Death Walks Twice - The Films of Luciano Ercoli

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Review added by
Stuart McLean

Death Walks at Midnight / Death Walks in High Heels
Certificate: 18
Running Time: 208 Mins
Retail Price: £39.99
Release Date: 28/03/2016
Content Type: Movie

Synopsis:
Emerging at the peak of the giallo boom of the early 70s, Luciano Ercoli's s Death Walks films are two superlative examples of the genre linked by their shared casting of the stunning Nieves Navarro (billed under her adopted stage name of Susan Scott) as the lead woman in peril.

In Death Walks on High Heels (1971), exotic dancer Nicole (Navarro), the daughter of a murdered jewel thief, finds herself terrorised by a black-clad assailant determined on procuring her father s stolen gems. Fleeing Paris and her knife-wielding pursuer, Nicole arrives in London only to discover that death stalks her at every corner.

Returning in Death Walks at Midnight (1972), Navarro stars as Valentina a model who, in the midst of a drug-fuelled photoshoot, witnesses a brutal murder in the apartment opposite hers. But when it becomes clear that the savage slaying she describes relates to a crime that took place six months earlier, the police are at a loss - forcing Valentina to solve the mystery alone.

Offering up all the glamour, perversity and narrative twists and turns that are typical of the giallo genre at its best, Luciano Ercoli s Death Walks on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight anticipate the super-stylized trappings of Brian De Palma s early psycho thrillers (most notably, Dressed to Kill).

Special Features:
•Limited Edition boxed-set (3000 copies) containing Death Walks on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight
•Brand new 2K restorations of the films from the original camera negatives
•High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
•Original Italian and English soundtracks in mono audio (uncompressed PCM on the Blu-rays)
•Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtracks
•Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtracks
•Limited Edition 60-page booklet containing new writing from authors Danny Shipka (Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France), Troy Howarth (So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films) and writer Leonard Jacobs, illustrated with original archive stills and posters

DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS
•Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas
•Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
•Newly-edited archive interview with director Luciano Ercoli and actress Nieves Navarro
•Master of Giallo brand new interview in which Gastaldi discusses Death Walks on High Heels and offers up his thoughts as to what constitutes a good giallo
•An interview with composer Stelvio Cipriani
•Original Italian trailer
•Original English trailer
•Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx

DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT
•Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas
•Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi
•Extended TV version of the feature [105 mins]
•Crime Does Pay brand new interview in which Gastaldi discusses Death Walks at Midnight and a career script-writing crime films
•Desperately Seeking Susan a visual essay by Michael Mackenzie exploring the distinctive giallo collaborations between director Luciano Ercoli and star Nieves Navarro
•Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx