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: 

DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972) (Arrow Video Blu-ray)

DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972) 

Label: Arrow Video

Release Date: September 26th 2017 

Region Code: A/B
Rating: Unrated 
Duration: 105 Minutes 

Audio: English LPCM Mono 1.0 with Optional English and Italian Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Lucio Fulci

Cast: Florinda Bolkan, Barbara Bouchet, Tomas Milian

Luci Fulci's rural-set giallo entry Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) opens in a rather perverse sort of way, which is appropriate for such a perverse movie. In a rural mountain village in Southern Italy three adolescent boys excitedly herald the arrival a a pair of French whores into their small village, they follow the prostitute's car to a cottage on the outskirts of town where they meet up with some local men, they watch from a distance as the local village idiot Barra (Vito Passeri, Meridian) catches an eyeful of the sexy stuff through the shuttered windows until he is caught and chased away by the men and angry whores, he is further taunted by the trio of young boys who call him a peeping-tom. Angry he threatens to kill the insolent boys for their taunts, which makes him an ideal suspect when two of the boys are later found murdered, strangled to death.

As with any good giallo entry we have a wonderful myriad of red-herrings and possible could-be culprits throughout, beginning with simple-minded Barra, a local witchy woman named Martiara (Florinda Bolkan, A Lizard In a Woman's Skin), and a young, sexy, and wealthy outsider name Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times), a rich spoiled girl who shockingly fully exposes herself to one of the young boys, seemingly offering to pop the kid's cherry! I can see why the movie made such a fuss in Italy when it was released, the movie is perverse in that it is about a series of child murders, plus there's a weird sexual component with hints at pedophilia, and in its own way is mighty damning of the Catholic Church. 

The movie is fascinating in that as a giallo it is not the usual black-gloved killer stuff we love about Dario Argento, it's set in a rural area and not in an urban center, which was not something you saw too much with gialli, though it did happen from time to time, notably with The House with the Laughing Windows (1976), and child-murders were also the focus of other Italian whodunits like What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974). Also adding intrigue to the proceedings we have the lovely Florinda Balkan as the witchy woman, we see her performing black magic and unearthing a baby's skeleton from the ground, it creates a sense of oddness, and Balkan adds some substance to the character with her glances and facial expressions, she steals the movie to a large degree. 

Add to that a Catholic priest named  Don Alberto (Marc Porel, The Psychic) who runs the local church where the murdered boys attended school, and his creepy mother (Irene Papas, The Trojan Women) and his "deaf and dumb" sister. The child murders cause quite a stir in the local press, represented by reporter Andrea Martelli (Tomas Milian, Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot!), who sort of becomes the sleuth of the piece, joining forces with the sexy Patrizia to figure it all out. 

The murder of children is impactful, add to that the superstitions and rural attitudes and you have a fascinating giallo murder-mystery happening here with some damning views of the Catholic church, a wonderful film and one of my favorite of Fulci's early 70's works. It does lack the visceral grue of his later films, but there's still some potent visual shocks, including a brutal whipping with chains and a nose-dive off a cliff face that has some face-peeling qualities later seen in Fulci's The Psychic. I find this the most affecting of all Fulci's films, the themes are dark and the child-murders are bleak, I like the way the local superstitions and rural attitudes feed the hysteria, leading to a vigilante justice that proves erroneous, it's a striking scene, the lonely death is set to some radio-tuned rock n' roll. 

I won't spoil the movie but the killer's motives when revealed are even more perverse than the sexuality in the film, and therein lies the controversy the film created, Fulci was really laying into the Church on this one.  

Sergio D'Offizi (The House on the Edge of the Park) cinematography nicely captures the lush, green and scenic mountainous locations in Southern Italy, it's not as artful as some other gialli but it's a gorgeous looking film; some of the camerawork and atmospheric lighting in Patrizia's apartment are particularly sweet, a scene with her nude with a wave-machine in the forefront looks fantastic, and it captures a weird sexuality between her and a young boy. Then we have a wonderful and haunting theme from Riz Ortolani (Cannibal Holocaust) which adds a lot of atmosphere to the rural and visuals, this movie only gets better with each watch.  

Special Features: 
- New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
- Gialla A La Campagna: A new video discussion with Mikel J. Koven, author of La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film (28 min) HD 
- Hell is Already In Us: A new video essay by critic Kat Ellinger (21 min) HD 
- Interview with co-writer/director Lucio Fulci, 
- Those Days with Lucio: Interview with actor Florinda Bolkan (28 min) HD 
- The DP's Eye: Interviews with cinematographer Sergio D'Offizi (46 min) 
- From The Cutting Room Table: Interview with assistant editor Bruno Micheli (26 min) 
- Endless Torture: Interview with assistant makeup artist Maurizio Trani (16 min) 
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Timothy Pittides
- Fulci Remembers: Director Lucio Fulci answers questions from journalist Gaetano Mistretta in this rare audio recording from 1988. Italian with English subtitles(33 min) 
- Collector's booklet with new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw and Howard Hughes (First Pressing Only)

I am so pleased to see this earlier Fulci title get some love from Arrow Video, his 80s gore-films are loved and adored, but these lesser-known slightly less-loved titles are deserving of some new evaluation and appreciation, Fulci was more than just an 80s gore director, he was a true visual craftsman and a potent storyteller, his early 70s work is proof of that. This version of Don't Torture a Duckling is the best it has looked on home video and the Arrow extras are plentiful, this one comes highly recommended.

