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Well, hello and welcome to the audio
commentary for Phantom of Death, also

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as Off Balance, and I'm sure a whole
variety of other titles as these things

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tend to be.

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I'm known by the title of Troy Howarth,
and I'm very happy to be joined here

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today by... Eugenio Corrani, here we go,
to talk

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about Un Delitto Poco Comune, Off
Balance, a .k .a. Phantom of Death.

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Yeah, it's a film of Ruggiero Deodato,
of course, who, anybody listening to

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doesn't really require an introduction.
We'll get into him, of course, some of

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the career highlights and so forth and
talk about this film's place in its

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career.

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Right off the bat, we're seeing some
very familiar faces. Hal Yamanuchi here,

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who is a familiar face in other Italian
genre films.

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of the period, including Lucho Fulci's
Warriors of the Year, 2072.

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He later shows up in Roberta Lenzi's
film, House of Lost Souls, as well.

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And this doctor here, if she looks
familiar, is Carola Stagnaro, who also

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appears in a couple of Dario Argento
films. She plays Detective Altieri in

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Tenebrae. She's the one that's paired up
with Giuliano Gemma in that film.

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They have some great witty banter back
and forth in that movie. It talks about,

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you know, it's a good thing he has a
female partner, otherwise he'd have

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to bitch about.

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But he also played the mother of the
little girl who lives next door to the

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heroine in opera.

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Later on, appeared also for Deodato in
Dial Help. And, of course, our star,

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Michael York, who, as we will discuss,
unfortunately, rather tragically in real

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life, ended up afflicted with a
condition that's not precisely the same

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but certainly has affected his looks and
his life in a way that's quite tragic

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and very unfortunate the way it connects
into this film.

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Yes, I mean, this is an interesting film
for a number of reasons.

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I mean, it's quintessentially a 1980s
giallo under a lot of points

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of views.

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But, you know, with the perception that
Del Dato has had over the years

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of his own film, he's had a kind of
rocky relationship with it.

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has always lamented a certain slowness
and not having

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had the liberty he was used to when
choosing his actors.

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I mean, he's often stated that he would
not have gone for Edwidge Spanek as a

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female lead, preferring somebody
younger.

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Over the years, he's even given a few
names of who he would have rather have.

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All of them were...

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kind of American names, young and
upcoming actresses and models.

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He was also complained about the
interfering

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of Gianfranco Cleri, who not only wrote
the script,

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in fact, they wrote it in 1982 for what
was supposed to be a

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Lutofuci film.

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then the whole concept was kind of put
aside and then it kind of re -emerged

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when Luciano Martino was interested who
is mistakenly often credited

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as the producer but actually Dania Film
owned by Luciano Martino is only the

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distributor of Off Balance which at the
time

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meant having still a lot of power
because distributors really had a say in

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direction the film was supposed to take
and kind of the amount of violence or

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sex or kind of the various elements. And
of course, casting.

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It's, I think, safe.

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to say that most likely Edwidge Fennec
was an imposition from the distributor,

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Luciano Martino, of course, a long -time
partner of Edwidge Fennec, and in fact,

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really, the man who jump -started her
Italian career and made her an

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international star.

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I was saying, Vincenzo Manino and
Gianfranco Clerici, they are the actual

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producers, besides being the writers of
the film.

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Of course, as most people know, Claire
Richie and Del Dato go back way, way

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back. Claire Richie penned Cannibal
Holocaust, House Under the Park, but

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actually started collaborating as far
back as the early 70s. So there's

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definitely an established relationship
by the time Off Balance kind of brings

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them back together.

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But...

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According to Deodato, Clerici really
kind of imposed a lot of things, kind

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he didn't have the liberty of cutting
down dialogue or kind of reshaping the

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story. So, over the years, he's lamented
about these things, especially in the

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late 90s when he was giving this kind of
film, at least in Italy, kind of re

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-emerged.

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He complained about it. Then...

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as most directors do, but Valencia with
his cannibal movies is a good example.

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Over the years, he's kind of warmed up
to the film and now seems to kind of

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a benevolent eye towards it.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, I mean, it's certainly not a film
to be ashamed of by any stretch of the

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imagination. I think it's actually a
fairly top -tier Deodato film, not...

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obviously on the level of Cannibal
Holocaust, which is the film that

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knows that film, whether they've seen it
or not.

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It's a film that will be in his
obituary, we'll put it that way. The

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director is what he's known for more
than anything else. But this is a very,

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very good example of, it's a jello up to
a point, although it's kind of an

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unorthodox one.

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It has a mystery angle early on, but it
kind of gets abandoned.

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as the story goes along and is
developed.

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And, of course, as you were saying, you
know, there were different things that

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were sort of imposed and different
things that he wasn't very happy with.

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see Edwidge VanEck here, who, by the
way, on the English dub, it's actually

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voice, which is very unusual.

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It's not her voice on any of those
famous Sergio Martino jallies that she

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back in the 70s, for example, but she
speaks English on the soundtrack for

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film, as do, obviously, Michael York and
Donald Pleasence, whom we've also met

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already showing up as the inspector.

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so that's one kind of interesting point
in its favor as far as he's concerned. I

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know at least one of the actresses that
they ought to mention being interested

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in casting in a part was Kelly LeBrock,
which, you know...

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Made sense. I mean, she was a name at
the time in the 80s. It would have been

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good for international distribution.

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Obviously, with the Martino factor in
place, it makes sense that Fennec would

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have been slightly imposed on the film.

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But she's not bad in the film, by any
stretch of the imagination. I don't

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she comes across as being miscast.

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You know, I mean, it could be argued
that Michael York is too old for his

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because he's supposed to be, you know, a
man of about 30, whereas he's pushing

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50. But he's a very youthful -looking
man in his late 40s, so he pulls it off.

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It's one of those things where, you
know, if you are aware of how old he is,

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might think, well, I don't know if I
really buy the idea this man's supposed

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be in his early 30s. But, yeah, he pulls
it off well enough. And the same thing

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with Edwidge Fenex. She doesn't seem out
of place at all.

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I think she actually fits in quite well
to this. movie. But as to the origins of

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the story, yes, as you mentioned quite
accurately, originally it's tied into

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of my absolute favorite Lucio Fulci
films, The New York Ripper, which

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was originally supposed to direct.

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There was some trade announcements and
so forth that Deodato was going to make

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this film, which at the time dealt with
the idea of progeria being a trigger for

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a series of killings.

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When Lucia Fulci ended up taking over
the project, he and Dardana Sicchetti

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an overhaul in the script and completely
jettisoned that idea, brought in the

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idea of a killer who's basically trying
to avenge his dying daughter. She's

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dying of some terrible form of cancer.

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So he has a great resentment against
young, healthy, beautiful women and is

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taking it out on them by slashing them
up.

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So they were very unhappy. Manino and
Clerici were very unhappy with all the

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changes that were made and arranged,
essentially, to buy the project. buy the

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script back so that they can make the
film that they originally had in mind.

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it really did kind of work out as the
best of both worlds. We get Lucio

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The New York Ripper, which is a
controversial film, much maligned by

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people. I'd argue misunderstood by many
people as well. I don't think the film

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is nearly as vile as some people make it
out to be, although it is a tricky

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film, and it is a movie that plays a
very sophisticated game with its

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but I think it's quite brilliant.

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But we also get Raul Delgado's film,
which is dealing with this idea of

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as well. So kind of a win -win in the
long run. Yes, I mean, I would agree

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you. I don't think Edwidge Fennec is at
all miscast or misplaced in this film.

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It also kind of has an important role in
her filmography because it really is

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her return to, although an anomalous one
still, a film that incorporates

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elements of the genre.

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I think her previous effort within Jalli
was

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1975's Nude for the Killer.

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Strip Nude for your Killer.

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I was translating from the Italian
title, Nude per l 'assassino.

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And really, between these two films,
Edwidge Fenech was

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really became, I mean, she had already
done at least four, important

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films within the sex comedy arena,
mainly Sergio

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Martino's first effort, Giovannona
Coscia Lunga, with her and Pippo Franco,

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really after between from the mid 70s
right up till

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1983 -84 she really digs in in the sex
comedy and sex passes.

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and does loads and she's directed mostly
produced by dania um that kind of is a

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company that's specialized in in this um
particular subgenre and she really is

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directed by kind of the cream of the
crop shall you say of um uh of the

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specialized in comedic sexy uh michele
massimo tarantini nando cicero of course

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luciano's brother

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director sergio martino and she had
become incredibly popular in italy uh i

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she was huge thanks to these comedies
which over the over especially from

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starting from 1978 they start getting a
lot the ones she acted in started

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getting a lot less want here and pretty
much becoming just comedies with a

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little bit of maybe

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the odd breast or buttock but for the
most part they really turn into just

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comedies although of course most of the
stories revolve around her beauty and

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ugly small little men wanting to somehow
have her

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sexually but she starts really stripping
less and less

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so this is her return to Jalloh and

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I think she does a good job.

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Donald Pleasence has, I would say, an
important

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role, narratively speaking.

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And Ruggero Del Dato, I believe, yes, is
the only film in which Del Dato

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directs Pleasence, has always stated
that he is the... best actors ever

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directed, the one he was the happiest
with, and even as a

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man, the one he seemed to connect more
with.

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It would be interesting, Troy, to kind
of open up a little sub -chapter on

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Donald Pleasance in Italian, 80s Italian
cinema, because there's a lot to say

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there. Oh, yeah.

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Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, you know, people
who know Donald Pleasance for his later

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period as kind of a horror film icon,
thanks to his role as Dr.

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Loomis in the Halloween films, may not
be aware of what a truly distinguished

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career he had as an actor. He was a Tony
Award winning actor in the theater.

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He had worked, obviously done. And of
course, there's Dead Otto, his little

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directorial cameo getting on the moped
there. Had to point that out real quick.

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He, you know, had been in plays by
Harold Pint. And, you know, The Man in

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Glass Booth had been an enormous
success, although when they made the

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adapted from the Robert Shaw play, the
same Robert Shaw who played Quentin

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incidentally. they hired Maximilian
Sell, who is fantastic in the film, but

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would have been really something to have
seen Donald Pleasance in that part

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because he did want a Tony playing that
role on stage.

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So he'd had a very distinguished career.
He'd worked with major directors like

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John Sturgis, Roman Polanski, probably
gave the performance of his career on

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film for Polanski in a film called Cul
-de -Sac, and an extraordinary, very

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of Beckett -esque.

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black comedy, where he's this
milquetoast kind of a character who has

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himself in this little island castle.

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And he finds himself under attack by a
boorish American gangster played by

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Lionel Stander, who has his own Italian
career.

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Incidentally, of course, as we know,
showed up in a number of interesting

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Italian films. But Pleasence, by late
70s, is becoming more and more typecast

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a horror film actor.

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And not surprisingly, he ends up in
Italy doing a lot of films there. Not

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horror films, but... You know, films in
a variety of different genres. He's in

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the official sequel to Django, for
example, which is a very unusual film,

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it's the only real true official sequel
to the original Sergio Corbucci film

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with Franco Nero. Although, as we've
talked about in other contexts, by the

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this movie's done, the Western phase has
ended.

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Stallone and Rambo has become the big
kind of success. So they kind of

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reconfigure that character somewhat to
be, it's more of a Rambo kind of ripoff

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than it is a real sequel to Django,
ultimately.

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But Pleasance is in that. Of course,
around this time, too, he works with

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Argento on Phenomena. He's very
effective in a role that originally was

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apparently intended for either Orson
Welles or Peter Ustinov, both of whom

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up bailing for one reason or another.

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So Pleasance comes in and does it.

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Noteworthy, really, in that sense, is
being kind of the only horror.

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quote -unquote horror film actor that
Dario Ageno ever really worked with in a

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film. He didn't really tend to gravitate
towards getting genre actors. He tended

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to get actors who were outside of that
kind of genre to be in his films. So

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Donald Pleasance definitely had his
horror credentials in place.

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00:15:33,370 --> 00:15:37,110
And speaking of horror credentials, his
little interrogation here reminds me of

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one of my favorite Donald Pleasant's
performance, which is his role as

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00:15:41,310 --> 00:15:46,810
Calhoun in Gary Sherman's Deathline or
Raw Meat from 1972, where he's

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00:15:46,810 --> 00:15:47,810
brilliant.

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00:15:48,180 --> 00:15:52,680
Some of the sort of smart -ass trickery
that he's doing here, the way he's

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00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:56,520
interacting with the suspect and so
forth, reminds me of his heavily

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00:15:56,520 --> 00:15:57,580
performance in that film.

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00:15:58,460 --> 00:16:01,840
But anyway, he's doing other things
around this time, too. He, a couple

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00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:07,360
earlier, did another interesting kind of
significant late -period jello of the

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00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:09,080
period movie called Nothing Underneath.

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00:16:09,690 --> 00:16:14,330
which was enormously successful, one of
the very few enormously successful non

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00:16:14,330 --> 00:16:19,170
-Argento Jali of the period, in which he
plays a similar role, the aging police

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00:16:19,170 --> 00:16:23,190
inspector, which in and of itself could
be seen as kind of a variation on his

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00:16:23,190 --> 00:16:27,690
role as Dr. Loomis in the Halloween
franchise. So he's this kind of

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00:16:27,690 --> 00:16:31,630
Captain Ahab -esque or Professor Van
Helsing -esque.

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00:16:32,170 --> 00:16:36,830
figure who's out there trying to uh
trying to stop some unstoppable evil

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00:16:36,830 --> 00:16:41,730
so uh yeah i mean he's his career is all
over the map and of course almost

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00:16:41,730 --> 00:16:46,310
virtually ends his career with an
italian film unfortunately not nearly as

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00:16:46,310 --> 00:16:52,890
distinguished a film called fatal frames
by alfesta in which he plays a a meaty

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00:16:52,890 --> 00:16:56,750
supporting role but he's one of several
actors in that film that basically was

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00:16:56,750 --> 00:17:01,960
dead by the time the movie came out
sorry to say, died after undergoing open

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00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:04,020
-heart surgery in France.

