H!TITDS - The Designated Victim (1971)

This sandwich tastes as dry as hell.

Hello, and welcome to Hello This Is The Doomed Show. I am Richard. Folks, my designated murderer is here, as I am the designated victim. Darren, hello.

Hey, how's it going, man?

It's been a while, yeah, but I'll be honest with you, I've been here a couple of times.

It's been a while, yeah, but I always look forward to these.

Of course.

You know, the months go by and the months go by and I think, yeah, one's coming up, but when you set up a coup in this film as well, I'm all in, you know, one of my favorites.

I was like, pick something classy, dude, and you're like, gotcha, gotcha. As hinted, this is the designated victim from 1971, aka la vitima designata. What is the fricking, oh yes, the alternate title of this, which I love is Slam Out.

Slam it.

What in the world is a slam out? I have no idea.

What does that actually mean?

I don't know. But yes, this movie is a beautiful Giallo. This episode, of course, is sponsored by a little book called Giallo Meltdown 2, available at amazon.com. Written by yours truly. If you want to see what I said about this film, you'll have to get its companion piece, Giallo Meltdown, colon, a movie on diary. Which is funny. I noticed in Giallo Meltdown 1, I barely ever said how I felt about a movie. I was still thinking that nobody would see these like subconsciously.

It's progression.

That's right. I'm growing. But yeah, folks, check those books out. I greatly appreciate it. But that's enough from the sponsor. Let's get back to the movie at hand. Big spoiler warning because this is a Giallo and this has its twisty turns and we don't want it to spoiled. Though, if you've seen a certain movie or read a certain book, you would know about what was coming here. Although, there's a little twist to this, I think. Here is a trailer for Slam Out.

See, I'm one of those who likes to try everything for pleasure, for enjoyment. Perhaps the only pleasure left is the doubtful want of murdering someone. I will kill your wife, and you my brother. I don't know your wife, you don't know my brother. It will be the perfect crime. What's Germany? You haven't the courage to do what you can't do. What did this to you? My brother's death. I did it because you were afraid. You're out of your mind. You're hiding something, aren't you?

I don't know about you, Darren, but man, that trailer really slams me out, man.

I don't like saying something like from a tennis match or whatever.

It's weird. Andre Agassi has slammed out.

Yeah.

I just aged myself for anyone who follows tennis that I actually mention like Andre Agassi.

I'm literally older than you anyway, so don't worry. Oh, no.

You're young at heart.

I am at heart, yeah.

I'm going to read the plot synopsis from the beautiful IMDB, seeking an escape from his unhappy marriage. A disillusioned advertising executive is lured by a sociopathic count into a bizarre plot to kill each other's relatives. This is directed by Maurizio Lucidi. He is one of the Italian film directors who was kicked off of Nosferatu in Venice, the one with Klaus Kinski. Apparently, there were several directors fired from that movie.

Right. Well, that kind of makes sense. Yeah.

It's I was surprised by that one. I was I've been putting it off because I had like a shitty download for years and just on a chance. I was like, you know what? Just get that Blu-ray and see what it's like. And I ended up really liking it.

I've never seen it. It's always been on my radar.

But I think if you set if you set your expectations a little low, I think you'll enjoy it. It's that late period post dubbing Italian horror. So some characters are dubbed. Some characters are live. But I'm telling you, like in this movie, the city of Venice is the best character.

So yeah, yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, I need to see it anyway, because at some point, I think we're gonna be planning on doing a whole like Venice in films and just covering all those, you know, at one point.

So oh, man, that's like, that's like, don't look now.

You saw her die. You got some classics in there.

That's like bloodstained shadow too.

Yeah, absolutely. And the embalmer, I guess you can't call that a classic, but I think that's set in Venice.

Which one?

The embalmer.

Oh, shit, yes. Yeah, I haven't thought about that in years. That's a good one. I mean, well, it's a fun one.

It's a bad one, but yeah, it's a fun one.

I strike my good from the record, but yeah, like watching a great genre film shot in Venice is like ordering two gourmet meals at once. Like it's just the senses. You know, your senses are just awash.

Absolutely.

Oh man. The other thing that, because I've never seen any other films by Maurizio Lucidi that I know of, but he was an editor on Blood and Roses, 1960, which is that weird kind of trippy French, Italian co-production about Carmilla, the lady vampire story. That's, I haven't seen that in years. But yeah, he did that traditional Italian filmmaker trek through genre. So he started with Peplum, did westerns, war movies, comedies and crime. This was his only thriller, like like Giallo, that he did.

I was looking at his filmography as well. So he's done, he's done one called Motel of Fear, which kind of struck my interest. I don't know what it is, but.

Motel of Fear.

Seventy-three as well. So it was right in the head of the Giallo kind of, I know it's not a Giallo, but.

Yeah, but that title.

You know, yeah. It's got the title.

I'm curious. I'm gonna look that up later.

And his crime film, I think, was the Sicilian Cross. I've definitely heard of that in one of my books.

Should I watch both of those?

Yeah. Yeah. They're the two that like stuck out to me.

So this had three writers, apparently. So first up is Auguste Augusto Camminato. Oh, man. Butchering this poor guy's name. Augusto Camminito. There we go. He wrote something called The Cat, which is a comedy giallo from the 70s, needs a Blu-ray.

Yeah.

If you can find The Cat, it's very funny. Very, very funny movie. He was one of the writers on Vampire Venice. OK, Cat, stop it. The one thing I need the cat to not do right now is slam this drawer or this cabinet into the microphone stand.

So it's funny as soon as you say cat as well as she knew. Come here, dude.

You're literally killing me. Just come up here. Oh, my God. Anyway, yes. And he was one of the writers on Vampire in Venice. Next up is Fulvio Giccapalli. The only one I recognized from his career was that Franco Nero movie, the thriller, not so much a giallo, more of a crime thriller, political intrigue, maybe how to kill a judge.

Oh, that's the one I've always wanted to see.

I'm trying to remember if I've seen it. I'm mixing it up with who killed the prosecutor and why.

Right. Yeah. This one is more of a police task, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. Because when Blue Underground put it out, I snatched it up really fast. And then I probably watched it. And now it's just gone because, you know, that that DVD probably came out like fricking like 18 years ago or some shit.

