The Film:
Flavio Mogherini is a man mostly known for being a production designer and an art director / set designer, however he also had a go at directing fourteen films in his career, as well as writing eight. The Pyjama Girl Case was one of the films that came right in the middle of his career and is based on the true story of a young lady who was found murdered in Australia in 1934, whom the press called 'The Pyjama Girl' as thats what she was wearing. Mogherini bought together several stars for the film including Academy Award winner Ray Milland (The Lost Weekend, Dial M For Murder) who plays Inspector Thompson, Mel Ferrer (The Antichrist, Nightmare City) as Professor Henry Douglas and genre favourites Dalila Di Lazzaro (Flesh For Frankenstein, Phenomena) as Glenda and Michele Placido (A Leap In The Dark, The Divine Nymph) as Antonio.
As mentioned above, the film is based on a true story from Australia in 1934, and starts off with a young girl and her brother discovering a dead body of a young woman in an abandoned car on the beach. The one problem for the police, is that the girl has no distinguishing features or forms of identity in her pockets or anything like that. The only clue that the police have to finding out who the young woman is, are the yellow pyjamas she is wearing and the label from on them. One way the police attempt to find out who the young lady is, is by putting her body on public display, but as would be typical for a giallo, this just brings along the odd whack job who claim it is their daughter or similar made up stories in orde to try and claim life insurance policies. As the story progresses and Thompson finds more clues, and even more red herrings, you become more and more involved with the film.
Although this film is described as a giallo, don't go into it expecting a high body count, as quite simply, there isn't one. There is plenty of mystery shrouded in the film as well as the usual nubile bodies to keep you watching and the acting is slightly above par, with the most notable performance coming from Ray Milland. However, the film does have a couple of problems. The score is average and sometimes the music doesn't go particularly well with the interchanging of scenes. Unlike Ennio Morricone scores, this one by Riz Ortolani just comes across as rather unimpressive and nothing more than average. The other problem, is the film isn't very stylish which was a bit of a shame to notice, especially as Mogherini started and finished in the business as an art director. Other than that, the film is moderately well paced and the story is interesting enough to keep you watching. It can be ever so slightly confusing at times, but wait a couple of scenes and it all pieces back together again.
The DVD:
Video:
Presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the film has a pretty good transfer. At times, there is noticeable edge enhancement which could've been improved upon as well as slight grain, though with the age of the film and the fact it's fairly unknown, I am prepared to let this slide a little bit. All in all, the picture is average, and there are no major problems to take away your enjoyment.
Audio:
Blue Underground have provided us with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 dual mono track here and it is distinctly average. There was occasional hiss (something I have come to NOT expect from this company), and sometimes the music score outweighed the dialogue on sound levels. Other than the above problems, there didn't seem to be any other problems such as audio pops or crackling. No subtitles are provided which is a shame.
Extras:
Blue Underground have provided us with their usual array of extras, an interview and a trailer as well as a small comic book. The interview runs for half an hour and is with author Richard Evans who has written a book on the true story entitled The Pyjama Girl Mystery: A True Story of Murder, Obsession and Lies. The guy is interesting as is the footage he accompanies, and he gives an insightful view into the true story. Certainly worth a watch. The comic book is nicely presented and the trailer is, well, a trailer.
