End of the Road: Making 'Rabid Dogs' & 'Kidnapped'

I am cheating a bit here: since KIDNAPPED, the reworked 2002 version of Mario Bava's RABID DOGS (1974), does not have a separate IMDb entry, I opted to post my review of it here! Anyway, after languishing in limbo for over 20 years, Bava's unprecedented but highly impressive crime thriller would see the light of day in 3 distinct versions on the digital format – first of which was Lucertola Media's 1997 disc, which included a newly-shot sequence (of a silhouetted woman crying) over the plain opening credits. This would eventually be dropped for both cuts released on Anchor Bay's 2007 DVD edition: the first (still titled RABID DOGS), featuring evocative credits but also – frustratingly – unexplained audio drop-outs during two key moments(!), emerges as perhaps the best version of the film (despite an admittedly draggy pace).

KIDNAPPED, then, is the latest (and undoubtedly least) variant: why the edgy title was changed, or this particular – and very generic – moniker adopted (already much used in connection with several adaptations of the R.L. Stevenson adventure tale) is anybody's guess. Besides, even if Bava had intended tightening the film and shoot additional sequences, these were either muffled in their execution (helmed by his own son Lamberto, who had served as assistant director on the original production!) or were flawed to begin with: after all, from time to time, it has been proved that a director's conception (however great his talent) may not necessarily result in being the most effective approach to any given scene – a case in point is Orson Welles' music-deprived version of his masterful lengthy tracking shot at the start of TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) against the originally released one accompanied by Henry Mancini's delightful brassy underscoring! In fact, none of the new scenes here add anything whatsoever to the narrative: what is the point of having the authorities going dutifully (but cluelessly) about their business trying to locate the criminals – when their complete absence from the 'original' drives the inherent notion of the abductees being abandoned to their fate much harder?!

As with the director's preceding work, LISA AND THE DEVIL (1973) – which, rather than leave it undistributed, producer Alfred Leone saw fit to alter so drastically that the resultant effort, i.e. THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM (1975), does get listed as an individual title in Bava's filmography! – the idea was perhaps to excise 'filler' material but, in this case, characterization is hurt by this over-zealous (and, by and large, unwarranted) tinkering! Besides, the entire dialogue track was redone (and, in some instances, re-written to exacerbate the profanity!) when even that for RABID DOGS itself had only been recorded in 1995 – since Italian films of the era are known for being shot M.O.S. (incidentally, I wonder why they did not go the extra mile and prepare an English-language track to go with the American re-titling)!! Still, the two biggest blunders are Stelvio Cipriani's newly-composed but uncharacteristically mediocre (read: soulless) score – replacing his unforgettably thumping original soundtrack, and the 'what were they thinking?' ending which not only needlessly extends it (even closing on a shot of the afore-mentioned mother) but eliminates the grim final shot of RABID DOGS into the bargain! All of which makes the film no different than the made-for-TV crime thrillers that fill the Italian small-screen schedule every other week (I know this for a fact, as my Dad is well and truly hooked on them!), which is certainly not what Bava had originally envisioned for his change-of-pace project…!!

As for the extras included on the DVD, I was baffled to hear Tim Lucas constantly referring to the film as having been shot in the Summer of 1975 when the previous year had always been given as its intended release date; then again, he himself says that Cipriani's score, released on CD, gives the year of copyright as 1973?! Similarly, Lamberto Bava in the 16-minute featurette bearing this review's title, states that shooting took 3 weeks (with the first scrapped, to boot, after the sacking of original protagonist Al Lettieri!) but leading lady Lea Lander – who had actually salvaged the film from the legal tangles that had long plagued it and even oversaw the initial Lucertola Media edit (reportedly down to the choice and placement of the by-now iconic music cues!) – claims it was longer at 6 weeks!! Leone puts in an appearance here as well, bringing with him the same phony and misguided judgment that was all over the self-satisfied audio commentary he shared with ingratiating star Elke Sommer for THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM…!

Frank Woodward is a self-appointed expert about genre filmmakers, but judging by the weak results of END OF THE ROAD he hasn't done his homework about either film history or what constitutes a minimally adequate documentary. He would be unemployed, save for the ultra-low bar set by the DVD industry of the past decade or so.

This "extra" included with the DVD issue of two versions of Mario Bava's experimental film RABID DOGS (and its re-jigger KIDNAPPED version) is mainly equal-time interviews with Bava's son Lamberto, his erstwhile producer Alfred Leone and RABID DOGS' leading lady Lea Lander. They give okay recollections, but as is usual with this DVD filler, the viewer is left head-scratching. Who is giving us the honest truth? Whose memory can be trusted? Who is merely self-serving? Damned if I know.

What I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt (I chose that cliché purposefully) is that Bava Fils and schlockmeister Leone decided to mess up the senior Bava's movie in the usual "we know better" manner of latter-day philistines. The original's content, pacing and music track are so superior to the crap these 2 added it isn't funny. All you have to do is watch the two versions to decide, and it is so obvious one wonders what self-delusion pills these boys have been taking. Lamberto's new shoots and insertions of a "young mom phoning it in" are pure garbage and an insult to the audience.

Lander is to be honored for having worked hard, without hope of success, at getting somebody to back her up in getting a shelved movie out of the can after 25 years of oblivion.

End of the Road: Making 'Rabid Dogs' & 'Kidnapped' (2007)

*** (out of 4)

This featurette has interviews with director Lamberto Bava, producer Alfredo Leone and actress Lea Lander. The three discuss the making of Mario Bava's RABID DOGS and its troubled production, which included the film being taken from the courts and not released for a couple decades. Bava, who worked as an assistant director on the picture, does a very good job at talking about his father's passion for the project and what he saw in the material. Leone talks about having the rights bought before he could get them and we learn what how he got back into the production. We also hear from actress Lander who talks about Bava helping her performance and she discusses how she eventually saved the film. This is a very entertaining look at the making of the film but I must say that the re-edited version known as KIDNAPPED is a pretty bland and stupid move and I wish Leone would have explained why he wanted this done.