So, yeah, I know. Radiance has just put it out on the room. I think it's in one of their sales coming up.

So, man, Radiance. Holy shit, dude.

Yeah. What a label.

Love them. Of course, last but not least is Aldo Lado, our pal who gave us so many good things. Short Night of Glass Dolls.

Oh, classic.

Which I just finally upgraded. I finally got The Twilight Time. I think somebody else put it out too. Or is it just Twilight Time did it?

There's an 88 films in the UK. That's why Saliloy Dreams have announced it for February next year.

That is probably.

Yeah, 88 films are going to upgrade as well to a 4K. So that is probably why you got it on sale.

Yeah, I got The Twilight Time for a nice price.

It's nice to have all of them, though, when they come out. That's the sign of that film.

Who Saw Her Die, one of the very first non-Argento, non-Fulci, Giallo I saw. Yeah, just just for these three films alone.

Man, God mentioned the Christmas movie as well.

Oh, yeah, his is full of holiday cheer. Yeah. Last stop on the night train, aka night train murders, which, you know, that's better than Last Taste on the Left. I mean, it's definitely prettier to look at. Oh, my God.

Man, some of the stuff that goes down on that train, man.

I have to tell the story. And if you ask Lietta right now, what is the worst film in terms of like, intense scenes and just making her filled with rage, she will say Night Train Murders. And that was like almost 20 years ago. She never forgot it. She actually stormed out of the room. She was so pissed.

Oh, God.

And I was like, sorry, babe. I don't. I think it's a good movie, but much like Last House on the Left and other rape revenge, or did you know human beings suck movies? I got to get out of there.

So that's my annual Christmas watch. That is Christmas Eve. What I know. Don't judge me on no way.

I'm not going to judge you. That's brilliant. We watch so much Christmas insanity. I will never judge. You know, we're, we're watching, you know, the freaking all the different Silent Night, Deadly Night and the Silent Night remake they did. So yeah, we watch a lot of depraved fucked up shit.

I kind of balance it out with Black Christmas 74. So I usually do that.

Oh man. Those phone calls in Black Christmas. That's how I learned to talk to women.

Oh God, man.

I'm folks at home. I'm not going to cut that joke, but I'm not serious. I was like, what's the worst thing I could say right now? And I did it. Anyway, this cast is stacked. We have some very interesting people in it. First up is Tomas Milian. He is Stefano. Italian genre fans know Tomas Milian very well. I said this before on other shows, Tomas Milian is not my favorite. And now I don't think I don't think he's bad at all.

Yeah.

But as far as like standout, should have won awards performances, this one.

For me, he's one of my favorites. Oh yeah. Almost human. I think he's superb in that. You got Don't Torture a Duckling, which he does kind of play. He doesn't play a rogue character really in that. He's just like a reporter.

Yeah.

So he could do it all. He could do Four of the Apocalypse, Beatrice Houncy. He's superb in that as well.

Yeah. I'm definitely in the minority as far as like, he's just, I don't know why he's just not one of my favorites.

Are you more of a Ray Lovelock guy or would you go with something like that? Henry Silver maybe or-

Who's, who's my, I'm definitely a Franco Nero guy.

Old guy.

Yeah. But they're so different. I mean, they're just different planets completely. Yeah. And of course, you know, George Hilton. That's who I was trying to think of. My brain. So yeah, George Hilton. I love him. Apparently I like hunks of wood. Anthony Steffen is one of my guys.

Oh man. I can't get on with him. I think we've had that conversation before.

Probably. You're not alone. A lot of people are like, but I'm like, I just love him. I can tell when he's phoning it in, but like, Oh yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. The one I really like, um, underrated, and he died very early on in his career is Matt Perel. I think he could have been a major star.

What a tragedy. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

That weird bone structure, you know, like that. There's just one of those faces you can't, uh, Luke Miranda. Luke Miranda is great too.

I love him as well. Yeah.

But yeah, they're not in this movie.

Well, so yeah, we'll go off on tangents now.

Of course we have to. Uh, Pierre Clémenti. Uh, he is speaking of interesting faces. Um, this guy is just also an interesting character. He plays Count Matteo, Count Matteo Tupelo, and he is just, I don't know how to describe this actor. I have a joke later I'm going to make, but I'll save it for when he shows up in the movie. But he just, there's a documentary, uh, or any of you with his son on the disc, on the Mondo Macabre disc.

He's a strange one because he only, Thomas Milian only agreed to do the film because he was in it. And what happened with him as well is he was working on another film. So they did do like a week with Thomas Milian early on. Then he came to the set. He told Thomas Milian he didn't want to do the film. So Aldo Lado had to go over and then convince him to do the film.

Holy shit. That's wild. Next up as Stefano, as Thomas Milian's lover in this movie, is Katia Christine and she plays Fabienne. She is absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous lady.

Yeah.

She was on an episode of Night Rider. That's incredible. Trapper John MD. Was she American? Oh no, she was never.

She was actually in a relationship with the director, Maurizio Lucidi, for a long time.

Lucky guy. She was actually born in the Netherlands. Somehow she ended up doing daytime or prime time American TV. But she was in Five Women for the Killer.

That's right. Yeah.

Yeah. We covered that a while ago on the show. As a Jeffrey Pick right there. And she was also in the Spirits of the Dead, the ghostly Italian, French, American co-production.

That's the 68 one.

Yeah. I got to rewatch that. I haven't seen that in years.

I've never seen that one.

That's solid, man. It's definitely more artsy than it is like a genre movie, but it's just gorgeous to look at. It's really pretty.

But she didn't do a lot. Five Women for the Killers, the main one I got.

Yeah, that's the one I'm most familiar with as well. Next up is Luigi Casalotto. He plays Commissioner Finzi, who is trying to prove this, trying to solve this crime that happens in the movie. Definitely a familiar face.

Oh, he's been in loads, yeah.

Seventy-five credits, yeah, Bloodstained Shadow, all kinds of crime films, Jallow.

Even a star back as a complicated girl in 69. Oh my God. But he did do two crime films I've recently seen that I love, which is Know the Case is Happily Resolved. I've heard of that one. That's a great one, that's got Jallow elements. And the other one is Savage Three. Have you seen that one?

