Arrow follow up their previous Giallo Essentials: Red Edition (which contained THE PYJAMA GIRL CASE, THE FIFTH CORD and THE POSSESSED) and Giallo Essentials Yellow Edition (US only and featuring STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER, WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS and TORSO) with this latest set containing three more Italian movies from the heyday of the genre. None of the films are especially well known and all have been rescued from obscurity in 2K restorations with collectors booklets and a nice box to keep them all in. So what do we have this time around?
Smile Before Death (1972)
After the apparent (to the police, anyway) suicide of her mother Dorothy, teenager Nancy Thompson (!) returns from her English boarding school to her home and the company of her stepfather Marco and her 'mother's best friend' Gianna (Rosalba Neri). It quickly becomes apparent (to us) that Marco and Gianna bumped Dorothy off and now they have the same plans for Nancy. But things don't go anywhere near according to plan.
A C-grade giallo at best, with enough twists and turns that it eventually becomes amusing, culminating in an unintentionally hilarious ending that's almost worth watching the entire film for, SMILE BEFORE DEATH is one for Italian film (and Rosalba Neri) completists only. It's blessed / cursed with an excruciating music score that include a fair bit of Hammond organ insanity, and with its essentially three-hander storyline and copious nudity this one very quickly begins to feel like a Jess Franco-style erotic thriller (Lina Romay would have either played the daughter or Neri's role depending on when it was made).
Extras include a commentary by Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson who love the music so maybe it's just me. There's also a 23 minute interview with the son of director Silvio Amadio. It's in Italian and my copy had no subtitles so hopefully Arrow will get that fixed before release. Other than that there's an image gallery and three minutes of extended nude scenes which were shot for the film but never included.
The Weapon, The Hour, The Motive (1972)
The title makes this one sound like a poliziotteschi and in fact it is more of a police procedural in which Inspector Franco Boito (Renzo Montagnani) investigates the stabbing to death of naughty sexy priest Don Giorgio (Maurizio Bonuglia) in his church. Was the killer one of the ladies he was sleeping with? Or their jealous husbands / lovers? Or perhaps one of the nuns at the local convent who wear just a bit too much eyeliner?
THE WEAPON THE HOUR THE MOTIVE was the only directorial effort from Francesco Mazzei and that's a shame because there are some delightfully creepy sequences in this one, as well as at least one quite bizarre scene in a crypt that suggests if he'd been encouraged to go full tilt with a horror project he might have delivered something really worth watching. As it is THE WEAPON THE HOUR THE MOTIVE isn't terribly memorable but fans will find it a reasonable timewaster.
Extras include a 13 minute interview with Salvatore Puntillo who plays the inspector's sidekick, English title sequences and an image gallery. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas provides the commentary track which is more an overall chat about gialli in general rather than dealing with the film in question in depth
The Killer Reserved Nine Seats (1974)
A welcome English-friendly Blu-ray release for this supernaturally-enhanced giallo. A mysterious man invites nine aristocratic fur coat-wearing partygoers to an old theatre and after the usual bickering about infidelities and inheritances they start to be bumped off by a mysterious killer wearing black gloves and a mask that resembles any number of obscure British television comics. Despite the stunning location (the Gentile de Fabriano theatre) and a host of over the top characters, this is a fairly bland affair that only really comes to life at its denouement, one which is a fair bit dafter than most of the movies in this genre.
Extras include two interviews ported over from the 2013 Camera Obscura release. Hanging With Howard is 8 minutes of reminiscence about the film with actor Howard Ross, while the second is 28 minutes with co-screenwriter Biagio Proietti. Anyone expecting any detail about the writing of this film in particular will be disappointed as this is very much a career overview, but his insights into the part of the industry in which he worked are still interesting.There's also a Kat Ellinger commentary in which amongst other things she argues the case for the validity of THE KILLER as a giallo film.
Giallo Essentials: Black Edition is out from Arrow Films in a limited edition Blu-ray box set on Monday 1st August 2022
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