The Dragon (Nikos Koundouros, 1956)

[Calvin]

My interest in Koundouros' The Dragon (O Drakos) has been piqued after reading this article by Peter Bradshaw where he says "O Drakos is brilliant: a dark, satirical noir masterpiece. [...] The Dragon is like a French New Wave picture crossed with a British Ealing comedy, with something of Fellini in its zinging energy, and Carol Reed's Odd Man Out and The Third Man."

It's on youtube and there are downloads floating around but does anyone know of an English-friendly DVD release? Has anyone seen it?

[ando]

I can't answer your question but I thank you for the post! I was not familiar with the director or the film until now. Youtube has a few dog versions of the film but I managed to find a decent full feature version (with English subs!). Looks very intriguing. Love the opening shot of the guy pasting over cinema posters (including some Bogie film) with the equivalent of a Greek "wanted" sign featuring the film title in obnoxiously large lettering: Ο Δράκος!

[Calvin]

Well, I finally gave in and watched my downloaded copy today. The quality wasn't actually that bad. The film itself was excellent, a true masterpiece that is begging for an English-friendly release.

[stroszeck]

I've heard of this film, which isn't available apparently in R1 or any other region. Not sure, but I believe whoever owns the rights is very very strict on seeing unauthorized copies of this thing floating around even in cyberspace which is why everytime a version of it pops up its immediately taken down. It's a shame as I'd really like to finish this one, great little unknown flick.