6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Valentina, a hot-tempered fashion model, duped into trying an experimental psychedelic by a fast-talking tabloid journalist during a photo shoot, inadvertently witnesses a gory murder by a man with a spiked glove in the empty, next-door building. It won't be the last!
Starring: Nieves Navarro, Simón Andreu, Peter Martell, Claudie Lange, Carlo GentiliHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 71% |
Mystery | 26% |
Thriller | 10% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: This film is available as part of Death Walks Twice: Two Films By Luciano Ercoli.
Mention giallo to even the most ardent film lover, and chances are you’ll only hear one of two names in response, Mario Bava or Dario
Argento. In a way that’s perfectly understandable, since Bava’s 1963 opus The Girl Who Knew Too Much (available on Blu-ray as a part of Evil Eye) is regularly credited (rightly or wrongly) as having sparked (at least the 60s iteration of)
giallo, while Argento’s 1970 The
Bird With the Crystal Plumage (also available in this edition) is credited (probably more accurately) with having immensely popularized the genre in that decade. True fans
of giallo know that there are certainly a number of interesting directors who helped to populate the idiom over the course of at least
a couple of decades, including such names as Lucio Fulci (
The New York Ripper), Umberto Lenzi (Orgasmo) and the director featured in this new set from Arrow, Luciano Ercoli.
Two
of Ercoli’s best known gialli appeared in the considerable wake left by The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, though it’s notable
(and even commendable) that Ercoli’s films are not carbon copies of his Italian contemporaries and in fact sometimes rely on tropes more
commonly associated with such iconic directors as Alfred Hitchcock (and of course Hitchcock was an influence on many giallo
enthusiasts, as evidenced by the very title of The Girl Who Knew Too Much). Neither of the films included in this set is a masterpiece
by any stretch, but they’re often quite stylish, if just as often silly to an almost hyperbolic degree.
Death Walks at Midnight is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. The insert of the keepcase advertises that this is a "brand new 2K restoration from original film elements". The exhaustive booklet included with the set includes the following additional information:
All work on this new restoration was carried out at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna. The original 35mm 2-perf Techniscope negative has been lost, so an original 4-perf 35mm Internegative was scanned in 2K resolution on a pin-registered Arriscan and was graded on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master.While not offering quite the detail levels seen in Death Walks on High Heels, this transfer boasts generally commendable detail levels, especially in close-ups (see screenshots 2 and 3). The palette seems slightly yellow at times (appropriately so, perhaps), something that's especially noticeable in flesh tones. This film has a few more optical effects than Death Walks on High Heels, and those moments are understandably softer looking. Grain is a bit more unkempt in this presentation than in Death Walks on High Heels, but is generally very natural looking, and there are no compression issues of any note to address in this review.
Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed through a combination of digital restoration tools. Overall image stability and instances of density fluctuation were also improved.
Death Walks at Midnight features DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mixes in both the original Italian and a pretty lamentable English dub. Information on the soundtracks is presented in the booklet accompanying this set:
The film's original Italian and English mono soundtracks were transferred from the original 35mm optical sound negatives using the Sondor OMA/E with COSP Xi2K technology to minimise optical noise and produce the best quality results possible.While some curmudgeons may want to quibble with just how "slight" the looseness of the post-looping is at times, otherwise both tracks offer very good fidelity which capably supports the film's dialogue, occasional effects, and the Cipriani-esque score by Gianni Ferrio. Things are slightly shallow and narrow sounding at times, but there's no outright damage to address in this review, and most audiophiles will have little to complain about here.
There are times in which the film's audio synch will appear slightly loose against the picture, due to the fact that the soundtrack was recorded entirely in post-production. This is correct and as per the original theatrical release of Death Walks on High Heels.
Death Walks at Midnight is patently goofy a lot of the time, but it seems to know it, playing things with a slightly arch attitude. The mash up of giallo, Rear Window and druggie films from the late sixties is certainly an odd stew (to say the least), but Gastaldi's fun screenplay and Ercoli's nicely stylized direction keep things from tipping over into outright camp. Technical merits are very good to excellent, and the supplementary package excellent. Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
Special Edition | La morte cammina con i tacchi alti
1971
La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba
1971
La dama rossa uccide sette volte
1972
Cosa avete fatto a Solange?
1972
Standard Edition
1982
L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo
1970
Profondo rosso
1975
Le foto di Gioia / Slipcover in Original Pressing
1987
Nude per l'assassino
1975
Sei donne per l'assassino
1964
I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale / Carnal Violence
1973
The Next Victim / Lo strano vizio della signora Wardh
1971
Reazione a catena
1971
Standard Edition
1985
1971
Una farfalla con le ali insanguinate
1971
Il gatto a nove code | Special Edition
1971
Non si sevizia un paperino
1972
1980
2018