The Giallo Essentials collection has three movies Arrow Films previously released some years ago and I guess if on sale might be worth picking up. As for the movies, only one I’d consider a true giallo and none are particularly great but watchable.
Giallo Essentials
— The Possessed / The Fifth Cord / The Pjama Girl Case —
(1965-1977)
Genre(s): Horror, Crime, Drama
Arrow Video| NR – 280 min. – $99.95 | November 30, 2021
Date Published: 12/18/2021 | Author: The Movieman
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THE MOVIES |
| THE POSSESSED (1965) — Bernard (PETER BALDWIN) is a depressed novelist who sets off in search of his old flame Tilde (VIRNA LISI), a beautiful maid who works at a remote lakeside hotel. Bernard is warmly greeted by the hotel owner Enrico (SALVO RANDONE) and his daughter Irma (VALENTINA CORTESE), but Tilde had supposedly killed herself and Bernard undertakes an investigation, soon plunged into a disturbing drama of familial secrets, perversion, madness and murder…
Quick Hit Review: This first entry in the “Giallo Essentials” doesn’t really feel like a giallo film at all, just a standard mystery. That being said, an okay little thriller with good performances all around and while it does go at a snail’s pace in the middle, there’s enough here to make it a decent enough film. 3¼/5 THE FIFTH CORD (1971) — When a man barely survives a brutal assault en route home from a New Year’s party, washed-up, whisky-swilling journalist Andrea Bild (FRANCO NERO) is assigned to report on the case. Before long, the maniac strikes again, this time with fatal results. As the body count rises, Andrea falls under suspicion himself, making it even more imperative that he crack the case. His only clue lies in a series of black gloves found at the location of every attack, each with a finger cut off… Quick Hit Review: Of the three movies in this collection, this one is the most giallo of them. I enjoyed this one well enough as the mystery element was somewhat interesting and Franco Nero’s presence made the film engaging, though as a whole it’s not terrible memorable. 3½/5 THE PJAMA GIRL CASE (1977) — The body of a young woman is found on the beach, shot in the head, burned to hide her identity and dressed in distinctive yellow pajamas. With the Sydney police stumped, former Insepector Timpson (RAY MILLAND) comes out of retirement to crack the case. Treading where the “real” detectives can’t, Timpson doggedly pieces together the sad story of Dutch immigrant Linda Blythe (DALILA DI LAZZARO) and the unhappy chain of events which led to her grisly demise. Quick Hit Review: The last entry was okay, especially with the telling of the story in two different points of time (one with a police investigation, the other on how the victim came to be murdered). That said, there are way too weird scenes, most notably the police encasing the burned victim behind plexiglass and having the public parading around it in the hopes someone may identify her. Just bizarre. 3/5 |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 4½/5 |
| This is the first volume of “Giallo Essentials” from Arrow, which are movies that from what I can tell already released individually before. The three movies are housed in their own HD keep cases which side-slides into a sturdy slip case and there’s a slip cover with a cut-out on the front.
The Possessed
The Fifth Cord
The Pyjama Girl Case
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VIDEO – 4½/5, AUDIO – 4/5 |
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All three of these movies were previously released individually and I assume came with booklets. In any case, these movies received at the time of their respective release dates, received new 1080p high-definition transfers culled from 2K restorations from the original camera negatives. In short, all three movies look quite good, detail is sharp and while there were some minor specs, for the most part these are clean and nicely defined. All three films come with Italian and English PCM Mono tracks which were perfectly serviceable for movies this old. Dialogue comes across with good clarity and there is some minor depth for the scores/soundtrack and other elements happening off-screen or in the distance. I didn’t detect any significant instances of pops or hissing. |
OVERALL — 4/5 |
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Overall, the Giallo Essentials collection has three movies Arrow Films previously released some years ago and I guess if on sale might be worth picking up. As for the movies, only one I’d consider a true giallo and none are particularly great but watchable. |
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