THE GIALLO COLLECTION
Anchor Bay Entertainment

Packaged in a disposable yellow cardboard box, Anchor Bay's four-disc GIALLO COLLECTION has been a long time coming for fans of the popular Italian horror film genre. A giallo ("yellow"), according to the definition on the box and each disc sleeve, is one of a "controversial series of savage Italian thrillers that shocked international audiences throughout the '60s and '70s". This is only partially correct; while films such as BLOOD AND BLACK LACE and LIBIDO were produced in 1964 and 1968, respectively, the format of the genre wasn't 'set in stone,' so to speak, until 1970's THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE. None of the films in the collection equal the excellence of Bava, Argento, or even Fulci, but all are unique films worth visiting once. Keep in mind also that some of these films never received any release in the United States, on home video or otherwise. Here, in chronological order, are the contents of THE GIALLO COLLECTION. Mild spoilers in the review of WHO SAW HER DIE?, so be forewarned.

THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS (1971)
Director: Anthony Ascott (Giuliano Carnimeo)

Two murders in a plush high rise apartment building doesn't stop model Jennifer (cult figure Edwige Fenech) from moving into the apartment of one of the victims. Immediately she becomes the target of the killer's madness! Who is this madman? The creepy old woman, the predatory lesbian, Jennifer's boyfriend (giallo regular George Hilton) who has a fear of blood, her gay photographer, or Jennifer's sadistic ex-husband who introduced her to heroin and group sex?

Director "Anthony Ascott" (in reality Giuliano Carnimeo) provides enough sleaze, violence, and sex to keep any viewer attentive, but it doesn't hide the fact that BLOODY IRIS (original more inventive title: WHAT ARE THOSE STRANGE DROPS OF BLOOD ON JENNIFER'S BODY?) is strictly a by-the-numbers giallo. However, the film is saved from utter mediocrity by the presence of the simply stunning Fenech, an underrated actress who has yet to receive much attention in the U.S. outside of the Eurocult crowd. Giallo fans will notice Carla Brait (TORSO) as the black stripper and Carla Mancini (BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, DEEP RED) as the old woman with a secret. The score by Bruno Nicolai features one tune played over and over again, but what a tune it is. Recommended listening. Nice location photography in Rome, some tense sequences in a boiler room, and ultimately BLOODY IRIS is 94 minutes well-spent.

CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS is exclusive to the GIALLO COLLECTION and cannot be purchased separately, unlike the other discs. This is a shame, because IRIS is one of the better transfers in the collection. Despite some color flashes in the opening elevator scene and multiple speckles and dirt in several of Fenech's introductory scenes, the colors are vivid and in general the quality of the video is smooth. The black level of the transfer is at fault, though, with major pixellation occurring in the boiler room scene, almost destroying the mood of the stellar sequence. Letterboxing at 2.35:1 seems to be accurate and provides more information from the popular 1.85:1 bootleg tape. Fans of the film will find something new in the English language track, made available for the first time on an uncut print. Gray market tapes have featured the Italian language track with English subs, which is ultimately the superior version and it would have been wonderful to include here. The English track cleans up some gutter language in the Italian version, deletes and adds dialogue like crazy, and is pretty laughable during some sequences (the strip club wrestling scene, for one).

Extras on this disc aren't as extensive as the others. It would have been nice to feature an interview with Fenech (today a producer) or "Ascott," as the other discs feature. An alternate stabbing sequence is fluff, but the standard trailer looks good and includes alternate takes of several murder scenes. A major plus is the superb menu design, featuring the superb Bruno Nicolai composition played over the faces of each character inside constantly moving irises.

SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS (1971)
Director: Aldo Lado

Gregory (Jean Sorel) is a reporter on assignment in Prague whose corpse is found in a public park. Taken into the hospital and prepared for a viewable autopsy, Gregory's brain is still alive and kicking, trying to piece together how he got into this mess! We are introduced to Mira (Barbara Bach), his mysterious girlfriend who disappears one evening while Gregory is out. Searching for her, Gregory discovers she had much in common with a number of other missing girls within the past several years. His investigation uncovers something more horrifying than he could have ever imagined, leading to a double shock ending that many a viewer will have trouble erasing from their minds!