 

COMPANEROS (1970)

COMPANEROS (1970)

Label: Blue Underground

Release Date: October 28, 2014
Region Code: Refion FREE

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 115 Mins. / Italian: 119 Mins.

Audio: English and Italian DTS-HD Mono with Optional English SDH, French, Spanish, English Subtitles for Italian Version
Video: 1080p Widescreen (2.35:1) 

Director: Sergio Corbucci

Cast: Franco Nero, Tomas Milian, Fernando Rey, Karin Schubert, Jack Palance

SYNOPSIS: 
Yodlaf Peterson (Franco Nero of DJANGO) is a suave Swedish arms dealer with a love for fast money. Vasco (Tomas Milian of TRAFFIC) is a trigger-happy Mexican bandit with a hate for suave Swedish arms dealers. But when the two men team up to kidnap a professor who holds the key to a fortune in gold, they find themselves hunted by the American army, stalked by a marijuana-crazed sadist (Academy Award winner Jack Palance) and trapped in the middle of a revolution about to explode. Can these two enemies blast their way across Mexico together without killing each other first?

THE FILM: 
Here we have another Zapata Western of the Italian persuasion from director Sergio Corbucci (DJANGO) set during the Mexican revolution. The film Western legends Franco Nero (DJANGO) and Tomas Milan (DJANGO KILL). Milan portrays a Mexican bandit El Vasco who wears a beret which gives home a certain Che Guevara flavor. Vasco's not the sharpest tool in the shed which makes him useful to the self appointed rebel leader General Mongo (José Bódalo) who sends him into battle. The red-coated Mongo is more interested in personal gain than the revolution so it's always handy to have a few good disposable men at your disposal and Vasco fits the bill.

When a dapper Swedish arms dealer Yodlaf (Nero) arrives on scene to sell weapons to Mongo we discover that his payment is locked away in the impenetrable town vault and only the counter revolutionary leader Professor Xantos (Frenando Rey) knows the combination. He's currently imprisoned at an American Army base on the other side of the border and Vasco and Yodlaf must team-up to free te non-violent revolutionary. 

What makes the film here is the adversarial buddy-relationship between the slow-witted Vasco and the blue-eyed Swede, which is also very much what made THE BIG GUNDOWN such a fun watch which also starred Milan as the rough and tumble Mexican. As a Zapata Western there's certainly some political leanings to the film but for me the humor and camaraderie are what pulled me in and pushed me through - this is a wonderful watch and comedy tends to be painted in broad strokes. Milan is very much the straight man - a dapper stranger in a strange land who plays the opposition against each other to his benefit. Milan is sort of a low-life who cannot stand the well-dressed foreigner he has been assigned to. He mockingly refers to the well-dressed Swede as a "penguin" and the two double-cross and trade barbs with each other.

A particularly fun scene has Penguin at the wrong end of a noose balanced precariously on top of a barrel. Having just been betrayed by the Swede Vasco takes his sweet time freeing the arm dealer and with no small amount of taunting before doing so, these two are dynamite together - even more so than Milan's teaming with Lee Van Cleef (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK) in THE BIG GUNDOWN. 

The performances are captivating and the chemistry of the two actors is undeniable - it's a damn shame this was they're only team-up onscreen. Also making a memorable appearance is Jack Palance as a weed-smoking mercenary with a vendetta against the Swede. He's a colorful character with a wooden hand and a pet hawk named Marshall (or Matilda in the English version), the back story is a fun one, he plays it cool but there's that Palance menace just beneath that nightmarish grin. Fernando Rey as the non-violent counter-rebel leader gives the film quite a bit of soul it wouldn't have had otherwise. 

There's a lot of nice character touches throughout that just add to the film in small ways beginning with the question of why the Swede gave Vasco a dollar upon meeting him - the question nags at the Mexican throughout the film. Another weird touch is professor Xantos discovering the younglings of a rare species of turtle which he carries with him, at the end of the day neither are significant to the story but help paint are more colorful image including references to DJANGO with someone dragging a coffin from a graveyard and the machine gun making an appearance. 

