these minor skeletons in Rue's closet are paired up on this double-feature DVD from Something Weird Video. The Rotten Apple (aka Five Minutes To Love, and the film in which McClanahan was memorably billed as "Poochie, The Girl From The Shack!") and Hollywood After Dark (aka Walk The Angry Beach and The Unholy Choice) have both been transferred to disc in their original full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The transfers are handsome and well detailed, and the source materials look very good, especially The Rotten Apple, which has popped up on several public domain labels in less attractive form. The audio for both films has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo, with the original monophonic soundtracks doubled in the right and left channels. The mastering was apparently done from the optical prints of the source tracks, and sound quite good for the period. The dialogue for both features is in English, with no subtitles or multiple language options. As a bonus, this release includes the original trailer for Hollywood After Dark, as well as seven other pictures dealing with starlets trying their luck in the movie business. The disc also features four short subjects -- a visit to a school for pin-up models, a cheesecake reel featuring Dorothy Van Nuys modeling swimwear, a grimy-looking peep-show loop, and a burlesque short featuring a handful of high-class peelers. (It's worth noting that the bonus shorts and the trailer for Starlet feature significantly more nudity than appears in either of the main features!) Finally, a gallery of stills and ad material for The Rotten Apple (under it's reissue title Five Minutes To Love) rounds out the package. Some of McClanahan's fans might be a bit taken aback by these two movies (more for their pretentious "significant" dialogue and oddball characters than anything else), but exploitation fans are sure to eat 'em up, and this DVD has been put together with Something Weird's usual degree of care; this is fun stuff and worth checking out. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Theatrical Feature Running Time:

149 mins

Theatrical MPAA Rating:

NR

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