MALADONNA & MALOMBRA - BD REVIEW

While many online databases and books list both MALADONNA and MALOMBRA as 1984 productions, the copyright date on the latter is credited as 1983, so for the sake of continuity, we’ll look at that film first, even if the cover art for Raro Video’s Blu-ray mistakenly promotes MALADONNA as the title film.

 

One of the earliest Italian productions, shot around Lake Maggiore, had been Carmine Gallone’s MALOMBRA (1917), a gothic melodrama adapted from Antonio Fogazzaro’s 1881 novel of the same name, a story which had apparently lost none of its fascination over the years. In 1942, director Mario Soldati helmed another well-regarded variation of the novel, and in 1983, low-budget producer Pino Buricchi also decided to tackle the subject. A classic of Italian literature, here adapted by cheapie specialist sceneggiatore Piero Regnoli, this rendition pretty much abandons Fogazzaro’s narrative and accents highly-charged eroticism over any meaningful plot. Produced in the wake of Tinto Brass’ hugely-successful period-set erotic drama THE KEY (1983), MALOMBRA also pulled-in considerable profits on its home front thus ensuring Buricchi and Gaburro would continue to turn out more of the same.

 

Osvaldo Raininger (Maurice Poli), a wealthy land baron, lives in a vast isolated country estate where he grieves for his dead wife, Maria. Yet a mysterious woman (Paola Senatore), who is the spitting image of Maria, roams the darkened corridors before succumbing to her sexual yearnings. Soon thereafter, Osvaldo’s nephew Marco (Stefano Alessandrini) arrives at the castle with his university tutor Massimo (THE CHILDREN OF VIOLENT ROME’s Gino Milli) who gains the attentions of the villa’s housemaid (Scilla Jacu), while Marco happens to meet Lilli, a bubbly farmgirl (Gloria Brini), who spends a goodly portion of the running time either topless or completely nude in her quest to bed Marco; for one scene in a hayloft, she suggestively nibbles on a carrot while he watches. Later into the narrative, Marco catches a glimpse of Maria, his supposedly deceased aunt during one of her kinky nocturnal rituals and immediately falls under the spell of her irresistible allure, which exposes a number of dark secrets…

 

A throwback of sorts to the gothic chillers of the ’60s, a foreboding atmosphere is well established during the opening moments as Senatore’s character roams the shadowy, suffocating corridors of the family castle. Although primarily marketed as a sex film, MALOMBRA proceeds much along similar lines as any Italian gothic, which includes the usual dopplegänger, mistaken suspicions, possible supernatural manifestations, and an ancient patriarchy whose rather malevolent presence is well represented by Osvaldo’s morose countenance. Drawing heavily on themes of obsession and sexual repression, the film even contains a “secret room” where Senatore’s character routinely “casts a spell” on her male and female onlookers with her uninhibited display. Senatore is excellent as the flawed but humanized character who is nothing more than Osvaldo’s prized possession whereas one-time actors Scilla Jacu and Gloria Brini add further sex appeal. Brini in particular – who speaks with a cheery inflection (courtesy of Pat Starke on English prints) throughout - thinks nothing of using her body to entice and influence Marco, but also adds some much-needed joie de vivre missing from the rest of the picture. Slow-moving but involving, mostly because it is so cryptic in unfolding, MALOMBRA is also greatly aided by Pasquale Fanetti’s lush and intimate photography strengthening the voyeurism of the audience itself. 

