Often people ask me, “Sir, what’s the deal with Giallo and Gelato?” Well the second part is the easier to answer. Gelato is an Italian version of ice cream that’s really good. You can get gelato in the ice cream section of your nearby supermarket. What about Giallo? I can give you a great big history about the pulp mystery novel that had yellow covers that were popular in Italy. Eventually they became a popular film genre in Italy during the early ’70s after the Spaghetti Westerns died down. Also it’s important to know that giallo is Italian for yellow. The stylistic films ultimately led to the slasher genre since many involved an unknown killer with a blade tracking down their victims. Severin Films are putting out two major Blu-ray releases just in time for summer that should excite fans that need nights of Giallo and Gelato.
First up is The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh. This was the first film that established the cinematic legacy of both director Sergio Martino and actress Edwige Fenech. Martino’s six giallo titles puts him up there with Dario Argento as a master of the genre. He wasn’t merely an impersonator doing a paint by numbers production. Fenech has only seen her stature grow in the last few years thanks to her works finally getting released uncut and in high resolution. Now Severin is offering the Blu-ray for release on May 26. The bonus features include new interviews with Sergio Martino and actor George Hilton. Sadly Hilton passed away last summer. You can order just the Blu-ray, but Severin has a special package that brings the complete experience if you order from their website at https://severin-films.com Here’s the big deal:
The Strange Bundle of Mrs. Wardh Includes:
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh Blu-ray w/CD Soundtrack
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh T-shirt
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh Comic Book [WEBSTORE EXCLUSIVE]
PLEASE NOTE: These items are also available at a discounted price in our limited The Horrors of Satan’s Strange Bundle.
A year before they stunned the genre with ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, director Sergio Martino, co-writer Ernesto Gastaldi, and stars Edwige Fenech & George Hilton made their collaborative giallo debut with this “incredible piece of cinema” (Flickering Myth) that is “every bit as thrilling as Argento’s best” (Goomba Stomp): Fenech “at her most luminous” (Digitally Obsessed) stars as an unfaithful diplomat’s wife who finds herself hunted by a razor-wielding sex maniac while simultaneously haunted by her own depraved desires. Alberto de Mendoza (HORROR EXPRESS), Cristina Airoldi (TORSO) and Ivan Rassimov (EATEN ALIVE!) co-star in the “daring shocker that set the pace for years to come” (Mondo Digital) – also known as BLADE OF THE RIPPER and NEXT! – newly scanned in 4k from the internegative and loaded with new & archival Special Features.
Special Features:
Of Vice and Virtue: Interview with Director Sergio Martino
Cold As Ice: Interview with Screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
Vienna Vice: Interview with Actor George Hilton and Italian Genre Historian Antonio Bruschini
Archive Interview with Actress Edwige Fenech
Introduction by Actor George Hilton
Audio Commentary with Kat Ellinger, Author of ‘All The Colors Of Sergio Martino’
Trailer
CD Soundtrack [Limited to 3000 Units]
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh Comic Book [WEBSTORE EXCLUSIVE]
The Complete Lenzi Baker Giallo Collection contains the four movies that director Umberto Lenzi made with American actress Carroll Baker. Baker had a pretty good career in Hollywood with Baby Doll, Giant, The Big Country and even The Greatest Story Ever Told. But things were slowing down for her. So like Rick Dalton, Baker went to Italy where she once more was treated as superstar. During her time in Italy, she hooked up with director Umberto Lenzi Baker (Cannibal Ferox). The duo collaborated on four movies that played with the homicidal genre by letting her do more than Hollywood studios ever dared. This is the reality that the fictional Rick Dalton did in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. The boxset provide new transfers that shall finally let you enjoy the films without fear of them being chopped up more than the victims. You can get the boxset, but once more Severin Films is offering a fun bundle if you order directly from their website. Here’s the details:
PLEASE NOTE: THE FIRST 1000 STORE ORDERS (INCLUDING THE LENZI/BAKER COLLECTION PURCHASES) WILL INCLUDE AN EXCLUSIVE SET OF 4 POSTCARDS FEATURING INDIVIDUAL COVER ART OF EVERY TITLE.
THE LENZI/BAKER BUNDLE INCLUDES:
The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection [6-Disc Blu-ray Box Set]
Set of 4 Postcards
Paranoia (AKA Orgasmo) T-shirt
Italian writer/director Umberto Lenzi helmed popular peplums, created extreme poliziotteschi, and invented the Italian cannibal phenomenon. Hollywood actress Carroll Baker was the Golden Globe® winning/Academy Award® nominated star of BABY DOLL, GIANT and THE CARPETBAGGERS. Together in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, they made four landmark films that changed the erotic thriller and giallo genres forever. For the first time, experience the complete Lenzi/Baker collaboration on six discs featuring restored uncensored versions, alternate edits, remastered soundtracks, exclusive Special Features and more.
