Director: Maurizio Pradeaux
Screenplay: Arpad DeRiso, Alfonso Balcázar, Maurizio Pradeaux, Jorge Martín (as George Martin)
Based on a Story by: Maurizio Pradeaux
Starring: Nieves Navarro, Robert Hoffmann, Jorge Martín (as George Martin), Simon Andreu
Country: Italy, Spain
Running Time: 92 min
Year: 1973
BBFC Certificate: 18
Indicator/Powerhouse are releasing more obscure gialli with 1973’s Death Carries A Cane. Starring Robert Hoffmann, the German actor who had come to international fame in the children’s serial The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (a holiday perennial in Britain for decades), giallo regular Susan Scott/Nieves Navarro, spaghetti western vet George Martin and ubiquitous Spanish actor Simon Andreu, this Italian-Spanish co-production feels similar to the films of Scott/Navarro’s husband Luciano Ercoli, e.g. Death Walks on High Heels or Death Walks at Midnight. However, it was actually directed by Maurizio Pradeaux.
Pradeaux isn’t much of a director, he did one other giallo, Death Steps in the Dark (1977) and the WW2 macaroni combat Churchill’s Leopards. Navarro plays a Swedish photographer in Rome who spots a murder through a coin-operated telescope that cuts out before she sees the killer’s face. There’s also something about twins (played by the one and done Anulka Borova), and lots of dubbed planks with moustaches.
Increasingly lurid and sexy, with lots of nudity and gore, the film went straight to video in the US when Wizard Video released it as Tormentor, and it does feel like the kind of Italian barrel scrapings that low rent video companies had to pick through. It feels like a less stylish version of Ercoli’s Death Walks at Midnight. Scott has little to do, and neither has Hoffmann. If AI could build a 70s giallo, it’d look like this. In this sense, I guess some die-hard giallo afficionados may enjoy it.
Film: 
Indicator have released Death Carries a Cane on region free 4K UHD and Blu-ray.
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, 22 mins): renowned editor Eugenio Alabiso reflects on his lengthy career in Italian cinema
– The Devil Wears Pradeaux (2025, 15 mins): Ercolani considers the film’s place within the original giallo cycle, and looks at writer-director Maurizio Pradeaux’s wider career
– Symphonies of Sleaze (2025, 17 mins): Pierpaolo De Sanctis, the founder of Italian soundtrack specialists Four Flies Records, explores the oeuvre of composer Roberto Pregadio
– Tormentor: alternative US Wizard Video VHS titles
– 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 actors Nieves Navarro (aka Susan Scott), Robert Hoffmann, and George Martin, 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
* EDITOR’S NOTE – Unfortunately, due to unforseen circumstances, George hasn’t had the chance to look at the special features, but it certainly looks like an impressive array, which might make the package on the whole more desirable than his thoughts on the film might suggest.