Italo-Crime Collection 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Italo-Crime Collection 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 28, 2026

"Italo-Crime Collection" (1973-1977) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentaries with critics new audio commentary by critics Steve Mitchell and Troy Howarth; archival program with Alberto De Martino; archival program with critic Kim Newman; new video essay by critic William Webb; vintage trailers; and more. In English or Italian, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the each film in the collection. Region-Free.

THE COUNSELLOR

Most seasoned connoisseurs of Italian genre films agree that Alberto De Martino’s best work is in two films that are finally available on Blu-ray in America: Blazing Magnum, a.k.a. Shadows in an Empty Room, and The Counsellor. This is not a difficult statement to defend because both feature legitimate American A-listers performing as if they are in proper big-budget Hollywood productions.

The trouble with this statement is that it boxes De Martino in a way that forces one to mischaracterize his work, as well as what made many of his films worth seeing.

During the 1960s and 1970s, De Martino became one of Italy's most reliable and talented copycat directors. For example, the success of De Martino’s western Django Shoots First, a rushed but very enjoyable copycat of Sergio Corbucci's iconic film, inspired numerous other Italian and international directors to direct new copycats. De Martino then directed Dirty Heroes, another rushed but very well-made copycat of Robert Aldrich’s The Dirty Dozen. Unquestionably the best of the three films about Dick Malloy, a.k.a. Agent 077, James Bond’s brother from another mother, Special Mission Lady Chaplin, is in De Martino’s oeuvre, too. De Martino also directed Bandits in Rome with John Cassavetes, another gem, modeled after Carlo Lizzani’s The Violent Four, one of the best Italian crime films of the 1960s.

A description of De Martino’s best work should also include at least one of these copycats, which he did very efficiently and very well. After all, the high quality of De Martino’s imitation work is what earned him his reputation in Italy and abroad.

While based on an original screenplay, The Counsellor also borrows from various classic gangster films, most notably The Godfather. However, the borrowed material is rather generic and rearranged in ways that make tracing its origins largely meaningless.

After spending two years in prison in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Thomas Accardo (Tomas Milian) is freed and, moments later, enthusiastically greeted by his godfather, Don Antonio Macaluso (Martin Balsam), San Francisco’s most powerful crime boss. However, the warm reunion quickly devolves into a tense argument when Accardo declares he intends to walk away from The Organization and live like an ordinary man with his beautiful, non-Italian girlfriend (Dagmar Lassander).

When news of Accardo’s decision to walk away from The Organization reaches other crime bosses on the West Coast, Vincent Garofalo (Francisco Rabal), a veteran capo, launches an ambitious power play. Assisted by several other mafiosi, Garofalo attempts to take out Accardo, whom even Don Macaluso’s most loyal partners agree is set to become a major liability, and then collapse Don Macaluso’s clan and take over its business and administrative positions in The Organization. An all-out gang war erupts, and Accardo, feeling responsible, returns to help Don Macaluso, as he is forced to retreat and seek a haven among old friends in Sicily.

The strength of The Counsellor is in its quasi-documentary depiction of the drama inside The Organization and Don Macaluso’s struggle to protect what he has built his entire life. It is what makes The Counsellor look unique, too. In the 1970s, this style of filming was far more common for the poliziotteschi, which quickly began abusing it while regularly evolving into hyperviolent button-pushers.

Milian looks particularly good as the conflicted, loyal godson who cannot escape his roots. It would not be an exaggeration to declare that The Counsellor has preserved one of his most convincing character transformations.

A sensational soundtrack by the great maestro Riz Ortolani infuses The Counsellor with perfect, very easy-to-recall harmonies.

BLAZING MAGNUM

In a very interesting archival program, Alberto De Martino reveals that some years ago he was considered “the most American director” in Italy. De Martino earned the reputation because he worked hard to make his films appear as American as possible. However, it is important to clarify that this reputation was misleading then and still is now because of a very, very important detail, which is the main reason De Martino’s films are worth rediscovering.

The important detail is that De Martino made “American films” that could not be any more Italian. Indeed, his entire concept of “American” was shaped by two distinctly Italian requirements: casting as many American actors as possible, or foreign actors with American-sounding names, and shooting a lot of very wild footage with them. In De Martino’s mind, “American” was synonymous with unconventional, over-the-top, and racy, so when making his “American films”, he was working with an Italian blueprint that was inspired strictly by his unbridled imagination. Of course, this is how the vast majority of the big cult Italian films from the 1970s and 1980s were made -- they enthusiastically copied and improved what their Italian creators had seen in various American genre films. So, while unique, De Martino’s Italian blueprint was not exactly groundbreaking.

Blazing Magnum a.k.a. Strange Shadows in an Empty Room unites several American, Canadian, and British actors, and then unleashes them in what is unquestionably an Italian genre film, not an American film. It was most likely modeled after the Dirty Harry films released before it. However, it is not a copycat because it blends material that would have never been used in them. For example, it has a most amusing sequence in which several unhinged transvestites clash with a veteran cop who enters their kinky lair uninvited. It also has a few quite graphic sequences that could have been extracted from one of Dario Argento’s classic gialli. Its action footage, despite being shot in Canada, is unmistakably Italian as well. It is very intense and rough, clearly shot with as few takes as possible.

The other unmissable Italian quality of Blazing Magnum is the twistiness of its narrative. For a while, it seems like Captain Tony Saitta (Stuart Whitman) and his partner Ned Matthews (John Saxon) will spend all of their time investigating the puzzling murder of the former’s much younger sister (Carole Laure), who has had an affair with a married doctor (Martin Landau). However, at the right time both become participants in a wild, exploitative rodeo of the kind that only an Italian would have found logical. As a result, guessing correctly where Blazing Magnum intends to go and how it may get there becomes quite difficult, which of course is what ultimately makes it an enjoyable film.

De Martino shot Blazing Magnum with Joe D’Amato, who is rightfully considered one of the true greats of Italian post-war cult cinema. A prolific director/cinematographer/writer/producer, D’Amato was a workaholic who contributed to a wide range of different projects, from comedies and spaghetti westerns to gialli and hardcore pornographic films. In Blazing Magnum, D’Amato does very well what he specialized in as a cinematographer — memorable over-the-top content that looks a lot more expensive and professional than it is. Its highlight is a long sequence in which Saitta attempts to nab a lowlife named The Swede, which is every bit as impressive as the legendary chase in Henri Verneuil’s The Burglars.

Like all quality Italian genre films from the 1970s and 1980s, Blazing Magnum has a wonderful soundtrack with soft jazzy/psychedelica tunes as well. It was composed by the award-winning maestro Armando Trovajoli (Marriage Italian Style, Scent of a Woman).

*Kino Lorber's release presents two versions of the film: Blazing Magnum, which is the European version of it, and Shadows in an Empty Room, which is the American version of it. Both have identical running times.Shadows in an Empty Room is presented only on Blu-ray.

WEAPONS OF DEATH

Maurizio Merli owns Inspector Betti. In the 1970s, Merli played this popular poliziotteschi character in three different films: Violent Rome (1975), Violent Naples (1976), and A Special Cop in Action (1976). Arguably the best of the three, Violent Naples, is directed by Umberto Lenzi. The other two, still quite good films, are directed by Marino Girolami. These films are not closely related -- or at least one does not have to see them in chronological order to enjoy them -- but Merli dominates them in an extremely similar manner, and if they are seen as they were made, Inspector Betti’s natural evolution is easy to recognize. All three films are pretty intense, producing high-quality fireworks that some of the very best poliziotteschi are remembered for.

However, while the more popular character now, Merli’s Inspector Betti was modeled after an earlier, also very good character, played by Franco Nero in Enzo G. Castellari’s cult poliziotteschi High Crime (1973). Ironically, Nero’s character was an overworked, frustrated, angry Vice Commissioner modeled after Gene Hackman’s iconic character Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle from William Friedkin’s The French Connection.

Directed by Mario Caiano in 1977, Weapons of Death introduces a clone of Merli’s Inspector Betti called Inspector Belli (Leonard Mann). However, Weapons of Death does not treat Inspector Belli as its undisputed star. Instead, it forces him to clash with another, perhaps more charismatic but seriously vicious character.

