Death Carries a Cane (1973) | The Italian giallo on 4K Blu-ray and UHD

From Indicator/Powerhouse Films comes Maurizio Pradeaux’s Rome-set 1973 Italian murder mystery Death Carries a Cane (AKA Passi di danza su una lama di rasoio/) on Blu-ray and UHD with a 4k restored print, alongside some bellissima special extras.

Keen photographer and wannabe singer Kitty (Nieves Navarro AKA Susan Scott) inadvertently witnesses the brutal murder of a woman by someone in a black trenchcoat and fedora whilst looking through coin-operated binoculars.

As homicide Inspector Merughi (George Martín sporting a waxy black wig) investigates, Kitty’s pornstache artist boyfriend, Alberto (Robert Hoffmann), becomes the prime suspect, while their news reporter friend Lidia (Anuska Borova), her twin sister Silvia and Lidia’s dance academy instructor husband Marco (Simón Andreu) all get caught up in the intrigue.

A compendium of what giallo was at the time – think Dario Argento (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, 1970) and Luciano Ercoli (Death Walks at Midnight, 1972) – this Italian/Spanish co-production is regarded as the high point in Pradeaux’s career. All the classic giallo tropes are on offer: a bottle of J&B, pov shots of a black-gloved killer, ubiquitous sex scenes (a tiger skin rug features), and some blood splattering murders. In this case, a chestnut vendor, a cleaning lady, a ballerina and a hysterical witness are sliced with a vintage barber’s razor. Oh, and there are red herrings aplenty.

Navarro totally owns this kitsch slice of Euro giallo, and her most memorable scene sees her dressed in a yellow and purple top, a leather mini skirt, fishnets, and a big red afro, when she agrees to play the bait in a police undercover sting that goes comically awry. I worked out who the killer was pretty early on, but it’s a lot of fun to see how it plays out, especially when Alberto, Kitty and a random dance student go all Scooby Doo.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K restoration from the original negative by Powerhouse Films
• 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 reflects on his lengthy career in Italian cinema 
• 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 composer Roberto Pregadio
• Original German theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
• 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 80-page book with a new essay by Roberto Curti, archival interviews with Nieves Navarro, Robert Hoffmann, and George Martín, and full film credits