A CIA Plan is Being Sidelined by EVIL’s Rooftop Terrace Sniping! “Goodbye & Amen” reviewed! (Radiance Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on April 10, 2024

Own a Copy of “Goodbye & Amen” from Radiance Films. Click here to Purchase.

Ambitiously confident CIA agent John Dannahay eagerly wants to begin his plan for an African nation coup. Based in Italy, Dannahay runs through his team the stage of events when suddenly a current administrative African agent, known for sniffing and snuffing out power-overthrowing schemes, suddenly arrives in town, Dannahay’s friend Harry Lambert up-and-leaves his wife and child and takes a rifle with him, and a gunman, supposedly Lambert, is at the top of a hotel terrace sniping down pedestrians. Whatever surgical strike Dannahay had plan is now in jeopardy as a hostage situation occurs in one of the hotel rooms and agent Dannahay and Italian inspector Moreno must piece together why a longtime compliant and clean nosed American embassy worker has suddenly gone murderously berserk. A public stir amidst a shrewd madman with a high-powered rifle creates a confounding panic of national security and for fear of what will happen next in the moment of mayhem.

Italian filmmaker Damiano Damiani, known for his crime thrillers, such as “Mafia” and “Confessions of a Police Captain,” and his small footprint in horror with the sequel “Amityville II: The Possession,” had cowrite and directed an intense espionage thriller outside the confines of actual cloak-and-dagger activities with a multi-national cast. The 1977 film titled “Goodbye & Amen” is first and foremost an Italian production, cowritten by Damiani alongside “Wanted: Babysitter” screenwriter Nicola Badalucco and is based off the novel “The Grosvenor Square Goodbye” by British writer Francis Clifford. The gripping story draws upon multi-layered themes and twists to keep the narratively recycling on fresh and to never become stale with its intriguing mystery and taut tension, shot right in the heart of Rome, Italy at the Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria hotel. “Goodbye & Amen” is a product of Capital Film and Rizzoli Film and produced by the profound producer Mario Cecchi Gori of Michele Soavi’s “The Sect” and Dino Risi’s “The Tiger and the Pussycat.”

Italians. Americans. British. “Goodbye & Amen” has an all-star international cast that lines up and knocks down the perfectly scripted and beguilingly complex roles that warrant nothing less than the utmost praise for their personal performances. What starts off as a CIA caper to overthrow an African nation regime pivots acutely into a hostage standoff with many unanswered questions pelting down almost simultaneously in mass confusion and uproar in what translates to a very relatable, real moment. Introductions begin with the CIA’s operational leader John Dannahay (Tony Musante, “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage”) spearheading the preparation meeting when suddenly his operational plans become under jeopardy. Musante’s strongheaded approach to not lose control of the situation is fierce against the challenge his character faces – a lone gunman, a man Dannahay calls a friend played by “Tenebrae’s” John Steiner, holding hostage an actor (Gianrico Tondinelli, “Enter the Devil”) and his illicit mistress (Claudia Cardinale, “8 ½”). Steiner delivers a sophisticated, twangy-accented killer hellbent on making a statement with a M1 Carbine rifle and a thought-out plan being a step ahead of Dannahay and Italian Inspector Moreno (Fabrizio Jovine, “The Psycho”). The dynamic between Dannahay and Moreno, in my opinion, is rather lite for a fast and loose Dannahay and a by-the-book Moreno being two stags vying over how to handle an American mess on Italian land. Other supporting characters add their creative two cents to “Goodbye & Amen’s” already swelling storyline with great additional principals from Renzo Palmer (“The Eroticist”), Wolfango Soldati (“The House at the Edge of the Lake”), John Forsythe (“Scrooged”), and Anna Zinnemann (“My Sister of Ursula”) that fillet down the mystery to reveal its coldblooded nature.

