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Death Carries a Cane AKA Passi Di Danza Su Una Lama Di Rasoio AKA Pasos de danza sobre el filo de una navaja AKA Tormenter (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - United Kingdom - Powerhouse Films Review written by and copyright: Rick Curzon (8th September 2025). |
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The Film
 Robert Hoffmann (A Black Veil for Lisa), Nieves Navarro aka Susan Scott (The Big Gundown), and George Martín (A Pistol for Ringo) star in Death Carries a Cane, a stylish giallo mystery from director Maurizio Pradeaux (Churchill’s Leopards). Tourist Kitty (Navarro) stumbles upon a murder whilst looking through coin-operated binoculars. When witnesses start being gruesomely bumped off, Kitty teams up with boyfriend Alberto (Hoffmann) to try and find the black-clad killer ... if he doesn’t find her first! With supporting performances from Rosita Torosh (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) and Simón Andreu (The Blood Spattered Bride), Death Carries a Cane is a bloody and shocking classic of Italian genre cinema.
Video
Fairly typical Giallo benefits from great cinematography, loud '70s fashions, an effective score, decent performances and plenty of red herrings. It has all the usual tropes one would expect: labyrinthian plot, nonsensical actions from characters, daffy psychological explantion of the killer doing their thing, people screaming, brief bloody moments, red paint blood, several sex scenes and nudity, great set dressing. It's not one of the best but equally it's not one of the worst. Death Carries a Cane was scanned in 4K at Augustus Color in Rome using the original 35mm negative. 4K HDR colour correction and restoration work was undertaken at Filmfinity, London, where Phoenix image-processing tools were used to remove many thousands of instances of dirt, eliminate scratches and other imperfections, as well as repair damaged frames. No grain management, edge enhancement or sharpening tools were employed to artificially alter the image in any way. Audio conform and restoration work on the Italian and English tracks was carried out by Michael Brooke using iZotope RX 10.The film visually is fairly naturalistic and run of the mill for the period, none (or at least very little) of the stylistic approaches of Argento's or Fulci's films around this time. It has a rich, vivid colour palette with healthy primaries. The 4K transfer ensures great delineation of colours with no edge bleeding with superb detail across all focal planes. As is pointed out on the commentary by Troy Howarth; in the last it's been seen in sub standard editions and this new transfer ought to be an eye opener for those fans who've seen the earlier releases. This is a very slick production with fine cinematography without being outstanding on that score. Black levels and contrast are in perfct balance creating a reference level transfer for a film of this ilk and era. As is said in the blurb there's no digital tinkering her and the encode is - as always - superb ensuring that it looks filmic and with plenty of well handled grain (for the 1080p24 format 'A+' - obviously the simultaneous 4K UHD BD will be a step up yet again with HDR - 'A' when set against that). 1080p24 / AVC MPEG-4 / BD50 / 1.85:1 / 91:19
Audio
English DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 (48kHz, 24-bit) Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 (48kHz, 24-bit) Subtitles: English (for Italian Track), English HoH (for English Track) Sound is as usual for these kind of films mono, limited in range but it sounds as good as it's possible to sound. Lots of work has been done to ensure that they sound naturalistic and purely analogue with the usual extremely low-level hiss primarily heard when the volume is cranked up, but no distortion. Sound design for these mono tracks is obviously expert in balancing the mixing of dialogue, music and sound effects ensuring clarity. Both the Italian and English tracks sound similar with the latter being preferable as it was the language spoken on set and matches the lip movements well. As good as can be considering the production limitations. Both sets of subtitles are expertly handled and comprehensive ('B+')
Extras
Audio commentary with film historians Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth and Nathanial Thompson (2024) Ercolani seems to be the moderator here with the others seemingly joining him via a remote connection and he takes a back seat much of the time only appearing very occasionally (he contributes a most interesting bit about a popular Italian dubbing artist). The track kicks off discussing the career of Maurizio Pradeaux and his relatively low impact on cinema; he only made seven films and worked in several different genres (westerns, war etc). Topics covered: the title of the film in different territories, the cast and their careers and filmographies (Navvarro, Martin, Hoffman, Rossi, Borgese etc), how the film feels like a Luciano Ercoli film in some ways, the films home video history, the cinematography, the plot, it's structure and red herrings, the role of police sequences in gialli