Ever since I first discovered Phil Karlson's classic noir KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952) on VHS in the early 90's, I was immediately struck by the too-close-to-be-a-coincidence parallel scene of the masked man slapping sequence to a very similar scene in Mario Bava's masterpiece giallo, BLOOD & BLACK LACE (1964). I don't know if this has been discussed or analysed before or elsewhere. I have read that KANSAS CITY was a huge influence on Sergio Leone. You can decide for yourself how much Bava may have been influenced by Karlson with these two clips:
KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL CLIP (sequence starts at about 15:00)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpl7Bv415t8
BLOOD & BLACK LACE CLIP (sequence starts at about 33:55)
Both films are classics. Bava's is my all-time favorite giallo. Karlson' noir is PD but available as a decent, budget-priced blu-ray/DVD combo (
http://www.amazon.com/Kansas-City-Confidential-Blu-Ray-Combo/dp/B004G9UXEO/ref=tmm_blu_title_0) but the best print quality remains the MGM DVD (.
http://www.amazon.com/Kansas-City-Confidential-Film-Noir/dp/B000PMFRVK)
Bava's film is available on DVD from VCI (who also issues KANSAS on DVD). (
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Black-Lace-Special-Edition/dp/B000BB1926/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345230807&sr=8-1&keywords=blood+and+black+lace). This is one of my 'most wanted' titles for blu-ray!
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