Mark Turner When looking into this film before watching it I kept seeing it referred to as a giallo film, those Italian films that featured a killer being hunted by police or more often someone affected by their murders. While watching it I found it felt less like a giallo and more like one of the police action films that seemed to pour out of Italy in the 70s known as Poliziesco (police thriller). The end result will be up to each viewer to decide.The film opens with a young woman on the run, a prostitute who is followed and found and quickly killed by a sunglass wearing killer. A man she bumped into at a dance hall begins looking into her death and it isn't until later in the film we discover he is police detective Paolo Germi (Claudio Cassinelli). Recruiting the help of a street thief named Giannino he begins a rather strange investigation of the situation.Germi is unlike most detectives in that he has his own way of doing things. He inserts himself into the criminal world and isn't averse to opening fire when need be or slugging his way out of a situation. While not quite the vigilante style that audiences have come to associate with characters like Dirty Harry he does tend to ignore a number of laws while seeking out who the killer is.Along the way Germi learns that there is more to the case than a simple murder of a prostitute. It all revolves around a teenage prostitution ring and the powerful man behind it all. You know that a face off will eventually come, the only question being who will walk away from it unscathed? The film features two items that fill a lot of screen time, one different than most and the other part and parcel of the genre. The humor in the film is what is unusual, even more so when it's not limited to Germi's sidekick but includes him as well. A running gag about him constantly breaking his glasses is a nice twist. The second and more common item is a lengthy car chase and this film has more than one. One of them brings these two elements together as Germi and Giannino toss the doors of Germi's car at a pursuing police car since Germi is undercover.In the end the movie is an enjoyable film to watch and entertains from the beginning to the end. The end itself is quite satisfying after having watched the rest of the film. Cassinelli never had the chance to make his way to starring in U.S. films because his life was cut short in a tragic helicopter crash 10 years after this film was made. He shows the potential to become a world class star here and it's sad he never had the opportunity.Arrow Video has done their usual bang up job for this release. To start with they're offering a brand new 2k restoration of the film from the original camera negative meaning you get the best picture quality for this film ever. Extras include a new commentary track by Troy Howarth (the author of SO DEADLY, SO PERVERSE: 50 YEARS OF Italian GIALLO FILMS), new interviews with director Sergio Martino and cinematographer Giancarlo Ferrando, a reversible sleeve with newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon and with the first pressing only an illustrated collector's booklet with new writing by Barry Forshaw.

gavin6942 A young prostitute is found brutally killed and is up to detective Germi (Claudio Cassinelli) the investigation of the case, as the search progress he uncovers a girls trafficking ring with connections to powerful people.The script comes from Ernesto Gastaldi, possibly the most prolific writer in the Italian film industry. He wrote scripts for Bava, Fulci, Leone and more. If he has not written an autobiography, he really should... few scribes can claim to have put so many trashy masterpieces on the screen. Director Sergio Martino claims he added to the script and "changed it radically", though it is evident that the vast majority is Gastaldi's work.Martino was responsible for possibly the best-named giallo film out here, "Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key" (1972). This one is also usually called a giallo, though it may blur the line with a police procedural. Typically, a giallo protagonist is a common person, or at most a journalist, but rarely a police officer -- someone who should actually be involved in a mystery.Sergio and his brother, producer Luciano Martino, were the grandsons of director Gennaro Righelli, who directed the first Italian sound film, "The Song of Love" (1930). While the Martino brothers worked heavily in cult and genre films, there is no denying they had a deep family history in cinema.This may be Claudio Cassinelli's best-known film. He did go on to appear in "The Mountain of the Cannibal God" (1978) and "Hands of Steel" (1986), both directed by Martino. In fact, he tragically died in a helicopter crash while making the latter film, an event that Martino talks about in length on the Blu-ray.The 2017 Arrow Blu-ray has a brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative, with the sound either mono Italian or English (your choice). We get a new audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of "So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films". And, last but certainly not least, a new 42-minute interview with co-writer/director Sergio Martino. Oddly, Barbara Magnolfi was not interviewed, despite her being generally accessible.

