A...FOR
ASSASSIN (1966) - Let's
travel back to 1966, when the giallo genre was just in its infancy.
This "reading of the will" murder mystery contains all of
the giallo ingredients: an unknown killer, a large mysterious house,
plenty of red herrings and a twisty plot. Yet this film is more like
Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" than a full blown
giallo flick, even though it is based on a novel by Ernesto Gastaldi,
who wrote the screenplays to some of the best giallo films,
including THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS
(1971), DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT
(1972) and, my favorite, TORSO
(1973). This film is interesting for that fact alone and also because
it contains a cast of actors who would soon become very familiar with
the giallo genre, appearing in some of the best of them (at least in
my opinion).
The film begins with Angela (Mary Arden; BLOOD
AND BLACK LACE - 1964) finding the dead body of her uncle,
rich industrialist John Prescott, in his study, his throat cut with a
large knife that has a crude letter "A" carved into the
handle. At the reading of his will, we meet the long list of
suspects. They are: Angela, who is the daughter of John's brother
Paul; Julian Prescott (Charlie Charun) John's retarded son, the
"last of the Prescotts", who is always laughing while
whittling away at a piece of wood; Martha Prescott (Giovanna
Galletti; THE GIRL IN
ROOM 2A - 1973), John's sister, who looked after John
"like a wife" and took care of Julian; George Prescott
(Ivano Staccioli as "John Heston"; THE
DEVIL WITH SEVEN FACES - 1971), John's nephew, and his
cheating wife, Adriana (Aïché Nana); Giacomo (Sergio
Ciani as "Alan Steel"; HERCULES
AGAINST THE MOON MEN - 1964), John's "trusted"
secretary; and Armando (Ivano Davoli; SEVEN
BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS - 1972), a "distant
relative". Also at the reading of the will (but not mentioned in
it) are police Inspector Matt (Gilberto Mazzi as "Gilbert
Mash"); police Sgt. Robson (Roland Redman); John's maid, Mary
(Giovanna Lenzi as "Barbara Penn"; CRIMES
OF THE BLACK CAT - 1972); and Peter (Franco Pesce as
"Frank Fisher"; PARANOIA
- 1969), the gardener. Everyone thinks that they alone will inherit
John's fortune, but there's a potential roadblock: The will is a
voice recording by John, who stipulates that only three people (each
getting an equal share) will inherit his fortune and they all must
work together to decide which three get it. If more than three people
arrive at executor (and notary) Jackson's (Aldo Rendine; STREET
PEOPLE - 1976) office at the appointed time, no one will
inherit anything. Oh, and one more thing: Everyone must live together
in his mansion (the same place he was murdered) for one month, after
which time the three people will go to Jackson's office (In his voice
recording, John manages to put everyone down in a backhanded way,
proving that he was a bastard when he was alive.).
Inspector Matt wants Jackson to make a copy of the voice recording
for his office, because he rightfully believes that this situation
will lead to nothing but trouble (He and Sgt. Robson were at the
reading of the will believing that one of his relatives murdered
John, but they all hated his guts). Almost immediately, the relatives
begin turning on each other, Angela revealing to everyone that
Adrianna was once a stripper and Julian laughing and repeating what
everyone just said. We also find out from Martha that John was
"ashamed" of Julian because he is retarded. Later on, the
Inspector makes an appearance at the mansion and not-so-subtly
accuses accuses one of them of cutting John's throat, also mentioning
that the bladed weapon that killed John has not been found (That
can't be good!). The relatives, one by one, tell the Inspector that
they couldn't have possibly killed John, each one of them explaining
their alibi, in detail, at the time of John's murder, but which one
is lying? It's hard to tell, each one of them looking guilty as hell
(Hey, I'm a poet!).
Armando, who is in love with Angela, finds the murder weapon and
Angela tells him that Julian probably stole it from the body of John
(he's always stealing things), but Julian's too much of an
"idiot" to have killed anyone. Armando wants to leave the
mansion with Angela because he doesn't care about the money, but
Angela says no, dollar signs in her eyes. One-by-one, the relatives
sneak off to talk to the Inspector, trying to break the other's
alibis. George says that Giacomo was lying about his alibi, since he
went to get Adriana a glass of water and saw Giacomo leaving John's
study. The Inspector then tells George that Adriana must be lying
about her alibi, since he wasn't with her like she said when John was
murdered. George, who is now angry, tells the Inspector he hated
John, because he would call him to the mansion at all hours of the night
and day, so he could have an affair with Adriana. We then discover
that Adriana is having an affair with...Giacomo and both of them are
planting evidence to make it look like George is the killer. The more
we find out about the Prescott family, the more we want to see them
suffer. Even John is (and was) a scumbag of the first degree
for, even in death, he is able to coax the worst from his relatives
and trusted employees.
That's what makes this obscure black & white film so fun. Not
one person here, not even Julian or the Inspector, is a likable
character. Not only do members of the family wish each other dead, we
do, too. We discover that George and Giacomo are actually working
together to kill Adriana, so that the money-hungry bitch
doesn't get the chance to sleep with another relative and make them
agree to split the fortune with her. When Adriana is in bed making
love to Giacomo, George enters the bedroom and shoots her in the
back, emptying every bullet into her. George and Giacomo put
her body in the trunk of a car and George drives off to dispose of
her body, but he is killed when somebody forces his car off the road,
the car going over a cliff and exploding. I'll give you one guess
who's responsible (and it's not who you think).
Director Angelo Dorigo, who uses the pseudonym "Ray
Morrison" (THE
KILLER WITHOUT A FACE - 1968), keeps things moving at a brisk
pace and the screenplay, by Roberto Natale (BLOODY
PIT OF HORROR - 1965; WATCH ME
WHEN I KILL - 1977) & Sergio Bazzini (CONVOY
BUDDIES - 1975), contains so many double and triple-crosses,
your head will be spinning, but everything is nicely (if not
ironically) resolved in the twisty finale. Since this is a 1966
production, there is no nudity or graphic violence, but this film
doesn't need either. It's the story that matters here and I'm happy
to say it doesn't disappoint. It is well acted, superbly photographed
(by Aldo Tonti; THE VALACHI PAPERS
- 1972) and the music score (by Aldo Piga; THE
VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA - 1960) is appropriately creepy.
The film looks and feels like a modern-day Gothic horror flick,
thanks to the huge mansion, shadows around every corner and the
haunting, thick atmosphere. This tidy little film (it runs only 76
minutes) is must viewing for both giallo fans or people looking for
something obscure. It was never available theatrically, on VHS or on
disc in the United States. Hell, it's not even available
English-dubbed. If you want to see this for free, you'll have to be
an Amazon Prime member, as they show a nice anamorphic widescreen
streaming version with English subtitles. Just another reason why I
am glad to be a Prime member. Produced by Walter Brandi, who starred
in such film as THE
VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA (1960), SLAUGHTER
OF THE VAMPIRES (1962) and BLOODY
PIT OF HORROR (1965) Not Rated. Who's the killer?
It's ... (maximum review length exceeded).
ACT
OF REVENGE (1989) - WARNING:
Do not go on IMDb to read the credits before reading this review, as
it will spoil the film's surprise reveal! (I wish someone would have
told me that!) Gabriele Steli (Dario Casalini; THE
SECT - 1991) is dying in a hospital. He tells Annabella
Allori (Margie Newton; THE
LAST HUNTER - 1980) that he has a "treasure" for
her. "Look for a casket and inside there's a viper. And it's
a long one and black. And it has a tongue that reaches
the depths of Hell. I have hidden it so that no one will find it.
It's hidden behind the books. But be careful cause this viper is
poisonous and it's going to kill all the other...vipers."
These are the last words spoken by Gabriele, as he dies in his
hospital bed. But what do these words mean? Is it a real viper or a
metaphor describing something far more deadly?
Dr. Carlo Martora (Helmut Berger; THE
SECRET OF DORIAN GRAY - 1970) comes into the room to inform
Annabella that nothing could be done for Gabriele because he was a
habitual drug addict since he was a young boy and this overdose was
his last one. We also discover that Gabriele has no family (as least
as Dr. Martora knows) and that Annabella was his closest friend. She
must now arrange Gabriele's funeral and take care of his legal
matters (Annabella is a lawyer), which includes taking care of his
personal belongings. She tells Dr. Martora (Who tells her to call him
Carlo, so that's what I'll do in this review) that she has defended
many drug addicts, but I doubt she has gone through or experienced
what is about to transpire. We then discover that Gabriele was
convicted of robbery, but due to his condition he was put under house
arrest and when his condition worsened, he was confined to a hospital
bed. Carlo tells Annabella that he knew Gabriele's mother and she
died at the "lowest point of her life." Carlo also tells
her that this is a small town and everyone knows everyone else's
business. Annabella tells Carlo that she is thinking about moving
herself and her practice to this small and he tells her if she needs
any help "adjusting to small town life", to give him a call
and then walks out of the bar they are having a drink in.
Annabella purchases a fully furnished apartment in this small town
that belonged to a recently deceased "eccentric", according
to the real estate agent. Only the eccentric the agent was talking
about was Gabriele. Yes, this was his apartment and the first thing
Annabella does when she is alone is to search behind the books, just
as Gabriele told her, only she finds nothing. It seems Annabella has
a secret of her own and since she just moved to this small town, the
question becomes: Will anyone discover what her secret is? Annabella
remembers Gabriele's final words and notices a painting containing
books hanging on a wall. There's a secret compartment behind the
painting and in it is a round tin containing a bunch of audio
cassettes, one of them marked "For Annabella." She plays
the cassette and Gabriele speaks in riddles, saying, "Mother
liked Wagner, but her favorite was Puccini. One day,
a man gave her a recording of 'La Boheme'. He was a nice cordial man
and it was obvious she liked him a lot. She immediately played the
record and began listening to it, like she was in a trance. Suddenly,
she raised her eyes. The man had arrived. She seemed happy. That
picture filled me with joy. His name was Luce Palmisani. They started
seeing each other on a regular basis. He was always bringing her discs."
Are these the ramblings of a drug-addled mind or was Gabriele trying
to tell Annabella something important? (Annabella will continue
playing portions of the tape during the film and flashbacks will show
us the meaning of Gabriele's words.)
Annabella gets a phone call from Carlo and she wants to know how he
knew she was there. "Everybody knows. They're all talking about
your arrival" says Carlo. He invites her to come over to his
house for a party tonight to meet his many friends and residents who
can't wait to meet her. She declines his offer, but Carlo tells her
this get-together is in her honor and she can't decline his offer, so
she agrees to go to his home at 9:00PM. Once at the party, Carlo
introduces Annabella to Mayor Vito Palmisani (Mattia Sbragia; DIAL:
HELP - 1988) and his wife, Rosa (Annamaria Clementi; EMANUELLE
AND THE LAST CANNIBALS - 1977). The Mayor makes it clear
that there are no secrets in his town, one of the "disadvantages
of small town life." When Carlo gets Annabella alone, he wants
to know why she picked that apartment to live in, because he could
have found her a place to live that was much better and cheaper. It
is obvious that the entire town wants to know all the dirt on
Annabella, but like I said before, she has a secret that will blow
the roof off of small town living.
The town's Police Commissioner, Marco Marsili (Carlo Mucari; BLACK
ANGEL - 1989), has been receiving a lot of anonymous letters
written by the same person (the handwriting looks familiar). One of
the letters accuses the Mayor and his wife of accepting kickbacks for
the concessions of a building license, so Marco wakes up the Mayor
and has him come to the office to read the letter. He denies the
accusation and orders Marco to find the person who wrote the letter
(The Mayor looks guilty as hell). The writer says that a future
letter will have proof of the kickback, which makes the Mayor even
angrier (and guiltier looking). So how does all this relate to Annabella?
The Mayor goes to Annabella for legal help in this matter, but what
he gets instead is Annabella stripping naked and making sweet love to
him! (As Annabella is making love to him, she has an image of a
scorpion come to her mind every so often, telling us that her sting
is deadly). After the lovemaking is over, Annabella agrees to
represent him and the Mayor opens up to her about the kickback.
Annabella offers a solution to the problem, which the Mayor
reluctantly accepts. It then becomes obvious that Annabella's mission
is to destroy the reputations and lives of the important people in
this small town, using the law and her body to get justice, but
justice for what? You will understand once you discover her secret
and if you have no plans on seeing this film, go on IMDb and discover
it for yourself, as I am not going to reveal it in this review. All I
will say is to is re-read Gabriele's final words closely, because
they are a thinly-veiled allegory for the brutal truth, as people in
town, important people in high standing, begin to commit
"suicide" or dying "natural" deaths, beginning
with the Mayor and his wife. You may think you know who is
responsible, but I am here to tell you that you are wrong.
This is a pretty involving mystery that is somewhat of a giallo
film, but missing the black-gloved killer, the POV shots and other
things we associate with a giallo flick. What it does have is plenty
of nudity, not only by the gorgeous Margie Newton, but also by other
females in this small town, including the Mayor's wife.
Director/screenwriter Nini Grassia (who directed/wrote over 32 other
films, none I ever heard of before, as they are mostly sex comedies
or romantic dramas) treats small town living as an Italian version of TWIN
PEAKS, as all of the people
who live in this town are not who they seem to be. They may know your
business, but they are dangerous, too. No one is to be trusted and
Annabella knows it, as she seduces both men and women alike (she has
a hot lesbian scene with one of the town's "righteous"
female citizens), using them before they use her. This film is also
populated by a cast of Italian genre pros, including Helmut Berger (THE
BLOODSTAINED BUTTERFLY - 1971), who has an extended naked
lovemaking scene with star Margie Newton*,
still looking in good shape for a man of 45 years, Gabriel Tinti (THE
EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW - 1974) as the town Pharmacist
and Roberto Ceccacci (HERCULES
AGAINST THE MOON MEN - 1964) as "Count Alvise
Leonardi", the town's most important and despicable man, as you
will learn in flashbacks. Everyone has his or her moment in this film
and no one is wasted. I have been watching a lot of late-'80s Italian
genre films lately (THE
SPIDER LABYRINTH - 1988; MASSACRE
- 1989 and THE MURDER SECRET
- 1989), just to mention a few) and have come to the conclusion that
they are not as bad as I originally thought they were. Sure, there
are some stinkers out there, but not this film, especially when we
see Annabella performing oral sex on the elderly Count Leonardi for
the sole reason of giving him a fatal heart attack (and she
succeeds)! Sleazy? Oh, my, yes! But bad? Not by a long shot. This is
a fun film with a corkscrew mystery and good acting, so jump on
board, the party is rockin'!
Shot as LA PURITANA
("The Puritan") and also known as SCORPION'S
KISS, this film never had a theatrical or home video release
in any format in the United States, yet it is available on DVD-R from
many gray market sellers. I saw a nice uncut, fullscreen print on
YouTube in its original Italian with English subtitles. A nice little
discovery for those days when you can't make up your mind what to
watch. Also starring Cinzia Scalzi (FATAL
FRAMES - 1996) and Francesca Guidato. Not Rated.
While there is not much violence or blood, it goes beyond what we
consider R-Rated material, based solely on nudity and depictions of
sex. The prudish need not apply. *NOTE:
Margie Newton definitely had a boob job after appearing in HELL
OF THE LIVING DEAD (1980) and THE
FINAL EXECUTIONER (1983). She gave up acting in the
early-'90s to spend time with her newborn daughter and currently
spends her time as a artist, as she is an in-demand painter in Italy.
She still gets fan letters from all over the world, which she is
happy to reply to. She has nothing but pleasant memories of acting in
low-budget genre films. She almost became a major Hollywood star
after starring in Claude Chabrol's QUIET DAYS IN CLICHY (1990)
with Andrew McCarthy, but it didn't quite work out for her. Still,
she has no regrets and speaks highly of everyone she has worked with.
A true class act.
AMUCK
(1971) -
Greta Franklin (the beautiful Barbara Bouchet) arrives at the remote
island estate (it's only accessible by boat) of best-selling mystery
novelist Richard Stuart (Farley Granger) to work as his secretary.
Richard's previous secretary, Sally (Patrizia Viotti), has
mysteriously disappeared and we soon find out that Greta and Sally
were best friends. Greta has taken the position as Richard's new
secretary to investigate her friend's disappearance thanks, in part,
to a mysteriously-worded letter that Sally sent her a few days before
she vanished. Greta may soon regret her decision, as she is spied on
by hulking retarded fisherman Rocco (Petar Martinovitch), who is
described as having "the body of a giant and the brain of a
child". Greta is drugged one night and has a steamy, slow-motion
lesbian encounter with Richard's lonely wife, Elena (Rosalba Neri),
who says to Greta, "I so desperately need a friend!" Greta
wakes up one night and finds Richard and Elenora throwing a sex
party. Elenora convinces Greta to join in the party (after again
drugging her drink) and Elenora shows a porn film that's a take-off
of Little Red Riding Hood, where Greta recognizes one of the stars of
the film as none other than Sally (Greta, who is confused about Elenora,
asks Richard about his wife and he replies, "That lady's a
mystery I'd rather not solve."). The next day, Richard pitches a
story idea to Greta that sounds too much like her undercover mission
to be a coincidence. Greta begins snooping around the mansion and
finds some of Sally's personal items half burned-up in the basement
furnace. This triggers a flashback that shows Greta and Sally weren't
just friends, they were also lovers. After almost getting caught by
the Stuart's sinister butler (Umberto Raho) in the basement, Greta
gets locked-in, but she manages to escape though a locked grate. The
broken grate is noticed by Richard and soon Greta is held prisoner at
the estate, the phone lines dead and the boat missing from the dock.
Greta then listens to a tape that Richard dictated to her that
suspiciously sounds like an admission to killing Sally, although
Richard dictates it like it's a new story idea. Is Richard actually
responsible for Sally's death or is someone setting him up? If that
is the case, what is to become of Greta? You'll have to watch the
film to find out. This early 70's Italian mystery (I don't want
to call it a giallo, since it doesn't follow standard giallo
conventions, such as an unseen gloved killer and brutal murders every
few minutes, something this film lacks), directed/scripted by Silvio
Amadio (THE MINOTAUR
- 1960; SMILE
BEFORE DEATH - 1972), is pretty slow going for most of it's
running time, but that's not a bad thing in this film's case. Since
we are never sure a crime has been committed, we, along with Greta,
are forced to pick up clues along the way. That makes paying
attention mighty important for the viewer and it's not until we get
two-thirds through the film, when Greta goes duck hunting with
Richard, Elenora and Sandro (Dino Mele), that we know that something
really is amiss. I don't want to spoil it for first-time viewers
other than to say it involves an inoperable shotgun and a tense dip
in a pit of quicksand. Farley Granger (THE SLASHER
- 1972; THE PROWLER -
1981) is fine as the writer who may or may not be playing a game of
cat-and-mouse with Greta, but the film definately belongs to the two
female leads, Barbara Bouchet (CRY OF
A PROSTITUTE - 1974) and Rosalba Neri (GIRL
IN ROOM 2A - 1973). Not only do they get to act here (the
sight of both women with shotguns in their hands excited me somehow),
but they both strip naked on several occasions, so what's not to
like? While there's not much in the blood and violence departments
(besides the on-screen filleting of a live eel), the plentiful nudity
and the unwinding mystery are sure to keep your eyes and brain
occupied. Give it a try. Also starring Nino Segurini as the police
inspector. A Eurovista Digital Entertainment DVD Release. The
legality of this fullscreen DVD is questionable, as it is full of
emulsion scratches, print damage, the final reel has a horizontal
line running through it (making me believe this was taken from a VHS
master) and is missing most of the opening credits. The DVD also
contains short videotaped interviews with both Bouchet and Neri (who
describes Farley Granger as "professional but distant"),
conducted in 2002. They both look surprisingly bonable. Also known as MANIAC
MANSION and HOT BED OF SEX
(!) Not
Rated,
although this print does have an MPAA R-Rating classification
tacked-on after the film ends. Also available on a widescreen Double
Feature DVD, with SUPER
STOOGES VS. THE WONDER WOMEN (1974), from Code
Red.
ANGRY
JOE BASS (1976) -
Indian fisherman Joe Bass (Henry Bal) makes life difficult for
crooked banker George Hanson (Mike Miller), who is foreclosing the
loans on all the local fishermen and illegally buying their boats in
hopes of taking advantage of new DNR regulations, in this regional
Minnesota-lensed riff on BILLY JACK
(1971). The whole film is told in flashback, as Hanson's daughter,
Karen (Molly Mershon), is in the hospital suffering from a nervous
breakdown after her father has been murdered. She tells the story of
how it happened (but can't remember how it ended), which makes up the
bulk of the film. Karen meets Joe at a boat auction and strikes up a
friendship and, later, a love affair with Joe, which severely pisses
off her father ("I told you to stay away from that
Indian!"). Karen tries her damnedest to have her
father and Joe get along, but it falls on deaf ears from both sides
(Her mother says to her, "What man would want you when that
Indian is done with you?"). Joe goes through a series of bloody
beatings and arrests by the crooked sheriff (who does whatever Mr.
Hanson orders him to do), but Karen always stays by Joe's side, which
just makes her daddy madder. When a bunch of Hanson's goons shoot up
Joe's house and injure his father, he says enough's enough. Joe goes
after the men who shot up his house and the men end up seriously hurt
(one of the guys accidentally cuts off his own leg with a chainsaw!).
Under Mr. Hanson's orders, the sheriff sets out to kill Joe. The
sheriff sets up a chain of events where he kills two birds with one
stone, since he found out his wife is being unfaithful. Both Mr.
Hanson and the sheriff's wife end up shot dead in separate incidents
as Karen's doctors try to figure out exactly what happened. Karen's
flashbacks eventually reveal what actually transpired. Sorry to say
that Karen ends up being the total loser here, as her memory reveals
that Joe is innocent, but he does not survive to bask in the glory.
Joe should have learned not to fuck with the police. This
little-seen revenge flick suffers from one real drawback: Henry Bal,
who plays Joe Bass, is so fucking ugly (he has a face only a
disfigured bulldog could love) and stiff as an actor, it's really
hard to root for him. His rants against the DNR (Department of
Natural Resources) is never fully explained (the DNR regulates
hunting and fishing to manage the state's natural resources), which
also hurts the film for people who have no idea what the DNR is (my
wife thought is stood for "Do Not Resusitate"!). The
flashback scenario is very fragmented and disconcerting. Just when
the film gets interesting (Joe's house being shot up), the films
stops dead in it's tracks, switches gears and then tells the story of
Sheriff Bill Hemmings (Rudy Hornish), whose wife is having an affair
with George Hanson, and how Joe caught him trying to rape a young
girl in the woods. The latter half of the film plays like a low-rent
version of RASHOMON (1951), as
two doctors try to figure out just how Mr. Hanson and the sheriff's
wife died. The truth lies in a neon-colored recurring nightmare that
Karen is having since the murders. The answer is not that surprising.
The action and fighting scenes are awkwardly-staged and the whole
film looks like it was edited with a butterkinfe. There is some blood
and gore on view, but it, too, is badly filmed and much too quick.
Add to that a cheesy theme song titled "The Ballad Of
Joe Bass
" and what you get is BILLY JACK without the resonance.
One-time director/producer/co-scripter Thomas G. Reeves should have
also learned that Billy Jack survived in the end. Well, at least we
never got an ANGRIER JOE BASS. This had potential, but it was
bungled in the execution. On-screen title: JOE
BASS
(I guess he didn't get angry until much later on). Also starring Lois
Aurino, Elaine Kussack, James Dimitri and Derek Parsons. A Paragon
Video Productions Home Video Release. Not Rated.
THE
APARTMENT ON THE 13TH FLOOR
(1972) - I originally saw this film theatrically in the mid-'70s
under the title THE CANNIBAL MAN
(Released by Hallmark Releasing,
the same company that unleashed THE
LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT [1972] and DON'T
LOOK IN THE BASEMENT [1973] to unsuspecting audiences using
their famous tag line "It's Only A Movie...Only A Movie..."
Hallmark, which
was not afraid to rename their films to get audiences to double or
triple-dip, also released this film under the review title.). This
was advertised as a horror film, which it definitely isn't. Rather,
it is a psychological thriller about class struggle during Spain's
Franco regime (1939 - 1975). My teenage brain could not comprehend or
forgive such a terrible case of false advertising, but my adult and,
much more mature, brain (I know what you're thinking. Fuck off!)
decided to give this film a second chance. And I'm glad I did.
The film concerns the trials and trevails of poor "nobody"
Marcos (Vicente Parra), who works at the town's slaughterhouse (Be
warned: They show steer being killed, which will put you off Big Macs
for good!). The slaughterhouse is the only game in town and Marcos
learns from the slaughterhouse owner that his new boss will be a
machine (He gives Marcos a long, delirious speech where the word
"synchronicity" is repeated several times.). Marcos can do
nothing but accept his new position since there are no other jobs to
be found. Marcos lives in a hovel of a shack, where well-to-do
neighbor Nestor (Eusebio Poncela) spies on him with binoculars from
his 13th floor apartment in a new luxurious highrise building just
across the tracks from Marcos' flat. (We first see Nestor spying on
Marcos through a roof window of his flat, where Marcos is
masturbating while looking at magazine photos of scantily-clad women
he has taped to his wall).
Marcos and girlfriend Paula (Emma Cohen; NIGHT
OF THE WALKING DEAD - 1975) decide to have a romantic night
on the town. They hail a taxi and begin making out in the back seat.
The disgusted cab driver pulls over and tells them to get out (he
doesn't want his taxi to smell like sex!) and when Marcos refuses to
pay him, he gets out of the car and knees Marcos in the balls. Paula
jumps on the cab driver's back and when it looks like he is about to
punch her lights out, Marcos smashes him in the head with a rock and
they both flee the scene. The next day, Marcos learns that he killed
the cab driver and Paula wants him to go to the police to explain
what happened. Marcos refuses, telling Paula that the police won't
believe a poor "nobody like him ("The police will listen to
the rich only!"). After a night of making love, Paula tells him
that she is going to the police because her conscience bothers her,
so Marcos has no other choice (at least in his mind) but to kill her
(He strangles her with his bare hands while giving her a long,
passionate kiss). There's no turning back now.
Marcos' roommate (and older brother) Steve (Charly Bravo; MONSTER
DOG - 1985) comes home a day early and Marcos shows him
Paula's dead body (Steve amazingly says, "Marriage would have
been a better idea!"). Steve insists that Marcos goes to the
police (uh oh!), so he splits Steve's skull open with a wrench (One
of many tools of the trade that Marcos has hanging on a wall next to
his bedroom. Tools that will become handy as the film progresses.).
He puts the body body on a bed in Steve's bedroom.
Steve's fiancee Carmen (Lola Herrera; a famous Spanish TV star)
arrives at Marcos' shack and refuses to leave until she speaks to
Steve. Carmen sneaks into Steve's bedroom (after Marcos warns her not
to go in there) and sees Steve's corpse. Marcos catches her and she
is on a receiving end of a knife to the neck (we watch as Marcos
slices her throat). He puts her bloody body on the bed with Steve
(Marcos spends some time posing their bodies until he is satisfied!).
The bodies are beginning to pile up.
Nestor pays Marcos a late night visit and insists they go for a
walk. Nestor drops some clues that he is watching him, but it is
obvious that Nestor is gay and wants Marcos as a boyfriend. They stop
at an outdoor cafe for a drink when the police pull up and asks them
to show their identification cards. Marcos show them his but Nestor
didn't bring his with him. He is almost arrested until the cafe owner
tells the police that he lives in the expensive new highrise
apartment complex. In this town, money talks, so the police give
Nestor a gentle reminder that he should carry identification on him
at all times.
Carmen's father, Senor Don Ambrosio (Fernando Sanchez Polak; VENGEANCE
OF THE MUMMY - 1975) is the next person to pay Marcos a
visit. He insists on coming inside, finds Carmen's purse (Very
sloppy, Marcos!) and breaks down Steve's bedroom door. He finds
Carmen's bloody body and, in the film's most notorious moment, Marcos
plants a meat cleaver into his face. Marcos now has a serious
problem: His shack is beginning to stink of death, thanks to the
decomposing bodies (Wild dogs are scratching at his front door!). He
goes to a local drug store and buys ten bottles of mens cologne,
which he sprays all over his home, but it is not doing the trick.
Marcos gets the bright idea of bringing body parts to work. His new
"boss", a machine that takes scraps of unused beef and
grinds it into chuck, which is used for pet food and meat in poor
neighborhoods, turns out to be an answer to Marcos' problem.
Unfortunately, he can only bring small amounts of body parts with him
(which he keeps in a duffel bag) without bringing suspicion on him
(He almost gets caught when some neighborhood thugs play a game of
"keepaway" with the duffel bag).
Meanwhile, Nestor keeps on showing up at the most inopportune times
in Marcos' life. Is Nestor gay and hitting on Marcos or does he know
the truth (or both?)? Rosa (Vicky Lagos), a waitress at a local
bar/restaurant called Bar Rosa, pays Marcos a visit ("What
smells in here?"). She has the hots for Marcos and they have sex
on the couch. She insists on cleaning up the bedroom to get rid of
the smell (so they can have sex on a bed), but she grows suspicious
of Marcos the more he refuses to let her go in there (Marcos is not a
good housekeeper, as he leaves his bloody murder tools lying around
the shack.). Marcos notices her suspicions and kills her by
repeatedly smashing her head against the wall.
Marcos also now has another very serious problem: People and animals
are beginning to get severely ill after consuming the tainted meat
that came out of his "boss". Will he be able to solve this
problem and get away with multiple murders? The answer comes when
Nestor invites him to come to his expensive apartment. Nestor
confesses that he knows everything about the murders and shows Marcos
how easy it was to spy on him. Nestor really doesn't care because all
he wants to do is become Marcos' lover. Marcos breaks a glass and
holds a shard of glass to Nestor's neck, but he can't bring himself
to kill him. Instead, he leaves the apartment and calls the police,
confessing to all the murders. The film ends with Marcos waiting for
the police to arrive, as the camera pans across what is rich and what
is poor: the stark contrast of the glorious apartment building with
Marcos' ramshackle shack, which are only a couple of hundred yards apart.
This is basically a week in the life of a poor man, where an
accidental murder spirals out of control, based solely on his
opinions on what
constitutes being poor and being rich. Each chapter of his life in
this Spanish thriller is broken down to days of the week (shown in
Spanish without subtitles). Director Eloy de la Iglesia, who also
gave us the entertaining A
CLOCKWORK ORANGE-like thriller MURDER
IN A BLUE WORLD (1972; made right after this film), does not
sensationalize the murders, rather showing them matter-of-factly, as
if Marcos has no other choice given his status in this caste society.
The screenplay, by de la Iglesia and Antonio Fos (THE
VAMPIRES NIGHT ORGY - 1972). with an assist from
exploitation pioneer Dick Randall (PIECES
- 1982; using the pseudonym "Robert Oliver") for the
dialogue in the U.S. theatrical version, is a story about the
"haves" and "have-nots", where living in an
apartment is a status symbol and living in a shack is akin to being a
criminal. There is no overt cannibalism in this film, which is what
disappointed me as a teenager when I saw it in a theater. Well, no
intentional cannibalism, just a glossed-over moment of a sick dog who
ate the meat and a scene where Marcos pukes when he realizes he ate
some of that meat at Bar Rosa. There is some bloody violence, but the
camera doesn't linger on it. Still, this is an effective film which
could have only been made during Spain's Franco regime (Much like INVASION
OF THE BODY SNATCHERS [1956] was an indictment of the Joseph
McCarthy anti-Communist movement).
I don't believe this film was released on VHS in the U.S. in the
1980s. The first VHS seems to be the widescreen version that Anchor
Bay Entertainment released in 2000, which was also released on DVD at
the same time. Blue Underground
released it later on DVD (all as CANNIBAL
MAN). The Blu-Ray, from Code
Red, is light on extras (just some Code Red trailers), but this
is the full, unedited version that was not shown theatrically or on
DVD (both cut out the gay subtext). It runs 107 minutes long and the
print bears the original Spanish title (LA
SEMANA DEL ASENINO; "The Week Of The Killer").
Some parts are in Spanish with English subtitles, including a scene
where a slaughterhouse worker explains to Marcos how his mother died
and the unbelievable speech the slaughterhouse owner gives to Marcos.
It also restores the gay subtext. The print looks amazingly crisp and
clear (you can count the drops of sweat on Marcos' forehead), better
than it has ever looked before. If you are the adventurous type, I
would recommend you search this Blu-Ray out. Raúl Artigot, the
director of the Spanish chiller THE
WITCHES MOUNTAIN (1971), was the cinematographer on this
film. The camerawork here is just as important as the characters.
Also starring Ismael Merlo, Rafael Hernandez, Jose Franco, Valentin
Tornos and Goyo Lebrero as the Taxi Driver. Not Rated.
THE
ART OF DYING (1991) - Uncommonly
good detective thriller with horror overtones from the production
team of Joseph Merhi and Richard Pepin, the proprietors of usually
less-than-stellar action dramas such as EPITAPH
- 1986; L.A.
CRACKDOWN
- 1987; FRESH
KILL
- 1987; and DEATH BY DIALOGUE
- 1988; (although they have been getting better as they progress). An
overstressed cop (Wings Hauser, who also directed) is on the trail of
a demented gay filmmaker (Gary Werntz), who is copying scenes of
violence from famous films for insertion in his ultimate snuff film,
titled appropriately THE
ART OF DYING.
He fails to tell one actor, who is doing a re-enactment of the
Russian roulette scene in THE
DEER HUNTER
(1978), that the gun he is pointing at his head is not filled with
blanks. Two more actors are cut to pieces for real during a
re-enactment of the chainsaw scene from DePalma's SCARFACE
(1983). An actress is stabbed repeatedly with a real knife in a scene
stolen from PSYCHO
(1960). Meanwhile, Hauser has personal and professional problems that
would put a normal person in a loony bin. He tosses an irate
housewife out of a third story window for stabbing his female
partner. His only lead to the psycho filmmaker, a gay pimp (a
terrific performance by Mitch Lara), is struck and killed by a car
during a footchase. Hauser's superiors suspend him from the force for
using excessive violence one too many times. In retaliation for
killing the pimp (his lover), Wertz kidnaps Hauser's mysterious and
sexy girlfriend (Kathleen Kinmont) and plans on using her for the
climax of his film: a fiery re-enactment of the conclusion of the
1948 historical epic JOAN
OF ARC
(break out the marshmallows!). This film has many good things going
for it: Snappy dialog, great action scenes, over the top acting
(including Michael J. Pollard as a non-action cop), bloody effects,
nice sex scenes, unusual editing (especially during the PSYCHO
shower scene) and capable direction. Hauser squeezes the most out of
a low budget and made an exciting thriller that is sure to please his
fans. It's about time Hauser, who previously directed two other
films, COLDFIRE and LIVING
TO DIE (both 1990), got the chance to go behind the cameras
after starring in numerous psychodramas throughout the years. Gaping
plot holes aside, THE
ART OF DYING
should satisfy even the most jaded thriller fans. A PM Home Video VHS
Release. Also available on budget VHS (recorded in the inferior EP
Mode) from MNTEX Entertainment. Unrated.
