NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (October 2026): Kino have transferred Alberto De Martino's Blazing Magnum to Blu-ray. Aristide Massaccesi (also Antony Ford) shot the film a few years before he became Joe D'Amato, the most prolific name in Italian exploitation. His work here is efficient and more polished than his later reputation suggests. He uses Montreal and Ottawa as found locations: concrete plazas, university halls, high-rises and wet streets, all giving the film a cold North American look that sets it apart from its Rome-shot cousins. The camera is mobile and often handheld in the action scenes. Massaccesi uses the zoom, a 1970s Italian staple, to punch into faces during interrogations, and frames the giallo scenes tightly so the danger comes from the edges, especially around Farrow's character. The car chase was shot with cameras inside and alongside the cars, and that does more to sell the speed than any trick editing. Vincenzo Tomassi, Fulci's longtime editor, cuts it with real rhythm. Kino Lorber's Blu-ray of Blazing Magnum is on a dual-layered disc and holds two separate 1080P transfers rather than seamless branching. The main feature, Una magnum special per Tony Saitta, is a brand-new HD master from a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative, in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. It looks strong. The image is clean and bright, with tight, natural-looking grain and impressive texture in faces, hair, fabrics and the brick and concrete of the Montreal locations. Colors are warm and natural, with healthy skin tones, and contrast shows plenty of detail in the darker interiors. The only odd note is a green push in the opening credits, which settles down once the film proper begins. The AIP alternate cut, Shadows in an Empty Room, has its own transfer - its video bitrate is similar. Even so, the matched captures show clearly that it comes from an inferior, further-generation source. It's noticeably darker and more contrasty, with blacks that sometimes crush detail. It also leans greener and cooler, most obviously on the hallway wall behind Tisa Farrow, which turns a vivid green. There are more scratches, speckles and dirt, and the image is a touch softer, with less grain detail. Framing is essentially identical, and the runtime difference falls almost entirely in the opening reel. Some viewers may prefer Shadows' colder, moodier palette, which arguably suits the film's gritty Canadian setting and its giallo tone. It does come from a further-generation source, though. For cleanliness and detail the new Blazing Magnum master is the superior presentation, but it's very nice to have both looks to choose from, and the matched captures below should allow readers to decide for themselves.

NOTE: We have added 54 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blazing Magnum Blu-ray Kino offers its original Italian track and the English DUB, both in DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel at 24-bit. As with most Italian productions of the period, the film was post-synchronized. The English DUB is the version to choose: Stuart Whitman, John Saxon, Martin Landau and the rest of the English-speaking cast voice their own roles as far as I can tell, and it fits the North American setting naturally. The Italian track is a nice option for purists. Both tracks are clean and free of hiss, crackle or dropouts. Dialogue is clear, and the gunshots, screeching tires and crunching metal of the car chase have decent punch for a 1970s mono-derived mix. Armando Trovajoli's score sounds terrific in lossless, with the funky bass-and-brass action cues. There are two optional English subtitle tracks. Interestingly, the subtitles for the Italian version translate the Italian dialogue rather than repeating the English DUB, so a line like "I suspect she was murdered" on Shadows reads "She might've been murdered" (see below) on Blazing Magnum. Shadows in an Empty Room has only the English DUB, in a 16-bit DTS-HD Master, plus optional English subtitles. It sounds very similar to the 24-bit English track on the main feature. Trovajoli was better known for Italian comedies and dramas by Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Vittorio De Sica than for crime thrillers. He gives Blazing Magnum a score that switches between funky action cues and nostalgic, romantic themes. The split mirrors Saitta himself, the cop and the grieving brother. Bass and brass drive the chases and fights, while the softer "Louise" theme gives the film more heart than its script has. Cue titles such as "Theme for a Murderer," "Who Killed Louise?" and "Identikit" show how closely the music follows the investigation. The score is well regarded by collectors and was reissued on vinyl by Beatball from the original stereo master tapes. Kino's Blu-ray is Region 'A'-locked .

The Kino Blu-ray offers a new audio commentary by film historians Steve Mitchell and Troy Howarth (So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films.) They're a well-informed and engaging pair, knowledgeable about Italian genre cinema in general and De Martino's career in particular, covering the cast, the Canadian locations, the film's mix of poliziotteschi and giallo, and its alternate AIP version. "Special Sentiment: Alberto De Martino's Magnum Memories" runs over a dozen minutes. It's an archival interview with the director, conducted and recorded by Eugenio Ercolani in Rome in 2012, in which De Martino looks back on the production, working with Whitman and his Hollywood cast, and the improvised car chase. In "City Hunter: Kim Newman on Blazing Magnum," which runs over 20 minutes, the British critic and author gives his usual entertaining and erudite take on the film and its place in 1970s Euro-crime. There's also the theatrical trailer, plus trailers for Kino's The Counsellor, Weapons of Death and Sands of the Kalahari. The most significant extra is the complete alternate-cut; Shadows in an Empty Room. It's presented on its own transfer with English audio and optional subtitles, so fans can compare the two versions.

Blazing Magnum arrived at the height of Italy's love affair with American-style cop thrillers. Producers had learned that a fading Hollywood name, a revolver on the poster and a foreign city to roam around in could sell almost anywhere. De Martino sets up his film like Dirty Harry and then plays it as a giallo. It opens with a bank robbery shootout. Soon Louise Saitta is poisoned at a university function, and the film turns into a whodunit about a pearl theft, old lovers and a growing list of suspects. They include Landau's married doctor, Gayle Hunnicutt's professor (a classic red herring) and Tisa Farrow's blind Julie. Julie is the kind of vulnerable witness the giallo loves to put in harm's way, and she becomes the film's most suspenseful thread. Critic Roberto Curti called the film essentially a whodunit with Argento-like touches. That's fair: the mystery holds together loosely, but De Martino stages each step of it as an event. The film is a slick, mean and hugely entertaining blend of American-style cop thriller and Italian giallo. It has a cast of Hollywood names well above the material, a pulsing Trovajoli score and one of the best car chases the poliziotteschi ever produced. Kino's Blu-ray serves it very well. The new master from the 4K camera negative scan is clean, bright and detailed, there's lossless Italian and English audio, and there's a strong package of extras: the new Mitchell and Howarth commentary, the archival De Martino interview, Kim Newman's appreciation and the AIP cut, Shadows in an Empty Room. StudioCanal's 2023 UK Blu-ray shares the interview, the Newman piece and the trailer, but Kino's edition adds the commentary and the alternate cut, which makes it the more complete package. Those wanting 4K can find the film in Kino's three-disc Italo-Crime Collection, an SDR presentation sharing a 4K UHD disc with Weapons of Death. For fans of 1970s Euro-crime, Whitman, Saxon or Landau, this is certainly recommended.

Gary Tooze