Don't Torture A Duckling: Limited Edition – Arrow Video (4k UHD)

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: March 24th, 2025 (UK), March 25th, 2025 (USA)
Approximate Running Time: 105 Minutes 7 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: 18 (UK), NR (USA)
Sound: LPCM Mono Italian, LPCM Mono English
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: £29.99 (UK), $49.95 (USA)

"When the sleepy rural village of Accendura is rocked by a series of murders of young boys, the superstitious locals are quick to apportion blame, with the suspects including the local "witch", Maciara (Florinda Bolkan, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin). With the bodies piling up and the community gripped by panic and a thirst for bloody vengeance, two outsiders - city journalist Andrea (Tomas Milian, The Four of the Apocalypse) and spoilt rich girl Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times) - team up to crack the case. But before the mystery is solved, more blood will have been spilled, and not all of it belonging to innocents...” – Synopsis provided by the Distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "The original 35mm camera negatives was scanned in 4K resolution at L'Immagine Ritrovata. The film was restored and graded in SDR, HDR10 and Dolby Vision at Dragon DI.

All materials sourced for this project were made available by Intramovies."

Don't Torture A Duckling comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 91 GB

Feature: 71.6 GB

The source is in excellent shape; it looks phenomenal, and it is a noticeable upgrade over Arrow Video’s 2017 Blu-ray release. Flesh tones look healthy, color saturation, image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image retains an organic look.

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. These two audio tracks are comparable to Arrow Video’s 2017 Blu-ray release. While the sound is clear and devoid of any background hiss or distortion, both tracks exhibit sibilance issues, particularly noticeable during the score. That said, dialogue consistently comes through clearly, and ambient sounds are well represented. Range-wise, the Italian language track sounds somewhat fuller 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 for this release include a theatrical trailer (3 minutes 56 seconds, Dolby Digital mono Italian with removable English subtitles), 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), an archival interview with cinematographer Sergio D’Offizi titled The DP's Eye (46 minutes 21 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian removable English subtitles), an archival interview with actress Florinda Bolkan titled Those Days with Lucio (28 minutes 20 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian removable English subtitles), an archival interview with assistant editor Bruno Micheli titled From the Cutting Table (25 minutes 38 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian removable English subtitles), an archival interview with assistant makeup artist Maurizio Trani titled Endless Torture (16 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian removable English subtitles), two archival 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), an interview with actress Barbara Bouchet titled Who Killed Donald Duck (18 minutes 31 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian removable English subtitles), an archival audio commentary with Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films, reversible cover art, a slipcover (limited to the first pressing), and a 36-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 transfer.

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 makes its way to 4K UHD via a solid release from Arrow Video, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer