SEXOMANIA (1974) & LADY DESIRE (1968) Double-Feature Mondo Macabro Blu-ray Review

SEXOMANIA (1974) & LADY DESIRE (1968) Double-Feature 

SEXOMANIA (1974)

Label: Mondo Macabro 

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 167 Minutes 

Audio: Greek DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1)

Directors: Dimitri Papakonstantis, Mario Retsilas

Cast: Maria Ioannidou, Vasilis Mitsakis, Nikolaos Antoniou, Stavros Farmakis

Mondo Macabro Synopsis: Concerned for the mental health of his beautiful wife Lena, successful entrepreneur and neglectful husband Dimitris Sotos consults a psychiatrist. Determined to get to the root of the problem, the expert physician attempts to shed light on Lena’s troubled childhood and her turbulent, secret love life. As a result, a vivid kaleidoscope unfolds as the social prejudices, emotional trauma, broken dreams, and unspoken passions that shaped Lena’s character come to light. But the question remains. Can the unconventional psychotherapist help Lena rid herself of the ungovernable urge to seek pleasure in all the wrong places?

Tawdy arthouse exploitation from Greece is what we have here, vivid and wild, this was a trip. The film opens with a suicidal woman with a gun to her head, seemingly about to the pull the trigger, that is until her sext neighbor knocks on the door looking for a tool... sounds like a porno intro for sure, but this is mostly just titillating eroticism. Anyway, her cuckold husband seeks treatment for her from a psychiatrist to address her deep-seated issues stemming from a wild childhood with a maniacal mother. that have lead her down the path of depression and unbridled sexual experimentation. The therapy sessions lead to a non-stop barrage of flashback to her childhood and younger years enduring traumatic abuses and steamy sexual explorations, with a dark finale that caught me off guard. not sure I liked where it went, but it was certainly impactful.   

LADY DESIRE (1968) 

aka I BLAME MY BODY

Label: Mondo Macabro 

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 167 Minutes 

Audio: Greek DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles

Video: B&W 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1)

Directors: Errikos Andreou

Cast: Kostas Prekas, Christine Allen, Stefanos Stratigos, Vera Krouska

Mondo Macabro Synopsis: Living in self-imposed exile, hiding from the rest of the world in her eerily vacant Athens mansion, Christina, an affluent, sad-eyed heiress, is shocked to discover that an audacious burglar has stolen her precious collection of jewelry and family heirlooms. To get to the bottom of this challenging case, the inquisitive local police commander decides to dig deep into the opaque past of the cryptic young woman, following half-baked leads and half-truths. As the experienced officer tries to connect the dots, unexpected discoveries about Christina’s personal life come to light. However, Christina is a hard nut to crack, and the commander has no other choice but to resort to unconventional methods to shed light on the mysterious robbery. Now, it is up to Lieutenant Dimitris to help find the truth. Can he crack the case?

This monochrome noir-ish thriller has a lot going for it, plenty of stylish lensing, a horned-up jazzy score, police procedural elements involving a burglary that ends up exposing secrets from her past. It seems like it's heading into soft-core territory with multiple sex partner for our gorgeous lead, including some sapphic hotness, but regretfully never fully commits to the sleaze, what we end up with is a sultry pot-boiler that goes down pretty easy with gorgeous women and attractive lensing. 

Audio/Video: Both film arrive on region-free Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro, presented in 1080p HD in the original 1.33:1 fullscreen aspect ratio, both sourced from new 2K scan of the original camera negatives. The sources look impeccable, grain levels are lush, both have terrific contrast and clarity. Lady Desire's monochromatic image is nicely layered, grayscale and shadows are rich and nuanced. The color Sexomania shines with pleasing vivid colors, well-saturated, rich textures. Audio on both come by way of Greek DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. Like the video the audio is in mint condition, clean and well-balanced, dialogue and score sound just fine. 

Special Features:

- Brand new 2k restoration from original negative.