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00:17:04,400 --> 00:17:09,160
So, you know, really a terrific actor I
always enjoy seeing, and yeah,

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00:17:09,319 --> 00:17:12,460
definitely somebody with a very
interesting Italian career. Yeah, I

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00:17:12,460 --> 00:17:18,480
personally absolutely adore Don
Pleasence. I mean, The Great Escape

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00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:25,119
would not be the same without Don
Pleasence, and of course, you can find

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00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:30,140
so many different films. I mean, one of
the first, films that come to mind is

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00:17:30,140 --> 00:17:35,160
soldier blue by ralph nelson and he
gives a terrific performance i mean it's

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00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:42,000
of those careers that seems to touch
pretty much every possible european

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00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:47,560
every sort of director and and sub
genres and big roles and smaller roles

243
00:17:47,560 --> 00:17:54,000
a very difficult career in many ways to
dissect or summarize uh which makes him

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00:17:54,000 --> 00:18:00,720
even more fascinating and uh qualified
for the cult status he has.

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00:18:01,020 --> 00:18:07,140
In Italy, yes, I mean, he did a number
of films, also,

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00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:10,760
strangely enough, comedies as well.

247
00:18:12,260 --> 00:18:18,100
The director of Nothing Underneath,
Sotto il Vistito Niente, Carlo Vanzina,

248
00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:24,340
director of mostly, actually, comedies,
which only...

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00:18:24,650 --> 00:18:30,210
really kind of directed Nothing
Underneath, and another couple of films

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00:18:30,210 --> 00:18:37,190
kind of move away from comedy, one of
which is actually the sequel to

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00:18:37,190 --> 00:18:43,010
Nothing Underneath, not Sotto
Vispiriniente Due by Dario, Nothing

252
00:18:43,110 --> 00:18:49,970
or Too Young to Die by... Too Beautiful
to Die by Dario Piana, but...

253
00:18:51,129 --> 00:18:58,010
the way more recent film starring
Richard E. Grant in the early

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00:18:58,010 --> 00:19:04,870
2000s. And Cavalbantina also directed
Donald Pleasance in a

255
00:19:04,870 --> 00:19:11,150
kind of sort of like Wall Street parody
slash

256
00:19:11,150 --> 00:19:17,610
comedy called Billions with Billy Zane
in the early, yes,

257
00:19:17,950 --> 00:19:19,810
I believe 1990.

258
00:19:21,389 --> 00:19:24,370
And this is one of the elements.

259
00:19:24,610 --> 00:19:29,570
Most of the Italian directors that
worked with Donald Pleasence really

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00:19:29,570 --> 00:19:33,890
him all the time. They always tried to
cast him over and over again.

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00:19:35,210 --> 00:19:41,930
And over the years, interviewing many of
these directors from the 80s, Donald

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00:19:41,930 --> 00:19:46,410
Pleasence pops up so many times as being
the...

263
00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:54,300
Number one candidate. Most recently,
director Ryan Alessandro Capone, who

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00:19:54,300 --> 00:20:00,760
directed in 1988 Witch Story, Strega,
with stars Ian Bannon,

265
00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:06,340
told me that his initial choice was
Donald Pleasence. And Donald Pleasence

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00:20:06,340 --> 00:20:08,800
accepted. He was going to do the film.

267
00:20:09,140 --> 00:20:15,520
But then the film, I think, slid two
months and Donald Pleasence was not

268
00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:16,519
available anymore.

269
00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:20,680
So Donald Pleasant seems to be very much
in demand.

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00:20:21,180 --> 00:20:27,640
And he did another anomalous film called
The Metropolitan Animals, Animali

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00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:34,040
Metropolitani, directed by, in fact, one
of Lucio

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00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:38,840
Fulci's kind of cinematic fathers,
Steno, Stefano Vanzina,

273
00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:42,060
father of...

274
00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:45,200
Carlo Mancina, that directed Nothing
Underneath.

275
00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:52,720
And, of course, one of the masters of
the Commedia l 'Italiana, Donald

276
00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:58,640
Pleasence, appears in one of Steno's
lesser films. In fact, it's a pretty

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00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:04,760
example of Steno's work in the 80s,
which generally wasn't very good, but

278
00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:05,760
a particularly...

279
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:09,360
Particularly bad film, let's be honest.

280
00:21:09,700 --> 00:21:14,640
But the Donald Bledsoe shines pretty
much wherever you put him, even in the

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00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:16,340
infamous Fatal Frames.

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00:21:18,500 --> 00:21:20,980
Yeah, he's one of the few...

283
00:21:22,730 --> 00:21:25,430
in that film that retains his kind of
dignity.

284
00:21:25,630 --> 00:21:27,690
He comes away with his dignity intact,
let's say.

285
00:21:28,350 --> 00:21:32,650
Speaking of people who wanted them, I
mean, Lucio Volci, after Peter Cushing

286
00:21:32,650 --> 00:21:36,230
bowed out of doing The Black Cat, Peter
Cushing was going to do it, and then

287
00:21:36,230 --> 00:21:40,130
Donald Pleasance was set to do it. But I
think that was around the same time,

288
00:21:40,170 --> 00:21:44,410
too, that John Carpenter had wanted him
for The Thing, and he was busy on a

289
00:21:44,410 --> 00:21:48,470
film, Race of the Yankee Zephyr, which
was directed by David Hemmings, another

290
00:21:48,470 --> 00:21:50,290
actor with significant Italian
connections.

291
00:21:51,850 --> 00:21:55,510
went over budget and over schedule and
so forth, and so Pleasance was obliged

292
00:21:55,510 --> 00:22:00,330
pass on that. Although I have to say, I
think in that case, the right man got

293
00:22:00,330 --> 00:22:00,969
the job.

294
00:22:00,970 --> 00:22:06,590
We ended up with Patrick McGee giving
really his last great starring role

295
00:22:06,590 --> 00:22:11,390
performance. I mean, there was an actor
who definitely could, you know, if you

296
00:22:11,390 --> 00:22:14,030
couldn't get Donald Pleasance through
Peter Cushing, Patrick McGee was

297
00:22:14,030 --> 00:22:19,930
no great shame to end up with. So, yeah,
again, Pleasance's career is certainly,

298
00:22:19,990 --> 00:22:23,250
as you say, incredibly exciting.
eclectic, encompasses all kinds of

299
00:22:23,250 --> 00:22:29,210
course, famous as the original face of
Blofeld in You Only Live Twice, the

300
00:22:29,210 --> 00:22:34,750
time we see Blofeld as anything other
than a pair of hands stroking a cat. In

301
00:22:34,750 --> 00:22:38,110
the earlier films, it was the hands of
Anthony Dawson, the actor. Anthony

302
00:22:38,110 --> 00:22:42,770
Dawson, not Antonio Margheriti, our good
friend director, known as Anthony M.

303
00:22:42,770 --> 00:22:46,650
Dawson, so as not to get confused with
the English actor of the same name.

304
00:22:47,430 --> 00:22:51,140
You know, and various other career...
Highlights abound.

305
00:22:51,420 --> 00:22:56,300
He worked with Luigi Cozzi on Paganini
Horror in terms of Italian credits as

306
00:22:56,300 --> 00:23:01,360
well. And, yeah, I mean, just always
dependable. Even as those Halloween

307
00:23:01,360 --> 00:23:05,480
got more and more preposterous and more
and more shoddy, there he was, you know,

308
00:23:05,480 --> 00:23:08,840
just offering a great comforting
presence in the midst of all the mayhem.

309
00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:13,560
somebody who's terribly missed. And it's
really one of the elements that makes

310
00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:18,180
it very clear, the recent Halloween
films, that they just can't quite

311
00:23:18,180 --> 00:23:19,180
the magic.

312
00:23:19,500 --> 00:23:24,160
absence of Donald Pleasance. Yeah, I
absolutely agree.

313
00:23:25,380 --> 00:23:32,140
Speaking of horror films that Donald
Pleasance made in Italy in the 80s, how

314
00:23:32,140 --> 00:23:38,660
it's impossible not to mention Nosferatu
in Venice, which

315
00:23:38,660 --> 00:23:44,520
actually connects various names we
mentioned.

316
00:23:44,740 --> 00:23:46,700
I mean, Luigi Cozzi did the

317
00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:50,320
did the optical effects for that film.

318
00:23:51,360 --> 00:23:58,320
And we find even Christopher Blummer
there, another actor that had been

319
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:02,260
by Kotze in Star Crash.

320
00:24:04,020 --> 00:24:06,940
So, yeah, no, I mean, it's...

321
00:24:07,660 --> 00:24:10,700
It's quite a remarkable career.

322
00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:17,840
Michael York doesn't even come close to
the deep -rooted connections with Italy

323
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:24,280
Pleasance had, but he did work
subsequently again in Italy after

324
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:31,120
the Davos film with Alberto Negrin.
Alberto Negrin

325
00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:33,940
is probably not the flashiest Italian...

326
00:24:35,530 --> 00:24:41,450
when it comes to directors, but some
people might remember him for having

327
00:24:41,450 --> 00:24:48,210
directed Enigma Rosso with Fabio Tetti,

328
00:24:48,390 --> 00:24:55,110
which was, of course, supposed to be
directed by

329
00:24:55,110 --> 00:25:00,630
Massimo Dallamano, as you obviously know
very well, Troy.

330
00:25:03,050 --> 00:25:08,450
Yeah. Yeah, no, he ended up taking over
that film, obviously, after Dallamano

331
00:25:08,450 --> 00:25:12,570
had passed away. Dallamano had been
involved in writing the film and helping

332
00:25:12,570 --> 00:25:13,930
develop it with Franco Farini.

333
00:25:14,650 --> 00:25:18,530
But, you know, tragically, he had cancer
and ended up passing away before that

334
00:25:18,530 --> 00:25:19,429
could happen.

335
00:25:19,430 --> 00:25:23,770
Kind of a continuation of the themes
found in Dallamano's earlier films. What

336
00:25:23,770 --> 00:25:25,910
have you done to Solange and what have
they done to your daughters?

337
00:25:26,510 --> 00:25:30,130
So kind of an unofficial trilogy of
schoolgirls in peril films.

338
00:25:31,310 --> 00:25:35,410
But as you say, Michael York definitely
doesn't have that deep of a connection

339
00:25:35,410 --> 00:25:40,230
with the Italian film scene, certainly
not the genre film scene, although he is

340
00:25:40,230 --> 00:25:45,450
often listed as having been very
seriously considered and nearly having

341
00:25:45,450 --> 00:25:48,490
the lead for Dario Argento in Four Flies
and Grey Velvet.

342
00:25:49,050 --> 00:25:52,890
There's some disagreement over that here
and there, depending on whether that

343
00:25:52,890 --> 00:25:53,849
was actually...

344
00:25:53,850 --> 00:25:56,050
accurate or had it been misreported or
whatever.

345
00:25:56,670 --> 00:26:00,090
But I believe Argento has indicated in
at least one interview that, yeah,

346
00:26:00,110 --> 00:26:04,210
Michael York was certainly on the short
list of people that were, you know,

347
00:26:04,230 --> 00:26:07,970
considered along with the likes of John
Lennon and Ringo Starr and various other

348
00:26:07,970 --> 00:26:11,590
people before they ended up with Michael
Brandon, of all people. But there you

349
00:26:11,590 --> 00:26:13,290
go. That's just how these things work
out.

350
00:26:14,130 --> 00:26:16,930
You know, he's obviously a tremendously

351
00:26:19,100 --> 00:26:22,320
sympathetic actor, and I think that's
one of the things that works greatly in

352
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:25,580
his favor for this film, because he's
playing a character that could be

353
00:26:25,580 --> 00:26:29,660
incredibly off -putting and incredibly
unsympathetic, but he makes him tragic,

354
00:26:29,860 --> 00:26:35,360
he makes him human, and he makes us kind
of care about him, which is unusual in

355
00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:36,640
a Giallo -style film.

356
00:26:37,310 --> 00:26:41,910
To have a killer that we actually have
that degree of empathy with. So that

357
00:26:41,910 --> 00:26:46,310
gives the film a slightly more
melancholy and a slightly more tragic

358
00:26:46,550 --> 00:26:50,430
Because usually when the killer is
unmasked in the last reel, they just

359
00:26:50,430 --> 00:26:54,230
to be some shrieking madman or madwoman
or whatever. And they're, you know,

360
00:26:54,250 --> 00:26:57,570
they're pretty much just there to be
dispatched at the end of the film.

361
00:27:06,860 --> 00:27:10,940
and kind of destroyed by circumstances
outside of his control, obviously this

362
00:27:10,940 --> 00:27:11,940
terrible illness.

363
00:27:12,140 --> 00:27:15,620
This is Katerina Barato, by the way,
playing his mother here.

364
00:27:16,140 --> 00:27:20,100
You may remember her for appearing as
the mysterious woman in Eight and a Half

365
00:27:20,100 --> 00:27:26,260
by Fellini, Susan Salo for Pasolini, but
she also shows up in Baba's Diabolic as

366
00:27:26,260 --> 00:27:31,480
the woman whose emeralds are stolen from
her during one of the film's big action

367
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:33,820
sequences. So, very familiar face.

368
00:27:34,020 --> 00:27:38,780
Lots, as I said, lots of familiar faces.
in this film, and it's a movie that

369
00:27:38,780 --> 00:27:43,160
evidently had some money behind it. I
mean, the casting that we have, the

370
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:47,580
locations in Venice, the overall
production value. I mean, there must

371
00:27:47,580 --> 00:27:49,800
a fair amount of money put into this
particular film.

372
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,100
It certainly doesn't appear to have been
a profit. No, absolutely not.

373
00:27:53,560 --> 00:28:00,480
By the way, the film I was about to
mention, directed by Bertone

374
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:01,480
Green.