Not lately have I’ve impressed with a crime thriller and said to myself, wow, that was really engaging and unexpectedly good. With confidence, “Goodbye and Amen” hit that satisfying note, a note thought to have strayed into an obscure black void never to be seen again, but the story coupled by Damiani perceptive big-world direction and some great camera work and angles by cinematographer Luigi Kuveiller, that shimmers hints of Kuveiller’s work on previous films like “Deep Red” and “A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin,” and “Goodbye and Amen” is one of the better Italian crime thrillers to come out of the country that isn’t in the giallo subgenre. Incorporating wide shots with depth and a seriously oversaturation of characters and extras, plus not to forget to mention helicopters and shoot outs, create the illusion of a bigger film without manufacturing too many atmospherics to hoist suspense. Plenty of red herrings and blunt force action, peppered with bare flesh sensuality, and heedful acting provides the film with an incredibly firm bite that sinks its teeth in and never releases. Compelling and always one step ahead, “Goodbye & Amen’s” layers of excitement keep viewers simultaneously abreast and in the dark and with the seesaw suspense, which never falters with an overly opaque complex ingenuity, there’s a pleasant rollercoaster effective of up and downs between penetrating thrills and just enough down to Earth exposition in order to catch one’s breath.

In a new limited edition Blu-ray release from UK distributor Radiance Films on their North American lineup, “Goodbye & Amen” receives a 2023 2K restoration scan from the original camera 35mm negative and presented on an AVC encoded, high-definition 1080p, BD50 in an anamorphic 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Certainly, a smooth image with no enhancement fluff or over-corrective, off-tilted coloring, the restoration brings out the best parts of Damniano Damiani’s natural approach with key lighting supporting exteriors and some intensely lit interiors without a smidgen of banding or posterization to complicate it. Details are razor sharp and the hue saturation is full-bodied and deep even along the line of a sunny Italian coastline where contours are a nice edge drop-off and shape. The English version has three exclusive shots pulled and scanned from the 16 reversal elements that create a slight grain difference that manages to nearly go unnoticed. Audio options come with the original Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono and, for the first time on home video, the English export in a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono. The English export’s audio track does come with a proclaimed statement right on the main menu about its unresolved damage. Like being pushed through a filter of interference, the English track is intelligible if not entirely clear and free from static and squelch. The Italian track offers a cleaner ordonnance albeit a few in-and-out moments of faint distortion of unrestorable audio ribbon snippets. New and approved English subtitles on both lossless, uncompressed tracks help alleviate some of the technical pain audio aficionados may suffer but, in my honest opinion, the Italian meets the bar whereas the English is under the bar by just a few clicks. Radiance’s special features include a new audio commentary track by Eurocrime experts Nathaniel Thompson and Howard S. Berger, a new interview with editor Antonio Siciliano, and an archival interview with actor Wolfango Soldati. Both interviews are in Italian with burned in English subtitles. Radiance’s physical approach to their releases is highly unique in format by using obscure poster elements, and sometimes often new illustrated art and compositions, to exact a striking front cover image. With “Goodbye & Amen,” the rendition of Italian’s finest in their version of S.W.A.T. body armor within the sites of a crosshair is clever and engaging to know more. The reverse cover offers more of the common language poster art. A 19-page color booklet, that contents the cast and crew information, transfer notes and credits, and a new essay from Lucio Rinaldi entitled “The American Connection: Damiano Damiani’s Goodbye & Amen,” accompanies a reserved blue background and yellow font disc art that befits Radiance’s retro-classy style. Being a UK distributor releasing in the North American market lends the title to have a region A and B playback for two varied runtimes, for the Italian and English version tracks, of 110 (Italian) and 102 (English) minutes. Radiance’s 38th release is also not rated.

Last Rites: “Goodbye & Amen” is a collaborative triumph, an arresting story anchored by monolithic performances, and imparted by director Daminano Damiani with attention, detail, and substance that makes the film a pillar amongst the Eurocrime narrative.

Own a Copy of “Goodbye & Amen” from Radiance Films. Click here to Purchase.

