APRIL MOVIE THON DAY 15: Head (1968)

Posted on by

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adam Hursey is a pharmacist specializing in health informatics by day, but his true passion is cinema. His current favorite films are Back to the Future, Stop Making Sense, and In the Mood for Love. He has written articles for Film East and The Physical Media Advocate, primarily examining older films through the lens of contemporary perspectives. He is usually found on Letterboxd, where he mainly writes about horror and exploitation films. You can follow him on Letterboxd or Instagram at ashursey. His April Movie Thon list is here.

April 15: TV to Movies — Let’s decry the lack of originality in Hollywood. But first, let’s write about a movie that started as a TV show.

“Pleasure, the inevitable byproduct of our civilization. A new world where our only preoccupation will be…how to amuse itself. The tragedy of your times, my young friends, is that you might get exactly what you want.”–some random guy leading The Monkees through some sort of factory. Was this the factory where The Monkees were initially manufactured?

I was a huge fan of The Monkees during their, thanks to MTV rerunning their television show, resurgence in the mid 1980s. I quickly scooped up any cassette tape I could find. On a road trip back to Louisiana from Ohio, I subjected my poor aunt to their debut record on a loop. Looking back, I’m surprised that she didn’t intentionally drive off into a ditch after the seventh time hearing Davy Jones warble I Wanna Be Free.

I did not have any idea that The Monkees were considered a prefabricated cash in on Beatlemania. Even after purchasing a replica magazine originally published in the 1960s, where the group was dubbed The Pre-Fab Four, it never occurred to me that The Monkees could possibly be seen as subpar artists.

My love for The Monkees did not die out when their second wave of fame ended perhaps prematurely after more intra-band disputes (turns out the relationships among the members were often volatile). As a teenager, I was an avid VHS collector. I loved receiving those catalogs in the mail from Movies Unlimited. And it was through one of those catalogs that I discovered The Monkees starred in a major motion picture (co-written by Jack Nicholson no less) entitled Head. The VHS was a striking yellow. The members of The Monkees seemingly suspended in mid-air, with some sort of spiral in the background. I immediately mailed in my order form, anxiously awaiting this tape to be sent to me.

After watching Head, I instantly began gaslighting myself into thinking that the film was good. Great even. Sure, it was different from any other film I had seen up to that point. There was no plot. The songs were not as poppy as I was accustomed to. But this film had to be great, right? I tried to get my friends to watch it and like it. They were less than interested, not making it more than 10 minutes before insisting that I turn it off. Eventually, I began to come to the realization that I was simply fooling myself–Head was a flop.

Fast forward many years. Once I had kids of my own, I did what any good parent does–indoctinate them. Force them to like the things I liked when I was their age (not just The Monkees, but also Family Ties, Masters of the Universe and Jem and the Holograms). It worked! My daughter loved The Monkees as much as I did, only with a major crush on Davy Jones that I never had (I was more of a Peter Tork kind of guy).

And then, the unthinkable happened. Criterion released Head as part of their BBS: America Lost and Found boxset. And if it was worthy of inclusion in The Criterion Collection, surely that meant that the film was indeed the cinematic masterpiece I always deep down inside knew that it was.

After we watched all of the episodes of The Monkees, my daughter and I watched Head. I warned her that it was a bit surreal and did not have much of a plot. She said she enjoyed parts of it, particularly the scene between Davy Jones and Toni Basil, set to Daddy’s Song, an upbeat tune about a deadbeat father. That scene was always a favorite of mine too when I was younger.

But as I watched the film, I was awestruck. Everything was right there in front of me the whole time. Head was The Monkees suicide attempt. A chance to unshackle themselves from their teenage girl fanbase and embrace the counterculture. To be seen as more than four guys brought together by a television producer. They were true artists and musicians. The songs were perhaps the best songs in their entire catalog. But what should have been their opportunity to burst out of the literal and figurative box turned out to be a financial failure. The Beatles could go to India and return changed people, but The Monkees would forever be a band who did not play their own instruments on their records (even though they later did. And nobody seems to care that The Beach Boys (minus Brian Wilson) hardly played instruments on Pet Sounds).