375
00:28:01,580 --> 00:28:06,280
is The Secret of the Tsar, El Segreto
del Tsar, made for television, because

376
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:11,100
Negrín then later on, pretty much for
most of his directing career after

377
00:28:11,100 --> 00:28:17,220
Rings of Death, pretty much only works
for the small screen.

378
00:28:17,780 --> 00:28:21,500
No, it wasn't absolutely not a cheap
film by any means.

379
00:28:23,070 --> 00:28:29,410
It's a film that I believe Clary Shee
and Manino really believed in. I think

380
00:28:29,410 --> 00:28:36,110
they believed in the potential it had as
a film that

381
00:28:36,110 --> 00:28:42,290
could kind of unite, could be a kind of
an auteur genre.

382
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:52,100
I don't know if this was really Del
Dato's territory. I think he does a good

383
00:28:52,100 --> 00:28:57,980
job. I don't know if this was the right
kind of film for Del Dato in this

384
00:28:57,980 --> 00:28:59,700
specific moment in time.

385
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:05,280
But it's definitely a certain...

386
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:10,700
attention to detail when it comes to the
story and the dialogue, at least in the

387
00:29:10,700 --> 00:29:12,140
Italian version.

388
00:29:13,580 --> 00:29:19,640
So, I mean, you can definitely feel
this. This is a heartfelt film when it

389
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:24,500
to Claudio Giammanino. This is not a
film done cynically by any means.

390
00:29:24,740 --> 00:29:29,860
And I think Luciano, I think Luciano
Giammanino believed, must have believed

391
00:29:29,860 --> 00:29:34,720
quite a bit in the film because Edwidge
Fenwick, by the time Of Balance comes

392
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:35,720
along,

393
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:42,920
She was trying away from her work as an
actress. She was trying to do as few

394
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:49,240
films as she could. And in fact, pretty
much will leave her acting career

395
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:50,480
shortly after this film.

396
00:29:50,700 --> 00:29:54,960
She will reappear here and there, mostly
for films she...

397
00:29:55,930 --> 00:30:00,550
participated in as a producer, because
then that's really what she will do for

398
00:30:00,550 --> 00:30:07,150
most of the 90s. And right until
recently, she's going to be

399
00:30:07,150 --> 00:30:13,550
appearing in Pupi Abadi's next film,
which is being shot in

400
00:30:13,550 --> 00:30:14,550
Bologna.

401
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:20,520
Now as we speak in fact and right into
these weeks. I think there are two weeks

402
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:27,420
into filming But yeah, so I think if if
she decided to participate in balance I

403
00:30:27,420 --> 00:30:32,980
think she she herself and Luciano
Martino must have believed in the strong

404
00:30:32,980 --> 00:30:34,340
potential of the project

405
00:30:36,650 --> 00:30:42,790
So, yes, and even we find an illustrious
composer, you know, Donaggio, doing the

406
00:30:42,790 --> 00:30:46,050
music. And, of course, Donaggio and...

407
00:30:46,730 --> 00:30:48,210
No doubt I'd already worked together.

408
00:30:48,470 --> 00:30:51,990
The Barbarians, for example, first one
that comes to mind.

409
00:30:53,010 --> 00:30:58,790
But, yeah, Pino Donaggio was mostly
associated with Brian De Palma around

410
00:30:58,790 --> 00:31:03,490
time. I mean, their collaboration was
very strong. They already had so many

411
00:31:03,490 --> 00:31:08,050
films. Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Blowout,
Under the Belt. I mean, home movies.

412
00:31:08,330 --> 00:31:09,990
So, there was...

413
00:31:10,860 --> 00:31:16,380
He was a big international name, of
course. Pino Donato just started out as

414
00:31:16,380 --> 00:31:21,880
singer and songwriter and really
actually turned

415
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:28,860
down to be a composer out of pure
chance. He stated

416
00:31:28,860 --> 00:31:33,260
this many times. He was not looking to
get into films, although some of his

417
00:31:33,260 --> 00:31:40,020
songs... had appeared in films, he was
not openly looking to become a composer

418
00:31:40,020 --> 00:31:45,100
and, through circumstances, happened to
cross the paths with Nicholas Roig. And,

419
00:31:45,300 --> 00:31:50,260
you know, he ended up composing the
wonderful music for that absolute

420
00:31:50,260 --> 00:31:52,240
masterpiece called Don't Look Now.

421
00:31:52,520 --> 00:31:54,680
And the rest, really, is history.

422
00:31:54,900 --> 00:31:56,080
He's never stopped since.

423
00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:57,320
Very perfect.

424
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:03,260
and possibly even more so in any way
than Morricone, really kind of becomes

425
00:32:03,260 --> 00:32:07,220
nearly an American. That's the way he's
perceived, at least within the Italian

426
00:32:07,220 --> 00:32:11,080
industry, really as an American
composer.

427
00:32:11,580 --> 00:32:18,180
He works pretty much throughout the 80s
as many American films,

428
00:32:18,260 --> 00:32:23,320
actually a lot of German films, a lot of
also German television there in the mix

429
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:25,700
as well. But a lot of American films, I
mean...

430
00:32:26,780 --> 00:32:33,780
The Fan by Ed Bianchi and Deja Vu by
Anthony B. Richmond and Going

431
00:32:33,780 --> 00:32:39,260
Bananas by Boris Davidson and, of
course, De Palma. He does a bunch in the

432
00:32:39,260 --> 00:32:44,580
80s, a bunch of horror films, among
which Haunts by Herb Freed and David

433
00:32:44,580 --> 00:32:50,740
Schmuller. You know, he has a lot going
there.

434
00:32:51,900 --> 00:32:57,460
Works a lot in Italy, but really will
start working more often for Italian

435
00:32:57,460 --> 00:33:03,760
productions, more in the mid -90s.
Throughout the 80s, he is perceived very

436
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:08,660
as an Italian working in the States, or
working for the States mainly.

437
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:11,580
Yeah, from Nicholas Rogue to...

438
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:17,380
crawl space, you know, in one fell
swoop. He's done it all.

439
00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:23,280
Of course, also Dario Argento in the 90s
starts using him on things like Two

440
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:28,180
Evil Eyes, Trauma, and came back later
on for Do You Like Hitchcock?

441
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:34,760
Joe Dante used him on The Howling, of
course, and Piranha.

442
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:39,420
So he's done a little bit of everything.
He was just doing all kinds of little

443
00:33:39,420 --> 00:33:44,640
low -budget films around this time too,
tourist traps and sort of alternating

444
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:48,040
big assignments with little assignments.
So he had that kind of Morricone work

445
00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:51,920
ethic, which just seemed to be if the
money is there, I'm there. I don't care

446
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:55,200
it's a big film or a small film. And he
always gave it a big sound no matter

447
00:33:55,200 --> 00:34:00,400
what. He's a composer who has a very
busy style, so it's not a style that

448
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:02,080
for every film that he composes for.

449
00:34:02,460 --> 00:34:06,320
There is a sense sometimes of the music
working. against the imagery on some of

450
00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:09,560
the films that he works with, not here,
but certain films that he's done where

451
00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:14,080
the music is really frenzied and it
doesn't really quite fit too well, which

452
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:17,820
why he works extraordinarily well for
directors like Brian De Palma in

453
00:34:17,820 --> 00:34:21,639
particular, because De Palma's style
really suits him like a glove.

454
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:24,139
As you mentioned prior to this, he had
worked on...

455
00:34:24,659 --> 00:34:28,040
Actually, Del Dotto's previous film, the
one he did right before, that's almost

456
00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:33,440
precisely a year before, in the summer
of 1986, he saw The Barbarians, which is

457
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:34,440
a canon production.

458
00:34:35,139 --> 00:34:39,699
Then he does this film in August and
September of 87, and DiNagio's back. And

459
00:34:39,699 --> 00:34:44,520
later on, he did a TV project called
Ocean, which I've never seen, but which

460
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:48,400
a very impressive cast list, includes
Mario Adorf, Martin Balsam, and Lou

461
00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:50,719
Castel. So, yeah, very, very...

462
00:34:51,210 --> 00:34:52,590
Yes, Irene Pappas.

463
00:34:52,909 --> 00:34:55,469
The recently departed Irene Pappas, as a
matter of fact.

464
00:34:55,690 --> 00:35:00,230
So an extremely impressive cast list.
I've never seen it, but I would imagine

465
00:35:00,230 --> 00:35:03,430
that it's certainly worth a look based
on that cast alone.

466
00:35:05,590 --> 00:35:06,950
It's pretty good.

467
00:35:07,270 --> 00:35:09,270
I mean, it's not...

468
00:35:09,580 --> 00:35:11,860
It pretty much disappeared.

469
00:35:13,420 --> 00:35:15,020
It's off the radar.

470
00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:22,560
But if one manages to kind of find a
copy of the TV movie,

471
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:28,100
TV miniseries to be precise, it's well
worth a watch.

472
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:35,020
It's very unlike what Del Dato has done
for cinema.

473
00:35:36,970 --> 00:35:43,690
but it's more of a kind of an epic
family drama, which has

474
00:35:43,690 --> 00:35:48,810
some beautiful scenery, and as you say,
it has an impressive cast.

475
00:35:50,130 --> 00:35:55,730
Personally, Dildato has always stated he
considers it his best film as a

476
00:35:55,730 --> 00:35:56,730
director.

477
00:35:57,250 --> 00:36:01,830
Although, I mean, to be fair, I've
interviewed Grugio many, many, many,

478
00:36:01,830 --> 00:36:02,990
times over the years,

479
00:36:04,030 --> 00:36:08,570
Yeah, he tends to change opinions about
pretty much everything all the time. So

480
00:36:08,570 --> 00:36:15,290
I don't know how reliable. I mean, you
know, us now, he'd

481
00:36:15,290 --> 00:36:19,490
maybe say, well, I love this film.

482
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:26,440
Well, we all know that's true, of
course.

483
00:36:26,900 --> 00:36:27,900
Yes.

484
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:32,020
No, yeah, it's true. I mean, but to be
fair, I think that's probably true of

485
00:36:32,020 --> 00:36:35,000
most directors. I mean, Argento for
years would say phenomena.

486
00:36:35,780 --> 00:36:39,760
Then once or twice he said opera, and
once or twice he said the Stendhal

487
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:43,220
syndrome. It just depends on, you know,
what mood they're in and how defensive

488
00:36:43,220 --> 00:36:46,760
they are sometimes, depending on how a
film went over. I mean, we know that

489
00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:50,220
Lucio Fulci, for example, was very
protective towards films that didn't do

490
00:36:50,300 --> 00:36:53,160
like The Psychic, Seven Notes in Black.

491
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:58,840
It was a big flop in a movie he always
defended and always called maybe his

492
00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:02,180
film, depending on certain times he said
that.

493
00:37:02,860 --> 00:37:07,280
So, yeah, I think that's something that
happens on occasion. Now, we've talked a

494
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:11,440
little bit about Gianfranco Clerici and
Vincenzo Menino, but just to give some

495
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:14,440
sense of the kinds of career that these
writers had.

496
00:37:15,470 --> 00:37:20,370
either alone or in tandem as a sort of
writing team.

497
00:37:21,290 --> 00:37:25,290
Their body of work is impressive. As I
said, New York Ripper.

498
00:37:25,950 --> 00:37:31,630
originated as a script that was heavily
revised by Fulci and Sardinus and Ketzi.

499
00:37:32,630 --> 00:37:37,270
But Kaleri Sheets also involved in the
writing of Don't Torture a Duckling, for

500
00:37:37,270 --> 00:37:43,670
example. We have the collaboration with
Del Dotto on films like Cannibal

501
00:37:43,670 --> 00:37:47,430
Holocaust, Jungle Holocaust, House on
the Edge of the Park. Worked with

502
00:37:47,430 --> 00:37:52,130
Lenzi several times, notably Violent
Naples, which is possibly Lenzi's finest

503
00:37:52,130 --> 00:37:53,130
film.

504
00:37:55,240 --> 00:38:00,020
Little seen, at least in the U .S.,
Massimo Dallamano's sexy comedy with

505
00:38:00,020 --> 00:38:03,880
Faneck, tying it back to the cast of
this film, called Innocence and Desire.

506
00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:05,680
a bad film if it ever got revived.

507
00:38:05,980 --> 00:38:09,140
It might be a little problematic, let's
say, but it's worth seeing.

508
00:38:09,860 --> 00:38:13,780
Alberto De Martino on films like The
Antichrist and Strange Shadows in an

509
00:38:13,780 --> 00:38:14,940
Room or Blazing Magnums.

510
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:22,020
And Castellari on High Crime. So really
these two writers, if we

511
00:38:22,020 --> 00:38:25,360
liken them to an octopus, their
tentacles have touched just about all

512
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:29,760
directors who worked in the Italian
popular cinema of this period. So their

513
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:32,420
is involved in quite a few significant
films.

514
00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:33,680
Yes.

515
00:38:34,230 --> 00:38:39,710
I can speak for Vincenzo Mannino
particularly, because I've written about

516
00:38:39,710 --> 00:38:45,730
Mannino quite a few times, and he's
seemed to come and pop up a lot in my

517
00:38:45,750 --> 00:38:47,010
especially recently.

518
00:38:47,370 --> 00:38:52,830
But Vincenzo Mannino starts his career
really thanks to direct Alberto De

519
00:38:52,830 --> 00:38:53,830
Martino.

520
00:38:53,990 --> 00:39:00,610
In fact, De Martino and Mannino went to
school together.

521
00:39:02,909 --> 00:39:08,150
and Manino initially took a completely
different direction, whereas Alberto de

522
00:39:08,150 --> 00:39:13,670
Martino really kind of throws himself in
the trenches of late

523
00:39:13,670 --> 00:39:17,530
1950s cinema, Italian cinema, which was
booming.

524
00:39:17,930 --> 00:39:21,850
Vincenzo Manino becomes a journalist.

525
00:39:22,540 --> 00:39:25,760
And he actually worked as a journalist
for a certain amount of time.