Director Aldo Lado made his directorial debut with SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS, a scientific mystery that really doesn't cut it as a giallo. Or to be more precise, it doesn't follow the standard guidelines of the genre. It doesn't feature a masked murderer, inventive deaths, graphic sex, or a standard "Scooby-Doo" type unveiling of the culprit. But this is precisely why SHORT NIGHT is an ultimately satisfying and wholly captivating viewing experience. Lado provides each character with ulterior motives, making each acquaintance of Gregory fully capable of being the villain. Jean Sorel, while generally pretty bland, is a handsome, likable hero and anchors the film with a quite believable performance. Barbara Bach turns in what amounts to a pre-stardom cameo. While never achieving the reputation of Argento, Lado's filmography is still peppered with interesting gems of various genres. Some feel SHORT NIGHT is still his best work, and anyone viewing the film for the first time via Anchor Bay's DVD won't find it hard to understand why.

SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS was previously available in ugly fullscreen dupes or blurry widescreen bootlegs. Anchor Bay's disc is easily the best this film has ever looked. Framed correctly at 2.35:1, the majority of the presentation features crisp colors and little, if any, grain. There are still a few hairgate problems and any scene set in almost complete darkness suffer from swarms of pixels. The English mono track is rather weak, but is generally acceptable.

Anchor Bay tracked down the underrated Lado for an 11-minute interview featurette discussing the location shooting of the film, the original choice for the lead role, and an evaluation of the ending. Lado also reveals some pretty sick stories about the shooting of the climax of the film that will have many viewers dropping their jaws in disgust!! The theatrical trailer isn't very well-edited.

WHO SAW HER DIE? (1972)
Director: Aldo Lado

Franco (George Lazenby, the forgotten Bond of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE) is a sculptor living in Venice whose young daughter Roberta (red-headed cult icon Nicoletta Elmi) comes to visit. Unfortunately, Roberta is brutally murdered by a mysterious female figure in a dark veil. With the aid of his estranged wife, Elizabeth (giallo regular Anita Strindberg), Franco investigates the murder to ease the guilt on his conscience.

Does this plotline ring a bell? If you immediately thought of Nicolas Roeg's DON'T LOOK NOW (1973), you're right on-target. But director Aldo Lado's disturbing piece was produced a full year earlier and features too many similarities (murdered child, estranged couple, graphic sex scene, location of Venice) to be named coincidences. While Roeg's film was based on a story by Daphne Du Maurier, WHO SAW HER DIE? could be seen as an unofficial, yet much better interpretation of the same story. Unfortunately, DIE bogs down after the first 30 minutes, becoming standard investigation sparked only by a brilliant score and some graphic murders, before the final 20 minutes pick the film right back up. Lado's photography of Venice is simply breathtaking; few other films of any genre have captured both the magic and danger of the canal-ridden village as this one. When not busy prowling the alleys of Venice, Lado also features a gorgeous opening sequence set in the snowy hills of France punctuated by a very disturbing murder sequence.

Viewers will no doubt be disturbed by not only the murder sequences of children, but the aura of pedophilia and the ending which tries to sugarcoat the fact that the case is closed. While Morricone's light choral piece begins and a cheeky revelation is shouted by Lazenby's friend, the viewer is still left to realize that Roberta is still dead and the lives of her parents are still quite distant from one another. Lazenby and Strindberg provide superb performances, and little Elmi has fine exposure before her most popular roles in BARON BLOOD and DEEP RED. The fourth star of the film is Ennio Morricone's outstanding musical score. Populated entirely by boys' choir chants and vocal practices, this is another Morricone soundtrack long overdue for a CD release.

WHO SAW HER DIE? is the second best transfer of THE GIALLO COLLECTION. Still burdened with grain, multiple hairgate frames, and pixellation aplenty in the final confrontation scene, this is still the definitive video presentation of Lado's vision. Audio is strong, especially during the sequences punctuated by Morricone's score. One caveat: the opening sequence is in the French language. Apparently no version available has provided subtitles for the dialogue between the two characters in the scene, and it would have been nice for Anchor Bay to provide these.

