Kidnapped (Rabid Dogs – 1974)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Anchor Bay / 2007
Directed by Mario Bava and Lamberto Bava
Written by Alessandro Parenzo
Cast: Riccardo Cucciolla, Don Backy, Lea Lander, George Eastman
Review by James Garfield
A group of thieves rob an armored car, then because of complications in their getaway take a woman hostage and jump into the car of Riccardo, who has a sedated child with him whom he insists needs to go to the hospital. Doctor, the thieves’ leader, orders Riccardo to drive them to safety in a faraway hideout. Tensions mount during the long road trip, both among the criminals and between them and their hostages.
For a long while, this Mario Bava crime thriller sat on a shelf, unfinished after the production company went bankrupt. Lead actress Lea Lander helped ensure that post-production was completed in the late 1990s, and the film was released under its original title, Rabid Dogs. Bava’s son Lamberto later shot additional scenes that were in the script but left unfinished, and released this new version in 2002 under the title Kidnapped. The DVD conveniently includes both versions.
The new scenes consist mainly of footage of the police force going on the hunt for the criminals, as well as quick bits of a woman on the phone to the police. Although it finally completes the script, I actually found the new footage unnecessary; without it, we spend nearly the whole running time there in the car with the thugs and their hostages, an effectively claustrophobic setup. It’s sort of a vehicular version of a home-invasion scenario like that of The Desperate Hours or House on the Edge of the Park. Drivers tend to feel similarly in charge in their automobiles as they do in their houses, so being coerced into driving somewhere else than where one wants leads to major fright and frustration. The suspense builds as the viewer wonders who, if anybody will survive, and the film is capped with one of the most brilliant twists I’ve ever seen in a thriller.
Kudos to Lea Lander for rescuing this film from oblivion; even in its rough cut form, it’s a nail-biter and ranks with Bava’s best (though the director’s usual surrealism is nowhere in sight).