MARIO GAUCI I had never heard of this before its Sazuma "Special Edition" DVD came along (though I actually acquired it recently from ulterior sources); consequently, I took the film to be a very minor Martino effort – so that I went into it without much expectations. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable it all turned out to be – more so, in fact, than some of the director's more popular titles…though I can see how anyone hoping for a typical giallo will be confused and disappointed by its overriding poliziottesco elements, and even more so the sometimes daft comedy touches (on which I'll elaborate later on). Thematically, SUSPECTED DEATH OF A MINOR is an unofficial companion to the Massimo Dallamano trilogy of gialli revolving around teenage prostitution rackets – WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? (1972), WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? (1974) and RINGS OF FEAR (1978; completed by Alberto Negrin after the film-maker's tragic demise in a road accident); in that regard, it's hardly original, but Martino (whose last genre outing this proved to be) lends it his customary flair – aided a great deal by a splendid Goblinesque score courtesy of the obscure Luciano Michelini. Casting is another asset, led by Claudio Cassinelli – who would himself suffer an untimely death 10 years later in a helicopter crash while filming another Martino film! – as the unconventional hero (forever breaking his spectacles, he starts off as mystery-man and rogue but is eventually revealed to be a special undercover cop), Mel Ferrer as his long-suffering superior, and Massimo Girotti as the obligatory would-be respectable but all-powerful businessman pulling the strings. While there are obviously a number of female figures here (though, uncharacteristically, little nudity), none really emerges to take center-stage – including late starlet Jenny Tamburi who, despite a severely underwritten role, is still given an unwarranted cruel fate! The film comes to life principally in a handful of well-staged set-pieces, which take the form of chases rather than murders – an assassination attempt aboard a roller-coaster ride, a cliff-hanging sequence involving the opening roof of a cinema (which, according to an online review, is showing Martino's own YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY [1972]!), and the climactic across-the-water showdown between Cassinelli and Girotti. However, the most memorable (because it is so unexpected) certainly emerges the comical one in which the hero and his petty-thief pal take the Police on a wild ride – driving a rickety machine whose doors are constantly getting dislodged, Cassinelli asks his companion to throw them at their pursuers…but there's also a bit where a man riding a bike is left with a mere tricycle following a brush with the speeding vehicles and another which, hilariously, has a hit-and-run victim literally land and roll (repeatedly) on his head!

Rapeman Sergio Martino's name is pretty well known amongst Giallo and Italian exploitation fans - he's directed such classic Gialli as Torso, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, Case of the Scorpion's Tail and All the Colors of the Dark. He's also made some first-rate trash, namely Mountain of the Cannibal God, 2019: After the Fall of New York, Atomic Cyborg and The Great Alligator. Suspected Death of a Minor is one of Martino's less recognized films as it has never, until now, received a widespread release. Sazuma Productions present here an uncut and restored version of this long-lost piece of Italian genre cinema.When a prostitute is found brutally murdered in a sleazy boarding house, renegade Inspector Paolo Germi (Claudio Cassinelli) teams up with petty thief and pickpocket Teti (Gianfranco Barra) to investigate. The trail leads them to discover a series of interlinking crimes including an underage prostitution racket, blackmail, kidnapping, incest and drugs. The plot is extremely convoluted, with many surprises along the way.This film is a unique blend of the Giallo and Poliziesco (police thriller) genres with the odd touch of bizarre comedy. There is your Giallo-style killer who wears mirrored sunglasses and slashes up women with a switchblade (although, overall there's very little blood in this flick) but he's only seen in a few scenes as the police investigations take center stage here. Although Germi doesn't go about police business the usual way, he's more like Dirty Harry or something, he shoots at civilians, sleeps with hookers, and even leads members of his own police force on a huge car-chase during which he tells his passenger to rip off the car doors (his car's a piece of sh!t) and throw them at the car behind him! There's also other comedic elements during this car chase - they smash into one dude on a bike and he's left riding a unicycle, another guy narrowly avoids getting hit by jumping out of the way and when he falls he spins on his head a coupla times like a break-dancer (?!).The film is extremely well shot with gorgeous cinematography by frequent Martino collaborator Giancarlo Ferrando, and an excellent Goblin-esquire score by Luciano Michelini.Italian exploit fans will recognize a few familiar faces here too: Claudio Cassinelli (Flavia the Heretic, Mountain of the Cannibal God, and Lucio Fulci's The New Gladiators and Murder Rock). Mel Ferrer (both Lenzi and Hooper's Eaten Alive films, Nightmare City, The Great Alligator). Jenny Tamburi (Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes, The Sinful Nuns of Saint Valentine, Women in Cell Block 7). And the Assistant Director was Michele Massimo Tarantini (Massacre in Dinosaur Valley, Women in Fury).Overall, an OK film but probably more for fans of the Poliziesco genre than Giallo as its definitely more police / action orientated. 6/10