#5 - The Mondo Cane Collection

It was the 1960's where the world was starting to open itself up to more powerful and expanding modes of communication. Flight was becoming a domestic event and the exotic were things you can buy at your local store.

Enter Mondo Cane, the Italian film from director's Jacopetti and Prosperi. The title literally translated is "Dog World". From the recesses of the exploitation filmmakers, this film topped all others in terms of popularity and vulgarity. What was purported from the ads just about delivered, except for the part where they say everything is true.

This set is released by Blue Underground in a special Limited Edition boxed set of only 10,000 sets. It is a very nice looking set with a blue translucent plastic case, which sits inside 8 DVD's from the collection of Jacopetti and Prosperi, a few of which have not seen any form of release. Each DVD is set in a slimline DVD case with original poster art on the cover. No inserts or booklet come with this set. There are two titles which come with two editions: Africa Addio (both theatrical and director's cut), and Goodbye Uncle Tom (also in the same two editions).

As films go, these are definitely not for every taste, nor are they always interesting. What they are in this day and age are cultural artifacts that serve as a sort of travel magazine before we knew about the different cultures. As a DVD set, it has all the potential to be an excellent collector's item. Not only do you get great and rare films that are unearthed for the first time and in excellent quality, but also in a very limited quantity. Each set is individually numbered and so you are assured (somewhat) that there is only 10,000 being made.

Blue Underground has earned a reputation of releasing high quality DVD's with great extras. The extra in this set is a 90 minute documentary of the two director's and how they managed to pull off these films and make lots of money doing it. The one failing aspect of this collection is not intrinsic in the set itself, but rather in the company Blue Underground. Even though the retail price is a bit daunting at $149.99, it would seem worth it, provided Blue Underground did not release all of these titles individually. That essentially is the smoking gun on this set. Blue Underground released smaller versions of the sets which are also claimed to be limited editions, but not numbered, so who knows what limited means. This is not the only limited edition set that Blue Underground has ruined, basically all of their limited editions have been double dipped in one form or another.

The other problem with this set is in the packaging. The clear plastic slipcase, while very nicely done, has a problem of staying together. That is to say its a little on the brittle side. I have bought two copies and both have managed to crack somewhere. So to have a pristine copy might be considerably hard to find. Furthermore, I do not recommend you buying it through the mail as it would increase the probability to it cracking. On the flip side, it will probably be cheaper to buy it online.

Conclusion: Because of the double dipping on this set, there is little incentive to collect this set and especially at the steep retail price. When it was first released, there was a lot of interest in it, but now you can choose which movie you can get. Further, you can probably buy the individual titles cheaper than you could this entire boxed set. So again, Blue Underground shot itself on this one. If you like Blue Underground and limited editions, it is probably a nice set to get. But if you are looking to resell, or have something rare on your hands, then you might want to pass on this one. Let's face it, it was released on October 28, 2003 and here we are trailing out 2007 and it is still available. How long does it take to sell out of 10,000 pieces? Either there are more than 10,000 made, or its too available with the other versions as well as the demand is just not there.