 

Despite its soundalike title and returning characters, MALADONNA (1984) is otherwise completely unrelated to the above film, which has Paola Senatore returning as Maria, this time as a rich and sexually bored wife of Osvaldo Raininger (Maurice Poli), a wealthy landowner of aristocratic lineage. After Maria and a group of decadent socialite friends - which also includes her lover Alessio (2020 TEXAS GLADIATOR’s Daniel Stephen) - have a drunken sex party, Raininger has had enough (“No one in this house knows the meaning of honor!”) and finds solace in the arms of Claudia (SS EXPERIMENT LOVE CAMP’s Paola Corazzi), a woman from a “loveless marriage,” who eventually exposes an elaborate scheme to try and sneakily obtain Raininger’s vast property…

 

In what turned out to be one of her very last roles before her career was tragically sidetracked by drugs and alcohol, Senatore commits herself sincerely as the insatiably adulterous Maria who believes she is “locked in a kind of jail.” Although much of Regnoli’s script attempts to offer psychological character studies of the eccentric protagonists, which also entails all the various factions ruthlessly vying for possession of Raininger’s land, the bulk of the picture is pure sexploitation, even as it tries – rather vainly – to delve into the lives of the upper classes and all their scheming, immoral behaviours, a tactic Regnoli explored with far greater success in Andrea Bianchi’s nightmarish contemporary gothic MALABIMBA (1979). Considering the less-than-exorbitant budget, Gaburro’s costumers and set dressers once again come up with some admirable period ambience whereas returning DP Pasquale Fanetti’s good-looking photography is rendered more eloquent still by Stelvio Cipriani’s synth-based score. 

 

Although merely a side effect of Brass’ enormously successful THE KEY, Gaburro’s flirtation with period-piece erotica never secured official home video releases in North America. Distributed by Kino Lorber, Raro Video’s region free disc offers restorations provided by the film’s licensor Minerva Pictures, which vary between the two films. Featuring a solid, if unspectacular transfer, MALADONNA looks quite pleasing with stable colours and nice contrasts, which definitely enhances Fanetti’s rather polished cinematography. Unfortunately, MALOMBRA appears to be sourced from different elements and appears a tad softer and somewhat uneven, but it’s still miles better than any previous analog presentation. DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Italian mono is presented on both titles and sound fine, but the Italian track on MALOMBRA is paired up with English dubtitles instead of properly translated subtitles. Even more frustrating, the English audio track was obviously taken from a very inferior source (VHS perhaps?), which sounds tinny, and at times, almost inaudible. A real shame.

 

Extras are limited, but Raro have secured another well-researched audio commentary from Wild, Wild Podcast’s Adrian Smith and Rod Barnett who have plenty to discuss about MALOMBRA including Fogazzaro’s novel and its importance in Italian culture, many of the book’s story elements, and their absence from the film. The director’s interesting career is also assessed together with his marriage to Erika Blanc, his many pseudonyms, and his foray into hardcore feature films. They also go over Pino Buricchi’s extensive career toiling away in the lower echelons of the Italian film industry, while also finding plenty of time to talk about Paola Senatore prolific career - who is probably best known to most fans for her role Umberto Lenzi’s EATEN ALIVE! (1980) where she’s literally eaten alive – and her troubles during the shoot where she was “almost always drunk or high,” her plunge into the world of hardcore films with Arduino Sacco’s NON STOP… SEMPRE BUIO IN SALA (1985), and her subsequent arrest on drug charges and implications of trafficking. This is a substantial and worthwhile listen, which provides knowledgeable context and plenty of history about these little-seen films. Order the Blu-ray from Kino Lorber or DiabolikDVD. 

MAGNUM COP - BLU-RAY REVIEW

By this point in his career, Maurizio Merli’s succession of militant police inspectors had virtually exterminated all the available criminal lowlife in Rome, Milan and Naples combined, but in Stelvio Massi’s MAGNUM COP (1978) we witness the Italocrime experience effortlessly transliterated to the mean streets of Vienna, Austria. Although released on tape during the VHS era as FEARLESS, New World Video’s U.S. videocassette version was promoted along the lines of a FATAL ATTRACTION (1987)-type erotic thriller (“A story of intrigue, deception and fatal seduction.”), which was re-edited and even re-scored, but thanks to Raro Video’s new Blu-ray, it’s great to finally have this enjoyable slice of Italian action back in circulation, which is a must-see, simply because it stars the great Maurizio Merli.

