For rabid fans of Italian director and master of the macabre- Dario Argento’s Deep Cuts, out now on Blu-ray from Severin, is a 4-disc set and a treasure trove of mouth-watering rarities and cinematic lunacy.
From his successful 1972 RAI TV broadcast Door into Darkness. Dario Argento hosted the series a la Alfred Hitchcock. It was an anthology of four 60-minute thrillers shot in 16mm on small budgets and heavily supervised by the censors at the time.
The Neighbor, directed by Luigi Cozzi is about a married couple and their baby who move into their new seaside home only to get their car stuck in the sand; find the electricity and phone are out and that their upstairs neighbor has just murdered his wife. The Tram, directed by Argento, under a pseudonym, is about a police inspector (Enzo Cerusico) trying to uncover how a young woman was murdered on a tram during a night run and no one noticed. He recreates her last ride with the same passengers which ends up putting he (and his girlfriend) in great danger. The Doll, directed by Mario Foglietti, is about a dangerous escapee from a mental hospital and a woman followed home by a strange man who breaks into her home and holds her captive. The final episode- Eyewitness was eventually directed by Argento when the original director didn’t work out (he left that director’s name on the credits anyway). It’s about Roberta (the gorgeous Marilu Tolo, who Argento had a two-year romance with). While driving one night a woman stumbles out in front of the car. When Roberta gets out of the car she finds the woman has been shot and a man emerges from the bushes holding a gun and she flees in fear. Unfortunately, the police neither find a body nor blood or a witness and seem to discount Roberta’s account. Meanwhile a killer closes in on her. These episodes were a huge hit at the time, but Argento mercifully went back to films where he faced less challenges from censors. (Excellent audio commentary by Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson on Tram and Eyewitness).
An extra “A Streetcar Named Fear” has Dario describing the experience of doing the TV series Door into Darkness and some fascinating facts about the cast and crew. “On the Other Side of the Door” is an interesting 33-minute interview with screenwriter and director (and long-time Argento friend)- Luigi Cozzi, who describes the challenges working on the series. Master of Horror is an illuminating 87-minute documentary on the filmmaker. Directed by Dario Argento: My Cinema (1 & 2) is about the different films of Dario Argento including his comments about the movies and what inspired him to write them.
On the third disc is the series Dario Argento produced for RAI 2 in 1987 called “Giallo.” Enzo Tortoro was a beloved, very popular TV host who went through a scandalous and highly publicized trial, accused of being a cocaine dealer. It was a ludicrous, baseless accusation, but he spent many months in jail before all the charges were dropped. He was even given apologies from the judge. His first project for TV afterwards was “Giallo,” which Dario Argento became involved in. Includes was “Night Shift,” comprised of little 15 to 18-minute thrillers directed by friends of Argento like Lamberto Bava or Luigi Cozzi, centered around a group of cab drivers on the night shift. The cab drivers all use their deductive skills to solve the murders they encounter. They include ones entitled “Heavy Metal,” “The Kidnapped Child,” “Lights, Camera, Death,” “Murder Rock,” and “Christmas Giallo,” starring beautiful Daria Nicolodi (once romantically involved with Argento and co-screenwriter of Suspiria) and their daughter Asia Argento. The extras on that disc include an interview with Dario Argento. One with Lamberto Bava, who directed several episodes. An interview with Luigi Cozzi and one with screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti and actress Antonella Vitale who played the scrappy cabbie “Calypso 9.”
There’s a running bit about a glowing ghost cab too in this entertaining series.
The fourth disc includes “Dario Argento’s Nightmares,” where Dario is shown with actress Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni (Opera) hanging all over him while he introduces 3-minute “nightmares” and then encourages viewers to send in their own photos so, in the future, he could star them in these shorts. One episode is an homage to the movie Rear Window but includes snakes. One memorably creepy one is about a cat virus that causes people to sprout worms out of their eyeballs. He does include a young male (who wrote in) and features him in one where, as a guest of the show, he is housed in a seedy hotel and has to sleep in a room full of scary, homeless men. The vagrants steal his wallet and passport and eventually attack him while he tries to sleep. A young girl, who also sent in her photo, stars as a sweet kid who is surprised by “Father Christmas” appearing in her room at night, who then rips off his face to reveal he’s an alien monster. They are all really nuts and end with a studio audience clapping away. This disc also includes an entire “Giallo” program where Dario interviews Anthony Perkins, Pink Floyd, actress Mirella D’Angelo (Tenebrae) and sends Luigi Cozzi to Loch Ness in search of the legendary sea monster.
