Mask VHS

"Mask" on VHS, Universal, 1985. Peter Bogdanovich directed this one from Anna Hamilton Phelan's script, and it earned Cher an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress the following spring. The film is based on the true story of Roy "Rocky" Dennis, a teenager with craniodiaphyseal dysplasia who lived in Azusa, California and died in 1978 at age 17. This is not a feel-good gloss on that story. Bogdanovich pushed it harder than Universal wanted, which led to a real falling-out over the theatrical cut.

1985 was a particular stretch for Universal on VHS. The label was pressing titles fast to keep up with the home-video explosion, and the clamshell packaging on mid-decade releases like this one reflects the transition period between the early cardboard sleeve era and the later slimline cases the format would standardize around by the late '80s. "Mask" sat alongside other Universal drama titles of the period: "Birdy," "The Killing Fields" (Warner for the U.S. but licensed widely), "The Color Purple" over at Warner. What separated "Mask" at rental counters was Cher, whose presence on the box art moved units in a way that pure drama titles rarely managed. The rock soundtrack, featuring Bob Seger and other artists Bogdanovich had cleared, was itself a point of tension, as later home-video reissues replaced some of the music due to licensing costs. This clamshell pressing, if it is the original 1985 Universal release, carries the pre-dispute soundtrack intact.

The tape should be clean, no visible mold lines on the cassette shell, and the clamshell spine should show age-appropriate fading rather than cracking. The Universal logo on the label face will be the early-'80s style mark, not the updated globe-and-text treatment the studio shifted to later in the decade. If this copy still has the original paper insert inside the clamshell, that is worth noting before purchase, as inserts separated from mid-'80s Universal tapes long ago in most collections. Run the tape to confirm tracking holds steady through the opening title sequence. Check the hinge point on the clamshell lid where the plastic tabs seat into the base, the stress fracture there is the first place these cases fail after forty years of open-and-close handling.

OWNER VERIFY: Confirm this is the original 1985 Universal pressing with the Bob Seger soundtrack intact, not a later reissue with replacement music.