Death Walks Twice

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What A Disgrace
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Death Walks Twice

#1 Post by What A Disgrace » Fri Dec 11, 2015 1:13 pm

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Death Walks Twice: Two Films by Luciano Ercoli (Arrow Video) Dual Format Limited Edition Boxset
Emerging at the peak of the giallo boom of the early ‘70s, Luciano Ercoli’s Death Walks films are two superlative examples of the genre linked by their shared casting of the stunning Nieves Navarro (billed under her adopted stage name of Susan Scott) as the lead woman in peril.
In Death Walks on High Heels (1971), exotic dancer Nicole (Navarro), the daughter of a murdered jewel thief, finds herself terrorised by a black-clad assailant determined on procuring her father’s stolen gems. Fleeing Paris and her knife-wielding pursuer, Nicole arrives in London only to discover that death stalks her at every corner.
Returning in Death Walks at Midnight (1972), Navarro stars as Valentina – a model who, in the midst of a drug-fuelled photoshoot, witnesses a brutal murder in the apartment opposite hers. But when it becomes clear that the savage slaying she describes relates to a crime that took place six months earlier, the police are at a loss - forcing Valentina to solve the mystery alone.
Offering up all the glamour, perversity and narrative twists and turns that are typical of the giallo genre at its best, Luciano Ercoli’s Death Walks on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight anticipate the super-stylized trappings of Brian De Palma’s early psycho thrillers (most notably, Dressed to Kill).
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
Limited Edition boxed-set (3000 copies) containing Death Walks on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight
Brand new 2K restorations of the films from the original camera negatives
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
Original Italian and English soundtracks in mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays)
Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtracks
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtracks
Limited Edition 60-page booklet containing new writing from authors Danny Shipka (Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France), Troy Howarth (So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films) and writer Leonard Jacobs, illustrated with original archive stills and posters
DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS
Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas
Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
Newly-edited archive interview with director Luciano Ercoli and actress Nieves Navarro
Master of Giallo – brand new interview in which Gastaldi discusses Death Walks on High Heels and offers up his thoughts as to what constitutes a good giallo
An interview with composer Stelvio Cipriani
Original Italian trailer
Original English trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT
Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas
Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
Extended TV version of the feature [105 mins]
Crime Does Pay – brand new interview in which Gastaldi discusses Death Walks at Midnight and a career script-writing crime films
Desperately Seeking Susan – a visual essay by Michael Mackenzie exploring the distinctive giallo collaborations between director Luciano Ercoli and star Nieves Navarro
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx

Release date: 28/03/16 (UK) Release date: 03/29/16 (US)
Rating: 18 (TBC)
Duration: 208 mins
Language: English/Italian
Subtitles: English SDH/English
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: Mono
Colour
Discs: 4
UK RRP £44.99
UK Cat Number: FCD1216
US SRP $69.95
US Cat Number: AV044
Directed by: Luciano Ercoli
Starring: Frank Wolff, Nieves Navarr

I'm glad Arrow is going all out with gialli. Definitely getting the Death Walks... box.

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colinr0380
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Re: Arrow Films

#2 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Dec 11, 2015 1:14 pm

The Luciano Ercoli set sounds great. I didn't get a chance to pick it up at the time but remember No Shame releasing these films as a double bill on DVD in the US a number of years back. This combined with the earlier release of Your Vice Is A Locked Room... gives me hope that we might see further titles that No Shame released turn up in the future (fingers crossed for Mario Baino's delirous Lovecraftian fever dream horror Dark Waters!)

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Arrow Films

#3 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat Dec 12, 2015 6:38 am

I didn't like Death Walks on High Heels; it's a jerky pastiche of several popular Italian genres that feels like three different movies haphazardly put together. The characters are all total assholes, too. Death Walks at Midnight is a very good giallo, tho', with some handsome cinematography that makes good use of empty spaces to create unease.

Ercoli is not some overlooked master, but the set is worth it for Midnight and all of those extras.

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domino harvey
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Re: Death Walks Twice

#4 Post by domino harvey » Fri Apr 22, 2016 10:21 pm

I nearly didn't pick this set up given my poor reception of other recent giallos Arrow's put out, but my reaction was far more positive, especially with regards to Death Walks on High Heels, which manages to actually produce an excellent mystery out of its component parts, with lots of red herrings and unexpected twists and some droll humor mixed in-- I'm really surprised at M Sausage's negative take, as it's pretty easily my favorite non-Argento giallo yet. Death Walks at Midnight is ultimately a bit too silly for its own good, but still enjoyable for all its excesses, though by no metric is it a better film than High Heels to my eyes.

