By Todd Garbarini
Dario Argento's Deep Red (1975), the best
movie he has ever made (Tenebre is a
close second), has been known under many titles such as Profondo Rosso, Deep Red The
Hatchet Murders and Les Frissons de l'Angoisse. The film astonished audiences with its
breathtaking cinematic style, unparalleled marriage of quasi-jazz/rock that
inspired John Carpenter’s Halloween
theme, and extensive use of a huge old house as the scene of a crime that has
remained secret for years until a chance meeting with a psychic threatens to
bring the murder out into the open.
Coming on the heels of Mr. Argento’s
phenomenal debut film The Bird with the
Crystal Plumage (1970), his interesting The
Cat O’Nine Tails (1971), the overlong and meandering Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1972) and his comedic The Five Days of Milan (1975), Deep Red announced the arrival of
what most of us think of as a Dario Argento film. While his first three “faunaâ€â€“titled films all
employed a regular Everyman as its protagonist-turned-amateur sleuth attempting
to solve the puzzle of a murder victim’s death, Deep Red raised the bar by showcasing a series of firsts for the
director: it was the first time that he utilized the considerable talents of
Goblin, the Italian rock group whose musical score elevates the film into the
stratosphere, and Daria Nicolodi, Mr. Argento’s long-time girlfriend, appeared
in her first role for him. She was also
a story and script collaborator on his films until 1987. Ms. Nicolodi’s performance as news reporter
Gianni Brezzi and her ability to bounce off of David Hemmings’s Marcus Daly is
one of the film's greatest assets. Their
comedic banter is a pleasant counterpoint to the macabre mayhem at hand. While the Italian cut contains additional,
non-essential exposition of this same nature, the American version is the
preferable cut as it is more polished.