One of the biggest draw backs for anyone outside of Germany trying to get into the Rialto Edgar Wallace Krimi series has always been the lack of English friendly versions of the films.
True, you could get the complete German box set either from Amazon UK or Amazon DE but only about 2/3 of the films there have English language subs or dubs so any new English friendly print deserves some praise and as it happens Creature with the Blue Hand, one of the two films in this new release, is a Rialto Wallace.
I had previously reviewed the film here and posted a lobby card set here.
This Double Feature comes with a booklet and a series of extras:
- Creature with the Blue Hand full length commentary track
- Web of the Spider full length commentary track
- Second feature, 'The Bloody Dead (1987),' from Independent International Pictures with added scenes for the home video release
- Essays by Christopher Stewardson and Nick Clark
- All new documentary on Edgar Wallace Archival commentary by Samuel M. Sherman
- Original theatrical trailer from 35mm for Creature with the Blue Hand
- Reimagined trailer for Web of the Spider using restored elements
And if the YouTube trailer is anything to go by the 4K scan is also excellent.
Creature with the Blue Hand was one of those films that had only been available in a German only version in the German box set so this release is effectively the only English friendly version around right now.
Of course, nothing can ever be perfect in this world and unfortunately according to DVD Compare "Germany is uncut but not English-friendly while Film Masters has the shorter U.S. theatrical version and the later video version with added gore footage. Both have exclusive extras."
Still for an International audience not yet familiar with the production at least for now this does appear to be the best way to access this film. Still living in hope though that one of these days a complete English friendly box set of the Rialto Edgar Wallace Krimis will become more readily available.