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Death Walks Twice

#5 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat Apr 23, 2016 2:57 pm

I don't remember the films very well, but here are my write ups on them from the Horror genre list:
I wrote:Death Walks at Midnight (Luciano Ercoli, 1972): Surprisingly entertaining given that I wasn't taken with Ercoli's other giallos. This one marries the drugs-and-guns action-thriller with the giallo in a way that feels organic and gives the plot a certain unpredictability since it doesn't initially let on that this is what's it's up to. Most giallos that try to span genres feel piece-meal, so the consistency and internal logic on display here was unexpected. While on the influence of a hallucinogen our heroine has a vision of a woman being brutally murdered by a man wielding a spike-covered iron glove. Troubles pile up from there, including a menacing stalker. The direction and cinematrography are handsome, with some excellent compositions, especially of bare, over-lit rooms that become quite sinister. But, this being Ercoli, it can't help relying on two of my least favourite Italian genre stock types: the police officer who prefers to be a nuisance than an actual detective, and the heroine who can't get anyone to believe that she's in danger no matter how improbable the counter explanations for her perceived troubles are. Thankfully these aren't relied on as heavily as they tend to be so I can overlook it.

Death Walks on High Heels (Luciano Ercoli, 1971): A kinky European sex thriller, for the first 45 minutes anyway. After the interminable preliminaries the thing finally gets going, with a couple of murders being investigated both by a pair British inspectors doing an unfunny Holmes and Watson parody and by a Frenchman playing amateur detective--and by amateur detective I mean he kidnaps and brutalizes possible witnesses, women included, to get information. Did I mention this Frenchman also leeches off his high-priced stripper girlfriend so he won't have to get a job? He shows some remorse for it, but only enough to get drunk off her liquor and berate her, not enough to, you know, get a job. I think he's supposed to be our hero, but it was hard not to cheer when a chemise-clad transvestite kicked the utter shit out of him near the end. Turning him into a human punching bag was by far the best choice this film made. Otherwise, it's an overlong pastiche made from the bits and pieces of all the genre films popular in Italy at the time--giallo, detective film, poliziotteschi, sexploitation, ect.--without too much thought to coherence or integration. The film's elegant visual style belies how unpleasant it is: along with the aforementioned maniacal Frenchman, the film often sexualizes its violence, with the killer running his knife gently over his victim's scantily clad body, provoking terrified gasps and shivers that mimic sexual arousal. As well, the motive revealed to have been behind a notably gruesome and prolonged murder of an attractive woman gave the killer no possible reason to've mutilated her, meaning the lingering violence is entirely for the viewer's pleasure. This one made itself easy to dislike.
Neither of these would rank among my favourite giallos, but I'm hesitant to recommend any of my favourites, Domino, since our taste in them seems to meet about as often as your tastes meet with zedz' on any film.

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domino harvey
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Re: Death Walks Twice

#6 Post by domino harvey » Sat Apr 23, 2016 5:14 pm

I thought the sexual violence was far more subdued here than in other giallos, I really didn't get a mean-spirited or unpleasant vibe at all from either of these films, which is part of why I responded so positively to them. High Heels is just a gory Agatha Christie pic and Midnight is a goofy product of counterculture fear-- I think anyone checking these out for cheap prurient thrills will be disappointed!

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Death Walks Twice

#7 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat Apr 23, 2016 9:40 pm

It's really only one scene of sexualized violence that bothered me. Since there was no reason for the killer, given who they turn out to be, to torment the victim in the way they did, the scene could only have been staged that way, with a scantily clad woman shivering in erotic fear as a knife is run over her, for the audience to enjoy. That by itself wouldn't have bothered me overmuch, but evidently coupling that with a main character I hated sank the movie for me. But I'm glad you got a lot of fun out of it, and probably I should revisit it. The subgenre really did exploit the perverse and horrifying aspects of the murder mystery and end up stripping it of its veneer of gentility and control. I think this is why I like this subgenre so much.

ianungstad
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Re: Death Walks Twice

#8 Post by ianungstad » Sat Apr 23, 2016 11:11 pm

I found both of these films far too soap opera-ish and lacking in any real thrills. Easily my least favorite of the Arrow gialli released over the past year. "Susan Scott" is always playing the camp card and seems totally miscast in both films.

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zedz
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Re: Death Walks Twice

#9 Post by zedz » Sun Jul 10, 2016 5:49 pm

I noticed a glitch on the DVD of Death Walks on High Heels and wondered if anybody else noticed the same thing.

On the Ernesto Gastaldi interview, the subtitles dropped out about half way through and never returned again. A shame, because it was a pretty entertaining extra, starting with a lengthy off-topic discussion of the many ways in which Once Upon a Time in America sucks!

I haven't checked the BluRay yet to see if the same applies to that.

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domino harvey
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Re: Death Walks Twice

#10 Post by domino harvey » Fri Dec 09, 2016 8:10 pm

Separate releases coming in March

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