Red Version
Alongside the spaghetti western, the giallo is one of the most famous Italian export genres: films steeped in mystery and intrigue, delivered with stylised violence and unforgettable musical themes.
The Possessed (1965) masterfully combines noir, mystery and giallo tropes in a proto-giallo based on one of Italy’s most notorious crimes. It tells the story of a depressed novelist (Peter Baldwin) in search of his old flame (Virna Lisi) who has disappeared under suspicious circumstances, prompting an investigation that finds him plunged into a disturbing drama of familial secrets, perversion, madness and murder. The Fifth Cord (1971) boasts a complex, Agatha Christie-esque plot of investigation into a series of brutal assaults. As the body count rises, whisky swilling journalist Andrea Bild (Franco Nero) finds himself under suspicion, making it all the more imperative he crack the case. The Pyjama Girl Case (1978), inspired by a real-life case that baffles to this day, takes us to Australia where former inspector Timpson comes out of retirement to crack the case of a young woman, found on the beach, shot in the head, burned to hide her identity and dressed in distinctive yellow pyjamas…
In the first of a multi-volume series of Giallo Essentials these films feature a raft of talent in front and behind the camera with each film restored from the original camera negative and presented with a range of contextualising interviews and featurettes.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
- Brand new 2K restorations of the film from the original camera negative for The Possessed, The Fifth Cord and The Pyjama Girl Case
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations of each film
- Original lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks
- Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtracks
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtracks
- Rigid box packaging with newly designed artwork by Adam Rabalais in a windowed Giallo Essentials Collection slipcover
THE POSSESSED
- New audio commentary by writer and critic Tim Lucas
- Richard Dyer on The Possessed, a newly filmed video appreciation by the cultural critic and academic
- Cat’s Eyes, an interview with the film’s makeup artist Giannetto De Rossi
- Two Days a Week, an interview with the film’s award-winning assistant art director Dante Ferretti
- The Legacy of the Bazzoni Brothers, an interview with actor/director Francesco Barilli, a close friend of Luigi and Camillo Bazzoni
- Original trailers
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips
THE FIFTH CORD
- New audio commentary by critic Travis Crawford
- Lines and Shadows, a new video essay on the film’s use of architecture and space by critic Rachael Nisbet
- Whisky Giallore, a new video interview with author and critic Michael Mackenzie
- Black Day for Nero, a new video interview with actor Franco Nero
- The Rhythm Section, a new video interview with film editor Eugenio Alabiso
- Rare, previously unseen deleted sequence, restored from the original negative
- Original Italian and English theatrical trailers
- Image gallery
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Haunt Love
THE PYJAMA GIRL CASE
- New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
- New video interview with author and critic Michael Mackenzie on the internationalism of the giallo
- New video interview with actor Howard Ross
- New video interview with editor Alberto Tagliavia
- Archival interview with composer Riz Ortolani
- Image gallery
- Italian theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon
Yellow Version
Arrow Video continues its exploration of Italian cult cinema with this volume of Giallo Essentials, bringing together three more suspense-filled exemplars of the genre!
In Massimo Dallamano’s What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974), hot-headed Inspector Silvestri (Claudio Cassinelli, The Suspicious Death of a Minor) and rookie Assistant District Attorney Vittoria Stori (Giovanna Ralli, Cold Eyes of Fear) investigate the apparent suicide of a teenage girl, leading them to a sordid prostitution ring whose abusers occupy the highest echelons of Italian society. Sergio Martino’s Torso (1973) helped lay the groundwork for the American Slasher Movie: when a ruthless killer begins to target the female university students of Perugia, Jane (Suzy Kendall, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) and her friends flee for the peace of the countryside, only to discover that the threat isn’t far behind. Andrea Bianchi’s Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975) delivers depravity in droves as ambitious photographer Magda (Edwige Fenech, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key) and her on-off boyfriend, love rat Carlo (Nino Castelnuovo, The English Patient), team up to solve the spate of highly sexualized murders that are rocking a prestigious Milanese fashion house.
Featuring grisly murders, amateur sleuths and motorcycle-riding maniacs, these iconic gialli are restored in 2K from their original negatives and are presented alongside a raft of juicy extras!
Limited Edition Contents
- 2K restorations from the original camera negatives of What Have They Done to Your Daughters?, Torso and Strip Nude for Your Killer
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations of each film
- Two versions of Torso, the original 94-minute Italian cut and 90-minute English cut
- Original lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks*
- English subtitles for the Italian soundtracks
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtracks
- Rigid box packaging with newly designed artwork by Haunt Love in a windowed Giallo Essentials Collection slipcover
- Reversible sleeves for each film featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Adam Rabalais and Graham Humphreys
Disc One: What Have They Done To Your Daughters?
- Audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
- Video essay by Kat Ellinger, author and editor-in-chief of Diabolique Magazine
- Eternal Melody, an interview with composer Stelvio Cipriani
- Dallamano’s Touch, an interview with editor Antonio Siciliano
- Unused hardcore footage shot for the film by Massimo Dallamano
- Alternate English opening titles
- Italian theatrical trailer
- Image gallery
Disc Two: Torso
- Audio commentary by Kat Ellinger, author of All the Colours of Sergio Martino
- Video interview with co-writer/director Sergio Martino
- Video interview with actor Luc Merenda
- Video interview with co-writer Ernesto Gastaldi
- Video interview with filmmaker Federica Martino, daughter of Sergio Martino
- 2017 Abertoir International Horror Festival Q&A with Sergio Martino
- Video interview with Mikel J. Koven, author of La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film
- Option to view the film with the rare alternate US opening title sequence
- Italian and English theatrical trailers
Disc Three: Strip Nude For Your Killer
- Audio commentary by HORRORPEDIA.com’s Adrian J. Smith and David Flint
- Sex and Death with a Smile, a video essay by author and critic Kat Ellinger on giallo and sex comedy icon Edwige Fenech
- A Good Man for the Murders, an archival video interview with actor Nino Castelnuevo
- The Blonde Salamander, a video interview with actress Erna Schurer
- The Art of Helping, a video interview with assistant director Daniele Sangiorgi
- Jack of All Trades, a video interview with actor and production manager Tino Polenghi
- Two versions of the opening scene: tinted and untinted viewing options
- Original Italian and English theatrical trailers
- Image gallery
*The English audio track on the original, longer cut of Torso has some portions of English audio missing. English audio for these sections was either never recorded or has been lost. As such, these sequences are presented with Italian audio, subtitled in English.
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