AVENGED
(2013) - First a word of warning: Even though this film, and many
DTV films, are shown on the defunct TV station CHILLER (and sometimes
SyFy), it is the worst way to watch these films because all of the
nudity and most of the extreme violence is edited out. Buy or rent
the DVD or watch it on VOD streaming, because CHILLER cut nearly nine
minutes from this film, literally cutting the film's balls off,
making it look like some zombie revenge film. That being said, I
generally don't care too much for rape/revenge films (But for some
reason, women do. I remember showing the uncut VHS version Mier
Zarchi's I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE
[1978] on a rainy day down at our our Summer New Jersey Shore house
in the mid-90's, expecting the women to be shocked [I was one of the
only guys in a house of 8 women. Color me happy! But I was their
escorts and designated driver, because there is nothing worse than a
woman at a bar at the New Jersey Shore in the Summer. We were all
lifelong friends and nothing romantic ever happened. Besides, one of
the women is now my ex-wife!]. They were shocked, especially over the
two extended rapes [and rightfully so], but they loved the rest of
the film. Every time I see them, even up to this day, they ask if I
will ever show this film again. Our New Jersey Shore days are long
over, but it surprises me that one of the first things they remember
and want to relive is that film!). I don't believe forced sex should
ever be displayed as entertainment, but this film is more in the vein
of the 2010 remake of I
SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (The over-the-top violence in this version
of the film reminded me most of this film), but with a Native
American twist and other zombie elements. And it is just
different enough for me to recommend it, mainly because it doesn't
wallow in the rape like the 1978 & 2010 films (and also the 2013
sequel!). Zoe (Amanda Adrienne, who is absolutely fantastic
here) inherits her father's mint 1968 GTO when he passes away. Zoe is
a deaf young woman who can talk some English (much in the way Marlee
Matlin does) and plans on using the GTO to get out of California and
travel to the American Southwest to live with her fiance Dane (Marc
Anthony Samuel). Zoe's older sister, Hanna (Sarah J. Stuckey), tries
to talk her out of it (I guess the politically correct way is to say
"sign" her out of it) by saying the American Southwest is
vast and can be dangerous, especially for a young, deaf woman, but
Zoe has her mind made up and starts her travels (after taking a
selfie of her and her sister with her camera, one of her favorite
things to do). Zoe should have listened to her older sister. For the
first time in her life, Zoe feels free and drives through national
parks and sees other unusual sights, sending texts and photos to
Dane, telling him she is on her way. Zoe enters New Mexico (I spent a
week there one day) and that's when the trouble starts. She stops to
take photos of some very unusual cactus plants and then spots the maggot-ridden
corpse of a coyote who was definitely killed by human hands with a
shotgun, judging by the way its midsection is exposed. Zoe gets back
in her GTO and stops at a dumpy little trailer with a sign that says
"Hand Made Native Gifts" (the proprietor will become an
important character later in the film, but we only get a fleeting
glimpse of him in this sequence). Zoe looks at various home made
Indian objects (including a tomahawk) and then continues driving (we
don't know whether she has purchased anything). She's texting Dane
while driving (Doesn't she watch all those anti-texting TV
commercials? I'm sure they are Close Captioned.) and nearly hits a
Native American in the middle of the road who is seriously injured
with a gaping wound in his stomach. Zoe pulls the GTO to the side of
the road to go help him, but then she sees a bunch of rednecks
chasing another Native American in their truck and run him over. Zoe
tries to get the injured Indian into her car and drive away, but the
rednecks, which includes Trey (Rodney Rowland; SOULKEEPER
- 2001); West (Tom Ardavany; VELOCITY
TRAP - 1998); Creed (John Charles Meyer; THE
MILLENNIUM BUG - 2011); Cody (Brionne Davis; REST
STOP: DON'T LOOK BACK - 2008), Trey's brother Jed (Ronnie
Gene Blevins; THE BLACKOUT -
2014) and Trey's slow (i.e. retarded) brother Skeeter (Kyle Morris; COFFIN
BABY - 2013), block her from driving away by putting their
truck in front of her GTO. While West stabs the injured Indian over
and over with his huge knife in the front seat of the GTO, Zoe tries
to run away, only to get shot in the leg by Trey. We then see her
tied to a bed with barb wire in the home of Trey's mother (Donell
Russell) and she sits outside while the guys take turns raping Zoe,
one even making her suck on the barrel of a pistol (It's bad, but not
as bad as the films I mentioned above). West says she's a useless
deaf mute who is "color blind" (he goes through her purse
and finds a photo of her and Dane, who happens to be Black). Speaking
about Dane, he becomes increasingly worried when she doesn't show up
to their house or send him any more photos or texts on her phone. He
looks at the last photo she sent him and in the background there is a
sign that reads "Acme, New Mexico", so he calls the police
department there and heads out to Acme to see if he can find her. The
guys continue raping Zoe (thankfully, most of it offscreen), but it
is the brutal Trey who takes particular delight in raping and
torturing her, pouring Jack Daniels on her bullet wound. Trey also
has a refrigerator full of old Indian skulls and shows them to Zoe,
saying some of them date back to his great-great-grandfather, who was
a notorious Indian fighter. His whole family has hated Indians since
they have lived in this part of the country, which is at least 200
years. He considers them less than human and takes pleasure in
hunting them down and killing them. Some of the heads in the
refrigerator are kills of his own. West says that Zoe has to be
"put down", because if she lives, she will destroy the
whole gang and they will be in prison for life. Trey, who is a
natural-born gambler, makes a deal with West: They will play one hand
of cards and if Trey wins, he gets to keep Zoe as his plaything. If
West wins, they will kill her immediately and she will be "an
angel who gets her wings". Zoe is having flashbacks of Dane
proposing to her to get her mind off the pain of her trying to free
her arms from the barb wire (it's a really hard scene to watch, as
the barb wire slits open her arms from the elbows-down) and she
actually gets her arms free, but it is all for naught, since West has
won the hand of cards and stabs her over-and-over with his large
knife (which is really nothing but an extension of his penis, since
we never see him take part in any of the rapes). West buries Zoe in a
shallow grave in the desert, where she is found by Native American
tracker Grey Wolf (Joseph Runningfox; RITES
OF PASSAGE - 2011), the proprietor of the dumpy trailer
selling home made Native American goods that Zoe stopped at earlier
in the film, and he brings her dead body back to his home, where he
performs an ancient Indian ritual with her body so she can rest in
eternal peace. But something goes horribly wrong when the spirit of
an ancient Apache warrior enters her body and he tells Grey Wolf that
Trey and his friends will "Now walk...in Hell!" before he knocks-out
Grey Wolf. Zoe is now alive, but like all living dead, her body
begins to rot the longer she walks the Earth. Dane has now made it to
Acme and is spending the night in a motel, where we watch him flip
channels using the remote for the TV and see snippets of THE
TERROR (1963) and THE STREETFIGHTER
(1974), among other films and TV shows. The clip of THE
TERROR is particularly relevant since it comes at the end of
the film, where Jack Nicholson kisses Sandra Knight and she begins to
disintegrate in front of his eyes. The possessed Zoe is now able to
hear (a telling scene is when a dog barks and she looks its way) and
she calls Dane on a payphone one last time to tell him that she loves
him (she is not possessed 100% of the time). Dane, in turn, calls the
operator to see where the call originated from. Zoe first spots Jed,
who happens to be a police officer. She follows him into a bar, where
all of the patrons stop what they are doing to look at the
deteriorating Zoe, Jed unaware she is behind him. She stabs Jed in
the gut with a broken bottle and begins to pull out yards of his
intestines while he is still alive. Zoe stops the bartender from
shooting her by tossing a chair at him and killing him instead and
then shoves a broken pool cue into another guy's eye when he tries to
intervene. After pulling out nearly all of Jed's intestines (it's
quite graphic), she finishes him off with a broken bottle to his
face. Dane gets to the bar an hour late and when he goes to the
payphone where Zoe made her call to him, he spots all the rednecks
across the street and he asks them if they have seen Zoe (he shows
them a photo). Trey's only response is, "Sorry. We don't help
niggers." When Dane mentions that she made a call from the phone
across the road an hour earlier, they make West take them to her
burial site to make sure she is actually dead. Surprisingly, Sheriff
Holt (Daniel Knight) is sympathetic to Dane's plight (in other words,
he's a decent human being), but he has trouble believing that a mute
girl that probably weighs 110 pounds soaking wet could commit all the
bloody carnage in the bar. When Grey Wolf gains consciousness, he
sees that Zoe is gone (she is hiding in a farmer's barn, where she
sees herself in the mirror and what she is becoming) and he goes
looking for her to try and remove the Apache warrior possession.
Zoe discovers a room in the barn fill of all type of sharp
instruments, including a bow and a good supply of arrows. The
rednecks make it to Zoe's grave and find it empty, but West swears
she was dead and Creed says a pack of coyotes probably dragged her
away since her grave was so shallow. A short time later, Skeeter
watches from the truck while Zoe shoots an arrow into Creed's leg and
then riddles his body with arrows (including one to the crotch.
Ouch!). Before Creed dies he manages to shoot Zoe once in the face
(We then watch Zoe take her engagement ring off and all of the skin
on the finger comes off with it. Yech!). She knows she doesn't have
much time left on this Earth when she pulls the bandages off one of
her arms (where she ripped it apart with the barb wire on the bed)
and discovers the wound is crawling with maggots (a well done, if
hard to watch, scene). Zoe goes back to Grey Wolf's trailer and he
tells her if she actually wants revenge she better do it fast (There
is a ritual Grey Wolf can perform to put Zoe to rest, but Zoe would
rather have the revenge, as would anyone with a sense of justice.
Since Zoe doesn't feel pain, why not give the people their just
desserts?). Sheriff Holt finds Zoe's engagement ring in the barn and
begins to think that Zoe is the killer since the barn stinks of
death. Zoe leaves one final message on Dane's bathroom mirror that
says "Please forgive me" when the room fills up with steam
from the hot water, but before he can run outside and catch up with
Zoe, the remainder of the rednecks kidnap Dane (In true THE
WARRIORS [1979] fashion, Cody yells out, "Angel, we got
your booooy!" over and over, just like the scene with the beer
bottles where David Patrick Kelly yells out, "Warriors, come out
and plaaay!" in director Walter Hill's classic). Zoe shoots an
arrow into Cody's neck ("What is in my neck?") and a
still-alive Cody jumps in the front seat of the truck with West and
Dane in the bed of the truck. They can't believe they are seeing Zoe
in such a decomposed state and still walking, so they drive off, but
a quick running Zoe jumps into the bed of the truck and gets into a
fight with West and his big knife, but how can you kill something
that is already dead (Dane can't see any of this because he is in a
sack)? West stabs her over and over with his knife to no effect,
until he accidentally injures Dane in the sack with the knife. Zoe
has had enough and rams West's head through the back window of the
truck. She goes to stab West with his own knife, but a quick-thinking
Trey slams on the brakes and Zoe goes flying over the front of the
truck (it is well executed). Trey runs her body over with the truck,
but when she gets up and screams, she scares the shit out of the
rednecks and they drive away, still with Dane as a hostage. We are
now in a warehouse, where Dane is tied to a chair and Trey's father
(Peter Sherayko) and several survivalists (who have sold some
automatic weapons to the rednecks) are waiting for Zoe to arrive. We
watch Zoe patch her body up with plenty of duct tape (Is there
nothing this product can't do?), while Cody still complains about the
arrow in his neck (if they pull it out, he will surely bleed to
death. The ancient Apache warrior leaves Zoe's body and gives her an
ancient knife, tomahawk and a magical necklace (A mixture of CGI and
practical effects and, I have to say, it wasn't half bad). The
dastardly Trey tells Dane how they all took turns to rape his fiancee
and West then killed her (he still doesn't believe that Zoe is dead).
Sheriff Holt talks to Skeeter and he does the right thing and tells
the Sheriff the whole sordid story (Skeeter never raped Zoe, but Trey
and Jed were still his brothers). Cody is tired of waiting around
with an arrow in his neck, so he steals a car and goes to drive to
the hospital, but Zoe appears and throws a spear, whose tip is the
ancient knife, right into Cody's head and the car goes flying over
her body (a great stunt comprised of CGI and real action). Zoe begins
to systematically kill the survivalists and rednecks, using her
new-found supernatural powers until only West and Trey are left. Zoe
throws the tomahawk into West's chest and drags his body away while
he is screaming. Trey finds West without a heart (Did he really have
one?), as he sees Zoe eating it. Sheriff Holt shows up and Trey
shoots him in the neck, but doesn't kill him. Dane finally realized
that Zoe is dead because he sees her reflection in a window as she
stands behind him. She goes to lovingly touch his shoulder, but
leaves instead, walking past the still-alive Sheriff Holt (even in
his state, he can't believe what he is seeing). Trey drives to Grey
Wolf's trailer and wants to know if there is a way to stop this
carnage, but Grey
Wolf
tells him the curse will only be finished when Trey is dead. Zoe
visits Trey's mother and plants the tomahawk in her head. A
guilt-ridden Skeeter has already killed himself by slitting his
wrists with a box cutter. Zoe shows up at Grey Wolf's trailer and Zoe
and Trey get into a chainsaw/tomahawk fight. Zoe cuts off one of
Trey's hands and then hits him in the crotch with the tomahawk
(Double ouch!!). While he is on his knees, Trey uses his only good
hand and runs the chainsaw through Zoe's torso, but it has little
effect on Zoe and she cuts Trey's head off with the tomahawk (I
wonder if his skull will end up in that refrigerator?). When Dane
shows up at Grey Wolf's place, he sees Trey's headless body and Zoes
trying to bury herself (just like in the finale of director Bob
Clark's DEATHDREAM
[1972], which this film shares many of the same qualities, which is
not a bad thing at all). Dane lovingly rubs her cheek, pours gasoline
on her and, before he lights the match, Zoe signs "I Love
You". Dane lights the gasoline and his love burns to death.
Remember this: Revenge may be sweet, but it usually comes with a big
price. Originally titled SAVAGED
(a much more appropriate title, but in this politically
correct-charged country, it would have been boycotted by some Native
American organization, the same way they tried [and failed] to get
the name of the football team, The Washington Redskins, to change
their name, a name they have been using since 1932!. Thankfully,
other less politically correct countries use the original title. The
United States has to stop being so insulted at the littlest things,
turning them into major bullshit, so let's not get into a discussion
about "scalping" tickets.),
director/screenwriter/cinematographer/editor/sound editor/digital
effects technician Michael S. Ojeda (whose only other fictional
feature-length film was the well-received revenge drama LANA'S
RAIN [2002]; he basically did nothing but TV documentaries,
TV re-enactment series and short films between these two films) fills
this film with many references to other films (It's a great film just
for that fact alone. See how many tributes you can spot in this
film.), but it is a great revenge film in it's own right, filled with
many memorable sequences, some wonderful dialogue and good acting.
The only thing that bothers me is that in films of this type, there
always has to be a mentally handicapped person who wants nothing to
do with violence but always is forced to get involved, but unlike
most other films, that character kills himself here because of the
guilt. In the end, he really is the only redneck with a conscience.
The violence may seem a little too much from time to time, but when
is violence not? Thankfully, Ojeda keeps the rape scenes to a minimum
and focuses on the revenge and what it means to know you are dead,
still love someone, but know there is only one way out. That's the
underlining driving factor behind this film. Love is a powerful
thing, but there are also more powerful things out there that trump
it, like revenge. And this film dishes it out in spades. Both the
physical effects (including Zoe's decomposing body and the arrow
stuck in Cody's neck) and most of the digital effects are excellent
(even the digital effect of the Apache warrior coming out of Zoe's
body is done well) and there's a lot more to recommend here (such as
the Sheriff not being one of the "good old boys" and
actually taking Dane seriously), so my advice is to buy this one and
skip the version shown on CHILLER. That version is just a ghost shell
of the full version. My highest recommendation. Made in 2013, but not
released on DVD in the U.S. until 2015. Also starring Ed Fletcher,
Jason Gurwitz, Dan Kiefer, Bobby Field, Ernie Charles and Rick Mora
as the injured Indian Zoe nearly hits with her car. An Uncork'd
Entertainment DVD Release. Not Rated.
THE
BELKO EXPERIMENT (2017) - As
soon as I saw the old Orion Pictures logo show up at the beginning
of this effective film, I knew I was in for something special (The
revived Orion Logo was first used on the remake/reboot of THE
TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN - 2014). Then I saw the BlumHouse
Tilt logo and my hopes were dashed a little (Just like all of Jason
Blum and BlumHouse's PG-13 Rated supernatural crap). Then I saw that
James Gunn (SLITHER - 2006; SUPER
- 2010; GUARDIANS OF
THE GALAXY - 2014) Wrote and Produced this (He was also set
to direct, but he was going through a nasty divorce at the time, so
he handed directorial reigns over to Greg McLean; WOLF
CREEK - 2004 and its sequel
- 2013; THE DARKNESS - 2016)
and my hopes were then raised again. This is a bloody, Hard-R Rated
thriller/horror film about how, under the right circumstances, people
can devolve rather than evolve and turn into killers of innocent
people. In Bogota, Columbia, The Belko Corporation, a non-profit
organization with buildings in 40 countries, is supposedly
responsible for supplying employees to American countries overseas,
which would explain why most of the people in this building speak
English and are American (one employee says, "Normal people do
not work at Belko."). What is strange is their location; the
buliding seems purposely to be someplace out of the way and very
modern. Also unusual is that Belko has implanted "tracking
chips" in the back of every employees head, saying that is is
merely a precaution in case anyone is kidnapped in Colombia, which is
a common thing. One day, Belko employee Mike Milch (John Gallagher
Jr.) wonders why every vehicle is being searched by an armed militia
as they enter the Belko parking lot. Usually there is just a guard,
Evan (James Earl), at the entrance. But this is no regular day at
Belko, as when all 80 employees are in the building, all the windows
and doors are covered by thick metal sheets, which drop from hidden
openings. With no way to leave the building (The thick metal doesn't
even get hot when maintenance man Bud [Michael Rooker, a Gunn
favorite who has appeared in all of his films and made his bones
playing HENRY:
PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER - 1986] uses an acetylene welding
torch to try and cut a hole in the metal, with no success), a voice
comes over the loud speaker that says the employees must murder any
two people in the building in 30 minutes or else four will die (Phase
1). Thinking it is a joke, the employees think that someone must have
hacked into the building and made the metal barricades drop, but when
two people aren't killed within 30 minutes, the "tracking
implants" explode and take out the back of the heads of four
employees. These implants weren't for tracking at all, they are small
bombs (All done very well and bloody as hell). Mike tries to remove
his implant with a boxcutter (very bloody), but the voice comes on
and warns Mike to stop or else his implant will be detonated. The
employees find hidden tiny cameras and bugs throughout the building
and know that everyone's movements are being monitored. The voice
comes back on and warns the employees to stop searching and ripping
out the cameras or more people will die. Knowing that this is no
joke, Belko boss and former Special Ops soldier Barry Morse (an
excellent Tony Goldwyn; GHOST -
1990) gets power-hungry and he goes to Evan and demands the keys to
the room that holds weapons. Evan says no, so Barry joins forces with
employees Wendell Dukes (an equally excellent John C. McGinley; IFC's STAN
AGAINST EVIL - 2016-Present), who continuously shows
improper sexual advances to Mike's girlfriend and Belko employee
Leandra (Adria Arjona) and an extremely nervous Terry (Owain Yeoman; THE
MENTALIST - 2008-2015), grab the welding torch and begin
cutting into the metal door that holds the weapons. The voice come
back on and tells everyone that they must murder 30 people in two
hours or else 60 people will die by having the back of their heads
blown off (Phase 2). This is when things turn very ugly. Wendell
stabs Evan in the stomach with a large knife and kills him, taking
the keys after Mike disables the welding torch. Now the deadly trio
have guns and Barry orders everyone to go to the lobby. (Maintenance
man Bud already has his head bashed in with a hammer by his assistant
Lonny (David Dastmalchian) and then he goes after brand new employee
Dany (Melonie Diaz), who kicks him away and is impaled in the head by
metal nails sticking out of the wall (You can actually see the dent
in Bud's head and Rooker's reaction to the deadly blow is priceless).
Barry picks out 30 people he is going to kill ("Who in the lobby
is over 60?") and has them get on their knees and begins
shooting them in the head. He also picks Mike to be murdered because
of what he did to the welding torch. Just as Mike is going to be
murdered by Barry, Dany goes to the electrical panel and turns off
the electricity, turning the lobby into pitch-black darkness. Mike
and the rest of the people who were chosen to be killed escape, so
Barry, Wendell and Terry begin to kill anyone they see with guns, a
meatcleaver and anything else they can get their hand on. In the
film's most chilling scene, the voice come back on the loud speaker
and tell everyone the two hours are up and that 29 people were
killed, so, since they haven't reached the intended goal of 30
murders, a total of 60 people will be killed. Stoner employee Marty
(Sean Gunn, the brother of James Gunn), who believes the water has
been spiked with drugs (he's paranoid from smoking too much pot).
watches the employees hiding under the cafeteria tables have the back
of their heads explode (The film's most effective scene). After 60
employees are killed, (Marty digs out the implants on the people
Barry murdered and puts them in a linen napkin, which Mike takes),
the voice comes back on and says that the person that kills the most
people will be spared (Phase 3). Barry has more kills than anyone
else and the 16 employees that are left begin to turn feral,
even Mike (who was a pacifist throughout this whole experience), who
sees his girlfriend Leandra murdered by Barry. Mike kills Barry by
bashing his head over and over in with a tape dispenser (earlier,
Leandra murders Wendell by hacking his head in with an axe until his
face is nothing but a bloody pulp. It is easy to spot that this scene
was edited in order to get an R-rating, but if you pause at a certain
time, you can see one frame of the resulting carnage to Wendell's
head. That'll teach him for his unwanted sexual advances towards
her!). Mike ends up the winner by being the last person left alive,
so two heavily armed military men take him outside and lead in to a
metal shed where "The Voice" (Gregg Henry, another one of
Gunn's repertoire actors) tells Mike that this was a social
experiment to prove that even the most honest and gentle of people
can turn into cold-blooded murderers with the right circumstances put
into place. Mike notices a board with all the employees names on it
with a switch next to their names. It is the trigger that explodes
the implants. Mike lunges at The Voice (his face is burned on one
side, but no reason is given why. Could he also have participated in
this experiment in the past? In this film, employee Vince [Brent
Sexton, a frequent guest star on many TV series. He had a regular
role in one season of THE KILLING
from 2011 to 2012] makes some molitov cocktails and burns a few
people to death during Phase 3.), but the military men pull Mike off
of him. Mike asks if The Voice knows what happened to all the
implants that Marty dug out of the heads that Barry murdered and The
Voice looks surprised. Turns out that Mike placed them on the
military men that manhandled him to the shed and when he lunged at
The Voice he also put one on his person. He then lunges at the board
and flicks every switch except the one with his name on it and kills
the military guards and seriously injures The Voice. Mortally
wounded, The Voice asks for mercy (but knows he will not get it).
Mike finishes him off with a few bullets from an automatic weapon and
walks
outside.
We then see a camera is watching Mike. As the camera pulls back, it
shows hundreds of TV monitors watching other people (probably from
the other 40 buildings in different countries who are going through
the same thing as Mike) and we hear a voice say "Initializing
Stage 2". It looks like Mike is in for another bloody adventure.
(My guess is that he will be joining the winners from the other 40
buildings and be put through more deadly mental and physical
torture.) This film wastes no time getting to the good stuff. We
really don't get to know each employee too well, but that is not a
problem. We know Wendell is a letch because he is always leering and
sending sexual PMs to Leandra's computer, so him being one of the few
to be evil from the start comes as no surprise. He enjoys killing
people and doesn't try to hide it (at one point in the film , we see
him chopping at employees with a meatcleaver). The film is littered
with many familiar faces, including Abraham
Benrubi as Marty's stoner friend Chet. Many people will recognize
him as "Jerry", the person behind the admitting desk of the
long-running TV series ER from 1994 to
2009. Like most BlumHouse productions, this was made for about five
million dollars and played widely in theaters, but it bombed, making
slightly over ten million dollars in the U.S. from March to May of
2017. Even though this has a 2017 copyright, it was actually filmed
in 2015 and takes many of its queues from the Japanese film BATTLE
ROYALE (2000) and the little-seen OPERATION:
ENDGAME (2010), but does it in such a different way, you'll
forget the similarities almost immediately. The film is filled with
scenes that just bend your mind, such as brand new employee Dany
surviving attack after attack. She even manages not to get squashed
when she hides on top of an elevator, but her new friend Keith (Josh
Brener) isn't so lucky. As Dany is taking the elevator down to the
lobby, she is uncerimoniously shot in the head by Barry as soon as
ther elevator door opens. It comes so fast, you don't know whether to
laugh or cry. One scene I did laugh at, though, was the scene of a
dog peeing on the fence that surrounds the Belko building, a perfect
metaphor for how the people must feel trapped inside. No one gives a
piss about them. The film's 89 minute running time goes by so fast,
that you end up wanting more. James Gunn has said he has a good idea
where a sequel will go, but since the film bombed (A film has to make
triple its budget to be considered successful), I would not look for
a sequel any time soon. This is bloody good fun and I highly
recommend it. An Orion Pictures DVD
and Blu-Ray Release. Rated
R.
THE
BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE
(1970) - This is Dario Argento's first stab (pun intended) at
directing. While this giallo film is not must-viewing for giallo
fanatics, it is something every fan of filmmaking in general should
watch, if only to witness the origin of Argento's mastery with the
camera, which made such films as DEEP RED
(1975) and SUSPIRIA
(1977) classics in their respective genres. There is no one alive
like Argento when it comes to filmic storytelling and when he slips
off to the great beyond (which I hope is not for a long, long, time),
volumes will be written about his special brand of storytelling.
I'm not going to wait for that to happen, which is why I am
celebrating Argento's legacy by watching and reviewing the majority
of his films. So let's get to this one.
Someone wearing black gloves types a note on a typewriter that
reads: "Sandra Roversi. Age 18. Pick up
between Mirti St. and Belgrade St. 9pm. Follow to Gardens. Three."
It looks like a telegram, but could it be instructions for a
kidnapping or something much worse? We then see Sandra Roversi
(Annamaria Spogli) walking down the street (she stands out from
everyone else due to the bright red coat she is wearing) while the
unknown person wearing black gloves secretly snaps photos of her. We
then see that the gloved killer (I guess we can call this person
that, as you will see shortly) has a collection of sharp daggers and
knives, which are placed neatly and evenly on a red velvet cloth. The
killer picks out a knife and then studies the photos of Sandra,
picking out one and writing the number "3" on it with a red
marker (I see a theme here!), then covering the knife collection with
another piece of red velvet. At a newsstand, the headline of the
local Rome newspaper reads "Woman Mysteriously Murdered! Third
In Little Over A Month!", telling us that Sandra Roversi has
been killed. We are then introduced to American writer Sam Dalmas
(Tony Musante; THE GRISSOM GANG
- 1971; the short-lived TV Series TOMA
- 1973), who is talking to his friend Carlo Dover (Renato Romano; THE
SECRET OF DORIAN GRAY - 1970), a professor at the local
university. Sam is not happy with his latest writing assignment,
writing manuals on the preservation of rare birds, joking with Carlo
and saying it would be funny if he won a prize for doing it. Sam is
suffering from a severe case of writers block, telling Carlo that he
hasn't been able to write his latest novel for over two years, not
even a single sentence. A friend told him to go to Italy, nothing
ever happens there, so he'll have all the peace and quiet he needs to
write his novel ("May he rot in Hell" says Sam about his
friend). The only good thing that has happened to Sam in Italy was
meeting model Julia (Suzy Kendall; TORSO
- 1973), telling Carlo if he didn't set him up with the job of
writing bird manuals, he wouldn't have the money to fly Julia back to
the States with him the day after tomorrow. What Sam doesn't know is
that things, very bad things, are about to happen in Italy and they
will change his life forever.
While walking home that night, Sam notices a woman struggling with
someone dressed all in black in an art gallery. He almost gets hit by
a car, not noticing that the person dressed in black has stabbed the
woman and escaped. When Sam goes to help the woman, he becomes
trapped in the gallery's entrance when the automatic door closes and
locks behind him. All Sam can do is watch helplessly as the woman
crawls towards him and then passes out (Without giving too much away,
I'll tell you this: Pay close attention to the sculptures in the
front of the gallery and try to identify them). Sam gets the
attention of a pedestrian, who then calls the police. Inspector
Morosini (Enrico Maria Salerno; EXECUTION
SQUAD - 1972) arrives on the scene and questions Sam,
telling him that the woman will survive thanks to him. He wants to
know everything Sam saw and heard, down to the smallest detail, but
before Sam can speak, the owner of the gallery, Alberto Ranieri
(Umberto Raho; THE
EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW - 1974), arrives and identifies
the woman as his wife, Monica (Eva Renzi; DEATH
OCCURRED LAST NIGHT - 1970). Alberto tells the Inspector
that his wife stayed late to go over the books and he came to pick
her up. He also asks the Inspector who stabbed Monica and he says he
doesn't know, he hopes she will be able to tell him. Monica is then
transported to the hospital with Alberto following the ambulance. Sam
then tells the Inspector, "There was something wrong with that
scene, something odd. I can't pin it down, but I have a definite
feeling that something doesn't fit." The Inspector finds a
single black leather glove at the top of the stairs in the gallery
that is stained with blood, pulls Sam in for questioning, takes his
passport and tells him he is not going anywhere until he comes up
with the bit of information that doesn't fit and even goes as far as
to accuse Sam of stabbing Monica, telling him that there have been
three unsolved murders of young women and for all he knows, Sam could
be the killer. He lets Sam go free, but without his passport, he
can't leave Italy or take Julia with him.
As Sam is walking home in the fog, a dark figure tries to take his
head off with a meat cleaver, but an old woman screams and Sam ducks,
the killer missing him and slicing open a water pipe on the side of a
building and then escapes in the fog. When Sam gets home and tells
Julia about his day and tells her that they will have to postpone
their trip to America. Julia is very understanding, but Sam will do
anything to get out of Italy, even turning amateur detective, with
Julia's help, to solve the string of unsolved murders. In the
meantime, Sam racks his brain, playing what he saw in the gallery in
his mind over and over, hoping to find that bit of information that
didn't fit, but he still can't pin it down. Sam and Julia figure if
they are going to solve the murders, they will have to start from the
beginning, so Sam goes to the workplace of the first female victim.
It turns out to be another art gallery and he talks to her boss and
comes home with a grotesque painting showing a person in black
knifing a woman in the snow. We then see the killer claiming a fourth
victim (Rosita Torosh; NIGHT
OF THE DEVILS - 1972), a young woman who is lying in her bed
as the killer rips off her panties and then stabs her with a knife we
previously saw in the killer's collection.
Inspector Morosini shows up at Sam's house to tell him about the
fourth victim and when he sees Julia, he believes he has seen her
before, but he can't remember where. The Inspector is aware about
Sam's unwanted investigation and even goes as far to make Sam a
potential victim when he goes on live TV to tell the Press that he is
close to solving the murders, but the killer phones the Inspector and
tells him he will have a fifth victim by the end of the week. The
Inspector assigns an officer to protect and follow Sam, but an
assassin (the unmistakable visage of Reggie Nalder; MARK
OF THE DEVIL - 1970) hits the officer with his car and tries
to shoot Sam as he is walking with Julia, but Sam escapes by the skin
of his teeth. Sam follows the assassin, who is wearing a bright
yellow jacket with a big blue "B" on the back, which leads
Sam to a convention of ex-boxing officials, all who are wearing the
same yellow jacket. The Inspector then tells Sam and Julia that the
officer died of a fractured spine and skull and wants to know if Sam
would recognize the assassin, but Sam tells him he didn't get a clear
look at his face (If you saw Dalder's face for only a fraction of a
second, I guarantee you would never forget it, so at this time I am
asking myself why is Sam lying to the Inspector?). The Inspector
apologizes to Sam and Julia for getting them in this mess, giving Sam
back his passport and telling them to go to America, but Sam tells
him he feels he is close to solving the murders and prefers to stay
in Italy, so the Inspector assigns two officer to protect Sam and Julia.
The killer then claims a fifth victim, a young woman named Tina
(Karen Valenti), who is viciously slashed with a straight razor in
the elevator of her apartment building. Sam, who is getting vital
information from an "innocent" stuttering prisoner named
Monti (Giuseppe Castellano; SCREAMERS
- 1980), is put in touch with a mysterious man named Faiena (Pino
Patti; Argento's THE CAT O'
NINE TAILS - 1971), who is a man of contradictions, saying
one thing and doing the exact opposite (this film's comedy
highlight), as Sam will soon find out when he arrives at his home
(look for a bottle
of J&B Scotch, Italy's favorite beverage). Faiena tells Sam,
for 100,000 lire, he will identify the yellow jacket-wearing assassin
and when he finds out, he will phone Sam. Sam gives him the money and
he leaves, telling Sam that he will contact him tomorrow morning with
the assassin's identity. As Faiena leaves, Sam gets a phone call from
the killer, who tells him, "Get smart, Mr. Dalmas. Take my
advice, mind your own business. Stop playing detective. It's not
healthy. That was a warning yesterday. Wasn't it enough? Go back to
America. Forget about the murders. There's a limit to my
patience!" The killer then asks if Julia is there and when Sam
says yes, we hear, "She's very young and very beautiful, would
you like her to die? Because if you don't drop everything, I will
kill her!" Sam records the conversation on a reel-to-reel tape
recorder, which will prove useful. He plays it for the Inspector, who
hears a distinct creaking sound in the recording, telling his
forensics team to identify it. Sam then gets a phone call from
Faiena, who tells him to contact "Needles", giving him the
address, which is not far from where Sam lives. Sam goes to the
address, which is nothing but a hovel, the walls plastered with naked
pictures of women taken from porno magazines. Sam finds a hypodermic
needle and discovers Needles is the assassin who tried to kill him,
but he no longer has to worry because Needles is dead, the victim of
a hotshot overdose.
A forensics expert tells the Inspector and Sam that the phone call
the Inspector got from the killer is not the same person who called
Sam, because "every human voice, no matter how well it's
disguised, has a characteristic pattern of harmonic intensities in
the vowel sound" (a fancy way of saying the two disguised voices
don't match). So far, the forensics team have been unable to identify
the creaking sound on Sam's tape, but does this mean there are two
murderers or did the killer bring in an accomplice to confuse the
police? Sam tells the Inspector that he's sorry he won't be around to
see the end of this case, as he and Julia are leaving for America the
day after tomorrow.
It seems everything that has been happening has cured Sam of his
writers block, telling Carlo that he has written over forty pages to
his new novel. He then plays the killer's phone call to him for Carlo
and he is able to identify the creaking sound, saying it reminds him
of something, only he can't think what it is at the moment. Carlo
takes the tape, telling Sam he will call him if he remembers what it
is. Sam suddenly gets an idea for a clue, calling the first victim's
boss and asking for the name of the artist that painted the grotesque
painting that he now has hanging over his fireplace mantle. The
artist's name is Berto Consalvi (Mario Adorf; MANHUNT
- 1972) and he lives in Aviano, Italy, an hour and a half car ride
away. Sam finds out from a local that Berto is a strange duck who has
boarded up all the windows and door in his house. Sure enough, when
Sam gets there, he has to enter Berto's house by using a ladder to
the second floor window (!). Berto tells Sam that he painted that
particular piece ten years ago, when a girlfriend was attacked by a
man who tried to slice her into pieces. He shows Sam some of his
other paintings from that period, which upsets Sam, but we don't see
the paintings (It's also obvious that Berto is a loon, as he catches
cats, puts them in cages and eats them!). While Sam is making the
long ride home, Julia discovers the killer is after her, trapping her
inside Sam's home, cutting the electricity and phone lines. Will Sam
be able to make it back in time to save Julia or is she doomed to be
murdered like the other five women? And just who is the killer? If
you want to know the answers to these questions as well as what
didn't "fit" in Sam's memory, you'll have to watch the
film, but I will give you one more piece of important information:
Carlo finally identifies the creaking noise as the call of the
"Hornitus Nevalis" (a species of bird that doesn't actually
exist), a magnificent bird with long white feathers that look like
glass. Why is this information important? The only place in the world
this bird can live is Northern Siberia, but there is one of the birds
being kept in Rome's zoo. Put on your thinking caps and get to
work, because everything you need to know about the killer's identity
is in this review.