No.

Oh man, that's on the Arrow years of lead set and it is superb. It's got Joe Salasmano. He plays them. You've got the one guy from Night Train Murders as well. The kind of junkie and that, he's in it. And there's three guys and they go around just completely like causing havoc all around the city they live in. Yeah, they go back to their normal jobs behind the computer desk and they seem like normal pillars of society.

I remember the trailer. Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Nice.

How do you recommend you that one?

Dude, I love it. Next up is Marisa Bartoli who plays Stefano's long suffering wife here. She was the one where I think I've never seen her anywhere else.

I've got nothing next to her. I was looking up to see what she did. Nothing of interest.

Yeah, she did a TV series called Giallo De Sera.

Okay.

Some of these Giallo TV series, the two-parters, like it'll be like a two-hour movie split up into two hour long segments. You can find them on YouTube. Problem is, AI is doing the subtitles. So it's gibberish.

Yeah, yeah.

You know what? If I could retire tomorrow, had nothing but free time in my hands, I would learn Italian and then make fricking fan subs for everybody of these days.

Right. There's a TV series on The Monster of Florence, which Darryl Nickelodeon was in. I think it's in the early 2000s.

Yeah.

Been wanting to watch that. They loaded it, but it's just all in Italian.

Of course. I just got Private Crimes, the headwitch for that one. No, I've heard it's really good though.

Man, I love that. I love that TV series. I'm so sorry. You can put that on as well. It's decently paced. It's not slow or anything. Cool. It's just like one big massive six-hour jello film.

Dude, I can't wait. Sweet.

Yeah. Martino, yeah.

So those are the main people in the movie. But I have to mention one of my all-time favorites has a small character in this small part, Enzio Terrasio. He is the, I wrote in my notes, that businessman guy, he has two scenes. He shows up, talks to Thomas Milian's character about business and then exits stage left. But this dude was in freaking the night Evelyn came out of the grave. And of course, near and dear to my heart, he is the detective in the Dead or Alive, trying to solve those murders.

That's right. That's your favorite giallo.

For some reason, that is my favorite giallo. I know it's not the best.

I need to give it another go. Yeah. Again, I think we spoke to it last time. I spoke. I need to give that film another go.

I just keep bringing it up. I'm trying to will it to be somebody else's favorite.

It might click with me, you know, at one point.

I think it's just different. I think it's just because it's so different. It feels like this bizarre movie. So anyway, so yes, we're going to do a quick version of this plot here. The film opens up with a lovely song as sung by our pal, Thomas Milian.

Was it really?

Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, man, that makes it even better.

It's in the trivia about him singing the song. What was it? The band? It's a funny band name.

I was going to say, that's similar to Ray Lovelock. He used to do that as well. It's similar to the film.

Yeah, and Frank O'Neil liked to sing too, all three of them. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, the band is called New Trolls, and the song is called My Shadow in the Dark, and they wrote the song for the movie. And Tomas Milian just stole the microphone and did it. But he's there.

That song works as well when it comes up in the film scene. Yeah. Yeah.

It's so pretty. We get Tomas Milian, Stefano, with his lover, what did I say her name was? Fabienne.

Yeah.

And he's got his pretend camera taking fake photos of her. And I'm not sure she knows that's not a real camera, his hands clicking. I don't know. She might be confused. So he's an advertising guy. He's in the advertising industry. And I said, the advertising industry is full of mad men. It's funny stuff. So he's wheeling and dealing, trying to make some big deal. He's made this series of hilarious commercials with her, where she's flying through the air bringing people chocolate.

That is bizarre. When she's like a butterfly, yeah. It is absolutely bizarre.

The scariest part of this whole thing is she's like, yeah, the helicopter was lifting me. I'm like, hold the phone. You weren't on a crane, like a stationary crane. You were being lifted by a fucking helicopter.

You can imagine all the safety going on in this non-existent.

Now, this movie is not a cheap movie by any stretch of the imagination, but they didn't have the money to show this helicopter flipping up and down while she's zapping around. Such a weird line of dialogue. So in his wheeling and dealing, Stefano is trying to get a large sum of money from his wife. Yes, Fabienne, shocker to literally no one, is not his wife. She's his lover. And so he's trying to get his wife to sell her shares in this company.

I always find that quite weird, like you say, that the love is gone.

Oh, yeah.

Why not just have a divorce?

The love is even goner by the end of the movie. Or maybe the middle of the movie.

I mean, when he tells her as well, like, right, that it's 220 million and he's prepared to throw a 20 million, it's not the best line that she wanted to hear.

No, it's not good. So while Stefano is running around in Venice with Fabien, trying to, you know, take his mind off of his troubles, he meets someone important. Darren, who is this person and what happens?

So yeah, so like you say, they're going around doing the old sightseeing thing and they stumble upon these hippies playing music and just selling jewelry of some kind. And he picks up this kind of, I think it's a necklace, would you say? And a guy comes along, Kate Matteo, Tia Polo, and he basically wants to buy the necklace, but he says, no, you have it. There's some kind of interaction between the two.

Yeah, this is this is like almost the way Dracula would appear in a horror movie. The way this guy like you just see his gloved hand first touching this, this hilariously ugly, gaudy necklace that I believe is supposed to be the number 12.

Right.

Something. And but it's so hideous. And there's not even hippies would touch this thing. It's so ugly.

And the long black cape of an ear. He says something about it's destiny if they meet four times as well.

Yep. And then they meet five or something. I lose count. And I'm like, what's probably more than four? Yeah, they made a lot. But I wrote in my notes when we first see good old when we see the count for the first time, I said, enter Freddie Mercury.

Yeah.

So he just like the way Freddie Mercury dressed in 1971 is very similar to this.

He's like a fish out of water. He just stands.

He stands out. You know, even in Venice in 1971, this guy looks like a frickin he just he looks like a vampire. Yeah, they become buds. There's a lot of talk of numerology. There's a lot of gorgeous walks in the foggy streets of Venice. And there's a tad bit, just a hint of homosexual overtones in this. These chance encounters get longer and longer and longer, almost to where they're becoming like dates. Like they're on a date together. And there's a thing about the count.