- Costas Prekas Tribute (3:21) 

- Maria Ioannidou Tribute (4:22)

- Sexomania Stills and Posters (2:20) 

- Sexomania Trailer (3:15) 

A solid Mondo Macabro Greek double-feature, number five in their ongoing The Greek Collection series of releases, and while neither of these set my world on fire these were fun arthouse/exploitation pairings, with a fantastic A/V presentation. The extras a bit slim by the usual Mondo Macabro standard, but the films themselves look really terrific and it's a great value too, and that's what counts. 

Buy it!

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THE KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN (1975) Rustblade Blu-ray Review + Screenshots

THE KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN (1975) 

aka L'ASSASSINO E' COSTRETTO AD UCCIDERE ANCORA 

50th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray 

Label: Rustblade

Region Code: Region-Free 

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 90 Minutes 29 Seconds 

Audio: Italian 1.0 and English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)

Director: Luigi Cozzi

Cast: George Hilton, Antoine Saint John

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The Killer Must Kill Again (1975), directed by Luigi Cozzi (The Black Cat), is adapted from Giorgio Scerbanenco's novel Al mare con la ragazza, an Italian-French co-production, a non-traditional giallo, with a very strong Hitchcockian influences, and Argento-ish kills and a gripping, suspenseful narrative. The story follows Giorgio (George Hilton, All The Colors Of The Dark), a greedy adulterer who after an argument with is wife storms off, and ends up accidentally stumbling upon a killer (Michel Antoine, The Beyond) dumping the body of a woman he has just murdered into a canal inside of a VW Beetle. Instead of reporting the crime he instead introduces himself to the killer and proposes that the killer eliminate his wealthy wife, Nora (Teresa Velazquez), a bargain backed-up by a cash reward and some blackmail involving a monogrammed cigarette lighter belonging to the killer. The killer agrees and shows up at Nora's apartment, introducing himself as a friend of Giorgio to gain access. Once inside the tension mounts as he keeps moving around the apartment, setting Nora on edge, before strangling her to death. You have got to check out this apartment decor, it's wild, almost completely yellow with some blue flourishes, it's kind of stunning - check out the screenshots below. Anyway, things quickly start to unravel for the killer, cluing you in to the fact that he's no professional assassin, just a deranged killer, which becomes apparent when he leaves the car running outside while he cleans up the crime scene. A young man named Luca (Alessio Orano, Eye Witness) and his girlfriend Laura (Cristina Galbo, What Have You Done To Solange?) take advantage of this and steal the killer's car, unaware that Nora's corpse is in the trunk, leaving the killer to hotwire a car to pursue them!

Giorgio's plan involves staging a ransom to procure money from Nora's wealthy father, and her corpse turning prematurely up would put the kibosh on that, so the killer pursues the young lovers, who stop to steal gas and money along the way, with Laura flashing her titty to distract the attendant, before ending up at an abandoned seaside, where villa the young lovers hole up in, unaware that a sadistic killer is quickly closing in on them.

While the killer pursues the car thieves Giorgio must contend with a doubtful police inspector (Eduardo Fajardo, Knife of Ice), who finds the whole scenario rather sloppy and suspect. Meanwhile Luca, frustrated that the virginal Laura won't put out, leaves her alone at the creepy villa and ends up picking up stranded motorist, a pretty blonde (Femi Benussi, Naughty Teen) on the side of the road. This little lassie has no problem jumping into the back of his car for some roadside sex, all the while helpless Laura is set upon by the demented killer. Of course, she being virginal and not willing to put out for Luca, ironically ends up being raped by the killer, the rape scene is intercut with images of Luca and the blonde in the throws of passion in the car, which is rather unsettling. The use of intercut scenes is pretty effectively used by Cozzi here, the earlier scene of Nora being strangled to death by the killer is also intercut with scenes of Giorgio at a dinner party, establishing his alibi, laughing and making jokes to party guests while she is dying. 