Like Argento's other giallo films (THE
CAT O' NINE TAILS - 1971; FOUR
FLIES ON GREY VELVET - 1971; DEEP
RED - 1975; TENEBRE -
1982), just when you think the killer has been caught and punished,
they turn out to not be the killer at all, just another red herring
put there to
fake-out the viewer and put the heroes of the story in more danger.
It was also the first of his giallo films to use the hero's memory
for the most important clue. Since this film was made before VHS or
the advent of home video, audiences had to take Sam's word for the
thing that didn't fit in his memory, because they couldn't rewind the
footage to see it for themselves. So, is that "thing"
actually there? Well, yes and no. Yes, because it can be taken that
way and, no, because I did rewind the footage and the way Sam
remembered it is not actually shown in that sequence. Is it a cheat
on the audience? Not really, because all the clues to the killer's
identity are clearly in the film. But none of that is really
important, because this is the first film that Dario Argento
directed, giving us an insight to a future master at work. This is
also the film that caused a boom in the giallo film business from
1970 to 1975, as many giallo films that followed it had the names of
animals (or insects) in their titles. For this, Argento gets my
utmost appreciation because some of the giallo films that followed
were memorable, some were just okay and others were awful, but
there's no denying that they were still better than anything being
churned out by Hollywood. All fans of the giallo flicks have Argento
to thank for making the genre popular, whether you like to admit it
or not. Sure, giallo films were being made before this, but without
this film, they would have died quicker than they did. This film's
popularity all over the world gave filmmakers the impetus to make
more mystery films, full of outrageous nudity and graphic violence,
which is why we should be thanking him.
Shot as L'UCCELLO
DALLE PIUME DI CRISTALLO (a literal translation of the
review title) this film obtained a U.S.
theatrical release from Universal Marion Corporation (UMC) in
1970, edited to receive a GP (later changed to PG) Rating and was
then retitled by 21st Century Film Corporation in the early-'80s as THE
PHANTOM OF TERROR, only this time it received an
R-Rating. It also received several VHS
releases, most notably by United
Home Video and VCI
Video. It was then released uncut on DVD
& Blu-Ray by Blue Underground
(long OOP) and then in the same formats by VCI
Entertainment (my review is based on this Blu-Ray, which also
has Ennio Morricone's isolated music soundtrack). Arrow
Video also offers it on Blu-Ray, but loaded with extras.
Whichever one you go for, you are bound to be pleased with the film,
if only to see how the Master got his start. Also featuring Gildo De
Marco (TRINITY IS
STILL MY NAME - 1971), Maria Tedeschi (GIALLO
IN VENICE - 1979), Bruna Erba (CHURCHILL'S
LEOPARDS - 1970), Fulvio Mingozzi (SEVEN
BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS - 1972), Omar Bonaro (ADIOS,
SABATA - 1970) and the prolific Carla Mancini (DEATH
SMILES ON A MURDERER - 1973). Although it was Rated both PG
and R in theaters, the disc version is Not Rated.
BLOOD
AND DIAMONDS (1977) - I
wanted to see this film after watching Martin Balsam's riveting
performance in CONFESSIONS
OF A POLICE CAPTAIN (1971; directed by Damiano Damiani, who
also gave us the highly affecting PIZZA
CONNECTION - 1984), only to see for myself if Balsam's
performance in that film wasn't a fluke, as I always found him a
bland actor in nearly every Hollywood film I have seen him in,
including THE
TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (1974), THE
SENTINEL (1977) and DEATH
WISH 3 (1985), just to mention a few. I don't know whether it
was the change of scenery, the different way Italians make movies or
just Italy's air, but I'll be damned if Mr. Balsam doesn't impress
me in most of the films he made in Italy, including COUNSELOR
AT CRIME (1973), SMILING
MANIACS (1975), DEATH RAGE
(1976), MEET HIM AND DIE
(1976), GARDENIA (1979) and,
yes, even Mario Gariazzo's EYES
BEHIND THE STARS (1977; but let's not talk about his BROTHER
FROM SPACE - 1984, also featuring Balsam, because my brain
might explode!). This Eurocrime film is not remarkable in any way,
but it contains a standout performance by Balsam that will keep your
eyes glued to the screen. It also stars one of my favorite Italian
actors, Claudio Cassinelli (THE
SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A MINOR - 1975; MOUNTAIN
OF THE CANNIBAL GOD - 1978; SCREAMERS
- 1980), who always makes any film he appears in seem better than it
actually is. It's no different with this film, where the opening shot
is Cassinelli with a bottle
of J&B Scotch, so you know you're in for something very Italian!
We then see crime boss Rizzo (Balsam) phoning Guido Mauri
(Cassinelli) and telling him that Marco (Carmelo 'Roberto' Reale; YOUNG,
VIOLENT, DANGEROUS - 1976) is on his way to pick him up, he
should be there in five minutes. Guido tells him that he'll be ready
and Guido's girl, Maria (Olga Karlatos; DAMNED
IN VENICE - 1978), tells him she can't sleep, she's too
worried for him, Guido telling her everything is going to be fine. As
he walks out the door to meet Marco, he tells Maria he will be back
at five and if anything goes wrong, she knows where the money is,
ending with telling her he is just going to an insurance company a
few blocks away (Way to calm her down, Guido!).
Marco picks up Guido and we learn that they are pulling a heist,
stealing a load of uncut diamonds that Guido is giving to Rizzo in
exchange for 40 million lira, not for the diamonds, but for pulling
the job (He wants to retire from the business). Marco tells Guido
that Rizzo doesn't treat him fairly, as he gets nothing
"extra" for pulling jobs and he knows he will never make it
"big" in Rizzo's organization, telling Guido the only time
he gets to pull jobs is as his assistant, never on his own. They then
arrive at the insurance agency building and Marco starts breaking
into the safe with an acetylene torch, but someone phones the police
and tells them that a burglary is taking place at the insurance
agency. Before Marco can open the safe, the police arrive, so Guido
keeps them busy by firing his pistol at them to give Marco time to
escape. Guido then surrenders and Marco escapes, but he breaks his
right leg jumping off a brick wall and hobbles to his car. Is all
this trivia important? Damn right it is!
As the opening credits play, we see Guido being released from prison
after serving a five-year sentence for attempted burglary and
attempted murder of the police. Maria is outside the prison waiting
for him and they kiss for the first time since he was arrested. Maria
tells Guido that Marco couldn't come because he had some work to do
at his garage. She says Marco is lame and limps badly since the night
he broke his leg escaping from the police. She also tells Guido that
Marco helped her a lot when his money ran out and hopes he is
finished with that "life" once and for all. Guido doesn't
answer her, but it is obvious he wants to discover who tipped off the
police at the failed diamond heist. On the bus ride back to her
apartment, Guido asks Maria how her son Enzo is doing. She says he
left her apartment after Guido was sent to prison and got himself his
own place and a job at the freight office at the airport. He is also
involved with a girl named Lisa that she doesn't like, not saying
why. The bus is then forced off the road by two thugs in a car
wearing ski masks. They wave their guns around and force all the
people to get off the bus. The thugs then try to steal the luggage
off the top of the bus and Guido tells Maria that they must be
Rizzo's men, but it looks like they are looking for something, which
they do not find. Guido sees a car approaching and runs to it, pulls
the driver out of the car and hops in the front seat, yelling for
Maria to come join him, but one of the thugs shoots her in the back,
killing her. After seeing Maria getting shot, Guido runs over one of
the thugs and crashes into their car, making it explode. He grabs one
of their machine guns and shoots the thugs, killing them and then
cradles Maria's body in his arms, vowing to get even with Rizzo, but
is Rizzo even involved?
Guido is cleared of any wrongdoing by Commissioner Russo (Vittorio
Caprioli; SHOOT
FIRST, DIE LATER - 1974), who tells him all the passengers on
the bus called him a hero and that he killed the thugs in
self-defense. The Commissioner tells Guido he is sorry about Maria
because "that woman was good for you." Guido doesn't feel
much like a hero, as a matter of fact he is more determined to find
out who ratted him out, as well as trying to determine why Rizzo's
thugs picked his bus to rob and what they were looking for. The
Commissioner, who knows Guido, asks him what he is going to do with
his life and he says work with Marco at his garage. The Commissioner
wants to know if Marco was involved in the failed diamond heist
(telling Guido it is too late for him to do anything about it, he's
just curious) and Guido says nothing and gets up to walk out. He does
ask the Commissioner for a favor, though. He wants him to locate Enzo
because he no longer lived with Maria since he was arrested and he
would like to talk to him. The Commissioner says he will do his best
but warns Guido to stay away from Rizzo if he knows what's good for
him (The Commissioner has been trying to nail Rizzo, but he always
walks away squeaky clean).
Guido then enters Maria's apartment for the first time in five
years, only to discover that local hood Tony (a terrific Pier
Paolo Capponi; SEVEN
BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS - 1972) and a couple of his boys, all
who work for Rizzo, are waiting for him. They rough-up Guido, Tony
saying he got information that he was talking to the cops and
mentioning Rizzo's name. He tells Guido if he wants to live, he is
never to mention Rizzo's name again, yelling to Guido, "Conform!
Conform!" (his favorite word). It is apparent that the same
snitch that got Guido arrested five years ago is also involved with
spilling the beans to Tony, but who can it be?
We then see Enzo (Alberto Squillante; MAD DOG
- 1977) and Lisa (Barbara Bouchet; BLACK
BELLY OF THE TARANTULA - 1971) in the Commissioner's office,
Enzo telling him that he wants nothing to do with Guido, because
first he made trouble when his mother was alive and now he is
responsible for her death. He has a good paying job at the airport
and doesn't want to lose it if his employer finds out he is related
to a jailbird. Guido then meets Marco for the first time in five
years and discovers that Rizzo kicked Marco out of his organization
because " he's got no rooms for gimps in it", but Rizzo is
always sending him work at his garage, repairing his fleet of cars
and when he needs a new car, he finds him one, telling Guido that
it's honest work. Guido is confused, as he thought he left enough
money for Maria to last for five years, but Marco tells him he helped
her financially after the first year and she even got a job as a maid
until she got too sick to do it. Why didn't Maria tell him any of
this and where did his money go?
Tony and his goons then pay Guido and Marco a visit at the garage,
Tony telling Guido that they have plenty of informants in the police
department and if he wants to keep mentioning Rizzo's name, he should
go straight to Rizzo instead and clear things up. Guido then goes to
the Commissioner's office, finding Enzo and Lisa inside. Enzo calls
him a "big shit" (instead of "big shot") and
demands the key to his mother's apartment, telling him never to go
there again. Guido obliges, handing him the keys and then Enzo and
Lisa leave, As soon as Guido leaves the building, Tony is waiting for
him, gun in hand and makes him get in the car, saying Rizzo wants to
talk to him ("He sent a shiny new car just for you!", says Tony).
When Guido gets to Rizzo's place, he refuses to shake Rizzo's hand,
telling him he doesn't want to talk to him. Rizzo says that's okay,
but he'll have to listen to what he has to say. Rizzo tells Guido
that five years in prison is a long time. Someone may have squealed
on him, but he doesn't remember. What he does remember is that after
he got caught by the police, he had to go to France for six months
until the heat died down. He remembers sending Guido his expensive
lawyers to help him out at prison, which he kicked out in not such a
nice manner. He remembers offering Maria a large sum of money to help
her out, which she refused to take. He then asks Guido why he won't
shake his hand and then gives him one more chance to do so, but Guido
refuses, telling him, "The day after the robbery you were
supposed to give me forty million lire and I found out later that
there was only two million lira worth of diamonds in that insurance
agency safe. You must have known there were only peanuts in that
safe. And you sent me, why?" Rizzo says he doesn't remember, it
was a long time ago. Guido says to Rizzo, "Kill me Rizzo, here,
now. Because I'll kill you the first chance I get." "Aw,
Guido, you mustn't talk to me like that", replies Rizzo. He
hands Guido a check for what he owes him (with compounded interest!)
and gives him three days to leave town and never come back. If he
ever sees him after that, he's a dead man. Guido refuses to take the
check, but Rizzo still gives him three days to disappear or else he
will be swimming with the fishes. What would you do if you were
Guido? He is escorted out by Tony, who tells Guido that he is going
to have a couple of his boys follow him around for the next three
days and if he doesn't leave town, he'll shoot him in the mouth, even
if he's in church listening to Mass!
We then learn that Enzo and Lisa aren't as clean as they pretend to
be. Lisa is a stripper and she and Enzo are planning a diamond heist
of their own at the airport, with Rizzo's help, and are planning to
pin the blame on Guido, setting him up. What they don't know is that
Guido has bought some guns from an illegal weapons trader (Raul
Lovecchio; BLACK
MAGIC RITES - 1973) and he's not afraid to use them (When
Tony finds out, he knocks out the dealer cold!). As the third day
approaches, Marco tells Guido he better leave town, but he tells
Marco he is not going to leave town until he gets justice. When Guido
discovers who the squealer is, it will take you by surprise almost as
much as it does Guido, but is it too late for him to set things
straight? Can you make mistakes without honor and still live?
This is an excellently acted Eurocrime film, directed and written by Fernando
Di Leo, who is no stranger to the genre, directing MILANO
CALIBRO 9 (1972), MANHUNT
(1972), THE BOSS (1973), SHOOT
FIRST, DIE LATER (1974), KIDNAP
SYNDICATE (1975), LOADED GUNS
(1975), RULERS OF THE CITY
(1976) and MADNESS
(1980), just to mention a few. This is an intricately plotted film,
where no one is whom they seem to be, especially Rizzo. And since
thieves cannot be trusted, Enzo ends up on the wrong side of the gun
when the diamond heist is pulled at the airport, the masked thieves
shooting and killing him point blank, as well as all the employees,
at the freight office. It turns out Lisa knew Enzo would be
killed, so she makes sure she is with Guido when it happens, giving
both of them alibis, but why? Martin Balsam is particularly good as
Rizzo. We never believe a word of what he says, but when it all turns
out to be true, we see what he is really made of in the finale and
what he does will touch your heart. There is also some brutal
violence on view, some of it quite unexpected, especially the way
Guido deals with Tony towards the end of the film (it's a great,
long, fight scene). While we expect to see the beautiful Barbara
Bouchet with her clothes off when we learn she is a stripper, she
really doesn't strip (dammit!), except for one brief scene when we
see her in bed with Tony (!), as in her stripper scenes, she dances
around in a tiny white bikini (yowza!) at the strip club while all
the other strippers prance around topless. If there is a moral to
this film, it can best be described that money changes everyone and
that change is usually not for the better; it can be downright
deadly. It's also hard to top Claudio Cassinelli when it comes to
portraying criminals with a grudge. He is not able to see past his
prejudices as to whom the guilty parties are and nearly pays for it
with his life, but one person is there to forgive him and it's thanks
to Balsam's great acting that makes us believe that crime bosses can
have hearts to forgive, even for the most major sins. He may be a
killer, but he has compassion, too. Even Vittorio Caprioli as
Inspector Russo has some funny lines, such as what he says to Rizzo
towards the end of the film: "You're giving me a large pain in
my sphincter!" Both Balsam and Cassinelli make this a film you
must see and if you enjoy Eurocrime flicks as much as I do, you
probably already know that it is hard to go wrong with the ones
directed by Fernando Di Leo and this one is no exception. Need I say more?
Shot as DIAMANTI
SPORCHI DI SANGUE ("Dirty Diamonds Of Blood") and
also known as BLOOD DIAMONDS (which was the title of the print
I saw), this film received neither a theatrical or home video release
in any physical format in the United States. Amazon Prime (who else?)
offers a nice anamorphic widescreen print streaming for free to Prime
members ($1.99 to non-members). I know I am always harping on the
fact that Prime is worth it just for the sheer amount of hard-to-find
films it offers for free, but I will never stop doing it because all
fans of genre films should be jumping on the Prime bandwagon. The
money you will spend monthly is nothing compared to the amount of
films you will find yourself watching. Also featuring Franco
Beltramme (SOMETHING CREEPING IN
THE DARK - 1971) and Salvatore Billa (WEREWOLF
WOMAN - 1976) as Tony's boys, Fernando Cerulli (WATCH
ME WHEN I KILL - 1977), Agostino Crisafulli (TO
BE TWENTY - 1978), Domenico Di Costanzo (VIOLENT
NAPLES - 1976) and cameo king Tom Felleghy (EYEBALL
- 1975) as a doctor. Not Rated, but full of female nudity and
some graphic violence. The late Pier Paolo Capponi as Tony has such a
dirty mouth, the film would have been Rated R just for his dialogue alone!
BLOOD
LINK (1983) - Worthwhile
thriller (think of it as a horror-themed version of The Corsican
Brothers) about a man, Dr. Craig Mannings (the always
enjoyable-to-watch Michael Moriarity; REBORN
- 1981), who suddenly begins to have visions of a serial killer
murdering women. Craig not only sees the murders through the killer's
eyes, he also experiences the emotions of the killer, including the
euphoria of murder. These visions began when Craig decided to use
himself as a guinea pig in an experimental treatment he created,
which effectively lets the subject control such things as pain and
human emotions. The experiment triggers long-dormant memories about
Dr. Manning's childhood, especially concerning his Siamese twin
brother Keith. It seems Keith disappeared when an operation was
performed to separate them, so Craig decides to find out the truth
about his brother. He travels to Cleveland to talk to Keith's foster
mother, Mrs. Thomason (Geraldine Fitzgerald), who has gone senile (or
crazy) and mistakens Craig for Keith and accuses him of starting a
fire that killed her husband when Keith was seventeen years old.
Craig becomes convinces that the visions he is having are actually
his brother's, so he heads for Hamburg, Germany, based on a visual clue
he picked up in one of the visions. Once in Hamburg, the lives of
Craig and Keith become fatally intertwined due to bouts of mistaken
identity, including over-the-hill boxer Bud Waldo (Cameron Mitchell; RAW
FORCE - 1982), who confused Keith with Craig, and police
Inspector Hessinger (Reinhold K. Olszewski), who is looking for Keith
in connection with a series of murders in the area and mistakens
Craig as the culprit. Craig soon becomes convinced that Keith is a
sadistic murderer and when Keith discovers Craig is in Hamburg, he
kills Bud (It's a really sadistic scene that's bloodless in it's
execution, but vicious all the same) in front of his daughter
Christine (Sarah Lagenfeld) while pretending to be Craig. Since Bud
had a bad ticker, Sarah can't convince the police that he has been
murdered, so she tries to get some justice on her own, only with the
wrong brother. Craig is able to convince Sarah that she is after the
wrong person and when it becomes obvious that Keith can also see
through Craig's eyes, it becomes a cat-and-mouse game between
brothers, where Keith wants to kill Craig for unresolved childhood
issues and Craig only wants to save Keith from himself. When Craig is
arrested for the murder of Christine, Craig and his assistant/lover
Julie (Penelope Milford) come up with an unusual way to trap the
murderous Keith. It almost backfires, but as the finale proves, the
bond between brothers, especially Siamese twins, is impossible to
kill, even in death. This well-paced thriller, directed by Alberto De
Martino (THE TEMPTER -
1974; MIAMI HORROR
- 1985; FORMULA
FOR A MURDER - 1985) and scripted by Theodore Apstein (a
well-respected Broadway and television writer; this is one of his
rare forays into film and his last writing credit), is helped
immensely by the dual performances of Michael Moriarity. We get the
best of both worlds from Moriarity: The restrained turn as loving
brother Craig and the full-tilt insanity that is Keith. The scene
where Keith puts a beatdown on Bud in order to give him a fatal heart
attack is one of the film's highlights, as it displays Moriarity's
unique ability to come across as someone truly heartless who is able
to kill with a smile on his face. He never breaks his smile as he
pummels Bud to death, which makes the entire sequence very hard to
watch (it also one of Cameron Mitchell's best performances of his
latter career). Another well-done sequence is when Keith drugs and
knocks-out Craig after he has just made love to Christine and then
jumps in bed with her pretending to be Craig. She discovers a little
too late that Keith's separation scar is on the wrong side of his
body, as Keith rapes Christine, makes her tell him that he's a better
lover than Craig and then sadistically stabs her to death as he
ejaculates. Director De Martino offers several nice visual touches,
including the use of mirrors or reflections in windows to trigger
Craig's visions and some effective POV shots during Keith's murders.
There's also a jolting scene in a mortuary during the final five
minutes that will send a shiver down your spine. Although the gore is
fairly restrained (just a few bloody stabbings), there is plentiful
female nudity and a sense of absurd playfulness here, thanks to the
acting talents of Moriarity, who manages to convey the duality of
good and evil by simply using weird character tics (like twirling his
hair with his index finger) to separate the brothers, giving them
both distinct personalities and relying on talent rather than makeup.
Worth a look. The effective music score is from the always reliable
Ennio Morricone, who also adds to the atmosphere with his haunting
soundtrack. Also starring Martha Smith, Virginia McKenna and Vonne
Sherman. Originally announced as THE LINK.
Released on VHS by Embassy
Home Entertainment and still awaiting a proper DVD release. Rated
R.
THE
BLOODSTAINED BUTTERFLY (1971) - "The
past does not exist, in that it has already gone. The future does
not exist either, as it has yet to come. Therefore, only the present
exists, but it can be made up of both the past and the future because
it is the point where they meet." This bastardized Buddha
quote opens a complex and densly structured giallo which is based on
a story by Edgar Wallace.
During a heavy rainstorm, two young children and their mother spot
the dead body of Françoise Pigaut (Carole André; THE
VIOLENT BREED - 1984) rolling down a hill in a park. She has been
savagely stabbed to death and several eyewitnesses see a man in a hat
and a tan raincoat running out of the park. Police Inspector Berardi
(Silvano Tranquilli; THE
VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS - 1973) is assigned to the case and he
finds finds a switchblade (a "butterfly" knife) next to her
body and in her pockets are all the bus and subway tickets she used
for the past three weeks. Why would she keep those tickets? (Think
about it for a moment). During her autopsy, the coroner tells the
Inspector that Françoise has five stab wounds on her body, two
of them fatal (We see photos of these wounds and it's not pretty).
The forensics team tell the inspector that she was not sexually
assaulted and that she struggled with the killer, scratching him. All
they are sure of is that the killer is Caucasian. The Inspector is
sure Françoise knew her killer because "A girl like that
doesn't go on a date with a stranger at 6:00 P.M." Based on all
this evidence and a female eyewitness, the Inspector arrests
Alessandro Marchi (Giancarlo Sbragia; DEATH
RAGE - 1976), a famous TV sportscaster. At his trial for
first degree murder, the prosecutor (Wolfgang Preiss; THE
FIFTH CORD - 1971) puts on a good show, linking all the
evidence to Alessandro. The defense attorney, Giulio Cordaro
(Günther Stoll; WHAT
HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? - 1972), puts on an equally good
show, giving the jurists an alternate view on the evidence, none of
it linking to Alessandro. But when Alessandro's wife, Maria (Evelyn
Stewart; THE NIGHT CHILD
- 1975), takes the stand, her answers under questioning couldn't make
her husband look more guilty if he tried. Maria sat in court every
day at her husband's trial, but she wasn't there to support him, but
to hear him confess that he was having an affair with Marta Clerici
(Lorella De Luca; THREE TOUGH GUYS
- 1974), a rich young woman who has disappeared. Since Marta can't be
located to take the stand and tell the court that she was with
Alessandro at the time of Françoise's killing, the court has
no choice but to ignore Alessandro's infidelity alibi. He is
convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Soon after Alessandro is put in prison, another killing occurs. A
young woman is knifed to death in the same manner as Françoise.
The Inspector must figure out who committed that murder so
Alessandro can be freed.
The list of suspects is long. We then find out why Maria really put
that performance on in court. She is having an affair with Giulio.
Maria has no sympathy for Alessandro and shames their daughter, Sarah
(Wendi D'Olive; THE DEAD ARE ALIVE
- 1972), telling her she must feel betrayed by a man she trusted all
her life. Could it be Giorgio (Helmut Berger; MAD
DOG - 1977), a spoiled youg rich man, who is a concert
pianist? We saw him at Françoise's crime scene and he looked
guilty as hell. Oh, and he's Sarah's boyfriend. He likes his sex
rough and has a total disdain for his family, especially his father
(Stefano Oppedisano; NIGHT
OF THE DEVILS - 1972), who is an expert marksman with his
shotgun. Giorgio likes to play his music loud, as if he is trying to
silence some demons in his mind. At his birthday, Giorgio's mother
(Dana Ghia; SEVEN DEATHS IN THE
CAT'S EYES - 1973) tries to get him to move to Paris. What is
she worried about? Instead of blowing out the candles on his birthday
cake, Giorgio pours a glass of water over them. Hell, nearly everyone
in this film could be the killer, even Alessandro himself. Did he pay
someone to commit copycat murders once he was put in prison?
The Inspector (Who is always looking for a perfect cup of coffee,
but cannot find it. It's a running joke in this film.) gets a phone
call from someone who says he's the killer. He also says that the
killings will continue. This forces the Inspector to look at the
killings from a different angle. He finds Marta Clerici and
Alessandro's case is reopened. She testifies, telling the court that
she was making love to Alessandro at the time Françoise was
murdered. Her testimony is convincing, but is she telling the truth?
Alessandro is freed, which disappoints many people, especially his
wife. It seems everyone here has some sort of secret thay are
harboring and don't want exposed, even Sarah. The Inspector now
believes Alessandro is innocent and when a shop owner tells him that
she sold two switchblades (the same knife used in all the killings)
to someone
on the day of Françoise's murder, he thinks he has his man.
That man is Giorgio, who manages to evade capture. But is he the
killer? Alessandro gets a phone call that upsets him greatly. Is he
being blackmailed?
If you want to know what happens next, you'll have to watch the film
or solve the mystery by the clues I have dropped in your lap. It ends
with the murders of two major characters and in a flashback we see
that one of them murdered Françoise and the other one
continued killing to free Alessandro from prison.
This is not a conventional giallo film, as director/co-screenwriter
Duccio Tessari (DEATH
OCCURRED LAST NIGHT - 1970; NO
WAY OUT - 1973; SAFARI EXPRESS
- 1976) frames the majority of the film at Alessandro's murder trial,
dropping subtle clues along the way. Unlike most giallo flicks, this
one is restrained in the nudity and violence departments, but it
doesn't need them because the mystery is intriguing. Co-screenwriter
Gianfranco Clerici is an old hand at scripting giallo films, penning
the screenplays to DON'T
TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972), THE
NEW YORK RIPPER (1982) and MURDER-ROCK:
DANCING DEATH (1984), all for director Lucio Fulci. Clerici
also wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for THE
TEMPTER (1974), JUNGLE
HOLOCAUST (1977) and HOUSE
ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK (1979), among many others. This is a
well-acted film that is just as interested in police procedural (the
collecting of evidence is shown in painstaking detail and is as
truthful as it gets in 1971) as it is the mystery. The beginning of
the film is like CSI, before there
really was a CSI. All in all,
this is a wonderfully crafted film that grabs you from the first
frame and doesn't let go until the final frame.
This film, shot under the title UNA
FARFALLA CON LE ALI INSANGUINATE ("The Butterfly With
Bloody Wings"), was never released theatrically or on VHS in the
United States. It is available in a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack from Arrow
Video or you can stream it for free on Amazon if you are a Prime
member (Just one more reason why you should be a Prime member!). This
review is based on the streaming version, which is a port of the
print Arrow Video used. It is in widescreen and in its original
Italian language with English subtitles (films like this really need
to be seen in their original language because dubbing wipes away the
finer points of the performances). The print is immaculate and the
colors "pop". A rare view of how the police worked in the
early-'70s. Also starring Gabriella Venditti (NAKED
VIOLENCE - 1969), Anna Zinnemann (THE
SISTER OF URSULA - 1978), Peter Shepherd (a co-producer of
the extremely strange film SONNY
BOY - 1989), Francesco D'Adda (MEET
HIM AND DIE - 1976) and a cameo by Duccio Tessari as an
eyewitness to Françoise's murder. Not Rated.
THE
BLOODSTAINED SHADOW (1978) -
Someone strangles a young woman, leaving her dead body in a meadow,
which overlooks a church on a cliff. But what's that clutched in her
hands? Could it be torn pages from a religious text? So begins this
standard giallo flick, directed and co-written by Antonio Bido (WATCH
ME WHEN I KILL - 1977).
Stefano D'Archangelo (Lino Capolicchio; THE
HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS - 1976) is traveling from Rome
to his hometown, a
small island off the coast of Venice that is only reachable by ferry.
He hasn't been to his hometown in years, for reasons yet to be made
clear. He is going to meet his older brother, Paolo (Craig Hill; ASSIGNMENT
TERROR - 1969), who is a priest. Stefano is sharing a train
cabin to Venice with Sandra Sellani (Stefania Casini; ANDY
WARHOL'S BAD - 1977). a young woman who is also from his
hometown, but he has never met her before. When Stefano steps off the
ferry, Paolo and Gaspare (Attilio Duse; THE
HUMANOID - 1979), the church sacristan (Google it), meet him
at the pier. Why does Sandra stare at them so intensely?
While eating in a restaurant, Stefano tells his brother that he
feels "washed out" and that he may need a neurologist.
Sefano sees a young man hand an older woman (Alina De Simone; THE
CHURCH - 1989), who is eating alone, an envelope full of
cash. Stefano asks Paolo who the woman is and he says, "There's
something frightening about her." She is a medium who
"practices strange rites in her house". Paolo fills his
brother in on other people in town who are regular clients of the
medium. There's Dr. Aloisi (Sergio Mioni; EXTERMINATORS
OF THE YEAR 3000 - 1983), a rich man who practices medicine
on the island and in Venice. He is a heavy gambler and has a mistress
in Venice. He is also an athiest who "accidentally" killed
his wife while cleaning his rifle (sure) but his money bought him out
of a trial. Paolo doesn't know Dr. Aloisi is sitting behind him at
the restaurant and he lets the priest know he heard everything he
said about him before he gets up and leaves the restaurant. Another
client of the medium is Mrs. Nardi (Juliette Mayniel; DOG
LAY AFTERNOON - 1976), a midwife who has a crazy son she
keeps hidden on the island. Oh, and she performs illegal abortions.
And, finally, there's Count Pedrazzi (Massimo Serato; WOMEN
IN CELL BLOCK 7 - 1973), a "despicable" individual
who's the last of "a once great noble family." Paolo also
says that the Count has no morals and "it might be better if he
disappeared off the face of the Earth" (I can now understand why
Stefano left the island!). We then witness the medium holding a
seance with these three people. Who are they trying to contact? We do
know that the medium is tape recording all her sessions. Is she up to
no good?
That night, Paolo is woken from a sound sleep by the screams of the
medium, who is being strangled outside his bedroom window. Paolo
can't see who is killing her because it is very windy and raining
outside. He calls the police and then goes to wake Stefano, but he is
not in his bedroom. His bed doesn't look like it has been slept in (I
know what you are thinking, but don't rush to judgment. This is a
giallo film, after all!). Paolo can't even find Gaspare, but when he
opens the front door, both Gaspare and Stefano are standing outside,
soaking wet. Paolo tells them about the murder he just witnessed, but
when he goes outside to show them where it happened, there is no
body. Later that night, someone slips an envelope under Paolo's
bedroom door. In the envelope are an old photo, showing a priest, an
old woman and a young boy, and a threatening note that reads, "If
one speaks of murder, yours will be talked about." Who would
threaten the life of a priest? The next morning, the police find the
medium's body close to the church and the Police Commissioner
(Alfredo Zammi) tells Paolo that the medium's killing mirrors that of
the killing of a young girl that happened years earlier on the island
(the killing we saw at the start of the film). Her last name was
"Andreani" and her father (Luigi Casellato; A
BLACK RIBBON FOR DEBORAH - 1974) still lives on the island.
When Stefano sees the dead body, he has a flashback where he sees a
young boy screaming in a meadow (the boys looks like the one in the
photo slid under Paolo's door) and then Stefano has some kind of
attack and Paolo has to walk him back to the house. One of his
parishioners tells Paolo that the Count molested one of her children
and he goes to the Count's mansion and accuses him of pedophilia
(Shouldn't it be the other way around?). The Count kicks Paolo out of
his mansion, telling him he will never be welcome here, not even
"if I'm dead" (A portend of things to come?).
While Stefano is out for a walk, he runs into Sandra. She tells him
she knew the medium and she believes she blackmailed her
clients (We also find out that Stefano is an art professor at a
university). They meet Mrs. Nardi on the street, who tells Sandra
that she hopes her mother is feeling better. Why does Mr. Andreani,
who is also standing on the street, look at them with such hatred in
his eyes? Stefano finds another threatening note that reads, "The
past and your fate are linked with death." We then discover
that the photo was that of a young Stefano with his brother and their
deceased mother. Poalo starts going off the hinges, so Paolo tries to
calm him down by yelling at him!
Someone is following Sandra as she is taking the ferry to Venice.
Once in Venice, Sandra becomes aware that she is being followed,
walking quickly through the narrow streets and alleyways until she
makes it to her mother's apartment (but not before she bumps into an
accordion player, in one of the film's many jump scares). We then
find out it was Stefano following her. He tells Sandra that he was
worried she was leaving the island for good. Sandra introduces him to
her infirmed mother (Laura Nucci; KILLER
NUN - 1979), but not before he becomes extremely interested
in a strange painting hanging on a wall. It has the Devil
about to snatch a young woman and it is familiar to Stefano (pay
close attention to the painting's background). Stefano has one of his
spells in the mother's apartment, but he refuses to tell Sandra what
caused it. Sandra and Stefano soon become lovers, but is it a good idea?
Mrs. Nardi goes to Dr. Aloisi's office and tells him she is worried
anout the police talking to Count Pedrazzi. What is she afraid that
the Count will tell them? Someone then kills the Count in his
mansion, thrusting an ancient spear into his chest. While Paolo is
holding Sunday services, he find the bloody decapitated head of a
small animal in an altar vessel, a note under it saying, "Just remember,
silence is life." Stefano notices similarities in all the
notes, as the letter "T" looks unusual and must have all
come from the same typewriter. If he can find the typewriter, he will
find the killer. For some reason I still can't understand, Stefano
believes it is all connected to the murder of the Andreani girl, so
he goes to talk with her father. He tells Stefano if he wants to live
in peace on the island, it is better not to know. Not to know what?
This spiraling giallo makes you ask a lot of questions and the
patient viewer will get the answers, no matter how outlandish they
are. Not a great giallo flick by any stretch of the imagination, the
screenplay, by director Antonio Bido, Marisa Andalò &
Domenico Malan (this is Andalò and Malan's only screenplay),
paints everyone as a suspect, even the minor characters. That is
exactly what is wrong with this film. If anyone can be the killer,
who can we root for? The violence and nudity are also far too
restrained for the film's good (and Stefania Casini has the breasts
of a 10 year-old girl!). The most gruesome murder comes when the
killer grabs Sandra's mother out of her wheelchair and places her
head into the lit fireplace. Although we really don't see anything
graphic (except the back of her head burning), it is still quite
effective. The most intense scene is when Dr. Aloisi is pushed into a
canal by the killer and the doctor tries to escape by clinging to a
rope from a passing boat. The killer than steals a boat and crashes
it into the other boat, crushing the doctor to death. This film also
relies on that old giallo standby: Only showing the killer's eyes in
extreme close-up. Also typical is introducing Mrs. Nardi's crazy son
late in the film. It is obvious he is a red herring and serves no
other purpose in this film (He has a doll he plays with and his
mother enables his behavior). Just who then is the killer? You should
know by now that I never give that away, but the clues are in the
review and you do not need to know anything more to figure it out
(OK, one more clue: The painting is the key to solve the mystery, so
pay close attention when it is shown.). The English dubbing is also
rank, as what is said rarely synch with the actors' lip movements
(even though it is obvious Craig Hill is speaking English and dubbed
his own voice!). Fans of giallo films will probably find something
here to enjoy, but I found it to be a fairly long 109 minutes. The
finale is satisfying, though, in a twisted sort of way.
