Wake up and Kill (Svegliati e uccidi)

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Review added by
Stuart McLean

AKA Wake up and Die
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 124 minutes
Retail Price:
Release Date: 23/11/2015
Content Type: Movie

Synopsis:
Following the recent release of Requiescant, Arrow Video is pleased to announce Carlo Lizzani’s Wake Up And Kill, which comes to Blu-ray and DVD in a brand-new 2K transfer taken from the films original negative.

Scored by Ennio Morricone Wake Up & Kill tells the true story of the notorious Italian bank-robber Luciano Lutring, who committed more than 100 armed robberies during the 1960s. This dual-format DVD and Blu-ray will be on 23rd November 2015.


Synopsis
During the 1960s Luciano Lutring committed more than one hundred armed robberies in Italy and on the French Riviera. To the media he was the ‘machine gun soloist’, a name he’d earned as he kept his weapon in a violin case. To the public he was a Robin Hood figure, one who only targeted the wealthy, stealing more than 35 billion lire during his criminal career.

Wake Up And Kill was the logical extension of such fame. It became the first feature to commit Lutring’s story to celluloid, shooting having begun mere months after his eventual arrest. Capitalising on the breakthrough success of his performance in French television’s The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Robert Hoffmann is perfect as Lutring, bringing just the right amount of charisma and youthful exuberance to his first major big screen role.

Directed by Carlo Lizzani (Requiescant), scored by Ennio Morricone, penned by the future screenwriter of Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, and featuring that film’s star, Gian Maria Volonté, in a key supporting role, Wake Up and Kill’s true-crime thrills serve as an enthralling dry run for the poliziotteschi movies that would follow a few years later.

Special Features:
• Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray and Standard Definition DVD presentations of two versions of the film: the original full-length Italian release, and the shortened English-language cut
• Italian and English soundtracks in uncompressed PCM mono sound on the respective versions of the film
• Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian version
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English cut
• Theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Reinhard Kleist
• Illustrated collector’s booklet containing new writing on the film by Robert Curti, author of Italian Crime Filmography, 1968-1980