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With a variety of shows, Legion Podcasts brings you discussion on the worlds of horror, film and video games from an assortment of perspectives.
Before we talk of other things, who the hell am I?
I'll tell you who you are.
You're a dirty son of a double-crosser, a stupid con artist, who thinks he can pretend that he's lost his memory.
Well, I'll get it back for you.
No, hold it, hold on.
Got it back already, have you?
Hello, and welcome to Hello, This is the Doomed Show.
I am Richard.
Folks, I am very excited, because the stars have aligned, and I finally got a long time talking about we're going to do this one-day person.
Here they are.
It's Darren Burrows.
Hello, Darren.
Hi, Richard.
How are you?
Great.
Great.
Glad to have you finally.
I have been looking forward to this, which we finally got, you know, the date together a few weeks ago.
You mentioned like what film to do, and I was in two minds.
I think I'll give you two or three films.
But they are the one we settled on, which we're going to cover today.
I'm really excited to talk about.
Big same, big same.
And this is Puzzle from 1974.
It is a Duccio-Tessari joint.
And it's the Italian title is La Uomo Senza Memoria, directed by Duccio Tessari.
If that name is familiar to your Giallo fans out there, it's because he directed the Bloodstained Butterfly.
And also Death Occurred Last Night.
Which has recently just come out on Blu-ray.
Yeah, that one I need to be in a good headspace for, because it's so sad.
I've never seen it.
So is it kind of like a police type film I've heard as well?
Yeah, it is.
It is absolutely a, I consider it a Giallo for sure.
It is just a gut punch.
Okay, so I just bought the Blu-ray, so I'm looking forward to watching that.
Because I've had that film for so long on such a rubbish copy.
Yeah, it's definitely rubbish.
I think you'll enjoy it.
But yeah, just be prepared.
Would you put it on a par with the Bloodsteen Butterfly?
You know, it's been so long since I saw the Bloodsteen Butterfly.
I would literally watch them both again to answer that question.
Because it's been so many years.
It's been a while for me, but I remember really liking that one.
I like some of the stuff in that.
Like you got like an Argento style kill without giving anything away.
And then you've got, I think it's like a court drama part as well in some of it.
But that's that's the part I remember less fondly.
Yeah, yeah.
But I think it works.
I think everything works in that film.
Yeah.
But this one, though, I think is just well, I can't wait to see your views on this one.
But right.
Well, I'm going to play a very long trailer.
This is it's a good trailer.
It's in English, which is, you know, sometimes tough to find with a Giallo.
But it's in English.
It's just a very long trailer.
So let's get this thing out of the way here.
The doctor says I'm scared, scared of what I'd remember.
Your name is Ted Walden.
You were born 30 years ago here in jolly old England, at Brockhurst in Canton.
You lived here on the continent and in New York.
You got married two years ago to an American, married.
Now then, buddy boy, you tell me where the...
That's a bad news setter.
It's from my long lost husband.
He disappeared in London.
This means they set up our meeting.
And whoever they are, they're killers.
It has to be the work of a sadist or a madman, I think.
No one in their right mind would do a thing like that.
I'll kill you if you even try to bring Sarah into this.
Well, that's a good start.
You're getting back at a character again.
But who am I?
A dirty rotten bastard.
Let's quit kidding around.
The stuff, where is it, buddy?
What I want looks like a big string of sausages.
Don't!
A big string of white sausages.
When I said I was going to kill you in five days, I wasn't kidding.
This is where I give you yours, Ted.
Do you remember?
What does it mean?
Try to remember, Ted.
You've got to remember.
You've got to.
Before we go any further, we're going to swirl this thing, and, you know, with the Giallos, you definitely don't want the ending beforehand.
Right.
And especially one that's this good.
Here's the plot synopsis from IMDb.
An amnesiac man and his estranged wife restart their romance.
Only to find themselves hounded by unscrupulous figures from his past life.
The aforementioned Duccio Tessari, he also co-wrote this with someone named Roberto Infaskelli.
Yeah, you said it better than I would.
Oh man, I'm trying.
He wrote my wife's absolute favorite Italian film, Night Train Murders.
Hey, Lietta.
What's the matter?
Don't you like Night Train Murders?
Oh man, I love that film.
I know for a female, it's quite a hard film to watch.
Yes, that's the one when anyone asks her what is the least favorite thing I've ever shown her, she always brings that one up.
And I totally get it as well.
But for me, surprisingly, that would be in my top 10, 15 movies of all time, which I don't know if that says a lot about me, but not for those type, you know, the really yucky scenes in it, but all the other stuff I love.
But this dude, he also produced two things, The Sunday Woman, which is really good, and also Doppio Delito, aka Double Murder, which is also funny that both of those have some nice comedic elements to them that I really enjoy.
I think the murder weapon in The Sunday Woman took me by surprise a little bit.
Yes.
Very much like the Sister of Ursula, like in terms of that.
What a weird double feature, like...
Yeah, yeah.
I kind of, the comedy took me out a little bit of The Sunday Woman.
I didn't really like it that much.
You can't not, you know, not see that for the ending as what it is really, but...
Exactly.
Yeah.
Very silly.
I enjoyed it.
Another guy who wrote this was Bruno D.
Geronimo, which I'm like, is that Italian Geronimo?
I love it.
I would have never, I've never come across that name as an Italian name before.
Yeah, yeah.
Love it.
He wrote The Weapon, The Hour, The Motive.
He wrote What Have You Done to Solange?
And he also wrote Paranoia, the Carol Baker as a race car driver movie.