526
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:33,220
And as other journalists, Antonio
Truisio, for example, is somebody who

527
00:39:33,220 --> 00:39:39,700
mind, who wrote an incredible amount of
films. He's also one of the writers of

528
00:39:39,700 --> 00:39:45,700
Beyond the Door by Ovidio Giassonitis
and the OP Roberto del Torre Piazzoli.

529
00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:49,580
Like Truisio, Mannino...

530
00:39:50,670 --> 00:39:55,710
kind of starts gravitating towards film
and really gets introduced to the

531
00:39:55,710 --> 00:40:02,270
business thanks to Alberto de Martino,
who by that time was working and was a

532
00:40:02,270 --> 00:40:03,850
prominent figure within the industry.

533
00:40:05,010 --> 00:40:11,530
Mannino, when I interviewed Umberto
Lenzi about Mannino, he described

534
00:40:11,530 --> 00:40:16,930
Mannino as somebody who was very
meticulous. He would research.

535
00:40:17,910 --> 00:40:21,670
He would research the films, especially
the crime films.

536
00:40:22,690 --> 00:40:28,810
I'm thinking of such things as The Cynic
Around the Fist or Syndicate Statist.

537
00:40:29,090 --> 00:40:33,890
He would research the kind of the, as
the French would say, the milieu, the

538
00:40:33,890 --> 00:40:36,290
of the substrate,

539
00:40:37,490 --> 00:40:40,730
social substrate in which these
criminals would work in.

540
00:40:41,130 --> 00:40:42,590
He would talk to police.

541
00:40:46,030 --> 00:40:52,730
And his scripts, he said, would often
not have quite the right rhythm. They

542
00:40:52,730 --> 00:40:58,390
would not think of the spectacle that
the film should incorporate.

543
00:40:58,890 --> 00:41:05,850
But they were always very precise in
describing a certain criminal

544
00:41:06,290 --> 00:41:13,230
Whereas, as Lenzi mentioned, Sacchetti
had somebody who would hand in a

545
00:41:13,230 --> 00:41:14,230
script.

546
00:41:14,380 --> 00:41:16,820
stained with tomato sauce.

547
00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:21,520
Yes. No love lost there.

548
00:41:21,740 --> 00:41:25,100
But that's not surprising if we know
anything about both of those

549
00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:26,720
Two bulls in a china shop.

550
00:41:27,580 --> 00:41:32,040
Yeah, Violent Naples, he said, was
essentially just a collection of

551
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:37,260
that Menino had managed to collect from
the Neapolitan mob scene and so forth.

552
00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:42,040
And the film bears that out. I think
kind of a masterpiece of its kind. It's

553
00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:43,080
such a great...

554
00:41:43,370 --> 00:41:47,870
story as such but it's strung together
with such precision and such energy that

555
00:41:47,870 --> 00:41:52,020
it works It is very episodic. You know,
it's not something that tells a great

556
00:41:52,020 --> 00:41:55,820
sort of rhythmic tale from beginning to
end. It's just, you know, this happens,

557
00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:58,180
this happens, this happens, all kind of
tenuously connected.

558
00:41:58,380 --> 00:41:59,480
But it's done with such energy.

559
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:04,280
Who cares? I mean, it just works
beautifully. So that's definitely the

560
00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:08,340
I can definitely believe that with
regards to a project like Violent

561
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:13,820
which is really one of the great
Policieski of the 1970s, a movie

562
00:42:13,820 --> 00:42:18,710
unavailable in a truly comprehensive
special edition due to rights. issues

563
00:42:18,710 --> 00:42:19,710
hopefully someday

564
00:42:20,230 --> 00:42:22,770
we will have that set right.

565
00:42:23,410 --> 00:42:28,410
I should mention, too, that this is
obviously, particularly in this new

566
00:42:28,410 --> 00:42:33,170
that Cauldron has put together for this
release, a very handsome -looking film.

567
00:42:33,190 --> 00:42:36,750
As I mentioned before, production values
are quite good, but cinematography is

568
00:42:36,750 --> 00:42:41,450
very good, and we have a cinematographer
on this film, Giorgio Di Patista, who

569
00:42:41,450 --> 00:42:46,590
is not one of the great big names in
Italian cinema as far as cinematography

570
00:42:46,590 --> 00:42:50,570
concerned, didn't have a particularly
high profile. career as a

571
00:42:50,630 --> 00:42:53,490
As a matter of fact, I believe this is
the only movie he shot for Rosario Del

572
00:42:53,490 --> 00:43:00,150
Dato, but he had been a camera operator
going back to the late 60s,

573
00:43:00,150 --> 00:43:03,430
and had worked on some interesting
films. Not always great films, but

574
00:43:03,430 --> 00:43:08,330
interesting films. He did a Gallo -style
film in the late 60s for Rosario Brasi

575
00:43:08,330 --> 00:43:12,130
called Psych Out for Murder, which was
completely mutilated for the U .S., and

576
00:43:12,130 --> 00:43:15,630
they added in some soft porn scenes and
whatnot, but the original version is

577
00:43:15,630 --> 00:43:16,650
certainly not without interest.

578
00:43:17,500 --> 00:43:21,400
He worked on one of Antonio Margheriti's
very best films, And God Said to Cain,

579
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:25,520
Western starring Klaus Kinski. One of
the relatively few Kinski movies where

580
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:27,420
Kinski is front and center for the
entire film.

581
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:30,900
It's not one of his just doing a little
scene at the beginning, a little scene

582
00:43:30,900 --> 00:43:33,520
at the end, and getting all of his
scenes done in under a week.

583
00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:38,000
He actually carries that movie. And a
not very good, but kind of endearing

584
00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:40,380
for Ricardo Freyda called Tragic
Ceremony.

585
00:43:40,620 --> 00:43:45,220
So he's had some interesting
collaborations in his background as a

586
00:43:45,220 --> 00:43:48,910
operator, but as a cinematographer,
didn't really seem to have a tremendous

587
00:43:48,910 --> 00:43:54,830
career, but I think did a very good job
on this particular film. Yes, I would

588
00:43:54,830 --> 00:43:56,150
definitely agree with that.

589
00:43:56,370 --> 00:44:01,930
And seeing we are digging into kind of
the crew, cast and crew of this film,

590
00:44:02,190 --> 00:44:08,490
worthy of mention is Pietro Innocenzi,
who is the third producer.

591
00:44:09,190 --> 00:44:15,350
We mentioned, obviously, extensively,
but Pietro Innocenzi is the...

592
00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:18,080
kind of closes the trio.

593
00:44:18,460 --> 00:44:25,100
Pietro Vincenzi was born, artistically
speaking, within the

594
00:44:25,100 --> 00:44:31,860
Luciano Marquino world and, in fact, was
very much probably a

595
00:44:31,860 --> 00:44:35,200
friend, I would imagine, but definitely
somebody who knew Edwidge Fennec well,

596
00:44:35,380 --> 00:44:42,120
who had worked on a number of films
starring Edwidge Fennec, for the most

597
00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:43,120
comedies.

598
00:44:43,810 --> 00:44:50,130
And Pietro Ioncenti starts within Dania
and Luciano Martino as a

599
00:44:50,130 --> 00:44:55,450
production manager, a very prolific one,
with quite an impressive

600
00:44:55,450 --> 00:45:01,390
filmography as a production manager. I
mean, he really works with pretty much

601
00:45:01,390 --> 00:45:03,150
everybody. Luperto Lenzi,

602
00:45:04,150 --> 00:45:10,830
Stelvio Marsi, Lucio Pulci is the
production manager of Conquest, 1983

603
00:45:10,830 --> 00:45:12,150
fantasy.

604
00:45:15,560 --> 00:45:20,100
the only fantasy film directed by Lucio
Fulci.

605
00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:27,600
And the film I personally kind of find
endearing. I find it a fun

606
00:45:27,600 --> 00:45:28,600
little film.

607
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:30,760
It's definitely unique.

608
00:45:31,200 --> 00:45:35,140
I don't know if the cinematography quite
works as well as it should.

609
00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:38,860
And it definitely...

610
00:45:39,240 --> 00:45:44,360
has issues let's say but it's it's um
it's an interesting film and far from

611
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:50,960
being one of his worst um as a producer
he's definitely less uh prolific

612
00:45:50,960 --> 00:45:57,700
and has less of a prestigious career but
it's worth mentioning he directs

613
00:45:57,700 --> 00:46:04,500
um very weird complete absolute flop in
1984 antonio

614
00:46:04,500 --> 00:46:07,340
bido which most people remember as a
jungle director

615
00:46:10,980 --> 00:46:17,160
Bloodstained Shadow, and Help Me Out.
What's the other one? Watch Me When I

616
00:46:17,160 --> 00:46:21,960
Kill. Yes, Watch Me When I Kill. Or The
Cat With The Jade Eye. Yes, that's how I

617
00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:24,980
know it. That's the literal translation
from Italian.

618
00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:32,340
And he produces Be Dozomi Comedy in
1984, which turned out to be

619
00:46:32,340 --> 00:46:35,640
a massive flop and pretty much has
disappeared since.

620
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:42,940
He produces for Sergio Martino,
Casablanca Express, I believe shortly

621
00:46:42,940 --> 00:46:48,220
Balance, I think possibly the year
after, two years after, between 1988 and

622
00:46:48,220 --> 00:46:54,620
1989, another film that is kind of
forgotten, although the cast is there,

623
00:46:54,620 --> 00:46:59,840
believe Donald Pleasance is in it as
well, alongside Glenn Ford, of all

624
00:47:01,750 --> 00:47:08,650
And also produces two very strange...
Well, actually

625
00:47:08,650 --> 00:47:13,350
produces three films with Monica
Guerritore, Gabriele Labia's wife at the

626
00:47:13,390 --> 00:47:19,450
two of which kind of border into the
Giallo -F territory, and they were both

627
00:47:19,450 --> 00:47:20,450
directed by...

628
00:47:20,880 --> 00:47:26,000
Her husband, Gabriele Labia, which
obviously everybody knows for Deep Red

629
00:47:26,000 --> 00:47:32,440
Zeder, and he's a very prestigious, very
well -known Italian stage actor,

630
00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:39,540
which are Fences and Scandalosa Gilda,
which were both done pretty

631
00:47:39,540 --> 00:47:41,740
much back -to -back between 1985 and
1986.

632
00:47:43,620 --> 00:47:45,980
But, interestingly enough...

633
00:47:46,190 --> 00:47:53,010
In the 90s, although never really
becoming prolific, Pietro Innocenzi

634
00:47:53,010 --> 00:47:59,930
reaches national success with Palermo
-Milan, One Way, Claudio

635
00:47:59,930 --> 00:48:02,730
Fragasso's massive undertaking,

636
00:48:03,590 --> 00:48:05,330
his biggest film.

637
00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:10,380
the biggest film in his career, starring
Giancarlo Giannini and Stefania

638
00:48:10,380 --> 00:48:14,200
Sandrelli and a number of high -profile
actors.

639
00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:21,460
And in 2016, also kind of reunited with
Ruggero

640
00:48:21,460 --> 00:48:24,800
Del Dato and produced his Palette in
Blood.

641
00:48:26,720 --> 00:48:28,700
Yeah. Yeah.

642
00:48:29,870 --> 00:48:34,050
Yeah, definitely. Well, I mean, you
know, as far as Deodato himself is

643
00:48:34,050 --> 00:48:39,130
concerned, you know, in terms of where
his career was at the time, you know,

644
00:48:39,130 --> 00:48:42,690
it's worth talking a little bit about
his background and so forth, obviously.

645
00:48:43,420 --> 00:48:46,420
He's somebody who came up through the
ranks, as it were, had been an assistant

646
00:48:46,420 --> 00:48:51,000
director, had assisted Roberto
Rossellini, for example, had been, you

647
00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:57,560
somebody who had very significant
connections with Sergio Cobucci,

648
00:48:57,560 --> 00:49:02,860
Django and various other films as well,
before getting into directing films, as

649
00:49:02,860 --> 00:49:08,600
many people of his generation did in the
60s, mostly with Peplum and Spaghetti

650
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:12,240
Westerns, things like that, that were
very popular at the time before he

651
00:49:12,240 --> 00:49:14,100
established himself. which is himself in
the 70s.

652
00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:20,240
Cannibal Holocaust, as we all know for
obvious reasons, is a scandalous movie,

653
00:49:20,460 --> 00:49:25,160
incredibly controversial, banned in some
places, heavily censored just about

654
00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:29,100
everywhere else, a movie that really
caused a great deal of difficulty.

655
00:49:29,420 --> 00:49:34,220
But at the very same year that that
movie comes out, he makes an arguably

656
00:49:34,220 --> 00:49:38,680
nastier film called House on the Edge of
the Park, which doesn't have any real

657
00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:42,100
violence in it. It doesn't have the
notorious scenes of animal violence.

658
00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:48,060
But in terms of its exploration of what
people are capable of doing to each

659
00:49:48,060 --> 00:49:52,140
other, it's probably even a darker and
uglier film in many respects.

660
00:49:52,580 --> 00:49:55,400
And a film that has a connection to this
one, of course, we're going to be

661
00:49:55,400 --> 00:50:00,000
seeing our old friend Giovanni Lombardo
Radice here in short order, who made his

662
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:03,060
film debut in House on the Edge of the
Park. He comes back here to play a role

663
00:50:03,060 --> 00:50:04,100
as a priest in this film.

664
00:50:05,420 --> 00:50:09,720
But kind of affected his progression of
his career in a certain sense. He was

665
00:50:09,720 --> 00:50:12,160
having some difficulty getting
employment for a period of time.

666
00:50:13,240 --> 00:50:16,040
various different projects kind of
stalled and so forth.

667
00:50:16,260 --> 00:50:20,800
But this is during a period of time when
the Italian film industry in general,

668
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:24,700
as we've talked about on many occasions,
is starting to go through a bit of a

669
00:50:24,700 --> 00:50:29,300
collapse. Things are starting to really
slow down, this tremendous period of

670
00:50:29,300 --> 00:50:34,640
great prolific creativity that yielded
not just big arthouse sensations, but

671
00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:38,300
also these great beloved genre films
that we know and love so much.

