I've read some amazing stuff about this 1974 giallo with Senta Berger. Any opinions?

Just received mine thru the post from ABSURD a Danish web retailer. The image quality is superb, but the English language track is full of hisses, while not to distracting, nevertheless it's there. On the other hand, the Italian soundtrack is spot on. Some good extras and generally overall a very pleasant disc.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but there is no English subtitles on this disc correct? I didn't come across any while watching it, as it would have been great to watch the Italian audio with the subs..

Yeah, I'm afraid there are no English subs, which is a shame, as the English audio track is not in the best condition.

For those who are interested, my review is here.

Nice review. It does have some hallucinatory-esque dream sequences where Luc Merenda is trying to recall a key moment however. This is kept very minimal. It seemed the film has virtually little budget to work with so for a low budget giallo they did as much as they could with this one. The film really benefits from some great creative inspiration for handling of several sequences like the matches one and of course a certain toolshed item used for great effect in the film. There is also a handful of really outstanding lines of dialogue in the film.

I loved many of the camera shots and setups. Some really fantastic work in this film in that regard. I really need to rewatch a couple of scenes to see how he pulled them off.

Subplot of the dog cracked me up greatly.

Some really well done comedic touches in the film like when Luc Merenda walks up the stairs from getting off the train. Luc Merenda is completely flat here in this role.

Senta Berger on the other hand whom I loved in Quiller Memorandum just steals the film outright. She screams, she fights, she loves and looks amazing in doing so, especially hitting many of her characters beats beyond the usual one dimesion cardboard scream queen role. If your a fan of her at all you definitely need to check her out in this film.

English audio track has a bad hiss but ultimately I was able to tune it out mentally. On a louder system it may sound like you have a snake charmer in the room going crazy with snakes.

I find it hard placing this as a giallo, it seemed more like a plain suspense drama or thriller. Not knocking the worth of the film as it is very good indeed as are most of Tessari's films. The English track isn't the greatest, but for a film of this stature, I can deal with it. By the way, nice review Mike!

And one patterned very heavily after Terence Young's WAIT UNTIL DARK to boot, right down to the handicapped woman trapped in the apartment by a thug tossing lit matches ("I saw it in a film once") and the pesky latchkey neighbor kid (a boy here, a girl in WAIT UNTIL DARK). Even Luc Merenda's amnesia plays like a kind of willful self-blindness. I like the movie a lot and would love to see it again.

Two observations about Michael's review: 1.) I think more influence for PUZZLE's personality-based plot mechanics must be attributed to scenarist Ernesto Gastaldi, who has been very vocal about disliking the lapses in logic that distinguish Dario Argento's flashy gialli from the more classically structured scripts he has written. I'd put my money on Gastaldi being the prime architect of this film. 2.) I wouldn't call PUZZLE's cast "undistinguished": Luc Merenda, Senta Berger, Anita Strindberg, Umberto Orsini and Bruno Corazzari... No, they're not the Mercury Theatre but they do represent a pretty dyn-o-mite EuroCult assembly and I can't think of many of Argento's giallli that do better across the board from hero to damsel in distress, to femme fatale to villain.

For those that care, the next door neighbor kid is played by Duilio Cruciani, who also appeared as one of the victims in Fulci's DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING and as Tomas Milian's worshipful young friend in SYNDICATE SADISTS before drifting into drug use and dying at a tragically early age.

Any film w/ Senta Berger is with seeing! Anyone have any other favorites of hers?

Richard,

My reference to the cast being "undistinguished" was more a comment on their performances in this film than their work as a whole. I agree with you that there are some pretty big Euro-cult names present in the credits - it's just that I feel that none of them, apart from Senta Berger, put in particularly noteworthy performances.

I take your point about Gastaldi too, who I really should have mentioned in my review (an unfortunate oversight), although, to be fair, he has plenty of scripts to his name that are filled with more plot holes and lapses in logic than anything Argento ever penned!

I like Gastaldi but I don't side with him on the Argento question. He seems to think Argento's (and Argento's scenarist's) use of-- for want of a better term-- recalled memory as a revelation is a cop-out and a lapse in logic, and I disagree. I think the Argento Approach really speaks to the way our minds, so overloaded with stimuli and product placement, process information in this age. And to think Argento et al were telling us this a full generation ago.

You know, I still haven't seen WAIT UNTIL DARK -- is there a match-terror scene in that? Cause as I just recently watched my PUZZLE DVD, finally, I immediately thought it was a rip from the scene in CHARADE where Hepburn is terrorized by George Kennedy (or is it James Coburn?) with lit matches while trapped in the phone booth.

So how many films has Hepburn been terrorized with lit matches in, anyway???

I enjoyed PUZZLE; Berger is an excellent actress who has to convince through some typically awkward plot developments and dialogue. It's a tragedy that she's dubbed in the English cut, as she obviously speaks English with enough authority to deliver a more convincing line reading than whoever dubbed her.

And while the English audio may not be great, I didn't really even notice the hiss until I just caught up with these postings. With no subs, it certainly was my only recourse, and proved good enough.