Watching Head today, I realized how much of the film entered my daily vernacular. There are so many lines from the film I say quite often: “That song is pretty white” (Frank Zappa’s retort to Davy Jones after Daddy’s Song), “And the same thing goes for Christmas” (Michael Nesmith’s response after berating surprise birthday parties), “Nobody ever lends money to a man with a sense of humor” (Peter’s advice to Davy in the bathroom where Davy is experiencing issues with a psychedelic mirror). 

Am I probably still overrating Head all these years later? Maybe. Am I crazy for preferring this soundtrack album over anything The Beatles produced? Definitely. At any rate, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will remain a joke until The Monkees are inducted. My playlist will remain jam packed with plenty of tunes from The Monkees. And if I ever need to reach for a comfort movie that features the assassination of a Viet Cong officer, I need to long no further.

APRIL MOVIE THON DAY 15: The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (2007)

Posted on by

April 15: TV to Movies — Let’s decry the lack of originality in Hollywood. But first, let’s write about a movie that started as a TV show.

The 2007 prequel The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning is a curious artifact of the mid-2000s direct-to-video boom, arriving just two years after the big-budget Johnny Knoxville/Seann William Scott theatrical film. While the 2005 version felt like a glossy Hollywood blockbuster, The Beginning leans hard into the “teen sex comedy” trope that defined the post-American Pie era (which also got its own endless series of direct-to-video sequels).

When mischievous teenage cousins Bo (Jonathan Bennett, Mean Girls and so many holiday movies) and Luke Duke (Randy Wayne, Hellraiser: Judgment) are put in the care of their Uncle Jesse (Willis Nelson) to work on his farm. But they soon learn that their uncle makes the best moonshine anywhere, and Boss Hogg (Christopher McDonald) plans to close down their family farm. Along with Cooter (Joel David Moore, Norm from the Avatar series) and their cousin Daisy (April Scott), they’ll save the day.

Directed by Robert Berlinger, whose career is mostly in TV, and written by Shane Morris (one of the writers of Frozen), this gets in everyone you want from the series, like Roscoe (Harland Williams), Enos (Adam Shulman), Lulu Hogg (Sherilynn Fenn) and even Gary Cole taking over for Waylon Jennings as the Balladeer. Originally airing on ABC Family, there were also R-rated and unrated versions.

Common Sense Media adds, “Parents need to know that this comedy has all the raunch of the American Pie movies and all the sexism of There’s Something About Mary. It encourages girls to base their worth on how they look and to use their appearance to manipulate men. It may also lead teen boys to drive recklessly. The film also says that General Robert E. Lee, who led the South in the Civil War, was “the greatest general,” which may disturb families of color. The film shows teens drinking and implies that teens have sex.”

Somehow, this has a Drive-By Truckers song on the soundtrack.

Otherwise, this is not my Dukes of Hazzard, which is probably so problematic now I shouldn’t have written that. I didn’t like that Daisy went from a nerd to a woman who learned that only through her beauty could she get what she wanted.

If you expect nothing from a direct-to-video and cable prequel/sequel to a failed reboot, you will be rewarded in abundance.

You can watch this on Tubi.

WEIRD WEDNESDAY: Lunch Wagon (1981)

Posted on by

What was in the water in the late 70s and early 80s that we got so many movies about attractive women upsetting the balance of power in the food truck, gas station and restaurant industries? See: Swap Meet, Starhops, The Car Hops, Gas Pump Girls….

Directed by Ernest Pintoff (the director of Jaguar Lives!) and written by Marshall Harvey, Terrie Frankel and Leon Phillips, this has three ladies — Marcy (Pamela Jean Bryant, Don’t Answer the Phone), Shannon (Rosanne Katon, The Swinging Cheerleaders) and Diedre (Candy Moore) — working at Andy’s (George Memmoli) gas station. He’s a peeper, he’s a creep, and soon they inherit a food truck from Dick Van Patten, uncredited as Bernie Simmons, but he’s probably there to see his kids, Nels and James, who were in the cast. They rename it Love Bites, and hijinks ensue.

This has horrible stand-up and the Missing Persons (who are also U.S. Drag on the soundtrack, which has “Mental Hopscotch” and “I Like Boys”) showing up throughout. Rose Marie from Dick Van Dyke? She’s here, too. So is Louisa Moritz, who was Myra in Death Race 2000, Carmela in The Last American Virgin, Chi Chi in Hot Chili and Bubbles in Chained Heat. 

