THE DESIGNATED VICTIM (1971) (Mondo Macabro Blu-ray Review)

THE DESIGNATED VICTIM (1971)

Label: Mondo Macabro

Region Code: Region Free

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 101 Minutes (Theatrical), 105 Minutes (Extended) 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: Italian and English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: Maurizio Lucidi
Cast: Tomas Milian, Pierre Clementi, Katia Christine, Luigi Casellato, Marisa Bartoli, Ottavio Alessi, Sandra Cardini

In this early 70's giallo riff on Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951) directed by Maurizio Lucidi (Probability Zero) we have disillusioned photographer Stefano (Tomas Milian, The Big Gundown) looking to leave his domineering wife Luisa (Marisa Bartoli) who controls the purse strings and gets caught up in a tit for tat murder scheme. It's while on a day trip to Caracas with his lover, a Parisian model named Fabienne (Katia Christie, The Hand That Feeds the Dead), that he meets an offbeat aristocrat named Count Matteo Tiepelo (Pierre Clémenti, Belle De Jour) seemingly by chance. The pair hit it off and later meet to talk, where Stefano shares his current domestic troubles, while Matteo in turn sharing that his older brother is also making his life a nightmare. Matteo suggest that they should help each other by agreeing to murder the other's problematic others, swapping murders. Stefano laughs the suggestion off as a dark bit of fantasy. However, a few days later Stefano's wife receives a bouquet of flowers with a note from Matteo describing how Stefano has forged his wife's signature on a stock sale which causes an argument, with Stefano storming off to stay at the couple's lake house. Along the way he picks up a German hitchhiker Cristina (Alessandra Cardini, The Tough Ones) and beds her, which later works against him. The next day he receives a phone call from the police informing him that his wife had been found strangled! Now Stefano is the prime suspect in his wife's murders and he comes to realize that the enigmatic Matteo has been pulling his strings from the beginning, setting up Stefano as the fall guy unless he follows through with the murder Matteo's troublesome older sibling. 

It's a wonderfully shot film set in Venice, the tense thriller has a dream-like atmosphere that could make you think that Stefano might be insane and perhaps Matteo doesn't even exist at all! Our protagonist is also a deliciously flawed character, a philandering playboy who even cheats on his side chic which comes back to bite him on the ass, and he's trying sell the company out from under his wife, but somehow he's still a likable guy, thanks in large part to the acting and charm of Tomas Milian. Stefano's relationship with Clemente's mysterious Matteo is also quite intriguing, the pair have quite good chemistry together and I enjoyed the way it all played out. 

Audio/Video: The Designated Victim (1971) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen, sourced from a 4K scan of original film elements. The theatrical cut look very pleasing with filmic grain and warm colors, and solid black levels. Clarity and depth aren't the strongest, but overall a pleasing presentation. The extended version is longer and features standard definition VHS inserts which are quite noticeable, but apparently there are no surviving film elements for these scenes. 

Audio on the theatrical cut comes by way of both English and Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles. Everything is clean and well-balanced, and the score from Luis Backlot (Django) sounds terrific. The extended cut gets only has Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual mono, also with English subtitles. 

Extras kick of with a brand new Audio Commentary by Rachael Nisbet and Peter Jilmstad of the Fragments of Fear Podcast. The duo get into screenwriting of the film and it's status among the gialli of the era. It's an info packed track and shed a lot of light onto the film and its history, though at times it feels a bit too scripted and dry. 

Interviews start off with the 48-minute Death and Beauty in Venice: Interview with writer and assistant director Aldo Lado (Short Night of the Glass Dolls) who talks about his time on the film, offering some interestingbtidbits about the production as well as his own film Short Night of the Glass Dolls. The 28-min Pierre Clementi: Pope of Counterculture: Interview with Balthazar Clementi, the son of Pierre Clementi who tells stories about his fathers career, run ins with the law, what he like personally and his legacy in film. 

Additionally were getting the longer running Exclusive Extended Version with VHS-sourced inserts, a 2-min Alternate English Title Sequence, and three Trailers in both Italian and English including the alternate title Slam-Out. The disc is buttoned-up with the usual 14-minite Mondo Macabro Previews. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork. His relationship with 

Special Features:
- Brand new 4k transfer from film negative
- Death and Beauty in Venice: Interview with writer and assistant director Aldo Lado  (48 min) 
- Pierre Clementi: Pope of Counterculture: Interview with Balthazar Clementi (28 min) 
- Audio Commentary by Rachael Nisbet and Peter Jilmstad of the Fragments of Fear podcast
- Exclusive Extended Version (105 min) HD 
- Alternate English Title Sequence (2 min) 
- Trailers (12 min) 
- Mondo Macabro Previews (14 min) 

The Designated Victim is a solid and stylish 70's giallo riff on the Strangers on a Train premise with terrific central performances from Milan and Clementi. If you're a fan of stylish 70's giallo and elaborate thrillers this Italian gem comes highly recommended.  