A fun film from start to finish but the film does strike a nice balance with the violence we've come to expect from the sub-genre with some excellent exchanges of gunfire, violence, bridges blowing up, hangings and bursts brute force but it never once loses the comedic edge. 

The visuals are top-notch and the cinematography is excellent, the sweaty Western visuals are framed nicely, just on a visual level this is a knockout. Adding immensely to the film is another stand-out score for Ennio Morricone (THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY) that stays with you long after the movie ends. 

BLU-RAY: 
COMPANEROS (1970) arrives on Blu-ray from Blue Underground with a brand-new transfer sourced from the original negative. Colors are uniformly strong and vibrant with black levels and shadow detail scoring high marks - this is a great looking disc with some nice clarity and moments of fine detail in the close-up shots.  There are two versions of the film on the disc, a 115 minute English version and the 119 minute Italian version which adds a few additional scenes including the "death to the oppressors" opening scene.

Audio options include an English DTS-HD Mono track for the English version and both DTS-HD Mono Italian and English for the extended Italian version with Optional English subtitles for both.

Onto the extras we have the 17 minute featurette from the 2001 Anchor Bay disc presented in standard-def. Nero speaks about his preference to play foreigners and to use his own voice in his Westerns while Milan address the fact that he could be a very difficult actor to work with and using his beret in the film as a prop to enhance his character. Both stars speak about their somewhat adversarial relationship during filming. They also recall working with the the imposing Jack Palance and director Sergio Corbucci with Nero glossing over his falling out with Corbucci with whom he did not collaborate with again following this film. 

There's a new audio commentary from Journalists C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke who have also done commentaries for THE GRAND DUEL (1972) and THE BIG GUNDOWN (1967). It's quite a good listen as the two are deeply versed in the genre and add a lot of insights into the cast, context and making of the film. 

Extras are finished up with a selection of stills, TV spots and trailers including an electrifying Italian trailer comprised of still shots and animation. 

SPECIAL FEATURES
- Audio Commentary with Journalists C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke
- In The Company Of Companeros - Interviews with Stars Franco Nero, Tomas Milian and Composer Ennio Morricone (17 minutes)
- International Trailer (1 minute)
- Italian Trailer (1 minute)
-Poster and Still Gallery (31 Images)

VERDICT:
Not as excessively violent as Sergio Corbucci's classic Spaghetti Western DJANGO (1966) but  just as enjoyable on another level. A top notch Italian Western infused with a fun buddy movie chemistry from Milan and Nero and some effective bursts of violence that punctuate the film. Blue Underground have done a fantastic job with the transfer and there's a decent set of extras, any fan of Spaghetti Westerns and the Zapata sub-genre in particular should jump on this without reservation.

Blu-ray Review: THE BIG GUNDOWN (1968) 4-Disc Collector's Edition

THE BIG GUNDOWN (1968) 

Label: Grindhouse Releasing 
Region: Region-FREE
Rating: R
Duration: 95 Minutes (Expanded US Cut), 110 Minutes (Director's Cut) 
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p Widescreen (2.40:1) 
Director: Sergio Sollima
Cast: Tomas Milian, Walter Barnes, Lee Van Cleef, Gérard Herter

'The Big Gundown' (1968) is a Spaghetti Western written by Sergio Leone (Fistful of Dollars) collaborator Sergio Donati (Orca) and directed by Sergio Sollima (Run, Man, Run) starring Western legend Lee Van Cleef (Escape from New York) as Texas lawman Corbett tasked by a corrupt Baron Brokston (Walter Barnes) to track and kill a Mexican peasant named Cuchillo (Tomas Milian) blamed for the despicable rape and murder a 12 year-old girl - and that's the very simple set-up of the The Big Gundown.

As Corbett sets out on a cross country pursuit of the Mexican criminal he discovers that his adversary is quite crafty adversary and not easy to lay hands on. Tomas Milian portrays the character as a mischievous prankste, a street rat who prefers the blade to a six-shooter. Van Cleef's Corbet is a stone-cold lawman with a real sense of duty and justice, a straight-laced sharp shooter who throughout the film has his loyalties tested. Something that sets this film apart are the cast of characters, aside from Van Cleef and Tomas Milian we have the addition of a peculiar Austrian caped-gunslinger Baron Von Schulenberg (Gérard Herter) who sports a monocle, a truly unforgettable character.

There's a very strong political undercurrent throughout the film with Cuchillo as something of a Mexican revolutionary against the greed and corruption of American industrialist Brokston, and then we have Corbett as the conflicted hired gun working for the man. While the politics are there it's not obnoxiously up front - there are so drawn-out monologues drawing attention to it the theme, it's character driven and Van Cleef and Milian completely carry the film on their performances and exchanges.