This film, shot under the title SOLAMENTE
NERO ("Only Blackness"), was never released
theatrically or on VHS in the United States. It got an uncut,
widescreen release on DVD early in the New Millennium as a
stand-alone disc from Anchor Bay Entertainment or as part of their
4-disc, 4 film box set titled THE
GIALLO COLLECTION (both long OOP) and later on DVD from Blue
Underground, as a stand alone disc or part of the 3-disc MIDNIGHT
MOVIES VOLUME 4: TRIPLE FEATURE, this film being the weakest
of the lot. No Blu-Ray at the time of this review. Also starring
Emilio Delle Piane, Sonia Viviani, Fortunato Arena and Gianfranco
Bullo as Mrs. Nardi's crazy son. Look for director Bido in a cameo as
a man standing in a cemetery. Not Rated.
BODY
CHEMISTRY 2: VOICE OF A STRANGER
(1991) - This film, along with IN
THE HEAT OF PASSION, showed a definite upswing in the
overall quality from what we expected from Roger Corman's Concorde
Films until the erotic thriller genre died out and they turned back
to remaking old horror films. Forget the title. It has nothing to do
with the original BODY CHEMISTRY
(1990 - which was a rip-off of FATAL
ATTRACTION [1987]). What we have here is an engrossing story
about an ex-cop (Gregory Harrison) who moves back to his hometown to
try and resolve his personal problems. It seems he's into rough
sex and is not able to make love without physically hurting his
partner. This problem stems from his childhood when his abusive
father would brutalize him and sexually abuse his mother. He reunites
with his former high school sweetheart (Robin Riker) and when he
starts getting thoughts of hurting her, he decides professional help
is needed. He calls up a radio psychiatrist (Lisa Pescia), who wants
to help him in person. Soon Pescia is sexually abusing Harrison,
handcuffing him at inopportune times and generally making his and
Riker's (who works at the station as Pescia's engineer) relationship
unbearable. The station owner (the late Morton Downey Jr., who is
surprisingly good) knows that Pescia has a murderous past and
blackmails her into signing a syndication contract. It seems that her
new program has significantly raised the station's rating points and
he would much rather make money off her than to turn her over to the
police. That's all the plot I'm going to give away except to say that
the final scene will break your heart. The stars of the film all do
an excellent job (Harrison, Gonzo of TV's TRAPPER
JOHN M.D. [1979 - 1986], does a nice brooding job in an
unusual role), but the real star is director Adam Simon, who also did
the wild and weird BRAIN DEAD
(1989) and the wacky JURASSIC PARK
rip-off CARNOSAUR (both 1993)
for Corman. He pulls you into the story and makes you really care
about Harrison and Riker. You want their relationship to work out.
Simon also fills the screen with unusual situations including an
early scene of Russian Roulette played with one bullet and five
Chinese cookie fortunes stuffed into the chambers of a gun. Harrison
puts the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger. When the gun fails
to discharge he pulls the fortune out of the chamber. It reads,
"Where there is hope there is life." Good stuff. Director
John Landis and Clint Howard (ICE
CREAM MAN - 1994) have cameos. Rent this now to see a
directorial genius at work. Too bad Mr. Simon is now directing
documentaries such as THE
TYPEWRITER, THE RIFLE & THE
MOVIE CAMERA
(1996 - about deranged director Sam Fuller) and THE
AMERICAN NIGHTMARE (2000 - a horror film doc.). An MGM/UA
Home Video Release. Rated
R. Followed
by BODY CHEMISTRY 3: POINT
OF SEDUCTION
(1994) and BODY
CHEMISTRY 4: FULL EXPOSURE (1995), both directed by Jim Wynorski.
B.T.K.
(2007) - Another low-budget serial killer flick from
director/writer Michael Feifer (THE
GRAVEYARD - 2006), this one a mostly fictionalized account
about the notorious Dennis Rader (Kane Hodder; HATCHET
- 2007), a seemingly normal married man who murdered ten people
between 1974 and 1991 in and around Wichita, Kansas and then wrote
taunting letters to the police, signing the letters "BTK"
(for "Bind Torture Kill"). As the film opens, Rader (who
has already been killing for nearly twenty years) is playing bondage
games with a prostitute in a hotel room. When the prostitute senses
that there is something creepy about Rader, she leaves him tied to a
chair and escapes out the bathroom window onto the fire escape, but
she drops her wallet as she is running down the stairs. Rader is
enraged and vows to kill her and, after he finds her wallet, he can
kill her any time he wants (He has a flashback showing him torturing
a tied-up woman in the middle of a field, then killing her by
stomping on her head and then burying her in a shallow grave). We
next see Rader waking up in his bed at home, having breakfast with
his wife Susan (Amy London) and two teenage daughters and then
heading out to work as Park City's only Compliance Officer (a
pseudo-cop who issues tickets for nuisance infractions like blocking
the sidewalk and failure to cut the grass), a job he clearly enjoys
enforcing (and
it affords him to pick future victims). When one woman gives Rader a
hard time when he warns her about her dog roaming around freely
without a leash, he returns to her home later that night, ties her
up, rambles on about having a sexual problem ("I don't get what
I need at home. My body produces an abnormal amount of
testosterone!"), asphyxiates her with a plastic bag, rapes her
(offscreen) and then returns home to have dinner with his family,
where we learn that he has just been appointed President of his local
church! Rader then continues his murder spree by shooting a man
point-blank and strangling his girlfriend (the act of choking her
gets him off), kidnapping a teenage girl off the street in broad
daylight and then driving a lost little girl home (with the wounded
and unconscious teenage girl in the back of his van!), where he
berates the young girl's mother for not minding her child (Rader
later kills the teenage girl by throwing her in a shallow grave and
impaling her in the stomach with a shovel). Rader's home life begins
to unravel when wife Susan discovers he lied about chaperoning a Boy
Scout weekend (it was actually cancelled two weeks earlier). He's
really going to the home of the prostitute who left him tied-up in
the hotel room, first shooting her husband in the head, but failing
to kill her when he begins hallucinating that he's strangling one of
his daughters. This proves to be his undoing, as on his drive home he
is stopped by a cop for speeding. He kills the cop by throwing him
into the path of an oncoming car and ends up hunted by the police
when they inform Rader's family about his crime and discover evidence
about him being the BTK Killer in his workshop. Rader is eventually
captured and immediately confesses all of his crimes once he realizes
the cops have DNA evidence. As far as serial killer films go, B.T.K.
falls somewhere in the middle. Since this is a fictitious account of
Dennis Rader's final days as a free man, there's not much historical
value here, but Kane Hodder does a pretty credible job portraying a
man who clearly has a hatred for women, thanks to a clinging wife who
was only able to bear him female offspring, which he then spent their
childhood ignoring (it's clear he would have preferred sons). He also
clearly enjoys the power that comes with his job as Compliance
Officer (yet it's obvious he would much rather be a cop, but he would
never pass the psych exam), as he gets sexual pleasure issuing
tickets and talking down to the town's women for performing minor
infractions, threatening to send their dogs to the pound to be put to
sleep or calling Child Services for not watching their children. Director/producer/scripter
Michael Feifer, who is also responsible for such recent serial
killer flicks as BOSTON
STRANGLER: THE UNTOLD STORY (2006), ED
GEIN: THE BUTCHER OF PLAINFIELD (2006; also starring
Hodder), CHICAGO
MASSACRE: RICHARD SPECK (2007) and BUNDY:
A
LEGACY OF EVIL
(2008), wisely steers away from the police procedural aspects of the
story (the police don't appear until the final ten minutes) and
concentrates on Rader's movements and murders. Some of the killings
are very gory (the shovel impalement; the cop killing; bloody bullet
wounds), but the story is more about Rader's sexual deviancy and
inability to reach climax unless he has his hands around a woman's
throat while she in bondage and unable to fight back. In that
respect, B.T.K. achieves it's none-too-lofty goals, but those
looking for another HENRY:
PORTRAIT IF A SERIAL KILLER (1986) are bound (no pun
intended) to be disappointed. Not to be confused with Ulli Lommel's
abysmal B.T.K. KILLER (2005)
or Stephen T. Kay's THE
HUNT FOR THE BTK KILLER (2005). Also starring Cara Sigmund,
Caia Coley, Odessa Ray, John Burke, Bob Arnold and Pascale Gigon. A Lionsgate
Entertainment DVD Release. Rated R.
CANVAS
OF BLOOD (1997) - If you're
in the mood for a cast of actors who constantly flub their lines, sex
scenes complete with dubbed-in fart noises and anemic action set
pieces, then this ultra-low-budget revenge thriller may just be right
up your alley. Vietnam veteran and widower Paul Hanover (screenwriter
Jack McClernan) is very proud of his daughter Julia (Jennifer Hutt).
Not only is she a violin prodigy about to hit the big time, but she
is also daddy's little girl. When it is discovered that Julia has a
potentially career-ending cyst in one of her hands, both Paul and
Julia agree to have it operated on after being guaranteed by surgeon
Dr. Miles Houston (producer Michael Mann) that the operation is safe.
Unfortunately, Dr. Houston is also a coke-sniffing alcoholic (aren't
they all?) and when he performs the "routine procedure"
after popping a Valium, he botches the operation and leaves Julia
with a non-functioning hand (her dad also has a bum hand thanks to
his service in Vietnam), which destroys her violin career. Paul is
furious at Dr. Houston, as he and the hospital cover-up
the malpractice by claiming that Julia had cancer in her hand, so
Paul hires scumbag lawyer Flanders Davenport (Andy Colvin) to sue the
surgeon and the hospital. What Paul and Julia don't initially
understand is that Davenport is on Dr. Houston's payroll and he
purposely loses the non-jury trial so that the judge (who is on
Davenport's payroll!) favors Dr. Houston. Julia's life begins to
unravel. Her fiancé Tommy (Mark Frear) leaves her for another
woman (He callously pulls the engagement ring off Julia's paralyzed
hand and tells her that he is giving it to his new girlfriend!) and
then murders her dog with poisoned meat. This sends Julia into a
near-psychotic coma and Paul is forced to commit her to a psychiatric
facility. Paul, who is a college art teacher and amateur painter,
discovers the collusion between Dr. Houston, Flanders Davenport and
the judge, so he decides that his only means of recourse is deadly
revenge (he makes the decision after he pukes-up chunks of
god-knows-what while having a Vietnam flashback). He fashions a
circular saw-like device that he attaches to his bum hand and goes
after Dr. Houston first, cutting off the fingers of the doctor's
right hand before performing an autopsy on him while he's still
alive. Paul then creates a flame-thrower device for his hand, goes to
the judge's house and burns him alive. Paul doesn't even try to get
creative with Davenport (Paul doesn't believe he deserves it, but I
think the budget ran out of money for another device), opting to blow
his brains out with a pistol while waiting for him in the back seat
of his car. Paul saves most of his rage for Tommy, as he creates a
mechanical hand capable of crushing a cue ball into powder and then
uses it on Tommy's balls while he is getting a massage in a
whorehouse. The police detective in charge of the case lets Paul go
free, as long as Paul and Julia leave town for good. Why does he do
this (besides probably watching DEATH
WISH [1974] a hundred times)? Let's just say the detective
has a wife at home with a bum hand, also caused by the malpractice of
Dr. Houston and then taken advantage of by Davenport and the judge.
Small world, isn't it? Impossibly cheap in every department
(the sound recording and music soundtrack take top honors for
annoyance, followed by the bottom-rung acting abilities of the cast,
especially Rishi Bhardwaj as the town's Arabic Chief of Police!),
director Joel Denning (who also co-directed SWARM
OF THE SNAKEHEAD - 2006) makes a valiant effort in trying to
fashion a silk purse from a sow's ear, but comes up empty. The
special effects are low-rent (when Paul cuts-off the surgeon's
fingers, there's no gushing blood), some scenes seem like they belong
in a totally different film (such as when the cop in charge of the
investigation questions a Nietche-quoting bum or the strip club
finale, which seems to serve no other purpose than to pad out the
film's running time) and Jack McClernan as Paul is so dull as the
vigilante, I wanted to stick his head in an electric knife sharpener.
Toss-in some dizzying handheld camerawork where the film stock
changes from scene-to-scene and what you end up with is a weak
late-entry into DEATH WISH territory. Filmed in Baltimore,
Maryland and "inspired by Robert Rodriguez". Ha! He wishes.
Also starring Lance Irwin, Marian Koubek, J. Michael Lawlor, Jamie
Bell and Svetlana Milikouris. Available on DVD
from Shock-O-Rama Cinema as part of a double feature with the more
outrageous regional oddity PSYCHO
KICKBOXER (1992/1997). Not Rated.
THE
CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS (1971) -
A woman gets on the crowded elevator of her highrise apartment
complex and before it reaches the top floor, she is viciously stabbed
to death by someone wearing flesh-colored latex gloves and
brandishing a scalpel. When the doors open on the top floor, three
people discover the body lying in a pool of blood, but one of them,
black model Mizar Harrington (Carla
Brait; TORSO - 1973), leaves before
the police arrives, saying she is late for her job (she wrestles men
at a casino for money!). Meanwhile, beautiful model Jennifer Lansbury
(Edwige Fenech; STRIP
NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER - 1975) is being stalked by Adam (Ben
Carra; SUPER BITCH - 1973),
the leader of a sex cult that Jennifer once belonged to, but has
since left (Adam believes her to be his wife, since he conducted a
ritual "marriage" to her in the cult). Adam nearly drugs
her while she is walking to her car one night (he wants to free her
from the temptation of other men), but she manages to get away with a
well-placed elbow to his gut. The mysterious gloved killer then
murders Mizar in her own apartment, delivering a karate blow to her
throat, tying her up and drowning her in the bathtub.
Stamp-collecting Police Commissioner Enci (Giampiero Albertini; MANY
WARS AGO - 1970) is assigned to the case and begins
questioning suspects, first beginning at the casino where Mizar
worked (the Commissioner at first believes the killer could be a
disgruntled male customer who lost to her in a wrestling match). Rich
advertising executive Andrea Barto (George Hilton; THE
STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH - 1971), who was going to use
Mizar in his latest ad campaign, uses his influence to get Jennifer
and her friend, Marilyn (Paola Quattrini; HERCULES
- 1958), Mizar's apartment to live in. Barto not only wants to use
Jennifer in his ad campaign, he also begins a romantic relationship
with her. Barto, who gets queasy at the sight of blood (to put it
mildly), isn't quite truthful with Jennifer (he tells her that he's
never met Mizar or been in the apartment before, which are both lies)
and Adam threatens him with a knife as he leaves the apartment
complex, telling him to stay away from Jennifer. That night, the
killer (who wears a black stocking mask and a large-brimmed hat)
comes into Jennifer's bedroom, but her screams scares the killer
away. The next morning, Adam shows up at the apartment and rapes
Jennifer, telling her, "From the day of our celestial marriage,
you belong to me!" Jennifer can't catch a break, because later
that night, the killer is waiting for her in her apartment. The
killer attacks her, but she breaks free and runs to the apartment
next door, occupied by Shiela (Annabella Incontrera; CLAP,
YOU'RE DEAD - 1974) and her elderly violin-playing father
(he plays the damn thing all day and night!). When Sheila takes
Jennifer back to her own apartment, they find an iris (a flower)
covered in blood on the floor and Adam in her bedroom closet, dead
with a knife sticking in his stomach. Luckily, Commissioner Enci
doesn't believe that Jennifer is the killer. He instead uses her to
bait and trap the real killer and tell
s
her not to trust any of her neighbors. But are the neighbors
(including a little old woman who loves to read a magazine called
"Horror Tales", who has a hideously-burned son she keeps
hidden in a secret room behind her closet) the only people Jennifer
shouldn't trust? This early 70's giallo, directed by Giuliano
Carnimeo (EXTERMINATORS
OF THE YEAR 3000 - 1983; THE
RAT MAN - 1988), using his frequent pseudonym "Anthony
Ascott", contains some good set-pieces (including an eerie
sequence set in an auto graveyard at night), frequent nudity and some
bloody violence. My favorite scene is when Marilyn is stabbed by the
killer on a busy street in the middle of the day and she staggers
(unnoticed by all the pedestrians) over to a waiting Barto. When he
notices all the blood on her hands, he freaks out and runs away,
making him look like the guilty party. As with most giallo films, the
list of potential suspects and red herrings are many and this film
has some memorable ones, each with their own unique quirks. There's
also some humor to be found here, most of it coming from Commissioner
Enci's second-in-command, Frankie (Franco Agostini; THE
FACE WITH TWO LEFT FEET - 1979). While staking-out Barto's
apartment, he spots Barto and Jennifer making love through his
binoculars. He radios the Commissioner and says, "Those two are
really going at it! Don't be surprised if instead of a corpse, we
have a birth on our hands!" Edwige Fenech (YOUR
VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM... - 1972) makes a great first
impression here, appearing with painted-on clothes (yowza!) during a
photo shoot and George Hilton (THE KILLER
MUST KILL AGAIN - 1975) is also good as a man with too many
secrets for his own good. As with all good giallo films, the opening
minutes hold a clue to unmasking the killer. Required viewing for
giallo and mystery fans. THE
CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS is also known as EROTIC BLUE
and WHAT ARE
THOSE STRANGE
DROPS OF BLOOD DOING ON JENNIFER'S BODY?
(phew!). Also starring Oreste Lionelli (FOUR
FLIES ON GREY VELVET - 1971), Maria Tedeschi (PLOT
OF FEAR - 1976), Carla Mancini (damned if I could spot
her!), Gianni Pulone (ALL
THE COLORS OF THE DARK - 1972), George Rigaud (THE
DEVIL'S RANSOM - 1971) and a cameo by our old friend Luciano
Pigozzi (a.k.a. "Alan Collins"; EVIL
EYE - 1975) as the casino owner. Originally available on DVD
from Anchor Bay Entertainment
as part of their four-film GIALLO
COLLECTION box set and now available as a stand-alone
DVD from Blue Underground.
Not Rated.
THE
CAT O' NINE TAILS (1971) - "They
say that cats sleep in graveyards. Didn't you know that?"
Based on the worldwide popularity of his THE
BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970), Dario Argento was
given nearly a million dollars to fast-track another giallo film, and
although Argento went on record to say that this was his least
favorite film in his canon, it is a perfectly enjoyable way to spend
112 minutes of your precious time.
Franco "Cookie" Arno (Karl Malden; THE
SUMMERTIME KILLER - 1972), who is blind,
is walking down a Rome street at night with his young niece Lori
(Cinzia De Carolis; the teenage neighbor who hits on John Saxon in CANNIBAL
APOCALYPSE - 1980!), when he hears a conversation two men
are having in a car and he hears the phrase "It's not
blackmail." He stops and pretends to tie his shoelace and asks
Lori to look into the car to see if she can identify the men inside
it. As they walk away, Lori says there are two men in the car, but
she could only get a good look at the man who was talking. Back at
home, we discover that Franco creates crossword puzzles for a living
(it's quite ingenious the way he does it). As he is creating a new
puzzle, he hears a car pull away, but something doesn't sound right.
He tries to wake Lori up, but she is sound asleep, so he goes to his
terrace and we see that someone has hit a man over the back of his
head and he lies unconscious in the street, his attacker standing
over him, holding what looks like a billy club. The attacker sees
Franco go back into his home and begins to drag the unconscious body
away, throwing him in an empty guard station at what looks like a
hospital. Does the attacker know that Franco is blind or is he next
on the list? What do you think?The attacker (all we see is an extreme
close-up of one of his/hers eyes) then sneaks into the hospital,
enters an office and opens a cabinet drawer titled
"Genetics". We then discover that the unconscious man is a
guard at the Terzi Institute For Genetic Research, a think-tank of
doctors and scientists who are the best in their fields of expertise.
The next morning, Franco is walking down the street towards the
Institute and hears people talking about the assault last night. A
journalist, Carlo Giordani (James Franciscus; KILLER
FISH - 1979), bumps into Franco, knocking his cane out of
his hand. Carlo apologizes profusely and Franco asks him what has
happened. After telling him a guard was assaulted in a failed robbery
attempt, Carlo goes inside the Institute and talks to his
photographer Righetto (Carlo Alghiero; WHEN
WOMEN PLAYED DING DONG - 1971), who gives him the skinny on
the Institute's owner Professor. Terzi (Tino Carraro; WEREWOLF
WOMAN - 1976) and all the other doctors and scientists
working there (play close attention to this scene), also telling
Carlo that nothing was stolen. Carlo then talks to old friend Police
Superintendent Spimi (Pier
Paolo Capponi; BLOOD
AND DIAMONDS - 1977), who tells him that a thief broke in at
10:15 last night and left without taking anything, not a test tube,
not an ink bottle, not even a piece of paper, nothing, ending with
"Odd, isn't it?" The boss' daughter Anna Terzi (Catherine
Spaak; TAKE A HARD RIDE
- 1975), then enters the building and she and Carlo share a glance at
each other, the type of glance that tells us romance is about to
bloom, but she keeps on walking. Carlo asks Supt. Spimi what kind of
work is done at the Institute and he says genetics, biology and
biochemistry. They also do hereditary work, offering "pre-nuptial
appointments for people with loads of cash who want top-quality
offspring. They come in, see a pretty nurse and jack-off. They're
told if they have a hereditary disease or if their gun's jammed. They
do other research, too. Important top-secret stuff" (everyone
should pay close attention to the last sentence in that bit of dialogue).
We then see that Professor Terzi is having a meeting of the board
members when Anna walks in. Terzi tells them to be open, Anna knows
everything that goes on in the Institute. He then goes on to say that
the research at the Institute has far-reaching implications,
therefore, without further tests, it cannot be made public. There
could be serious misunderstandings, but since nothing was stolen,
nothing needs to be made public. Dr Casoni (Aldo Reggiani; THE
SEX MACHINE - 1975) says they can't rule out espionage, the
thief may have made copies of documents and put the originals back
where they belonged, no one the wiser. Terzi makes it clear to Casoni
that he's still in charge of the Institute and he can make decisions
without his advice, letting Casoni know who is boss and putting him
in his place. Another board member, Dr. Braun (Horst Frank; EYE
IN THE LABYRINTH - 1972), goes as far as to accuse Casoni of
being involved with espionage, which he vehemently denies. Dr. Braun
then goes on to say he had his staff check all the files and assures
everyone that none of the files have been disturbed, as all the
cabinets were still locked. Dr. Calabresi (Carlo Alghiero; TORSO
- 1973) notices the cabinet drawer marked "Genetics", the
same drawer the thief opened, is unlocked. He makes a phone call to
someone, who tells him to keep quiet about it, he/she will see him
today at 5:00 pm. Dr. Calabresi doesn't seem too happy about it, but
when his girlfriend Bianca (Rada Rassimov; THE
STRANGER'S GUNDOWN - 1969) enters his office and sees he is
upset, he tells her he doesn't want to talk about it, he will pick
her up at her home tonight, go out to dinner and he will tell her
everything. Who wants to bet that this is the last time he will ever
see Bianca, or anyone else for that matter? One thing he does tell
Bianca is that he is the only one who knows what was stolen. And who
stole it. Bianca asks him if he is going to tell the police and he
says no, he's not telling anyone for the time being. But this could
be a huge boost for his career. Now I am certain he will never
see daylight again!
Dr. Calabresi then goes to the train station to meet the mysterious
person on the phone. Also there are a throng of reporters and
photographers, including Righetto, there to meet a young starlet on
the next train into the station. As the train approaches, someone
wearing black gloves pushes Dr. Calabresi into the path of the
incoming train, killing him (a scene cut out of the U.S. theatrical
release; It is only implied in that version, but here we see the
train hit the doctor as his bloody mangled body rolls onto the
platform. When the train stops and the starlet appears, Righetto says
under his breath, "Smile bitch, your train has just crushed a
guy."). Righetto doesn't know it, but he has taken a photo that
will blow the case wide open. When Franco learns of the doctor's
death (Lori tells him that the photo of Dr. Calabresi that Righetto
took for the front page of the newspaper is the same person she saw
in the car), he goes to Carlo's office and asks him if the photo was
cropped. Carlo phones Righetto at home, asks him and he says yes, the
photo was cropped and when he looks at the entire photo, he sees
something that the viewer isn't privy to. Carlo says he'll be right
over to pick up the photo, but he's beaten to it by the killer, who
believes the photo may implicate him/her. As Righetto is enlarging
the photo, the killer garrotes him with a cord and he suffers a long
painful death (the killer also slices Righetto's face with a scalpel
as he lies dead on the floor). The killer takes the enlargement and
the negative and leaves just seconds before Carlo arrives (Franco and
Lori are waiting in the car as the killer walks by them). Carlo goes
to see Supt. Spimi and he tells Carlo that the coroner believes
Righetto's death was the work of a maniac, but he asks Carlo not to
link Calabresi and Righetto's deaths in the newspaper as it might
alert the killer. Carlo asks Spimi if he believes it is the work of a
maniac and he says he's not sure, he has no clues and doesn't know
what to think. He does know that Dr. Calabresi was a bit lifeless and
lived alone. Spimi tells Carlo about Calabresi's fiancé
Bianca, so he has a place to start. Carlo, with Franco's help, stakes
out the Terzi Institute looking or potential suspects. He notices
that Dr. Casoni is particularly chummy with Dr. Mombelli (Emilio
Marchesini; Argento's THE FIVE DAYS
- 1973). When he sees Anna, he tells Franco that she's quite a
"peach". He also notices that the police are following Anna
and her father as they leave the Institute together. Carlo and Franco
become quick friends and we discover that Franco and Lori are alone
in this world (Lori lost her parents in an accident and they are
closer than a father and daughter). Franco tells Carlo to talk to
Anna because her father is a widower and men who are alone confide
with their daughters. While Carlo is talking to her, Franco and Lori
go to talk to Bianca. Franco has a hunch and he wants to play it.
Carlo notices that Franco is enjoying himself and learns that before
he went blind, Franco was a journalist. While Carlo is getting a
shave across the street from where Anna and her father live (the
barber complains that the reporter in the newspaper Carlo is reading
says that the killer could be a crazy barber, not noticing he is
shaving the man who wrote it with a very sharp straight razor, making
Carlo very nervous!). While Franco and Lori pay Bianca a visit, Carlo
muscles his way past Professor Terzi's butler and learns that Dr.
Esson (cameo king Tom Felleghy; EYEBALL
- 1975), another board member, is there. After questioning Terzi and
being berated by Dr. Esson, Carlo hears Anna laugh and she tells him
that Dr. Esson is in a bad mood because she turned him down to be his
lover for the hundredth time. It's obvious that Carlo and Anna have
chemistry together and they agree to see each other that night.
Franco and Lori leave Bianca's apartment and she apologizes to Franco
about being no help, but the look on Franco's face tells a different
story. Franco asks Lori what Bianca was playing with around her neck
and she says an old watch attached to a chain. The watch had a photo
of Dr. Calabresi on one side. As they leave, Bianca makes a phone
call, telling the person on the other end that Franco could be trouble.
That night, Anna takes Carlo for a ride in her sportscar, noticing
that the police are following them and driving like a madwoman
through the streets of Rome to lose them, which she does. She tells
Carlo that the Institute is working on two top-secret projects, one
for a revolutionary new drug and one for the government. They had to
hire four geneticists because the workload is so intense. The new
drug is highly confidential research dealing with the XYY chromosomal
variation, which apparently indicates criminal tendencies. She tells
Carlo that the drug was used by the government in four trials. She
then tells Carlo about her Father's four assistants. Dr. Esson has a
good sense of humor, but when he's working, he's very intense, even
violent. Dr. Mombelli is a good technician, but without much
ambition. He lives in her father's shadow. Dr. Casoni is the prodigy
of the group. He graduated university very young and he's had a
brilliant career with international recognition. And then there's Dr.
Braun, a very strange man. He hangs out at St. Peter's Club, which
Carlo discovers is a gay hangout catering to rich gay men. When Carlo
goes to talk to Dr. Braun, he hits on him (telling Carlo that his eye
color is rare), but when Carlo tells him he is a journalist, Dr.
Braun gets up to leave and a gay man named Manuel (Werner Pochath; TERROR
EXPRESS - 1979) comes to Dr. Braun defense, but Dr. Braun
tells him everything is fine. Carlo tells him that someone at the
Institute may be selling information about the new drug, but Dr.
Braun says so what, he's a scientist not a detective and the police
have already questioned him three times, telling them "everything
I know." Okay, I have given you everything need to unmask the
killer is and what he/she is after. All you have to do is put it all
together in a nice package, so get cracking!
This is Dario Argento's second film as a director and while he is
still honing his craft, this is a perfectly acceptable giallo flick
with excellent
characters and a twisty mystery. I'm sick of reading that Argento
doesn't have a sense of humor, because it is not true at all.
Granted, his humor is not of the laugh-out-loud variety, but more
black in content, such as Carlo's experience with the barber, who
flails his straight razor in Carlo's face, realizing that the barber
is talking about him. There's also a contest where a man named Gigi
The Loser (Ugo Fangareggi; MEAN
FRANK AND CRAZY TONY - 1973) and a priest hurl insults at
each other and Gigi wins after saying 137 insults in a row (including
"fart ass", "bed-wetter" and "snot
nose")! Although we now know that having the XYY
chromosome does not lead to criminal activity, it serves this film
well, giving the killer a reason to commit murder. While the murders
aren't that graphic (Dr. Calabresi's murder is the bloodiest), they
are hard to watch, especially Bianca's, as she is garroted with a
cord and the killer slams her face to the floor over and over. While
very light in the nudity department (we get a brief glimpse of Anna's
breasts when she makes love to Carlo), this film doesn't need
it. It's more about the oddball characters, including Franco. A
blind man who creates crossword puzzles? You can't get odder than
that. This film may be a bit overlong, but I had a good time with it
and you should, too. This is a nice look at how a master of suspense
was fine-tuning his craft. Granted, not everything works, but there
are more hits than misses, making this film a worthwhile addition to
your film library. It's a part of mine.
Shot as IL GATTO A
NOVE CODE (a literal translation of the review title), this
film received an edited U.S.
theatrical release from National General Pictures. The same
edited print showed up on VHS from Bingo Video and then a truly
wretched budget VHS
from Simitar Video
(recorded in the EP mode). Originally released on DVD
& VHS uncut
and in widescreen by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2001, with a DVD
and Blu-Ray
from Blue Underground
following several years later. Arrow
Films has released a beautiful Blu-Ray
packed with copious informative extras. It's a little pricey, but
well worth the investment. Amazon Prime also offers the film
streaming, both in the original Italian with English subtitles or
English dubbed (both Karl Malden and James Franciscus dub their own
voices in this version). I viewed both the subtitled and dubbed
versions and the dialogue in the dubbed version differs greatly from
the subtitled version (Supt. Spimi's "jack-off" comment is
dropped completely, as is some of the violence in order to get a GP
[now PG] Rating), so the subtitled version should be your
choice. Also featuring Fulvio Mingozzi (Argento's DEEP
RED - 1975), Corrado Olmi (Argento's FOUR
FLIES ON GREY VELVET - 1971), Umberto Raho (THE
EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW - 1974) and Pino Patti (Argento's THE
BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE -1970) as the pissed-off
barber. All the disc and streaming subtitled versions are
Not Rated.
CIRCLE
OF FEAR (1992) - Cop Tony
Giordani (Michael Woods; F/X 2 -
1991) and his partner Lisa Bonnetti (Kay Sandvik) are undercover in
an Oriental restaurant trying to bust crime kingpin Mancini (Burt
Young; BLOOD BEACH - 1981)
in the middle of a drug deal when a gunfight breaks out, Mancini
pretending he committed suicide in the restaurant's bathroom, which
fools Lisa , who then goes to help Tony, giving Mancini time to
escape (Tony says to Lisa, "How many times do I have to tell you
to check if they're dead?!?). Tony's boss, the Chief (Philippe Leroy; GANG
WAR IN MILAN - 1973), is furious, telling Tony that it took
two years to get close to Mancini, but he blew it. Tony tells the
Chief that he got the heroin, the money and the Chinese buyer, but
the Chief says that's not enough,
he wants the man at the top, Mancini, calling Tony and Lisa
"Rambo rip-offs" for leaving a pile of dead bodies in the
restaurant. Tony storms out of the room, the Chief yelling,
"Where do you think you're going?", but Tony ignores him,
slamming the door behind him after the Chief calls him a
"fuck-up". Tony and Lisa are not only partners, they are
also lovers, which is dangerous in their profession, as both of them
will soon realize.
While Tony and Lisa are enjoying a romantic dinner in his apartment,
Tony gets a phone call from his ex-wife Elvi (Gianna Paola Scaffidi; BODY
PUZZLE - 1992), who says she needs the apartment he is
living in (it's hers) and she will find him a new one (she's a
realtor). Lisa asks Tony why he is not still married to her (He and
Elvi are on very good terms) and Tony says, "Because I wanted a
dog." The next day, when Tony and Elvi are talking in a parking
garage, an aviator sunglass-wearing hitman guns them both down,
killing Elvi and seriously wounding Tony, the doctors removing a
bullet inches away from his heart, putting Tony in a temporary coma.
Lisa blames herself, telling the Chief if she didn't fuck up at the
restaurant and checked Mancini's body to see if he was really dead,
none of this would have happened. The Chief blames himself, telling
Lisa he should have known Mancini would retaliate, yet he did nothing
to stop it. Tony eventually fully recovers, but he is haunted by
memories of Elvi's murder, which puts a strain on his and Lisa's
relationship, Tony telling Lisa, "Let me do what I gotta
do." The film then cuts to an insane asylum, where we watch a
crazy woman known as "The Countess" (Annie Girardot; SHOCK
TREATMENT - 1972; CACHE
- 2005) stab an intern named Marco in the hand with a pencil, saying,
"Bad boy! You've been a very bad boy!", thinking the intern
is her son, who is also named Marco.
Someone tapes a large envelope to the front door of Tony's
apartment, rings the doorbell and quickly scurries away before
Tony can see who it is. The envelope is addressed to Elvi and inside
it are photos of a very old house. Tony finds the phone number of a
photo processing business on the back of one of the photos and calls
it; the person on the other end admitting to sending a messenger to
deliver the photos to Elvi, as she told them the photos were very
important to her. Tony doesn't know it yet, but it was Elvi who was
targeted in the parking garage, not him, and the photos will lead
Tony to unravel a mystery so deep, it will expose the person who
hired the hitman to kill his ex-wife, as well leading him to uncover
the identity of a serial killer the press have named "The Full
Moon Killer."
Tony has the Forensics Department blow up the photographs and one
photo reveals what looks like a person looking out of one of the
house's windows. Tony asks if the photo can be enlarged more to
reveal the identity of the person looking out of the window, only to
be told that's the best they can do...for the moment. Tony then goes
to the old house to investigate further, only to find it abandoned
and all the rooms empty, no furniture, no paintings, nothing, except
for a dead human body in the house's kitchen, kneeling with its face
in the oven! Tony finds the corpse's wallet and comes up with a
name (which we are not told...yet). The police then search inside and
outside the house looking for clues, while the pathologist, George
(Bobby Rhodes; THE LAST HUNTER
- 1980), says that the body was mummified and probably died from gas
poisoning. Judging by the state of the corpse's clothes, death
occurred four to five years ago. The body is that of a male, age
about thirty. Tony is old friends with George, telling him that
someone involved with this house murdered his ex-wife. George is
shocked to hear that Elvi is dead and offers his condolences. He
tells Tony he will call him first with the results of the autopsy, as
it may be important to find Elvi's killer. Lisa tells Tony that,
according to documents found in the wallet, the corpse's first name
is "Marco" and his last name begins with "B-e-a",
but the rest is unreadable. Tony tells Lisa that he believes the
corpse is why Elvi was murdered, but Lisa says that's nonsense, she
still believes Mancini was involved in his ex-wife's death. Tony
believes the Mancini case and Elvi's murder are two separate
incidents, saying the killer saw Elvi taking photos of the house and
thought she saw the dead body, so he killed her, but Lisa stands pat
in her belief that Mancini and only Mancini is responsible. So, who
is right here? Is it a case of Elvi being in the wrong place at the
wrong time or is Mancini guilty of hiring a hitman to kill Tony and
Elvi just got in the way? I'm afraid I am going to have to side with
Tony. This is a giallo film, after all.
The Chief chews-out Tony, asking him why he was at that house. Tony
says he wanted to find out who murdered Elvi, but before he can say
any more the Chief interrupts and says it was Mancini who killed his
ex-wife, telling Tony he is no longer a homicide detective, he now
works in the narcotics division and to leave Elvi's murder to the
homicide department, saying finding that dead body was nothing but a
coincidence. Tony says there are too many coincidences here, for if a
professional hitman was hired to kill him, why did he shoot Elvi
first? A professional hitman doesn't miss his target, especially the
short distance away he was from him and Elvi (he does have a point!).
The Chief orders Tony to take a vacation and leave Mancini to
homicide, but Tony says he'll get Mancini, just not for Elvi's
murder. A female detective then gives Tony the address of a
red-headed female lawyer named Paula (Carla Cassola; THE
SECT - 1991), as she handled the sale of that house. Paula
tells Tony that a French millionairess owns the building and it is
only a small part of her vast fortune. Her last name is
"Beaumon", but she likes to be called "The
Countess". That's right, the same crazy lady we saw stab the
hand of an orderly with a pencil at the loony bin. According to
Paula, The Countess has no family, although there was talk that she
had a son, but she was unable to verify that. We then see The
Countess in her room, painting a strange mural on one of the walls
(Freeze the film and study that mural carefully, as it contains a vey
important clue!). The Countess' doctor tells Tony that she is very
unsociable and possibly won't answer any of his questions. She is
also very dangerous; she was committed to the asylum for murdering
her husband and mutilating him beyond recognition. No one is allowed
to be in the same room with her, not even nurses or interns, because
she is very dangerous (She is treated like Hannibal Lecter in SILENCE
OF THE LAMBS [1991}, as one wall of her room is made of
unbreakable glass and she has to put her arm through a hole in the
glass to get her daily injection of meds). The doctor tells Tony to
stand in the center of the adjoining room when talking to her and
never to get close to the glass; don't give her anything and don't
take anything she offers him, because it may be the last thing he
ever does. Tony then talks to The Countess through the glass, but her
room is pitch black. To get a rise out of her, Tony tells The
Countess that he has some important information about her son. The
lights come on in her room and The Countess tells Tony that her son
Marco was a bitter disappointment to her, as he caused her so
much grief and so much pain. he stole her looks and her youth and he
is the reason she's locked up in this asylum. As a child, Marco would
play the most horrible jokes on her, yet she still loved him as a
mother. Marco was "a little shit", yet it was all her
husband's fault, as his only love was for dogs; he lived for them,
ignoring and neglecting his family, which is why she butchered him.
Tony then says he has some bad news for her, Marco committed suicide.
Instead of being upset, The Countess looks at Tony and says,
"Recently there's been a tragedy in your life, isn't there? It's
in your eyes. It means we have something in common." She then
walks away, turns out the lights and puts on a classical music CD,
mumbling that she won an auction for a tea set, even out-bidding
Queen Elizabeth for it, proving to Tony that she is crazy as a loon,
but was all that real or just a show?
At a bowling alley (Why do many Italian genre films have bowling
scenes in them? What is their fascination with bowling?), the Chief
asks Tony if he remembers the serial killer known as "The Full
Moon Killer"? Tony says yes, he murdered several women before he
disappeared into thin air and all his victims had red hair. The
Chief, who once worked on the case before it turned cold, says,
"His modus operendi never varied, he stabbed his victims to
death and then decapitated them." The Chief believes that Marco
was The Full Moon Killer, as the murders stopped five years ago, the
same time Marco committed suicide. Tony says the murders also
stopped the same time Marco's mother was committed to the asylum. The
Chief then tells Tony that there's one more bit of information he
needs to know, something that makes nonsense of what they just said.
A search of the house where Marco killed himself revealed a pistol
and ballistics proved that it is the same gun that killed Elvi. This
throws a monkey wrench into Tony's beliefs, but the Chief tells him
to concentrate on Mancini because the heroin Tony snatched from him
was 100% pure and a consignment that big puts Mancini in deep trouble
with the Mob. If Tony busts Mancini, he could also dismantle the
entire crime syndicate for good (In other words, Mancini is scared
for his life and will probably name names, like Mafia turncoat Sammy
"The Bull" Gravano [Google him]). Meanwhile, Mancini is on
the phone with his boss, who tells Mancini to kill Tony and find out
where the police are storing the heroin. The boss then hangs up the
phone on Mancini mid-sentence and Mancini tries to save face with his
girlfriend by yelling "You go to Hell!" into the receiver.
Tony takes Lisa to a fancy restaurant, when a car drives through the
front window and Mancini's goons try to gun down Tony. Lisa, who was
on a bathroom break, suddenly appears with gun drawn and two of the
goons escape in the car in a volley of bullets. This is not going to
go over well with Mancini's boss, as Tony and Lisa are unhurt. Tony
and Lisa then share a pizza at Lisa's apartment and Tony tells her
that he doesn't think Marco was The Full Moon Killer. So who is? If
you want to know, I'm afraid you are going to have to watch the film,
but I will tell you this: George tells Tony that the corpse he found
in the house wasn't Marco at all; as a matter of fact, the body is
the wrong sex! That's right, it's the body of a woman with red hair.
And to pile on the problems, women with red hair are suddenly being
murdered again in the same way as The Full Moon Killer. And to add
injury to insult, The Countess has escaped from the asylum and she's
currently in Lisa's apartment (Did I mention that both Lisa and The
Countess have red hair?). Is The Countess The Full Moon Killer or is
that all too easy? The Full Moon Killer is revealed when George comes
up with a name for the female corpse. The problem is, Tony sent Lisa
to protect the person who is now using the corpse's name
(Plastic surgery was involved). The only question that remains is
this: Will Tony check on The Full Moon Killer's body to make sure it
is really dead? All the clues are in this review, so grab your
magnifying glass, put on your deerstalker cap and start doing some
detective work!
This late-in-the-game giallo film, an Italy/France co-production, is
actually very good, but I expect nothing less from director Aldo
Lado, who uses his "George B. Lewis" pseudonym here.
Lado has given us such good films as the gialli SHORT
NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS (1971) and WHO
SAW HER DIE? (1972), the nasty rape/revenge film NIGHT
TRAIN MURDERS (1974), the Eurocrime flick BORN
WINNER (1976) and the weird sci-fi/comedy THE
HUMANOID (1979), among many others. The twisty screenplay,
by Lado, Dardano Sacchetti (THE PSYCHIC
- 1977) and Robert Brodie Booth (UPPERCUT
MAN - 1988), manages to hit the right notes most of the
time, except for Burt Young, who is basically wasted in his role as
Mancini (I also had a problem with George being a lousy pathologist,
not noticing on first inspection that the body was female instead of
male, but I chalk that up to being a last minute plot twist). Be
aware that this is a story-driven film that lacks any extreme blood
and gore and very little female nudity, which is a shame since Kay
Sandvik (real name: Kay Rush) has a very nice body. It's great to see
Philippe Leroy in a '90s production, as I have seen many of his '60s
& '70s films (such as CASTLE
OF THE LIVING DEAD [1964] and CROSS
CURRENT [1971]) and he always turns in a good performance.
While most genre films from Italy in the '90s were frequently
sub-par, this is not one of them. It's a fairly involving giallo
thanks to good writing and Aldo Lado's tight direction. It may not
compare to most '70s giallo films, but what does? Just sit back
and enjoy the mystery.
Shot as ALIBI PERFETTO
("Perfect Alibi"), this film never received a theatrical or
VHS release in the United States, making its first appearance on
these shores as a DVD from Madacy Entertainment (long OOP). You can
watch a widescreen print streaming on Amazon Prime, free to Prime
members (It use to be streaming on YouTube from channel
"Eurocrime Realm" until YT deleted the longtime channel in
one of their frequent "deletion sprees", also permanently
deleting channels "Giallo Realm" and "Horror
Realm", three of my favorite YouTube channels). This film was
shot in English, so those of you turned off by subtitles or bad
English dubbing have nothing to worry about here. No Blu-Ray at the
time of this review. Also featuring Yves Collignon, Elisabetta
Coraini, Francesco Acquaroli, Valerio Barberis, Sasha Darwin (TOUCH
OF DEATH - 1990), Olimpia Carlisi, Salvatore Billa (BLOOD
AND DIAMONDS - 1977) and Aldo Lado in a quick cameo as a
bearded cop. Not Rated.
CLAP,
YOU'RE DEAD (1974) - On the
set of a movie being filmed in a car wash, director Benner (Antonio
Pierfederici; BLACK SUNDAY
- 1960) yells at actress Linda Jones for missing her mark. Linda
turns her anger to screenwriter Ross (Carlo Enrici; THE
GIANT OF METROPOLIS - 1961), telling Benner she won't work
as long as he is on the set. She storms into her trailer while Ross
calls her a whore, accusing her of sleeping with everyone (It's
obvious they have had a bad romantic relationship). Ross
then turns his anger towards Benner, ripping pages out of his
screenplay and accusing him of cutting costs, saying he doesn't know
why he writes such golden words when it is obvious Benner was never
going to use them, then storming off the set as Benner insults him
and calls him names. A short time later, Linda is found dead in a car
while filming a scene at the car wash, her throat cut. Is it possible
Benner filmed the killer?
That's what Inspector Menzel (George Ardisson; HUMAN
COBRAS - 1971) and his partner, Sgt. Bert Malden (Renzo
Ozzano; BLACK TURIN -
1972), who were just put on the case, want to know, so Benner shows
them the footage and notices a shadow that shouldn't be there,
telling Menzel and Bert, "That's not how we would light an
actor." Since it is just a shadow, the killer cannot be
identified, but Menzel is certain that the killer was in the car with
Linda and escaped later. Menzel asks Benner who could have seen the
screenplay to know that Linda was supposed to be alone in the scene
and Benner tells him even he doesn't know what was written in the
screenplay until he starts filming the scene ("Stories I know
well, but only when I'm filming."). Benner knows scripter Ross
and Linda had a contemptuous relationship, but doesn't mention it to
the Inspector, instead telling him to talk to Richard Hanson (Ivano
Staccioli; THE DEVIL WITH
SEVEN FACES - 1971) an electrician Linda hired and then fired
just before she was murdered.
When Menzel and Bert make it to Hanson's apartment, he is not there,
only Hanson's elderly wheelchair-bound father (We first spot the old
man using binoculars to spy on a naked female in another buliding
taking a sink bath!). He tells Menzel and Bert that Richard is never
here, he spends all the money he has on whores and booze. The old man
begins weeping crocodile tears, saying his son never thinks about him
and then asks Menzel if he has any children (Menzel doesn't answer).
The old man calls Menzel "respectable" when he hands him
some cash and tells him that Richard spends most of his time at
"La Cora", a bar/motel around the corner where whores and
loose women hang out. At La Cora, an elderly woman points the way to
the crime-fighting duo to a room where Richard can be found, but
warns them he is probably not alone. She's right, as we see Richard
screwing a woman named Rosie on a bed. Richard tells the Inspector
that he had nothing to do wityh Linda's murder and when asked if he
was fired for hitting on Linda, Richard responds with, "Who
didn't have it with her?", implying that she was a slut. It
turns out Richard has an alibi, as Rosie tells Menzel and Bert that
Richard was with her immediately after Linda fired him, but is she
telling the truth?
At his office, Menzel gets a phone call from Mary (Thea Fleming; THE
KILLER LACKS A NAME - 1966), another actress on Benner's
film. She tells him that she and actress Fanny (Belinda Bron) were
sitting near the camera while Linda was shooting her last scene and
she and Fanny saw a shadow. Mary tells the Inspector to meet her a
Benner's villa tonight, he's throwing a party and everyone involved
with the film will be there. She also tells him what she has to say
is very important (A giallo trope. Why cant she just tell him over
the phone?). Menzel doesn't want to wait that long, so Mary tells him
to meet her at the set of a scene she is going to be in at a quarry
today. That day, while a naked Mary is filming her scene in the
quarry, where she is tied to a stake and is to be burned for being a
witch, Mary walks off the set and into her trailer, yelling to Benner
that she refuses to do the scene unless he changes it. Ross tells
Benner that he wrote the scene where Mary drowns in a pool, but
Benner says, "She'll die like Joan Of Arc. It's much better!
Have you no imagination?" The killer then walks into Mary's
trailer (Mary says, "Oh, it's you.", but we never see the
killer's face, just the tan rubber gloves he is wearing) and
strangles her with a piece of electrical wire. Menzel shows up and
wants to speak to Mary immediately, only to find her dead in her
trailer, the electrical wire still wrapped around her neck. Everyone
at the quarry is questioned, but they all have rock solid alibis.
There are also no fingerprints on the electrical wire thanks to the
killer wearing gloves (At least they weren't black gloves, which are
the usual hand gear used in most giallo flicks!), so the Inspector is
no closer to finding the killer. Bert mentions that Richard Hanson
nis an electrician, so Menzel tells him to have Hanson followed, even
though he thinks he is not the killer.
That night, Menzel and Bert show up at Benner's party, where Menzel
talks to Ross and learns he has been Benner's screenwriter for years,
which is why he puts up with Benner's constant insults (He also
doesn't want to lose his job). Menzel then talks to Fanny (who is
barely dressed) and tells her she is the only person alive who has
seen the killer. Fanny couldn't be more disinterested, saying all she
saw was a shadow and walks out of the room (Fanny then strips down to
a barely-there bikini and dances provacatively to some funky
instrumental music in front of everyone, nearly impaling her ass on
some sharp spikes on one of Benner's sculptures!). Meanwhile, Bert
sees a man he thinks he knows from somewhere, but the man tells him
he must be mistaken and nervously walks away. Bert then catches
Menzel kissing Lucia (Annabella Incontrera; THE
CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS - 1971), who is working as a Script
Woman on Benner's film, on a stone spiral staircase that leads to the
roof and Menzel tells Bert to stay at Benner's house tonight and to
keep his eyes open, but, a few moments later, Bert doesn't see the
killer trying to murder a naked Fanny while she is taking a shower,
bashing her head in over and over on a faucet handle. Fanny is not
quite dead, so she is rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
Menzel assigns a cop to stand guard over Fanny's hospital room, but
the killer distracts the cop with the old "phony phone
call" trick, enters Fanny's room, disconnects the hose that is
keeping her breathing, which kills her.
Richard Hanson becomes suspect number one, since he was caught
lurking around Benner's house at the time of Fanny's attack. This
leads to a fairly long chase through the catacombs of the sewer
system that leads to the river, where Hanson successfully escapes by
swimming to the other side. We all know Hanson is a red herring,
because he couldn't look guiltier if he tried. Can Manzel solve this
before the Prosecutor pulls him off the case? The killer's identity
is revealed when Benner is filming the final scene of his movie
(which looks like a bastardization of DANGER:
DIABOLIK [1968]), as everyone, even Benner, are wearing
masks so they are hard to identify and, of course, Hanson is also
there. So who is the killer and what is his motive? As you well know,
I never give the killer's identity away, but the clues are in this
review, so put on your thinking caps and concentrate real hard (Not
too hard because it will give you a brain aneurysm when you discover
who it is!).
While the murders aren't particularly brutal, there is plenty of
full-frontal female nudity and director Mario Moroni (who only other
theatrical directorial feature was the Spaghetti Western MY
NAME IS MALLORY..."M" MEANS DEATH - 1971, although
he was a prolific screenwriter, co-writing Mario Bava's comedy FOUR
TIMES THAT NIGHT - 1971, among others) keeps the film moving
at a fairly brisk pace, giving the viewer no time to realize just how
ridiculous the story is (screenplay by Moroni, Robert Mauri
[director/writer of SLAUGHTER
OF THE VAMPIRES - 1962; KONG
ISLAND - 1968 and MADELEINE,
ANATOMY OF A NIGHTMARE - 1974] and Gianfranco Pagani
[director/writer of the hard-to-find MAGNUM
.38 - 1978]). The fact is, I guessed the killer's identity
almost from the beginning, but I kept telling myself that it couldn't
possibly be that easy. Turns out I was wrong. Still, this is an
entertaining giallo flick that will not disappoint fans of female
nudity and mystery genres. It's not one of the best, but it will do
for the time being. There is one thing I do have to say: I don't know
what film Benner was making, but I would love to see it. It seems
like a parody of horror films, before horror film parodies were a
thing (such as PANDEMONIUM
- 1982 and HYSTERICAL -
1983, two simply awful examples). It also has a nice, funky
music score by the basically unknown Aldo Bonocore, who only
scored three films!
Shot as CIAK SI MUORE
(a literal translation of the review title), this film got no
legitimate distribution in the United States, neither theatrical or
home video release in any format. The only way to see it is on
YouTube, where channel "Giallo Realm" shows an uncut print
in widescreen with English subtitles. My advice is to watch this film
as soon as possible, because Giallo Realm is known for being put in
"YouTube Jail" or having their channel deleted for
copyright and license infringement many times in the past couple of
years. My question is this: Why do Italian production companies
complain about their movies being streamed in the U.S. when many of
them haven't been given a proper release here (at least not yet)? It
seems kind of childish to punish someone for streaming a movie no one
has ever heard of here. When they do get to releasing these films
properly streaming or on disc in the United States, then they can
warn the YouTube channels to remove the film from their channel.
Otherwise, YouTube is much too quick to punish these channels, as
they don't investigate the complaints at all, they rather delete the
entire channel than deleting a single film from it. That's just
idiotic. This film is Not Rated.
COMMITTED
(1988/1990) - After the suicide of her fiancé Paul (voiced
by an uncredited Alex Cord, but never seen), Susan Manning (Jennifer
O'Neill; SCANNERS - 1981)
takes a job as a nurse at a remote psychiatric hospital called
"The Institute", run by the oddball Dr. Quilly (William
Windom; CHILDREN OF THE
CORN IV: THE GATHERING - 1996). After being informed by the
hospital's head of security, Mr. Jones (Richard Alan, who sports a
huge facial scar and wears a beaded Native American headband), that
there are no patients here, only "guests", Susan is
introduced to some of those guests by Dr. Quilly's administrative
assistant, the ditzy Miss Donnymead (Lynn White), before she is
introduced to Dr. Quilly. After stupidly signing some papers without
reading them, Susan finds herself committed to The Institute as a
"guest" with no means of escape (the fence surrounding the
hospital is electrified, as she will soon find out) or communication
with the outside world. Susan tries without success to convince
anyone at The Institute that she's not crazy, including Dr. Quilly's
seemingly normal second-in-command, Dr. Desmond Moore (Robert
Forster; WALKING THE EDGE
- 1983). Everyone believes she has committed herself to deal with
Paul's suicide and only Dr. Quilly (who uses very unorthodox methods
to treat his patients) can release her. After finding all her clothes
ripped to shreds (everyone thinks she did it), Susan is forced to
wear a nurse's uniform. She meets a patient named David (Greg
Latter), who is kept locked in a padded cell. He tells Susan that
nurses end up dead at The Institute and then tries to strangle her
for not bringing him candy. Another patient named Ronnie (WELCOME
BACK KOTTER's [1975 - 1979] Ron Palillo) tells Susan that
the previous nurse disappeared and "is never coming back".
Another patient, Isandra (Aletta Bezuidenhout), tells Susan that the
real Dr. Quilly is dead and that a patient took over his identity.
Susan must determine what is fact and what is fiction as she delves
deeper into the mystery. When Dr. Moore implies to Susan that she may
have murdered Paul (who we find out was her psychiatrist), we, the
viewers, must also make a decision: Is Susan sane and about to become
The Institute's next dead nurse or is she crazy as a loon and
imagining all this? I'll never tell. This South Africa-lensed
thriller, directed by William A. Levey (BLACKENSTEIN
- 1972; HELLGATE - 1989, also
starring Palillo), contains a better-than-average cast for a film of
this type and has a screenplay (by Simon Last and Paul Mason) that
keeps you guessing right up to the very end. The lovely Jennifer
O'Neill (who has a semi-nude bath scene) is simply wonderful here as
a woman who may or may not be one sandwich short of a picnic. As the
patients begin dying or disappearing and she can't get anyone to
believe her story (she's nearly raped by a patient pretending to be a
hospital guard, played with sweaty persistence by Sydney Lassick [SONNY
BOY - 1989]), O'Neill manages to keep the viewers'
sympathies, whether crazy or not. The violence in this film is rather
subdued and bloodless, but the storyline doesn't call for blood or
gore. Instead, it relies on mystery and suspense and COMMITTED
offers several tense scenes, including David's unexpected visit to
Susan's bedroom and Susan's exploration of The Institute's basement,
where she makes some eye-opening discoveries. If you like your films
more cerebral than the average stalk 'n' slasher, this film should be
your cup of tea. The finale contains so many twists, you'll swear it
was made at a Bavarian pretzel factory. It's definitely the best film
on William A. Levey's resume. Made in 1988, but not released until
1990. Famed late film cutter Fima Novek was called in to rescue the
film in post-production when producer Alan Amiel determined the film
to be unreleasable in it's original form. Novek not only received the
Editor credit, he also received a "Music Adaptor" credit
for supplying the music cues in the final edit. Also starring Dennis
Smith, Deon Stewardson, Manfred Seipold, Frank Opperman, Shareen
Swart and John Maytham. A Media
Home Entertainment/CBS Fox Company VHS release. Not available on
DVD. Rated R.
CRIMES
OF THE BLACK CAT (1972) - Blind
Peter Oliver (Anthony Steffan of THE
NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE [1971]) is sitting at a
bar when he overhears what he thinks is a man and woman planning a
murder. Unfortunately, some hippie chick decides to play the jukebox
and he doesn't hear the complete conversation. When the music is
over, the couple
is gone and all we see is a woman in a white hooded robe exiting the
bar. We also catch a glimpse of a strange piece of jewelry (the
"Eye of Horus") that she wears around her neck. While Peter
is at the bar, he receives a letter from his fiancee Paola (Isabelle
Marchall). Peter's butler, Burton (Unberto Raho), reads the letter to
him, telling Peter that Paola is leaving him (Sending a "Dear
John" letter to a blind man. How despicable!). The mysterious
woman in white goes to a fashion institute carrying a basket (looking
like some sinister Little Red Riding Hood) and enters a room with a
big "F" and "3" on the door. We then find out
that the institute is owned by Victor Morgan (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart of WAR
BETWEEN THE PLANETS [1966]), whom the female employees swoon
over, but the real businessperson is Francoise Ballais (Sylvia
Koscina), who runs the institute's day-to-day operations. Victor and
Francoise are also married, but there's trouble in paradise as
Francoise thinks that Victor is fooling around with Paola, Peter's
ex. Paola, who is a model at the institute, goes into room F3 to
change. She finds a yellow shawl with a note attached to it on the
table. She reads the note, burns it, puts on the yellow shawl and
notices the basket on the floor. She opens the basket, screams and
then drops dead, her yellow shawl ripped and scratches on her neck.
By the time the police are called in, the basket has disappeared. The
police inspector, Jansen (Renato De Carmine), believes Paola was
murdered, so institute employee Margot (Shirley Corrigan) brings
Inspector Jansen to Peter's house to break the news to him. Peter
mentions the Dear John letter to Jansen (but he doesn't ask to see
it!), but he is still determined to find out who killed Paola. He,
Margot and Burton (who is always listening in the shadows) follow
their first clue to Paola's cousin, Harry (Romano Malaspina), a
photographer and pornographer. Harry is stabbed in the neck and
killed before Peter arrives to question him and, just before Peter
and Margo arrive and discover his corpse, we see Victor rummaging
through Harry's photographs. Jansen is understandably miffed and
warns Peter to back off, but more people will receive yellow shawls
as gifts and then drop dead suddenly. Can Peter use his
supersensitive hearing and sense of sm
ell
to solve these murders? Who is making the woman in white carry out
these murders and what are his/her motivations for doing so? I've
given you the clues, so now you must solve it. Judging by the
mention of yellow shawls (the film's original title is SETTE
SCIALLI DI SETA
GIALLA, which translates to "Seven Shawls Of Yellow
Silk"), you can probably guess that this is an Italian giallo
film (the killer even drives a yellow VW Beetle!), and a good one at
that. Director/co-scripter Sergio Pastore builds the mystery slowly,
introducing characters as suspects and red herrings while giving us
small pieces of Peter's personal life. In the beginning, we hear a
waiter call him "Maestro", so we get the sense that he's
some kind of musician. It's not until much later in the film that we
find out what type of musician he really is: He's a film composer! A
blind film composer (think about that for a minute). It's not the
first time that a blind man was a central character in a giallo. Karl
Malden was a blind man in Dario Argento's CAT
O' NINE TAILS (1971) and, just like that film, there's a
murder in a subway station and it takes a blind man to see the truth.
The killing method is quite unique, as the yellow shawls are coated
with the deadly poison curare and a cat pheremone and when a cat is
unleashed from the basket, it scratches the person through the shawl,
releasing the poison into their system and killing them instantly.
There are also other methods of death, including hanging, stabbing, a
cat beheaded under the wheels of a subway car and a real nasty
slashing in the shower (that comes out of nowhere and is extremely
graphic for it's time). There's also nudity (including a lesbian
scene), drug use, circus clown flashbacks (fucking scary stuff!) and
plenty of wild 70's fashions. CRIMES
OF THE BLACK CAT is a compelling murder mystery that will
have you guessing up to the very end, where the killer takes Peter to
a glassworks and leaves him there to fend for himself, broken glass
littering the floor and dangerous machinery operating around him.
It's a great, suspenseful sequence that's punctuated by a death in a
vat of lye and a final murder that's as gory as it is shocking. It's
viciousness will leave you slack-jawed. Also starring Jeannette Len,
Annabella Incontrera, Liliana Paulo and Lorenzo Piani. A Dagored DVD
Release. It's a widescreen print in it's original Italian language
with (tiny) English subtitles. Not Rated.
CRY
OF A PROSTITUTE (1974) - Wow,
what a film! When a father, mother and their son are killed in a
nasty automobile accident as they cross the Italian border (the
father is decapitated by the blade of a bulldozer), the police
discover that the little boy has been dead for at least two days. His
small body has been gutted and his internal organs replaced with
canisters of heroin! The police are reasonably upset that the body of
a young child was being used as a drug mule, but more upset are the
Dons of the local Mafia. They hold a meeting to discuss the matter
and come to the conclusion that Don Ricuzzo Cantimo (Fausto Tozzi),
nicknamed "The Americano" because he was deported from
Brooklyn, is to blame for this despicable incident. The Mafia assigns
Don Casscemi (Vittorio Sanipoli) to deal with Don Ricuzzo (in other
words, dispose of him). After leaving the meeting, Don Casscemi is
kidnapped by some of Don Ricuzzo's men, but his captors are surprised
and shot dead (with a bullet each between the eyes) by whistling
hitman Tony Aniante (Henry Silva), Don Casscemi's number one
assassin. Don Casscemi then tells Tony to kill anyone involved with
the dead boy incident,
including Don Ricuzzo. From the moment Tony arrives in Don Ricuzzo's
village, the bloodshed and treachery begins. When he stops a robbery
of some of Don Turi's (Mario Landi) heroin, Tony begins to play the
two local Dons against each other. He lets them believe that he is
working as an enforcer for both of them, but Tony has a deep (and as
of yet, unknown) personal vendetta to resolve. Tony doesn't even mind
using Don Ricuzzo's American whore wife, Margie (Barbara Bouchet, who
Tony first spots bathing with some freshly-squeezed milk) to achieve
his goals. As the attacks against the two Dons escalate, including a
failed attempt to kidnap Don Turi's retarded grandson Zino (Alfredo
Pea), we learn the real reason why Tony is holding such a huge chip
on his shoulder. The finale finds Tony being found out (he really is
quite the bastard) and, even though he is beaten to a pulp and left
for dead, he works out one final deal to kill Don Ricuzzo. Be
prepared for a twist at the end. It's a keeper. This is a
terrific example of the Italian crime thriller genre that came into
prominence during the 70's and no one was better in them than Henry
Silva (ALMOST HUMAN -
1974). With his steely eyes (that could melt glass) and no-nonsense
attitude, Silva makes the perfect anti-hero. As the take-no-prisoners
Tony, who announces himself to his enemies by whistling a haunting
tune just before putting a bullet in the middle of their foreheads,
Silva is one mean motherfucker. Not only does he kill two guys with
bullets in their brainpans in one sequence that takes place in a
quarry, he then runs over their bodies with a steamroller and
flattens them like a pancake! The strangest scene (and probably where
they came up with the film's misleading title) is where Margie
corners Tony in the kitchen late one night and threatens to scream
rape unless Tony makes love to her. He calls her a "whore"
(she was one in America before Don Ricuzzo married her) and she
replies, "Three bucks a pop and two bucks for a handjob...in a
car!". What happens next is completely insane. Margie says to
Tony, "We're all whores in this world. The only difference is
that you don't sell your body. You sell your soul!" She spits on
him and Tony then anally rapes her while she screams in pleasure and
pain! Later on, he whips her with his belt (even using the buckle at
one point!) and rapes her again on some hay in a barn, leaving her a
bloody, bruised mess. You gotta love those Italians. There's also an
excellent shootout/massacre at Don Turi's villa where people are
shotgunned in the head and gut and Don Turi's wife, Santa (Dada
Gallotti of GIRL IN
ROOM 2A - 1973) cleaves a man's head in two with a bandsaw!
As you can tell, this is an extremely violent film that doesn't pull
it's punches. Director Andrea Bianchi (STRIP
NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER - 1975; BURIAL
GROUND - 1980; ANGEL OF DEATH
- 1987) fills the screen with gruesome sights, from the opening views
of the father's decapitation and little boy's autopsy, multiple
bloody shootouts, dismemberments, rapes and stabbings. The film is
almost Shakespearian in it's tragedy, especially when retarded Zino
is handed a gun and told to get revenge since he is the last
surviving male member of Don Turi's family. This film is also full of
quotable dialogue (none of it unintentionally funny), scripted by
Piero Piegnoli. Here's my favorite: Don Ricuzzo: "Do
you think there's a God, Tony Aniante?" Tony: "Sometimes."
If you're a fan of 70's Italian crime thrillers, this one should be
on your must-see list. The version I viewed was compiled from various
sources (in widescreen) by a fan and is much longer than the VHS tape
released by Prism Entertainment
in the 80's or the recent crappy DVD put out by Televista, which are
both fullscreen. Some scenes are in Italian with English subtitles.
Also known as THE ONES WHO COUNT
and GUNS OF THE BIG SHOTS. Also starring Piero Maria Rossi,
Patrizia Gori and Mauro Righi. Released theatrically in the 70's by Joseph
Brenner Associates in a heavily-edited R-rated print. This
version is Not Rated.
CURSE
OF THE ZODIAC (2006) -
Director Ulli Lommel gained some notoriety and attention with his
first U.S. horror film, THE BOOGEYMAN
(1980), and he has been riding on it's coattails for nearly thirty
years, churning out a series of mostly forgettable films during the
80's, including the horror film THE
DEVONSVILLE TERROR (1983), the surreal musical STRANGERS
IN PARADISE (1984) and the anemic actioner OVERKILL
(1986). He continued to make a string of mostly mundane and obscure
films through the 90's and nearly everyone, including myself, wrote
him off as a one-hit-wonder and let him drift into the ether. Then,
beginning in 2005, Lionsgate Entertainment began releasing a series
of new films on DVD directed/produced/written/edited/photographed by
Lommel, for his newly-formed Hollywood House Of Horror production
company, all based on the life and crimes of real-life serial
killers. Sadly, these films, all shot on digital video, with names like
ZODIAC KILLER, B.T.K.
KILLER, GREEN RIVER KILLER,
KILLER PICKTON (all
2005), DIARY OF A CANNIBAL
and BLACK DAHLIA
(both 2006), are the dregs of filmmaking, made by a man who must have
contempt for his audience, because all these films have a look and
feel like they were made in someone's backyard and home over a booze-and-cocaine-fueled
weekend. I picked CURSE OF THE ZODIAC to review because it
sits in the middle of Lommel's serial killer series (he's still
churning them out as of late 2009) and is representative of his
entire oeuvre. Shit comes in many shapes and shades of brown, but
they all stink nonetheless. CURSE begins with the Zodiac (Jack
Quinn; but voiced by Lommel himself using the pseudonym "Rick
Van Cleef") taunting a writer (Jon E. Nemitz) over the phone
with insults like, "Hey fat fuck, I'm gonna kill a prostitute
tonight!" while headache-inducing fast editing and annoying
in-camera effects fill the screen (Lommel thinks that all it takes to
be a good director is to have a DV camera with lots of buttons on
it). The Zodiac kills the prostitute, but Natasha Baines (Cassandra
Church, who must have learned how to act from the back of a Cracker
Jack box) has some psychic link to him and "sees" all of
his murders while they are happening. When she tries to explain her
"gift" to her boyfriend (Lee Mercer), he complains that he
is running out of wine, tells her to ge see a psychiatrist and then
nearly breaks up with her. She goes to the police, who are no help,
but she meets the writer and they join forces to try to bring the
Zodiac down. When Natasha's boyfriend learns of her new partner in
crime-solving, he becomes jealous and then really does break up with
her! The rest of the film is nothing but endless monologues by the
Zodiac (who likes to repeat the words "fat fuck",
"pretty girl", "cock" and "cunt" over
and over), while Natasha and the writer try to identify him. I don't
know about you, but I'm rooting for the Zodiac! Quite simply,
this film is a painful endurance test for even the most patient
viewers, as the film contains non-stop flashy editing guaranteed to
give epileptics grand maul seizures, inane dialogue scenes (much of
it seems improvised), acting that would be booed offstage at a grade
school play, violence that is nothing more than splashing blood and
chopped meat on victims and walls, and handheld camera that never
stop moving, inducing what amounts to seasickness on dry land. Lommel
does try to place the film in the 70's, as the clothing and
hairstyles are appropriate, but anachronisms abound, especially cars
on the street that are of much more modern vintage. I can't think of
one good thing to say about this film and, if there is an afterlife,
I hope Ulli Lommel is forced to watch all these films on a
never-ending loop while buried up to his lower lip in sewage in the
bottom level of Hell. Are you listening, God? It's me, Fred. Also
starring Victoria Ullmann, Lyn Beausoleil, Colette Claire, Trevor
Parsons, Shaun Adams, Pia Pownall and Nola Roeper (also a
co-producer). A Lionsgate Entertainment
DVD Release, proving once again that they would release footage of
someone's bowel movement as long as it had an ad campaign. Rated R.
