Puzzle – VCI Entertainment (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1974
Director: Duccio Tessari
Writers: Bruno Di Geronimo, Duccio Tessari, Ernesto Gastaldi, Roberto Infascelli
Cast: Senta Berger, Luc Merenda, Umberto Orsini, Bruno Corazzari, Anita Strindberg, Rosario Borelli, Duilio Cruciani
Release Date: June 8th, 2021
Approximate Running Time: 91 Minutes 43 seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVCC
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital Mono English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $29.95
"Stranded in London with no memory and no identity that he can recall, a man who believes his name is Peter (Luc Merenda) struggles with amnesia after a car accident. With little information to help him solve the puzzle of who he is, an attempted murder and a strange series of events lead him to the discovery that his name is in fact Ted and that he has a beautiful wife, Sara (Senta Berger), waiting for him in the world-famous Italian resort town of Portofino.
Traveling to Italy in the hope of unravelling the mystery of his identity, he finds that the hurt, lonely Sara - believing that she had been abandoned by her husband knowingly - has made tentative steps to rebuild her life with the help of her best friends Whiskey the dog and Luca (Duilio Cruciani), the straight-talking and slightly infatuated young child to whom she lives next door to." - synopsis provided by the distributor
Video: 3/5
Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, “New 4K Restoration from 35mm Archival Print”.
Puzzle comes on a 25 GB single layer Blu-ray.
Disc Size: 21 GB
Feature: 18.8 GB
The source used for this transfer looks clean and any source related damage is minimal. Though colors look very good, there are noticeable instances where colors fluctuate. The image generally looks crisp, black levels are adequate and there is compression related issues, most notable during darker scenes. Also, it should-be noted that this transfer incorrectly frames the image in a 2.00:1 aspect ratio instead of its intended 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
Video: 3.5/5
This release comes with one audio option, a Dolby Digital mono mix in English and included with this release are removable English SDH subtitles. The audio sounds clean, clear and balanced.
Extras:
Extras for this release include Italian (3 minutes 10 seconds, no English subtitles) and English (2 minutes 44 seconds) language trailers for The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, Italian (3 minutes 21 seconds, no English subtitles) and English (1 minute) language trailers for Blood and Black Lace, a Giallo poster gallery, an audio commentary with Kat Ellinger editor-in-Chief of DiaboliqueMagazine.com and Daughters of Darkness podcast host and a six-page leaflet with an essay titled Friends, Lovers and Sneezing Villains: Betrayals and Alliances in Duccio Tessari’s Puzzle written by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas.
Also, included with this release is a DVD that contains the same contents that are on the Blu-ray.
Summary:
Puzzle of one of three exceptional gialli directed by Duccio Tessari. The other two films being Death Occurred Last Night and The Bloodstained Butterfly. And though Puzzle like his other two gialli has many of the elements that are synonymous with this genre. The result is a film that is actually closer to an Alfred Hitchcock thriller than a giallo.
Without a doubt, Puzzle’s greatest asset is its premise that revolves around a protagonist who’s trying to remember his memories. And though there are glimpses along the way that fill in the protagonist's past. The narrative does a great job holding back the most important piece of information about the protagonist until the finale.
From a production standpoint, there’s not an area where Puzzle does not excel. The premise is superbly realized and the performances are all very good, especially Luc Merenda in the role of the protagonist who has amnesia. Other strengths include Duccio Tessari’s rock solid direction and composer Gianni Ferrio’s score perfectly reinforces the mood.
Puzzle makes its way to Blu-ray via a sub par release from VCI Entertainment that leaves a lot of room for improvement.
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