bravados torso

One of the most impressive characteristics of genre filmmaking is its endless flexibility. Horror, comedies, Westerns: instead of being confined by their cinematic structure, there's a subversive thrill in watching a clever writer or director stretch the creative boundaries. Released in 1958, The Bravados is a straightforward revenge western starring Gregory Peck...except it's not.

Jim Douglass (Peck) is a stoic rancher in pursuit of the four men who killed his family, arriving in Rio Arriba just in time to watch them hang. But a prison break puts him on their trail again, tracking down each outlaw and enforcing his own swift and deadly justice; despite the fact the each man claims they're innocent of the crime.

It's that final question mark - along with some disturbing intimations of sexual assault - that makes The Bravados something far more than just another Hollywood oater. There's a dark underbelly to the story that pre-dates the Spaghetti Western (there's strong connection to Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West), with Douglass' crisis of conscience pushing the genre into unfamiliar territory. Lee Van Cleef, Henry Silva and even Joan Collins join the posse, but its Philip Yordan's edgy script that should get top billing.

Twilight Time's 3000-copy limited edition Blu-ray pops with color and clarity right from the opening titles. Special features include an isolated music track, archival footage of the premiere screening, the theatrical trailer and Julie Kirgo's liner notes which label the film as a "noir Western" with a rare spiritual bent.

By the time director Sergio Martino got around to dismembering bodies with a hack saw courtesy of a faceless black-gloved killer, giallo progenitor Dario Argento had already given up on the genre after three successful entries: the groundbreaking Bird with the Crystal Plumage, its lesser follow-up, Cat ‘O Nine Tails, and the recently “rediscovered” Four Flies on Grey Velvet. But Martino never had illusions that he was actually making art. A journeyman director who jumped from action to comedy to smut and back again, Martino always seemed to work wonders with the few crumbs other filmmakers left behind.

And that’s exactly what he does with Torso, recasting Bird’s Suzy Kendall as one of a gaggle of barely-clothed girls vacationing at a Cliffside villa who find themselves tormented by a killer with emotional scars and a penchant for fashionable neckwear. The Argento influence is unmistakable, with a combination of plot elements lifted directly from the previous films, including childhood trauma and a memory-challenged MacGuffin which figures prominently. Martino even seems to be emulating Argento’s shooting-style, with oblique angles and interesting camera moves that didn’t appear often in his repertoire. All this might have simply added up to yet another cash-n-grab giallo if it weren’t for the tremendously suspenseful final 30-minutes in which Kendall is trapped in the house while the maniac cuts apart his victims for easy assembly. Probably closer to Hitchcock than Argento ever managed to get, Torso finds its sweet spot at just the right time.

Hitting Blu-ray once again with a brand-new 2K restoration from Arrow Films, there are multiple options to choose from, including an Italian / English hybrid that makes for the most complete version of the film yet. Extras are all new and include commentary, interviews and Q & A.