Don’t Torture a Duckling – Arrow Video (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1972
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Gianfranco Clerici, Lucio Fulci, Roberto Gianviti
Cast: Florinda Bolkan, Barbara Bouchet, Tomas Milian, Irene Papas, Marc Porel

Release Date: September 25th, 2017 (UK), October 3rd, 2017 (USA)
Approximate running time: 105 Minutes 6 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: 18 (UK), NR (USA)
Sound: LPCM Mono Italian, LPCM Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region A,B/Region 1,2 NTSC
Retail Price: £24.99 (UK), $39.95 (USA)

"Exploitation horror from Italian director Lucio Fulci in which a series of murders in a small Sicilian town bring its inhabitants under suspicion. With the police baffled by the strangulation of a preadolescent boy, newspaper reporter Andrea Martelli (Tomas Milian) begins an amateur investigation into the murder.

A number of suspects present themselves: Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet), a socialite hiding out in the town until a drugs scandal blows over; Maciara (Florinada Bolkan), a beautiful young woman who dabbles in black magic; and Giuseppe (Vito Passeri), the town outsider. As the body count begins to rise, can Andrea get to the bottom of the scandal before yet more lives are lost?" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "Don't Torture a Duckling was digitally restored in 2K throughout the entire workflow. For this restoration the original 2-perf Techniscope Eastman camera picture negative and a 4-perf 35mm duplicate negative were used. Since the film elements could not leave the country, the scanning was done at LVR Digital in Rome, Italy on a 2K DSX Cintel Scanner.

Once the conforming of the Techniscope frames were completed, extensive color re-timing of the digital scan files of the Eastman OCN was performed to match the correct values of the Technicolor prints. The graded DPX files were then subject to numerous stages of clean-up of dust and debris and the restoration of the image to repair and correct tears, warps, scratches and wire scratches, water and chemical stains, as well as all instances of picture instability. The picture restoration was completed in 2015 by TLEFilms Film Restoration and Preservation Services, Germany."

Don’t Torture a Duckling comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 45.2 GB

Feature: 24.4 GB

A lot of work has gone into the restoration that is used for this transfer. And the end result is easily the best this film has looked to date on home video. Colors and flesh tones look accurate; image clarity and black levels are solid; there are no issues with compression; and grain remains intact.

Audio: 4/5 (LPCM Mono Italian), 3.75./5 (LPCM Mono English)

This release comes with two audio options, a LPCM mono mix in Italian and a LPCM mono mix in English. Both audio tracks sound clean, clear, and balanced. That said, the Italian language track sounds more robust than the English language track. This release includes removable English SDH for the English language track as well as removable English for the Italian language track.

Extras:

Extras on the Blu-ray and DVD include a video essay titled Giallo a la Campagna with Mikel J. Koven, author of La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film (27 minutes 44 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), a video essay titled Hell is Already in Us with film critic Kat Ellinger (20 minutes 30 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), two audio interviews with Lucio Fulci titled Lucio Fulci Remembers (20 minutes 13 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian removable English subtitles) and (13 minutes 12 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian removable English subtitles) and an audio commentary with Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films.

Extras that are exclusive the Blu-ray include an interview with actress Florinda Bolkan titled Those Days with Lucio (28 minutes 20 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian removable English subtitles), an interview with cinematographer Sergio D’Offizi titled The DP's Eye (46 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian removable English subtitles), an interview with assistant editor Bruno Micheli titled From the Cutting Table (25 minutes 38 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian removable English subtitles) and an interview with assistant makeup artist Maurizio Trani titled Endless Torture (16 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian removable English subtitles).

Rounding out the extras are reversible cover art, a slipcover (limited to the first pressing), and a thirty-six page booklet (limited to the first pressing) with cast and crew information, an essay titled Lucio Fulci’s Dark Dream written by Barry Forshaw, an essay titled In Sunshine and in Shadow: The Film Music of Riz Ortolani written by Howard Hughes, and information about the restoration.

Included with this release is a DVD that has the same content as the Blu-ray included as part of this combo release, except for the aforementioned four interviews that are exclusive to the Blu-ray disc.

Summary:

Lucio Fulci is primarily remembered for his trilogy of zombie films that he made in the late 1970s and early 1980s. From 1979's Zombie to his death in 1996, his films were filled with gore and violence, cementing his reputation as the "godfather of gore." It is this latter period that most audiences outside of Italy are most familiar with, unaware of his pre-zombie films that should have made him more than just a director for hire. During his career, Fulci would only direct a handful of giallo films, including One on Top of the Other, Lizard in a Woman’s Skin, Don’t Torture a Duckling, Seven Notes in Black, The New York Ripper, and Murderock.

The giallo genre Lucio Fulci would achieve his greatest success as an artist, crafting some of the best films of his career. Don’t Torture a Duckling was originally released in 1972 but was blacklisted because of its controversial story, which led to its limited release in Europe. It never received a release in America, and Anchor Bay’s DVD marked Don’t Torture a Duckling's arrival on American shores.

Murder is one of the central themes that is present in all gialli, and the majority of gialli are populated by adult characters. Don’t Torture a Duckling is an exception, with this film focusing on a murderer of children, which adds to Don’t Torture a Duckling's sinister premise. As far back as 1931, films like Fritz Lang's M dealt with the death of a child at the hands of a madman. It's no surprise that Don't Torture a Duckling sparked controversy when it was first released because murdering children is still an issue that is more prevalent today than ever.

The score by Riz Ortolani is one of his most memorable, giving Don't Torture a Duckling a melancholy feel that mirrored the film's loss of innocence. And though Don’t Torture a Duckling is not as gory as Lucio Fulci's later films, there are still a few sadistic moments, like when Maciara, an outcast, is whipped in a cemetery by the townspeople who believe she is the reason their children are dying. This scene is one of Lucio Fulci’s most brutal and haunting scenes that he ever filmed. That said, Lucio Fulci keeps most of the violence in the background while he focuses more on character and story. Also, the scenic country landscapes are beautifully shot, as Lucio Fulci uses every inch of the scope frame.

The lack of budget has plagued Lucio Fulci for the majority of his career, in contrast to his contemporary Dario Argento, who has been blessed with a larger budget and stronger casts. Fortunately, Don’t Torture a Duckling features the best cast Lucio Fulci would ever work with and a solid screenplay that tells a compelling story filled with religious and sexual undertones. And unlike most gialli that try to copy Dario Argento’s style, Don’t Torture a Duckling does not do this, and because of this, Don’t Torture a Duckling succeeds where others have failed in part due to their inability to create a fresh take on the genre.

Don’t Torture a Duckling gets a definitive release from Arrow Video, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer