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The bleak but captivating story of three men who take a woman hostage and hijack a car driven by a man taking his dying son to the hospital. Mario Bava's film was completed posthumously in 1997 by Peter Blumenstock. Told in real time.
Customer Review: Mario Bava's "lost" masterpiece
Being a huge Bava fan, I was eagerly awaiting this departure from horror and fantasy. It was the master's attempt at making a film about the real world and the people in it. After viewing, I think Bava nearly succeeded. Probably the best acting I've seen in a Bava film, this could be due to the fact that it wasn't dubbed. Also, the film shocked me with some incredibly brutal scenes, especially when one kidnapper forces a woman to urinate in front of him, and she DOES!!!. The twist ending was incredible and unexpected. The only real problem I had with the film are all of the little cliches that make me so irritated. For example, the kidnappers are about to fill up the gas tank to their captured car. They're about to get away and then, out of nowhere, a hitch hiker appears desperately needing a ride. And they give her one!!! All in all, if you can handle the annoyances, and the ultra-small subtitles, I think you'll enjoy this "lost" treasure.
Customer Review: The old Lucertola DVD is available again
While this is an impressive film in terms of Bava doing very respectable work in a genre that he wasn't really known for, I wouldn't go so far as to call it a masterpiece. I think that the rarity of this picture has caused it to swell a bit in people's estimation. And Lucertola's restoration is a bit rough around the edges. Still, it's nice to have this available in any form. It's still a treat. There is another cut out there, supervised by Lamberto Bava, under the title "Kidnapped," and I can't understand why that hasn't surfaced on DVD by now. I don't remember how different Stelvio Cipriani's score is on that later restoration - it was supposed to be re-scored. But the music is quite good on the Lucertola version - although the sound quality isn't the best. The major difference between the two versions is the handling of some brief material peripheral to the main action. I don't want to say too much about it, but it really is done better in the later restoration. Some of the performances are actually very good, and I can see why Lea Lander(who was in "Blood and Black Lace" more than a decade earlier, but looks no older here) would have taken a personal interest in bringing this film to light. Riccardo Cucciolla also does a respectable job, playing things very close to his chest for the whole movie. It's too bad about the woman they pick up at the gas station, though. The part is so badly overacted that it's more than a bit distracting. Fortunately, she doesn't last long. So fans of Bava and/or seventies Italo-crime pictures should definitely get this. Just don't listen too much to the hype, because this really is a far more modest picture than you might think from some of what's been written - as is the case with a lot of Bava's work. If the "Kidnapped" version ever becomes available, the rating might go up a notch - but it's a long time ago that I saw it. Hopefully I'll get a chance to reevaluate that cut soon. In the meantime, let's hope that some of Bava's other works get revisited in the DVD format. While its nice to have so many of those films available, the presentation hasn't always been optimal - often far from it. (I'm talking about YOU, Image and VCI.) NOTE: When I ordered this recently it wasn't available through Amazon directly but through the marketplace - Amazon is now listing it at about 36 bucks. I paid $15.50, and if you hit "new and used" and go to the marketplace you can get it at that price too. Tsk Tsk, Amazon.


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