That's a great one as well.
That's a pretty good set of films that he's wrote, really.
Telling you.
I've been dying to re-watch that one.
Good stuff.
Oh, yeah.
Is that the one on the lengthy box set?
I think it is, yeah.
Absolutely is.
Yeah.
As far as this cast, it's led by Senta Berger, who is just absolutely gorgeous.
And then she plays Sarah Grimaldi.
She was in a French Giallo that I know I've seen called Diabolically Yours.
Okay, yeah.
I don't know much.
I feel like I mention it just because I've seen it.
I don't remember enough about it.
That's the 1967 film.
Yeah.
That's when I've got an old file on.
We're talking about when we make files, we go on hard drives and stuff.
I've got that, but I've never watched it.
I think I may have the subs as well for it, hopefully.
I bet you do.
Her husband, her estranged husband, whose name Ted, aka Peter, is played by the one and the only, Luke Morenda.
Oh, man.
Luke Morenda, what a joy.
He's done so much great stuff for Giallo and crime films.
He's a bit of an acrobat.
He loves to jump and kick people or jump and tackle people or just something.
He has the best fight scene ever in Torso.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, dude.
He's kind of Italian royalty, I'd say, in terms of actors.
Good call.
I want to say he was talking about injuring his back a bunch of times doing these crazy stunts in a documentary.
I forget.
I don't know if that was him or not.
It probably was, though.
No, that's saying to be right.
Yeah, because he was alive up until at least a few years ago.
I'm not sure if he's died recently.
Maybe.
Maybe.
I'm not sure.
He was definitely alive, because he was doing interviews up to a few years ago.
But that's saying to Berger.
She starred in The Testament of Dr.
Mabuse.
Oh, really?
I was reading up.
And she's also in Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace with Christopher Lee from 62 as well.
You know, I still haven't seen that.
I've never seen that, no.
But I would absolutely want to, yeah.
So, next up is Daniele, although I am going to call him Reinhardt because that's how they kept referring to him in the movie.
This is Umberto Orsini, who was in what I think is a great exorcist ripoff called The Antichrists.
Oh, I've never seen that one.
That's Salpert, Ode to Matina.
Yeah, it's a little overly long, but I never notice that it's long.
It's so weird and over the top as, you know, as exorcist ripoffs can be.
My mate, he actually loves that.
Nice.
Nice.
Everyone I spoke to loves Antichrists, but he was actually in I was gonna ask you about this film, a Giallo called Interrabang, 1968, have you seen that one?
I think you may have added that in one of your books.
It's definitely in the book, I'm trying to remember it.
Oh, it's a really weird one.
Yeah, it's very, the tone is very mysterious.
It's got the dude from Watch Me When I Kill in it.
Yeah, it's a very strange film.
It's definitely a wee bit pretentious.
Okay, yeah, that's what I've always wanted to see and never got right into it.
Yeah, it's definitely not bad.
It's just weird.
Thank you for calling.
Thank you for picking up on that.
I had no idea he was in that.
It's weird that some of these actors and you kind of look up their filmographies and you think, shit, I wish I'd checked that out when I had the chance.
Some of the early Giallo, some of these actors are done, it's mind boggling when you think about it.
Yeah, the 60s was just nothing but as soon as they got over the whole spy film thing, because I never liked the spy film, the Bond rip offs that much, because they wanted to get into those thrillers which were always, okay, not always, 90% of the time were inheritance schemes or, hey, my rich husband sucks, you're my lover, help me kill him, you know?
Right, that's what Umberto Lenz started then, really, didn't he?
Because you've got Bava, it's got the old fashioned kind of what Darryl Jengel took to another level, you know, with the Black Blood Killer, but then I don't mind some of the, you know, I know a lot of people that don't like the Lenz-y ones, the early Lenz-y ones.
But I, you know, you've got one on top of the other as well, Fulci, similar type, you know, I love all them as well, but it took me a while to warm to some of them, but now I can watch them all day long.
Yeah.
As you get more obsessed with the genre, you're going to be watching stuff that you've never thought.
Like, I'll watch a, I'll watch an Italian film that was released around the time of the Gialli that can be almost any genre.
Like if it has an urban setting, I'm into it.
If it's like 1971 urban setting, even if it's just a drama, I'll watch it just to accidentally get that Giallo vibe from it.
Yeah, exactly.
I'm exactly the same because I've recently watched Lucio Fulci's Four of the Apocalypse.
I've never seen it before.
Wow, nice.
Dirk absolutely thinks it's a masterpiece.
I was kind of disappointed a little bit, but I will say now I've let the film process in my mind a little bit more.
I think I'm going to go back to it and love it because everyone I speak to just sings his praises all the time.
I just don't think I was expecting the film.
It was.
Yep.
I had the same exact reaction where I was like, wait, what is this?
Like I'm like, okay, it's this Spaghetti Western by Fulci.
It front loads a lot of violence in the beginning and then it goes on a journey.
So it's a journey film.
Yeah.
And I did not expect that at all.
And yeah, I think you and I probably had the same initial reaction in hindsight.
It's like, ooh, there's something special there.
Yeah.
Second time, you think?
Yeah.
But Thomas Millian, as well, is one of my favorite actors in that.
Yeah.
Nice.
He's amazing.
So next up in the cast is Anita Strindberg, another Giallo queen.
Just unbelievable.
This is my favorite thing.
She plays an American and her character's name is Mary Kane.
Yeah.
American and American.
I know.
Yeah.
Yeah.