DAHMER
(2002) - In this uncertain world we live in, filled with school
shootings and unnecessary wars. it's sometimes wise to search for
answers as to why people enjoy killing other people. Serial killers
always facinated me, especially the reasons why they kill. Most of
them had abusive parents, were sexually assaulted as children and are
very intelligent. And it takes a long time to catch them. In my
search for answers, this film, which takes many liberties with
Jeffrey Dahmer's story, was not the place to look for them. The film
opens with Dahmer (Jeremy Renner of 28
WEEKS LATER [2007]) picking up an Asian boy at a shoe store
after buying him an expensive pair of sneakers in return for posing for
a couple of Polaroids back at Dahmer's house. Once at the house,
Dahmer drugs the kid's drink and, once the kid passes out, takes many
photos, kisses the kid and then drills a small hole in his head,
giving him a homemade lobotomy. The police show their ignorance when
the kid escapes and Dahmer convinces them that the kid is drunk, so
the cops escort the kid back to the house (this part is based on
fact). Flashbacks reveal that Dahmer's father, Lionel (Bruce
Davison), was overbearing and had trust issues with Jeffrey (the
scene between the two arguing over a locked box in Jeffrey's closet
is a study in tension, as we don't know what's in the box until he
opens it [it's a human head!]). In another flashback, we spot Jeffrey
going to a gay bar and drugging a series of men's drinks over the
course of a few months, having sex with their motionless bodies until
one day a bartender catches him spiking a drink and has the bouncers
beat him up and throw him out permanently. Back in the present,
Dahmer picks up a young black man at a sporting goods store and
brings him home. As they are talking about sex with women, it
triggers a flashback which shows us why he detests straight sex,
which dates back to high school. His first gay experience was when,
as a student, he gets a high school wrestler high, brings him back to
his parent's house where they get into an impromptu wrestling match
and it turns him on. It also turns out to be his first kill. Back in
the present, the young black kid, though drugged, manages to escape
but returns when he misses the last bus home. This makes him Dahmer's
last victim, as it would also be Dahmer's last day of freedom. The
film ends as it began: Jeffrey alone and not certain about his
future. For a serial killer flick, DAHMER
is almost bloodless and the violence is kept to a minimum. That's not
to say it's not an uncomfortable film to watch. The threat of
violence is in almost every frame as we begin to realize that Jeffrey
may like committing violence, but when the tables are turned on him,
he folds like a bad hand of cards. For the most part, the violence is
implied, although some scenes, such as when Jeffrey dismembers his
first victim on his parents' kitchen floor, are still hard to watch.
We know what he's doing (thanks to some eerie sound effects), we just
can't see it. On the negative side, let's just say it's not going to
change the mind of anyone who thinks that homosexuality is immoral.
Director/writer David Jacobson portrays the gay lifestyle rather
grittily, subjecting the scenes to red filters as if he was equating
gay sex with violence and bloodshed. This is basically the story
about Dahmer's last day of freedom, with flashbacks filling in some
turning points in his life. The way the story is told, you are never
aware or shown any of his other numerous victims and, except for a
crawl in the beginning (which says he was convicted of 15 counts of
murder), this film takes for granted that you know Dahmer's history.
This is the most un-serial killer film about a serial killer that you
are likely to see. If you're looking for something along the lines of HENRY,
PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986), you will be bitterly
disappointed. I liked it, even if it didn't give me the answers I was
looking for. Also starring Artel Kayaru, Matt Newton and Dion Basco.
A First Look Home Entertainment Release. Rated R.
DARD
DIVORCE (2007) - Another one of
Olaf Ittenbach's incredibly gory flicks, which, unfortunately, is
ruined by awful acting, especially by lead actress Martina Ittenbach
(Yes, what you smell is indeed nepotism, as she is Olaf's wife).
Martina plays Nathalie Stein, an alcoholic lawyer who is going
through a bitter divorce with husband Tim (Barrett Jones). When Tim
takes their two children away for the weekend, Nathalie begins to
experience a strange set of events, beginning with the disappearance
of her dog and a note left on her floor that has one word on it,
"Dard", written in blood (She will find out a short time
later that "dard" is Persian for "pain"). As she
slowly begins getting drunk in her home, Tim stumbles in with his
shirt full of blood and dies in front of her, but not before telling
her that someone took the children and then making an obtuse
reference to her missing dog. Nathalie calls the police, but when
they arrive, Tim's body is gone and so is any evidence. The police,
noticing that she has been drinking, decide to leave, but the next
morning, when neither Tim or the children can be found, Detective Warren
(Jaymes Butler) shows up at Nathalie's home, taps her phone and then
tells her that Tim was involved in a drug rip-off, where he killed
five people and ran off with a million bucks. Nathalie begins to get
the impression that Det. Warren is not a cop at all and she is proven
correct when he handcuffs her to a chair and begins to slowly torture
her, first by repeatedly punching her in the face (really hard to
watch) and then cutting off some of her fingers and toes until she
tells him where the missing cocaine and money are. When Warren
reveals to Nathalie that he has killed her young son Jeremy
(flashbacks reveal him slicing Jeremy's head in two with a chainsaw),
Nathalie escapes her binds and kills Warren by slicing his neck with
a broken bottle. Suddenly, a man named Daniel (Daryl Jackson) appears
at Nathalie's door, helps her clean up the mess and tells her a
completely different story about Tim's predicament (Flashbacks show
innocent bystanders Tim and the children getting caught in the middle
of an extremely bloody drug deal gone wrong). Daniel offers Nathalie
a deal: Help him find the drugs and cash and he'll give her half the
money. Of course, Daniel turns out to be more violent than Warren, as
he drugs Nathalie, strips naked and begins dismembering Warren's body
in the bathtub, stuffing the body parts into plastic bags. When
Nathalie wakes up, she finds herself once again bound to a chair and
about to be tortured, only this time her arms and legs have been
injected with an anesthetic so she cannot move. She is viciously
tortured with a claw hammer before turning the tables on Daniel, but
a voice on the phone proves to be one more adversary she'll have to
deal with before the night is through. The ridiculous final
denouement will either have you throwing a heavy object at the screen
or beating yourself about the head for being so stupid for watching
this in the first place. Besides the incredible amount of gore
and a surprising amount of male frontal nudity, DARD
DIVORCE has very little going in it's favor. Like most of
director/producer/screenwriter Olaf Ittenbach's films (which includes THE
BURNING MOON - 1992; LEGION
OF THE DEAD - 2001; BEYOND
THE LIMITS - 2003; HOUSE
OF BLOOD - 2005), the effects are top-notch, as is some of
the camerawork, but the acting abilities of the cast leaves way too
much to be desired and drags the film down quickly. The music is also
mixed way too high, drowning out some important dialogue during the
finale. I hate the term "Torture Porn", but it describes
this film perfectly, as we watch people getting stabbed in the eyes
and crotch; watch as one man is decapitated and torn apart with a
shovel; witness Nathalie being beaten around the hands and mouth with
a claw hammer (until her lower lip is completely gone and all we see
are broken teeth and her lower jaw bone); see a man get his head
blown off with a shotgun; and too much other gory mayhem to mention.
Hey, if pain and suffering are your thing (it makes HOSTEL
[2005] look like a Disney film), then this is the film for you. But
if you want other inconsequential things, like a coherent plot (it's
like RASHOMON [1951] on
psychotic drugs), interesting characters or professional acting, look
somewhere else, because you won't find any of that stuff here. Also
starring Kamary Phillips (who also sings the tune "Sunshine"
during the closing credits), Henora Jackson, Gideon Jackson, Kami
Esfahani and Christopher Kriesa. As of this review, it is not
available in the U.S., but is available on PAL (Region 2) DVD from
German distributor I-ON New Media in a widescreen English-language
print. Not Rated.
DARK
SUNDAY (1976) - Here's the
perfect role for Shelby, North Carolina film tycoon Earl Owensby, the
producer/star of such films as CHALLENGE
(1973), WOLFMAN
(1979) and DOGS OF HELL
(1982): He plays a priest who is struck dumb after witnessing his
family being brutally murdered and then goes on a bloody revenge
spree where he lets his pistols and shotgun do his talking. The film
opens with
a drunk and blind street preacher (Phil Lanier) walking down an
avenue extolling the word of God to anyone within earshot, while a
female junkie and her baby sit down in a dank and dirty alley. It's
Sunday morning and services have just finished at Pastor James
Lowery's First Church and he's thanking all the parishioners for
attending as they walk out of church. James is a major proponent in
helping teenage junkies and runaways turn their lives around, so when
the cops show up a church to inform James that the body of a young
female junkie was found dead in an alley (luckily, the baby is OK),
he rushes to the alley and identifies the body as Ellie Palmer
(Sheree White), one of the runaways he was trying to rehabilitate. A
police detective (Charles Honce) doesn't agree with the way James
protects the kids from snitching to the cops about where they get
their drugs and sarcastically tells Reverend James, "You keep
the faith, brother. Meanwhile, I'll keep scraping them off the
pavement." That night, James confesses to his wife Rachel
(Maggie Lauterer) that maybe the detective is right about the kids
and that he wants to find the ones' responsible for the kids OD'ing,
saying "I want to find them and crush 'em!" Teacher Rachel
then ask ex-teen junkie-turned-student Tim Spencer (Carter Bland) to
go to the cops and give them the name of his suppliers (James has no
idea Rachel is doing this), but Tim refuses because he is scared
shitless. Tim is paid an unannounced visit by his ex-supplier, The
Candyman (Chuck Mines), who beats-up Tim and shoots him full of
smack, but Tim manages to make it to the hospital and gives the
detective (who is never given a proper name) all the information he
needs to arrest The Candyman. Instead of slapping the cuffs on The
Candyman, the detective decides to keep a close eye on him and try to
catch the bigger fish connected to him. That bigger fish is
high-level drug supplier Herbert Trexler (Martin Beck) and when
corrupt police Lieutenant Untz (Phil Rubenstein) informs Trexler
about Tim spilling his guts to the police and Reverend James' role in
the situation, Trexler decides to shut them both up permanently.
While Reverend Jim is on a fishing trip with his family and Tim,
hitman Danny (Ron Lampkin) and an associate show up in a boat and
kill Tim, Rachel and one of their two sons, Eric (Todd Reep), by
shooting them at close range (it's startling in its brutality). James
is shot four times, but survives, and one of the shots destroys his
vocal chords, rendering him a mute. His other son, Jody (Todd's
real-life brother, Jeff Reep), who was also shot, is in a coma and
paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life, if he ever
wakes up. After a month recuperating in the hospital, unable to talk
to his comatose son and unwilling to cooperate with the police
detective, James (who now walks with the aide of a cane) forgoes his
"turn the
other
cheek" philosophy, takes to drinking, becomes an alcoholic and
then decides maybe "an eye for an eye" is the way to go
when he saves the blind street preacher (remember him?) from two
drunks who try to mug him of his booze. When The Candyman walks into
the bar he frequents, James follows him to a bus station bathroom,
beats the crap out of him and then kills him by drowning him in a
toilet. Bar floozie Julie (Monique Proulx) befriends James (she calls
him "Soldier") while he turns vigilante, killing all the
drug dealers he can get his hands on, first by using a knife taped to
his cane and then using more traditional weapons, like pistols and a
shotgun. A nervous Lt. Untz and a pissed-off Trexler try to uncover
the identity of the mysterious vigilante, while James gets closer to
achieving his goal of cleaning-up the streets and also discovering
that Jody has now awakened and his condition is not as dire as once
believed. Redemption is soon at hand for everyone involved, but will
James reconnect with God? The ending may surprise you. Directed
efficiently by Jimmy Huston (SEABO
- BUCKSTONE COUNTY PRISON - 1978; FINAL
EXAM - 1981; MY
BEST FRIEND IS A VAMPIRE - 1988), DARK
SUNDAY is unusual mainly for the way it portrays religion.
The alcohol/religion relationship is strong here, as James loses his
religion and turns to alcohol and the blind man can't preach religion
unless he is blind stinking drunk. This is the perfect screen role
for Earl Owensby, who has a screen presence (not to mention the
hairiest torso of any person since George "The Animal"
Steele), but isn't much of an actor, so not being able to talk
through most of the film is a definite plus for the viewers. Most of
the other acting is strictly second-tier, but it works in the context
of this film and the violence, although mainly bloody bullet squibs,
is very effective and shocking in some scenes, especially the murder
of James' family and James' killing of Danny. Although nothing more
than a low-budget rip-off of DEATH WISH
(1974) with strong religious subtext, DARK
SUNDAY works thanks to some gritty location photography and
its strange take on religion (screenplay by Grey Lynellee [Owensby's MANHUNTER;
a.k.a. THE BRASS RING -
1974]). Also starring Brownlee Davis and Worth Keeter. Owensby's
films at one time could be ordered directly from his web site (but
has since beeen closed down), but my copy was sourced from an
Australian VHS tape on the Playaround Video label. Also known as SOLDIER'S
WRATH. Rated R.
DAUGHTER
OF DEATH (1982) - Teenage
Julie (Isabelle Mejias) loves her father (Anthony Franciosa). I
mean she really loves her father! Julie hates her mother because she
wants to send her away to boarding school, which will mean that
Julie will be far away from Dad. Mom also gets rid of Julie's pet
snake with the help of the grocery deliveryman (Paul Hubbard), much
to Julie's displeasure. Julie hates her mother so much in fact, that
while Mom is being raped and killed by the horny deliveryman, she
does nothing to stop him even though she is carrying a rifle (Dad
taught her to be a crack shot). Now she can have Daddy all to
herself. Wrong! Daddy moves his girlfriend (Sybill Danning) and her
young son into the house. To say that Julie is displeased is an
understatement. She spies on Danning and Daddy making love and
imagines herself in Danning's place (a disturbing visual). She tries
to kill Danning's son by playing a lethal game of hide and seek (she
locks him in an abandoned refrigerator) but is foiled when Danning
finds him. Then Daddy drops a bombshell: He tells Julie that he has
just married Danning! Julie goes off the deep end and decides her
newfound family must depart. She blackmails the deliveryman, telling
him if he doesn't kill her stepmom she will go to the police and tell
them what she saw. (She says to him, "You can rape her as many
times as you want before you kill her.") Will she get away with
it? This German production, released to theaters as JULIE
DARLING,
has very little nudity considering its subject matter. Danning (PANTHER
SQUAD
[1984], CAT
IN THE CAGE
[1978]) bares her best assets in only one scene! But there is enough
sleaze in the storyline (including a broken bottle to the crotch) to
keep your mind from wandering. Mejias (who can also be seen in the
abysmal comedy STATE
PARK
- 1988) plays her role well despite the fact that she is probably a
few years older than her screen character. Director Paul Nicholas
also made THE
NAKED CAGE
(1985), a better than average women-in-prison flick. Franciosa also
starred in Dario Argento's UNSANE
(1982; a.k.a. TENEBRE).
DAUGHTER
OF DEATH
is a minor screen gem. A T-Z Video Release. Also available on DVD
from Code Red. Rated
R.
THE
DEAD ARE ALIVE (1972) - This odd
mixture of German krimi and Italian giallo genres keeps your interest
even though it gets off to a rather confusing start. This is a murder
mystery with supernatural overtones, as alcoholic archaeologist Jason
Porter (Alex Cord) is at a dig site and discovers the tomb of an
ancient Etruscan demon god. A young couple making out at the ruins
are savagely slaughtered by unknown hands using one of Dr. Porter's
probes as a weapon. Hot-tempered orchestra conductor Nikos Samarakis
(John Marley) tries to disrupt Dr. Porter's life and steal his
ex-girlfriend Myra (Samantha Eggar) for reasons not yet known. Police
Inspector Giuranna (Enzo Tarascio) is assigned to the murder case and
interviews everyone (he thinks a "sex killer" is on the
loose). Not only does the Inspector find some of Dr. Porter's
Etruscan artwork missing, he also discovers that two pairs of red
shoes were taken from the costume department
of the opera Nikos is about to conduct. Is there a connection? The
answer becomes clear when Dr. Porter discovers the unconscious body
of assistant Igor (Carlo De Mejo) and the mutilated corpse of Igor's
girlfriend (wearing a pair of the red shoes) in a barn. The Inspector
suspects Dr. Porter (he's drunk most of the time), but Igor clears
him when he regains consciousness. Dr. Porter gets a phone call from
a female warning him to take Myra and leave if he doesn't want to see
both of them killed. Dr. Porter is also being blackmailed by a nasty
tour guide (we see the guide set fire to a spider and it's web just
for the fun of it) who has circumstantial evidence linking him to the
murders. His past (as a patient committed to a hospital in New York
fifteen years earlier for his alcoholism after he tried to kill Myra)
also comes to the forefront, thanks to Mikos. Porter finally gets
some evidence on Nikos, thanks to an unlikely source, which brings
Myra back into his arms. Porter finds the slaughtered bodies of
another couple after he makes an important discovery in the tomb,
which leads him to the identity of the real killer. He now has to
race against the clock to save Myra from the clutches of the
killer. Directed and co-written by Armando Crispino (AUTOPSY
- 1973) and based on a story
by Bryan Edgar Wallace, THE
DEAD ARE ALIVE (also known as THE
ETRUSCAN KILLS AGAIN) is a passable murder mystery, but
that's about it. The murder scenes aren't very original or filmed in
an exciting way, but the Etruscan ruins do add some atmosphere to the
proceedings, even if they are not fully utilized. The usually
excellent Alex Cord (INN
OF THE DAMNED - 1974) looks bored here and John Marley (DEATHDREAM
- 1972) screams his lines rather than acting with them. He's pretty
aggravating and off-putting throughout most of the film as, what Dr.
Porter calls him, "a sadistic pig". The real problem with
this film is that there is too much dead air and the killer is easy
to spot (at least to me). When watching this, I got the feeling that
I was watching second-rate Dario Argento (just before a murder
happens, Verdi opera music is heard), minus the fluid camerawork and
flashy visuals. By the time we come to the conclusion, where Dr.
Porter finally enters the Etruscan tomb and puts the pieces to the
murder mystery together, it's literally too late to give a damn.
While there is a smattering of nudity (none by Eggar, in case you
were wondering) and blood, it could have used more of both. This is
nothing extraordinary, but it's an O.K. mystery if your sights aren't
set too high. Also starring Nadja Tiller, Horst Frank, Enzo Cerusico
and Daniela Surina. Never available on VHS in the U.S. (it did play
theatrically in 1972 with a totally
bogus ad campaign), the print I viewed from Eurovista Digital
Entertainment on DVD, was a beat-up widescreen edition with frequent
emulsion scratches, missing frames and an annoying hair fluttering on
the bottom left of the frame throughout most of the film. Also
available on DVD from Code
Red, which is long OOP. Rated R.
DEADLY
GAME (1991) - Remember when the
USA Network would premiere an original movie every week from the
late-80's to the mid-90's? This is one of those films and it's
surprisingly graphic (it was edited for violence when shown
on cable, the edit here being the complete "continental"
version). In this umpteenth retelling of THE
MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932), a group of diverse people find
themselves trapped on an island and someone (maybe a member of their
own group) is killing them using various hunting weapons, booby-traps
and other gadgets. The film opens with three guys being hunted down
by persons unknown who are wearing camouflage. One guy is already
dead, lying down in a stream with a crossbow bolt sticking out of his
chest. The second guy gets shotgunned to death when one of the
killers rises out of the stream Rambo-style and the third guy is shot
in the chest with a crossbow and finished off with a high-powered
bullet to his eye (right through his sunglasses). We then meet some
of the soon-to-be victims, as they board a seaplane, all thinking
they are traveling to an island somewhere off the Seattle coast to
receive monetary grants from the Osiris Corporation. The list of
potential wall trophies includes: dance teacher Lucy (Jenny
Seagrave); auto shop school teacher Dallas Peterson (Michael Beck; THE
WARRIORS - 1979); Mexican clinic doctor Aaron (Roddy
McDowall; THE LEGEND OF
HELL HOUSE - 1973); former all-pro football quarterback Jake
Kellogg (Marc Singer; WATCHERS
II - 1990) and his mild-mannered assistant Charlie (John
Pleshette; EYE OF THE STRANGER
- 1993); Yakuza member Mr. Saito (Soon-Teck Oh; MISSING
IN ACTION 2: THE BEGINNING - 1985) and his bodyguard
Ikiru-Sun (Professor Toru Tanaka; THE EXPERT
- 1991); and former military man Admiral Mason (Mitchell Ryan; LETHAL
WEAPON - 1987). It's easy to see quite early on that most of
these people are harboring secrets of their own, but things take a
major turn for the worse when the mysterious Mr. Osiris (Fredric
Lehne; OCTOPUS 2: RIVER
OF FEAR - 2001) gathers them all together in his stately
island manor and tells them (by close circuit TV) that they've been
selected to play a game: He and his associates, Mr. Chan (Steven
Leigh; RING OF FIRE -
1991), Rashid (Abdul Salaam El Razzac) and Miguel (Ron Duran), will
hunt them down like human prey, but there are six red backpacks, each
containing one million dollars, scattered throughout the island.
Anyone who finds a backpack and makes it to the other end of the
island alive will be allowed to leave with the money (Hey, it's still
easier than getting a government grant!). There are hidden
cameras
all over the island to stop the participants from cheating and to
show he means business, Mr. Osiris has Mr. Chan shoot and kill
Ikiru-Sun in front of everybody. The participants are then told that
at one point in their lives, they have crossed paths with Mr. Osiris
and have done him wrong (some of them have been downright murderous),
so they are given rudimentary weapons (a rope, a machete, a pistol)
and a two-hour head start before the hunt is on. As the group tries
to figure out how they have pissed-off Mr. Osiris (plentiful
flashback sequences are used), clues are left around the island to
remind them. They begin to get picked-off one-by-one by the masked
Mr. Osiris, his trio of killers and a few Rottweilers, who plays the
group against each other. Pretty soon, they begin to mistrust each
other more than their attackers. Who will be left alive at the film's
end? As directed by Thomas J. Wright (SNOW
KILL - 1990; UNSPEAKABLE
- 2002) and written by Wes Claridge (TEKWAR
- 1994), DEADLY GAME is a
typical made-for-cable TV movie punctuated by some unexpected bits of
graphic gore (supplied by the KNB EFX Group), many which were edited
out of the USA Network's telecasts. While all the characters are
stereotypical clichés (the heartless jock; the gruff,
untrustworthy military man; the damsel in distress, etc.), there are
a few tense situations and bloody set pieces, including a standoff on
a log that spans a river; Jake getting his legs caught in a spiked
booby-trap and then being set on fire; a flashback involving Mr.
Saito waking up at a table where all his underlings are holding their
own severed heads in their hands and, in the present, getting his own
head cut-off by a whirring saw blade booby-trap (the film's best
effect); Rashid's impalement by one of Peterson's improvised
booby-traps; and the surprise revelation in the finale as to why Lucy
is on the island. If you're a fan of early-90's cable TV thrillers
(and, really, who isn't?), DEADLY GAME delivers on its promise
of killing a cast of capable and familiar faces in various deadly
ways. Nothing more, nothing less. Originally released on VHS by
Paramount Home Video and not available on DVD. Rated R.
DEATH
KNOCKS TWICE (1969) - We
see Francesco (Fabio Testi; RINGS OF FEAR
- 1978) making love to the married Lois Simmons (a cameo by Femi
Benussi; THE
STRANGER AND THE GUNFIGHTER - 1974) on a beach at night. He
begins strangling her with his bare hands when she scratches his back
with her fingernails. He doesn't know that two people are secretly
watching him, Riccardo Beni (Mario Brega; THE
GREAT SILENCE - 1968) and Amato Locatelli (Riccardo Garrone; TERROR-CREATURES
FROM THE GRAVE - 1965), who both work at The Sun & Sea
Hotel beach resort run by Charly Hollmann (Werner Peters; THE
PHANTOM OF SOHO - 1964). When Francesco leaves Lois' body in
the sand and walks away, Riccardo (who doesn't know that Amato is watching
him) walks over to Lois' body and notices that she is wearing a very
expensive diamond necklace that is also adorned with colorful, pricey
jewels. Riccardo runs to Charley to tell him what he saw (Amato also
enters Charly's office) and Charly says this will be bad for business
if the murder on his hotel's property were to be made public, so he
orders Riccardo and Amato to get rid of the body to cover up the crime.
The next morning, Francesco takes a shower and his wife, Maria
Villaverde (Nadja Tiller; THE DEAD ARE ALIVE
- 1972), notices the scratches on his back. Francesco tells her he
fell on some rocks and cut his back, but it is obvious Maria doesn't
believe a word of it, but she is willing to overlook his indescretion
because she is madly in love with him. She wants to make love to him
right there and then, but Francesco, who is a painter of portraits,
can only "get it up" when he gets in one of his violent
moods, strangling his female conquests (Lois was not Francesco's
first victim, as we will discover later in the film). Francesco like
to paint his female victims' portraits; he has an unfinished portrait
of Lois in his studio. Otherwise, Francesco is impotent; it is
implied by Maria that he has yet to consummate their marriage! Yes,
Francesco is a tortured soul who strangles his sexual conquests in
the act of intercourse, but does Maria know it and just doesn't care
or is she ignorant to the fact and just wants Francesco to jump her bones?
We are then introduced to private investigator Bob Martin (Dean
Reed; GOD MADE
THEM...I KILL THEM - 1968) as he is playing a round of golf.
His friend Pepe Mangano (Leon Askin; DOCTOR
DEATH: SEEKER OF SOULS - 1973), who is also a P.I., wants
Bob as his business partner of the Continental Detective Agency, but
Bob says no, as he and his fiancee Ellen Kent (Ini Assmann) are about
to fly to America to get married. Pepe tries to guilt Bob into
becoming his his partner, reminding him that he once saved Bob's
life, taking a bullet in his leg in the process, but Bob isn't
falling for it, telling Pepe he uses that excuse far too often. But
Bob changes his mind when Pepe tells him he is scared; he has an
important new client and the investigation could be the death
of him if he doesn't solve the case. The new client is the
influential and very rich Mr. Simmons (Renato Baldini; KIDNAP
SYNDICATE - 1975), who has hired Pepe to find his wife Lois
and to retrieve the very expensive necklace she was wearing. Bob is
intrigued, so he agrees to help Pepe investigate and solve the case.
When Lois' dead body is found, Bob asks Mr. Simmons how the state of
his marriage was and he answers, "I am sixty-years-old, my wife
was twenty-five. Nonetheless, our union was perfect. We loved each
other very much." Bob reminds Mr. Simmons that his wife's
autopsy revealed she had sex with another man before she was
murdered, but Mr. Simmons yells back, "With the killer! He raped
her!" Pepe interrupts and guarantees Mr. Simmons that he and Bob
will do everything in their power to find Lois' killer.
Bob meets with Ellen to tell her that their trip to America to get
married has been delayed because he is working on an important case.
Ellen is understandably angry at Bob for once again delaying their
nuptials, accusing him of caring more about criminals than her. Bob
promises her a beautiful diamond wedding ring if she'll just be
patient with his duties as a private investigator. Ellen performs a
judo move on Bob, sending him to the floor and she laughs, but Bob
uses a judo move on her, sending Ellen to the couch, where they begin
making love, but a phone call from Pepe interrupts them, Pepe telling
Bob that he has three plane tickets and they need to leave for Italy
immediately. Bob tells Ellen to pack her bags, she now works for the
Continental Detective Agency (We know that Ellen can take care of
herself, but is she qualified to be a private investigator? This film
never tells us!).
We then see Charly and Riccardo on a speedboat, heading for a yacht
belonging to Mr. Feretti, whom we never meet. Charly hands Riccardo a
note that reads: "I, Riccardo Beni, declare to have seen Mrs.
Simmons' murderer." Charly tells Riccardo to memorize that line
because it is the only way Charly will ever pay back Mr. Ferretti the
loan he took out with him for his business. Confused? So am I, but be
patient because all the pieces will soon fit together in their own
off-kilter way. Charly wants to blackmail Maria for $100,000,
threatening to tell the police that Riccardo saw Francesco kill Lois
Simmons unless she pays up. Bob becomes suspicious of Charly when his
dog Fritz (who goes everywhere with Charly) nearly chews Bob a new
asshole while he is feeding swans in a fountain on Charly's property
(Talk about a major coincidence!). Bob follows Charly to a bank,
where Charly tries to get a loan so he can buy property belonging to
Maria's wealthy family, where he plans on building another hotel, but
the bank manager refuses the loan, telling Charly that he knows Maria
and the Villaverde family and there is no way in hell they would sell
that property for any amount of money, as the Villaverdes has lived
on that property for centuries. Charly walks out of the bank with a
"we'll see" look on his face. Blackmail should get him that
land, but he doesn't know Maria that well or, especially, Francesco's hair-trigger
temper.
Bob decides to check out the Villaverdes, posing as a tourist and
discovering Francesco putting the finishing touches on Lois' portrait
outside Maria's mansion, complete with the expensive necklace around
her neck. Bob says that the portrait looks a lot like the woman who
was recently murdered, but Francesco says no, every portrait looks
like someone you know. Maria then appears and asks Bob if he is with
the police. Bob fesses up, telling Maria and Francesco that he is a
private investigator hired to find out who killed Lois Simmons and to
find the necklace she was wearing. Maria quickly takes Bob's arm,
telling him she will give him a tour of the mansion. Bob is sure
Francesco is the killer, so he tells Ellen to cozy up to him to get
proof for the police (Way to put you future wife in danger, Bob!). He
tells Pepe to pretend to be Ellen's father, a job Pepe is not too
comfortable with (because he has a conscience, unlike Bob!). When
Charly and Amato learn of the expensive missing necklace, Charly has
Amato beat the shit out of Riccardo, thinking he took it, but
Riccardo tells them he didn't take it; when he saw Lois' body, he
just quickly walked away. Charly then gets a phone call from crime
boss Professor Max Spiegler (Adolfo Celi; WHO
SAW HER DIE? - 1972), who tells Charly that his plane just
landed at the airport and he is with Sophia Feretti (Anita Ekberg; THE KILLER
NUN - 1978) and, oh, by the way, Mr. Feretti is dead. Charly
knows that this is a not-so-veiled-threat against himself, as Mr.
Feretti owed Max a small amount of money that he didn't pay back in
time. Charly took a loan out with Mr. Feretti to build his beach
hotel and he knows Max and Mrs. Feretti have come here to collect on
it. Repayment of the loan (including the vig) is due very soon, so
finding the necklace and fencing it will give Charly the money he
needs to repay the loan. But if Riccardo doesn't have the necklace,
who does? Is it possible a third person watched Francesco strangle Mrs Simmons?
Riccardo pays Maria a visit to tell her he saw Francesco strangle
Lois Simmons, telling her that Charly made him sign a piece of paper
saying so. Maria is not surprised at all, but when Riccardo sees
Charly and Amato walking up the driveway, he beats a hasty retreat
(even though Charly and Amato saw him). Charly approaches Maria and
introduces Amato as an influential art collector who may be
interested in purchasing Francesco paintings, but first he must talk
to Francesco in person. Maria takes them to Francesco, who is
painting outside by the beach. Amato shakes his hand and tells
Francesco he loves the painting he is currently working on, but he
would like to see his other paintings. Francesco takes Amato to his
studio, leaving Charly alone with Maria. Charly begins to blackmail
Maria, telling her that Francesco's portrait of Mrs. Simmons would
interest the police. The film then cuts to an art gallery displaying
Francesco's paintings, all of them portraits of beautiful
blonde-haired women. Even though the film doesn't come outright and
say it, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think all these
blonde-haired women may be previous victims of Francesco's strangling
rage, so why isn't there talk of a serial killer being on the loose?
(Be patient!). Amato, who is putting on the gallery showing, made
sure that Lois Simmons' portrait took center stage, just to worry
Maria how easy it would be to expose her husband as a murderer. Bob,
who is at the showing, tells Pepe to make sure Ellen gets close to
Francesco. Ellen does it by looking at Mrs. Simmons' portrait while
another guest says, "I tell you, it's Mrs. Simmons. I'm sure of
it! I also remember her necklace perfectly!". Max and Mrs.
Feretti are also at the gallery, but when Francesco sets his sights
on the blonde-haired Ellen, it's love at first sight, which doesn't
go unnoticed by Maria. Pepe introduces his "daughter" to
Francesco, but before he can say anything else, Francesco takes
Ellen's arm and leads her away, like he owns her.
Later that day, Max and Mrs. Feretti have a meeting with Charly (and
his dog Fritz), Mrs. Feretti reminding Charly that her late husband
loaned him $100,000 and he's fifteen days late in repaying it. She's
here with Max to collect the hundred grand plus the vig. Mrs. Feretti
also tells Charly that she sent a spy to check if the Sun & Sea
Hotel is doing good business and he told her that the business was
very profitable, so Charly should be able to pay back the loan as
promised, telling him he doesn't want to end up like her husband.
Mrs. Feretti wants Charly to sign a piece of paper stating he will
pay her $150,000 within ten days, otherwise ownership of the Sun &
Sea Hotel will be hers. Charly tells Max and Mrs. Feretti he will
not sign it, so Max grabs Charly's hand, which is holding a glass of
scotch (care to guess which brand?),
and squeezes it hard until the glass breaks. Charly's hand is cut
and bloody, causing Fritz to growl and try to attack Max, but Amato
calls the dog off. Mrs. Feretti and Max then leave, Mrs. Feretti
asking where Francesco lives and Amato giving her the address.
Francesco is giving Ellena tour of the Villaverde estate grounds,
telling her his life was boring until he met her (Really? In such a
short time?). he says, "I like swans. I spend many hours
watching them. If you knew, Ellen, how boring life is in a provincial
town...that was, until yesterday, until I met you, I saw you. Believe
me." (Oh stop, you're making me horny! No one ever said!)
Francesco tells Ellen that he wants to spend every minute of every
day with her and then asks to paint her portrait. Uh,oh! All the
while he talks, Ellen doesn't say a single word. Pepe, who is with
Maria, says it is very late and asks where "daughter" and
her husband are. maria says she doesn't know, so Pepe stokes the fire
within Maria by saying Ellen wanted to leave this town right away
when she head about the sexual crime committed on Lois Simmons. Maria
quickly turns around and is about to say something, but she stops
herself. meanwhile, Ellen plays along with Francesco and agrees to
meet him on the rocks by the beach tomorrow morning so he can begin
to paint her portrait. She then kisses him goodbye, not like a
friend, but as a lover would.
We then see Amato and Riccardo in a car outside the hotel. Amato
asks Riccardo to get him a pack of cigarettes and kills him by
throwing the station wagon in reverse and crushing him against a
giant iron anchor that resides in front of the hotel. Amato then
jumps into another car and drives away, leaving Riccardo's dead body
pinned between the anchor and the station wagon's back bumper. That
same night, Bob hits on pretty hotel desk worker Angela
(Hélène Chanel; MACISTE
IN HELL - 1962), so she takes him to her room, whick looks
like it has been ransacked. Angela runs to a secret drawer in her
closet and pulls out Mrs. Simmons' necklace. Bob wants to know who
gave it to her, but she refuses to tell him. There's a knock on
Angela's door and another female worker tells her that Riccardo is
dead. Bob asks Angela if Riccardo gave her the necklace and she says
no, Riccardo was the only "clean" person working at the
hotel. Charly and a couple of goons arrive at Angela's door, banging
on it and demanding they be let in. Bob lets Angela escape out one of
the windows, Angela telling him to meet her at the pool tonight and
she will tell him who gave her the necklace. The two goons break down
the door, only to find Bob in his pajamas. A fistfight breaks out and
Bob easily wins, but Charly sigs Fritz on him and the dog chases him
out the window and into the pool, where Bob saves Fritz because he
doesn't know how to swim! Bob now has a canine friend for life.
Angela then calls Bob over to spill the beans, but we don't hear what
she is saying.
Pepe tells Bob that Maria told him that Francesco spent some time in
a psychiatric clinic when he was younger. He also tells Bob that
Ellen doesn't think Francesco is a killer. A womanizer? Yes, but a
killer? No. Bob finds Ellen in his bed, where she calls him a
"pimp" (She's right) and accuses him of sleeping with the
female staff of the hotel (Right again). Bob accuses Ellen of having
a romantic interest in Francesco, saying to her that they are not
married yet and she still has time to change her mind (Everything
Ellen said about Bob was true, but did Bob have to say such a hurtful
thing? Bob is an asshole, plain and simple.). The next morning, while
Francesco is painting Ellen's portrait while she is sitting on the
rocks in a bikini, Bob goes to the psychiatric clinic Francesco was
committed to and talks to the doctor in charge, learning some
interesting things about both Francesco and Maria. Rather than making
you watch the film to find out what Bob has learned, I will tell you
outright, because this film didn't earn my respect the way that most
films do. Warning: SPOILERS!!! Amato
actually killed Mrs. Simmons so he could steal the necklace.