In honor of the film’s opening, Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley proclaimed September 11, 1981, to be Lunch Wagon Day, which included a parade of eighty lunch wagons. But it was more than just trucks; it was a full-scale Hollywood event. Starting at Hollywood and La Brea, the parade featured the Hollywood High School cheerleaders, stuntmen, the film’s star  and even Playboy Bunnies riding in a Mercedes 450 SL, handing out t-shirts. 

The gimmicks didn’t stop there. During the premiere, promoters reportedly gave out Smell-O-Vision cards to crowds waiting in line.

Also known as Come and Get It, this fits into a very specific window where independent producers realized that scrappy women vs. the system was a goldmine. It takes the male-dominated, grease-stained environment, adds a trio of charismatic leads and lets them outsmart everyone while upbeat synth-pop plays. I’m not sad for the time I spent watching.

You can watch this on YouTube.

APRIL MOVIE THON DAY 14: Oltretomba (Beyond) (1987)

Posted on by

April 14: Viva Italian Horror — Pick an Italian horror movie and get gross.

The restoration and release of Fabio Salerno’s work by Blazing Skull—specifically within the collection The Other Dimension and the Films of Fabio Salerno—has finally shone a light on a corner of Italian underground cinema that was nearly lost to time. Blazing Skull’s assessment of Salerno is bold but fitting: they position him as the “missing link between Dario Argento and George & Mike Kuchar.”

In just over 15 minutes, Salerno’s short The Other Dimension (1987) explores the hubris of a man obsessed with the afterlife. Like a no-budget version of Flatliners, the protagonist seeks to pierce the veil by undergoing a temporary, controlled death. Obsessed with seeing the other side, he wants to link his mind with a dying man and follow him into the dimension of the dead. To achieve this, he identifies a target, a wicked man who is a thief or a drug user, believing this will lead him to the most interesting parts of Hell.

He finds the unconscious individual in a derelict building and uses a syringe to inject himself with a substance meant to induce a death-like trance. As the drug takes effect, he attempts to focus his mind on the dying stranger to bridge the gap between life and the beyond. He describes falling into a trance but finds that nothing served and realizes too late that the dose he took was bad stuff. There’s also a sink filled with worms that he eats out of, because of course he should.

Sadly, Saserno would die just six years after making this. He also made The Harpies, another movie even more indebted to Argento’s movies.

You can watch this on YouTube.

ARROW VIDEO 4K UHD and BLU-RAY RELEASE: The Birthday (2004)

Posted on by

Is there anything more stressful than meeting your girlfriend’s father for the first time? How about doing it at a lavish, Kafkaesque hotel where everyone looks like they walked out of a 1940s noir and a doomsday cult is busy prepping for the arrival of a cosmic god?

The Birthday premiered at Sitges in 2004, blew the minds of everyone who saw it (including Quentin Tarantino, who reportedly loved it), and then… nothing. It vanished into a black hole of distribution hell for nearly twenty years. But thanks to the psychotronic archaeologists at Arrow Video, Eugenio Mira’s nightmare-fueled screwball comedy has been resurrected.

Corey Feldman stars as Norman Forrester. Now, let’s talk about Corey. We grew up with him as Mouth, Edgar Frog, and Vic from Stand By Me, but you have never seen him like this. Norman is a man of pure, jittery anxiety. He’s a high-pitched, stuttering mess who just wants to propose to his girlfriend, Alison (Erica Prior). He’s playing against type so hard he practically invents a new type.

The film takes place in real-time at the Grand Hotel, a sprawling, opulent set that feels like the Overlook’s more claustrophobic cousin. Norman is trying to navigate the social minefield of Alison’s wealthy father, played by the legendary Jack Taylor. If you’re a fan of Eurotrash and cult cinema, you know Taylor. He was in everything from Jess Franco’s Count Dracula to Conan the Barbarian and Pieces. Seeing him go toe-to-toe with a manic Feldman is the cinematic crossover I didn’t know I needed.

As the night progresses, the screwball half of the movie begins to bleed into the cosmic horror half. The hotel staff is a little too polite. The guests are a little too strange. And there’s the matter of the sect that believes tonight is the night their god, Fu-Manchu-style deity or otherwise, is finally going to be born.

