In truth, Deep Red has no definitive form. The film was made at a time when different versions were prepared for different markets. For export, the narrative was streamlined (apparently not enough, though, for its US distributor), scuttling most of the ethnic/rural comedy and romance elements that were considered appropriate only for Italian moviegoers (whose experience of the two-hour-plus release came with intermezzo); because the longer version was never intended for the English language market, no English language soundtrack was ever prepared. Anchor Bay's transfer of the full Italian version with English dialogue was augmented, necessarily, with English subtitles to patch up the bald spots, which made for a disjointed viewing experience that tended to knock one out of the picture - and that is a sad fate for a film in which the composition of the frame is key to full enjoyment and sussing out the identity of the killer cutting a red swath through cosmopolitan Turin. Perhaps this is the rationale behind Blue Underground's decision to go strictly with the English language variant, which preserves the vocal performance of British star David Hemmings.
Now pleasure. Given Argento's spotty track record since his flawed but rewarding The Stendhal Syndrome (La sindrome di Stendhal, 1996), it is a bona fide treat to revisit his work from a time when he was at the top of his game. As stated, Deep Red found "the Italian Hitchcock" returning with renewed vigor and passion to the giallo school of filmmaking, so-named for the cheap yellow paperback mysteries that were popular in Italy at newsstands and airport book kiosks. Argento conceived the project in solitude, repairing to his parents' rural home and cutting himself off from friends and colleagues. The result is not only a crackerjack thriller boosted in its brilliance by Luigi Kuveiller's sensuous camerawork and a revolutionary score by the Italian prog-rock band Goblin but a heartfelt meditation on loneliness. Every major character suffers from the effects of solitude and isolation. It would not be too much of a spoiler to point out that the inciting incident of Deep Red is a murder committed by a character terrified of abandonment, with the subsequent murders creating a connection among the principals that would not exist otherwise.
The example of countryman Michelangelo Antonioni was clearly not lost on Argento, who seems to have worked elements of Red Desert (Il deserto rosso, 1964) and Blow-Up (1966) into Deep Red -- to the point of poaching the latter's leading man. As with Argento's startlingly assured debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo, 1969) , this film turns on the question of perception and intuition, and the protagonist's journey-toward-self as he involves himself in the horrific murder of a psychic (Macha Méril) who has unwittingly renewed a passion killer's mania for absolute secrecy. Unlike the roster of victims in The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, or in Argento's follow-up The Cat O'Nine Tails (Il gatto a nove code, 1971), the doomed here are not pretty young innocents or schemers but people who simply know things - facts, histories - that when linked establish a through-line leading back to the killer. It is one of Deep Red's most satisfying ironies that the villain, so desperate for inclusion and even the simulation of love that he-or-she was willing once to break one of the most elemental taboos, is forced through paranoia to widen, not narrow, the gap that separates him-or-herself from society.
Letterboxed at 2.35:1 and enhanced for widescreen playback, this all region DVD offers an uncensored English language variant of one of Dario Argento's best thrillers. The clarity and richness of the colors make for particularly invigorating viewing these days when filmmakers tend to throw too much at the viewer, clotting the frame with visual information both essential and disposable. If the similar Bird with the Crystal Plumage was about context (the protagonist intercedes in an attempted murder but is nagged by doubts about what he has seen), Deep Red is about detail (the protagonist returns to the scene of the crime to find that an element present originally seems to have gone missing) and the film is rich in motifs in the inner workings of devices - clocks, tape recorders, pianos, sinks, elevators - which support a central theme of hidden evidence, suppressed inclinations and repressed memory. This standard disc comes with an option of soundtracks, from English monaural to 5.1 Dolby and 6.1 DTS. (The Blu-ray ups the ante with a 7.1 mix.) Fleeting passages in German are translated by optional English subtitles and there are subtitle options as well for French and Spanish. Supplements run from 11 minutes of interview snippets from Argento and key collaborators (ported over from the 2000 disc), theatrical trailers and music videos.
For more information about Deep Red, visit Blue Underground. To order Deep Red, go to TCM Shopping.
by Richard Harland Smith
