So Sweet, So Dead - Code Red (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1972
Director: Roberto Bianchi Montero
Writer: Luigi Angelo
Cast: Farley Granger, Sylva Koscina, Silvano Tranquilli, Annabella Incontrera, Chris Avram, Femi Benussi, Krista Nell, Angela Covello, Fabrizio Moresco, Andrea Scotti, Irene Pollmer, Luciano Rossi, Ivano Staccioli, Nino Foti, Jessica Dublin, Paul Oxon, Philippe Hersent, Nieves Navarro

Release Date: November 17th, 2020
Approximate running time: 100 Minutes 41 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: N/A
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: OOP

"A naked woman is found murdered and mutilated in a prosperous small province town in Southern Italy. But who killed her... and why? Inspector Capuana (Farley Granger; Strangers on a Train, Rope, Arnold) investigates what turns out to be a string of savage murders in which unfaithful women are targeted as they play around behind their husbands' backs. Now the killer, who wears a black fedora, gloves, and trench coat as he stalks and photographs his victims, is becoming more relentless in a depraved quest to purge the world of what he believes to be immoral souls." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "Restored in 2017, with extensive exclusive color correction completed in the U.S."

So Sweet, So Dead comes on a 25 GB single layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 22.9 GB

Feature: 22.4 GB

So Sweet, So Dead already had a solid-looking release from Camera Obscura, who released it on DVD in 2009. Code Red has released it twice on Blu-ray, in 2017 and 2020. The source used for Code Red’s transfer is in excellent shape, outside of a few very minor moments of print debris. Flesh tones look healthy, colors are nicely saturated, image clarity and black levels are solid, compression is very good, and the image retains an organic look.

Audio: 4.25/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in English. This release continues Code Red’s trend of not including Italian-language tracks in Italian films that they have released. That said, there are no issues with distortion or background noise; the dialog comes through clearly, and everything sounds balanced. It should be noted that there are newspaper headlines in Italian, and English subtitles have been included for the newspaper headlines.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer for So Sweet, So Dead (59 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles).

Other extras are theatrical trailers for 2019: After the Fall of New York, Hands of Steel, Cry of a Prostitute, The Big Alligator, and The Death Dealer (Almost Human).

Summary:

Directed by Roberto Bianchi Montero, a prolific filmmaker whose career spanned five decades. His son, Mario Bianchi (Satan’s Baby Doll), was also a filmmaker who directed over 100 films. So Sweet, So Dead has been released under these alternate titles: Revelations of a Sex Maniac to the Head of the Criminal Investigation Division, The Slasher...is the Sex Maniac!, and an X-rated version was released under the title Penetration.

The narrative revolves around a maniac who targets unfaithful wives and leaves incriminating photos of their affairs next to their corpses.

The giallo genre is one of the more resilient genres to emerge from the Italian film industry. The genre first rose to prominence when Mario Bava directed Blood and Black Lace, the Giallo film that set the template for the films that followed. The giallo genre would reach the apex of its popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s. With films like Dario Argento's debut film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, spawning countless imitators By the time Roberto Bianchi Montero directed So Sweet, So Dead, the genre was in decline. Even though Roberto Bianchi Montero worked in just about every film genre, So Sweet, So Dead would mark his only foray into the giallo genre.

So Sweet, So Dead's sleazy tone is quickly established in its opening scene, in which a woman's bloody, naked corpse is on display while the police walk around her looking for clues. In fact, when the women are murdered, the camera often lingers on their semi-naked corpses. Unfortunately, the killings are not as brutal as one would expect from a film as sleazy as So Sweet, So Dead. In fact, the killings come off as clumsy as the killer haphazardly tries to finish off his victims. Of course there is a black-gloved killer and Red Herrings (some more obvious than others). The one area where So Sweet, So Dead slightly diverges from most Gialli from this era is that the main character investigating the killings is a policeman and not an amateur sleuth.

So Sweet, So Dead has many recognizable names, like Nieves Navarro (Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion), Femi Benussi (The Killer Must Kill Again), Annabella Incontrera (The Case of the Bloody Iris), Sylva Koscina (Hercules), and Luciano Rossi (Death Walks at Midnight), who once again turns in yet another delirious performance in the role of Gastone, a morgue attendant. The standout performance is Farley Granger (Strangers on a Train) in the role of Inspector Capuana. He delivers a very good performance that enhances the story at hand.

Does So Sweet, So Dead bring anything new to the giallo genre that has not been done before? And yet, despite its familiarity, So Sweet, So Dead works as well as it does because of the way it exploits genre cliches.

So Sweet, So Dead gets a solid audio/video presentation from Code Red.

Written by Michael Den Boer