Inspector Belli’s rival is Salvatore Santoro (Henry Silva), a power-hungry, ruthless gangster determined to become capo di tutti capi in Naples. To achieve his goal, Santoro robs several major banks and a train, quickly amassing the capital for his transformation. While terrorizing Naples and the surrounding areas, Santoro is shielded by the most prominent of all crime bosses, Don Alfredo (Tino Bianchi), who treats him as his godson for remaining loyal to him after losing his son in a gang war. However, as Santoro’s hit jobs become bolder and more reckless, an unpredictable clash with an already deeply frustrated Inspector Belli and other angry crime bosses becomes unavoidable.

Even while recognizing how flexible poliziotteschi standards are, Weapons of Death is impossible to defend as a properly scripted film. It is too chaotic, too violent, too ridiculously hilarious, and, oddly, in some places, too polished. Still, this is precisely why it is worth seeing. It is a wildly unpredictable film, with Silva giving an uncharacteristically solid performance.

However, the biggest curveball remains Mann’s character. Inspector Belli isn’t a proper rival for Santoro, and in multiple areas, even after Santoro has just acted like an animal, Weapons of Death leaves the impression that it likes it this way. Silva’s solid performance makes this development practically impossible to miss.

The action footage is good, occasionally even very good. The bank and train robberies are the highlights, and several sleek car chases shot on location in downtown Naples look very sleek.

Kino Lorber’s release brings a new 4K restoration of Weapons of Death, completed on behalf of StudioCanal. The 4K restoration features original English and Italian audio tracks.

Italo-Crime Collection 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kino Lorber's release of Italo-Crime Collection is a combo pack. It has two Region-Free 4K Blu-rays and one Region-Free Blu-ray. The 4K Blu-rays present recent 4K restorations of The Counsellor, Blazing Magnum, and Weapons of Death, prepared on behalf of StudioCanal in Europe.

All three 4K restorations were also made available on standalone Blu-rays. You can see our reviews of these releases below:

1. The Counsellor
2. Blazing Magnum
3. Weapons of Death

All three 4K restorations are presented in SDR. (This means that they cannot be viewed with Dolby Vision or HDR grades). This is perfectly fine, and I prefer how many 4K restorations look in SDR.

Unfortunately, all three 4K restorations have color issues. Only Shadows in an Empty Room -- the American version of Blazing Magnum -- which was remastered and released on Blu-ray in 2016 by Scorpion Releasing and Kino Lorber has decent colors and an acceptable period appearance. Shadows in an Empty Room is included in 1080p on the Blu-ray in this combo pack, together with all bonus features. (The new audio commentaries are placed on the 4K Blu-rays).

If you read the reviews we have linked above, you will learn more about the color issues. For example, the 4K restoration of Blazing Magnum routinely produces visuals that are too green/yellowish/teally, destabilizing the color temperature of the original cinematography. The dynamic range of many awkwardly graded visuals can be underwhelming as well. The 4K restoration of Weapons of Death is the most problematic one. It produces heavily tealed visuals, many with a destabilized dynamic range. The 4K restoration of The Counsellor replaces the film's native appearance with a new, very cool, often quite distracting, contemporary appearance. Unsurprisingly, it features plenty of tealing as well. Each review linked above provides screencaptures from the 4K restoration that highlight many of the serious issues.

Italo-Crime Collection 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

THE COUNSELLOR

The Counsellor is presented on 4K Blu-ray with two standard audio tracks: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English (for the Italian track) and English SDH (for the English track) subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

In the past, I have viewed The Counsellor with both tracks. However, the English track is preferable because all actor deliver their lines in English. Both tracks can be pretty uneven at times, and dynamic intensity, even during the busiest action footage, is not impressive. However, dynamic intensity is not underwhelming either. It is just easy to tell that the original soundtrack was finalized, some limitations, especially from outdoor footage, were retained.