I think the homosexual part is more on the kinks from what I can gather. You know, obviously, Tomas Milian is a red-blooded male. Sure. But it's definitely hinted at. Yeah, it's a lot.

It's there.

It's definitely there.

After hearing about his problems, what does the count suggest for...

So, yeah. So basically, they end up playing roulette and they keep meeting up. And as he goes to go with his girlfriend, Fabienne, they try to get the boat, a boat to go out, you know, across Venice. Matteo happens to just have a boat nearby and he invites them on and he gives them the ultimatum or basically the idea of... Like Strangers on a Train, and I know that's going to be a big spoiler, but he's got a brother who's been abusing him.

Of course, Tomas Milian, his character is very, he's very cagey about this, this idea. He never, of course, he never asks directly, hey, kill my wife, dude. You know, so he gets to play like both sides where, you know, he clearly knows he'll benefit, but he'd rather be sneaky than actually go through with something like that. Right.

He more likes the idea than anything else.

Back at home, he's trying to a last ditch effort to convince his wife to sell this stuff, not to be a dick, but she's really poking the bear. Like she is, she's very honest, and she just wants him to be honest about it. He just wants this money from her. That's all he wants. But she's doing it in a very, like, eviscerating, kind of like cold way. And I'm like, lady, stop, just leave him, lady, please just leave.

But he's apparently the one who's made all that money as well. She just wants to share is really.

Okay. See, yeah, I wasn't sure if she'd inherited it or if it's, it's because, you know, he was just a designer. He was just a, you know, like advertising. Yeah, like doing the doing the layouts of magazines or stuff like that. So he's worked his way up. So his big plan is to draw up the documents, forge her signature, and then run off to his home country of Venezuela with Fabien. And of course, as he's doing this is literally forging the signature at his office at night.

Right, yeah.

So he sends these flowers and a letter to Luisa and spoils the whole plan. And the lamest thing I've ever heard anyone say is, Stefano is like, deny, deny, deny. And then when he's caught by his wife stealing his money, he's like, I was going to give you 20 million.

Yeah. Yeah. I was going to chuck you a few bones. And then she starts reading him and then she's saying, you can't even like rip me off properly. You can't give me this kind of thing.

So he ends up giving her the keys to the apartment. Fine. I know I'm through. This is, I'm out of here. So he just, she packed his bags. We takes his bag, gets in his car. She, she did let him keep the car. That was nice.

Right. And she does know all about the other woman as well. Fabienne.

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that they got caught. And that's what started to kick off all this, this shit is the, the, she was also in denial about what he was up to.

Right. Yeah.

And what's funny is like this affair with this beautiful model has been this open secret with everybody. So he's not hiding it at all. No. So of course, while he's running around doing this, he just happens to meet a young gal from Germany, apparently, who needs a ride to the airport. And of course, her, it was too late, her plane, she can't make her plane. So they go to the summer house that they have out on this beautiful lake.

So, yeah, so Luisa kind of like spends the night with her. It's not really spelled out, but I think they end up in bed together. But next day, oh, sorry, Christina, I'm on about Muller. They end up in bed together and all that. But next day, his wife is then found dead. So he's literally got an alibi with this German woman, which he wants to try and keep quiet. Even though they don't show the actual murder, itself, we do know it's the cain that's done it.

If you've ever seen a show called Forensic Files, the husband is always the husband.

Right. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of weird as well because all the fingerprints have all been wiped clean from everywhere in the apartment.

Very suspicious.

So he's completely caught in this web now of does he say what he was doing? And they end up pissing off his Fabian and he's kind of, he doesn't know what to do at this point.

Oh boy. Oh boy. So he finally runs into Matteo and Matteo just wants him to confront himself. Well, he really wants him to murder his brother, but what he really wants is for Stefano to like admit his true self and be himself and stop hiding behind this like facade and tries to get him to face a mirror, face himself in the mirror and he can't and he has to punch this mirror and shatter it. And, oh man, what a scene. Milian just killing it in this movie.

Oh man, he's great. Yeah. Yeah.

So of course, because he doesn't want to go through with the act of murder and he's still laying all of this on Matteo, he quickly discovers that the cards are stacked against him. What is Matteo doing to very not nicely convince Stefano to do his crime for him?

Matteo told Fabian to visit him in Venice. Matteo was the one that set him up with the German girl we find, Christina. But what he's doing now is he's blackmailing him to kill his brother. He's telling him that he's got all the jewels from the robbery. And he's just putting him in this hole really. But he's kind of set it up where he wants him to kill, Matteo wants him to kill his brother at a certain time, at a certain place, through the window and all that.

Yeah. I can't believe how much of a chance that this detective just keeps giving him more and more chances to find the parking ticket from, you know, like when he drove and stopped at a toll on the highway with the girl in the car to putting newspaper ads out to find the girl in Germany and Italy to like locate her and just just way too nice of a guy and not even tailing him like, no, he would have been put in jail at this point.

I'm pretty sure in any of a scenario, but all evidence, you know, and it does.

It just points to him over and over again and bigger and bigger and bigger. So finally, he's left with no choice but to go through with it. He has to pick up a rifle from like a train station or from a way. They don't really have trains in Venice.

Is it a locker or something?

Yeah, airport locker. And so he goes to the top of this this tower outside of Mateo's apartment. And what happens?

Basically, like you say, he gets the rifle. He goes to the vantage point. Obviously, we're OK for spoilers at this point.

Yes, absolutely.

Let's do it. So you've got Fabian and the police. They're trying to stop, you know, what's going to happen. They kind of start tailing him. So he just basically shoots in to this window and it's revealed to be Mateo who was killed. And then you've got that shadow of the dark song. But this is my question to you. I don't know how you've seen this. So did Mateo sit at the window to get shot as kind of a self-suicide? Was there ever a brother in the picture? Because we never see him physically.

Yeah, I think the question is, how aware was Mateo of this madness that he has? Like, right.

Yeah.

Yeah. And like, because he even says explicitly in the movie that, you know, Stefano suggests to him, just run away, just get away from your brother. And he's like, no, we're tied together. And he even says, it's like we're one person.

Right. Which is, yeah, it's weird. Like, did he just want to shoot Mateo anyway, just so he could carry on? Oh, like he do. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh man. That'd be a good twist there too. Like, I know how to solve my problems. I'll just kill this, forget his brother. I'll kill him.

But then that begs the question of would he have known who was sat there? Because it's like, yeah. And you've got to think, it's a genius title, The Designated Victim, because it ends up that he is the victim really, thinking about it. So yeah, Stefano ends up being the victim. I don't know how you felt about this when you first saw it, but I wasn't big on it when I first saw it. But over the years, it's kind of grown on me.

See, I think that this movie is really dynamic with the colors.

Okay.

Yeah, I get a lot of, this Blu-ray just blew my mind because I had the old, old, old, oh God, what? It was like...

Did you have the old Shameless?

I had the older version. I had an older one than that. I want to say I had like a German DVD or something, or some old, old, old version. And I did upgrade to the Shameless when that Shameless DVD came out.

Yeah, absolutely.

But then I just did, I'd never got around to watching that upgrade. So I didn't watch this film for, this is my first viewing in a long time, like an obscenely long time.

So I think maybe it's because I'm spoiled with all, you know, the colors in like shirt and black lace and all that. Maybe I didn't kind of register with me as much.

But I think it's just, I think it's the prettiness, like the, the, the, the dynamic. And of course the costumes, the costumes in this, especially for our pal Matteo are so brilliant that he's, he's a set piece in himself.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. No, this, I think there's that whole string of Giallo films from this era where it hadn't been set in stone. What you have to do to make a Giallo, a Giallo, Argento's influence hadn't hit quite yet. So you get movies that they have the setting, they have the music, they have the tone, they have a mystery plot, but it's not a body count film yet.

Right.

So like this movie, you know, a year later in 72, it would have had a subplot of a murderer in Venice, you know, like killing supermodels or some shit.

Yeah, it's crazy to think this is 71. You've got, who saw a dolly 72 and don't look nice 73. Oh, they're some great films set in Venice, man.

Just a few crew members before we jump into the little bit of trivia we have. The music was by Louis Bakalov, who, of course, wrote the theme for Django, the OG Django. He also did one of my favorite crime films of all time, Caliber Nine.

Oh, God, yeah. I've had the privilege to watch that the past year.

Yeah, that one. That one is like I can't believe that that movie was jaw-dropping. I love it.

That's one of Dirk's favorites. That is as well. Yeah.

Nice. He also composed the utterly batshit opening titles for Hell of the Living Dead.

Yeah, yeah.

I fired those up. I'd forgotten how fucking insane those synthesizers in that are going absolutely apeshit. And then the frickin funk band kicks in. Masterpiece.

Yeah, we covered that fairly recently as well.

Masterpiece. The cinematography on this was by Aldo Tonti.

Right.

Speaking of crime films, he shot Violent City from 1970. He also shot a very obscure black and white giallo called A for Assassin from 1966.

That's one I've always wanted to see.

I remember it being pretty good, but it's been a long time. Another one I just vaguely remember.

I've got on one of my old hard drives. I've got a version of it anyway. It's probably unwatchable, but yeah.

You know, if you watch it on a laptop or a monitor, a computer monitor, you just minimize it real small and pretend you're watching it on an old TV and then you can actually see what's happening. That's the trick. You don't blow it up. Don't make it bigger. Make it small.

Yeah.

And another one he directed, excuse me. Another one he shot was Castle of the Living Dead from 1964, which is one of the dozens of Italian gothics that came out. I know I've seen it. Struggling to remember it.

Is that the one with Papa Steel?

That's a good question.

Always kind of get them mixed up.

Me too. Me too.

I know it's come out fairly recently.

No, that is the one with Christopher Lee.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

And Donald Sutherland. It's one where Donald Sutherland plays like two different characters.

Oh, I know it. I know it.

It's a weird one. It's a weird one. I'm overdue for a re-watch of it. But the classy thing that he shot, because this Aldo Tonti guy is a super talented son of a bitch, he was the cinematographer on Fellini's Nights of Cabiria, like one of Fellini's biggest, like earliest hits. Just masterful. Oh my God. What a movie.

They need to discount these obsession as well.

Are you serious?

Yeah.

Yeah. I miss that.

This is the famous Cuckoo Clock.

Yeah. There it is.

I'm glad I was on there for that.

Now, I don't really go into production design people, but they're underrated when it comes to how these films end up. And this guy, Enrico Sabatini, he was mainly a costume designer. But for production design, he did a little movie called Four Flies on Gray Velvet. Oh, it's the same year as this?

Yeah.

That's nuts.

That's insane.

Yeah. So that was everybody from the crew that I could pull out of this thing. Some of the trivia I have, I mentioned earlier, Thomas Milian singing that song. A person that's in this movie that is one of those go-to people, Carla Mancini, according to IMDb, this is her 18th movie. And Carla Mancini is, she was in that Actors Guild in Italy, where if you included someone from that Guild in your film, you'd get like a tax break on the movie. So she was in like 140, 150 movies.

Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

We talked a little bit about Strangers on a Train. Why don't you elaborate on its connections with this movie?

Right, so there's a book. There was a novel by Patricia Highsmith called Strangers on a Train. That obviously got adapted by Alfred Hitchcock. I'm trying to think. There's been a few. I know there's some films I was looking up that I don't even know anything about. This kind of followed it. Oh, yeah. The storyline.

There's a famous one from my childhood, Throw Mama from the Train. Oh, it is fucking hilarious. If you want, if you're in the mood for a classic American comedy, great, great.

I've seen. I remember growing up with that one.

My parents bought me that on tape and I've seen it like 12 times at least.

Right. Yeah. Would you say the killer must kill again? It's kind of got like a similar storyline. Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

I totally forgot about that.

Yeah. It's kind of a similar storyline.

Yeah.

But Aldo Lado wrote the original story for this called Undeleat the Perfecto. And he was assistant director. And even though it's been kind of. So I'm reading Robert Curdie's books saying that he directed all the scenes in Venice. But then I'm looking at his interview on the Blu-ray and he said he never. He only did the shots in Rome. So he's kind of conflicted. But he's like you say we were talking beforehand and he's one hell of a character, Aldo Lado.

He's great.

But yeah, like you say, it is, you know, if you've seen Strangers on a Train, you'll know where this one's going. But like Richard said, it has got that twist at the end. That kind of makes it unique as well.

I did. Of course, I didn't read the book because I kind of didn't know until we were getting ready to talk about this that there was a book. But I looked up the ending to it to it to see how similar it was. And it's closer to this film than the what Hitchcock rewrote for Strangers on a Train, which, you know, I watched Strangers on a Train when I was like 15 or something like it was an Alfred Hitchcock marathon or something. So I'd forgotten how the movie ended.

Yeah.

The next time I watch Throw Mama from the Train, I have a different opinion. Like, there's just so many fricking great moments in that. I'm going to pick one and just drop a clip from that movie right here because I cannot, I could literally cannot resist.

This is Cousin Patty. He's going to be staying with us for a while, isn't that nice?

You don't have a cousin, Patty.

You lied to me.

That's the one with that woman as well, isn't it?

The well-known, yes, the cranky lady from Deadly Friend.

Yeah, that's the one.

Old basketball head. Do you have any other trivia or is that?

I was just looking at them, I was just looking at them. So Lado worked on The Conformist in 1970 for Bernardo Bertolucci's assistant, he was. But he was uncredited on Bird with a Crystal Plumage. Apparently, although Lado did quite a bit of work behind the scenes on that one. And it's not like Dario Argento to not give you credit for a film, but yeah, that's what happened.

Yeah, that's different.

Yeah.

It's like, it's like Dario Argento being like, Dario Niccolotti did what on Suspirie What?

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Come on, dude.

I would like to know what he did behind the scenes, whether he did kind of, you know, do any directing, any scenes or anything. But yeah, just look in now. Oh, I've said all the stuff with Milian and he only wanted to do the film if Pierre was in it. Yeah.

It's amazing. Maybe he just wanted to buy some drugs off of him.

Yeah, very possibly. But did he play Jesus Christ, the film? He was quite a renowned actor, apparently, that guy, the Kent. I've not seen any of his stuff. I don't think he did any jallows or anything from what I can gather.

No, yeah, he did. He did a French horror film called Clash that looks very trippy and bizarre. I watched it from 84. I watched the trailer for it and it just looks bizarre. It's definitely a horror film leaning into the art more than anything else.

He's definitely got that look for a jallow film because I think he would have been like, he wouldn't have been out of place in something like Lizard in the Woman's Skin because you got all the hippies and he would have been, oh, your voice is a lot room even as well when he goes for the haste.

You know, I'm assuming that he needed to have a specific type of script to interest him.

Right.

You know what I mean? So like a lot of the the giallo fair, you know, would have been just just not like he would have been great in them.

But he was like, no, I'll tell you what was funny though. There's a story where Aldo Lado. So basically when that PA wanted to not come back and do the film, Aldo Lado went over to his place to convince him. And he said this guy was in the kitchen just cutting up lines of cocaine. So the way Aldo Lado got him to come back on board with the film is he said to him, basically you can get like by all frigging hill of that stuff if you want after you do the film.

Yeah, people remember because of popular culture, everybody remembers the late 70s and the early 80s is the big cocaine time.

Right.

But like the early 70s was kind of back when doctors hadn't really talked about how bad it was, how addictive it was. So it was a lot easier to get than people recall. And it wasn't until it was, you know, contraband. For a while, they were demonizing marijuana as like the worst thing they could do, you know.

Yeah. And it was handed out like sweets on certain film productions. I remember.

Yeah. Right there with the bottles, J and B.

Yeah. Yeah. It's the normal everyday thing.

So I think I know how you feel about this one, but tell me, where are you at with The Designated Victim?

Yeah, so every time I watch this now, and I usually about once a year, it kind of goes up in my estimation. In terms of ratings, it's definitely like probably a seven and a half stroke, eight, eight to 10. It's just, I don't know what it is, it's just something that don't quite push it towards, you know, top. It is, I guess it would come in the top tier just about for me.

Yeah.

But I don't know what it is. It's maybe one or two things maybe lacking that we need, but maybe like an Edwidge Finesse or Barbara Boucher, but we can't be that lucky, I guess. Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, even Steinberg even would have been nice.

Oh yeah. Well, you know, Katia Christine is no slouch, but yeah, she doesn't bring that.

No, no, that's right.

She doesn't bring that genre might with her, you know, cause she didn't do a lot of the stuff we love.

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

But yeah, I love the way this shot. I love the fricking music. The score is incredible. The acting, everybody is bringing it. This is Thomas Milian firing on all cylinders. Just really great. Pierre Clémenti, incredible. The movies, just again, the locations are perfect. I would love to fricking get a summer home in that, that lakeside place they're at. Oh my God.

So good, man. I'd love to go to Venice. I've never been to Venice. Yeah. My son did a couple of years ago. Lucky enough. But oh, cool. Yeah. But he's not in the jallows or anything, so he didn't appreciate it like I would.

He didn't bring you back any evidence from murders because everyone gets murdered there. Exactly. This is a great autumn movie, so if fall is coming or fall has arrived, put it on. This one definitely feels like this would be a good November movie, like winter's coming kind of thing. It's really pretty. The tension is great. The mood is great. Yeah. Yeah. I've definitely come around. I think that like you, maybe I didn't rate it as highly back in the day. But yeah, I love this now.

What would you, so if you had to do a double feature, what would you put this with?

Well, obviously Nosferatu in Venice.

Yeah. Yeah.

Just go from class to trash instantly.

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

No, I mean, you could.

Yeah, there's a few you could put it with.

I would absolutely, of course, would be. What's yours choice? What would you go with?

The obvious would be to do a triple feature with Who Saw Her Die and Don't Look Now. That would be the obvious.

Yeah. Yeah. I do Bloodstained Shadow.

Yeah, that would be a good one. I've watched that. I've watched Bloodstained Shadow a lot in the past, but I mean, I went back, rewatched it for the Forgotten Gialy set. Man, I love that film now. Whereas before it was like a seven, now it's like a nine, eight or more.

Yeah, that is on my list. I can't believe I still have to keep getting these sets. I've been trying to hold off and not buy every Forgotten Gialy set.

They are so worth it, man.

I tell you, that one's coming. That one is definitely coming because that's got freaking Death Carries of Cain.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's on there.

