Blood
Money: Four Classic Westerns, Vol. 2 (Find
A Place To Die
(1968)/Matalo!
(1970 aka Kill
Him)/$10,000
Blood Money
(1967)/Vengeance
Is Mine
(1967)/Arrow Set**)/Cosa
Nostra: Franco Nero In Three Mafia Tales By Damiano Damiani
(Day
Of The Owl
(1968)/Case
Is Closed: Forget It
(1971)/How
To Kill A Judge
(1975*/**)/The
Damned Don't Cry
(1950/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/The
Iron Prefect
(1977/*both Radiance/**all MVD Blu-ray)
Picture:
B/B B- B/B/B- Sound: C+/B-/B-/C+ Extras: B/B/B-/C+ Films:
C+/C+/B-/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Damned Don't Cry
Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Up
next are either Italian Films, Gangster Crime films, or both...
Blood
Money: Four Classic Westerns, Volume 2
(with Find
A Place To Die
(1968)/Matalo
(1970)/$10,000
Blood Money
(1967)/Vengeance
Is Mine
(1967) is a solid set of spaghetti westerns that were seen often
during their heyday, if not as much in recent years, though these
titles will be very familiar to serious fans and even non-fans have
likely heard of some of them before.
Arrow
has the films presented in a non-chronological order (see below in
the extras) but I will discuss them as follows...
Giuliano
Carnimeo's Find
A Place To Die
(1968) is one of the more well-known films here with Jeffrey Hunter
in a Professional Western leading a team trying to help a woman whose
husband is trapped in a gold mine, but they was to save as much of
the gold for themselves instead of even him, but not all will go as
planned. Hunter shows his star power here as a 'disgraced soldier'
(most everyone has a dark past in these films) and it is one fo the
more well-known films in the genre.
Cesare
Canevari's Matalo!
(1970 aka Kill
Him)
has a group of criminals out to terrorize a couple who has more than
a few surprises for them in one of the more surreal entries in the
genre and cycle. Certainly a product of its time, cheers for it
trying to do something different with the material and situation
while it could. Lou Castel and Ana Maria Mendoza plat the couple.
Definite viewing for all genre fans.
Romolo
Guerrieri's $10,000
Blood Money
(1967) is likely the least-known film here with is an alternate
Django
film (to the point it is one of two films called Django
The Bastard,
you can find the other one reviewed elsewhere on this site) hunting
down a deadly thief/bandit (Claudio Camaso, who drives him pretty
nuts) in a battle that turns into a very personal vendetta. It has
its moments and is worth a look.
And
Giovanni Fago's Vengeance
Is Mine
(1967) is the more famous brings those actors together again in
different roles, but still going after each other. One is a
Confederated soldier and this film might have a slightly better flow
to it. Maybe make them a double feature?
Extras
(per the press release) include brand new introductions to each film
by journalist and critic Fabio Melelli
Galleries
for all four films
Illustrated
collector's booklet featuring new writing by author and critic
Howard Hughes
Fold-out
double-sided poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by Gilles
Vranckx
Limited
edition packaging with reversible sleeves featuring original artwork
and a slipcover featuring newly commissioned artwork by Gilles
Vranckx
DISC
1: $10,000 BLOOD MONEY
Brand
new audio commentary by author and film historian Lee Broughton
Tears
of Django
- newly edited featurette with archival interviews with director
Romolo Guerrieri and actor Gianni Garko
The
Producer Who Didn't Like Western Movies
- brand new interview with producer Mino Loy
How
the West Was Won - brand new interview with screenwriter Ernesto
Gastaldi
Original
Theatrical Trailer
DISC
2: VENGEANCE IS MINE
Brand
new audio commentary by critics Adrian J. Smith and David Flint
Cain
and Abel
- newly edited featurette with archival interviews with actor Gianni
Garko and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
In
Conversation with Nora Orlandi
- newly edited archival interview with the film's iconic composer
Movie
After Movie
- brand new interview with producer Mino Loy
Original
Theatrical trailer
DISC
3: FIND A PLACE TO DIE
Brand
new audio commentary by author and critic Howard Hughes
Sons
of Leone
- newly edited archival interview with director Giuliano Carnimeo
Traditional
Figure
- brand new, in-depth appreciation of the soundtrack and its
composer, Gianni Ferrio, by musician and disc collector Lovely Jon
DISC
4: MATALO! (KILL HIM)
Brand
new audio commentary by critics Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
A
Milanese Story
- brand new, in-depth interview with filmmaker Davide Pulici,
discussing the career of Matalo!
director Cesare Canevari
Untold
Icon
- brand new, in-depth appreciation of the soundtrack and its
composer, Mario Migliardi, by musician and disc collector Lovely Jon
and
an Original Theatrical Trailer
Cosa
Nostra: Franco Nero In Three Mafia Tales By Damiano Damiani
is a new trilogy set dealing with three of the director's political
films with the same lead. The results are mixed but not bad, with
all parties giving their best efforts. I just do not think they are
always as effective as expected or intended.