This EVIL, Straight-Razor Killer Has a Novel Idea! “Tenebrae” reviewed! (Synapse / 4K-Blu-ray Combo Set)

Posted by Steven Lewis on January 19, 2024

2-Disc 4K UHD and Blu-ray Set Now Available of Dario Argento’s “Tenebrae”

While on a media book tour for his latest popular crime thriller novel, “Tenebrae,” American novelist Peter Neal is swiftly entangled in a killer’s puritanical wrath shortly after landing in Rome. Using Neal’s story as an inspirational guideline to rid the world of what the fictional book labels as depraved people, the killer brutally murders women closely resembling characters in Neal’s book with a straight razor and sends Neal a deranged poetic message shortly after each death. Police are on the case but always once step behind, even when the murders have seemingly stop connecting to the pages of Neal’s novel. When the writer investigates by running through the list of possible suspects, the writer in him goes rogue by setting off to solve the case himself that would sensationalize and authenticate him as a crime writer, but the deeper Neal directly involves himself, the more the grislier the murders become and they’re starting to come closer to home than before.

Dario Argento is unequivocally one of the best masters of horror for half a century, writing and directing not only some of the best Italian crime-mystery Giallos, splashed with hue vibrancy and caked in gruesome blood splatter, but also writing and directing those same films with major success internationally as his films connect with a global audience. “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage,” “Deep Red,” and “Suspiria” have skyrocketed the filmmaker within the first decade of movie-crafting and Argento would not have been who is now without the guidance and the financial foundation constructed by father, Salvatore Argento. Before his death in 1987, Salvatore produced one more of his son’s ventures in 1982 with “Tenebrae,” an emblematic mystery that brings Italian and American actors into the fold of Argento’s violent pulp puzzler. Argento’s younger brother, Claudio, co-produced the feature under the Sigma Cinematografica Roma production company.

The Italiano-Americano production casts a pair of native New Yorkers in Anthony Franciosa (“Death Wish II,” “Curse of the Black Widow”) and John Saxon (“A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Black Christmas”) who regularly crossed over the Atlantic for roles in international pictures. Franciosa plays the novelist Peter Neal with Saxon as Neal’s newly hired agent Bullmer. Their portrayed amicable relationship succeeds expectations of client and manager professionalism, but a good publicity campaign can be torpedoed by a sadistic killer with a throat cutting fetish and Roma’s best officers on the case intruding into the Neal’s personal promotion with Detective Germani, played by spaghetti western regular Giuiliano Gemma (“Day of Anger”), and his partner, Inspector Altieri, played by Carola Stagnaro (“Phantom of Death”). The third English speaker is John Steiner (“Caligula”), a proper Englishman setup as an Italian television host on the docket to interview Peter Neal’s latest release success. Steiner becomes an early favorite as the suspected killer with his odd pre-show questioning that falls in line with the Killer’s motives, but he isn’t the only person of interest as Neal’s estranged lover Jane (Veronica Lario) holds a lover’s quarrel with the writer who has seemingly become intimately close with his personal assistant Anne (Daria Nicolodi, “Deep Red”). A conglomerate of characters gyrate Argento’s maelstrom mystery, each exhibiting profound performances that make each rich in their own right, and fill out with an assemblage of robust supporting characters diffusing through the story with Ania Pieroni (“The House by the Cemetery”), Lara Wendel (“Ghosthouse”), Eva Robins (“Eva man”), and Mirella Banti (“Scandal in Black”), the model most infamously on the front cover of most home video releases and poster one sheets with the iconic neck-sliced open and dripping blood along with her wavy hair suspended in a pose of vivid void and color.