 

Massi wastes no time getting down to the nitty-gritty, and even before the opening credits roll, ex-cop-turned-private-eye Walter “Wally” Speda (Merli) thwarts a kidnapping of the French consulate’s daughter by masked bandits with his usual brand of shoot-first-ask-questions-later brand of law enforcement. In light of this brazen shoot-’em-up, Speda faces the possibility of jail time for “spraying bullets at people as if they there were targets”, but thanks to his quick-thinking actions, Speda informs the press that it was his former boss Inspector Nardelli (Andrea Scotti) that foiled the kidnappers. 

 

Soon after, Speda is hired by Austrian banking tycoon Von Straban (Alexander Trojan), to try and find his daughter Annelise (Annarita Grapputo), who may be held against her will by a Roman Hare Krishna cult. Even though he quickly locates her, Annelise soon makes her escape from Speda’s flat after getting naked and faking an epileptic seizure, only to be subsequently abducted by a group of unknown men. No sooner than Speda arrives in Vienna, Annelise’s father quickly drops the search for his daughter and dismisses Speda from the case, which even causes concern for Austrian police chief Karl Korper (Gastone Moschin). However, when a young girl named Gina (Claudia Messner) turns up dead and sexually molested, Speda correctly deduces that an underage prostitution ring is probably tied-in with Annelise’s disappearance as well. When not obsessing over his case, Speda makes the acquaintance of Brigitte (Joan Collins), an exclusive burlesque dancer who becomes increasingly smitten with Merli’s down-on-his-luck dick, but as his investigation progresses, Brigitte is just one more character hiding behind a phony façade…

 

Alias “The Fox” and described in advance press materials as “An ex-policeman, an adventurous, bragging and over-bearing type…”, Merli’s character jokingly refers to himself as “The greatest private eye in the world!” and whose apartment is decorated with numerous crime and detective film memorabilia (which includes Italian posters for John Huston’s THE MACKINTOSH MAN [1973] and Sam Peckinpah’s THE KILLER ELITE [1975] to name a few). In a nice change of pace, Merli’s role herein is filtered through some lightweight comedy, an attempt by the typecast actor to distance himself of his humourless vigilante cop mould, which is best characterized by his back-and-forth banter with Benny (Massimo Vanni), his PI agency partner, who does little except play scopa (one of three prominent card games in Italy) or imitates Robert De Niro’s “You talkin’ ta me?” schtick from Martin Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER (1976).  

 

While endeavouring along with the help of detective Karl (Moschin drives a showy green Porsche Carrera and also wears a customary Tyrolean hat, just to make sure we know he’s Austrian), Speda must also resist the temptations of the enigmatic Brigitte, whom he first meets at a swanky nightclub called the Queen Anne performing a chaste burlesque routine. Later in the film, the ever-lurking henchman Strauss (Werner Pochath) and owner of the Queen Anne roughs-up Speda for “getting too close” to Brigitte, but she and Speda strike up an unlikely relationship just the same. However, dramatic tension soon escalates when Speda realizes that Brigitte is nothing more than a procurer for the prostitution racket luring underage girls into this sordid world with the promise of extravagant clothes and a glamorous life. When Renata (Jasmine Maimone), one of Speda’s underage informants, attempts to solicit him (“Do you wanna make love?”), she ends up the victim of a timely ‘hit-and-run’, which eventually leads to one of the more bizarre, revenge-driven denouements of any Merli film.

 

Co-produced by Austrian nudie specialist Franz Antel (best known for his ’70s “Sexy Susan” films with Terry Torday), the film offers noticeably more titillation than your average Italocrime film including plentiful topless scenes from imminent TV star Joan Collins and Annarita Grupputo, who also shed her clothes in Mario Imperoli’s far nastier polizieschi LIKE RABID DOGS (1976). Although lacking many of the genre’s traditional trappings, director Stelvio Massi still manages to stage a brief car chase on the outskirts of Rome, and an energetic foot chase through the Viennese metro, all of which is set to Stelvio Cipriani’s driving flute-and-guitars score.

 

Continuing to champion some of the lesser-seen Eurocrime films Italy had to offer, Raro Video’s new Blu-ray (distributed by Kino Lorber) includes a fine-looking transfer of this engrossing, albeit largely forgotten Merli film. Here retaining the film’s original export title FEARLESS FUZZ, this HD presentation is quite pleasing with plenty of depth and a nicely balanced colour scheme; overall this is an impressive transfer. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks feature English and Italian (the latter with optional English subtitles) audio, which sound clean and without any faults, especially in view of the film’s original production limitations and Italy’s dubbing practices. For the record, prominent voice talent artist Ted Rusoff does a great job as the voice of Merli, and who is quite obviously having a blast doing so, while Robert Sommer adds a humourous Austrian accent to Karl’s character and the ubiquitous Pat Starke dubs Jasmine Maimone, the jailbait informant. Incidentally, Maimone would go on to star in Luigi Cozzi’s much later PAGANINI HORROR (1989), where she was again voiced by Starke in the English version. 

 

The one big – and very welcome - extra is an audio commentary with Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson, and authors Troy Howarth and Eugenio Ercolani who fill the entire running time very pleasantly. They casually discuss plenty of relevant points of interest about the cast and crew along with references to other polizieschi films, the era in which it was made, Cipriani’s terrific score, and plenty more besides; it’s the usual high standard you’ve come to expect from each of these very knowledgeable gentlemen, and well worth your time.

 

While it may lack the gritty gusto found in the best of Lenzi, Di Leo or Girolami, MAGNUM COP still amounts to an engaging and satisfying film which generally places dramatics over pyrotechnics, but is further boosted by Joan Collins’ presence and Stelvio Cipriani’s sturdy score. Order your copy from Kino Lorber or DiabolikDVD.

MEET HIM AND DIE - BLU-RAY REVIEW

“A new action film full of hair-raising, breathtaking chases with automobiles, heavy-duty trucks and motorcycles, never before seen on the movie screen.” proclaimed the post-production press hype (8/76).

This admirable effort stars Ray Lovelock as Massimo Torlani, a cop about to go undercover as Massimo Salvatore, a new upstart that “fumbled” a jewelry heist, which lands him in jail.  This enables him to infiltrate a local drug trafficking syndicate run by Giulianelli (Martin Balsam) who - due to the ruthless machinations of his competitors - was recently jailed as well.  Eventually gaining the trust of Giulianelli and his right-hand man Piero (Heinz Domez), Massimo’s true purpose for going undercover becomes evident and, without giving away too much, it’s certainly much more revenge-driven as he seeks out various “associates” within Giulianelli’s organization.

Through a conveniently planned prison escape, Massimo blends into the organization with relative ease as he shoots anyone that Giulianelli wants eliminated (hence the film’s Italian title, which translates as “Ready to Kill”) much to Inspector Sacchi’s (Riccardo Cucciolla) chagrin, his superior and only trusted contact.  Sacchi vents his frustrations not very persuasively through some clumsy but amusingly dubbed dialogue courtesy of American tongue-for-hire Richard McNamara who equates his recent behavior to man-eating tigers and, for those that are interested, that’s the prolific Ted Rusoff taking on the task of dubbing Lovelock.  Not too concerned with Sacchi’s two-bit mutterings, Massimo continues to underhandedly work his way up to the masterminds of this international drug ring, which includes the hardnosed Perroni (Ettore Manni) and his astute secretary (Elke Sommer) who also has eyes for him.