Francesco never killed anyone. A bad sexual experience with an older
woman during Francesco's youth caused him to choke his female lovers
until they were unconscious, but he never murdered any of them (it is
why he spent time in the psychiatric clinic). Professor Max Spiegler
reveals himself to be Mr. Feretti (Wouldn't Charly know this since he
took out a loan with Mr. Feretti?) and he guns down Charly and Amato
to get his hands on the necklace (Amato's death is the most brutal
killing in the film). He tries to kill Bob, but Bob kills Max/Mr.
Feretti in a hail of bullets. Francisco commits suicide by drowning
himself in the ocean after choking Ellen, as he can't live with his
women-strangling activities any longer. Bob jumps in the ocean to
save him, but he's too late. END OF SPOILERS!!!
Mr. Simmons hands Bob a check for a job well done, but Bob tears it
up, saying it is blood money, blaming Mr. Simmons for all of these
deaths for not telling him and Pepe the entire truth. The film ends
with Pepe
putting his head down in disgust, as he watches Bob tear up the
check and throwing the pieces into the air.
This rather boring and uneventful thriller, not quite a giallo and
not much of a murder mystery (If I made it sound interesting, I
apologize!) was directed by Germany-born Harald Philipp (BLIND
JUSTICE - 1961; ESCAPE
FROM TAIGA - 1967; ANGELS
OF TERROR - 1971), who also co-wrote the very weak
screenplay with Sergio Garrone (the director/writer of THE
STRANGER'S GUNDOWN - 1969; THE
HAND THAT FEEDS THE DEAD - 1974; SS
CAMP 5: WOMEN'S HELL - 1976; and screenwriter of THE
BIG BUST-OUT - 1972, among many others) and Mario di Nardo (FIVE
DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON - 1970; THE
FIFTH CORD - 1971; YETI: GIANT OF
THE 20TH CENTURY - 1977). Not much happens during the film's
very scant 78-minute running time and there is very little nudity
(just a short flash of breasts by the beautiful Femi Benussi in the
beginning of the film and brief shots of a nude (and dead) Anita
Ekberg in bed at the end of the film) and is lacking in the blood and
violence departments, too. That's sad, because this film has a roster
of great genre actors, but they are given very little to do here. The
life and death of American actor/singer Dean Reed is a much more
interesting mystery than what this film holds. Google his name to
discover his life's highs and lows, including his mysterious death in
1985. Believe me, it's quite the story (So much so, that Tom Hanks
has optioned his life story for a future film!). The only good thing
I can mention about this film is the music
soundtrack by Piero Umiliani (THE
FOURTH VICTIM - 1971), which many critics consider the best
in its genre. It's much better than this film deserves. SIDE
NOTE: The film that I watched may have been edited, since
IMDb lists a longer running time, but we all know that IMDb is not
right 100% of the time (even 80% is pushing it). I didn't notice any
obvious edits (such as the music "jumping") and I shudder
to think that this boring film is actually longer than it needs to be
(like this review!).
This Italy/Monaco co-production was shot as LA
MORTE BUSSA DUE VOLTE (a literal translation of the review
title) and was released to U.S. theaters under the title THE
BLONDE CONNECTION by Hampton International. There has been
no legitimate home video release in any physical format in the United
States (some gray market companies, such as Rogue
Video, offer the film on DVD-R),
but Amazon Prime has a very nice anamorphic widescreen print
streaming (under
the review title) in Italian with English subtitles. Also
featuring Teodoro Corrà (MEAN
FRANK AND CRAZY TONY - 1973), Bruno Ariè (IF
YOU WANT TO LIVE...SHOOT! - 1968), Antonietta Fiorito (GOD
FORGIVES...I DON'T! - 1967) and cameo king Tom Felleghy (DAMNED
IN VENICE - 1978). Rated R, but besides some very
quick flashes of nudity, there's nothing here that warrants the rating.
DEATH
ON THE FOURPOSTER (1964) -
Here's an interesting early-'60s black & white Italian/French
genre film that mixes giallo elements with traces of supernatural
horror. It also deals with sexuality in a frank, yet strange, way.
A group of young adults are looking for a good time, so friend
Richard (Michel Lemoine; SEVEN
WOMEN FOR SATAN - 1974) invites them all to come to his
castle for the weekend. After some playful tomfoolery in their cars
(A "Chinese fire drill", the front car leading the others
in a circle, pulling over to the side of the road and swinging one of
the girls back and forth as if they are going to throw her in the
ocean, etc.), they arrive at the castle, parking their cars in an
enclosed garage (with two large metal doors) that is locked, the key
placed on a wall outside the garage (yes, it will be dealt with
later!). Once in the castle, they meet Catherine (Luisa Rivelli; LIGHTNING
BOLT - 1966), the castle's housekeeper, but she doesn't look
happy, giving Richard the evil eye (Richard whispers to Catherine
that he "had to" invite them). Catherine shows the girls to
the bathroom (it's bigger than my apartment!) so they can freshen up.
While in the bathroom, the girls decide on which man they are going
to hook up with during the weekend. Lucy-Ann (Vittoria Prada; SWEET
ECSTASY - 1962) picks Charlie (Mario Valdemarin; CITY
OF THE LAST FEAR - 1975), both Kitty (José Greci; HERCULES
AGAINST THE MONGOLS - 1963) and Lulu (Alberto Cevenini; PLANET
OF THE VAMPIRES - 1965) pick Paul (Jo Atlanta), Frankie
(Gloria Milland) picks Georgie (Massimo Carocci), Nikki (Maria Pia
Conte; THE HANGING WOMAN
- 1973) picks Richard and Edie (Monique Vita) says she's going to
"play the field." The girls don't notice a strange man
sneaking into the castle and he is watching them through the bathroom
door's keyhole. He hides behind a curtain when the girls exit the
bathroom and scares the crap out of Nikki when she sees him hiding,
making her scream. Richard tells Nikki not to be frightened, it's
only Aldo (Giuseppe Fortis; BLACK
BELLY OF THE TARANTULA - 1971), the castle groundskeeper and
he wouldn't hurt a fly.
The castle is then paid a surprise visit by Serena (Antonella
Lualdi) and she has brought with her musician boytoy Anthony (John
Drew Barrymore; THE TROJAN HORSE
- 1961), who plays the 45 rpm single of his latest instrumental hit
"Sexy Party". The girls begin dancing in unison (the
dancing doesn't match to what is playing on the soundtrack!) while
Catherine looks on disapprovingly, telling a gaping Aldo to go away.
Serena then wants to play a game called "A Shattering Of
Illusions", a Truth Or Dare type of game, where the innermost
emotions of some of the players is revealed and it's not pretty, as
some of them are hurt or embarassed (or both). Serena then
challenges Paul to a game of dice, knowing that he is a degenerate
gambler. The cost is high for Paul, as he keeps losing, accepting
Serena's challenge for the next bet: If Paul wins, he gets all his
money back. If he loses, Kitty must spend the night with Georgie.
Paul loses and Kitty goes off with Georgie, who asks Kitty if she
will take off her clothes, Kitty replying that he should take off her
clothes! Serena then mentions that Anthony is a psychic magician and
that he can tell a person's past by just holding one of their
personal possessions. Nikki gives Anthony her compact and he says it
once belonged to a person who is dead now and they died a violent
death. Nikki says he is right, the compact belonged to her mother and
she died in a plane crash two years ago. Serena then says that
Anthony can also tell the future and Anthony doesn't want to do it,
but the group convinces him to do it. Anthony then holds a seance by
candlelight while Charlie records it on a reel-to-reel tape recorder.
"The women will change...their appearances. They will go back in
time. (long pause) Music, I hear music. It's terrible, help,
help!", Anthony says in a trance, as he puts out the candle with
the palm of his hand. He then tells everyone to leave the castle,
saying they are all in danger if they stay. Everyone thinks it is
nothing but a parlor trick, so they stay, even though Anthony leaves
the castle. They should have listened to him.
We then find out why Catherine is in such a bad mood. This was
supposed to be her weekend with Richard, as they are lovers. That
night, Richard enters her bedroom and apologises, telling Catherine
that he will make it up to her next weekend, She accuses him of being
romantically involved with Serena, Richard telling her that is not
true, proving it by slowly removing her stockings (Hey, this is the
early-'60s after all!). He then throws the stackings in Catherine's
face (Richard is a real odd duck). Serena leads all the girls up to
the attic, where they try on clothes they find in old trunks (This is
as close to nudity as the film gets, as we see quick flashes of the
girls in their bras and panties). The guys go looking for the girls,
Charlie seeing them dressed as 1920's flappers. He says Anthony's
predictions are coming true ("The women will change...their
appearances. They will go back in time.") and then hears Richard
playing the piano ("Music, I hear music."), causing Charlie
to get very scared and nervous. Could Anthony's pedictions be
true? Are their lives in danger? Charlie certainly thinks so.
Suddenly, a scream echoes throughout the castle. It's Frankie and
she has found Serena dead in her bed, her dead hand holding Aldo's
handkerchief. Aldo is nowhere to be found and since there is no
telephone in the castle, Georgie goes to take his car to the nearest
police station, but the key to the garage is missing and there is no
way they can break through the garage's heavy metal doors. Aldo
suddenly appears and the guys restrain him, locking him in one of the
rooms. Edie says Aldo couldn't possibly be the killer because when
Frankie screamed, Aldo was with her. So who did it? The group come to
the conclusion that one of them (including Catherine) is the killer,
but what is their motive? It's not long before members of the group
begin turning on each other, discovering the secrets that each of
them are hiding (Paul has stolen an expensive ring from Serena's dead
body to pay his gambling debts; Catherine knows all about the secret
passageways in the castle [every castle has them]; Richard once spent
some time in an insane asylum, etc.). Aldo uses one of the secret
passageways to escape from the room he is locked in, keeping a close
eye on everyone else. Richard then discovers Frankie dead in one of
the rooms, but he can't get anyone else to believe him, because her
body has disappeared. The group then accuse Richard of being the
killer, as they split up (never a good thing) to search the castle
for Frankie. Richard then sees that Frankie is very much alive when
he looks in a mirror, but when he turns around, she is nowhere to be
found. Richard believes he is going insane (again), so Catherine
tries to comfort him, saying she will always be there by his side,
but Richard tells her to leave him alone. Charles and Nikki find one
of the secret passageways, but they get separated when the door
closes on Nikki. Aldo grabs Nikki, telling her that he will protect
her, but Catherine appears and chases him away. What in the world is
going on in this castle, besides discovering that no one is who they
seem to be? Is Richard full-tilt Bozo? (He tries to commit suicide by
slitting his wrists, but Lucy-Ann stops him). We then discovers
that one of the group is, indeed, the killer as they are setting up
Richard to take the fall and making it look like he went crazy again.
The killer's motive is to make it look like Richard killed Frankie,
who is very much alive, Frankie doing something to the killer in the
past that they have not forgotten or forgived. When the killer is
discovered by the rest of the group, suicide by gunshot to the head
is the only way out, the killer's dead body falling into bed with
Serena's corpse. Death by fourposter is complete.
This obscure piece of modern Gothic horror/mystery may not be
exceptional, but it is an interesting genre film, mainly for the way
it deals with
sex and sexuality. While sex is not uttered once in this film, it
permeates nearly every frame, as neither the girls or the guys can
get their minds off of it (in an early-'60s sort of way, that is). It
is obvious that Kitty's tight, form-fitting one-piece pantsuit is
meant to tantilize and titillize the guys, as she shakes her ass in
it as much as she possibly can. Even though the rest of the girls,
excluding Serena, are rather pure and chaste, their real feelings
come out when they are all in the bathroom, talking about which guy
they are going to be with for the weekend, not knowing that the guys
are doing the same thing. When the guys ask Richard what girl he
wants to be with, he replies, "It doesn't matter. All women are
the same." telling us all we need to know about him.
Director Jean Josipovici (This is his last directorial effort. He
directed three obscure films in the '50s and also wrote the
screenplay to PASSPORT
FOR A CORPSE - 1962), who co-wrote the screenplay with
Giorgio Stegani (the director of the poliziotteschi THE
LAST DESPERATE HOURS - 1974 and one of the writers of CANNIBAL
HOLOCAUST - 1980), has fashioned a film that is part murder
mystery, part supernatural horror, but it never drags or is boring
(at least to me). Ignore the IMDb, as they state that Ambrogio
Molteni (screenwriter of THE
EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW - 1974 and VIOLENCE
IN A WOMEN'S PRISON - 1982) co-directed this film with
Josipovici, but that just isn't true, as the opening credits reveal
that he was this film's Assistant Director. I have contacted IMDb to
make that change, but I know that it will take more than my sayso to
make them change a mistake. The acting is very good here, especially
by John Drew Barrymore. Although his role as Anthony is nothing but
an extended cameo, he registers here and his seance is appropriately
creepy. While not very violent, this film does have a certain visual
flair (photography by Raffaele Masciocchi; THE
GHOST - 1963), using the castle interiors to good advantage.
While not a great film, it is a good one to watch on a dark, rainy night.
Shot as DELITTO ALLO SPECCHIO
("Mirror Crimes"; it makes sense when you watch the film)
and also known as SEXY
PARTY (based on the non-sexy song, which sounds like a
classical instrumental that the girls line dance to!), this film
never recieved a U.S. theatrical or legitimate VHS release release. VCI
Home Video released this film on DVD as part of a EURO-TRASH
CINEMA TRIPLE FEATURE (OOP, but still available on VCI's
website). Grey market sites Sinister
Cinema and Rogue Video
also offer the film on DVD-R. I saw it for free on YouTube, uploaded
by Sinister Cinema's Greg Luce, with a 2009 re-register date on the
opening title card. The print is not perfect, but it looked perfectly
acceptable on my 60" plasma TV. While not required viewing, this
film is still recommended for those interested in seeing how giallo
films got their start. Not Rated.
THE
DEVIL WITH SEVEN FACES (1971) -
Decent giallo with a cast of seasoned pros who have acted in many
films in this genre. Also helping it are the unusual Holland
locations, which you don't usually see in many films, in this genre
or not.
In London, Julie (Carroll Baker; KNIFE
OF ICE - 1972) leaves a party, where she makes an impression
on lawyer Dave Barton (Stephen Boyd; MARTA
- 1971). As she is walking home, we become aware that someone is
following her. As she gets to the front door of her home, she turns
around, where a man with a camera shoots seven quick flashes in her
face, forcing her to pass out. The next morning, Julie is at work,
where she works as a translator, when she gets a phone call from her
twin sister Mary (Baker again). Julie tells her that she is too busy
to take her call and she should call her at home that night, but Mary
tells her it can't wait, telling Julie that she feels her life is
being threatened, the phone call going dead as soon as she says
that. Julie goes to Dave's office and tells him about Mary,
also telling him that she thinks she is being followed. Dick tells
her he will look into both matters and Julie leaves his office. While
she is on the street, two thugs try to kidnap her and try to put her
in the backseat of their car. Dick and his friend, Tony Shane (George
Hilton; THE
STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH - 1971), save her and the thugs
take off in their car. Dick and Tony have coffee at Julie's house,
where she tells them about her sister, saying she said over the
phone, "My husband. My husband." Julie thinks that is weird
because she thought Mary and her husband were getting a divorce. She
shows them a photo of herself with Mary and asks them to tell her
which one is Julie and which one is Mary. The only difference is
their hair color (Julie is a blonde, Mary is a brunette), but Julie
tells them there is a small difference in their noses and sometimes
Mary likes to pretend she is her (information important in this film
later on).
Both Dave and Tony have a romantic interest in Julie, but Tony makes
the first move, taking her on a romantic ride on his yacht. Dave goes
to Julie's office to ask her out to dinner, but she is not there.
Dick asks her secretary, Margaret (Lucretia Love; THE
EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW - 1974), out instead and they
have a picnic and make love, where we find out Margaret doesn't have
a high opinion about Julie, calling her a "cold fish".
After their date, Tony drives Julie to her house, where they are
roughed-up by the two thugs, Hank (Ivano Staccioli; DEATH
WALKS AT MIDNIGHT - 1972) and James (Daniele Vargas; EYEBALL
- 1975), Hank demanding that Julie hand "it" over. Julie
has no idea what "it" is, but James realizes that Julie has
a twin sister (he sees the photo she showed to Dave and Tony earlier)
and they have the wrong girl. Just as they are going to kill
Julie and Tony, they escape, knocking out a policeman who has come to
check on a silent alarm that has been triggered in Julie's house.
They drive to Dick's office and tell him what has just happened. Dick
tells them to talk to the police, but Tony is hesitant, because he
knocked out a cop. Julie goes by herself, where she is grilled by
Inspector Rinker (Franco Ressel; EYE
IN THE LABYRINTH - 1972), who asks her when was the last
time she was in the United States. Julie thinks that is a weird
question to ask and wonders why he asked it. The Inspector
doesn't answer, but it is obvious he knows more than he is saying.
Julie borrows a client's apartment to live in until this mess blows
over. She's also taking a week-long holiday from work. Julie begins
to get a series of phone calls with no one on the other end and it
scares her, especially when the lights go out in the apartment
complex. Using a cigarette lighter as her only means of light, Julie
checks up on her new neighbor, finding her dead in the building's
cobweb-filled attic. Julie screams and faints, waking up with Tony by
her side. She tells him what she saw in the attic and when Tony goes
there to investigate, the body is missing. She then asks Tony why he
is here and he tells Julie that he came to pick up his briefcase,
which he accidentally left there. Dick is paid a visit by Steve
Hunter (Luciano Pigozzi; SEVEN
DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE - 1973), an insurance investigator
who tells him that Mary collected a million dollars on a policy for a
stolen priceless diamond, which he believes was stolen by Mary. He
wants Dick to talk to Julie to get her sister to turn over the money
and the diamond, no questions asked. Dick calls Julie, who tells him
that her sister just called her and said that no one is following her
at the moment, so she feels much better (making the connection yet?).
Dave tells Julie about the money and the diamond, but she already
knew about both, telling him that when Mary called, she said she was
returning the money and the diamond in the post to the insurance
company (the post?!?). And then things start to get very interesting,
as greed raises its ugly head.
Hank and James are keeping a close eye on Julie and they may be
working with someone she trusts. Dave calls Julie and asks if
Tony is there. She says no and he tells her to lock all her doors and
to let no one in, especially Tony. Before Dave can get there, Julie
leaves the apartment, but is caught by Steve, who brings her back to
the apartment to wait for Tony (they are working together). Harry
& James get into a car chase with Tony (comical in the way the
film is sped-up) and when they run him off the road and shoot him
dead, they discover it is not Tony at all, but a decoy. Tony arrives
at the apartment and slaps the shit out of Julie when he discovers
the diamond she has hidden is a glass fake. There are double
and triple crosses galore, a few unexpected deaths and a
"surprise" reveal (not very surprising at all, given the
subject matter) before the matters of the million dollars and the
missing diamond are resolved. The finale takes place at a windmill in
Holland, as Harry and James kidnap Julie and the man she thought was
dead makes an appearance, putting Julie even in more trouble. The
moral to the story is this: Don't tilt at windmills.
The whole subplot about the twins turns out the way you expect it
to, but Carroll Baker, who made her fair share of giallo films (THE
SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH - 1968; A
QUIET PLACE TO
KILL
- 1970; THE FOURTH VICTIM
- 1971; the previously mentioned KNIFE
OF ICE - 1972), has fun with her role(s), keeping your mind
off the telegraphed conclusion. Director "Richard Kean"
(actually Osvaldo Civirani; LUCRETIA
BORGIA - 1968; VOODOO SEXY
- 1975) keeps things moving at a quick pace and the screenplay, by
Civirani & Tito Carpi (SEVEN
MURDERS FOR SCOTLAND YARD - 1971), throws in just enough
twists and turns to keep things interesting. While not a great giallo
by any stretch of the imagination, it is an entertaining one with
some beautiful Holland scenery, a country not properly represented in
the many movies that were filmed there.
Filmed as IL
DIAVOLO A SETTE FACCE ("The Seven-Faced Devil"),
this got a theatrical release in the U.S. (by International CineFilm
Corp.) under the title THE
DEVIL HAS 7 FACES. The film then fell into the Public Domain
(PD), but I can find no U.S. VHS releases, which is strange, because
it turns up on many DVD multi-film compilations. This review is based
on one such compilation, Mill
Creek Entertainment's DRIVE
IN MOVIE CLASSICS 50 MOVIE CLASSIC FEATURES. The print is
fullscreen, but looks open matte, so no visual information is lost on
the sides, top, or bottom of the screen. The print looks surprisingly
sharp, because Mill Creek put only two films on one side of the DVD,
not like later, when they squeeze five films on one DVD. The film is
very colorful and is a good choice to watch when you can't decide
what you want to see. While this film only hads a couple instances of
nudity and graphic violence, it's the performances that make it
worthwhile. Stephen Boyd (FANTASTIC
VOYAGE - 1966), who is so good here, died a very early death
of a heart attack at the age of 45 in 1977. I often wonder what type
of a career he would have had if he didn't pass away. I believe it
would have been a highly successful one. Also starring the prolific
Carla Mancini (THE RED QUEEN KILLS
SEVEN TIMES - 1972; and over 80% of the '70s Italian films I
have been reviewing lately), Gianni Pulone (KONG
ISLAND - 1968), Roberto Messina (THE
COP IN BLUE JEANS - 1976), Fulvio Pellegrino (SEVEN
BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS - 1972) and Maria Ricotti. Rated R.
DIARY
OF THE DEAD (1976) - For the
past couple of years, readers of this site have been telling me how I
have got to see this film. After reading a synopsis, I have to tell
you, I wasn't impressed. But, I finally bought a copy off eBay
and, I must say, I'm glad I did. When we first see Stan (Hector
Elizondo), he is disposing the body of what we think is his
mother-in-law, Maud (Geraldine Fitzgerald), in the middle of the
night. The next morning, Stan, his wife Vera (Salome Jens) and
intrusive next door neighbor Walter Johnson (Joe Maher) are at a
lawyer's office for the reading of Maud's will. We are then whisked
back in time, where events that lead up to this are explained. Stan
is temporarily unemployed and he and Vera are forced to live with
Maud, who shows nothing but disdain for Stan. Not only does she think
that Stan isn't
good enough for her daughter (she would much rather have Walter for
a son-in-law and Walter tries his damnest to make that happen), she
belittles him for not being able to give her grandchildren and keeps
taunting him about a huge sum of money she has (but no one has ever
seen), but he will never get his hands on. Maud purposely barges in
on him in the bathroom ("It's my house and I'll do what I
want!") and constantly reminds him how he's got nothing and how
worthless he is. The problem is, Stan is a decent human being just
going through some hard times and doesn't deserve this kind of
treatment. When Maud reveals to Vera that she has $86,000 socked away
(she shows her the bank book), even Vera is disgusted with her mother
because she could have helped make her and Stan's lives a little
easier. When Vera tells Stan about the money and how he was right
about Maud all along, Stan hatches a plan to get rid of Maud. When an
elderly friend of Maud's comes to the house for an extended visit and
dies in front of Stan of natural causes, it's the perfect opportunity
for him to put his plan into action. Of course, the best laid
plans... Capably directed by TV vet Arvin Brown (THE
CLOSER and dozens of other TV series since the early 80's), DIARY
OF THE DEAD is a witty and wicked thriller with twists and
turns you don't see coming. The always wonderful Hector Elizondo (THE
TAKING OF PELHAM
ONE TWO THREE
- 1974; LEVIATHAN - 1989)
carries the film as an average Joe who takes advantage of a situation
not of his doing, only to have it spiral out of control to the point
where it would drive a sane person crazy. The biggest roadblock for
Stan's plan's success is pesky neighbor Walter (and his even peskier
dog), who hits on Vera, shows up at the most inopportune times and
seems to have an agenda of his own. Things go from bad to worse when
the body Stan has buried refuses to stay in the ground. The capper is
the reading of Maud's will, where it states that the bulk of her
estate will be held in trust for Vera's naturally-born children,
knowing damn-well that there will be no children as long as Vera is
married to Stan. If you think that's the end of the film, think
again. The police become involved, Stan is questioned at headquarters
and there's on hell of a surprise ending. The script (by J.C.
Rapoport and Robert L. Fish) is top-notch and the acting uniformly
excellent (you'll want to strangle Geraldine Fitzgerald, she's that
mean). I'm surprised more isn't written about this excellent thriller
(a lot of reference books get the plot all wrong), which is devoid of
graphic gore or violence. It doesn't need it. Just watching one man's
descent into a hell he doesn't deserve is reward enough. I'm still
trying to figure out why it's called DIARY OF THE DEAD,
though. That's a real head-scratcher. This film is full of
recognizable character actors, including Austin Pendleton, Richard
Venture, James Naughton, George Spalding, Lee Wallace, Joyce Ebert
and Kate Wilkinson. A Vista Home Video Release. Not available on DVD. Rated
PG.
DOUBLE
EXPOSURE (1982) -
Director/producer/screenwriter William Byron Hillman returns eight
years later with a semi-remake/sequel to his first film, THE
PHOTOGRAPHER (1974), once again starring Michael Callan (LEPRECHAUN
3 - 1995) as psycho cameraman Adrian Wilde, who apparently
survived the fatal stabbing in the finale of the first film. Adrian
is still as unstable as ever, living in a Winnebago and apparently
killing prostitutes at night (the latest victim is an undercover cop
in drag, who gets an icepick graphically shoved through his neck),
while making weekly visits to his psychiatrist, Dr. Frank Curtis
(Seymour Cassel; DEATH GAME
- 1977), and complaining about the lack of "nice girls" in
Los Angeles. When leaving the doctor's office, he meets Mindy
Jordache (Joanna Pettet; THE EVIL
- 1977) in the elevator and talks her into having dinner with him.
Adrian makes a living as an advertising photographer and his latest
assignment is taking publicity photos of his brother B.J. (the late
James Stacy; PAPER MAN -
1971), a racecar driver who lost an arm and a leg in a racing
accident (Stacy lost
both appendages in real life in a 1973 motorcycle accident). B.J. is
a bitter man whose wife left him after the accident and took the kids
with her, leaving him an abusive alcoholic and a misogynist. Adrian
and Mindy go on their dinner date and hit it off, agreeing to go on a
second date the next night, but a series of events will make that
date hard to keep. That night, Adrian has a nightmare where he kills
a pretty swimsuit model in a pool, so he make a pact with B.J. to
keep him company every night just to make sure the nightmares don't
turn into reality. It doesn't work. The next night, another hooker
(an early role for Sally Kirkland) has her neck snapped by someone
wearing brown leather gloves (the film takes-on a giallo atmosphere
in this scene) and when the swimsuit model Adrian dreamed about is
actually found dead in the pool, Adrian grows more despondent and
ignores phone calls from Mindy. Meanwhile, cops Sgt. Fontain (Pamela
Hensley; THE NUDE BOMB -
1980) and Sgt. Buckhold (David Young; MARY.
MARY, BLOODY MARY - 1975) catch flak from their police chief
(Cleavon Little) for failing to catch the killer. The question soon
becomes: Is Adrian the killer or could it be someone else? Could it
be B.J., who manages to insult every woman he meets, as well as
taunting Adrian's homosexual assistant, Lewis (Don Potter), thanks to
his deep-seated hatred for his ex-wife? Or could it be Dr. Curtis,
who seems to take a more-than-professional interest in Adrian's
nightmares? What about Mindy? We really know nothing about her except
that she is a patient of Dr. Curtis. What is she being treated for?
Adrian's nightmares increase, including images of Mindy being stabbed
in the stomach, himself being blown away by a jealous husband with a
shotgun and killing a model by sticking her head in a plastic garbage
bag containing a live rattlesnake. When more and more of Adrian's
subjects end up murdered in real life and Mindy is stabbed just like
in his nightmares, the real killer reveals himself (it's not much of
a surprise), only to be stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle by
Mindy, who is not quite as dead as in Adrian's dreams. Though
not as frenetic as THE PHOTOGRAPHER, director Hillman (RAGIN'
CAJUN - 1991) eschews that film's PG rating and goes for the
R-rated goods here, including plentiful female nudity (featuring a
rare topless scene by Joanna Pettet) and some gory murders. Unlike THE
PHOTOGRAPHER, Michael Callan has only one freak-out scene here,
something that made the first film such a hoot to watch. The addition
of James Stacy as Callan's brother is a good choice because they
closely resemble each other and share the same mannerisms, which
gives the film a shot of believability. Hillman also offers us a cast
of great character actors, including Seymour Cassel, Cleavon Little
and Robert Tessier as Aleck the bartender, but the roles are so
underwritten, they are wasted. As it stands, DOUBLE
EXPOSURE is a passable way to spend 95 minutes of your life,
but it lacks the looniness factor of its predecessor. Sometimes
nudity and blood cannot replace the air of insanity, something THE PHOTOGRAPHER
had in spades. Also starring Misty Rowe, Frances Bay, Alfred Mazza,
Jenna Tomasina and an early bit part by ex-SNL'er Victoria Jackson.
This Crown International Pictures Release was originally released on
VHS by Vestron Video
and is available on widescreen DVD from Mill Creek Entertainment as
part of their "After
Dark Thrillers 8 Movie Collection" and on special edition DVD
from Scorpion Releasing.
Rated R.
EDEN
LAKE (2008) - Schoolteacher Jenny
(Kelly Reilly; the fiesty Mary in SHERLOCK
HOLMES - 2009; and its sequel SHERLOCK
HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS - 2011, who becomes Dr. Watson's
wife and proves to be an intellectual equal to Sherlock) and
fiancé Steve (Michael Fassbender; PROMETHEUS
- 2012; a young "Magneto" in three X-MEN
films and nominated for an Academy Award® two times after making
this film) travel to out-of-the-way Slapton Quarry to revel in it's
beauty one last time before it is flooded and turned into Eden Lake,
a gated community for rich snobs (Steve also plans to propose to
Jenny on this trip). After ignoring a "Do Not Enter" sign
at the beginning of the construction site, Steve drives his Range
Rover deep into the woods until the ground growth becomes too thick.
They then head out on foot to get a closer look at the beautiful, but
soon to be destroyed, landscape, where they sunbathe at the edge of
the quarry in their bathing suits. They are not alone, as a bunch of
underage thugs (Steve calls them "little hoods") invade the
beach, playing their music way too loud and letting their unfriendly
dog take a shit right next to Jenny. Steve confronts them, but these
kids are spoiled, foul-mouthed brats who ignore Steve's objections
and eventually leave after causing more mischief. Steve and Jenny
set-up a tent and camp out for the night without any incidents, but
the next morning, Steve finds one of the tires slashed on his Range
Rover. He changes the tire and heads back to town to have breakfast
with Jenny, where they discover the town's adult population is full
of unfriendly louts. Looking for some payback, Steve
breaks into the house of young gang leader Brett (Jack O'Connell)
and nearly gets caught by Brett's drunken letch of a father. Steve
and Jenny then stupidly head back to the quarry, only to have Brett
and his gang steal their Range Rover. They confront Brett in the
middle of the woods, which leads to Steve accidentally killing
Brett's dog. The chase is then on, as Steve and Jenny try to escape
in the Range Rover, but Steve crashes and is caught by the underage
gang, where they bound Steve with barb wire (with the dead dog's
choke collar around his neck) and Brett forces members of his gang to
slice Steve with knives and box cutters (a hard scene to watch). When
Brett spots Jenny and the gang give chase on their BMX bikes, Steve
escapes and eventually joins-up with Jenny. Steve is slowly bleeding
to death (he finally gives Jenny the engagement ring, as he's been
trying to propose to her throughout the film, but shit always
happens) and Jenny has to make a hard choice: Leave a critically
injured Steve behind and look for help by herself or kill the kids,
which goes against everything she believes in. After killing a couple
of the kids, Jenny escapes into the town and crashes the Range Rover
at a party being thrown by the town's adults, where she will learn
the hard way that the apples don't fall far from the tree. The
first thing that really stands out about this film and sets it apart
from most other "terror in the woods" films is that the
killers are a bunch of heartless kids, which makes their crimes all
the more horrifying. What even makes it worse is that the lone female
member of the gang, Abi (Tara Ellis), records all her gang's tortures
and bloodshed on her camera phone so they all can watch it later on
(which mimics a real-life case involving murderous teens in the
Ukraine). Director/writer James Watkins (his directorial debut)
builds the suspense slowly and drops hints as to why these kids act
this way (every other adult in this film besides Steve and Jenny are
either child abusers, drunks or flat-out refuse to take
responsibility for their children), but he makes no excuses for them.
These kids are just bad and do whatever Brett tells them, so when
Jenny is pushed to her limits (She's tied to a tree and forced to
watch as the kids burn Steve's corpse), she tosses her schoolteacher
codes aside and begins killing kids (she stabs one kid in the neck
with a shard of glass and runs over Abi with a car). The message
Watkins sends to the audience comes through loud and clear,
especially during the (not-so-surprising) finale: Children are a
product of their environment, both personal and ecological. It makes
me wonder how the future snobby residents of the gated community of
Eden Lake will get along with their neighbors, but that's another
film I hope will be told. The violence here is brutal (even the
plentiful overhead shots convey a sense of loneliness and dread),
especially since most of it comes by the hands or towards children,
but since this was filmed in England, there is nary a gun in sight,
which is refreshing (most of the violence is knife or sharp object
related), as is the fact that cell phones actually work in these
woods (and this is the first time that I can recall that BlueTooth
technology is used to track someone). I look forward to James
Watkins' next film. He's a talent to watch. Also starring Thomas
Turgoose, Finn Atkins, Jumayn Hunter, James Burrows (INBRED
- 2011), Thomas Gill, Lorraine Bruce, Shaun Dooley and James Gandhi.
A Dimension Extreme Films DVD Release. Unrated.
THE
EVICTORS (1979) - Period thriller
with supernatural overtones by late director Charles B. Pierce (THE
LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK - 1972; THE
TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN - 1977), supposedly based on true
events. It's mid-Summer, 1928, and a sheriff and his deputies are
trying to evict the Munroe family from their home for defaulting on
their bank loan. This leads
to a massive standoff and shootout between the Monroe family and the
law, with the outcome not yet revealed. Suddenly we're in Northern
Louisiana and it's Autumn, 1942 (the film stock switches from sepia
tone to full, vibrant color). Realtor Jake Rudd (Vic Morrow; HUMANOIDS
FROM THE DEEP -1980) is showing a house to newlywed couple
Ben (Michael Parks; FRENCH
QUARTER UNDERCOVER - 1985) and Ruth Watkins (Jessica Harper; SUSPIRIA
- 1977) and, damn, if it isn't the old Monroe farmhouse (Jake makes
an off-the-cuff remark that the mineral rights on this land belong to
the "previous owners" and are not included in the sale of
the house). Ruth falls in love with the house and can't wait to start
a family there, so they buy the house, which seems to please Jake way
too much (turns out Jake is one of their neighbors). While Ben drives
to his new job at a cotton mill, Ruth make the long walk into town to
pick up some groceries and notices the townspeople are pretty
standoffish towards her (Jake tells her, "They're shy with
strangers", but to give it time). When she gets home, Ruth finds
a message in her mailbox that says "I want you to move"
that looks like it was written by a child on a torn piece of a brown
paper bag. She begins locking the front door of the house (which was
unheard of back then) and she asks Ben if they can go to church on
Sunday. A traveling peddler (Lucius Farris) stops by the house to
sell Ruth some wares and tells her the strange history of the house,
where many people have died horrible deaths living there since the
"Monroe massacre". Flashbacks reveal that a husband and
wife living in the house in 1934 suffered terrible fates. A man in a
floppy hat killed the wife and husband by bonking them on the head
with a horseshoe attached to a stick (to make it look like they were
kicked in the head by a mule) and then let the family mule drag their
bodies around the property. Before the peddler can tell Ruth any more
stories, she and Ben go to church (but not before Ben hires the
peddler to chop wood in a couple of days), where they meet their
cheerful, wheelchair-bound neighbor Olie Gibson (Sue Ann Langdon; WITHOUT
WARNING - 1979), who invites Ruth over for coffee and cake.
