Elisabeth Shue Alert!!! (Link edition)

[Monterey Jack]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=314452

Probably THE most annoying (but catchy!) Jerry Goldsmith score ever. Plus, Elisabeth's bare bum in HD.

[AndyDursin]

This I look forward to checking out. Someone on that board was saying the footage from the original cut exists dubbed in French...hopefully Kino looks into whether or not that material can be found. Franklin basically disowned the released version of LINK, which was hacked down, apparently eliminating substantial story material.

Worth noting too this wasn't a "Cannon film" per se -- Thorn EMI produced it then sold off their film division to Cannon before the movie was finished (hence the "Cannon Screen Entertainment" moniker which was around for a couple of years, which they used on those films).

This means Kino licensed it from Studio Canal -- and that's big news because it means that vault is now open to licensing.

[andy b]

Andy

I worked on this in my EMI days. It had a very large promotional budget & was set to be an early summer "thriller/drama/horror". Had a number of designs ready to go for international 1-sheets & alternates for non English markets. We also had a couple of very successful test screenings in London with a much longer running time, gave the film time to breath & set up the third act.

Sadly as you state EMI sold off the film division, firstly to Alan Bond & then in turn around to Cannon. One of the first films on the chopping block was Link. Cut down to a very swift running time & side lined for a home entertainment after what really boiled down to a handful of screenings that were pretty much laughed at by the few scattered audience.

There are loads of images in the EMI international press book that never made it to the final film & for those who can track it down on a number of EMI Home Video tapes there is the extended 4 minute trailer that consists of scenes that were all cut out! On those same tapes you will also find Highlander extended trailer, again with many sequences not in the final cut of the film. Plus we put out two tapes of Queen songs from Highlander & there on the end are a number of extended trailers for up & coming EMI product, Link included & it's a different trailer & again consists of mainly dropped sequences. By the way those tapes were exclusive to Woolworths & 5.99 (UK Pounds) each!

Sadly I spent my last days at the old EMI in Golden Square London, placing Cannon Releasing stickers over any publicity that stated EMI Screen Entertainment! This along with Highlander (already being ruined in the USA by Orion) & The Hitcher were the first victims of the take over. By the way I am not against Cannon Films in fact in some ways their crazy ways kept Video store shelves packed & dying cinemas with product, just that these EMI films caught in the take over deserved the "EMI touch" & not the Cannon "throw it out there" ways!

If Kino can snag it & I am really not sure how much survived the sales axe to Studio Canal but some where is a lot of cut footage to Link.

Hope it's a good release.

regards
Andy b

[AndyDursin]

Sounds like some fun extras have been unearthed:

[Monterey Jack]

Might be tempted to buy this during a Kino sale. It's a terrible movie, but Elisabeth is at the height of her fresh-scrubbed 80s cuteness, and the commentary and deleted scenes should be interesting to peruse.

[AndyDursin]

Rewatched the Blu-Ray -- indeed, it's much worse than I recall.

Kino's Blu-Ray is in MONO too.

Whatever happened to Richard Franklin? The Australian auteur became a hot commodity for a while in the ’80s with genre films like “Psycho II” and the kid fantasy “Cloak and Dagger,” but he saw his career fizzle out after misfires like the barely released 1986 ape thriller LINK (103 mins., R; Kino Lorber). Produced for Thorn EMI before their film division went belly-up and was sold to Cannon, “Link” stars Terence Stamp as a daffy college professor whose work with intelligent simians results in one of those predictable “don’t mess with nature” plots, forcing grad student Elisabeth Shue to battle a chimp gone wild in Stamp’s isolated British manor.

Jerry Goldsmith’s goofy score – with a few notes clearly presaging his “Gremlins 2” theme – is one of the chief assets of this strange thriller, which for years Franklin claimed was sabotaged due to pre-release cuts. Thorn EMI’s movie division rolled out a handful of mostly disastrous flops before it went under prior to “Link”’s release – and in a brief Aussie phone interview contained in Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray, Franklin reveals that Universal initially supported releasing the film and suggested cutting it to 103 minutes. Ultimately, Cannon’s purchase of Thorn EMI’s slate relegated the film to very limited distribution and a fast track to home video, where it’s only been sporadically available since.

Some 25 minutes of deleted workprint scenes are a nice inclusion in Kino Lorber’s “Link” Blu-Ray – the movie’s worldwide debut in the format – yet none of them would have improved the final product. “Link” was deemed as a failure even by its director, and it’s hard not to agree with him: after Shue heads to scientist Stamp’s isolated British coastal home, she meets his trio of intelligent chimps…one of whom doesn’t take to Stamp’s plan of ridding himself of the eldest member of the group. After Stamp goes missing, the remainder of the film is strictly a chase picture wherein Shue uncovers the culprit (you know who) and Franklin tries as hard as he can to make the claustrophobic stage sets cinematically compelling as Shue and friends run from the homicidal chimp (really a thinly disguised orangutan).

Frankly “Link” may have been more palatable had it been shorn of more of its 103 minutes, as Everett de Roche’s script is painfully thin on compelling dramatic content. Once Stamp departs, “Link” becomes a tedious, ineffective thriller minus actual suspense, clumsily making its way to a feeble finish line.

Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray offers a nice 1080p (1.66) Studio Canal-licensed transfer that looks like a fresh scan with warm color and nice detail. Sadly the soundtrack doesn’t fare as well, with the movie’s Dolby Stereo mix ineffectively translated here into a muddled mono soundtrack instead (after digging around, I found the 2001 Anchor Bay DVD that I covered for an FSM “Laserphile” column, and confirmed it was in fact in stereo). That disappointment aside, the Blu-Ray also includes some welcome supplements, including a commentary from film critics Lee Gambin and Jarret Gahan, the before-mentioned deleted scenes (mostly from the film’s first half), a brief phone interview extract with Franklin, a full run of trailers, and a “demo” of Goldsmith’s catchy main theme.

[Monterey Jack]

WHY does Kino keep doing this, releasing mono versions of movies that were stereo on DVD or even the cheapie Mill Creek discs?!

[AndyDursin]

I don't get it at all. I wonder if it's something happening at the mastering stage, where someone is taking the master they're provided and missing some step or screwing something up in the translation from the licensee. It's really thin, bad mono sound too. I bounced back and found the copy of the DVD I had, and of course, it's nice, full stereo

Also weird that the movie opens with Thorn EMI's logo and name in the credits instead of Cannon, who had nothing to do with the movie but bought them out before release. Indicates this transfer came from a different source -- and it looks really good -- but it's a shame about the sound. (Also means Cannon didn't cut it -- Thorn EMI or someone else did. In the extras, Richard Franklin says it was Universal executives who said 103 minutes "had to be the running time". They were at one point looking to buy it, so he was dealing with the same executives he worked with on CLOAK AND DAGGER. Obviously that fell through, but the running time remained)

The movie's no good to begin with, but when you detract from one of the best things about it (Jerry's score), it's really unfortunate.

[AndyDursin]

Apparently LINK is being restored in its never-before-released original cut -- and in a 4K UHD also -- exclusively in France.

If they actually get the stereo track right, I might even buy this one again.

[AndyDursin]

Available for preorder -- limited edition of 1000, ships end of November.

$43 shipped, they take Paypal so I ordered one.

LIMITED EDITION

OF 1000 COPIES / RELEASE END OF NOVEMBER TECHNICAL:
• LINK - 1986 - 1h43 - USA - International
editing • UHD - 3840x2160 / 24p
• BLURAY - 1920x1080 / 24p
• French and English in DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono / English DTS- HD MA 2.0 Stereo
• Subtitles: French
• All Zones

BONUS :
• The missing link by Eric Peretti (39 min)
• Audio interview with Richard Franklin (4 min 45)
• Unpublished scenes (24 min)
• Long version lasting 2:05 (French subtitles)
• Announcement film

https://www.lechatquifume.com/collectio ... ducts/link

[AndyDursin]

200 copies left!!

[sprocket]

I'm tempted by this. I've never bought Link before because I don't really like the idea of a movie with monkeys. BUT I've always wanted to see it because I know the St.Abbs area where it was shot very well. I've been there multiple times.

How's the location work in the film? Is it worth getting for the scenery?

(Yes, yes.. I like Elisabeth Shue like next person, but, given the monkeys, she's never been enough to get me to buy it.)

[AndyDursin]

Well Kino Lorber has issued the movie on UHD aaaaand...it's still in mono!!

Glad I kept the French disc.