Screenshots from the Mondo Macabro Blu-ray:

Extras: 

PROBABILITY ZERO (1969) (DVD Review)

PROBABILITY ZERO (1969) 

Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: O NTSC
Rating: M (Mature Audiences)  
Duration: 91 Minutes 
Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono 2.0
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Maurizio Lucidi
Cast: Henry Silva, Luigi Casellato, Riccardo Salvino, Ezio Sancrotti, Franco Giornelli, Vittorio André, Marco Guglielmi, Maria Cristina Farnese, Paolo Magalotti, Fulvio Mingozzi, Tony Roico, Pietro Martellanza, Katia Christine, Renato De Carmine, Bill Vanders

In this Italian produced WW2 slice of war-is-hell cinema we have an Allied Spitfire fighter plane going down in Nazi occupied Norway, aboard the plane is a new form of radar equipment utilized by the Allied forces, and the fact that this has fallen into the hands of the enemy poses a threat to the war effort. The Nazis are transporting the wreck of the plane to a underground mountain base in Norway where it will be dissected and repaired, and the Allies must assemble a ragtag brigade to infiltrate the base and destroy the plane before it can give up its secrets to the Nazis.

What first caught my eye about this movie was that the screenplay was written by Dario Argento (Suspiria), a year before he directed his breakout debut crime-thriller The Bird with The Crystal Plumage (1970). It was produced by his father Salvatore Argento, and Dario had been cutting his teeth penning stories for Italian movies for a few years already, including Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Cemetery Without Crosses (1969), and a few other spaghetti war movies like Sullivan's Marauders (1968).

The Argento connection might prove disappointing to anyone expecting more than a fairly standard issue WW2 film along the lines of The Dirty Dozen (1967), with a rag tag crew of men assembled by American officer Duke (Henry Silva) who amasses a small squad of mercenaries willing to join his team, sometimes under coercion, for what has been deemed a "probability zero" mission with almost no chance of success or survival. It's fun stuff for what it is, with way more production value than I had envisioned going into it, we get decent WWII Nazi costuming, and some fun action set pieces at sea, on the battlefield, on the mountain, and even some submersible underwater action in a mined river, leading up to a full-on assault at the underground Nazi base, which was action-packed. Along the way there's plenty of small skirmishes, turmoil and tension amidst the group that all adds up to a gritty war film that moves along swiftly. 

Henry Silva (Escape from the Bronx) is the main attraction here, a sort of duplicitous bad ass willing to kill his own men if they disobey or stray from the mission, at one point taking out an AWOL member of the brigade with a sniper rifle when it becomes apparent he's heading for the hills. The men that make up his misfit brigade are a good bunch, there's not much depth to any of them but they do what they need to do, getting the mission done against the odds. We have the usual array of miscreants - a mountain climber accused of cowardice, a black market smuggler, an Italian POW with a penchant for torpedoes, and a troublesome frogman/saboteur, plus blond femme fatale (Maria Cristina Farnese, The Conspirators) who is not above using her curvy body to get what she needs from the Nazi scum. 

It all comes to a proper head at the Nazi base in Norway, the men crawling through an AC duct, dragging along a rather large torpedo, which they use to blast the Nazi base (and the plane with the top-secret radar system) to smithereens, but not without some casualties to the Allied team, but trust me they take a metric ton of Nazi to the grave with them, ha ha. 

The action is pretty damn good throughout, the production value is high, and while I am pretty sure this was shot in Spain through he magic of color grading it does have a certain cold Norway atmosphere, and to be honest I wouldn't know Norway from Spain anyway, so they convinced me at least. The action is plenty gritty, loads of bullets flying, stressful dramatic tension and Argento stuffs the story it with some convoluted story stuffing. It makes for a damn decent WWII flick with plenty of action, I'll definitely be adding a few more of the spaghetti war flicks to my to-watch list, this was fun. 

Audio/Vidoe: Probability Zero (1969) arrives on region-free NTSC formatted DVD from Australian label Umbrella Entertainment in anamorphic widescreen, framed in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio The source looks beats to Hell with all manner of blemish, vertical scratches, dirt, fading and blown-out whites - it certainly has a grindhouse feel about it. Likewise the English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono audio audio is boxy with distortion, with plenty of snaps, crackles and pops, but the whole affair was watchable, and it didn't detract much from my viewing. The DVD is bare-bones, there's no start-up menu, it goes straight into the feature. There are no subtitle options, and no extras.

Fans of Italian-made WW2 films should enjoy this one, plenty of cool scenery and gritty action, a fun turn from Henry Silva as a badass and a simple but action packed war-story that keeps the momentum moving forward.