Have you got any of them? You haven't got none of them.

Yeah. Yeah. I've got the sleazy one with Sister Ursula. I skipped that one, but I'll probably just bend and just get it just for fun, just to have them all.

I love that set, but it's not for everyone. No, because you got The Killer is Among Us on that.

Oh, yeah. That movie is way better than I thought it was going to be. Holy shit.

Yeah.

I wasn't expecting that.

Rough towards the end, though. But yeah, it's brutal. But they've done a recent one now I've just bought, which is all 80s jolly.

Yeah, I want that one, too. Yeah, it looks pretty good. So much shit.

Did you get The Haste of the Doomsday in?

No, I am. I love one of those films. I'm one of the weirdos who absolutely loves Sweet House of Horrors. That is like my film. That's such a weird friggin movie and so funny. And I like House of Lost Souls. Yeah. And I don't, but I don't rate House of Clocks as highly. I think I just need a rewatch of that. And I just don't like House of Witchcraft. It's not a bad movie. It just doesn't have enough going on in it.

Yeah, they kind of got that ghost-haste feel and look to them, you know. Yeah, that's exactly right. They're not great all four, but I mean in terms of a box set, you know, got all the extras on there. Oh yeah. I think Troy Hayworth's on there as well.

Nice.

I'm all in. But they got a certain charm about them, I think, those types of films.

I think the price, I think it's just the prices. Maybe if the price drops and they do like a slim pack, because that's one of the things I like, is Vinegar Syndrome has been given the option for folks who don't want another box. You can get like the slimmer ones, but I don't know, I have no idea if Cauldron is going to do that or not.

Probably, I would imagine.

Yeah.

I was going to ask you about one that I got in recently that I've seen is called Corpse Mania, The Hong Kong Jalo.

Oh man, that movie is nuts.

Man, I tell you, that's the first time I've seen it this week. It is, it is so far right there. You've got that guy murdering prostitutes, in this whore house, the center of the room, this whore house.

The necrophilia, and oh my god, yes. Yeah, that movie is about as subtle as a slap to the face.

It is, and I mean, the whole like, it's got like a Dario Argento look with the colors as well. It's got Tate in the back, man.

It's very pretty.

I enjoyed it. I don't think it's gonna be, you know, one of my top films I'll ever see, but every once in a while, yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's so many great sleazy thrillers. I'm waiting for more Hong Kong category three stuff. That's there like NC 17. They're, they're unrated rating and that they just, there's such a treasure trove of those movies that aren't just shock value. Like they're not just the super extreme ones. They make those, but there's some, they're just really, really gorgeously shot, utterly bat shit movies that I'm like, like even like the supernatural ones, like Seventh Curse, right?

There's a few slashes as well. It's one called He Lives By Night.

Yes.

I think that includes a transvestite.

Yeah, dude. Yeah, he's conflicted. The main character is very conflicted. Yeah, there's one called The Red Panther, and it's a comedy thriller that's really violent and insane. And the lead cop is the lead cop is as concerned with solving the case as he is with dealing with his hemorrhoids.

Oh, it's fucking nuts. Yeah, it's crazy how they do some of that.

Oh, yeah. Oh, my God.

Right, The Kill, have you seen that one?

No, I've seen a similarly titled one called Run to Kill.

Okay.

Let's see if I got that title right. Oh, excuse me. Sorry. Run and Kill.

Run and Kill. Okay.

Run and Kill, thriller, dude gets in over his head with a gangster. Don't look up anything about the plot. Before you see it, 1993, Run and Kill, just give it a watch. It has something so insane in it that I would be doing you a disservice if I gave you even a hint of what happens in that movie. Let's just say you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

I'm intrigued now.

Yeah. Run and Kill.

Have you seen the Butterfly Murders? Did you do that in your book?

Yes.

I thought you did. I need to go back and read the-

Truly unique film. I've never seen anything like it.

Okay.

It's really very strange, but I liked it.

Yeah. I'm going to try and think that way, I think.

But Darren, before I let you escape and go to be someone else's Designated Murderer. What's a recently seen and loved film? It could be an old favorite you watched again. It can be something that was new to you. What do you got?

Yeah. Okay. So if you want to go modern, a film that kind of blew me away, I watched fairly recently is the one called Strange Darling.

Yes. I've been hearing good things about that.

But I would say to anyone who's going to watch it, to go in completely blind.

Okay.

Because it's just so unique the way, and I won't give anything away, but what they do is they play it all in chapters, but the chapters have all been mixed around.

Nice.

And there's a killer, literally a killer twist, like halfway through, which I don't think, you know, I saw it come in, but I don't think many people would see it come in.

Right.

And in terms, yeah, well made, just that's a great one.

Well, it's on my list.

I did see for the first time, Vampires, earlier, the Jose Ramon Larez film from 75, I think it is. That is so good, man. Dude, I was blown away by that.

Yeah. That was one of my first like Euro cult, like Euro horror films that had nothing to do with Italy. I just got outside of my box of only watching Italian stuff and just, oh man, what a freaking classic.

I'm not a massive vampire guy, but that is kind of like a hammer film in a way, because even though you've got lots of nudity with the two females, but yeah, it's just like a British hammer film, but for me, it's like 90 percent better than most of the other ones. But I was blown away by that. Awesome. Makes me want to see. There's one he did called Deadly Manor, did a slasher.

Yeah.

I've seen one of the acts which he's done as well. That one I like.

Deadly Manor, the worst thing I can say about it is it's a little too long. But I am a huge fan of Laraz. I am just, I know he has his artsy side and he has his, I need a paycheck side and you've got these films that like exist in between. If you can find it, there's a film called E Stigma, aka Stigma.

Oh, I do know that one.

Lovely, lovely. It's a simple story, artsy and gorgeous with all of the cool horror shit that we like. Just a great movie all around.

He did as you are called Will Poole as well, which I want to see.

I haven't gotten to that one yet. That's one of my unseen of his. I'm holding off on a couple of his. I've got two of his thrillers that I've been like saving for a rainy day. And that's one of them.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Have you got any plans of any more books yourself?

