No One Heard The Scream — No One Heard The Scream(Blu Ray)
No One Heard The Scream is a Spanish thriller from the early 1970’s- it blends Hitchcock like plot tropes, subtle Giallo elements, touches of drama, and a neat enough twist in its tail. Here from Severin, is a new Blu Ray release of this film with the disc featuring a wonderful new print of the picture, and a featurette focusing in on Spanish Giallo.
Released in 1973 No One Heard the Scream (aka Nadie oyó gritar). It was the second feature-length film from Guipúscoa Spain born Eloy de la Iglesia- who was seen somewhat of a low-key cinematic rabble-rouser- as his work lightly jabbed at the Spanish regime, during and after its switch to democracy. His first film was 1972’s Cannibal Man- which landed up on the Video nasties list, blended exploration kills, arty drama, and thriller- oh, and it’s also just got a classy reissue on Blu Ray from Severin. No One Heard The Scream is well enough shot, with a small-good cast, and some fairly tense moments- though it does lull/ drift around the mid-point.
The film focuses on high-class mistress Elisa (Carmen Sevilla)- who when we first meet her is spending time with one of her rich fancy men in London- so we get some brief-though-great footage of the city early on in the film. Fairly soon she’s back at her apartment in Madrid, and one evening when opening her door- she sees her neighbour Miguel(Vicente Parra) throwing a body down a lift shaft. He pulls a gun on the screaming Elisa- telling her she has to help him dispose of the body, which we find out sooner enough is his wife. And the film moves on we find the pair getting involved in a bad car crash, going to the local police station, visiting a lake to dump the body, etc- with some nicely tense and taut situations/set-ups along the way. As you’d expect with this type of thriller- the least you know the better.
Sevilla is good as Elisa- switching back and forth between been sleek and manipulative, scared and obtuse, and bewildered. Parra- who here looks somewhat like a 1970’s Andy Serkis- is also effective as the coolly shifty, to later fearful and not so in control killer husband. We also get a few memorable smaller roles from likes of Goyo Lebrero, as all teeth smile and bad hearing caretaker, and blond hair pretty boy/ come slightly shifty Tony(Tony Isbert). The film features a nice grooving and laid back blend of light jazz, and easy listening. With a few bloody touches, fleeting flesh showed, and more than a few moments of 70’s camp/ cheese in the midway. And if the film has an issue- it's around the midway section, when the pace/ suspense all but drys up, with a few moments here feeling very padded. Nevertheless, No One Heard The Scream is a decent enough blend of thriller & drama- with a worthy/ quite surprising twist in the films last act.
Moving onto this new region free Blu Ray- and we get a truly wonderful new scan of the film, which is full of bold colours, great definition and crystal-clear clarity- making it look like it could have been made yesterday. The only extra on here is Eloy de la Iglesia And The Spanish Giallo- a twenty-three-minute featurette featuring film Scholar Dr Andy Willis- he talks about Spanish Giallo in general, how it grew/ developed, before discussing Eloy de la Iglesia and how his work fits into the genre- all making for a most interest watch, that will get you keen (if you haven’t already) check out the other Spanish Giallo mentioned.
In finishing, I enjoyed well enough No One Heard The Scream- sure it wasn’t as impactful or rewarding as Cannibal Man, but as a Hitchcock and (lightly touched) Giallo thriller is not bad at tall- and it’s nice to see if getting such a wonderful new scan, which I must say is one of the more classy and crisp scans I’ve seen in some time.