438 Death Carries a Cane

[MichaelB]

DEATH CARRIES A CANE
Passi di danza su una lama di rasoio
(Maurizio Pradeaux, 1973, 92 mins)
Release date: 22 September 2025
Limited Edition 4K UHD (World premiere) and Blu-ray (separate releases)

Pre-order the 4K here and the Blu-ray here

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.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION 4K UHD SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K HDR restoration from the original negative by Powerhouse Films
• 4K (2160p) UHD presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Two presentations of the film: Passi di danza su una lama di rasoio, the Italian-language version; and Death Carries a Cane, the English-language version
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary with film historians Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson (2024)
• A Life in the Suite (2024): editor Eugenio Alabiso remembers his time working on the film
• Eugenio Ercolani on Maurizio Pradeaux (2025): the filmmaker and film historian discusses the director’s career
• Pierpaolo De Sanctis on Roberto Pregadio (2025): the founder of Four Flies Records explores Death Carries a Cane’s score and the work of its composer
• Original German theatrical trailer
• Image gallery: promotional and publicity material
• New and improved English translation subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English-language soundtrack
• Limited edition exclusive 80-page book with new essay by Roberto Curti, archival interviews with Nieves Navarro, Robert Hoffmann, and George Martín, and full film credits
• World premiere on 4K UHD
• Limited edition of 5,000 individually numbered units (4,000 4K UHDs and 1,000 Blu-rays) for the UK
• All features subject to change

#PHILE438U
BBFC cert: 18 TBC
REGION FREE
EAN: 5060697925012

[Gerald Christie]

I'm buying it regardless, but do we know if Indicator will fix the print damage? I own the Vinegar Syndrome version and there's some instances of pretty severe print damage.

[MichaelB]

Final specs:



And to belatedly answer Gerald Christie's question (sorry, I've only just seen it), the answer is an emphatic yes; happily, the original camera negative turned out to be in pristine condition. We were also able to significantly improve on the quality of the English soundtrack thanks to sourcing a superior element from the one that they used.

[Orlac]

This is one of the stupider giallo I've ever seen, but rest assured that a naked Anuska Borova really does compensate!

[MichaelB]

Someone called NuXiaolin already posted that sparkling insight at the other place.

[MichaelB]

Mondo Digital:

The following year, Indicator brought the film to U.K. UHD and Blu-ray as separate editions with a significantly more vibrant restoration on the first format (HDR-compatible Dolby Vision) making it a real treat for the eyes. The audio sounds great and sounds like it's undergone some additional restoration as well. The film can be played in its English or Italian-language versions with their respective credit sequences, and it's great to finally have the real Death Carries a Cane titles here at last.

Audio restoration is sometimes one of the most thankless tasks in this business, especially when you've bust a gut trying to improve things and a reviewer who badly needs his ears syringed blithely informs his readers that "it's exactly the same" as previous versions - so I'm delighted that my very extensive audio restoration here (from a superior source to the one that fuelled previous DVDs and BDs) hasn't gone unnoticed.