“Tenebrae,” in Latin translates to darkness, describes Argento’s post-“Suspiria” feature intently. Giallo lives within this time capsulated enigmatic madness, color-coated and visually complex to become an easy pill to swallow amongst all others in the Italian-reared niche. Accompanying all the hallmarks of a Giallo construct – the killer’s gloved hands in POV, psychosexual tropes, mental instability exposures, violent and gory – Argento also impresses us with baroque mise-en-scene of lavish houses, detailed interiors, and extremely broad, emotionally phrenic individuals. We also receive technical style wonders like a long boom shot that cranes up a house exterior to follow the idiosyncratic and opposing activities of two presently quarrelling lesbian lovers on a dark, stormy night in a tensely presage moment mixed with the synth-rock sounds of the “Goblin” theme track. “Tenebrae” is chic in its ugliness and the patience Argento shows is formidably impenetrable without being flawed with lingering stagnancy. While wallowing into what we’re led to believe, red herrings and other subterfuges to throw off audiences’ keen-to-solve sniffers, the story stirs a cauldron of coherent progression that is, more often than desired, lost in most gialli trying to weave through an intelligible punchy crime-mystery without becoming disoriented by the twists, turns, and topsy-turvy outcomes.

“Tenebrae” hits 4K onto a 2-Disc, UHD and Blu-ray combo set from the genre-leading distributor, Synapse Films. The HEVC, mastered in Dolby Vision, encoding 2180p UHD and the AVC encoded 1080p high-definition Blu-ray are presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio in both the English and Italian versions of the feature. One of the more gorgeously restored versions ever to be presented, with sharp delineation and organic popping colors within the narrow margins of infrequent gel lighting, the near flawless original negative is greatly elevated by Synapse’s ultra high-def facelift that resound the lavish textures of various sets, the expressional details of the characters’ face, and the glistening shine of the spraying blood. There’s real balance between the colors in this presentation, offering not only a wide variety of hues but a great display of the mix. Gels are not overly used and are more key lighting spotlights to heighten tension or introduce moods on an almost subconscious level. Both English and Italian versions score a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono. This release caters to the very suspense Argento acoustically and phonically propounds that, in the same regard to the eyes, places viewers’ ears right in the middle of the action. Every sound is distinct and unassuming during the throes of violence, a cleanly serrating effect that compounds killer consternation of being everything, everywhere, all at once. Typical of the time and cost-efficient ADR usually retains some dubbing disharmony, but “Tenebra’s” tracks are neatly synchronous with Anthony Franciosa and John Saxon’s recordings timed exact and as if captured in the scene. Some of the dubbing isn’t as in the bag, such as with Giuliano Gemma’s recording that’s does denote that space in between intensified by likely another voice actor’s reading overtop Gemma’s actual dialogue. UHD offers English SDH on the English version while the Italian version has just regular English subtitles; the Blu-ray disc has the same. Hours of bonus content, identical on both formats, begin with an audio commentary by Dario Argento: the Man, the Myths, the Magic author Alan Jones and film critic/historian Kim Newman, a second audio commentary by Dario Argento expert Thomas Rostock, and a third audio commentary by Maitland McDonagh, author of Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento. The fun doesn’t end there with a 2016 feature-length documentary “Yellow Fever: The Rise and Fall of the Giallo” with interviews from Dario Argento, Umberto Lenzi, Luigi Cozzi, and Ruggero Deodato amongst the biggest names in film critic authoritarians, a newly edited archival interview with actor John Steiner, a newly edited archival interview with Maitland McDonagh, an archival featurette Voices of the Unsane with “”Tenebrae’s” Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi, Eva Robins, Luciano Tovoli, Claudio Simonetti, and Lamberto Bava interviews, an archival interview with actress Daria Nicolodi, an archival interview with writer-director Dario Argento, an archival interview with composer Claudio Simonetti, an archival introduction from Daria Nicolodi, an international theatrical trailer, the Japanese Shadow trailer, an alternate opening credits sequence, “Unsane” end credits sequence, and an image gallery to wrap things up. Inside the rigid O-slipcover, graced with a high quality and beautifully macabre illustration rendered by Nick Charge, is a Synapse Films’ black, 4K UHD labeled Amaray case with a double side disc lock and a reversible cover art with the Nick Charge graphic as default underneath the slipcover with the reverse side the Synapse Films’ standard Blu-ray cover art pulped with a famous death scene in pop art color. The insert houses a Synapse Films’ catalogue, and the discs are pressed with two notable kill scene frozen moments pulled in still image form. Feature runs at 101-minutes with an uncut presentation of the feature with a region free playback on both formats. ”Tenebrae” is Dario Argento in a cracked-up nutshell, paradoxically beautiful and horrible and burgeoning with suspense and color. The restored and remastered Synapse Films’ UHD and Blu-ray set is equally as such in its gorgeously grotesque packaging of film, its director, and its legacy that will outlive us all.

