"Warning: May Dispel any Lurking Nostalgia for the 1970s"
Sergio Martino's 1975 Italian crime thriller ( = poliziotteschi) gets a 2k restoration dual format release from Arrow Films.
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| Rollercoaster Of Crime! |
At a wedding that looks as if it was gatecrashed by the film-makers, a girl is pursued and eventually killed by a man in sunglasses so shiny we can see the camera crew. Undercover, no-nonsense, SWEENEY-like (ie extremely violent) cop Paolo Germi is already on the case as it turns out the girl was a member of an underage prostitution ring.
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| Fashion! |
His investigation leads him from sleazy dives to a corrupt group of rich businessmen, while a killer is busy bumping off anyone who might be a threat to them.
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| Women! |
Featuring some of the most horrible fashions / locations / wallpaper / spectacles / prostitutes ever seen in 1970s exploitation cinema (and that really was the decade of tat), Sergio Martino's picture is far more a brutal, amoral crime thriller along the lines of movies like Fernando di Leo's MILANO CALIBRO 9 (1972) or British equivalents like Douglas Hickox's excellent SITTING TARGET (also 1972) than any of Martino's slicker, more stylish gialli.
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| J&B in a box at the back! |
So if you're looking for beautiful women, black-gloved killers, lashings of J&B, a daft psychological back story and perhaps the odd puppet you'll have to look elsewhere. However, if your tastes run to amoral brutal cops, ladies with ridiculous hair and awful underwear, and chase sequences that look very unsafe indeed (especially the one on the rollercoaster) then you'll love this. And I'll admit a big cardboard box of J&B does make an appearance in one scene.
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| More fashion! |
Arrow's dual disc set comes with new interviews with director Martino and DP Giancarlo Ferrando, and a new audio commentary track from Troy Howarth. You also get a booklet featuring new writing on the film by Barry Forshaw and a reversible sleeve.
Sergio Martino's SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A MINOR is out on dual format from Arrow on Monday 11th September 2017
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