A QUIET PLACE TO KILL (1970) / THE COMPLETE LENZI BAKER GIALLO COLLECTION (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

A QUIET PLACE TO KILL (1970)
from 
THE COMPLETE LENZI BAKER GIALLO COLLECTION

Label: Severin Films
Region Code:  Region-Free
Rating: Unrated 
Duration: 94 Minutes 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: Italian & English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Cast: Carroll Baker, Jean Sorel, Luis Dávila, Alberto Dalbés, Marina Coffa 

The third Lenzi/Baker collaboration sees Carroll Baker starring a gorgeous but down on her luck racecar driver named Helene, who is sidelined after she crashes her car on the track, which erupts into flames. She largely comes away unscratched, but takes a impromptu holiday to the Mediterranean after being invited by Constance (Anna Proclemer, 
Illustrious Corpses), the current wife of her ex Maurice (Jean Sorel, Short Night of Glass Dolls), who is a sugar-mama that keeps Maurice in the lap of luxury. 

Soon after arriving we're treated to some violent flashbacks to the relationship of Helene and Maurice, indicating she suffered at his hands at one time, but she is nonetheless attracted to him. She is also secretly approached by Susan who offers her a large sum of money to help her kill lothario Maurice, realizing that both have suffered at his hands. 

The plan is to murder him with a speargun while the trio cruise the Mediterranean on her sailboat, but as so often happens things don't quite go off as planned, with Susan ending up at the bottom of the sea tied to an anchor! Matters are complicated when a family friend Dr. Webb (Alberto Dalbés, The Devil Came from Akasava) happens upon the scene in his own sailboat, forcing Maurice to overturn his own boat to cover-up the murder. Add to that the arrival of Constance's teenage daughter Susan (Marina Coffa), who further complicates things with her suspicions.

A Quiet Place To Kill again is more of an intricate thriller than a black-gloved whodunit, we know whodunit, but the joy of it is in the duplicitous twists and turns it takes, a labyrinth of sex, betrayal and intrigue, all happening at a gorgeous seaside location. There's also the added bonus of a thrilling mountainside car ride with Helene rocketing at dangerous speeds around hair-pin turns, her high-speed driving figuring prominently into the the finale.    

Audio/Video: A Quiet Place To Kill (1970) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Severin Films as part of their 6-disc limited edition The Complete Lenzi Baker Giallo Collection. Sourced from an existing HD master the film is presented in 1080p HD and framed in the original scope aspect ratio with the alternate 'Paranoia' title card. Clarity and fine detail are strong, the grain is well-managed, and colors are fantastic looking throughout. Audio comes by way of both English and Italian DTS-HD MA mono with optional English subtitles, dialogue sounds crisp and the score from Gregorio García Segura (Black Venus) is well-balanced. 

Supplemental stuff begin with an audio commentary with Author & Critic Samm Deighan, which I have not yet had a chance to listen to, but I expect good things. We aso get a 10-min 'Sex and Conspiracy', an interview with the late director Umberto Lenzi talks about shooting in Spain, the Spanish cast, how the film is very similar to Orgasmo and So Sweet.. So Perverse,  and shooting in the house of a deceased billionaire and what a magnificent location it was. He also gets into the reception of the previous films, and then into this one, including going in-depth on how they filmed the high-speed mountainside car scenes and the fantastic drive-off the cliff, taking pride in his artisenal practical effects in a time before it would have been digitally. Also carried over from the So Sweet... So Perverse doisc is the 6-min Ernesto Gastaldo interview. The disc is buttoned-up with a 2-min Alternate Credit Sequence, a 27-sec Alternate Clothed Scene, a brief 10-sec Deleted Scene, a 2-min trailer and a 1-min Easter Egg of newsreel footage. 

The single-disc release comes housed in a black keepcase with a single-sides sleeve of artwork. This film accompanies three others as part of Severin Films's The Complete Lenzi Baker Giallo Collection, housed inside a wonderfully eye-catching and nicely designed rigid slipbox that has some serious shelf appeal.

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Author & Critic Samm Deighan
- Sex and Conspiracy - Interview with Director Umberto Lenzi (11 min) 
- Equilateral Triangle - Screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi on Lenzi (6 min) 
- Alternate Credit Sequence (2 min) 
- Alternate Clothed Scene (27 sec) 
- Short Deleted Scene (10 sec) 
- Easter Egg (1 min)
- Trailer (2 min)  

A Quiet Place To Kill (1970) has taut direction from Lenzi, as well as befitting from a screenplay co-written by Bruno Di Geronimo (What Have You Done To Solange?) and Marcello Coscia (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie), and it's gorgeously shot by Guglielmo Mancori (Wild Beasts). This is a giallo firing on all cylinders from the get-go, making it my favorite of the Lenzi/Baker films. The film is available as part of Severin's 6-disc limited edition The Complete Lenzi Baker Giallo Collection, so order now or you're missing out giallo fans.