Director Eugenio Mira, who would go on to direct Grand Piano, is a technician of the highest order. The camera moves here are insane. We’re talking long, sweeping takes, split-screens, and a sense of geography that makes you feel like you’re trapped in the hotel right along with Norman. It’s a movie that feels like it’s vibrating at a different frequency than anything else released in the early 2000s.

Why did this sit on a shelf for two decades? Maybe it was too weird for the mainstream. Maybe the world wasn’t ready for a prestige Corey Feldman performance in a Spanish-produced English-language occult comedy. But the wait was worth it.

The limited edition Arrow Video 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases include a 4K restoration from the original negative; audio commentary by actor Corey Feldman and co-writer/director Eugenio Mira; a new interview with Mira, shot exclusively for this release; an in-depth breakdown of a scene from the film by Mira, featuring archival behind-the-scenes footage, storyboards and rushes; a 2024 Q&A with Feldman and Mira from the film’s 20th anniversary screening at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas; the original and 20th anniversary trailers; an image gallery; a reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options and a collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Bryan Reesman. You can get this on 4K UHD or Blu-ray from MVD.

APRIL MOVIE THON DAY 13: Gui wu xiao jing (1990)

Posted on by

April 13: (Evil) Plant Appreciation Day — It ain’t easy being green. Pay tribute to all the plants with a movie starring one of them.

Also known as Haunted House Elf, this Hong Kong/Taiwan crossover has a rich Hong Kong family move to a new home in Taiwan, where poor kid Wang Chi-Chiang convinces Shiao-Ming (Lin Hsiao Lan) and her brother Shiao Tai that the new place is haunted. He’s not kidding, as Tong-Tong, a jiangshi, is hopping around in the basement, stuck there for three hundred years. Then, as if that’s not enough, Shiao-Ming and Chi-Chiang decide to jump into a comic book and battle jungle monsters — A real tiger! A real swamp! Intelligent vines! — and cannibals to rescue a princess. Then, they battle a witch doctor (Wu Ma!) who can transform into a stone idol that spits out skeletons, a tiger, a rat, a dog, a witch, the Monkey King, Dracula and even Jesus, at which point the kids chase him with a cross, yelling “We’ll crucify him!” in total joy.

No, I did not make that up.

There’s also Tong-Tong’s vampire parents, who somehow have finally found him across decades of time.

Lin Hsiao Lan was in a ton of these films — Kung Fu Wonderchild, Magic of Spell — usually as a little boy. She gets to play a little girl this time, even though she was in her 20s when it was filmed. I’m on the side of Chi-Chiang in this, an impoverished half-orphan stuck with a gentrifying neighborhood and rich kids who have it all instead of what he has, which is a drunk dad. So he does what any of us would: he bullies them with tales of the undead.

A movie that steals the theme from The Shining, most of the third Mr. Vampire movie and so many other films to basically jump all over the place and often forget where it’s going. No notes, 10/10.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Murder, She Wrote S3 E18: No Laughing Murder (1987)

Posted on by

Someone is found dead after the engagement party for the offspring of two estranged comics.

Season 3, Episode 18: No Laughing Murder (March 15, 1987)

Welcome to Cooperville, New York. Jessica is in town to visit the Hiawatha Lodge, which is owned by the widower of Jessica’s dear, departed college pal. He’s a retired stand-up comic, and his daughter is set to walk down the aisle with the son of his former comedy partner, who’s now a bitter arch-nemesis.

Who’s in it, outside of Angela Lansbury?

Murray and Mack, the former comedy duo in this, are Buddy Hackett as Murray Gruen and Steve Lawrence as Mack Howard. 

Corrie Gruen, Murray’s daughter, is played by Beth Windsor, while her fiancé, Kip Howard, is played by George Clooney.

George Furth is played by Farley Pressman in one of his three roles on the show.

David Knell plays Police Chief Wylie B. Ledbetter.

Sheree North plays Norma Lewis. You might know her as Kramer’s mother.

Arte Johnson from Laugh-In is Phil Rinker.

Pat Crowley plays Trudy Howard.

In smaller roles, Pat Delany is Ms. Kline, Alice Nunn (Large Marge!) is Henrietta, Richardson Morse is Dr. Worth, Daniel Chodos is Al, Paul Ganus is a P.A., Ron Cey is a musician, 

What happens?

