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Released by: Subkultur Entertainment
Released on: January 21st, 2017.
Director: Carlo Lizzani
Cast: Robert Hoffmann, Lisa Gastoni, Gian Maria Volonté
Year: 1966
The Movie:
Director Carlo Lizzani's Wake Up And Kill (also known as Wake Up And Die) follows Luciano Lutring (Robert Hoffman), a small time crook who, when almost nabbed by the fuzz, jumps out a window and runs to freedom…. for now. The cops don't miss the stolen assault rifle that he leaves behind and when the local newspaper finds out what happened, the run a story on the incident on the front page of their latest edition. When this happens, like it or not, Luciano's star begins to rise and soon he's got a pretty serious reputation even if he doesn't necessarily deserve it. Other crimes that happen in Milan are pegged on him and the media starts referring to him as 'The Elusive Shadow.'
Meanwhile, the cops, led by Inspector Moroni (Gian Maria Volonté), and the newspapers use this to their advantage and launch a collaborative campaign that leads the local criminal population to believe that the only thing they care about these days it bringing in Lutring. At the same time, this new found fame goes to Luciano's head and he starts believing his own hype, literally becoming the murderer that the papers have made him out to be. Yvonne (Lisa Gastoni), his wife, feels that the only way she can keep her husband from going completely off the deep end is to rat him out to the cops and so she offers to help them bring him in before he winds up dead. When Luciano leaves Italy for France, the Italian cops cooperate with their French cohorts and set a trap that not even he should be able to escape from…
Not as intense or as exploitative as the films that would follow in its wake, Wake Up And Kill nevertheless deserves credit for laying the ground work for the poliziotteschi pictures that a few years later would follow in its wake. Lizzani directs this crime picture with plenty of style, it's all quite nicely shot and makes very good use of some slick European locations, though occasionally the pacing does lag a bit. Interestingly enough, the film was based on the exploits of the real life Luciano Lutring, who was quite an accomplished criminal until he was nabbed in Paris in 1965. This would have made Wake Up And Kill a pretty topical film when it first hit theaters roughly a year after Lutring was sentenced to more than two decades behind bars for his efforts.
The movie benefits from an impressive score courtesy of the iconic Ennio Morricone and it features some pretty solid performances from all involved. Hoffman is very good in the lead role, particularly once his character becomes the man that the papers have made him out to be. There's an element of danger to his take on Luciano that is impressive and wholly fitting. Gian Maria Volonté is as reliable as ever, playing the top cop working Lutring's case. He's a bit gruff, but you want him to be and he's convincing as both an intelligent and serious man, the kind that has no problem doing what he needs to do in order to get the job done. Lisa Gastoni is also very good as Luciano's wife. When she feels she has no choice but to turn to the cops, her performance is pretty convincing.
Note that this release from Subkultur includes both the original full-length Italian release as well as a shorter German language version of the film. The Italian version runs one hundred and twenty-four minutes and the German version one hundred and seven minutes.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Subkultur Entertainment presents Feuertanz on Blu-ray framed at 1.85.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer on a 50GB disc. Although this looks like it was taken from the same master used for the Arrow Blu-ray release that came out in 2016 (reviewed here), it's clear that the colors are quite a bit different between the two releases. Arrow's disc looked really good but this release gets the edge for having stronger, better color reproduction. Additionally, the Subkultur disc looks just a little bit nicer with the very minor print damage that shows up on Arrow's disc having been cleaned up. There are no problems with any compression artifacts nor is there any evidence of edge enhancement or noise reduction. Skin tones look good, black levels are nice and strong and detail is consistently impressive.
DTS-HD Mono tracks are provided in Italian and two different German options with subtitles available in English and German. Quality of the audio is also quite good. There are no problems with any hiss or distortion and the levels are properly balanced throughout.
The aforementioned Arrow disc was light on extras but this release is fairly stacked starting with a featurette called Birth Of A Star, a twenty-eight minute long video interview with actress Lisa Gastoni. Here she speaks about getting her start as an actress, some of her early experiences in film, being cast in Wake Up And Kill, her thoughts on the film and what it was like working with the director and some of her co-stars on the picture. In the eighteen minute Luck, Passion And Joy we spend some times with makeup artist Giannetto De Rossi who talks about how the politics of late sixties Italy played a part in shaping the film, his thoughts on what it was like working alongside Lizanni and his experiences on set working on the film itself. Both of these interviews are conducted in Italian but contain option subtitles available in English and in German.
Outside of that we get an Italian language theatrical trailer, an extensive still gallery, animated menus and chapter selection.
As this is a combo pack release, the gatefold style packaging also contains a DVD version of the movie containing seventy-nine and eighty-four minute versions of the German cut of the film (in German language only with no subtitles). This, along with a very nice (but German language only) full color fourteen page insert booklet, fits inside a sturdy cardboard slipcover.
The Final Word:
This is a solid Italian crime thriller with some strong performances and enough in the way of stand-out set pieces to more than make up for the occasional lag in pacing. It's going to appeal to genre fans and Euro-cult enthusiasts more than your average viewer, but if you fall into either of those areas, Subkultur's disc is the one to get - it presents the film in great shape and with a nice selection of extra features as well.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
