NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS
L'Ultimo Treno della Notte

Directed by Aldo Lado
Produced by Guiseppe Buricchi & Paolo Infascelli
Cinematography by Gabor Pogany
Music by Ennio Morricone
Cast: Flavio Bucci, Mach Méril, Gianfranco De Grassi, Marina Berti, Franco Fabrizi, Irene Miracle, Laura D'Angelo & Enrico Maria Salarno

1975/94 mins/Color/Mono
1.85:1 anamorphic/English/Italy/NTSC Region 1

Review from the Blue Underground DVD

Lisa (the gorgeous Laura D’Angelo) and Margaret (Irene Miracle who years later would be in Dario Argento's INFERNO) are two young girls taking a train leaving Germany for Lisa’s house in Italy. Lisa's parents are awaiting their arrival to celebrate Christmas. Unfortunately for them Blackie and Curly (two thugs one played by Flavio Bucci also knowns as the blind man in SUSPIRIA andthe other by Gianfranco De Grassi) are also taking the train and will forever change their lives. What starts out as harrassement, turns into debauchery, rape and murder. An high-class woman (Macha Meril who was in Argento's PROFONDO ROSSO as the psychic) who get seduced by Bucci surprisingly joins them and turns out to be the more sadistic of the gang. Christmas day, the two girls never arrive at the train station where Lisa’s parents (Enrico Maria Salerno from THE BIRD IN THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and Marina Berti) are waiting for them but guess who did...

Also known as SECOND HOUSE ON THE LEFT, NEW HOUSE ON THE LEFT and TORTURE TRAIN, Aldo Lado's movie is a direct rip off from Wes Craven's LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and its easy to see why. Much of the storyline is exactly the same as LHOTL but Lado took out all the lame comedy elements of Craven's classic, and in the process made his film even more disturbing and sadistic. The rape with the knife was something I sure didn't expect and that scene involving a voyeur (played by Franco Fabrizi) who later take part of the action completely came out of nowhere for me. As always, Morricone gave the film a magnificent and haunting musical score. But why is there a Demis Roussos song for the opening... its beyond awful!

Surprisingly, Aldo claims he never seen Craven's movie but that the producers did and asked him to do a similar movie... this I have a hard time believing since the movies have the same narrative structure, characters, themes. Still Lado's movie is much more complete and better executed. So all aboard and have your tickets ready for inspection because its going to be one hell of a ride.

NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 uncut and uncensored for the first time in American. The transfer is enhanced for 16x9 television. This is exactly the kind of transfer you would expect from Blue Underground, the colors are rich, vibrants and perfectly saturated, there is no grain, shadows are excellent, skin tones well rendered and blacks are solid. The dub English audio track is in Mono but easily does the job. It would have been nice if the original Italian audio track was included. Also there is no subtitles available. Its also interesting to note that the source for this disc was surely an American print since the film is identified as NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS but its international title was DON'T RIDE ON LATE NIGHT TRAINS.

'Riding The Train' is an interesting 15 minutes interview with director Aldo Lado who discuss the origins of the movie, the actors, the violence and more. There's also the US trailer and international trailer, US radio spots and a rather large stills gallery with lobby cards, album covers, German pressbook, video sleeves artwork, posters, publicity stills and more! The movie is separated in 24 chapters, comes in a transparent keep case with the usual Blue Underground catalogue and features animated menus with music. Overall, a nice package for one of the best rape/revenge movie of the 1970's.

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2005. ©

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