Night Train Murders DVD

...embarked on his next movie. Night Train Murders (AKA Second House On The Left, La Bête tue de sang-froid, Le Dernier train de la nuit, Don't Ride on Late Night Trains etc. etc.etc) turned out to be a much bigger movie for Lado; unfortunately the marvellous work he had done in the past, was about to be buried under something far more controversial.

Roberto Infascelli had been to America and had seen a movie by Wes Craven (Scream, Nightmare ...
...appal, almost encouraging sexual violence; Night Train Murders goes out of its way to create a message that violence is wrong. As the movie starts in the Austrian markets, you are shown an image of a beautiful life; Demi Roussos sings a beautiful ballad to accompany this scene. My initial thought was "I wish I was there"; and even through a bit of thugery with our two treacherous leads, its still a positive image. Having committed the offences ... more

Having received some well deserved acclaim for Who Saw Her Die? Italian director Aldo Lado embarked on his next movie. Night Train Murders (AKA Second House On The Left, La Bête tue de sang-froid, Le Dernier train de la nuit, Don't Ride on Late Night Trains etc. etc.etc) turned out to be a much bigger movie for Lado; unfortunately the marvellous work he had done in the past, was about to be buried under something far more controversial.

Roberto Infascelli had been to America and had seen a movie by Wes Craven (Scream, Nightmare On Elm Street) called Last House On The Left, a brutal tale about revenge. Like many writers/producers working in Italy at that time he stole the idea taking it to Italy to be reproduced as an entirely new work. Infascelli approached the now highly bankable Director Aldo Lado, who had not seen or heard of Last House On The Left; to make the picture. Lado dutifully excepted this invitation and created the movie more or less from scratch; without any prior knowledge of Last House On The Left, Lado created a movie that could easily be classified as a re-make or a sequal.

Synopsis

Two schoolgirls head home from Austria to Italy to spend the Christmas vacation with their family. While on the train they catch the eye of a couple of thugs who have robbed and beaten their way to be on the train. A lady passenger also catches the eye of the thugs and engages in a impromptu sex session with one in the toilet. Having become aroused by the whole situation she takes the two thugs to the carriage of the two girls where she instigates a barrage of sexual violence upon them, that can only end badly.

At this point your probably thinking "I don't want to know anything more about this movie!" But that would be a bit of a mistake, where as Last House On The left went out of its way to shock and appal, almost encouraging sexual violence; Night Train Murders goes out of its way to create a message that violence is wrong. As the movie starts in the Austrian markets, you are shown an image of a beautiful life; Demi Roussos sings a beautiful ballad to accompany this scene. My initial thought was "I wish I was there"; and even through a bit of thugery with our two treacherous leads, its still a positive image. Having committed the offences on the train in which the lady passenger (never addressed by any name) the two thugs and a peeping tom, they are given a period of time to reflect on their actions, and for two of these characters the guilt hangs heavy on their mind. While all this is going on you are shown the girls family, engaging in a happy caring existence, and actively awaiting the return of the girls. However when no return comes about, we live the horror of what happened to the girls through their eyes; and paraded with the question "What would you do?" All the time the psychology of the story is well addressed making a profound moral statement.

Aldo Lado is a man who focuses on the slightest details, bringing them altogether to create the right feel of the movie. He colour blocks to create claustrophobia throughout the movie, as day turns to night all the fashions, lights, and other colours all turn to blue. In the wake of the incident and the light of a new day the colour blocking movies to a greyish brown.
Lado strongly addresses emotions, and creates a movie that does tend to sicken, without being overly graphic. Nudity is tastefully handled in the sense that in knowing characters are nude he lets you see nothing; where as a lot of other movies thrust sexual organs in your face. The violence is also tastefully handled, you never really see any act of violence; however your imagination lets you think you have seen something far worse than you have.

Oscar winning Ennio Morricone's musical score is very subtle, choosing to use just one musical instrument; the harmonica. Here he overlaps various scores in order to give a haunting sound. The only time the harmonica is missing is during the Roussos ballad that encloses the movies start and end. This ballad cannot be understated, because it takes you into the movie with hope, and helps you to exit the movie with a feeling of hope.

The performances in the movie are nicely handled Flavio Bucci plays "Blackie" , the one you consider to be the lead thug; having spent years on the Italian stage he was given a proper movie outing; as Also Lado carefully points out in the additional documentary that goes with the movie, Bucci had a tendency to over act like many stage actors do when making the transformation between mediums. Next up is Macha Meril a popular Italian actress has worked on successful movies such as Deep Red (Profondo Rosso, one of the most successful Italian movies of this genre) and Bolero. The main star of the movie was Enrico Maria Salerno the then Italian equivalent of Rock Hudson but without the scandal, Salerno had starred in well over 100 movies at the time of making this one, and a popular face in Italian limelight; played the father of one of the girls Lisa. Finally Irene Miracle star of Midnight Express turned out a cavalier role as Margaret the stronger minded of the two girl victims.

A real interest in the movie to me is the lack of introduction to the characters, With the exception of Giulio, Lisa and after her death Margaret nobody is addressed by a name during the whole movie; I find this fascinating. Some of the main characters never go beyond the name to discribe there character I.e. Lady On ThE train, or Peverted Train Passenger (played by Franco Fibrosis a massive Italian star who was best friends with Bertolluci).

Night Train Murders is a more positive movie than Last House On The Left; and its sad that it never received more acclaim than the aforementioned movie. Tragically from one point of view it did receive more acclaim. The movie released in the UK as Late Night Trains was banned in 1983, and has stayed banned in this country ever since. The movie had to be heavily edited although there was little to be seen to gain a release in other countries and continues to remain banned in Australia, Poland, and most of the far eastern countries.

Here however is the fully uncut Region 1 DVD (Multi-region DVD players only if in Europe) which is easily available from Ebay or Amazon for around £10. Features on the DVD include a 15 minute interview with Aldo Lado in which he discusses issues with the movie and the censors. Two trailers to promote the US and International release of the movie. And a series of still photos.  

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