672
00:50:38,600 --> 00:50:41,180
It's all kind of coming to an end during
this period of time.

673
00:50:41,760 --> 00:50:45,180
As I mentioned, this one was shot in
August and September of 1987.

674
00:50:45,620 --> 00:50:50,040
So it's really, this is kind of getting
into the last year or two where there's

675
00:50:50,040 --> 00:50:55,700
kind of respectable kind of production
given to movies of this nature during

676
00:50:55,700 --> 00:50:58,800
this period of time. Dario Ageno, of
course, comes out with Opera during this

677
00:50:58,800 --> 00:50:59,880
time, which is a big film.

678
00:51:00,720 --> 00:51:03,940
But, you know, things are going to be
changing in very short order.

679
00:51:04,600 --> 00:51:10,300
After this film, he follows up with a
very strange, let's say, supernatural

680
00:51:10,300 --> 00:51:15,340
horror. film called dial help um it has
its moments it has its pleasures uh

681
00:51:15,340 --> 00:51:20,900
certainly uh not a an unworthy film but
then he comes back to the jallo in 93

682
00:51:20,900 --> 00:51:26,940
with a movie i am very very fond of
called the washing machine um a movie

683
00:51:26,940 --> 00:51:30,840
probably been hurt by its title more
than anything else i mean it's not an

684
00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:34,920
appetizing title and it doesn't have any
big stars in it which probably also

685
00:51:34,920 --> 00:51:35,920
doesn't help.

686
00:51:36,300 --> 00:51:39,520
But I think a really accomplished movie.
Actually, I think in some respects a

687
00:51:39,520 --> 00:51:43,840
more interesting film even than this
one, but not a movie that's ever really

688
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:47,840
a tremendous amount of exposure. Again,
I suspect because you don't have the big

689
00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:51,520
names in the cast and the title itself
is kind of, let's face it, a little bit

690
00:51:51,520 --> 00:51:52,520
off -putting.

691
00:51:52,640 --> 00:51:56,360
But that would be his last genre feature
until Ballad of Blood in 2016.

692
00:51:56,840 --> 00:52:02,000
So a lot of TV work in between and more
benign type of subject matter. But, you

693
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:07,440
know, his run of kind of genre work is
kind of coming to a close around this

694
00:52:07,440 --> 00:52:14,160
time. Yes, I mean, Ruggero Del Dato is
really kind of the quintessential

695
00:52:14,160 --> 00:52:17,960
technical director.

696
00:52:18,240 --> 00:52:21,700
I mean, he really is somebody who I...

697
00:52:21,980 --> 00:52:28,580
I think probably has the longest career
as

698
00:52:28,580 --> 00:52:29,580
an AD.

699
00:52:29,620 --> 00:52:35,600
Definitely among the ones of his
generation, I would probably say the

700
00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:41,900
prolific AD in the 60s. I mean, and as
you said, he works with...

701
00:52:42,250 --> 00:52:43,410
Pretty much everybody.

702
00:52:43,650 --> 00:52:49,230
I mean, from Sergio and Bruno Corbucci,
both of them, to obviously Roberto

703
00:52:49,230 --> 00:52:56,170
Rossellini. I mean, he really gets his
start with Rossellini

704
00:52:56,170 --> 00:53:02,950
for his... Really, actually, because he
was Rossellini's next -door neighbor.

705
00:53:03,650 --> 00:53:07,430
They lived in the same area in Rome,
Parioli, which is very upper class.

706
00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:15,040
part of the city where Ruggero D 'Adato
still lives to this day, and

707
00:53:15,040 --> 00:53:21,820
creates a very strong bond with Roberto
Rossellini's son, well, one

708
00:53:21,820 --> 00:53:26,860
of many, Renzo, Renzo Rossellini, who
later is still alive, still with us. I

709
00:53:26,860 --> 00:53:28,340
know he's not doing very well, though.

710
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:36,120
health -wise, but he will become the
president of the Goumon company

711
00:53:36,120 --> 00:53:43,000
in the late 70s. And in fact, it's the
man who greenlit Zeta by Pugliavati.

712
00:53:44,260 --> 00:53:51,020
And of course, he was an accomplished AD
and then also directed and now

713
00:53:51,020 --> 00:53:57,260
really is the kind of canter of his
father. He's written more than one book

714
00:53:57,260 --> 00:54:03,920
participated in more books on on various
books on his father but so uh that are

715
00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:06,300
really kind of um

716
00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:11,680
worked in the trenches of cinema. I
mean, he works on an incredible variety

717
00:54:11,680 --> 00:54:13,300
genres and different directors.

718
00:54:13,660 --> 00:54:16,680
Antonio Margheriti as well, somebody he
worked with.

719
00:54:17,440 --> 00:54:22,740
And he was somebody who knew the trade.
I mean, he was a reliable director

720
00:54:22,740 --> 00:54:29,640
and also helped a lot by publicity. I
mean, a lot of the gaps

721
00:54:29,640 --> 00:54:33,040
in Deodato's career are filled with...

722
00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:40,100
uh tv commercials uh he does a lot of
them and i would say that in a

723
00:54:40,100 --> 00:54:46,900
way he dildato kind of stumbled into his
uh kind of imagery kind

724
00:54:46,900 --> 00:54:53,840
of in into his um filmic philosophy or
his his uh his style i

725
00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:54,759
mean

726
00:54:54,760 --> 00:55:01,460
I'm not saying that he didn't have some
sort of style, of approach, narrative

727
00:55:01,460 --> 00:55:07,120
traits he would return to often, but
it's really when he kind of

728
00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:12,920
finds cannibal movies, I mean, Last
Cannibal World first, and obviously

729
00:55:12,920 --> 00:55:18,080
Hulk House, is really when he kind of

730
00:55:18,080 --> 00:55:21,200
finds his...

731
00:55:21,770 --> 00:55:28,430
poetics you know he that kind of
bittersweet concoction of

732
00:55:28,430 --> 00:55:35,310
violence and but also of melancholy he
finds so many

733
00:55:35,310 --> 00:55:39,370
of within that sub -genre he finds so
many of his collaborators he'll use

734
00:55:40,080 --> 00:55:44,900
Rizzo Tolani, of course, which is a
composer that will return numerous

735
00:55:45,040 --> 00:55:51,740
And even that whole idea of using very
sweet, very sad music of

736
00:55:51,740 --> 00:55:53,520
scenes of incredible violence.

737
00:55:53,920 --> 00:55:58,800
And, you know, so much, so many of the
ingredients that were pre -existing in

738
00:55:58,800 --> 00:56:01,980
his career really come together when he
discovers the cannibal movies. And I

739
00:56:01,980 --> 00:56:04,080
think it's one of those cases where...

740
00:56:04,620 --> 00:56:10,760
A film kind of reshapes the career of a
director. It's a little bit like, I

741
00:56:10,760 --> 00:56:14,040
would say, Brian Eustace's first film,
in that case, Society.

742
00:56:14,460 --> 00:56:19,720
That blueprint can just be found
throughout his career, even if he did

743
00:56:19,720 --> 00:56:20,860
completely different films.

744
00:56:22,440 --> 00:56:27,540
subject matters. Cannibal Hulk has never
really disappeared in his career. It

745
00:56:27,540 --> 00:56:31,720
can be found in one way or another in
pretty much everything he's done for

746
00:56:31,720 --> 00:56:32,720
cinema since.

747
00:56:33,020 --> 00:56:36,700
I think it really kind of created a
strong imprint.

748
00:56:38,460 --> 00:56:45,380
But yes, he was a reliable director that
kind of had a

749
00:56:45,380 --> 00:56:47,600
soft spot for controversy.

750
00:56:47,860 --> 00:56:50,700
I mean, he's somebody who didn't mind
tackling

751
00:56:51,420 --> 00:56:58,240
difficult subject matters or, you know,
being, you know, being

752
00:56:58,240 --> 00:57:04,080
in dangerous territories. But to be
fair, he never got, I mean, some of his

753
00:57:04,080 --> 00:57:09,420
films are problematic, especially with,
you know, watching them now.

754
00:57:10,380 --> 00:57:14,280
Some films, you know, have
questionable...

755
00:57:14,920 --> 00:57:21,160
questionable elements to them. But he
never really gets tacky. His films

756
00:57:21,160 --> 00:57:23,860
have a certain elegance.

757
00:57:25,100 --> 00:57:29,160
Because he knows his trade. He knows how
to

758
00:57:29,160 --> 00:57:35,620
manipulate well his

759
00:57:35,620 --> 00:57:41,080
audience. And he does it with a fair
amount of style most of the time.

760
00:57:43,299 --> 00:57:48,160
Yeah, you can always tell the people
who've never seen Cannibal Holocaust by

761
00:57:48,160 --> 00:57:53,380
comments that they make. Oh, it's badly
made. It's badly acted. It's this, it's

762
00:57:53,380 --> 00:57:57,020
that. which is enough to pretty much
tell you, you probably haven't seen it.

763
00:57:57,060 --> 00:57:59,940
You've probably read about it and
thought it sounded reprehensible, and

764
00:57:59,940 --> 00:58:02,520
just decided you're going to attack it
without actually seeing it.

765
00:58:02,780 --> 00:58:06,300
It's actually an extraordinarily well
-made film, extraordinarily well -shot

766
00:58:06,300 --> 00:58:07,300
Sergio Dovizzi.

767
00:58:07,720 --> 00:58:11,760
As you mentioned, a beautiful score by
Rizzottolani and, you know, tremendous

768
00:58:11,760 --> 00:58:15,380
contrast between the beautiful music and
the grim imagery and so forth.

769
00:58:16,100 --> 00:58:20,920
This is not accidental or sloppy or
slapdash filmmaking.

770
00:58:21,160 --> 00:58:22,420
It's an extremely well -made film.

771
00:58:23,440 --> 00:58:26,580
really interesting in its own way, the
earlier Jungle Holocaust, or Last

772
00:58:26,580 --> 00:58:30,940
Cannibal World, which has an
extraordinary central performance by Maz

773
00:58:31,820 --> 00:58:36,500
That's another film that really makes it
very clear this man knows exactly what

774
00:58:36,500 --> 00:58:37,540
it is that he's doing.

775
00:58:38,640 --> 00:58:42,540
And throughout the various different
genres that he's dipped in and out of,

776
00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:46,580
obviously going into the Policieski with
Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man, which

777
00:58:46,580 --> 00:58:53,150
is a really completely over -the -top,
deranged film with very strong

778
00:58:53,150 --> 00:58:57,730
homoerotic undercurrent or overcurrent
even in the relationship between Ray

779
00:58:57,730 --> 00:59:01,170
Lovelock and Mark Farrell that informs
the central part of that film.

780
00:59:02,319 --> 00:59:06,460
And really, you know, in all the various
other films, as you say, even a movie

781
00:59:06,460 --> 00:59:11,600
like House on the Edge of the Park,
which is an extremely dark and extremely

782
00:59:11,600 --> 00:59:17,120
nihilistic and at times deeply
unpleasant film, I would agree, it's

783
00:59:17,120 --> 00:59:21,300
It's extremely well shot, again by Del
Fizzi, as a matter of fact, and, you

784
00:59:21,300 --> 00:59:23,020
know, again with the Ortolani
soundtrack.

785
00:59:23,950 --> 00:59:27,190
So it's a lot of the same collaborators
coming back, as filmmakers tend to do.

786
00:59:27,250 --> 00:59:31,510
They obviously find people that they
work with extremely well, and you can

787
00:59:31,510 --> 00:59:35,230
it throughout various filmographies. I
don't care whether you're John Ford or

788
00:59:35,230 --> 00:59:36,230
Lucio Fulci.

789
00:59:36,390 --> 00:59:40,710
There are the same collaborators who
come back over and over again for good

790
00:59:40,710 --> 00:59:41,710
reason.

791
00:59:41,920 --> 00:59:47,160
So his films are always distinguished by
that sense of craftsmanship, which is

792
00:59:47,160 --> 00:59:51,100
something that he learned as an AD,
working alongside various different

793
00:59:51,100 --> 00:59:53,940
directors of both big and small
calibers.

794
00:59:54,840 --> 01:00:00,120
But I think that this kind of notion,
this fantasy that Cannibal Holocaust is

795
01:00:00,120 --> 01:00:06,960
just a sort of slapped -ass, sloppy
excuse to shock the viewer is not at all

796
01:00:06,960 --> 01:00:10,560
fair, not at all supported by the movie
itself, which really demonstrates a

797
01:00:10,560 --> 01:00:13,110
tremendous... of cinematic language.

798
01:00:13,550 --> 01:00:19,750
Yes, and speaking of other important
figures

799
01:00:19,750 --> 01:00:25,410
within the crew of this film, I think, I
mean, this is definitely not

800
01:00:25,410 --> 01:00:31,310
superficially a special effects heavy
film,

801
01:00:31,490 --> 01:00:34,870
especially compared to what Del Dato
directed.

802
01:00:36,510 --> 01:00:41,390
But it is a film where special effects
are, in fact, pivotal.

803
01:00:41,650 --> 01:00:47,950
I mean, the transformation, the mutation
that Michael York goes through is

804
01:00:47,950 --> 01:00:54,490
something that only works thanks to the
special makeup effects of somebody who

805
01:00:54,490 --> 01:01:00,990
never gets really mentioned often
despite an incredibly prolific career,

806
01:01:00,990 --> 01:01:02,950
distinguished, which is Dino Gagliano.

807
01:01:03,190 --> 01:01:04,610
Now, Dino Gagliano...

808
01:01:05,180 --> 01:01:12,060
is often working alongside more well
-known

809
01:01:12,060 --> 01:01:17,760
names. I mean, Dino Galliano worked with
Carlo Rambaldi, although only on one

810
01:01:17,760 --> 01:01:22,140
film, but then worked numerous times
with Giannetto De Rossi, with...