2-Disc 4K UHD and Blu-ray Set Now Available of Dario Argento’s “Tenebrae”

The Only Fire This EVIL Monster is Afraid of is the One in His Pants! “Frankenstein ’80” reviewed! (Cauldron Films / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on September 25, 2023

“Frankenstein ’80” on Blu-ray from Cauldron Films!

At a renowned German hospital, Professor Schwarz has pioneered a new serum that has proven animal-testing results on stopping or reducing the process of organ transplant rejection. Also, at the same hospital in another wing, a disgraced surgeon, now a posthumous examiner, named Dr. Otto Frankenstein toils away in the morgue, dismembering bodies and piecing together the limbs and organs into a new being he has named Mosiac. The scarred and lumbering monster has an increase sexual libido and is always in pain from organ rejection, driving him to sexually assault and kill women in the shadows. Frankenstein steals his colleague’s only batch of serum that could have saved reporter Karl Schein’s ill sister from organ failure. Now, Karl is on the hunt for the thief along with hot headed police Inspector Schneider that have pieced together a connection between the stolen serum and the grisly deaths of young women.

Straight from the pages of Mary Shelley’s timeless book, the Frankenstein monster was born out of mad science, or rather the fear of science gone too far, and the deep shadows of Gothic romanticism and tragedy. The Italian took the creature and patchworked a new take on the reborn monster giving life from expired flesh and jolts of electricity. Frankenstein took shape as a caricature, a wildly exaggerated shell of the original exterior with an increase sexual appetite and murderous rage that shifts the story from the conflictions of mad scientist to solely the exploits of his mad creation. That’s what is Frankenstein and his creature succumb to in the 1972 Mario Mancini film “Frankenstein ’80.” Also known by other various titles such as “Midnight Horror,” “Frankenstein 2000,” and “Mosaic,” the short stinted cinematographer, whose works include “French Sex Murders” and “Vengeance is My Forgiveness,” tackles his own directorial from a co-written treatment penned with Ferdinando De Leone. M.G.D. Film banners as production company with Benedetto Graziani and Renato Romano (“Seven Blood-Stained Orchids”) producing the sewn-skin and flesh-exposed feature with a concupiscent creature.

“Frankenstein ‘80” is full of colorful characters that clash literally and figuratively on screen with grandiose personalities that seek to topple over another. The only normie of the bunch the truth-seeking reporter Karl Schein, played by British actor John Richardson (“Black Sunday,” “Torso”), in the aftermath of a criminal act and tragedy when miracle serum vanishes and his sister (Gaby Veruksy) dies on the operating room table due to potentially her unnecessary organ failure. Bearing a lookalike tinge of schlock genre director Jess Franco, Roberto Fizz stiffens up to the be academic and scientific creator of the serum in Prof. Schwarz. His mad science intending to make the world a better place is balanced by Dr. Otto Frankenstein’s sordid abomination and his own self-interest, a wonderfully portentous and arrogantly calm role filled to the brim by the distinguished faced genre veteran and America-born bodybuilder Gordon Mitchell (“Emanuelle, Queen of Sados,” “Malevolence”). Mitchel doesn’t display his brawniness here as an extinguished gentleman, disgraced surgeon but his unique face with an 1000-yard stare and his tall height made him for a good imposing puppeteer on the brink of losing control of his erratically around and constantly in pain creation Mosaic by Xiro Papas. With his behavior performance, Papas blended Golden Age horror with new wave violence by being voiceless face of stoic fear who would eventually ravage his beautiful prey. With all these characters creating havoc and abnormalities, it’s Inspector Schneider that causes the most distress with a cocaine level high performance Renato Romano on the verge of stroking out with him and his men’s own incompetence sleuthing in solving the murder cases. The diverse nationality cast rounds out with Dalila Di Lazzaro (“Phenomena”) as Karl’s love interest and adopted niece of Dr. Frankenstein, Inspector’s two leading investigators in Fulvio Mingozzi (“Deep Red”) and Enrico Rossi, Lemmy Carson as the suspicious male nurse, and Dada Gallotti (“The Sinful Nuns of Saint Valentine”) as the Bucher with hardly any clothes underneath the butcher frock.