Day
Of The Owl
(1968) was based on the first book to openly deal with Italian Mafia
criminals, but as much as I like Lee J. Cobb as an actor and he has
done some great work, it was always a stretch to me that he would be
the head of the infamous organization or that he was from Sicily!
This is the kind of strange issues and worse that killed the gangster
film from Italy to Hollywood until Coppola did his Godfather
films. Cobb does go for it all out here to his credit and Claudia
Cardinale (her Once
Upon A Time In The West
was made around the same time) is a plus here heading the supporting
cast. Its worth a look.
Case
Is Closed: Forget It
(1971) is a prison drama with Nero as an innocent who lands up in
prison and it turns out to be worse than he ever imagined. Not bad
for its time and also making the statement about how bad such places
can be, the reality has become more known since and such fiction more
graphic, but graphic does not always mean better. Again, not bad,
but it is only so good.
And
How To
Kill A Judge
(1975) has Nero as a filmmaker that is hired to make a work about a
Mafia-corrupted judge, who is killed, then another judge is killed
and he is in the middle. Why is he there, how is he being used and
what will happen next? The answer was not as clever as I had hoped,
but yet again, solid if not shocking work that is at least about
something. It's as good as any of the three and also worth a look,
but it is the most unusual film here.
Extras
(per the press release) include Original Theatrical Trailers for all
three films
Reversible
sleeves for all three films featuring designs based on original
posters
Optional
English subtitles for Italian audio and English subtitles for the
deaf and hard of hearing for English audio for all three films
DAY
OF THE OWL: New interview with star Franco Nero
DAY
OF THE OWL: Archival interview with Claudia Cardinale
DAY
OF THE OWL: Identity Crime-Sis: filmmaker and Italian crime cinema
expert Mike Malloy discusses The
Day of the Owl
in the context of the formation of the Italian crime film genre
DAY
OF THE OWL: Filmmaker Howard Berger looks at the late Italian career
of actor Lee J. Cobb
DAY
OF THE OWL: Archival interview with Franco Nero, writer Ugo Pirro
and production manager Lucio Trentini
THE
CASE IS CLOSED, FORGET IT: New interview with star Franco Nero
THE
CASE IS CLOSED, FORGET IT: Archival documentary on the making of the
film featuring actor Corrado Solari, assistant director Enrique
Bergier and editor Antonio Siciliano
THE
CASE IS CLOSED, FORGET IT: Video essay on the career of Damiani
Damiani by critic Rachael Nisbet
HOW
TO KILL A JUDGE: New interview with star Franco Nero
HOW
TO KILL A JUDGE: New interview with Alberto Pezzotta, author of
Regia Damiano Damiani
HOW
TO KILL A JUDGE: New video essay on the film by filmmaker David
Cairns
and
a Limited edition 80-page book featuring new writing on the film by
experts on the genre including Andrew Nette, Paul A. J. Lewis,
Nathaniel Thompson, so serious fans will want to pick this one up
ASAP.
Vincent
Sherman's The
Damned Don't Cry
(1950) is a darker, more brutal telling of the infamous love affair
between Nick Prenta (Steve Cochran as a Bugsy Siegel variant) and
Ethel Whitehead (Joan Crawford as a Virginia Hill variant) that is a
somewhat loose adaption (the Barry Levinson Bugsy
was maybe too glamorous for its own good) how she goes from
struggling and a dead end to the fast and deadly lifestyle his
criminal ways allow.
Everyone
is in top form here and Crawford is all-in in one of her best films
since she left MGM to go to Warner and Sherman (The
Adventures Of Don Juan,
Nora
Prentiss,
All
Through The Night,
Mr.