Aldo Lado contributes another 11-minute interview, revealing that WHO SAW HER DIE? was made while waiting for Marlon Brando to finish THE GODFATHER before traveling to Italy to shoot LAST TANGO IN PARIS. Some interesting anecdotes about George Lazenby and his salary and the censorship pressed onto the film (evident in the final spoken dialogue in the film, which unfortunately is present in every version of the film). The theatrical trailer is very good. Bonus points go to the menu design; both the main menu and extras menu play selections from Morricone's score.

BLOODSTAINED SHADOW (1978)
Director: Antonio Bido

Stefano (Lino Capolicchio, HOUSE WITH WINDOWS THAT LAUGH) is a young professor who returns to his hometown on an island near Venice to visit his brother Don Paolo (Craig Hill). No sooner does he arrive when a controversial medium is murdered by a dark figure during a vicious thunderstorm. Don Paolo witnesses the murder and enlists the aid of Stefano to investigate.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the worst disc in the GIALLO COLLECTION, both in terms of the film and the transfer quality. Director Antonio Bido previously directed the similarly disposable WATCH ME WHEN I KILL, and despite some interesting sequences (Stefania Casini stalked through Venice, a suspect destroying her retarded son's doll, the canal murder, the final revelation of the culprit), BLOODSTAINED SHADOW is a snoozefest with little style or finesse. Performances don't leave any lasting impressions, even the superb Stefania Casini, appearing here a year after her tour de force performance in SUSPIRIA.

The score by the usually reliable Stelvio Cipriani has often been claimed to have been composed or at least performed by Goblin, but this rumor is truly an insult to the fine musicians in the group. The score is uninspired electronic keyboard tinklings, of which several cues were later recycled by fellow Goblin imitators CAM for the trashy but fun PIECES! Worst of all, BLOODSTAINED SHADOW is strictly a follow-the-leader giallo. Elements of DEEP RED, MURDER TO THE TUNE OF SEVEN BLACK NOTES, TORSO, CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS, WHO SAW HER DIE?, and countless other giallos are thrown in, but the finished product seems like a car made out of auto parts from various different countries: put together by morons and won't even sputter out of the garage.

BLOODSTAINED SHADOW's transfer looks good in some spots, but is in general a dud. Blacks are never solid and constantly feature a greenish hue, colors are dull and when they're vivid, they don't gel with the rest of the muted color scheme (the fault of the cinematographer, not the transfer). The mono audio is incredibly weak, you'll need to crank the volume on this one.

An interview with Antonio Bido begins with a well-edited montage of clips from the film that would entice many viewers to see it (unlike the theatrical trailer, which can't find many interesting moments to feature). For some reason, the interview lasts a full 13 minutes. Considering the much superior Aldo Lado talked for only 11 minutes each on his two discs, this seems to be praise of an emperor with no clothes. Bido touches on casting, shooting details, and who really performed the music (still, it has yet to be proven that Goblin had anything to do with this music).

THE GIALLO COLLECTION is certainly a mixed bag. Watching the discs chronologically gives the viewer a good sense of how the genre blossomed into one of adventure and the many risks taken by young, intelligent directors. The one sore thumb: BLOODSTAINED SHADOW. While the other three films are from the glistening, inventive period of the genre, SHADOW dwindled in the dying days of the giallo. A better candidate for the collection might have been PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK (1974), STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER (1975), THE STRANGE VICE OF SIGNORA WARD (1970), ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER (1969), WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS (1974), BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA (1972), CRIMES OF THE BLACK CAT (1972), AMUCK (1972), RED QUEEN KILLS 7 TIMES (1972), DEATH CARRIES A CANE (1972), the list goes on. Regardless, Anchor Bay has delivered some treasured discs for the fans and despite problems with the transfers on several of them, these are still essential purchases for any fan of this particular genre or anyone wishing to view other examples of giallo from other men besides Argento or Fulci. Word of advice: buy the collection and sell BLOODSTAINED SHADOW, it's the weakest link in an otherwise enjoyable chain. (Casey Scott)

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