Overview: In a violent, dystopian consumer-fed future, David (Chris Mitchum - Summertime Killer) blackmails nurse Ana (Sue Lyon - Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita) after witnessing her commit a murder. When Ana and Victor (Jean Sorel - Perversion Story) discover David is a known gang member with an extensive criminal past, they make a plan to turn the tables and use him for their own clandestine purposes.

In 1971 Stanley Kubrick changed dystopian cinema forever with A Clockwork Orange. Two years later, transgressive Spanish genre director Eloy de la Iglesia unleashed this thought provoking and beautifully shot future-world that was also known as A Clockwork Terror.

Now Available For the first time on Blu-ray, Cauldron Films presents a new, eye popping 2K restoration of the Spanish producer’s cut.

Blu-ray Verdict: With the film proudly wearing its obvious inspiration from Stanley Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) on its cinematic sleeve - because, not only is there a Droog-like band of violent criminals marauding at night (wielding whips at leisure), but they also assault an upper-class household that is very much decorated in the ultra-modern fashion seen in CLOCKWORK, and, as if this was not enough, a screening of that very Kubrickian adaptation of the Anthony Burgess novel is about to start on TV when their doorbell rings! - you will either love its intended viewing experience, or loath it, most likely (for there really is no in-between).

Likewise, a subplot revolves around an experimental program which is supposed to render hardened criminals into acceptable society members (but, predictably, the last scene demonstrates that the scheme has failed horribly), while peppering the soundtrack with classical music pieces (albeit being otherwise scored as if it were a Spaghetti Western).

Interestingly, whether deliberately or not, Kubrick returned the favor by utilizing music by the composer of this one (Georges Garvarentz) for his own swan-song EYES WIDE SHUT (1999).

Indeed, while the original Spanish title translates to the poetic A DROP OF BLOOD TO DIE LOVING and that the film was originally released on R2 DVD as MURDER IN A BLUE WORLD (although, for the record, the widescreen copy of the old VHS I once watched was also very nicely transferred, showcasing the striking visual look of the décor and costumes perfectly), the film was apparently known in the U.S. under the rather condescending moniker of CLOCKWORK TERROR.

Moreover, Sue Lyon – as it happens, the young star of Kubrick’s LOLITA (1962) – has the leading role here and, at one point, is even seen leafing through Vladimir Nabokov’s eponymous novel while lounging in a gay bar. The rest of the cast is made up of Christopher Mitchum (who would later appear in another foul-play-in-a-hospital movie, FACELESS {1987}) and Jean Sorel (who had already played a doctor in his most famous film, Luis Bunuel’s BELLE DE JOUR {1967}: incidentally, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE itself was Bunuel’s own favorite movie).

For being the younger son of Hollywood legend Robert Mitchum, Chris worked with some far-out directors. In fact, apart from De La Iglesia, he also made films for Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jess Franco. Lyon, while ostensibly renowned psychiatrist Sorel’s girl, moonlights as a serial-killer of males between the ages of 17 and 25 (though her reasons for running amok are attributed to the traumatic death of the girl’s parents in childhood, it is never quite clear why she targets that particular age group; one of whom she ensnares by outbidding him at an auction for the very first edition of the Flash Gordon comic-strip!) and, therefore, according to news reports, the murderer must be a homosexual!

Conversely, Mitchum is one of the four members of the aforementioned Droog-like anarchists who falls foul of his team-mates and, to earn some cash on the side, takes to blackmailing Lyon (whom he had unwittingly spied while disposing of a body: she often affects disguises herself – as a mature woman or a man – to lure her victims, who include a macho publicity guy modeling underwear on TV, linking the film, as do the entire lady-killing scenario and the overriding influence of TV, to the recently-viewed THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA {1976}).

Eventually, Mitchum’s former friends beat him up and he is hospitalized and, ironically enough, put in Lyon’s care - but, in eliminating him there, she also gives herself away – to Sorel’s obvious horror.

Blu-ray Special Features:
2K restoration of the Spanish Producer’s cut from the negative / 1080p presentation in 2.40:1 aspect ratio
English audio with optional English SDH subtitles
Spanish audio with optional English subtitles
Newly edited Archival interview with Chris Mitchum
Dubbing in a Blue World
Video essay by Film Scholar Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes
Commentary by Film Historian Kat Ellinger
Image Gallery

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