British distributors Arrow Video have detailed their upcoming Blu-ray release of Mario Bava's
Rabid Dogs (1974), starring Lea Lander, George Eastman, and Riccardo Cucciolla. The release is expected to have a new street date soon.
Following difficulties in his career Mario Bava happened across an idea that would enable him to compete with the younger directors lighting up the Italian box office such as Dario Argento and Sergio Martino.
Rabid Dogs begins as $70,000 of wages are being transferred when the Ajaccio gang hit. With a hail of bullets in a quick raid they speed off in their waiting getaway car. Tough, violent and realistic, Bava s film ramps up the tension and doesn t stop as hostages are added and the film builds to its dizzying finale.
Unfolding in real time, a rare device seen only in earlier films such as High Noon and 12 Angry Men yet totally unheard of in Italian cinema at the time, Rabid Dogs is a singular film in Bava s filmography and one of the greatest crime films of the period.
Special Features:
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of 'Rabid Dogs' – Bava's original version posthumously completed from his notes & 'Kidnapped' – the re-edited, re-dubbed and re-scored version, supervised by Bava's son and assistant Lamberto Bava and producer Alfredo Leone
- Original Italian mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-ray)
- Newly translated English subtitles
- Audio Commentary with Bava biographer and expert Tim Lucas
- End of the Road: The Making of Rabid Dogs – A documentary featurette including interviews with Lamberto Bava, Alfredo Leone and star Lea Lander
- Bava and Eurocrime – An interview with Umberto Lenzi
- Alternate Semaforo Rosso version opening title sequence
- Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Stephen Thrower, Peter Blumenstock on the history of the film's first distribution and more!