MY DEAR KILLER

MY DEAR KILLER

(a.k.a. MIA CARO ASSASSINO; SUMARIO SANGRIENTO DE LA PAQUENA ESTAFANIA)

Insurance investigator Paradisi (Francesco Di Federico, THE LAST DAYS OF MUSSOLINI) ventures out to a swamp in the middle of the Italian countryside. What he's looking for is not clear, but he has someone with him who is operating a bulldozer.

Paradisi asks the bulldozer operator to move in closer to the lake. But the driver turns their digger on Paradisi, ultimately decapitating him.

Cops Peretti (George Hilton, THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS) and Maro (Salvo Randone, SPIRITS OF THE DEAD) are assigned to the case. Initially their suspect is the owner of the bulldozer, but when he turns up hanged Peretti deduces that he too has been murdered.

Much to the annoyance of Peretti's girlfriend Anne, who is trying for a baby and wants more quality time with her partner (even though they don't realise that the killer is spying on their lovemaking), he becomes obsessed with cracking the case.

Peretti's case thickens when he visits Paradisi's widow and finds a mysterious key in the late insurance man's coat pocket.

The widow later discovers that the key belongs to a safety deposit box and telephones Perretti, asking him to meet her at the box. But by the time he gets there she too is dead - but a clue in the form of a child's drawing has been left behind …

The further the cops dig into Paradisi's murder, the more significant the case of a kidnapped girl becomes. In the meantime, murders are shown in flashback, and characters are introduced as either clues or suspects - only to be dispensed of just as quickly.

Which means MY DEAR KILLER is a pretty complex giallo, not always easy to keep with (indeed, at one point Peretti even offers to recap from the top, presumably for the baffled audience's benefit). But rather than be annoying, the non-linear storytelling and winding script are ultimately absorbing.

Though light on gore, MY DEAR KILLER does have a couple of stand-out moments of violence - including a buzzsaw slaying that recalls the climactic axe murder of TENEBRAE. Speaking of Argento, the entire "buzzsaw" sequence is very Argento-esque indeed: the killer's black gloves; the camera acting as the murderer's point of view; the long tracking shots; the vulnerable damsel; the attention to detail when the killer uses a payphone to torment his victim. Elsewhere, the film as a whole has more in common with the gialli of Sergio Martino.

Benefiting from a great score by Ennio Morricone and likeable lead performances, MY DEAR KILLER is an endearing Italian whodunit that is long overdue on UK DVD.

Kudos to Shameless then for rectifying that latter point.

Their disc includes the full uncut version of the film in a nice anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer. There is some minor speckling on occasion, and images are slightly soft, but overall this is a bright and clean presentation.

I haven't seen the Region 1 disc to compare, but I hear from various sources that the Shameless disc's presentation is easily the better of the two.

The English dubbed audio is presented in mono, and is consistently audible (although there is minor background hiss).

A static scene-selection menu allows access to the main feature via 12 chapters.

The only extras on the disc are a trailer for MY DEAR KILLER, plus trailers for other Shameless titles: TORSO, THE BLACK CAT, BABA YAGA, WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS, NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS and RATMAN.

As is the norm for Shameless releases, there's the added attraction of a double-sided cover housed in one of those gorgeous yellow keepcases.

MY DEAR KILLER is one of the better non-Argento gialli from the 1970s and is definitely worth adding to the collection of any serious Italian exploitation film fan. For superior visual presentation alone, Shameless' release is the way to go.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Shameless
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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