Shanks

This special limited edition J-card MediaBook slipcase (designed by Adam Maida) is limited to 4,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them.

Taking its name from the Lumière Brothers invention of the same name, Cinématographe is a new sub-label from Vinegar Syndrome that seeks to fill gaps in the canon of American cinema. Offering a mix of auteur driven studio films produced during the New Hollywood era of the late 1960s and 70s all the way through the indie boom of the 1980s and 90s, Cinématographe will explore the wide breadth of American moviemaking, spanning numerous genres and scales of production. Curated and produced by Vinegar Syndrome's Justin LaLiberty, each limited edition release will be housed in a specially designed, cloth-bound, media book with embossed foil titles and custom molded disc trays accompanied by a slipcase featuring newly commissioned art and an individually numbered J-card.

Malcolm Shanks (Marcel Marceau, Barbarella) is a deaf, mute, reclusive puppeteer who lives with his overbearing sister (Tsilla Chelton, Peppermint Soda) and her lush of a husband, Mr. Barton (Philippe Clay, French Cancan). The only source of joy in his harsh world is his puppets, which is noticed by a beguiling inventor named Dr. Baker (also played by Marceau), who promptly offers him a job as his assistant. Upon Dr. Baker’s sudden death, Shanks discovers that he can, with the aid of electrodes, reanimate the dead, bringing a new reality to their experiments.

The final film from gimmick-prone, American genre film icon William Castle (The Tingler, The House on Haunted Hill), SHANKS is a decidedly surrealist amalgamation of quirky fantasy and mid-70s character-driven horror. Anchored by a delectable dual performance from celebrated French actor Marcel Marcau, with potently eerie camera work by 13 Ghosts cinematographer Joseph F. Biroc and an atmospheric score by legendary composer Alex North (Spartacus, The Bad Seed), Cinématographe is proud to present William Castle’s often overlooked slice of mid- 70s alienation in its 4K UHD debut from a brand new restoration from its original negative.

directed by: William Castle
starring: Marcel Marceau, Tsilla Chelton, Philippe Clay, Cindy Eilbacher, Helena Kallianiotes, Larry Bishop
1974 / 93 min / 1.85:1 / English DTS-HD MA 1.0

Additional info:

• 2-Disc Set: 4K Ultra HD + Region A Blu-ray
• New audio commentary with film historians Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw
  
• No Words for the Dead: Reanimating William Castle, Visual Language and The Path to Shanks - a new video essay by Daniel Kremer
  
• Marcel Marceau on Shanks - an archival interview with the actor 
  Vintage radio spots 
  
• New text essays by culture writer Heather Drain, film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and film professor Murray Leeder, editor of ReFocus: The Films of William Castle
• English SDH subtitles