The Psychopath (1966) - April 10, 2018

[LeeFanatic007]

Looking forward to this! An Amicus film I haven't seen before, more Amicus is always a good thing!

[WaverBoy]

It's a really good one, one of their best. I'd put it near the very top.

[GetHarryPalmer]

from the kino lorber studio classics page:

We scanned the 1.33:1 Techniscope 2 perf Original Color Neg and the separate main and end title 2.35:1 reels - all in 4K. Followed by the techniscope reconstruction, color correction and DRS. Our release of THE PSYCHOPATH is presented for the first time in 2.35:1.

And reversible art

27332362_1672441012812799_7210873735083702537_n.jpg

[AaronJ]

This sounds pretty cool. I'll definitely consider it.

[John Earls Umbrella]

Never seen this one but looking forward to it. I like Patrick Wymark and Alexander Knox, whilst Margaret Johnson was suitably creepy in Night of the Eagle aka Burn Witch Burn.

[keija]

I just received notification from Diabolik Dvd that my blu ray copy is on the way! Three weeks early!!

[Member-167298]

Didn't realize this was Amicus. Will be buying ASAP. The writing and directing credits alone make it a must-see for me.

[John Earls Umbrella]

Does anyone else prefer the reverse cover art?

[Jobla]

I'm very happy to finally see this film in proper widescreen, having seen it in full-frame since the mid-1970's.

The first reel or two have a few vertical print scratches, so I suspect that the original camera negative couldn't be found. This BD has probably been transferred from a rare widescreen 35mm print.

Most of the Paramount/Amicus films seem to be missing the OCR. Colors are somewhat dull here, and that's the also the case with THE SKULL and THE DEADLY BEES. I wonder where the camera negatives are? Did Amicus or Paramount dispose of them?

[babybreese]

DR TERROR, ASYLUM, BEAST MUST DIE as well ( the majority of Amicus Blu's
....seems they may have been destroyed or perhaps stranded in a vault under a huge storage bill.

Guess I better not hold my breath for WHATEVER BECAME OF JACK AND JILL from the OCN ( or at all most likely in any form ).

[Jobla]

I'd certainly rather have the Amicus horrors in widescreen than not have them, but (on Blu-ray) they don't match the lurid color palette which we've come to expect from Hammer films.

[John Earls Umbrella]

Sorry to report but there's some shocking print damage on this for the first 30 mins or so. Things improve after that but the early part of the picture is appalling.

[Jobla]

The damage seems to be confined to the first reel, roughly 23 minutes. Interestingly, the opening credit crawl isn't similarly damaged, leading to speculation that at least two different prints were employed to create this release. Perhaps that is why the film wasn't previously released on home video.

It still begs the question of where are the original camera negatives? THE SKULL and THE DEADLY BEES don't look great on Blu-ray, either.

[oddbox83]

As indicated above, the titles reels were available separately and scanned for this release. They also say above OCN, bit that doesn't totally compute as a Techiniscope OCN would not be 1.33:1. It doesn't seem like a sloppy job when the effort to use various elements was undertaken, so sadly it looks likely the first reel is only surviving in a damaged form.

[John Earls Umbrella]

Thanks for your insights. It's a shame as after the first reel the PQ isn't too bad, although there's an interesting section where the killer is stalking the girl in the red coat and apart from said coat, the rest of the image is almost b&w. I wasn't sure if this was some stylistic intention but most likely is due to more inconsistencies with the print. Nic Roeg may well approve however!

[LanceL]

It's too bad some of these older movies can't be found fully intact.

[vortexx]

Originally Posted by babybreese

DR TERROR, ASYLUM, BEAST MUST DIE as well ( the majority of Amicus Blu's
....seems they may have been destroyed or perhaps stranded in a vault under a huge storage bill.

Guess I better not hold my breath for WHATEVER BECAME OF JACK AND JILL from the OCN ( or at all most likely in any form ).

If the films get abandoned due to people from the companies passing away etc, they are often trashed, sold in lots at auction, stolen etc. Unfortunately that is likely how many low budget independent films will end up (as well as other bigger films).

[Hammerlover]

Kino Lorber is losing its license for this film at the end of April, so if you don't have it yet, get it while you still can.