Just received the latest flyer in the mail from Sinister Cinema, the legendary video mail order label famous for making unknown or hard to find genre titles available during the first decade or so of the home video age.
Among the titles in their “25th Annual Bumper Crop” offerings available just in time for Halloween are a couple of rare Russian sci-fi epics. The Robots of Ripley (AKA Gibel Sensatsii – “Death of Sensation”) was long thought to be a 1935 adaptation of Karl Capek’s play R.U.R., for which the term “robot” was coined. Though this is not so, from Sinister’s description it sounds like a lot more fun! Apparently it includes scenes of giant robots teaming up with workers to revolt against tyrannical factory owners.
Another cool Russian title is Man in Outer Space, a sci-fi adventure from 1961 that sounds like a Don Knotts or Jerry Lewis picture from the same era. It concerns a janitor who is accidentally launched into space, meets an invisible alien and returns to Earth 500 years in the future.
SC also lists a new “special edition” of The Vampire Bat (1933) that includes the Spanish language version as a bonus!
It’s been a while since I’ve paid much attention to Sinister and it’s nice to see they are still out there digging for oddities. Plus, they still offer their titles on VHS as well as DVD-R and have many sales and specials.
Visit Sinister Cinema here and tell ’em PFS sent ya.