BLAZING MAGNUM

Blazing Magnum is presented on 4K Blu-ray. Its American version, Shadows in an Empty Room, is presented on Blu-ray. The two versions can be viewed with the following audio tracks: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 for Blazing Magnum, and English DTS-HD Master Audio for Shadows in an Empty Room. Optional English and English SDH subtitles are provided for Blazing Magnum. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for Shadows in an Empty Room.

Both English tracks are preferable because the stars deliver their lines in English. However, these tracks have areas with noticeable unevenness. On the American version, the English track is slightly healthier. However, it also has areas where the upper register becomes shaky. I do not find any of the limitations on these tracks, whether introduced when they were finalized or not, distracting at all. Clarity and dynamic intensity are still perfectly fine, or at least for an Italian genre film from the 1970s.

WEAPONS OF DEATH

Weapons of Death is presented on 4K Blu-ray with two standard audio tracks: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English (for the Italian track) and English SDH (for the English track) subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I chose the English track. However, my first viewing of Weapons of Death many years ago occurred with the Italian track, so I tested it as well. Both are good, healthy tracks. However, they have the same obvious limitations that are present on such tracks. On the English track, the action footage and car chases in downtown Naples sound quite wonderful.

Italo-Crime Collection 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC ONE - THE COUNSELLOR

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Steve Mitchell and Troy Howarth.

4K BLU-RAY DISC TWO - BLAZING MAGNUM / WEAPONS OF DEATH

• Commentary One - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Steve Mitchell and Troy Howarth.

• Commentary Two - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Steve Mitchell, Nathaniel Thompson, and Troy Howarth.

BLU-RAY DISC - SHADOWS IN AN EMPTY ROOM

• In Consigliori: Tradition vs. Modernity - this exclusive new essay was created by critic William Webb. In English, not subtitled. (7 min).

• Special Sentiment: Alberto De Martino's Magnum Memories - in this archival program, Alberto De Martino discusses his reputation as "the most American director" in Italy and the evolution of his career. Also, there are some very interesting comments about his experience as a jazz pianist and relationship with Joe D'Amato. In Italian, with English subtitles. (13 min).

• City Hunter: Kim Newman on Blazing Magnum - in this recent program, critic Kim Newman discusses Blazing Magnum. In English, not subtitled. (22 min).

• Napoli Spara! Revisited - in this archival program, actor Leonard Mann explains how different, very safe Italy was in the 1960s when he moved there, and how it changed during the 1970s, when far-left terrorist groups like the Red Brigades started wreaking havoc. Mann also discusses some of his favorite parts and his involvement with crime films, including his contribution to Weapons of Death. In English, not subtitled. (18 min).

• Naples Under Fire - in this archival program, director Mario Caiano discusses the evolution of his career and some important political developments in Italy during the 1970s, including his relationship with a far-left party, that shaped the identity of his crime films. Caiano also comments on the pursuit of realism in crime films and addresses the notorious castration scene in Weapons of Death. In Italian, with English subtitles. (16 min).

• The Brutal World of the Poliziotteschi - this exclusive new video essay was created by critic William Webb. In English, not subtitled. (6 min).

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Steve Mitchell, Nathaniel Thompson, and Troy Howarth.

• English Opening and Closing Credits - available for Weapons of Death. (4 min).

• Trailer One - presented here is a vintage trailer for The Counsellor. In English, not subtitled. (5 min).

• Trailer Two - presented here is a remastered trailer for Blazing Magnum. In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

• Trailer Three - presented here is a vintage international trailer for Weapons of Death. In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

Italo-Crime Collection 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The folks at Kino Lorber deserve a lot of credit for trying to give fans of Italian crime films the best possible presentations of Alberto De Martino's The Counsellor and Blazing Magnum a.k.a. Strange Shadows in an Empty Room, and Mario Caiano's Weapons of Death, after the three were restored in 4K on behalf of StudioCanal. However, on this combo pack, only the remastered presentation of Shadows in an Empty Room that Scorpion Releasing and Kino Lorber prepared a decade ago is acceptable. The three 4K restorations have color and some other issues. You can consider grabbing the combo pack if you find it on sale, but it will have to be for Shadows in an Empty Room and the various bonus features on it.