Review: Spanish Giallo 'The Fourth Victim' Gets Nice Blu-ray Upgrade from Severin Films

Exiled from Hollywood after trying to establish her own independence within the studio system, actress Carroll Baker moved to Europe, became fluent in Italian, and spent several years as an Italian exploitation mainstay. It's films like Umberto Lenzi's "Orgazmo" that stick out from that era. Many of the films she was in simply wanted to capitalize on Baker's enigmatic sex appeal and the fact that she was a Hollywood starlet. But few of them actually successfully capitalized on Baker's strengths, like being able to showcase the internal and external turmoil of a woman subjected to rampant sexual oppression.

"The Fourth Victim" is one of the more obscure titles from that era in Baker's career. Not quite full-blown horror nor giallo, it depicts the mystery surrounding a wealthy British playboy, his new bride, and the unexplained deaths of his previous wives. But Baker's role as the bride is a bit more subversive than it is on the surface, characterized by a woman trying to navigate a psychologically torturous situation while suffering from a weird case of amnesia. That being said, the film itself has a ton of twist and turns that seem to exist to pad the threadbare story, not bolster it.

Severin Films brings "The Fourth Victim" to Blu-ray with a 1080p presentation sourced from a 2K scan of the original camera negative. Although this is clearly the best the film has ever looked at home, the presentation does suffer from the quality of the 2K scan, frequently flickering or strobing in moments with heavy print damage. As for special features, there's an interview with biographer Carlos Aguilar about director Eugenio Martin that's worth checking out. Martin isn't a filmmaker that has received the kind of critical appraisal that his peers have, so it's nice to see Aguilar speak here about him.

"The Fourth Victim," despite its twist and turns, falls a bit flat when assessed as a drama. This is the kind of film where every character acts suspiciously, so really anyone could be a person with sinister intentions. Eugenio Martin keeps things moving at a quick pace, though, which means we arrive at the conclusion of the mystery before too much time is given to dead air. The film carries style as well, with widescreen compositions dominating most of the runtime. It's a nice touch in an otherwise-unremarkable work.

I recommend "The Fourth Victim" if you're a Carroll Baker completist or really into giallo. Just know that this is neither Baker or Martin's best work. Severin Films does package the film quite nicely, though.

Other special features include:

� English & Italian audio tracks
� Deleted scene
� Trailer

"The Fourth Victim" is now available on Blu-ray from Severin Films.