
I've been praising the Shameless release schedule for some time now. Early on, the titles seemed just a little hit and miss, but of late, the releases have had both the quality and the attention to detail so beloved of cult movie fans. And in The Designated Victim, Shameless could well have hit a high point on both counts.
Originally released back in 1971, this Maurizio Lucidi-directed movie has suffered since its debut, leaving Shameless (along with Stefan Novak and Marc Morris) to recreate the film from several available sources - producing this 'fan edition' of more or less all the original flick, albeit with the occasional drop in quality. Don't let that worry you though, the bulk of it is up there with any other reissue of the period.
The story itself might well be familiar to you, especially if you've seen Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train (or read the book it was based on by Patricia Highsmith). Yes, we're talking murder pact, specifically involving ad man Stefano Argenti (Tomas Milian) and the foppish, affluent (and almost goth-like) Count Matteo Tiepolo (Pierre Clémenti).
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