and how they're usually quite dull, sex scenes and their popularity in these films, where the film sits in the life cycle of the giallo and it's relevance a viable genre in the late '70s and how some films had hardcore inserts amongst many other interesting avenues of analysis and discussion. If there are any criticisms here it's that Thompson's feed is a little more quieter and muffled (only slightly) and he can speak a little too quickly which had me rewinding at times. Ported across from the Vinegar Syndrome release. Presented in lossy English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (48kHz, 192Kbps) "A Life in the Suite: A Featurette by Eugenio Ercolani" 2024 interview with editor Eugenio Alabiso (21:19) A featurette ported over from the Vinegar Syndrome release from last year. Alabiso was uncredited for his work on Death Carries a Cane and begins by relating how he got into the industry due to his brother being the assistant to editor Roberto Cinquini who was well respected and experienced working with many top directors. He started out working as an assistant on Mino Loy documentaries in the early sixties before moving on when Cinquini died to working with Mario Serandrei, who worked with Sergio Leone. When Serandrei screwed up a shootout on For a Few Dollars More, Alabiso stepped in and was hired in his stead which boosted his career (he did The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,). He went on to work on 184 films as editor by the time he retired in the early 21st century (working with Loy again); he worked on many Sergio Martino and Umberto Lenzi films; Sergio Corbucci was apparently tough. Presented in 1080p24 1.78:1 with lossy Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (48kHz, 112Kbps) with optional English subtitles. "The Devil Wears Pradeaux: Eugenio Ercolani on Maurizio Pradeaux and Death Carries a Cane" 2025 interview (15:08) "Symphonies of Sleaze: Pierpaolo De Sanctis on Composer Roberto Pregadio" 2025 interview (16:43) Two new featurettes totalling 31:51 with the first being an interview with journalist and film historian Ercolani discussing director Radeaux and Death Carries a Cane. This makes up for his subdued appearance on the Vinegar Syndrome commentary. He's a clear, articulate interview subject placing the film in context of its contemporaries and genre also covering several other ancillary individuals. Amusingly, Ercolani reminded me of a younger version of my long time friend, New York musician Bob Gaulke! In any case it's a first class featurette that works well as a great primer for the film itself and the first time I've come across a historian describing several Italian directors as ruthless, mercenary professionals without much scruples. Presented in 1080p24 1.78:1 with lossy English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (48kHz, 112Kbps) and no subtitle options. The second piece focusses on Death Carries a Cane's score with film historian De Sanctis focussing in composer Pragadio. We get a nice career and life overview (1928-2010) and most interestingly he was well known in Italy for being a conductor on the RAI television series La Corrida which ran from 1986-2020. Not a particularly renowned or remembered composer but I found this interview very interesting and I liked his scoring of Death Carries a Cane; one of the more successful aspects of the film for me. Presented in 1080p24 1.78:1 with lossy Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (48kHz, 192Kbps) with optional English subtitles. Tormenter VHS Opening Titles (3:10) Scrappy retitling taken from VHS so presented in upscaled 1080p24 1.78:1 with lossy English Dolby Digital 1.0 (48kHz, 192Kbps) and no subtitle options. German Theatrical Trailer (2:45) Vintage German promo presented in 1080p 1.85:1 with lossy German Dolby Digital 1.0 (48kHz, 192Kbps) with optional English subtitles. Death Carries a Cane Image Gallery: Original Promotional Material (53 images) The usual sizeable HD still gallery with plenty of nice images. 80-page liner notes book with new essay by Roberto Curti, archival interviews with Nieves Navarro, Robert Hoffmann and George Martín and full film credits A nice collection of articles headed by the new essay which gives a decent overview of the production. Additional flavour, perspective and insight is provided by the interviews.
Packaging
Not sent for review.i
Overall
A fairly middle of the road Giallo that has traditional not been well served by home video masters in the past gets the super-deluxe 4K treatment here in a stunning new restoration that makes this a reference level disc for a film of this vintage and in 1080p24. Image and sound are as strong as can be expected with the image presumably getting a bigger boost due to additional resolution and HDR in Powerhouse's UHD BD release (not sent for review). Extras are also very welcome with some coming from the 2024 Vinegar Syndrome release but also some new material exclusive to the Powerhouse Indicator disc. For fans of Gialli and Italian and / or international cinema this is a must-have building on the VS release and added new content ('A').
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