Along with Lovelock, MEET HIM AND DIE is highlighted by a well-respected roster of seasoned Italocrime professionals like Balsam, Manni and Cucciolla and director Franco Prosperi does a commendable job delivering a relatively succinct action flick and, no, this is not the same Prosperi who, alongside the more infamous Gualtiero Jacopetti, directed on all those mondo films.  THIS Franco Prosperi actually helmed numerous Italocrime films including The PROFESSIONAL KILLER (1967) with Robert Webber and Franco Nero, RIPPED OFF (1971) with Tomas Milian and, after MEET HIM AND DIE he directed his final, but disappointing crime film, THE DEADLY CHASE (1978) with Luc Merenda.   

Courtesy of Mike Ferguson.

Despite some perplexing plot developments during the last third, which tend to derail the original revenge plot, Prosperi’s rather clichéd story – unbelievably it took four writers to put this together – swipes a number of elements from Don Siegel’s DIRTY HARRY (1971) as Massimo pursues “justice” no matter what the cost.  Focusing on the extreme right, Massimo uses his rather modest and youthful exterior to his advantage; he actually proves to be a vicious foe whose tenacity and resourcefulness keeps everyone – including his superiors – on their toes. Throughout the relatively taut narrative, Massimo narrowly misses exposure on a number of occasions, as he gains more clout within Giulianelli’s organization.  But it’s not until later in the film, when Sacchi has him tailed that results in a nerve-racking shootout between himself and Piero that really amps up the tension.  This is easily one of the highlights but, instead of following through, Prosperi and his writers get caught up with some implausible detours, which rather harm an otherwise solid film.  It would have been nice to see the after-effects of Massimo’s risky undertakings, which is something directors Damiani, Castellari or maybe even Di Leo would have focused on; instead we get a shaky twist ending that is rather ineffectual and doesn’t really resolve anything. 

Ray Lovelock is a likable enough “hero” whose performance is very physically challenging, and thanks to the efforts of the Organizzione Acrobatica Cinematografica (OAC), he seems comfortable riding a motorcycle at high speeds.  Aside from some of the more outrageous scenes of carnage, he performs most of his own stunts and, according to Mike Malloy’s informative liner notes, this was made even more impressive since he was afraid of riding motorcycles at the start of his career after witnessing a nasty accident.

Never released in North America, MEET HIM AND DIE first turned up on Italian DVD in 2006 courtesy of Raro Video under its original title PRONTO AD UCCIDERE in a bare-bones full frame release, which didn’t even offer an English language option.  Then a few months later, New Entertainment out of Germany came along with a slightly improved edition with two versions, which at least had the option of English audio.  The German version was letterboxed at 1.78:1 and, because it was shorn of 5m50s, all of the missing scenes were inserted from the full frame version, which was also included on the disc as a separate extra; it was certainly a compromised release.  Other extras included the German Super-8 version (34m30s) entitled EIN MANN GREIFT ZUR WAFFE, a promo trailer, a useless still gallery, a brief essay on the film (in German only) and an alternate credit sequence, which was exactly the same other than a different title card.  The DVD also had a couple of isolated music tracks performed by Ray Lovelock including this film’s title song “I’m Startin’ Tomorrow”.

Raro Video USA decided to re-visit this film and their new Blu-Ray is a vast improvement from the aforementioned DVDs.  While it may not look as good as some of their Fernando Di Leo Blu-Ray collections, it has never looked as good as it does here.  Detail is relatively sharp, but some scenes do look a little digitally “manipulated” but, despite some of this trickery, it's still worth picking up.  The film has both English and Italian audio options with the added bonus of optional English subtitles and the only extra is a brief but informative interview with Mike Malloy, director of EUROCRIME! THE ITALIAN COP AND GANGSTER FILMS THAT RULED THE ‘70s (2012), where he reveals all sorts of interesting facts related to the film.  A nicely illustrated booklet is also included with an essay by Malloy that covers much of the same material as his interview and a bio on the OTHER Franco Prosperi, a rather unexpected blunder.