At a wedding bash that feels more like a wake, Mac (half of the comedy duo Murray and Mack) gets a knife in the back. He pulls through because you can’t kill a comic that easily. He’s probably died on stage a thousand times. The real tragedy? Phil, their agent, is found swinging from a rope in the storeroom.

The local law is represented by Wiley, a rookie cop who looks like he’s still waiting for his first shave. He knows he’s outclassed, so he leans on Jessica like a crutch. Our girl J.B. takes one look at the scene and realizes this wasn’t a suicide. It was a cold-blooded hit.

Phil had found the discrepancies in the books, so he had to be killed.

Who did it?

The investment advisor. It’s always the guy with the ledger. He was skimming the duo’s accounts to fund a lifestyle their jokes couldn’t actually afford.

Who made it?

This was directed by Walter Grauman and written by Tom Sawyer, one of the 20+ episodes he wrote. 

Does Jessica dress up and act stupid? Does she get some?

No, and I am beyond enraged.

Was it any good?

It’s decent, even if it feels like every detective show has a comedy partner murder.

Any trivia?

Mack and Murray do an Abbott and Costello routine from Rio Rita.

While we’re discussing fighting comedic teams, Buddy Hackett played Bud Abbott in Bud and Lou. 

Give me a reasonable quote:

Murray Gruen: Well, actually, I am here. And, Mack, I gotta be here in this town. You see, I met this… I met this broad here in the town, and… Sh-She kinda expects me… to take her on a honeymoon.

Norma Lewis: Honeymoon? Honeymoon?

Trudy Howard: Oh! That’s great!

Norma Lewis: A honeymoon!

What’s next?

Grady Fletcher is in big trouble again when his boss is found dead and he is the main suspect.

SRS BLU-RAY RELEASE: Death-scort Service: Trinity (2015, 2017,

Posted on by

In a dark and twisted tale set in Las Vegas, a deranged slasher targets a group of aspiring young escorts. As the body count rises, the women band together, using their wits and determination to confront the killer. Will they survive the night, or will the slasher claim them as his next victims?

Death-scort Service (2015): The setup is classic grindhouse: a group of working girls in Sin City finds themselves in the crosshairs of a serial killer who isn’t just looking for a thrill. He’s looking to turn the desert red. This isn’t a whodunit with a library and a pipe; it’s a who ’s-gonna-survive with a blade and a grudge.

Director Sean Donohue assembles a rogue’s gallery of indie horror stalwarts and adult film crossovers to populate his slaughterhouse. Krystal Pixie Adams (Michelle), Amethist Young (Gwen) and Ashley Lynn Caputo (Missy) lead the pack. Caputo, in particular, is a veteran of this kind of low-budget mayhem, having appeared in everything from Night of the Living Dead: Genesis to The Uh-oh Show!. And in a move straight out of the 1970s playbook, the film features a big star doing a cameo in Evan Stone. I mean, he’s a big star according to my hidden browser history.

That said, if you’re offended by, well, just about anything, this movie is ready to gross you out. It truly has some repellent death scenes, and if that’s what gets you going, good news! This is for you.

Death-Scort Service Part 2: The Naked Dead (2017): Sean Donahue returns with a sequel in which Michelle (Krystal “Pixie” Adams) is left behind to start over and forget her black past. There’s a new killer in Las Vegas out to see that that never happens.

Well, guess what? She’s dead in a few seconds, killed in a bubble bath, and we move on to new victims. Spoiler, huh? What if I told you someone’s ladybits have to deal with an electric carving knife?

This is an unapologetic exploitation flick. If the first movie was a peek behind the curtain, this one rips the curtain down. There is an absolute mountain of nudity on display here. Give it up for Bob Glazier. In the first film, he famously gave us a sack-tastic cameo, but here? He goes full-frontal. He’s bricked up, on display and apparently very proud of it.

This also goes totally Boogeyman II to show us most of the first film. Respect.

Taste Me: Death-Scort Service Part 3 (2018): The girls at the Tasty Chicks escort service are having a rough week. There’s a serial strangler stalking the streets, turning their colleagues into headlines and the police are—as usual—three steps behind. Defund the giallo police, defund the slasher police.

Enter our protagonist: a mysterious drifter who steps in to save a girl from an abusive john. He takes a bullet for his trouble, but in the world of these movies, no good deed goes unpunished or unrewarded with a stay in a brothel.

