Earlier this week it was time for this year's first giallo, or at least so I thought, Sergio Martino's
Suspected Death of a Minor aka Morte sospetta di una minorenne. As Martino says in the interview included on Sazuma's dvd that the movie is "poliziesco", not a giallo. According to Martino it was originally supposed to be titled Milano Violenta which sort of closes the case. And I agree, even though it has giallo elements such as murders performed with straight razor. The film however is definitely recommended even if it was little bit slow occasionally. Claudio Cassinelli is good in the main role, and despite the dark subject the film has plenty of humour which actually works. Some political commentary is included, and there are several car chases. Suspected Death of a Minor is not of course the only film where the genre definitions are not that clear. I'd say this one is not a giallo, while I'd call
Blazing Magnum (the name of course is sheer police stuff inspired by
Dirty Harry) one even though that's e.g. left out of the book
Blood and Black Lace.
Sazuma's dvd of Martino's film is recommended as well. The picture quality (naturally anamorphic, 2,35:1) is very good, and it comes with the Italian soundtrack supported by English subtitles. It includes some extras as well; featurette Crime Scene Milan including director Martino as the main one. I only watched the first 2 minutes of the featurette, but I'll get back to that later if needed. It also has audio commentary by film critics but I'm not sure whether I'll ever have time for that (I haven't actually checked whether it is in English in the first place), as well as trailer and poster gallery. "Jewel case" type of packaging is nice looking, and comes with a short essay (in English and in German) by Christian Kessler who is the other one of the critics on the commentary track.
