When first submitted to the BBFC in July 1976 under the title 'Late Night Trains' Aldo Lado's Italian clone of Wes Craven's 'The Last House On The Left' was given a big fat red R. R for REJECTED. Effectively the film was refused a certificate and could not be shown in cinemas in the United Kingdom. The film wouldn't be seen again in this country until 1981 when, due to the advent of home video, it arrived in video rental shops on the Video Warehouse (World of Video 2000) label. This seemingly liberal era, wherein many previously unheard of European films were available uncut on home video, would be short lived. From as early as 1982 complaint's started to file into the Advertising Standards Agency about the lurid advertising campaigns promoting these films in video magazines and it wasn't long before the Viewers and Listeners Association set forth on a rigorous campaign to have these films withdrawn from shops, resulting in the Video Recordings Act 1984. 'Late Night Trains' was unavailable to view in the UK once again.
Almost 22 years after the outright refusal by the BBFC to grant the film a certificate, Argent Films re-submitted Lado's film for a potential DVD release on their Shameless label. Passing through this time with no cuts and an '18' certificate, the Shameless DVD was on the shelves of UK shops on the 25th of February 2008.
Two young college students, Laura and Margaret, are travelling by train to Laura's family home for the Christams holidays. Forced to switch trains due to a bomb scare the pair board an almost deserted train and settle down for what they perceived to be a quiet journey towards the perfect Christmas break. All hopes of Christmas cheer are shattered when two psycho's, Curly and Blackie, join them in their carriage followed by a well dressed lady who takes pleasure in indulging in sordid sex games with Blackie, games that soon start to involve the two young girls...
Sporting an anamorphically-enhanced, 1.85:1 ratio transfer, with an English dubbed soundtrack, this landmark UK home video release should be applauded and hopefully marks a point where the fan of European Cult cinema can rest easy and look forward to more releases of previously censored or banned films being released in the UK.
Shameless' DVD, has released the film under the title 'Night Train Murders'. Extra features consists of a trailer for the titular film plus trailers for future releases such as 'The Frightened Woman', 'My Dear Killer', 'Ratman' and 'Baba Yaga', and a couple for titles already on sale ('The Black Cat' and 'Phantom Of Death').
Once again double sided sleeve art is included, featuring the French poster art on one side and Italian on the other, a nice touch and definitely the best cover art for any release on this label so far.
(Jonny)