More screenshots from the Blu-ray:  

SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS (1971) (Twilight Time Blu-ray Review)

SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS (1971) 

Label: Twilight Time

Region Code: Region Free

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 97 Minutes

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)

Audio: Italian 1.0 DTS-HD MA, English 1.0 DTS-HD MA with Optional English Subtitles 

Director: Aldo Lado

Cast: Ingrid Thulin, Jean Sorel, Mario Adorf, Barbara Bach, Fabijan Sovagovic, Jose Quaglio, Piero Vida

 

Synopsis: Short Night of Glass Dolls (La Corta Notte delle Bambole di Vetro, 1971) is a mystery-heavy giallo film, the début of director Aldo Lado. It stars Jean Sorel as an American reporter, trapped inside his apparently dead body, but still trying to decipher the disappearance of his beautiful girlfriend (Barbara Bach). Set in a Prague depicted as remarkably depraved, the film also stars the great Ingrid Thulin, and is highlighted by a stunning score from the one and only Ennio Morricone, available on this Twilight Time release as an isolated track.

 

Short Night Of Glass Dolls (1971) is the auspicious giallo-thriller that marked the directorial debut of Aldo Lado (Night Train Murders), a slice of Euro-cult that opens in  Prague with the discovery of a young man's body found in a park. The body is that of American journalist Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel, Fulci's Perversion Story), his body taken by Ambulance through the streets of Prague to the city morgue where the coroners plan to autopsy the corpse. The twist is that we discover that he's not really dead, somehow he is trapped inside his own body unable to speak or move, his mind racing as he tries to remember how he ended up on a cold slab in the morgue, with him narrating the movie. 

 

As he narrates the film we flash back and forth in time as he tries to piece together the events that landed him here, we go back a few week to a time when his girlfriend Mira (Barbara Bach, Black Belly of the Tarantula) has gone missing, vanished without a trace. He alerts the authorities but in typical giallo tradition they are neat useless, concluding that she's probably just run off with another man. Unconvinced he begins his own investigation into her whereabouts, which leads him to connect the dots between Mira's disappearance with those of other young women around the city, whose disappearances are all seemingly connected by an underground club called Klubb 99, an elite society membership with strange occult leanings. 

 

The film moves back and forth in time, alternating between Moore's investigation and the medical examiner's own examination of his corpse. There's a medical angle here that seems almost science fiction in nature, with a cardiologist being called in when peculiarities about the body arise, such as the fact that the temperature of it has not dropped, and there are no signs of rigor mortis setting in even hours after the presumed time of death.

 

The film is a wonderful European thriller with plenty of giallo-style, but it's not quite the black-gloved whodunit we've come to expect from the genre, forgoing the usual black glove killer for a compelling mystery that is steeped in the corruption of elite society, obsession and occult paranoia, all wrapped up in a nicely lensed film that holds up to repeat viewings. This is a great film to watch when you're having a multi-film giallo spree, the one you throw on right in the middle of the marathon when you're a bit tired of the typical black glove shtick, because it's a unique film that both fits in as a gialli but is also something quite a bit more.

 

I always find the ending of Short Night of Glass Dolls to be a proper shocker, the whole film has creepy vibe with an insidious occult element, but you're really rooting for Sorel's character to pull through and come out on top in some way, and where it goes always feels like a punch right in the gut, a classic downer ending.  

 

Audio/Video: Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Twilight Time presented in 1080p HD and framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. The source looks fantastic with hardly a blemish to report, grain is well-managed and uniform, the visuals are rich and nicely detailed. Skin tones can look a bit cool at times, but overall this is a very filmic and pleasing transfer.

 

Audio on the disc comes by way of Italian and English 1.0 DTS-HD MA Mono with optional English subtitles. The Italian track is slightly more robust than the the English option, but both are solid, with dialogue being clean, crisp and natural sounding. The score from Ennio Morricone (What Have You Done To Solange?) is definitely a highlight. 

Onto the extras Twilight Time offer a brand new audio commentary from film historians David Del Valle and Matteo Molinari, the track offers some excellent insight into the film. Both commentators offering a wealth of knowledge about the film, there's never a moment when they lag, they are on it from start to finish, filling every minute with loads of information, with Molinari having interviewed the still-living Lado prior to the commentary, so there;s some great info here. We also get both the English and Italian trailers for the film, plus an 8-page booklet with an appreciation of the film from TT's in-house writer Julie Kirgo, plus an isolated lossless music track spotlighting the excellent score from Ennio Morricone (A Bullet for the General).

 

The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase - TT usually ship with a clear case but due to a manufacturer error it was produced with a blue case - but if you order from TT direct they are offering to send you a clear keepcase free of charge, which is a stand-up thing of them to do. 

 

Special Features: 

- Isolated Music Track (DTS-HD MA 2.0) 

- Audio Commentary with Film Historians David Del Valle and Matteo Molinari 

- Original English Theatrical Trailer (3 min) 

- Original Italian Theatrical Trailer (3 min) 

- 8-Page Booklet with New Writing on the Film by Julie Kirgo 

 

Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971) is a thriller I've watched several times these past few years, with every viewing it's quickly becoming one of my favorite non-Dario Argento giallo, a stylish entry that eschews the black-gloved killer for a strange Kafka-esque paranoia with occult leanings. This release from TT is a limited edition release with only 3000 copies being made, if you're a giallo connoisseur I think this is a must-own release, highly recommended.