ORGASMO (1969): In their first startling collaboration, Carroll Baker stars as an American widow who arrives at her late husband’s luxurious Italian estate and surrenders to an orgy of ménages à trois, madness, and murder. Writer/director Umberto Lenzi boldly fills the screen with bourgeois depravity, daring sexuality and unnerving twists for the worldwide hit At The Mountain Of Madness calls “so odd, disturbing and well-made, with that delirious giallo feel that’s like a drug.” Lou Castel (A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL), Colette Descombes (MONIKA) and Tino Carraro (THE CAT O’ NINE TAILS) co-star in this landmark psychosexual thriller – released in the U.S. with extra nudity as PARANOIA and also included here – now scanned from the internegative of Lenzi’s Director’s Cut for the first time on Blu-ray.
Disc Specs for Orgasmo:
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: Italian mono on Italian cut, English mono on English cut
Subtitles: Subtitles for Italian audio / SDH for English audio
Region A
Special Features for Orgasmo:
Director’s Cut
Audio Commentary with Film Critic, Author & Academic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
US X Rated Version + SDH subtitles
Audio Commentary with Mondo-Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson & Troy Howarth, Author of ‘So Deadly So Perverse: 50 Years Of Italian Giallo Films’
Giallo Fever: Interview with Director Umberto Lenzi
US Trailer
BONUS CD SOUNDTRACK: Orgasmo Remastered Soundtrack
SO SWEET… SO PERVERSE (1969): Following the international success of ORGASMO, the second Umberto Lenzi/Carroll Baker collaboration is a kinky retelling of DIABOLIQUE featuring lush Paris locations, trippy flashbacks, a swinging score by Riz Ortolani (MONDO CANE, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST) and an all-star EuroCult cast that includes Jean-Louis Trintignant (THE GREAT SILENCE, THE CONFORMIST), Erika Blanc (KILL, BABY…KILL!), Horst Frank (THE CAT O’ NINE TAILS) and Helga Liné (NIGHTMARE CASTLE). Executive produced by Sergio Martino (THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH) from a screenplay by Ernesto Gastaldi (ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK), this “full-blown classic giallo and one of Lenzi’s best” (B-Mania) is now fully restored in a new 2k scan from the original negative.
Disc Specs for So Sweet… So Perverse:
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: Italian mono DTS, English mono DTS
Subtitles: Subtitles for Italian audio / SDH for English audio
Region FREE
Special Features for So Sweet… So Perverse:
Audio Commentary with Kat Ellinger, Author of ‘All The Colors Of Sergio Martino’
Lenzi’s Lenses: Backstage Chat with the Director at The 1999 Nocturno Film Festival
Equilateral Triangle: Screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi on Lenzi
Trailers
Alternate Credit Sequence
BONUS CD: So Sweet… So Perverse & A Quiet Place To Kill Remastered Soundtracks Plus Bonus Track: Knife Of Ice (Main Title Theme)
A QUIET PLACE TO KILL (1970): In her third collaboration with director Umberto Lenzi, Carroll Baker stars as a glamorous racecar driver entangled in a lurid affair with her ex-husband (Jean Sorel of BELLE DU JOUR and A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN), his wealthy new wife, and a twisted web of lust, murder and deception. Luis Dávila (EAGLES OVER LONDON) co-stars in this 1970 Italian/French/Spanish co-production – released in Italy as PARANOIA, though not to be confused with the 1969 U.S. re-title of ORGASMO – featuring a taut screenplay co-written by Bruno Di Geronimo (WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE?) and Marcello Coscia (LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE), plus edgy cinematography by Guglielmo Mancori (WILD BEASTS) with Aristide Massaccesi/Joe D’Amato (ANTHROPOPHAGUS), now scanned from the original camera negative for the first time ever in America.
Disc Specs for A Quiet Place to Kill:
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: Italian mono DTS, English mono DTS
Subtitles: Subtitles for Italian audio / SDH for English audio
Region FREE
Special Features for A Quiet Place to Kill:
Audio Commentary with Author & Critic Samm Deighan
Sex and Conspiracy: Interview with Director Umberto Lenzi
Alternate Credit Sequence
Alternate Clothed Scene
Short Deleted Scene
KNIFE OF ICE (1972): From its opening Edgar Allen Poe quote to the insane climactic twist, this fourth and final collaboration between co-writer/director Umberto Lenzi and Golden Globe winner/Academy Award® nominee Carroll Baker is “something quite unique” (Gore Girl), with Baker as a traumatized mute being stalked through the Spanish countryside by a black-gloved sex maniac who may be a member of a Satanic cult. Evelyn Stewart (THE SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH), Eduardo Fajardo (NIGHTMARE CITY), George Rigaud (HORROR EXPRESS, EYEBALL) and Silvia Monelli (YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW) co-star in this “offbeat and fascinating giallo thriller” (All Movie), now scanned in 2K from the original negative with all-new Special Features.
Disc Specs for Knife of Ice:
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: Italian mono DTS, English mono DTS
Subtitles: Subtitles for Italian audio / SDH for English audio
Region A
Special Features for Knife of Ice:
Carroll and Umberto’s Final Stab: Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of ‘Nightmare USA’
Until the Silence Screams: Interview with Director Umberto Lenzi
Trailer
Alternate Credit Sequence