Frankenstein of the future! Or, at least, that was the idea for the 1972 released sleazy-schlocker to be conceived as “Frankenstein ’80,” a new generational and bastardized terror with speckles of the original Mary Shelley vision stuffed with horrid-sex aggression and grim depravity. Blindly held together by it’s key actors, “Frankenstein ‘80” has a pervasive perversity against the unrationalized cowboy science. We never know just why this particular Dr. Frankenstein is so keen on creating a jerry-rigged juggernaut of mixed-bag blood types and assorted body parts. Is it because his discredited shame has driven him delusional and mad? Or is Dr. Frankenstein hellbent on showing the world what abnormal science can accomplish? Jolting electricity and hunchback henchmen are taken out of the equation altogether in his water version of Frankenstein; we don’t even know where Dr. Frankenstein’s disasterpiece is source from or how the body was brought to be assembled, dismantled, and assembled again over and over as there’s no mention of grave robbery or is just a slabbed soul who fell in the unfortunate hands of a crazed surgical practitioner. “Frankenstein ‘80’s” has plenty of mania, sleaze, and misshapen aspects that not only include it’s scared and fragmentally pieced together monster that promote Italian ostentation inside the country’s own modern genre elements rather than originating English Gothicism.

“Frankenstein ‘80” rises alive for the first time North American Blu-ray home video release from Cauldron Films. The high-definition, 1080p, AVC encoded Blu-ray is pulled from a 35mm print restoration and is presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Stored amply on a BD50, the original print is elevated to a rich color palette that buoys, never dipping below the natural appearing skin tones, compromising the vivid warm grading, or shying away from the inky black voids. There are spot horizontal scratches that are transparently faint and infrequent. The release comes with two audio ADR-produced options, an English DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio and an Italian DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio. The ADR razes the spatial depth a bit but the overall general clarity and prominence is excellent albeit insubstantially faint hissing. “Frankenstein ‘80” has a nationality diverse cast between the Italian majority and peppered with British and American principals and you’ll see the dub synch better with the native English or Italian proficient depending on the audio track selected. Range concentrates around the immediate surroundings, limiting the environment to virtually around just the character actions. English subtitles and English SDH are optionally available. Special features include Dalila Forever, an Italian audio recorded message from actress Dalila Di Lazzaro over a still gallery of what is essentially her life as she reminisces about her career, Little Frankensteins, a featurette that pays homage through Italian audio host Domenico Monetti on the assortment of Italian-made Frankensteins that stray from the original story and into a culture phenomenon through a time warp of Italian entries surrounding the creature, and last is an English audio commentary by film historian Heather Drain. The Cauldron Films’ clear-cased Blu-ray displays new art on the front cover, or from at least I can tell without digging up only a handful of one sheets and original posters., with the reverse providing the art from previous DVD versions. Beautifully blood red macabre and psychotronic, both colorfully cover contrasted cover illustrations are a testament to the film’s era and living up what’s on the encoded disc inside, pressed in pure black with a dripping blood red title. The region free Blu-ray comes with an 88-mintue, uncensored final product. Forget what you already know of the stitched together flat-top with pale skin and towering stature of resurrection and death after life as “Frankenstein ’80” embarks on savagery pieced together in the natural stink of science’s putrid decay with an unnatural libido leap into the arms of the unwilling, unsuspecting woman.