Disc Details
Special Features:	Four Italian Giallo Horror Films. Widescreen format. Chapter selection. Original theatrical trailers. Director filmographies. "Death in Venice" - interview with director Aldo Lado. Alternate "Stabbing Scene" on "The Case of the Bloody Iris." "Strange Days of the Short Night" - interview with director Aldo Lado. "Solamento Bido" - interview with director Antonio Bido.
Video Format:	Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) [SS-DL]
Languages:	English (Dolby Digital 2.0) mono
Subtitles:	None.
Captions:	No
Casing:	4-Disc Boxed Set

Italian director Aldo Lado made his debut with the creepy giallo "Short Night of the Glass Dolls." Gialli were pulp novels popular in Italy during the 50s and 60s. The word Giallo means yellow. The book covers were usually yellow with lurid illustrations. Famed director Mario Bava focus world attention on the film version of gialli with his movie "Blood and Black Lace." While Mario Bava and Dario Argento are the best known practicioners of this craft, they were not the only directors specializing in giallo cinema. Aldo Lado's debut film showed him to be an adept master of terror. "Short Night of the Glass Dolls" is the best of the four films found in Anchor Bay's "The Giallo Collection."

"Short Night of the Glass Dolls" is unusal in that the hero is a corpse. Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel: La Ronde, Day of the Jackal) is an American reporter living in a communist country. In the film's opening, he is found dead in a city park. Gregory is taken to the hospital. A doctor examines him and says "Call the morgue." Gregory's voice is heard, "Dead? ... I'm dead?! ... Can't be, I'm alive! ... Can't you tell- I'm alive!" So begins this mystery in which a corpse must remember how he got where he is, and then somehow convince someone he is alive before an autopsy is performed. Director Lado pulls of this difficult task with spectacular results. "Short Night of the Glass Dolls" is a truely undiscovered gem. As Gregory recounts the events leading up to the present, Lado uses flashbacks to tell the story.

Gregory remembers that he was getting ready to leave the country with his beautiful girlfriend Mira (Barbara Bach). Mira was abducted from Gregory's apartment. His investigation into her disappearance begins to lead to dangerous places. As the bodies begin to pile up, Gregory discovers the secret which lands him on a slab in the morgue. I'll say no more about the intircate plot for those of you adventurous enough to find this great film. One reason the film works is because the viewer never really know, until the end, whether Gregory is really dead.

Lado's direction differs from his mentor Dario Argento in that Lado's story depends heavily on plot. This is not to say that he lacks visual flare. In fact, Lado's scenes of terror and suspense are well mounted. His style has more in common with Hitchcock and Bava than Argento. The film is accented beautifully by Ennio Morricone's score. Morricone provided excellent musical scores to many giallo films much the same way Bernard Herrman scored the macabre films of Alfred Hitchcock. My only problem is the dubbing. Italian films from the era were looped: the dialogue was added after filming was complete.

WHO SAW HER DIE? (Chi L'Ha Vista Morire?)
Film rating: 7 out of 10
1 hour 34 minutes.

Director Aldo Lado's "Who Saw Her Die?" is a disturbing tale of every parent's worst fear. As the father of two daughters, I had a hard time watching this tale of a child murderer lose in Venice. While "Who Saw Her Die?" doesn't rise to the level of originality shown in Lado's debut film "Short Night of the Glass Dolls," it does maintain an air of suspense throughout its entire running time. In an unfortunate touch of irony, the 1972 film seems to prophetic of certain well-known current events. What was unthinkable, and therefore shocking in 1972 is more shocking today when the truth of the film's revelations play out in head-lines daily.

Franco (George Lazenby: On Her Majesty's Secret Service) is a divorced artist living in Venice. His daughter Roberta (Nicoletta Elmi) has come for a summer visit. Franco's career is begining to take off. Several of his art world friends are introduced to Roberta and appear to have more than an unhealthy interest in the young girl. One afternoon, Franco leaves Roberta outside playing with friends while he makes love to his girlfriend. At dinner time, Roberta does not come home. She is found floating in one of the canals the next morning. Roberta's mother Elizabeth (Anita Strindberg) comes to Venice. She and Franco reconcile during their grief and begin to search for the killer. Franco's hunt leads to the unthinkable.

"Who Saw Her Die?" is helped immensly by Luigi Guerra's cinematography and Ennio Morricone's score. Like he did in the wonderful scores for Sergio Leone's five spaghetti westerns, Morricone creates theme music for each main character. In "Who Saw Her Die?" the killer's theme is a chaotic chant of children's voices. It is as if the voices of the killer's victims are playing on some demented playground in hell. It is powerful and disturbing. George Lazenby's performance really can't be judged as his voice has been badly dubbed. What surprised me most about Lazenby was how skinny he was. This isn't the same look he had as the muscular James Bond just four years earlier. Swedish beauty Anita Strindberg makes a great damsel in distress. Aldolfo Celi adds his usual air of sophistication to the proceedings.

Overall, "Who Saw Her Die?" is the second best film in this collection. It is a difficult story to watch for folks who have children. As I said before, the movie is strangly prophetic in the revelation of the killer

THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW (SOLAMENTE NERO)
Film rating: 7 out of 10
1 hour 49 minutes.

Antonio Bido's "The Bloodstained Shadow" is another example of plot driven Italian giallo. Professor Stefano Darkangelo (Lino Capolicchio) has become burned out at work. He is also haunted by a recurring dream in which a young girl is murdered. He returns to his home on an island near Venice. On the train ride home he shares a compartment with a beautiful young woman named Sondra (Stefania Casini). It turns out that Sondra lives on the same island. Stefano will be staying with his brother who is the Catholic priest on the Island (Craig Hill). Upon his arrival, Stefano and his brother have lunch. The priest tells his brother about a group of people on the island who are involved in occult practices. They include a medium, an atheist doctor, a mid-wife and a pedophilic Count. That night, as the priest watches from his bedroom window, the medium is murdered below. The killer sees the priest and assumes the priest saw him (or her!).

The priest recieves a note warning him to keep his mouth shut or face the same fate. Stefano and his brother try to solve the crime. The murder is similar to the murder of a young girl which happened years before. That earlier murder is the subject of Stefano's recurring nightmare. Before long, bodies begin to pile up as members of the "cult" are murdered one by one. At the same time Stefano and Sondra begin an affair. Sondra's invalid mother, who has no connection to the "cult" soon joins the others in death. The story continues through to a satisfactory surprise ending.

Bido's direction has a workmanship quality which is competent but lacks the style of Bava, Argento or even Also Lado. The film's various murders are well staged. Several scenes standout including an attempt on the priest using a large crucifix which hangs in the church and a murder by motorboat. Stefano and Sondra have good chemistry together. Ms. Casini bears a resemblence to Elizabeth Taylor when she was a ripe teenager. The obligatory sex scene shows no real originality. What sets that scene apart (from an American point of view) is the fact that the nude Ms. Casini sports hairy armpits.

What makes "The Bloodstained Shadow" worth seeing is the well written script. The film's mystery will have you guessing until the very end. There are numerous red-herrings scattered about to through you off the scent of the real killer. One of the plot devices in this film reminded me of Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill." There is a very good (uncredited) rock score long time Argento collaborators Goblin.

THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS (Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?)
Film rating: 6 out of 10
1 hour 34 minutes.

Director Giuliano Carnimeo (here credited as Anthony Ascot) contributes the most erotic of the four films in this collection. His "The Case of the Bloody Iris" is also the weakest entry. The film was called "Erotic Blue" on its original US release. The literal translation of the Italian title is "What Are Those Strange Drops of Blood doing on Jennifer's Body?" This movie involves the murder of several young beautiful women in an apartment building. Subplots include group-sex, lesbianism, strip clubs, obsessive ex-husbands and neurotic new boyfriends.

Jennifer (Edwige Fenech) and Marilyn (Paola Quattrini) are models for a sleazy photographer. Andrea (George Hilton) is an building owner who is looking for a model to use in his new ad campaign. Andrea is also a boyhood friend of the photographer. When the first model lined up for the job becomes the second murder victim in Andrea's building in as many days, the photographer hooks Andrea up with models Jennifer and Marilyn. The girls move into the apartment where the other girl was murdered.