The drifter gets hauled back to the Tasty Chicks HQ and as the girls nurse him back to health, they realize they’ve got a potential pit bull on their hands. They offer him a job: stay in the house, keep your eyes peeled, and keep the Strangler from getting through the front door.

As our drifter recovers, he starts noticing that the Tasty Chicks are keeping some secrets of their own. It’s not just a killer outside; there’s something rotten and possibly cult-like happening inside the walls, like eating people. Whoops, spoiled again.

This one was produced by Sean Donohue, who did not direct or write. Instead, Chris Woods took over.

Extras on this SRS release include commentary tracks, photo galleries, trailers and behind-the-scenes for all three movies; FX footage; short films, a mini-documentary and more. You can get it from MVD.

RADIANCE FILMS BLU-RAY RELEASE: Romancing in Thin Air (2012)

Posted on by

Most people hear the name Johnnie To and immediately think of bullet-riddled suits, slow-motion standoffs and the cool-as-ice nihilism. But he can direct a gritty triad war in his sleep and then turn around and break your heart with a melodrama.

Louis Koo (Throw Down) stars as Michael, a Hong Kong megastar who has everything until he gets dumped at the altar in front of a stadium full of fans. It’s a public execution of his ego. Naturally, he does what any self-respecting icon would do: he goes on a world-class bender that ends with him passed out in the high-altitude forests of Yunnan.

He’s found by Sue (Sammi Cheng), a woman who runs a lonely guesthouse and has her own baggage. Her husband vanished into those same woods years ago, and she’s been living in a state of frozen grief ever since. As Sue nurses Michael back to health and sobriety, the movie shifts from a star-is-born setup into a deeply felt meditation on how we use stories to survive. It turns out their lives were intertwined long before they met in the mud. As Michael sobers up, he remembers that Sue was an early member of his fan club, and that he was the reason she and her husband met.

This isn’t just a romance; it’s Johnnie To’s love letter to cinema itself. There’s a movie-within-a-movie subplot here that explores how films help us process the pain that reality makes unbearable. It’s meta, it’s emotional and it features Sammi Cheng and Louis Koo, the golden couple of HK cinema.

The Radiance Films Blu-ray of Romancing In Thin Air has extras such as a newly recorded interview with screenwriter Ryker Chan; audio commentary by Hong Kong cinema expert Dylan Cheung; a visual essay on Johnnie To’s romantic melodramas by Sean Gilman; making-of and behind-the-scenes footage; a trailer; a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow; a limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Jake Cole and archival writing by David Bordwell and it is presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings. You can get it from MVD.

RADIANCE FILMS BLU-RAY RELEASE: Confessions of a Police Captain (1971)

Posted on by

If you think the legal system is a mess today, take a trip back to 1970s Palermo, where the line between the badge and the bullet is thinner than a piece of cheap deli ham. Director Damiano Damiani (Amityville II: The Possession) drops us into a world where justice isn’t just blind; she’s been paid off and left in a ditch.

Martin Balsam is Captain Bonavia, a cop who has spent so long staring into the abyss of Sicilian corruption that he’s finally decided to blink. He’s tired of the rules letting the big fish swim free, so he plays a dangerous card: he releases a total nutjob from the asylum just to watch him take a shot at a local construction mogul. When you’re dealing with guys who pave over bodies with concrete, Bonavia figures a little insanity is the only way to get a result.

Ben Gazzara was approached to play this role, but turned it down. Years later, Martin Balsam thanked Gazzara, as the role had given his career a fresh start.

But things don’t go according to plan. Instead of a clean hit, the plan goes south, and now Bonavia has a shadow: Franco Nero. He plays District Attorney Traini, an idealistic young gun who still believes the law actually means something. Balsam is the weary soul who’s seen too much and Nero is the sharp-suited crusader who thinks he can fix it. Their chemistry turns a standard procedural into a psychological warzone.

You can’t talk about this flick without mentioning the score. Riz Ortolani cooks up an innovative mix of jazz, pop and electric guitar that keeps your nerves on edge.

This Radiance Films release has a 2K restoration presented with Italian and English audio options; new interviews with Nero, Michele Gammino, editor Antonio Siciliano and music expert Lovely Jon about Riz Ortolani’s score; an image gallery; a reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters; a limited edition booklet featuring archival interviews with Damiano Damiani and it’s all presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings. You can get it from MVD.