Just received the new Italian disc of Terrore nello spazio (Planet of the Vampires). I’ve been hoping for a long time this would be released since MGM’s otherwise fine edition is a hybrid between the Italian and the American version and only features the English dubbing with dialogue as rewritten by Ib Melchor. This new edition features the original Italian version (with original title and credits) and optional English or Italian subtitles. It looks great too. It’s difficult for me to do a direct comparison since I can only do it by switching back and forth between the discs, but the new edition seems slightly more detailed. It has a brighter picture and is 16:9 enhanced. The MGM disc has a darker picture, but also ‘thicker’ colours which you may or may not prefer. The colours on the Italian disc are slightly more subdued but still vivid and appear more natural.
All in all, this appears to be the edition I’ve been waiting for.
but the new edition seems slightly more detailed. It has a brighter picture and is 16:9 enhanced
This sound like the german dvd which is out for months and looks better compared to the us dvd. It doesn’t offer the italian soundtrack but the english dubbing and the german one of course. Extras are a german Super-8-version of the movie, 2 trailer and a booklet.
You can order it easily over at amazon.de as “Planet der Vampire”.
I wrote to the company when that DVD came out, and while I didn’t get a certain answer the guy said he thought the version of the film would be identical to MGM’s release (except the new transfer on the German DVD of course) since that’s where they got the material from.
What excites me about the Italian release is the original Italian version and ditto soundtrack and, to my surprise, that it also features English subtitles. This version was previously release on a French DVD, but it was quickly withdrawn and didn’t have English subtitles.
By the way, which on-screen title does the German DVD use?