Jennifer and Andrea hit it off. Jennifer is being stalked by her former husband who wants to drag her back in a group sex cult. Jennifer wants to belong to just one man. Jennifer and Marilyn's new neighbor, Sheena Issacs (Annabella Incontrera) has the hots for the girls also. Their new neighbor is a stereotypical lesbian which genre films of this type are littered with. Gay and Lesbian groups who launched a silly protest against Verhoven's "Basic Instinct" would have valid grounds to protest the portrayal of lesbians in this film. Sheena is a perverted horn-dog who thinks of nothing other than corrupting any woman she is near. Her sexuality is her identity. The characters in "Basic Instinct" were well-rounded characters. Their sex was just one part of their make-up.

Of the four movies in this collection, "The Case of the Bloody Iris" is the only one to generate any heat from the film's erotic scenes. The photography is also quite good. Unfortunately, that is all the movie has going for it. The film suffers from bad dubbing, so bad in fact that it ruins all of the performances in the film. The sleazy photography sounds like a fruity Woody Allen. All the other voices sound as if they were the same folks you dub the "Dragon Ball Z" cartoons. The film's scenes of terror are sorely lacking in originality and suspense. The emphasis is more on sadism than anything else. The ending of the movie is full of hateful psychobabble. Another major fault is the 'tempra-paint' looking blood.

Picture Quality: 7/10
SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS
Picture quality: 10 out of 10

No artifacts or delineation problems. Good flesh tones. Anchor Bay did a great job restoring this one. None of the fading or graininess you would associate with a film this old.

WHO SAW HER DIE?
Picture quality: 8 out of 10

The photography in this film is the best of the bunch. There are beautiful shots of Venice and the Alps. Unfortunately, there are a few artifacts to be found.

THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW
Picture quality: 5 out of 10.

All of these films were remastered. I guess the source material for this one wasn't as good as the others in the collection. There are numerous scratches, blips and lines throughout the film. The picture has a grainy look to it during the darker scenes and there are delineation problems between the light and dark colors during the darker scenes.

THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS
Picture quality: 7 out of 10.

Excellent flesh tones (and lots of flesh!). Some shimmering. A few artifacts present. There is one scene in a parking garage at night which looks as if there was dirt embedded into the celuloid. This was probably due to poor quality of the source material.

Sound Quality: 6/10
As with all Italian films from this era, the sound was added later by looping. Also, the English speaking actors usually didn't do their own dubbing. The result is that English speaking versions of the films seem awkward at times. I would have preferred an Italian soundtrack with subtitles. Maybe next time. The balance jumps occasionally depending on which actor is speaking. There is no loss of dialogue. The problem is that the dialogue is to loud at times.

Menu: 7/10
All of the menus are basically the same. You have a main menu, chapter menu and an extras menu with images and music from the film. As with all Anchor Bay menus that I have seen so far, the chapter selection menu doesn't include picture. I wish they would change that policy. Oh well.

Easy to navigate.

Extra Features: 10/10
With the exception of "Bloody Iris" each DVD includes an all-new interview with the director concerning the particular film. The Aldo Lado interviews are different on each of his two films. The Antonio Bido interview includes a cool story about obtaining the services of long time Argento collaborators Goblin on the soundtrack of "The Bloodstained Shadow."

I appreciate that Anchor Bay included a "spoiler" warning at the start of the interviews. They recommend that the viewer watch the movie first. I agree. I have had several films ruined by watching the extras first. Nice of Anchor Bay to take that small step out of appreciation for the consumers!

The trailers are a hoot! Each trailer is about 3 minutes long. There is no way to figure out what the plot of the movie is from the trailer. What you can tell is that each film has lots of blood and sex.

The filmographies will be of interest to genre fans only.

The Final Word:
Fans of Italian horror movies will love this collection. Hopefully Anchor Bay will make enough money from these DVDs to cause them to release another collection of over-looked Giallo films. Each film is also available individually for $19.98 each. Save $20.00 and buy the boxed set. Once again, Anchor Bay proves they are the front-runners in providing hard to find and specialty DVDs.

Rusty White