By far the most enjoyable aspect of the movie that cat and mouse interplay with the wily Cuchillo usually getting the upper-hand on the more straight-faced Corbett. On top of that it's a gorgeously shot film with long vistas, rough desert terrain and blue sky. The superb finale a triple-layered duel with all the elements converging for a satisfyingly tense climax proving that it is not necessarily a bad idea to bring a knife to a gunfight.

Blu-ray: 'The Big Gundown' comes to Blu-ray/DVD for the first time ever in the US with a brand new 2K digital restoration of the original uncensored English-language version, newly expanded with three additional scenes presented in 1080p widescreen (2.40:1). The colors are vivid, details are crisp and the skin tones are appear natural. The black levels are nice and the film grain is intact, this is a very attractive presentation from start to finish with very minimal instances of speckling and print damage, there's even a modest amount of depth to the image, a qaulity transfer courtesy of Columbia Pictures and Grindhouse Releasing. There's one English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono sounds very nice, the dubbed dialogue and canned effects are nicely balanced and the superb Ennio Morricone's Western score comes through gloriously, right from the opening salvo of "Run, Man, Run".

This four-disc limited edition set is crammed with quality extras beginning on disc one with an Audio commentary by Western film experts C. Courtney Joyner and Henry C. Parke who come off a bit on the academic side of things but do keep the conversation moving forward with some scene by scene commentary, trivia and history of the production - it makes for a informative listen as they attempt to one-up each other with anecdotal trivia bits. There is also the option to watch the movie with an isolated music and effects only audio track. There are nearly 2 hours of interviews with Director Sergio Sollima, Screenwriter Sergio Donati and StarTomas Milan which cover a lot of ground about the production of the movie with many colorful anecdotes. The first disc is completed by the inclusion of production stills, trailers and TV spots, filmographies and a DVD-ROM with a detailed analysis of the different versions of the film. There is also an Easter Egg hidden away on disc one, a trailer for the sequel to this movie.

The second disc is a Blu-ray of the 110 minute director's cut 'La Resa Dei Conti' presented in 1080p with a Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono with optional English subtitles. With this version we also have an isolated score option and a subtitled commentary focusing on Morricone's score and the different versions of the film. Also included are trailers for An American Hippie in Israel, Corruption, The Swimmer, Massacre Mafia Style, Gone with the Pope, Cannibal Holocaust, Ice House, Poor White Trash 2, Cat in the Brain, The Beyond, Cannibal Ferox, The Tough Ones, Pieces and I Drink Your Blood.

The third disc is a DVD version of the Expanded US Cut mirroring the extras from the first disc. The final disc of this 4-disc set is a CD of the 23-track original score from Ennio Morricone (53:49). Packaging extras include a sleeve of reversible artwork, a sweet slipcase and a hefty 22 page color booklet with liner notes from Western film expert C. Courtney Joyner and Euro-music expert Gergely Hubai crammed with stills and international posters, plus a write-up on poster artist Mario De Barardini.  


Special Features:
- 4-Disc Deluxe Limited Edition Combo Pack - 2 Blu-rays, 1 DVD and 1 Bonus CD
- Individually numbered and limited to 3000 copies
- Spectacular new 2K digital restoration of the original uncensored English-language version, newly expanded with three additional scenes
- 'La Resa Dei Conti' (1080p) - the complete, 110 minute director's cut presented in Italian with optional English subtitles and special musical subtitles
- Isolated Music and Effects Audio Track
- 'The Big Gundown' original soundtrack by Ennio Morricone
- Sergio Sollima Remembers the Big Gundown (29:00) 
- Tomas Milian: Acting On Instinct (29:46) 
- Tagliatelle in Los Angeles: Sergio Donati Interview (12:03) 
- Sergio Sollima: Struggles Against Genre Rome (27:54) 
- Sergio Donati Bonus Interview (11:50) 
- Still Galleries: Productions Stills (1:41), US Promotional Material (3:26), Italian Promotional Material (0:51), French Promotional Material (2:31), Various Promotional Material (1:41)
- Audio commentary by Western film experts C. Courtney Joyner and Henry C. Parke
- 22 Page Collector's Booklet with Liner notes by C. Courtney Joyner and Euro-music expert Gergely Hubai
- 3 Theatrical Trailers (8:24) 
- 5 TV Spots (2:06) 
- Filmographies for Sergio Sollima, Sergio Donati and Tomas Milian 
- DVD-ROM Content
- Grindhouse Releasing Trailers (32:55) 
- Easter Eggs: Run , Man, Run Trailer (3:41) 

Verdict: 'The Big Gundown' (1968) is thoroughly entertaining Spaghetti Western by any standard, on par with any of Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy. On top of that we get a superb edition  with a sweet transfer and it's dripping with quality extras you can pour over for days on end. Only 3000 copies of this 4-disc limited edition are available, so get your copy now before it's gone. A very high recommend for fans of Westerns of any variety, this is the definitive document of a under seen Italian  Western classic. 4.5 Outta 5