I have always enjoyed the film of Luigi Cozzi, who is probably best known by most for the sci-fi Starcrash, but I wouldn't say that I've ever really found him to be a particularly stylish director, but I was pleased to find that this giallo thriller is pretty stylish, not Argento level stylish, but with moody cinematography by Riccardo Pallottini (Lady Frankenstein) and an effectively atmospheric score by Nando De Luca (Blood Feud), the unsettling atmosphere and moments of disturbing violence really ramp up the dread. 

The unnamed killer is a true frightful maniac, he looks frightening as fuck, perhaps enhanced by some make-up and lighting, I just found his craggy face and and chilling demeanor to be skin-crawling. He has a macabre habit of  groping the breast of his dead victims, so you know there;s just something deeply wrong with this guy. I also quite enjoyed the finale, which has huge logic gaps I am willing to overlook, with a very pleasing cyclical structure loaded with irony. Cozzi's film is a non-traditional giallo in that it's not a murder mystery, there are no black-gloved killer to be unmasked, we know from the beginning who the killer is, it's just a matter of where is this all going and how will it pan out, and I found it pretty thrilling and suspenseful from start to finish. 

Audio/Video: The Killer Must Kill Again (1975) gets a region-free Blu-ray from Rustblade, presented in 1080p HD widescreen (2.35:1) there's no information about the source of the transfer other than it is "complete and restored". The film was previously issued on DVD by Mondo Macabro, and I missed out on that edition which is now long OOP, so I was pleased to see this get an HD re-issue from Rustblade, but I am assuming this is a fated HD scan provided by the licensor. The source looks solid, colors are generally pleasing - that yellow themed apartment is something else, black levels are strong, though some of the darker scenes marred by what look like some strange photochemical staining that has an almost psychedelic effect with subtle blossoming colors. The film has also been DNR scrubbed pretty heavily, wiping away fine detail and textures, film grain, lines on faces and clothing textures are near non-existent, it's a smooth plasticine nightmare, which is a shame. 

Audio comes by way of uncompressed DTS-HD MA Italian 1.0 mono or English 2.0 dual-mono, both tracks are dubbed as Italian film of this vintage were rarely shot with sync-sound, both are a bit muffled and anemic to be honest, I preferred the English dub which I think served the Nando De Luca score better, and it was marginally clearer with more clarity. Both tracks are serviceable though, but clicks, pops and some subtle background noise are present on both. 

The disc includes a handful of extras, starting off with 32-minute Interview with Luigi Cozzi in Italian with subtitles, it features the director talking about his association with Dario Argento, first coming into his circle writing the script for Four Flies on Grey Velvet before getting his chance to direct an Argento-style thriller, a, wanting to make a giallo that was the opposite of the Argento clones that were popular at the time, adapting the source novel, the story structure, casting, and troubles with the producers. We also get a 14-min Appreciation by Federico Frusciante, also in Italian, with English subtitles, who offers an appreciation of Cozzi's career and this film in particular. Also included is a 7-min Location Tour by Giallo Italiano showing the locations then and now, including the seaside villa and other locations. The disc s buttoned-up with a 4-min Theatrical Trailer using the alternate The Dark is Death’s Best Friend title. 

the single-disc release arrives in an oversized clear keepcase with a 2-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the illustrated original movie poster. The reverse side features some interior artwork by way of two images from the film in high contrast black on yellow background. The disc itself features an excerpt of the same Italian movie poster. The spine features both the Italian and English titles of the film. 

Special Features: 

- Interview with Luigi Cozzi (31:37) 

- Appreciation by Federico Frusciante (14:07) 

- Location Tour by Alessandro Zito of Giallo Italiano (6:40) 

- Theatrical Trailer (3:47) 

Screenshots from the Rustblade Blu-ray: 

Double-click to enlarge images. 

Extras: 

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