Yeah, dude, I've got a super secret project with my friend. I won't say any more than that. It is film related. We're keeping this one close to the chest just in case. What will probably happen is that somebody more famous than us will have the same book come out the same day or some shit. So just to scoot away from that knock on wood, I'm going to keep that one a secret. But I have been gathering tons of reviews for Cinema Simnambulist 2. Cinema Simnambulist was my blog turned into a book.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you do that, though, like every film you watch, do you actually sit down afterwards and just write a little review about it?

No. No, I usually write down stuff that fits the theme of what I'm doing.

Okay.

So I write a lot. But I was writing for Scott MacDonald over at Eurocult AV for years. I was reviewing movies for him for years because Doom Movie was the only one that had a free movie. And then I was reviewing the free stuff that I used to get in the early days. That all stopped. I asked very pointedly to a company like, Hey, could you stop sending me Tinto Brass movies and like porn? Because like, I'm not interested. I don't have anyone who can review that at my site.

Right.

So Scott was getting overwhelmed with all the heyday of fricking home media is still going. So he was getting overwhelmed and asked me if I'd write for him. So I got to write a lot of like review.

It forced me to write. As well, if you got all that stuff backed up.

Oh, yeah.

No, yeah.

There might be a few lost reviews over the years, you know, like when you're when you have to revamp your site because it's not it doesn't look good on, you know, whatever new Windows updates or come out or it doesn't look good on cell phones. So both Scott and I have done, you know, different iterations of our websites to keep them relevant to even people seeing them on the line.

Yeah.

He's a big proponent of bag head Jason. And yeah, so she got to see and her husband got to see Friday the 13th, part two. And of course, I just, you know, I'm always falling in love with it.

Right. You're going to go all the way up with her and show her every single one.

You know what I want to do? I told them next time we should do a little divergence and watch Madman.

Yeah, yeah. Or The Burning maybe.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Do those and then come back for part three, you know. But yeah, I think the theme will be, we'll work our way through them.

Kind of sweeten them up as you get to like Jason goes to hell.

Well, you know, that's that's one of my favorites. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a there's a moment I never noticed before in Friday 13th, part two, where they found some bodies, they know that murders are happening or they still I'm sorry, they found the blood, they found the blood in the cabin. And in this darkened room, because all the lights are out, Amy Steele's character sees freaking Jason in the corner with the spear, and he's like moving towards her.

I've, yeah, I've not gone back to that for a long time, man.

Oh, man, it's, you know, it's one of those things, I hope all slasher fans hope all 80s slasher fans feel like I do, where you just, you just feel like Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel were so wrong about slashers. Like, like there was so much crap you could hate on in the 80s, but they're they're, you know, they're two man mission to rip the rug out from under the slasher. Boom, just it's laughable.

I still watch that show they did, Women in Danger on YouTube.

Yeah.

And where they're slagging off pretty much every single slasher film. Hey, that's crazy.

It's fine. I just, I just find it so funny that I just, I think about them all the time because of all the things other than Giallo that I just dig so deep into is there's so few 80s slashers I haven't tracked down yet. I'm saying I've made it a mission. You know, we, you know, you know what I'm talking about. We've made it our mission to catch all of them. And you know, there's some that I'm like, whoa, you know, that's a little too special.

I've recently seen that. Yeah. And it's awful.

I, and I found people who are fans of that.

And I was like, okay, one of my mates is a big fan of that.

Hey, awesome. That's I, it's like me and a film I'm going to watch probably this weekend, Silent Night, Deadly Night 3.

I've never seen that. When I've seen far, even the Toymaker, but the Toymaker is fun.

I think part four, the initiation is truly great. It's a weird movie. Three, I totally understand why people do not like three, but it is very special to me. It's, it's like, it's annoying and boring, but in a way I love.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know it. I know what you're saying. Some of the stuff I like, people hate.

Of course. Yeah.

I know exactly where you're coming from.

You know, like Scream, 1981 is somebody's Silent Night, Deadly Night 3.

Oh man. Scream is awful. That one.

Oh, just wasted potential of a great setting, you know. Yeah.

Because this atmospheric setting is like this ghost town. I think that is.

And then they give these poor actors nothing. They give them no, I can't, they're all one person to me in that whole movie. And just every scene with tension just flops on the floor. Like, blah.

Are there any slashes or jolly films that you can literally not locate that you want to see?

Oh, tons. Slashers, a slasher's not so much. We're very lucky, I think, that you'll find something that doesn't exist. But in terms of Giallo, there's always the lost films. There's always stuff that you're like, oh, this has no reviews on IMDb. Oh, yeah. Japan is the worst for not preserving their films. They weren't interested in preserving a lot of stuff.

There's so much stuff like that now, though. And you've even got slashes like Blood Tracks coming out now.

Oh my God, dude.

I was blown away when I heard that, man.

Every heavy metal slashers, they have like a freaking angel on their shoulder, like freaking Trick or Treat got a Blu-ray, 4K, sold out instantly. Like, there is nothing more like popular to slasher fans than freaking heavy metal slashers. Man, get them all out.

It's got that Hills Have Eyes type vibe as well. Yeah, it's weird. When they're up in the snow, when they're bumping off these hair metal band members. Yeah, I'm all in for that, man.

Yeah. Well, dude, I want to thank you again, as always, for hanging out. It's always great to talk to you.

No worries, man. Always good to be here.

Yay. Why don't you tell folks how to find more Darren?

So, yeah, me and Dirk, we do this channel called Subjective Perspective Collective. We're on pretty much every, on YouTube every week. We do kind of simultaneous thing with Dead Pit as well, Dead Pit Radio. I'm on Visited by Voices 1. We do the Dead End Drive-In where we get to like, like, driving films. It could be anything from the early 60s, 70s and what have you. So we're doing that. So keep a lookout for that. I'm also on Chris C, The Slasher Dudes channel.

Excellent. Well, folks, take it easy. Beware of caped strangers. Unless you're a caped stranger, then hey, do your thing. Bye folks.

Have a good one guys.

Folks, thanks so much for listening to this episode. If you'd like to write in to the show, send an email to DoomedMovieThon at gmail, or hit us up at DoomedMovieThon on Instagram, or at DoomedMovieThon on Twitter, or at DoomedMovieThon at Discord, or go to Hello This Is The Doom Show on Facebook, and message us there.