VCI Entertainment Preps Blu-ray Debut Of Director Duccio Tessari's Lost Giallo Thriller Puzzle On May 11

What do you do if you find a 1974 giallo film from Spaghetti Western and giallo filmmaker Duccio Tessari that has been mislabeled and sitting in a film warehouse for years?   Lost.  Forgotten.  From the “Golden Age” of giallo.

Option one is, you correct the label and put it back, but this time in its proper place in the film warehouse.    Option two is, you do a 4K film restoration from this long-missing archived print and prepare it for release on Blu-ray … a Blu-ray debut at that.

Option one?   Option two?   Clearly option two, option one is not really an option.    

Imagine if you found the equivalent of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento, 1970) or Blood and Black Lace (Mario Bava, 1964) or, for that matter, Tessari’s The Bloodstained Butterfly (1971), languishing for years in a darkened warehouse … giallo gold that’s what you have found and you’d get it out on Blu-ray as quickly as possible.

This is exactly what VCI Entertainment will be doing on May 11 when it releases the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack of director Duccio Tessari’s 1974 lost giallo, Puzzle.   

The film was part of a library package that was acquired some years ago and when the elements arrived as the storage facility, Puzzle had been mislabeled and was believed to be a duplicate of another film.   Time past, it was forgotten.

The print that has been unearthed is the English-dubbed version that was destined for English-speaking theatrical markets.   It is believed to be the only one remaining … for giallo fans this will be like seeing something brand new, even though it was released in European markets back in 1974 and 1975.

We meet Peter Smith (Luc Merenda — Red Sun, Torso, The Nun and the Devil, A Man Called Magnum, etc.), who is living in London, and has been suffering from amnesia … the result of an auto accident some months earlier.   One day, right out of the blue, a man by the name of Phillip (Manfred Freyberger) shows up, roughs him up and gives him clues as to his real identity.   However, just before this stranger can fill in the blanks, he is shot dead by an unseen assassin.

WOW!   Peter learns that he might not be Peter after all, but a guy named Ted, who lives in Italy with a woman named Sara.   But why was the messenger murdered … and what kind of shrew is he married to?

After this hook, Puzzle kicks in with Peter/Ted flying “home” to Italy, meeting his wife, Sara, who is played by none other than Senta Berger (De Sade, The Ambushers, The Terror of Doctor Mabuse, etc.) … wait, he’s married to Senta Berger and doesn’t remember it, that must have been some auto wreck that rattle his brain!!  

She has been so lonely without Ted, and immediately they set about to solve the puzzle of the missing months and who might be out to do them harm.  There are plenty of suspects.   Pure giallo … mystery, sex, violence and all with an Italian flair.   Mark it down, May 11, the missing giallo, Puzzle, arrives on Blu-ray!!!