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Released by: Shameless Films
Released on: 11/27/2007
Director: Sergio Martino
Cast: Suzy Kendall, Tina Aumont, Luc Merenda
Year: 1973
The Movie:
While not quite as popular as Dario Argento and Mario Bava, the Giallo films directed by genre-hopper Sergio Martino are popular with fans for the genre for good reason. Even if his films weren't quite as hyper-stylized as the aforementioned Godfathers' efforts, Martino still managed to crank out some stylish and influential films before the popularity of the genre started to wane - and one of his most entertaining efforts is Torso.
The picture begins in Rome where four young female art students are busy studying and periodically getting it on with their professor. This is a fairly randy lot, everyone seems to be having sex with everyone else, but hey, it was the Europe of the early seventies, wasn't it like this all across the continent? Regardless, a couple of girls from the school are found dead, the victim of a maniac with a penchant for sharp instruments of destruction. All the local cops have to go on is a red scarf found at the scene of the last crime.
The girls try to figure out why that scarf looks familiar but decide their efforts would be better put to use by focusing on a countryside vacation! The whole group heads out of the city to get away from it all for a bit, in hopes that the cops will solve the crime and no one else will get their eyes poked out or their fun-bags carved in, but as luck would have it, the killer has followed them and he's not even close to finished with them yet.
Stylishly directed and quite quickly paced by Martino, who is probably best known for All The Colors Of The Dark and The Strange Vice Of Mrs. Wardh (both of which are better films than this one, at least from a critical perspective if not an entertainment value perspective), Torso is a pretty grisly thriller with enough sex and violence to satiate all but the most demanding of exploitation and horror junkies. Martino keeps the action moving quickly and if the few red herrings aren't so successful in throwing us off the real identity of the killer, at least this slightly predictable Giallo delivers lots of naked ladies and blood.
Speaking of those naked ladies, the film really benefits quite a bit from the presence of the lovely Suzy Kendall (best known for Argento's The Bird With The Crystal Plumage) and sultry Tina Aumont (star of Salon Kitty), both of whom are frequently naked throughout the picture along with a couple of other lovely Eurobabes. Not nearly as sexy or naked is Luc Merenda, the stoic and heroic star of The Big Racket and Gambling City (also directed by Martino). His role, while more of a supporting effort, is an interesting one even if the English dubbing doesn't quite feel right.
While the film is a little on the predictable side, it remains a surprisingly mean spirited slasher picture with a lot of crazed energy, bizarre if very creative murder set pieces, and a great score from the De Angelis brothers. It might not be the highpoint of the Giallo cycle but it's certainly a worthwhile entry that, to some fans, really does embody what the genre was all about.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Torso is offered up in a nice 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that looks pretty good and doesn't appear to be noticeably cropped from its 1.66.1 original aspect ratio. Color reproduction looks nice and accurate and black levels are strong. There's quite a bit of shimmering in some scenes, it's hard not to notice that, but there aren't any compression artifacts nor is there any edge enhancement. Detail varies from scene to scene, with some parts looking sharper than others, but overall this isn't a bad looking transfer at all.
The film is presented in Dolby Digital Mono, English language except for a couple of scenes that were never dubbed in the first place (in which case the film switches to Italian with forced English subtitles). The quality is average overall, and this isn't going to blow anyone away. For an older Mono dub, it sounds pretty alright Levels are well balanced and the dialogue is always easy enough to follow although there are a couple of spots where the audio hiccups and drops out a bit. The fun score, courtesy of Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, has some nice bounce to it as well. You'll notice a bit of background hiss in a couple of spots but it's never overpowering.
Shameless provides the film's original theatrical trailer (in anamorphic widescreen), which is a pretty interesting, if absurdist, piece of promotional material as well as trailers for a few other films in their catalogue (Fulci's New York Ripper, Baba Yaga, Venus In Furs). Animated menus and chapter stops are also included.
The Final Word:
Shameless' release is light on extras but it offers this delightfully trashy Giallo up completely uncut and in a decent presentation. While not the most sophisticated Giallo ever made, Martino's film is never the less and entertaining and sleazy slasher with plenty of style and an interesting cast.