Skeffington)
shows what a good journeyman director he was. Considering all the
crime and gangster films made since and how more graphic such films
have been able to be with the freedom in filmmaking today, it more
than holds its own and is able to be more honest than most such films
since. No, some parts have not aged as well as expected, but it is
as strong a film as any here and is a must-see for fans of this kind
of storytelling.
David
Brian, Richard Egan and Kent Smith lead the strong supporting cast.
Extras
include the hour-long Screen
Director's Playhouse
radio drama version with Crawford as broadcast 4/5/51 (in lossless
DTS-MA 2.0 Mono,) Original Theatrical Trailer and feature-length
audio commentary track by Sherman.
Pasqule
Squitieri's The
Iron Prefect
(1977) is the oddest film here, a movie that asks if an organized
Mafia or Mussolini's fascists are more evil. Of course, you might as
well compare them to German Nazis and let's see who is worse then.
To try to make some kind of split between the two, the screenplay has
to do some revisionist history watering down some of the roles the
historic figures here actually played in the course of things in the
1930s, et al. Giuliano Gemma plays Cesare Mori, sent by Mussolini to
'clean up' the mafia to 'clean up crime' in Sicily.
The
film would like to make it simple (the press release even suggests
The
Untouchables,
feature film and both TV shows) but it is not that way at all and the
truth the film tries to avoid and its script cannot resolve is that
both were still there when the film was released, two wrongs never
make a right but build a Right politically and that both really come
and go in cycles.
The
film at least is convincingly period and the actors are good here,
but the film (despite its awards and respect) is full of it and I did
not buy it, even early on when it starts to get sloppy. Now you can
judge for yourself, down to the wacky vocal theme song. Ennio
Morricone created all the music.
Extras
(per the press release) include an archival interview with director
Pasquale Squitieri and star Giuliano Gemma (2009)
New
interview with Squitieri biographer Domenico Monetti (2023)
New
appreciation of Giuliano Gemma and the film by filmmaker Alex Cox
(2023)
Original
trailer
New
and improved English subtitles for Italian audio and English
subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for English audio
Reversible
sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
Limited
edition booklet featuring new writing by Italian cinema expert Guido
Bonsaver and an original article on the real-life Cesare Mori and
his Mafia raid as depicted within the film
and
Limited edition of 2000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo
packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of text
and markings, so ans will want to grab this one while the initial
supplies last.
Now
for playback performance. Save the Warner film, all the films here
are Italian films made from 1967 to 1977 with labwork mostly form
labs there (like Telestampa or even Telecolor) and all shot on
Eastman Kodak color 35mm negative, so they tend to have consistently
good color and be a shade darker because Italian labs produced
slightly darker prints than, say, a Hollywood one. The result is
that all of them, from new 2K scans, are looking as good as I have
ever seen any of them over the years, though I admit that some of
them I had previously only seen in fragments or forgot how much of
them I had seen.
All
are presented in 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition framing, save $10,000
Blood Money
and Vengeance
Is Mine,
which are here in 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition
presentations, shot in the same widescreen format, but under
different names. The former is in Techniscope and produced in
Technicolor, so it has the best color presentation of the eight
Italian releases here. The latter is credited as Chromoscope, which
is just Techniscope produced without the benefit of Technicolor's
three-strip dye-transfer process. Technostampa did the prints in
this case, with the result being this looks a little slightly faded
throughout. Otherwise, I like the look of the former and
compositions of the latter, one of the better-remembered spaghetti
westerns not helmed by Sergio Leone.
As
for sound, the Arrow set sadly only uses Italian PCM 1.0 Mono sound
which they might find sufficient due to how old the original optical
monophonic releases sound quality has aged, but I preferred the
Italian PCM 2.0 Mono on the Radiance releases because it allows the
better aspects of the soundmasters to come through. Any English dubs
are lesser and to be ignored.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Damned
can show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a
transfer to all previous releases of the film with solid gray scale,
nice detail, depth and more great restoration work like the kind
Warner Archive keeps delivering month after month. It also shows you
why Crawford is STILL one of the biggest icons in cinema history
because she had it and she knew it!
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix on Damned
is the oldest soundtrack here, yet it sounds as good as any of them
because Warner recorded this on more professional equipment, had more
money and of course, invented sound on film, so no surprise there.
Glad it held up as well as it did.
To
order The
Damned Don't Cry
Blu-ray, go to this link for it and other website exclusive
releases at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20
-
Nicholas Sheffo
