By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Perennial Italian genre director Umberto Lenzi helmed a series of shocking, sexy thrillers with American actress Carroll Baker, and now they’re all coming in a Blu-ray boxed set.
Severin Films has announced the June 30 release of THE COMPLETE LENZI BAKER GIALLO COLLECTION, a limited edition (4,000 units) containing four films and plenty of supplements on six discs. The movies are: ORGASMO (1969), scanned from the internegative of Lenzi’s director’s cut for the first time on Blu-ray; SO SWEET…SO PERVERSE (1969), executive-produced by Sergio Martino from a script by Ernesto Gastaldi, fully restored in a new 2K scan from the original negative; A QUIET PLACE TO KILL (1970), scanned from the original camera negative for the first time ever in America; and KNIFE OF ICE (pictured, 1972), scanned in 2K from the original negative. The films are all presented at 2.35:1 with Italian and English soundtracks; the special features are:
ORGASMO:
- Audio commentary by film critic, author and academic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- U.S. X-rated version PARANOIA + SDH subtitles
- Audio commentary by Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth, Author of SO DEADLY, SO PERVERSE: 50 YEARS OF ITALIAN GIALLO FILMS
- “Giallo Fever”: Interview with director Umberto Lenzi
- U.S. trailer
SO SWEET…SO PERVERSE:
- Audio commentary by Kat Ellinger, author of ALL THE COLORS OF SERGIO MARTINO
- “Lenzi’s Lenses”: Backstage chat with the director at the 1999 Nocturno Film Festival
- “Equilateral Triangle”: Screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi on Lenzi
- Trailers
- Alternate Credit sequence
A QUIET PLACE TO KILL
- Audio commentary by author and critic Samm Deighan
- “Sex and Conspiracy”: Interview with director Umberto Lenzi
- Alternate credit sequence
- Alternate clothed scene
- Short deleted scene
KNIFE OF ICE
- “Carroll and Umberto’s Final Stab”: Interview with Stephen Thrower, author of NIGHTMARE USA
- “Until the Silence Screams”: Interview with director Umberto Lenzi
- Trailer
- Alternate credit sequence
Also included are two remastered soundtrack CDs: ORGASMO and SO SWEET…SO PERVERSE & A QUIET PLACE TO KILL, the latter with the KNIFE OF ICE main title theme. The set is also available from the Severin webstore in a bundle with a PARANOIA T-shirt; the first 1,000 orders from the store will come with four postcards of the individual movie key arts.