811
01:01:26,440 --> 01:01:32,080
Presto Pino. I mean, he really kind of
works with all the major special

812
01:01:32,300 --> 01:01:34,520
the effects masters of that time.

813
01:01:34,780 --> 01:01:39,760
But also did quite a bit also by
himself.

814
01:01:40,180 --> 01:01:42,540
And he can be found,

815
01:01:44,300 --> 01:01:45,300
well,

816
01:01:45,700 --> 01:01:50,840
obviously in a lot of Dania films. We've
understood that this is a very kind of

817
01:01:50,840 --> 01:01:52,560
Dania forged.

818
01:01:53,480 --> 01:01:59,580
film. In fact, he's responsible for the
special effects of, special makeup

819
01:01:59,580 --> 01:02:05,400
effects, of course, we're talking about
here. So, the violent professionals and

820
01:02:05,400 --> 01:02:12,240
violent action, a number of Polizetti,
many of which also

821
01:02:12,240 --> 01:02:16,820
were directed by Bertolensi, syndicate
status come to mind as well.

822
01:02:17,530 --> 01:02:19,310
He really works with everybody.

823
01:02:19,570 --> 01:02:24,050
I mean, impressive are the special
effects he did for Island of the

824
01:02:24,150 --> 01:02:30,270
aimed by Martino, but he works with
Castellari, Corbucci, Steno, Antonio

825
01:02:30,270 --> 01:02:33,310
Margheriti, numerous times, in fact.

826
01:02:34,350 --> 01:02:40,750
He works alongside, I think, some of his
most impressive work is with Alvaro

827
01:02:40,750 --> 01:02:46,310
Passeri, also known as simply Al
Passeri, on Wild Beasts.

828
01:02:46,700 --> 01:02:51,920
by Franco Prosperi, which is an
incredibly

829
01:02:51,920 --> 01:02:58,580
well -made, quite bizarre, bizarrely

830
01:02:58,580 --> 01:03:05,200
lit and bizarrely short, but very
effective echo vengeance horror directed

831
01:03:05,200 --> 01:03:09,040
one of the Mundo Masters, Franco
Prosperi.

832
01:03:09,440 --> 01:03:15,580
Not to be mistaken with the other Franco
Prosperi, Francesco Prosperi, who was

833
01:03:15,580 --> 01:03:20,920
just a straight director of fiction, of
films.

834
01:03:22,560 --> 01:03:29,500
And Nino Gagliano also did responsible
the special makeup effects

835
01:03:29,500 --> 01:03:31,540
of Four Flies and Grey Velvet.

836
01:03:32,080 --> 01:03:37,240
by Dario Argento. So we're looking at
somebody who, or And God Said to Cain by

837
01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:43,880
Antonio Margheriti, which is one of my
favorite Westerns, starring Klaus

838
01:03:44,200 --> 01:03:50,560
So, I mean, he is somebody who really
knows what he's doing. And by the time

839
01:03:50,560 --> 01:03:56,280
reaches Off Balance or Phantom of Death,
he's somebody with about 20 years

840
01:03:56,280 --> 01:03:59,980
career, 20 years spanning career behind
him.

841
01:04:01,390 --> 01:04:07,930
So yeah, Dino Gagliano definitely
deserves tip of the hat for what I think

842
01:04:07,930 --> 01:04:11,270
pretty good special effects.

843
01:04:13,590 --> 01:04:14,850
They work.

844
01:04:15,350 --> 01:04:16,350
Oh yeah.

845
01:04:19,050 --> 01:04:23,110
The aging makeup, I think, on Michael
York is quite good. I'm pleased to see

846
01:04:23,110 --> 01:04:27,850
that in a high -definition transfer,
they hold up. I mean, sometimes you get

847
01:04:27,850 --> 01:04:31,450
these films cleaned up and get a better
look at them, and you can start to see

848
01:04:31,450 --> 01:04:35,590
the seams and so forth. But I think that
the makeup bears close scrutiny, which,

849
01:04:35,610 --> 01:04:36,610
of course, it needs to.

850
01:04:36,810 --> 01:04:39,730
That would have been something that
Deodato was well aware of because of the

851
01:04:39,730 --> 01:04:40,850
he was planning on covering scenes.

852
01:04:41,170 --> 01:04:44,910
You know, you couldn't just film Michael
York in a long shot and expect to sell

853
01:04:44,910 --> 01:04:48,470
the idea that he had aged. You're going
to be able to need to get up close. and

854
01:04:48,470 --> 01:04:51,450
so forth. So the makeup is very good.
There's some very good splatter effects

855
01:04:51,450 --> 01:04:58,150
too, which is definitely Deodato kind of
tipping his hat to his newfound legacy

856
01:04:58,150 --> 01:05:01,190
as a purveyor of cinematic shocks.

857
01:05:01,430 --> 01:05:07,550
So the murder scenes perhaps aren't as
elaborately choreographed and

858
01:05:07,550 --> 01:05:11,390
fetishistically sort of staged as what
you would get in an Argento or Fulci

859
01:05:11,390 --> 01:05:15,230
film. But in terms of delivering the red
stuff, they certainly don't.

860
01:05:15,450 --> 01:05:19,810
They don't hold back. There's a fair
amount of arterial spray and so forth

861
01:05:19,810 --> 01:05:22,030
we get in the film. So very, very
effective.

862
01:05:22,510 --> 01:05:29,330
And going with our deep dive into the
crew and with Dania, we could also

863
01:05:29,330 --> 01:05:34,630
mention our editor here, Daniele
Albizzo, who is a very prolific editor

864
01:05:34,630 --> 01:05:36,970
the 1960s. He's worked with...

865
01:05:37,420 --> 01:05:40,820
You know, so many of these people that
we've been talking about off and on. Of

866
01:05:40,820 --> 01:05:45,080
course, Deodato, he'd worked with
previously on Jungle Holocaust, did a

867
01:05:45,080 --> 01:05:49,680
of the films that Lindsay did for Dania,
including Syndicate Status and The

868
01:05:49,680 --> 01:05:50,519
Tough Ones.

869
01:05:50,520 --> 01:05:52,540
He also cut Nightmare City for Lindsay.

870
01:05:53,000 --> 01:05:54,720
You know, don't call it a zombie movie.

871
01:05:55,180 --> 01:05:59,460
It's one of Lindsay's most purely
enjoyable films, however you want to

872
01:05:59,460 --> 01:06:03,680
it. Also did Massimo Dallamano's first
yellow, very interesting film from the

873
01:06:03,680 --> 01:06:05,480
late 60s called A Black Veil for Lisa.

874
01:06:06,160 --> 01:06:11,580
The original Italian title, Blue,
translates to Death Has No Sex, another

875
01:06:11,580 --> 01:06:15,880
that was kind of mutilated and
reconfigured for U .S. consumption,

876
01:06:15,880 --> 01:06:17,540
reshuffled and so forth.

877
01:06:17,860 --> 01:06:21,540
The Italian version is much better. And
did a very interesting film for Armando

878
01:06:21,540 --> 01:06:25,080
Caspino as well, Autopsy, with Mimsy
Farmer.

879
01:06:25,440 --> 01:06:29,980
So, yeah, I mean, he's obviously
somebody else whose career is quite

880
01:06:29,980 --> 01:06:33,800
and intersects with many of the major
directors and some of the big cult films

881
01:06:33,800 --> 01:06:34,800
of the period.

882
01:06:35,080 --> 01:06:42,000
Yeah. And on my side, to conclude, the
crew members

883
01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:48,240
worth mentioning, we have also Octaviano
de Lacqua, the

884
01:06:48,240 --> 01:06:49,680
stunt coordinator.

885
01:06:50,140 --> 01:06:56,900
This is not a stunt -heavy film, but
there are a few falls and

886
01:06:56,900 --> 01:07:01,040
definitely moments where a stunt was
needed.

887
01:07:01,260 --> 01:07:08,060
When I interviewed Octaviano de Lacqua
about the film, he mentioned having had

888
01:07:08,060 --> 01:07:12,940
very small role in it, although I have
to admit, I did not notice him.

889
01:07:14,000 --> 01:07:20,500
While seeing the film, I've never
noticed him, which I mean, he probably,

890
01:07:20,500 --> 01:07:27,460
might remember just confused films or
simply made

891
01:07:27,460 --> 01:07:33,520
a mistake or that his kind of cameo
appearance was cut and, you know, ended

892
01:07:33,520 --> 01:07:34,520
on the

893
01:07:34,700 --> 01:07:35,700
editing room floor.

894
01:07:36,100 --> 01:07:40,580
But Ottaviano Dell 'Acqua, I mean, I
think for most people, you know,

895
01:07:40,580 --> 01:07:43,320
who doesn't really need any
introduction.

896
01:07:43,560 --> 01:07:50,460
I mean, he comes from a family of
acrobats and circus performers.

897
01:07:51,340 --> 01:07:56,420
One of the biggest Italian stunt
families. I mean, I...

898
01:07:56,670 --> 01:07:59,550
At some point, we all stopped,
collectively stopped counting.

899
01:07:59,830 --> 01:08:05,170
I mean, I think there are about 10, 11,
the luck was...

900
01:08:05,840 --> 01:08:09,040
working in films, different moments in
time.

901
01:08:10,360 --> 01:08:15,120
Ottaviano, obviously, is kind of the
crown jewel of the family, if you will,

902
01:08:15,200 --> 01:08:17,220
definitely the most famous abroad.

903
01:08:18,340 --> 01:08:24,460
Of course, he is Eye Worm from Zombie
Flesh Eaters, a .k .a. Zombie, by Lucio

904
01:08:24,460 --> 01:08:25,460
Pulci.

905
01:08:27,220 --> 01:08:34,160
which, and he always likes telling me
that he is the most, he's beaten, I

906
01:08:34,160 --> 01:08:37,700
don't know exactly what he means by
that, but every time he tells me he's

907
01:08:37,700 --> 01:08:42,660
Freddy Krueger with the role of I -Worm.

908
01:08:43,899 --> 01:08:47,680
Beat Freddy Krueger. I don't know if he
means that literally. I don't know. I

909
01:08:47,680 --> 01:08:50,060
don't know. I've never really dug
deeper.

910
01:08:50,520 --> 01:08:57,160
But, yeah, of course, he's the eye worm
from Zombie, and he is also the lead,

911
01:08:57,200 --> 01:09:02,439
together with his colleague and very,
very, very close friend, Massimo Banni.

912
01:09:02,819 --> 01:09:06,779
He is the lead in Rats, Night of Terror
by Bruno Mattei, which is...

913
01:09:07,990 --> 01:09:13,470
Kind of a cult favorite of mine. I mean,
I think it's wonderfully delirious.

914
01:09:14,410 --> 01:09:21,330
If somebody's listening and hasn't seen
Rap, I suggest, you know, just do

915
01:09:21,330 --> 01:09:22,330
it.

916
01:09:23,080 --> 01:09:27,100
blindly go towards the light, go towards
rats.

917
01:09:27,840 --> 01:09:34,779
It's well worth it. It was all shot on
the same locations, you know,

918
01:09:34,779 --> 01:09:40,560
the same production design of Once Upon
a Time in America by Sergio Leone.

919
01:09:41,700 --> 01:09:44,580
Those are the sets of Once Upon a Time
in America.

920
01:09:45,500 --> 01:09:47,760
So, I mean, it's an incredible film.

921
01:09:48,800 --> 01:09:50,840
Directed by Bruno Mattei and Claudio
Fragasso.

922
01:09:51,279 --> 01:09:55,200
that wasn't credited, though, as the
director.

923
01:09:55,740 --> 01:09:59,760
The list is infinite.

924
01:10:00,100 --> 01:10:06,240
He's worked on, I think, officially
probably a couple of hundred films,

925
01:10:06,480 --> 01:10:11,440
but the list of uncredited work pretty
much never ends.

926
01:10:12,620 --> 01:10:18,800
He's fallen, tripped, been hit or hit
someone else.

927
01:10:20,110 --> 01:10:26,270
even if it's just for a very brief scene
in many, many, many films. He even

928
01:10:26,270 --> 01:10:33,190
participated in John Wick 2 and one of
the

929
01:10:33,190 --> 01:10:35,550
latest James Bond films that was shot in
Rome.

930
01:10:36,230 --> 01:10:42,950
So, I mean, he's just very much
deserving

931
01:10:42,950 --> 01:10:44,630
of his cult status.

932
01:10:45,950 --> 01:10:47,410
Oh, yeah, absolutely.

933
01:10:48,410 --> 01:10:54,190
And speaking of cult status, I would be
kicking myself furiously later on if I

934
01:10:54,190 --> 01:10:57,250
neglected to bring this up. I didn't
have the heart to cut in on you talking,

935
01:10:57,410 --> 01:11:01,530
but we will acknowledge the scene that
we just had with Donald Pleasance having

936
01:11:01,530 --> 01:11:07,610
a full meltdown in the street and saying
the F -bomb, I think, for the only time

937
01:11:07,610 --> 01:11:11,530
in his cinematic career. I cannot
remember the man ever using such vulgar

938
01:11:11,530 --> 01:11:15,950
language in another film. He's part of
that group of actors, that generation of

939
01:11:15,950 --> 01:11:17,450
Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee.

940
01:11:17,710 --> 01:11:21,810
Can you imagine these people saying the
F -bomb in a film? I know I can't. So

941
01:11:21,810 --> 01:11:26,950
Donald Pleasence saying, I'll fucking
kill you is something worth noting. It's

942
01:11:26,950 --> 01:11:31,830
probably the only time it ever happened
in a film. Certainly, I can't say that

943
01:11:31,830 --> 01:11:35,030
I've seen every single film he was ever
in, but it's the only one I can remember

944
01:11:35,030 --> 01:11:37,250
where that happened. So I had to point
that out.

945
01:11:38,550 --> 01:11:45,490
Yes, and now this scene was all

946
01:11:45,490 --> 01:11:46,490
shot.

947
01:11:47,059 --> 01:11:52,960
Adolgiata, which is an area ever so
slightly out of Rome,

948
01:11:53,160 --> 01:11:59,120
going north, and it's an area of kind of
very

949
01:11:59,120 --> 01:12:05,640
lavish, very kind of high -class villas

950
01:12:05,640 --> 01:12:11,100
and kind of picket fences. It's very
unlike what you'd associate to...

951
01:12:12,000 --> 01:12:19,000
to rome um you know the small alleys and
the big monuments and uh and it's

952
01:12:19,000 --> 01:12:24,720
very upper class a very very not it's
associated with a lot of snobbery and

953
01:12:24,720 --> 01:12:28,820
of the themes are not supposed to be
ojata but some of the themes towards the

954
01:12:28,820 --> 01:12:33,020
end were shot there probably to match
where they where they had shot

955
01:12:36,010 --> 01:12:40,770
Yeah, well, that's one of those things
that's lost on non -Italians, obviously.

956
01:12:40,930 --> 01:12:44,670
But if you know the area, it's like
seeing films that are shot in and around

957
01:12:44,670 --> 01:12:49,510
York and so forth or any other major
city, whether it be London or Los

958
01:12:49,510 --> 01:12:50,269
or whatever.

959
01:12:50,270 --> 01:12:54,470
You know, the imaginary geography that's
constructed in some of these films can

960
01:12:54,470 --> 01:12:59,190
be quite amazing sometimes where a short
stroll in a film would really take you

961
01:12:59,190 --> 01:13:03,090
many, many miles and many, many hours to
complete in real life. So not an

962
01:13:03,090 --> 01:13:04,930
unusual thing at all, it has to be said.

963
01:13:05,770 --> 01:13:09,770
Now, this film, as I've mentioned a
couple times before, was shot between

964
01:13:09,770 --> 01:13:10,930
and September of 1987.

965
01:13:11,330 --> 01:13:14,950
It appears that it was actually rushed
through post -production pretty quickly.

966
01:13:15,660 --> 01:13:20,580
pretty briskly because it had its first
screening at MIFED just in time for

967
01:13:20,580 --> 01:13:21,660
Halloween of 1987.

968
01:13:22,180 --> 01:13:27,080
It did not go into general release,
however, in Italy until March of 1988,

969
01:13:27,300 --> 01:13:30,780
having been passed for release by the
Italian censors at the end of January.

970
01:13:31,100 --> 01:13:36,020
So, you know, fairly brisk post
-production process involved in the

971
01:13:36,020 --> 01:13:40,780
this film. Again, considering the fact
that you get a composer like D 'Onozio

972
01:13:40,780 --> 01:13:44,500
board and so forth, time was still of
the essence, although...

973
01:13:45,150 --> 01:13:50,550
You know, I'm sure DiNagio, like
Morricone, was not a stranger to working

974
01:13:50,550 --> 01:13:56,170
great duress. And probably like
Morricone, I would imagine, you know, if

975
01:13:56,170 --> 01:13:57,590
heard enough DiNagio scores.

976
01:13:58,170 --> 01:14:00,350
And it's the same thing with all of
these composers.

977
01:14:00,590 --> 01:14:03,890
Silvio Cipriani is the most notorious
example where you hear the scales all

978
01:14:03,890 --> 01:14:08,090
time in his scores. I mean, it's the
great kidnapping, rabid dogs, what have

979
01:14:08,090 --> 01:14:11,490
they done to your daughters, you know,
ad nauseum.

980
01:14:11,710 --> 01:14:15,410
It's always the same music type that you
hear over and over again.

981
01:14:15,850 --> 01:14:20,310
DiNagio definitely has certain
distinctive types of themes and so forth

982
01:14:20,310 --> 01:14:24,150
hear, which we may presume probably he
had a drawer of certain things he could

983
01:14:24,150 --> 01:14:27,190
go to, suspense music, sad music.

984
01:14:27,470 --> 01:14:30,270
things like that that he'd be able to
pull out and recycle on a pretty

985
01:14:30,270 --> 01:14:31,270
consistent basis.

986
01:14:31,330 --> 01:14:36,710
Because like Morricone, he's insanely
prolific. He's getting a lot of

987
01:14:36,710 --> 01:14:41,550
films, again, as we said before, varying
different sizes, big and small, going.

988
01:14:42,210 --> 01:14:45,550
So, yeah, time is of the essence
definitely in a film such as this.

989
01:14:46,120 --> 01:14:49,500
And this whole thing here with the dog,
by the way, as an animal lover, I always

990
01:14:49,500 --> 01:14:53,900
find this particularly rather touching
and moving. It's a side that you don't

991
01:14:53,900 --> 01:14:59,380
get to see in many Dodo films, which are
known to be rather more coarse and

992
01:14:59,380 --> 01:15:03,380
rather more brutal and vicious. This
movie has a kind of melancholy quality

993
01:15:03,380 --> 01:15:07,200
it, which is probably one of the reasons
that I rank it fairly highly in his

994
01:15:07,200 --> 01:15:08,200
filmography.

995
01:15:09,200 --> 01:15:16,120
Yes, I mean, it is a very sad film with
a strong

996
01:15:16,120 --> 01:15:20,380
melancholic streak going through it.

997
01:15:21,500 --> 01:15:27,720
I mean, a lot of the people, I mean, if
Del Dato does kind of have an ambivalent

998
01:15:27,720 --> 01:15:33,160
relationship with the film, most of the
people who worked on it actually

999
01:15:33,160 --> 01:15:36,720
remember it pretty fondly. I mean, I
know Gianni Lombardo Radice.

1000
01:15:38,820 --> 01:15:44,060
he has a special place in his heart for
this film, although he has quite a small

1001
01:15:44,060 --> 01:15:45,060
role.

1002
01:15:46,120 --> 01:15:52,480
By the second half of the 80s, Giovanni
Lombardo Radice, although working and

1003
01:15:52,480 --> 01:15:56,740
being still quite prolific, his role had
gotten a lot smaller.

1004
01:15:56,960 --> 01:16:00,560
I mean, if we consider that between...

1005
01:16:01,020 --> 01:16:02,580
1980 and 1984.

1006
01:16:02,860 --> 01:16:08,560
He works on such films as The House on
Virgil Park, where his role as Ricky,

1007
01:16:08,760 --> 01:16:12,400
although being, I believe, the fourth or
even fifth name.

1008
01:16:13,020 --> 01:16:19,140
on the uh on the billboard is in fact is
is the co -protagonist i mean ricky is

1009
01:16:19,140 --> 01:16:26,020
is just as important pretty much as
david hess's character um but of

1010
01:16:26,020 --> 01:16:31,240
course even his role as bob in city of
the living dead uh is is incredibly

1011
01:16:31,240 --> 01:16:37,260
important narratively speaking and the
screen time is is okay it's pretty hefty

1012
01:16:37,260 --> 01:16:41,580
uh he definitely has some steel scenic
moments in the film.

1013
01:16:41,920 --> 01:16:47,740
And of course, he had been the lead in
Cannibal Ferox, his first 100 %

1014
01:16:47,740 --> 01:16:52,440
leading role in a film, Cannibal Ferox
by Umberto Lenzi.

1015
01:16:53,580 --> 01:16:59,860
Umberto Lenzi's last effort within the
cannibalistic subgenre.

1016
01:17:01,600 --> 01:17:08,000
Johnny Lombardo Radice, really in this
period of time, he's working mostly, and

1017
01:17:08,000 --> 01:17:14,740
even out of the set, he is very much,
he's bonded deeply with Michele Suavi,

1018
01:17:14,800 --> 01:17:21,120
and of course many people remember him
in The Sect and The Church and Stage

1019
01:17:21,120 --> 01:17:22,120
Fright.

1020
01:17:22,780 --> 01:17:26,880
He was supposed to also appear in Della
Morta dell 'Amore, but...

1021
01:17:29,400 --> 01:17:36,040
Pretty much there wasn't a role that was
suitable for him and they couldn't

1022
01:17:36,040 --> 01:17:38,380
really kind of make it work for Radice.

1023
01:17:39,980 --> 01:17:46,600
But Johnny Omar Radice does have a very
deep relationship with...

1024
01:17:47,390 --> 01:17:53,570
off balance and in fact describes the
scene he had with Michael York as being

1025
01:17:53,570 --> 01:17:55,750
something close to mystical.

1026
01:17:56,310 --> 01:18:02,030
He has stated a number of times when
I've interviewed him that he,

1027
01:18:02,110 --> 01:18:07,570
while acting and looking at Michael York
in the eyes, he kind of felt this...

1028
01:18:08,220 --> 01:18:14,900
strange, mystical attraction, which he
doesn't describe as sexual, but

1029
01:18:14,900 --> 01:18:21,380
nearly kind of sexless kind of force

1030
01:18:21,380 --> 01:18:24,060
pulling him towards Michael York.

1031
01:18:24,700 --> 01:18:29,860
Kind of a Stendhal syndrome actor's
version.

1032
01:18:30,420 --> 01:18:32,780
That's kind of how he describes it.

1033
01:18:33,400 --> 01:18:39,760
um kind of being being completely
enraptured in the moment and uh and

1034
01:18:39,760 --> 01:18:45,680
from it so um and he that that's the
only time this kind of um

1035
01:18:45,680 --> 01:18:52,640
pseudo -intellectual uh emotional uh
attraction this is the only time

1036
01:18:52,640 --> 01:18:59,620
he's ever felt that uh for another actor
uh while working uh so um so yeah

1037
01:18:59,620 --> 01:19:01,220
so he he has the great

1038
01:19:02,330 --> 01:19:06,650
has greatly fond memories of this film
in particular.

1039
01:19:07,050 --> 01:19:08,050
Yeah.

1040
01:19:08,550 --> 01:19:12,190
And the actor who was appearing opposite
Donald Pleasance in that previous

1041
01:19:12,190 --> 01:19:16,370
scene, Familiar Face 2, Marino Massey,
who we know from films like Santa Brave

1042
01:19:16,370 --> 01:19:20,110
as well as enormous productions like The
Leopard, Belly of an Architect,

1043
01:19:20,450 --> 01:19:21,450
Godfather 3.

1044
01:19:21,550 --> 01:19:23,110
So very familiar face.

1045
01:19:24,010 --> 01:19:26,650
Quite recently, a couple of years ago.
Yeah.

1046
01:19:27,150 --> 01:19:30,410
Yeah, as a matter of fact, it was this
year, wasn't it, actually? I think it

1047
01:19:30,410 --> 01:19:31,990
earlier this year. I could be wrong,
though.

1048
01:19:33,110 --> 01:19:37,780
Certainly. Somebody who left us
recently, regardless, and had a long,

1049
01:19:37,780 --> 01:19:40,880
interesting career. But, you know, he's
another one of those actors who just

1050
01:19:40,880 --> 01:19:44,220
comes in, probably worked for an
afternoon on the film, and that was

1051
01:19:45,440 --> 01:19:51,980
But, yeah, I mean, referencing Lombardo
Radice, of course, his notoriety is

1052
01:19:51,980 --> 01:19:56,060
something that he's embraced in more
recent years. For years, he had a very

1053
01:19:56,060 --> 01:19:59,780
deeply ambivalent attitude about his
relationship with Italian genre films

1054
01:19:59,780 --> 01:20:02,280
because he's a very serious stage actor.

1055
01:20:03,120 --> 01:20:07,940
always kind of kept the stage side and
the film side separate. Very often he

1056
01:20:07,940 --> 01:20:12,660
billed as John Morgan in these films,
whereas his quote -unquote legitimate

1057
01:20:12,660 --> 01:20:15,600
acting work on the stage was proudly
under his own name.

1058
01:20:15,880 --> 01:20:22,740
He always told the story about Lucio
Fulci having shown up at his house one

1059
01:20:22,740 --> 01:20:27,720
time for a party, and at one point...
Fulci had to use the restroom, and he

1060
01:20:27,720 --> 01:20:30,900
into the bathroom and saw the poster for
City of the Living Dead was hanging in

1061
01:20:30,900 --> 01:20:34,180
the bathroom. And Fulci came out and
said, ladies and gentlemen, I'm in the

1062
01:20:34,840 --> 01:20:39,680
So he definitely had this kind of
ambivalent attitude for a long time,

1063
01:20:39,680 --> 01:20:44,380
he's embraced it in recent years, has
been going, participating in the

1064
01:20:44,380 --> 01:20:47,860
convention circuit, which is also
lucrative, to be fair. I mean, I'm sure

1065
01:20:47,860 --> 01:20:49,600
has a lot to do with it. It helps you.

1066
01:20:50,170 --> 01:20:51,170
supplement his income.

1067
01:20:51,830 --> 01:20:56,850
But his first films, obviously, you
know, doing films for Deodato, Fulci,

1068
01:20:56,950 --> 01:21:02,950
Margheriti, you know, Margheriti, of
course, is known as a kind of gentleman

1069
01:21:02,950 --> 01:21:08,830
director. He's very calm, very quiet,
very placid, respectful on set, not the

1070
01:21:08,830 --> 01:21:11,070
type of ferocious.

1071
01:21:12,810 --> 01:21:16,810
powerhouse on set that somebody like
Lindsay is or Deodato or Fulci.

1072
01:21:17,290 --> 01:21:21,890
And Lombardo Boudicchi always has said
and told me, as a matter of fact, that

1073
01:21:21,890 --> 01:21:23,690
liked Fulci.

1074
01:21:24,330 --> 01:21:29,930
He's very fond of Deodato, hated Lindsay
with a passion, hated him with the heat

1075
01:21:29,930 --> 01:21:34,710
of a thousand suns and has said very
numerous negative things about him,

1076
01:21:34,710 --> 01:21:38,070
when those things got back to Lindsay,
Lindsay started replying in kind and

1077
01:21:38,070 --> 01:21:41,270
would say things like, oh, he's only
known for my movie and for a little bit.

1078
01:21:41,130 --> 01:21:44,130
little cameo in one of Lucio Fulci's
movies, which is not quite accurate

1079
01:21:44,130 --> 01:21:47,430
because, as you said, his role in City
of the Living Dead can't be described as

1080
01:21:47,430 --> 01:21:48,409
a cameo.

1081
01:21:48,410 --> 01:21:51,150
It's a fairly substantial part and a
very memorable one.

1082
01:21:51,970 --> 01:21:56,670
But a lot of bawling back and forth,
insults and so forth infamously on that

1083
01:21:56,670 --> 01:22:02,330
film, which Lombardo Radice is not a fan
of, putting it mildly. But he always

1084
01:22:02,330 --> 01:22:08,080
said that, you know, with Fulci, Fulci's
kind of outbursts had a cause. They had

1085
01:22:08,080 --> 01:22:09,079
a purpose.

1086
01:22:09,080 --> 01:22:13,520
They were usually caused by prima donnas
on the set or by people being lazy, not

1087
01:22:13,520 --> 01:22:17,340
doing what they were supposed to do, so
he would flip out and kind of get

1088
01:22:17,340 --> 01:22:20,260
everybody back on their feet and doing
what they were supposed to be doing. So

1089
01:22:20,260 --> 01:22:21,820
he always felt it was for a good reason.

1090
01:22:22,520 --> 01:22:26,800
Deodato, he felt, leavened his nastiness
with a lot of humor, which he really

1091
01:22:26,800 --> 01:22:30,700
appreciated. He thought Deodato was a
hysterically funny man, whereas he said

1092
01:22:30,700 --> 01:22:34,680
Lindsay was just flat -out mean. Lindsay
was just a bully and a braggart and an

1093
01:22:34,680 --> 01:22:38,580
egomaniac and all that. all these other
things so uh that was where he drew the

1094
01:22:38,580 --> 01:22:42,680
line you know even though he was aware
that deodato had made this infamous

1095
01:22:42,680 --> 01:22:46,300
cannibal holocaust and i'm sure would be
you know horrified by some of the

1096
01:22:46,300 --> 01:22:51,180
things in it um he has always maintained
a very happy relationship with him

1097
01:22:51,180 --> 01:22:56,280
whereas going off with lindsey to make
cannibal ferox was something that uh was

1098
01:22:56,280 --> 01:23:00,700
a uh well let's say a deeply unpleasant
experience that he's never forgotten or

1099
01:23:00,700 --> 01:23:03,300
forgiven yeah Yes, indeed.

1100
01:23:03,560 --> 01:23:10,000
I mean, another director Radice has
always criticized, and not quite as

1101
01:23:10,000 --> 01:23:16,840
vigorously as in the case of Lenzi, but
definitely a director he was not fond of

1102
01:23:16,840 --> 01:23:21,160
was Fabrizio De Angelis, who directed

1103
01:23:21,160 --> 01:23:26,740
Radice, Lombardo Radice, in

1104
01:23:26,740 --> 01:23:29,180
Impatto Mortale.

1105
01:23:29,920 --> 01:23:36,040
Deadly Weapon, I believe the American
title is, starring Bose, Venson, Fred

1106
01:23:36,040 --> 01:23:41,500
Williamson. And Manny Lombardo de Dica
played one of the villains in the film,

1107
01:23:41,540 --> 01:23:42,600
one of the antagonists.

1108
01:23:43,060 --> 01:23:50,060
As he often did, he would always have
these very ambiguous, both ambiguous,

1109
01:23:50,060 --> 01:23:54,820
sexually and also in their kind of goals
and intent.

1110
01:23:56,700 --> 01:24:01,800
And yes, De Angelis was someone else for
different reasons. De Angelis was,

1111
01:24:02,060 --> 01:24:08,160
according to Lomar de la Riche, very
cynical. He was also the producer of the

1112
01:24:08,160 --> 01:24:14,800
film. So he kind of pretty much had free
range and could do whatever he wanted.

1113
01:24:14,920 --> 01:24:21,880
And it was impossible to ask him
anything or, you know, bring forward a

1114
01:24:21,880 --> 01:24:25,160
complaint or a suggestion. He would just
shut everybody off.

1115
01:24:26,040 --> 01:24:31,300
unless they were the big stars of the
film. In that case, they had kind of the

1116
01:24:31,300 --> 01:24:33,320
possibility of talking to him freely.

1117
01:24:33,600 --> 01:24:38,500
So, yeah, Johnny and Maradona always had
a kind of a

1118
01:24:38,500 --> 01:24:43,780
difficult relationship when it came to
genre films.

1119
01:24:44,470 --> 01:24:46,930
to be fair, cinema in general.

1120
01:24:47,550 --> 01:24:52,410
Although recently he did tell me, you
know, if I had known that, you know,

1121
01:24:52,410 --> 01:24:56,470
were the films people were going to be
talking about, I would have taken things

1122
01:24:56,470 --> 01:24:59,130
a lot more seriously and done a lot more
of them.

1123
01:24:59,810 --> 01:25:03,910
Radice refused a lot of films around
that time.

1124
01:25:04,770 --> 01:25:11,350
You know, he really saw these
productions as a possibility of funding

1125
01:25:11,350 --> 01:25:12,690
his theatre.

1126
01:25:13,640 --> 01:25:19,600
pieces and his lifestyle he's often
talked about um specifically referring

1127
01:25:19,600 --> 01:25:23,680
the early 80s and the period in which he
was um um acting in the cannibal ferox

1128
01:25:23,680 --> 01:25:27,740
uh he really needed money also because
of his drug problem he's been very open

1129
01:25:27,740 --> 01:25:34,600
about his cocaine addiction um and and
so i mean he he really did have um

1130
01:25:34,600 --> 01:25:39,980
yeah a difficult Difficult time. Let's
remember also he is a writer, a

1131
01:25:39,980 --> 01:25:41,120
screenwriter as well.

1132
01:25:41,800 --> 01:25:44,920
He actually wrote,

1133
01:25:46,240 --> 01:25:50,760
although there wasn't a director
attached to the project at the time.

1134
01:25:51,600 --> 01:25:55,740
So, you know, it came completely to a
surprise that Lindsay ended up directing

1135
01:25:55,740 --> 01:26:02,260
it. But Radisha did write the... I mean,
I don't know about you, Troy, but I

1136
01:26:02,260 --> 01:26:04,440
think it could be one of...

1137
01:26:05,980 --> 01:26:11,680
I mean, it's definitely in my book, one
of Lindsay's worst films, which is

1138
01:26:11,680 --> 01:26:18,260
Daughter of the Jungle. I have great
difficulties finding redeeming elements

1139
01:26:18,260 --> 01:26:19,260
that film.

1140
01:26:20,680 --> 01:26:25,060
Well, don't forget, even bad Umberto
Lindsay films are still masterpieces.

1141
01:26:25,560 --> 01:26:26,860
Yeah, indeed.

1142
01:26:27,120 --> 01:26:28,200
How could I forget?

1143
01:26:28,730 --> 01:26:35,430
No, it is pretty bad. It has some
interesting, if you dig deep, some

1144
01:26:35,430 --> 01:26:41,290
interesting sort of subtextual kind of
social commentary going on, which may be

1145
01:26:41,290 --> 01:26:42,310
a stretch. I don't know.

1146
01:26:43,310 --> 01:26:49,270
It is enough to elevate it a little bit
above something like the Perino comedy

1147
01:26:49,270 --> 01:26:53,410
that Lindsay did, which is probably the
absolute bottom of the Lindsay barrel.

1148
01:26:54,530 --> 01:26:58,070
But yeah, Lindsay and comedies were not
necessarily a great mix.

1149
01:26:58,640 --> 01:27:05,400
No, no, well, Radice, you know, wrote
that, although he's often stated that

1150
01:27:05,400 --> 01:27:11,240
original script was completely taken
apart and very, very little remains of

1151
01:27:11,240 --> 01:27:17,540
original story. He also wrote Por Duccio
d 'Ezzari, Aeroporto

1152
01:27:17,540 --> 01:27:24,380
Internazionale, a TV series for
television, and of

1153
01:27:24,380 --> 01:27:25,380
course...

1154
01:27:26,010 --> 01:27:31,730
probably most people listening will
know, he did write a script for House on

1155
01:27:31,730 --> 01:27:34,650
Edge of the Park Part 2, which was never
made.

1156
01:27:35,570 --> 01:27:42,270
And there's a lot to say about that
never -made

1157
01:27:42,270 --> 01:27:49,210
project. But Radishu did write more than
one version of the script that saw

1158
01:27:49,210 --> 01:27:51,170
his character as the lead.

1159
01:27:51,710 --> 01:27:54,030
Ricky was supposed to be the...

1160
01:27:54,540 --> 01:27:56,460
at the center of the story.

1161
01:27:58,060 --> 01:27:59,360
But, yes.

1162
01:28:00,860 --> 01:28:06,780
Dildato was interested in directing it,
but it was supposed to be a British

1163
01:28:06,780 --> 01:28:12,840
production initially. First, there was a
hint from Germany, a hint of interest,

1164
01:28:13,120 --> 01:28:17,840
but then it was supposed to be a British
production. But, yeah, it wasn't

1165
01:28:17,840 --> 01:28:18,840
supposed to be.

1166
01:28:19,200 --> 01:28:22,720
It's one of those things I've read about
it and I've heard about it enough that

1167
01:28:22,720 --> 01:28:27,400
I think, I don't know, it may be just as
well it didn't happen. I'm not entirely

1168
01:28:27,400 --> 01:28:28,400
sure.

1169
01:28:29,600 --> 01:28:33,780
Recapturing that magic all those years
after the fact, in the same way that

1170
01:28:33,780 --> 01:28:37,380
there was talk of years of there being a
cannibal holocaust part two, it's kind

1171
01:28:37,380 --> 01:28:41,280
of like after a certain point, it's
probably a good idea not to go back to

1172
01:28:41,280 --> 01:28:42,280
because...

1173
01:28:42,780 --> 01:28:47,780
trying to revisit this sort of subject
matter so many years on might not be the

1174
01:28:47,780 --> 01:28:49,980
best of ideas. But you'll never know, of
course.

1175
01:28:50,220 --> 01:28:53,180
Maybe it could have been a remarkable
piece of work. I'll never know because

1176
01:28:53,180 --> 01:28:54,660
it's never been made.

1177
01:28:55,220 --> 01:28:56,220
But, yeah.

1178
01:28:56,490 --> 01:28:59,870
You can never tell how these things are
going to turn out.

1179
01:29:00,310 --> 01:29:04,170
Obviously, there was no talk of a
phantom of death or off balance part

1180
01:29:04,170 --> 01:29:08,390
would be very difficult. The thing is
how our killer is unfortunately now

1181
01:29:08,390 --> 01:29:12,950
leaving us. I guess we could have done
the further adventures of Inspector

1182
01:29:12,950 --> 01:29:14,950
Dottie, which I should say.

1183
01:29:15,800 --> 01:29:21,860
The fact that his name is, well, Daddy,
it's pronounced Daddy. It does sound

1184
01:29:21,860 --> 01:29:25,880
slightly funny on the English track,
even though it is Michael York. And, you

1185
01:29:25,880 --> 01:29:29,420
know, there is a fair amount of
production audio on this film, as far as

1186
01:29:29,420 --> 01:29:34,320
tell. It does very often sound like he's
calling him Daddy, which could be an

1187
01:29:34,320 --> 01:29:38,600
interesting little bit of subtext into
this film that we have not explored.

1188
01:29:39,060 --> 01:29:42,180
The killer's daddy issues here with
Donald Pleasance.

1189
01:29:42,730 --> 01:29:46,870
looking at him very disapprovingly as
the son who has let him down.

1190
01:29:49,650 --> 01:29:56,470
God, I think we have to redo this and
just analyze that

1191
01:29:56,470 --> 01:29:58,890
route. I'm sure many would agree with
you.

1192
01:30:01,730 --> 01:30:03,990
Yes, well, we're coming close to the
end.

1193
01:30:04,210 --> 01:30:09,010
I mean, it's quite a sad ending.

1194
01:30:11,429 --> 01:30:15,710
It's very... Yeah, very melancholic.

1195
01:30:17,630 --> 01:30:22,110
It's maybe not completely surprising.
The film was not a massive hit in Italy.

1196
01:30:22,490 --> 01:30:28,550
It did well over time, thanks to VHS and
television, and it kind of

1197
01:30:28,550 --> 01:30:33,470
managed to recoup most of the money, but
it was not a success by any means,

1198
01:30:33,650 --> 01:30:38,790
which is not surprising, I think, for
the genre it's part of, and possibly for

1199
01:30:38,790 --> 01:30:44,800
the... quite depressing main theme and
kind of just general story.

1200
01:30:45,960 --> 01:30:49,200
Yeah, no, it probably wasn't destined to
be a big box office hit, although it

1201
01:30:49,200 --> 01:30:52,120
had to come just a few years earlier.
Who knows? It may have done well.

1202
01:30:52,480 --> 01:30:56,460
As we said, Donald Pleasance had been a
part of Nothing Underneath just a few

1203
01:30:56,460 --> 01:30:58,320
years before, which did do extremely
well.

1204
01:30:58,920 --> 01:31:02,760
But perhaps that was slightly more
commercial in some respects.

1205
01:31:03,020 --> 01:31:07,320
But anyway, here we are all these years
later looking back at this film that I

1206
01:31:07,320 --> 01:31:11,460
think is a very interesting example of a
genre, one of the last really kind of

1207
01:31:11,460 --> 01:31:15,060
good, slick, well -crafted Italian genre
films of its period.

1208
01:31:15,310 --> 01:31:17,110
and it's been a lot of fun talking to
you about it.

1209
01:31:18,150 --> 01:31:19,330
Absolutely, same here.

1210
01:31:20,010 --> 01:31:24,050
Hope everybody enjoyed that, and yes,

1211
01:31:25,170 --> 01:31:26,430
here we go.

1212
01:31:27,030 --> 01:31:28,450
Until next time, ciao.

1213
01:31:29,230 --> 01:31:30,230
Ciao.