TVV Films were an off-shoot of VIZ MOVIES, whose sales and distribution was all handled by Global Sales Ltd, previously known as Pricefall Limited. Global were also responsible for two other labels, Renown Video and Fifth Dimension.
It is still unclear what ‘TVV’ stood for, although I think the last V (Video) is pretty much a given.
The Pizazz label is something of a real curio. They appear to have only ever released one movie under the label’s name, a 1976 Italian crime movie called Risking (aka Pronto!, aka Meet Him and Die). The film was actually released as both a pre and post-cert on the same label.
The earlier release was from December ’83, and in connection with another label, Lunar. Lunar were not a label that lasted long in the video world and only released one other title in their own right – Nick the Sting.
The plot thickens with the pre-cert release because this was actually manufactured and distributed by Medusa. The post-cert was not.
As there are no other known releases on the Pizazz label, be it pre or post-cert era, I can only assume that this label is now complete.
With no fresh leads in over a year, and a long winter that prevented me from getting to any car boot sales, I have been mostly restricted to bulk buying tapes online, something that I strongly dislike doing. The fun has always been in the hunt for me. So when a friend got in touch and told me that he was getting rid of his entire collection, I jumped at the chance to adopt it. I like to think of myself as Pippa from Home and Away, but with tapes instead of… ah, you get the picture.
That friend goes by the name of Tim (@Reed_my_tweet on Twitter), and fortunately only lives an hour away from my house. So after Tim had gathered together a large chunk of his collection ready for me to take, he gave me a call and I hopped in the video van (Peugeot), making the short journey north to Stoke. I honestly wasn’t prepared for the sheer volume of tapes that awaited me.
I had forgotten to cover these up when I left for home. You would not believe the looks you get with a car full of VHS on a busy motorway. Luckily, i’m no stranger to these sort of looks.
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The Frontier video label came to the UK market in 1986. The label was independently run but also a full-blown off-shoot of Guild Home Video, making it quite the oddity. Frontier were based at Crown House in Walton-On-Thames, Surrey (also home of Guild), and are believed to have only released seven titles in total, all within the first year of operation.
It has taken me a number of years to finally complete this label as a few of the titles are incredibly rare. The rarest being LA Streetfighters (aka Ninja Turf), which was directed by one half of the infamous Miami Connection team. This tape alone can command upwards of £30 online, on the very rare occasion that it actually turns up. In fact, most of the seven are pretty tough to track down.
It is no great secret that Medusa are far and away my favourite video label, but upon researching the wonderful history of Medusa I uncovered many new layers to the famous company. As well as releasing hundreds of titles over a period spanning 20 years or more, there was also the odd off-shoot label too. These sub labels included New Dimension and Pegasus Home Video, the latter of which I have now completed.