Ben and Ruth attend a Sunday picnic at Mr. Bruckner's (Jimmy Clem)
plantation, where Ruth confronts Jake about her house's history, but
all Jake does is make improper advances towards her (All the women at
the picnic find excuses not to come to the house when Ruth invites
them over). It's not long before Ruth and Ben begin experiencing
strange occurrences at the house (like the floppy hat-wearing man
looking in their windows in the middle of the night), but when Ben
has to leave town on business and Olie tells Ruth about some more
murders that happened in the house in 1939 (flashback alert), where a
young married couple were killed by a floppy-hatted stranger (the
husband was electrocuted and the wife burned alive), Ruth must defend
herself against unseen forces, especially when the peddler returns to
chop some wood and gets an axe planted in his back for his troubles.
When Ruth accidentally shoots and kills Ben
when she mistake's him for an intruder, the truth about the house is
finally revealed. The moral to the story? Don't trust cheerful old
women in wheelchairs, because, really, what do they have to be
cheerful about except getting revenge on everyone that lives in a
home that was once hers? That's right, Olie is actually a Monroe and
she lets her crazy husband Dwayne (Glen Roberts) out of his locked
room (with his floppy hat) every time someone new moves into the
house. Will Ruth be the next victim? A final sting at the end of the
film reveals Ruth's surprising fate, as well as that the house has
not given up its killing ways, even five years later. Say what
you want about Charles B. Pierce (who also produced and co-wrote the
screenplay with Gary Rusoff and Paul Fisk), but he had a knack for
creating period mood and atmosphere, especially the ambiance of
living in 1930's & 40's Louisiana by the use of period clothing,
music, props, vehicles (Pierce did the same thing for late-40's
Texarkana in THE
TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN) and subtle hints about our
involvement in World War II (Ben works as a foreman for the cheap Mr.
Bruckner at one of his cotton mills, where they produce material for
soldiers' uniforms). Though made the same year as THE
AMITYVILLE HORROR, I found THE
EVICTORS to be much more engrossing and rewarding (both are
about a cursed house, but for much different reasons), even if the
violence is much more restrained. I sincerely believe Pierce was a
solid director and hopefully his films will now be rediscovered and
re-evaluated since his death in early 2010. It's a shame that a
person has to die to have their work appreciated, but, hey, that's
life. It's also a shame Jessica Harper retired from acting, because
she's a terrific actress and helps lift THE
EVICTORS from just being an OK film about living in a cursed
house during wartime o being a good film about living in a cursed
house during wartime. Look for cameos by Dennis Fimple (CREATURE
FROM BLACK LAKE - 1976) and Bill Thurman (IT'S
ALIVE - 1969). Also starring Harry Thomasson, Twyla Taylor,
Mary Branch, John Meyer, John Milam and Roxanne Harter. Originally
released on VHS by Vestron
Video and available on DVD as part of a Blu-Ray/DVD
combo pack (with a Blu-Ray of THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN)
from Scream Factory. Rated
PG.
THE
EYE BEHIND THE WALL (1977) -
If you ever had the feeling that you were being watched, this film
will make you very nervous. This takes the word "voyeurism"
and gives it a whole new meaning. When we first see Arturo (John
Phillip Law; BLOOD DELIRIUM
- 1988), he is eyeing-up a woman in a short skirt while traveling on
a train. It eventually becomes too much for him to take. He then
rapes her and chokes her to death with his bare hands. The next time
we see Arturo, he is staying in an apartment owned by couple Ivano
(Fernando Rey), a paraplegic, and Olga (Olga Bisera). What Arturo
doesn't know is that he is being watched, as Ivano and Olga have the
apartment wired with cameras and microphones. They find Arturo an
"interesting character" and not only watch him for
scientific purposes (Ivano is some kind of famous psychologist), but
soon find their observations crossing into sexual territory (Ivano,
who is incapable of making love to Olga because of his disability,
feels her up while she watches Arturo exercising in the nude). Ivano
and Olga's butler, Ottavio (Jose Quaglio), is doing some watching of
his own, peeping through the keyhole as Olga takes a bath. He also
has a secret shrine to her in his closet and sniffs her hair in the
bathtub drain when she is done bathing. Olga catches him doing this
and slaps Ottavio in the face ("Pig!"), but says nothing
about it to Ivano (probably because she loves the attention). As
Ivano and Olga study Arturo deeper, they discover that he keeps to
himself and doesn't leave the apartment often, so when Arturo does
finally go out one night, Olga follows him under the guise of
"scientific study" (That may be partly true, but she's got
the hots for him ever since she spotted his frank and beans!). She
follows him to a disco, where Arturo watches some muscular black dude
strip a white chick while they are dancing to a cheesy disco tune.
Surprisingly, Arturo brings the black dude back to the apartment,
where they smoke pot and engage in gay sex, all under the watchful
eyes of Ivano and Olga. Olga then become visibly upset and storms out
of the room, crying and yelling at Ivano that he knew Arturo was gay
all along. Ivano convinces her otherwise and they both decide to take
the experiment to a new level by introducing Olga into Arturo's life
to see if she can get Arturo to fall in love with her. It works all
too well and, after a short time, Ivano is watching Olga making love
to Arturo. This brings up painful memories to Ivano and, in
flashbacks, we learn that he caught his son making love to Olga. As
he was driving his son out of town, they got into a bad car accident,
which crippled Ivano and killed his son. The finale reveals hidden
family secrets and a strangely ironic (though fitting) demise for two
of the players. This strange, strange film, the only directing
and scripting credit for Giuliano Petrelli (who was a bit actor in a
few Italian films in the 70's, including MANHUNT
[1972]), is full of surprising scenes of both male and female nudity,
including full-frontal scenes from John Phillip Law. This film
equates sex and voyeurism as weapons, both physical and
psychological. When Olga catches Ottavio sniffing her drain hair
(ugh!), he retaliates by burning the shrine he had of her in a pile
of leaves outside and then rapes local village girl Lucille (Monica
Zanchi), knowing full well that Olga is watching him through a window
(and she acts hurt, like a little schoolgirl). As Ottavio is raping
Lucille, he screams at her, "You keep your honor between your
legs!", but you really know he meant that remark for Olga. First
and foremost, this is a film about damaged people. No one in this
film can romotely be considered normal (even Lucille, who becomes
Ottavio's girlfriend!), so the problem with this film is deciding
which character to align yourself with. As the film progresses and
more information is revealed about each character (especially about
Olga and her relationship with Ivano), you will find yourself too
confused to pick a single character to sympathize with, but that's
not a bad thing. In the end, this is a film about confused human
beings that don't have the faintest idea on how to act human, thanks
to events in their pasts that drained them of their humanity. The
more they try to act normal, the worse it becomes for everyone. The
ending to this short (75 minute) film is a shocker and shows how
finally regaining your sanity and humanity doesn't mean things
necessarily turn out for the best. As in real life, the results can
be tragic. A perverse, undiscovered little gem. Also known as THE
CRYSTAL MAN and EYES
BEHIND THE WALL. Also starring Joseph Jenkins and Roberto
Posse. Available on VHS and DVD-R from Luminous Film & Video
Wurks in a soft-looking widescreen print (with plenty of emulsion
damage) in the original Italian language with English subtitles. Not
Rated.
EYES
OF THE BEHOLDER (1992) - A
psychotic artist named Janice (Lenny Von Dohlen) escapes from a
mental hospital and terrorizes the occupants of a secluded mountain
home owned by the doctor who performed an experimental operation on
him. The operation (which was supposed to cure Janice
of his homicidal ways) was a failure and has left one of Janice's
hands a twisted mass of flesh, sealing his fate as an artist. He
plays a cat and mouse game with Dr. Carlyle (Matt McCoy), cutting off
any means of access or communication from his home and then
systematically makes life hell for the good doctor, his wife (Joanna
Pacula) and their two house guests (George Lazenby and Kylie Travis).
After a little torture (including some well-placed bullet hits and
walking on broken glass) and a lot of philosophizing, Janice falls
through an opening on a rotting bridge and gets sucked underwater
during a raging thunderstorm. This run-of-the-mill suspenser is
enlivened a bit by some inventive photography and quick, jackhammer
MTV-style editing. The camera is always moving (giving the film a
nervous quality) and the film is full of short shock-cuts which makes
the film seem better than it really is. The main problem is the
screenplay. Too much talk, not enough action. As a villian, Lenny Von
Dohlen (BLIND VISION -
1991) is rather bland, never building up enough fear in the audience
to make his character plausible. Joanna Pacula (THE
KISS - 1988) and Matt McCoy (DEEP
STAR SIX - 1989) are far too removed from everyday life to
attract any sympathy from the viewers. I was rather pleased to see
George Lazenby's return to the screen (Am I the only one that
considers ON HER
MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE [1969] a shining jewel in the James
Bond series?) and he acquits himself rather nicely, pumping some
adrenaline into this slow-moving vehicle. B-movie (and former Russ
Meyer) staple Charles Napier has a small part here as a cop.
Director/screenwriter Lawrence Simeone also made (and co-starred in)
the rarely-seen crime thriller COP-OUT
(1991). All in all, EYES
OF THE BEHOLDER is neither good or bad. It's just common. A
Columbia TriStar Home Video Release. Rated R.
FAIR
GAME (1988) - Effective little
Italian thriller about a vengeful husband who plots the perfect
murder of his wife, who left him because of his possessiveness. The
husband in question is Gene (Gregg Henry), a rich computer game
designer, who drives out to the middle of the desert to buy a deadly
black mamba, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world, from
snake handler Frank (Bill Moseley). Gene has done his homework and
knows that the mamba is deadliest during the one month a year when it
mates. The mamba must bite continually during this time to release
the overabundance of poison it produces when in heat (Frank puts a
rabbit in the mamba's cage to show how aggressive the
snake is. It's not pretty.). We also learn at this time that Gene is
quite the electronics genius, as he rigged his car so that Frank
cannot get out so he can test out the snake's effectiveness on
humans. Frank is bitten and dies in less than a minute, which pleases
Gene. He then goes to the loft of Eva (Trudy Styler), his estranged
artist wife, and secretly tags her with mamba hormone and sets the
snake loose. He breaks off the key in the only door, cuts off her
phone to the outside (only he can call her) and waits outside in his
car, where he can track the snake and his wife electronically. Eva is
at first unaware that anything is wrong and goes about her business
as usual, taking a bath and practicing yoga, while the mamba stalks
her (cue distorted snake POV shots). While Eva is making a video
diary, the mamba strikes and misses. She doesn't even notice until
she plays back the tape and spots the snake. Now aware of the mamba,
Eva also realizes that both her door and phone are out of order. Not
able to escape, Eva must fight for survival while Gene calls her on
the phone every few minutes to see if she's still alive. Eva proves
to be quite the fighter, even as Gene cuts the electricity, forcing
her to fight in darkness. Eva gets wise to Gene's deadly game and
devises a way to get Gene into the loft, where she turns the tables
on him and gives him a taste of the mamba's venom. This tight
little thriller, directed and co-scripted by Mario Orfini (JACKPOT
- 1992), is basically a two character stage play, as most of the
action takes place in Eva's loft or Gene's car. Gene has sixty
minutes for the mamba to kill Eva (that how long the hormone is
effective) and the rest of the film plays out in real time, making it
urgent and suspenseful. Trudy Styler, better known as the activist
wife of rocker Sting, walks around most of the time in a tee shirt
and panties (there's also brief nudity during the bath scene), until
she discovers that the snake is present. Then, she covers-up herself
completely from head to toe and builds an impromptu fortress around
her to stop the snake. Styler keeps things moving at a brisk pace by
talking to herself, working her way out of tough situations by using
common sense and keeping a cool head. Gregg Henry (SLITHER
- 2006) doesn't have much to do but act slimy (the snake's got
nothing on him), look menacing and scowl when things don't go his
way, but that's OK because the real suspense here comes with Eva's
interaction with the snake and the inventive twist ending. Those
looking for blood and gore will be sorely disappointed here, as this
film gets it's thrills the old fashioned way: With tense situations
and a reliance on mood over violence. Good show. Originally titled MAMBA.
Giorgio Moroder wrote the effective music score and was also an
Associate Producer. VENOM
(1981) is another excellent film dealing with an on-the-loose black
mamba. A Vidmark Entertainment
Release. Rated R.
FIGHT
FOR YOUR LIFE (1977) - William
Sanderson portrays Jesse Lee Cain, a convict who escapes police
custody along with two other felons, a Hispanic and a Chinaman. They
steal a car, rob a gas station (repeatedly stabbing the attendant)
and head for Canada. En route, they rob a liquor store (shooting the
owner) and take a black woman hostage. They make her take them to her
home so they can hide out until the heat blows over. The home is
occupied by a black deacon and his large family and pretty soon they
are all hostages. The extremely prejudiced Cain and his cohorts begin
terrorizing the frightened family. First, Cain throws nearly every
racial slur at the family, calling them nigger, tarbaby, burrhead,
spade, coon, monkey face, Uncle Remus, Aunt Jemima and many others.
Then he threatens
their lives, pointing his gun at their heads and promising to pull
the trigger if they don't do demeaning tasks like licking his boots
or dancing a jig. The Chinaman kills a visiting white woman (by
throwing her off a cliff after attempting rape) and smashes a
visiting small white boy's head in (graphically) with a rock. After
an unsuccessful escape attempt, Cain teaches the family a lesson by
raping the deacon's daughter and letting his partners have a turn
with her. The police surround the house, giving the family a chance
to turn the tables on their captors. Instead of turning them over to
the police, the deacon and his family chuck their pacifist ways and
administer their own brand of justice. Cain and his cohorts get their
just desserts, but not before Cain reveals just why he has all that
hatred for black people. This film, lensed as FIGHTIN'
FAMILY
and also known as STAYIN'
ALIVE,
is so sleazy you'll feel like taking a shower after viewing it.
William Sanderson is so believable as the black-hating Cain,
portraying his character as a hillbilly with no morals (he keeps his
pants up with a piece of rope), that you'll never look at his role of
Larry (of Larry, Darryl and Darryl) on NEWHART
(1982 - 1990) reruns the same way again. (Come to think of it, there
weren't that many black actors on the program. Hmmm...) Producer
William Mishkin is better known for his collaborations with the late
badfilm director Andy Milligan. Screenwriter Straw Weisman, who also
worked frequently with Milligan, directed that weird minor gem about
necrophilia, DEAD
MATE
(1988). FIGHT
FOR YOUR LIFE
is a tense and bloody foray in racial hatred. It is not for all
tastes and caters to our baser instincts. If you do decide to rent
it, make sure you have plenty of soap and water on hand. You'll need
it. Directed by Robert A. Endelson (THE
FILTHIEST SHOW IN TOWN
- 1975). A Paragon
Home Video and After
Hours Entertainment Release. Also available on DVD
from Blue Underground. Rated
R.
THE
FISH WITH THE EYES OF GOLD (1973) -
This Spanish giallo film starts out with pretty Belgian tourist Hilde
(Susana Taber; THE
KILLER
OF DOLLS
- 1975) being viciously stabbed to death by someone in a frogman
get-up (including goggles, so we don't see the killer's identity) as
she lays on a towel after taking a dip in the ocean in a rarely used
cove located in a small town on the Spanish coast. Zachary Kendall
(Ricardo Vázquez, acting under the pseudonym "Richard
Kendall"; THE CURSE
OF THE VAMPIRE - 1972), who is passing
by in a small boat, chases the frogman away, but he becomes
transfixed on a fish imprinted on Hilde's towel (for reasons we will
discover later on). The film then switches to American hitchhiker
Derek (Wal Davis; THE
HORRIBLE SEXY VAMPIRE - 1970), who happens to be in this
coastal town and is looking for his friend Zachary, whom he has known
for a long time. As he is trying to thumb a ride, Derek notices a
pretty young woman named Monica (Montserrat Prous; DEMON
WITCH CHILD - 1974) having a tiff with gigolo Marco (Rex
Martín) over money, so she drives away and picks up Derek.
Immediately, Monica (who is very wealthy) begins to come on to Derek,
gets a hotel room and fucks his brains out. Later that night, we see
someone wearing black gloves enter the hotel room and the next day, a
groggy Derek wakes up and discovers Monica dead in the bed beside
him, stabbed horribly in the heart by some unknown killer. A confused
Derek tries to figure out what is going on, but all he can remember
is that Monica was wearing a necklace shaped like a fish with eyes of
gold, which she is no longer wearing and it is nowhere in the hotel
room. Derek hears the sounds of police sirens, so he steals Monica's
car and drives to Zachary's house. Could this necklace be a major
clue in solving these murders? Damn right!
We are then introduced properly to Zachary and his wife Virginia
(Norma Kastel; VENGEANCE
OF THE ZOMBIES - 1972), two wealthy artists who live in a
nice house in this beautiful coastal town (Zachary is known for
creating sculptures and paintings of fish). Zachary is worried about
being a witness to murder, saying he was once a witness to another
murder, but Virginia tells him not to worry, he is good friends with
the Commissioner (Barta Barri; THE
PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK - 1975) and the Commish will
make it easy for him. Zachary then has a flashback showing why he is
so transfixed with fish, relating them to death. When he was a young
boy, he saw his father murder his mother by viciously stabbing her
over and over with a very large knife while knocking over a fishbowl,
a young Zachary spying on his father and seeing the poor little fish
flopping away helplessly on the rug next to his mother's dead body. A
worried Derek then arrives at the Kendall household and tells Zachary
that he, too, was a witness to murder, but he believes since he is a
stranger in town, he will be accused of the crime. Zachary tells him
not to worry, the Commissioner is his friend and he will vouch for
Derek's innocence, since they have been friends for a long time.
Enter Marina (Ada Tauler; LOVE CAMP
- 1977, also starring Wal Davis), a pretty young woman who works at
the town's aquarium with her misogynistic, eternally-angry father
Pedro (Victor Israel; HORROR EXPRESS
- 1972), as she enters the Kendall home and it is pretty clear that
she and Derek will soon begin a romantic relationship over her
father's objections. Pedro doesn't trust Derek because he is a
"foreigner" and refuses to let his daughter associate with
such "trash" (Pedro only trusts his fish, telling Marina,
"Only fish are loyal!"). But, with women being women,
Marina can't help but fall in love with the handsome (but
awkward-looking) bell-bottomed Derek and they start a relationship.
What no one sees, however, is that the black-gloved killer is outside
the Kendall home with a high-powered rifle in hand. So why doesn't
the killer pull the trigger?
We then discover that Marina once had a short relationship with
Marco, as have most wealthy women in this town. It seems Marco is
money hungry, wining and dining rich women, even Virginia (who admits
it to Derek, saying Zachary is more interested in his fish art than
her, so she found comfort with someone else, but other than that, she
and her husband have a solid relationship. Say what now?!?), and then
taking their money and moving onto the next wealthy woman. Marina
agrees to help Derek get the proof he needs to point the finger at
Marco as the killer, but the more Derek tries to prove himself
innocent, the guiltier he looks in the Commissioner's eyes, but the
Commish lets Derek walk freely around town as long as he doesn't
leave town. You see, the Commissioner likes Zachary and since Zachary
vouches for Derek, he defers to Zachary's opinion and lets Derek walk
around a free man, even though he believes he is the killer (You
know, just like any policeman would do...never!).
When Virginia tells Derek that she knows of the fish necklace with
the eyes of gold, since Zachary created a sculpture of it from a wood
carving he once purchased. She tells Derek that she sold the wood
carving to local jeweler Miguel Toledo (Gustavo Re; THE
CORRUPTION OF CHRIS MILLER - 1973) because he wanted to
create necklaces of the fish to sell to the tourists. When
Derek visits Pedro's jewelry store, he tells Derek that he hasn't
sold any of the fish necklaces yet since tourist season hasn't
started, but he did give one to Marco for a "special
girlfriend" he failed to name. Derek then phones Zachary,
telling him to come to town immediately, he has something very
important to tell him (One of the most basic giallo tropes. If it's
so important, why doesn't he tell him over the phone? Because the
film would end right there, that's why!). When Zachary picks up Derek
and they drive to the Commissioner's office, Derek tells him not to
worry, he will understand everything when he talks to the Commish.
Too bad that they never make it there, as someone cuts the brake line
on Zachary's car, forcing the car to go off an embankment in one of
the cheapest (and hilarious) car crashes ever put on film!
(Explaining it would not do it justice, you will have to see the film
to believe it!). Derek is thrown from the car, which rolls over and
catches on fire, but he is able to save Zachary, whose hands are
horribly burned, ruining Zachary's livelihood as an artist. Zachary
is quickly rushed to the hospital where a doctor informs Derek that
his friend will recover fully, but it will take some time and lots of
rehabilitation. A nameless nurse (Maria Elena Arpon; TOMBS
OF THE BLIND DEAD - 1972) in the hospital seems to know
Zachary all too well, as they have been having an illicit affair for
quite some time and Virginia secretly watches as her husband and
Nursey-Poo share a very passionate kiss.
The killer then murders a pretty young naked rich woman by stabbing
her in the shower of her hotel room. The Commissioner knows Marco
couldn't possibly be the killer because he was interrogating him
at the time the woman was murdered. He has no other choice but to
set Marco free. The Commissioner turns to another detective and says,
"The murderer seems to be obsessed with fish", a statement
that applies to almost everyone in this film. The nameless nurse
searches Zachary's home looking for something very important and when
she finds it, she packs her bags and tries to leave this town, only
for the killer to chase her into the ocean, slit her throat and stab
her to death (the entire chase filmed
in slow motikon). When the killer murders Marco and points the finger
at Derek as being the number one suspect, can Derek convince the
Commissioner of his innocence or will he take the fall for it all?
Just what does the fish necklace have to do with all this? We know
that Derek has a secret he is not telling Marina about, as he left
his job in London in a hurry just to visit Zachary and Virginia in
this small coastal town. Nearly everyone here has a reason for
killing, be it for love, money, hatred or illicit romances, so who
could it possibly be? If I told you, I would have to drive to your
home and kill you, but the clues to the killer's identity are in this
review. I will tell you this: The reveal reminds me of a certain
Dario Argento giallo film from the same time frame (Don't think of
just one killer).
This very cheap-looking Spanish giallo flick, directed by Pedro L.
Ramírez (WATCH
OUT GRINGO! SABATA WILL RETURN - 1972; SCHOOL
OF DEATH - 1975) and written by Juan Gallardo Muñoz (THE
KILLER LACKS A NAME - 1966) may come up lacking in the blood
department, but there are many pretty nude women here to take your
mind off it (although when the murders do happen, they are pretty
bloody). The mystery is palpable and the acting decent for such a low
budget film (but Wal Davis, as Derek, comes across as a rather
strange person in this flick, thanks to his weird eye and facial
movements). The hysterical car crash and some sloppy editing aside,
this is a fast-moving giallo that has plenty to recommend. I would
like to say more, but there just isn't a lot of information (and even
less advertising material) out there on the Internet about this
81-minute film. All I can say is if you like films of this type (and
who doesn't?), then you should be watching this ASAP! It may not be
in the Top 10 Giallo Films Of All Time, but it still is enjoyable
fluff for a rainy evening when you need something to watch.
Filmed as EL
PEZ DE LOS OJOS DE ORO (a literal translation of the review
title) and then re-titled PLAYA SALVAGE ("Wild
Beach"), this film never received a theatrical release or a
legitimate home video release in any format in the United States and
many other countries around the world. It is available streaming on
YouTube, from channel "Giallo Realm", who offer a
fullscreen print (obviously taken from a VHS tape) in Spanish with
fansubbed English subtitles. As far as I could determine, this is the
only place to watch this film, other than downloading it from torrent
sites (which I don't recommend you do). Also featuring Víctor
Vilens, Richard Kolin (EYEBALL
- 1975), Gili Angli and Augustín Bescos (KNIFE
OF ICE - 1972) as the hospital doctor. Not Rated.
FLESHBURN
(1983) - In 1975, Calvin Duggai (Sonny Landham; PREDATOR
- 1987) deliberately abandoned five men to die in the desert because
of an argument involving tribal rivalry and the powers of Indian
witchcraft. Four psychiatrists testified Duggai was not capable of
distinguishing right from wrong and recommended he be
institutionalized. Well, Calvin (who is haunted by bad 'Nam
flashbacks) has had enough of the loony bin and escapes, vowing to
get even with the four psychiatrists who put him there. Calvin
flags-down a pickup truck driven by Jim Brody (Robert Alan Brown) and
when he spots the deer Jim bagged while hunting, he has another 'Nam
flashback and kills Jim with his own hunting rifle. Calvin kidnaps
the first two psychiatrists, the husband/wife team of Jay (Robert
Chimento) and Shirley Pinter (Karen Carlson; BLACK
OAK CONSPIRACY - 1977), at gunpoint and then kidnaps retired
headshrinker Dr. Sam MacKenzie (Steve Kanaly; HEADHUNTER
- 1989), who is living in a secluded cabin in the woods. Calvin
finally kidnaps the fourth psychiatrist, the homosexual Earl Dana (Macon
McCalman; DEAD & BURIED
- 1981), and drives them all to the middle of the desert and leaves
them there (but not before taking a "souvenir" from each of
them, such as a lock of Sam's hair), telling them, "I've had my
Hell. Now you'll have yours." When Shirley asks him what he is
going to do, Calvin replies, "Nothing. The desert will do it for
me." Calvin breaks Earl's leg before he drives off and so begins
the long, torturous journey of the four psychiatrists (and the
audience), left barefoot, with no water and very little clothing in
what turns out to be one of the worst heat waves in many years. Sam
keeps his wits about him, digging a hole to keep cool and setting
Earl's broken leg with Shirley's help. He also fashions some tools
from spent rifle shells, which allows them to extract water and food
from cactus plants. Flashbacks reveal that once Sam and Shirley had
an illicit affair, which throws some unneeded tension between Sam and
Jay, but Sam's survival techniques keep everyone alive. Calvin goes
coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs and starts practicing witchcraft rituals and
doesn't like that his four captives are not moving, so he uses the
"souvenirs" he took from the group to exact revenge (he
feeds a falcon Sam's hair and the bird attacks Sam, inflicting deep
cuts on Sam's face and upper torso). Meanwhile, the psychiatrists all
have their own flashbacks, revealing vital information about their
lives and background (such as Sam's wife committing suicide). While
Sam is recuperating from his falcon wounds, Jay sets out on his own
to look for help and disappears. Sam eventually finds an injured Jay,
but Calvin shoots Jay dead and ties Sam to a boulder. Sam breaks free
and decides enough is enough. If he is going to save Shirley and
Earl, he is going to have to take-on Calvin mano-a-mano, but when he
captures Calvin, he decides not to kill him. He's going to send him
back to the asylum, because to Calvin, it's a fate worse than death.
Give me a fucking break! This boring mess of a psychological
thriller, directed by George Gage (SKATEBOARD:
THE MOVIE - 1977) and co-written by Gage and his producer
wife Beth Gage (based on a novel by DEATH
WISH author Brian Garfield titled "Fear In A Handful Of
Dust"), is nothing more than a slow-moving tale of an obviously
crazy Indian who believes he has supernatural powers (Which begs the
question: If he indeed has supernatural powers, why did it take him
nearly ten years to escape from the mental institution?) and a doctor
(Sam) who believes he can defeat him by using common human sense and
survival techniques. Not much happens throughout the film's entire
running time except endless bickering amomg the psychiatrists on
subjects like religion, infidelity and death, combined with shots of
Sonny Landham (who got his start appearing in porn films like SLIPPERY
WHEN WET - 1976, before moving on to more mainstream roles)
dancing around a campfire chanting like a crazy loon or firing his
rifle at the group and hitting no one (he's quite the lousy shot!). FLESHBURN
has the look and feel of an early-80's TV film, as there is no nudity
and very little blood. Only the foul language lets you know that this
Tuscon, Arizona-lensed flick, an exercise in tedium, wouldn't play on
TV without some beeps. 88 minutes of torture for the viewer.
Originally released on VHS by Media
Home Entertainment and also available on DVD from Rhino
Home Video as part of their HORRIBLE
HORRORS COLLECTION VOLUME 1 compilation of eight films from
the 70's & 80's. Rated R, but I honestly don't know why.
THE
FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION
(1970) - This is the first film from director Luciano Ercoli (THE
MAGNIFICENT DARE DEVIL - 1973; KILLER
COP - 1975). It is also his first giallo film, as he later
gave us the superb DEATH
WALKS ON HIGH HEELS (1971) and DEATH
WALKS AT MIDNIGHT (1972), both starring his wife Nieves
Navarro, better known to giallo fans as "Susan Scott", who
also appeared in the giallo flicks NAKED
VIOLENCE (1969), ALL
THE COLORS OF THE DARK (1971), TORMENTOR
(1972), THE SLASHER...IS
THE SEX MANIAC! (1972) and the Spaghetti Western giallo KILL
THE POKER PLAYER (1972). Ms. Scott has a supporting role in
this film, but she is still hot as ever. This film actually belongs
to Dagmar Lassander (HATCHET
FOR THE HONEYMOON - 1970; IGUANA
WITH THE TONGUE OF FIRE - 1971; REFLECTIONS
IN BLACK - 1975), who gives a finely tuned performance of a
woman on the verge of a mental breakdown, due, in part, to a new
marriage and a stranger's sexual blackmail. We have to decide if all
this is happening to her or is it just a figment of her fragile
psyche? Before I get too far ahead of myself, let's get to the film
itself and start from the beginning.
The film opens with the lovely Minou (Lassander) taking a bath and
making resolutions (we hear her innermost thoughts). She resolves to
give up smoking, drinking and taking tranquilizers ("Anyway,
they say it's bad for you to take them if you drink."). She's
making all of these resolutions for her new husband Peter (Pier
Paolo Capponi: SEVEN
BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS - 1972) to "make him happy."
She's really doing all this to make her absentee husband jealous (She
decides to eat out tonight and tell Peter that a "friend"
invited her to dinner.). Peter is once again away on business and is
not due back until tomorrow night. Minou thinks, "When you
return tomorrow night, I won't let you make love to me right away.
I'll say that I've fallen in love with another man and that we have
to get a divorce. But we can still be friends. Then, after you make a
terrible scene...hmmm." It's quite obvious Minou loves Peter, as
she changes clothes and applies makeup with a framed photo of Peter
by her side. She then pours herself a drink, lights a cigarette and
pops a couple of tranquilizers, swearing to herself that it is the
last of them she will ever do. It is also obvious Minou has no
willpower at all (Hey, I gave up all three at the same time! True story.).
Minou then takes a nighttime stroll down the beach, not noticing
that a man on a motorcycle (Simon Andreu; THE
BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE - 1972; billed here as the
"Blackmailer", so that is what I will call him) is
following her. He pulls up beside her and then rides circles around
her, forcing Minou to run into a boatyard. The Blackmailer finds a
way down to the boatyard, gets off his motorcycle and chases Minou
through the boatyard. "What do you want here?" asks Minou.
"You!" says the Blackmailer, pulling out a cane from under
his jacket. The Blackmailer taunts Minou, laughing as he gets closer
to her. There's a retractable blade at the end of his cane, which he
throws at Minou, purposely missing her and sticking into the hull of
a boat. "It's no use, Minou. You can't escape from me!"
says the Blackmailer, continuing with, "No, I'm not going to use
force with you. I want you to beg me. I want you to plead for my
kisses. Plead! You will!" Minou doesn't know what to do, as the
Blackmailer knows her name, but she has no idea who he is. He then
runs the blade of his cane across the front of Minou's body, cutting
the laces of her dress one-by-one that line her bosom. He says that
he knows Minou and asks her if she knows what her husband has been up
to while he's been away. Minou wants to know what Peter has to do
with him, telling the Blackmailer to quit tormenting her. The
Blackmailer calls Peter a "fraud" and a "murderer"
and then tells Minou she can go...for now. He gets on his motorcycle
and leaves, Minou uncertain by what has just transpired.
The next night, Minou phones Peter at a bar and tells him to meet
her there, she is too afraid to go home and be by herself (she then
orders two brandies for herself from the bartender). Minou then
sits with two men playing cards, complete strangers, and waits for
Peter to arrive, having a bottle of beer with the strangers. When
Peter arrives (There are now six empty bottles of beer next to
Minou!), he peers at Minou through a fractured hole in the glass of
the bar's front window and calls out her name (How's that for
symbolism?). Once they are home, Minou tells Peter what the
Blackmailer did (and didn't) do to her, yet she fails to mention to
Peter that he called him a fraud and a murderer. Peter wants to call
the police, but Minou says no, all they'll do is make them sign
forms, so Peter says fine, it's up to her. Minou then asks Peter that
if the Blackmailer raped her, would he still love her? Peter answers,
"Why on earth would I love you less because of a sex
fiend?", mentioning it would be quite a different answer if she
had a lover. "Now I know how much your love means to me",
says Minou. "Better late than never" replies Peter. Why
would he say such an awful thing?
We then see Minou in a disco (Remember when women went to discos
wearing outrageous wigs? Either do I.) with Peter's co-worker George
(Salvador Buguet, in his only film), who tells Minou that Peter just
called and he will be here later. Minou's best friend Dominique
(Scott) and her boyfriend of the moment join Minou and George on the
dance floor and exchange partners (Dominique seems to be enjoying
herself a little too much). Back at the table, Dominique mentions to
Minou that their friend, financier Jean Dubois, killed himself. He
was found drowned in the river, the police believe he jumped off a
bridge. Minou thinks back to what the Blackmailer said to her,
calling Peter a murderer. Jean Dubois' death makes the front pages of
the newspapers, where Minou reads that Dubois' "death was due to
an embolism commonly called 'the bends', a condition which is
generally caused when a prolonged deep immersion is followed by a
rapid surfacing without allowing sufficient time for decompression.
The doctors have been unable to explain how this occurred
in the victim" (This is important, so remember it!). Minou
can't get this story out of her mind, especially when Peter mentions
that he owed Dubois a large sum of money. Minou tells Peter that he
will still have to pay Jean's heirs the money and Peter says yes, but
he will find a way to delay the payment. Peter then tells Minou that
he won't be home for dinner, he has to work late at the office. Minou
wishes that they would spend more time together and tries to make
Peter jealous by saying she is going to phone Dominique and go out
with her tonight, telling Peter that he knows Dominique better than
anyone and what she is capable of doing (she's kind of whorish). That
night, Minou tells Dominique about the Blackmailer and how he nearly
raped her (Dominique says, "I'd have adored being violated!"
I told you she was whorish!), also telling her how he called Peter a
murderer. Dominique tells her that if she sees the Blackmailer again
to tell Peter nothing or he'll start wondering what she is up to (She
also tells Minou not to worry about what the Blackmailer said about
her husband, because "What possible secrets could Peter be
hiding from you?" I was wondering the same thing!).
Dominique takes Minou back to her place, where she shows her a
slideshow of a naked Dominique (yowza!) in near pornographic photos.
Minou asks her who took the photos and Dominique responds a
photographer, Minou doesn't know him, but "he certainly knows
how to use his equipment." Minou then asks what would happen if
the photographer sold the photos? "That would be great! What
publicity! Can't you just see the line-up?" says Dominique,
laughing. Dominique then shows Minou a series of very pornographic
photos she purchased by mail from Copenhagen. One photo gets Minou's
attention. It is a photo of a naked woman in bed with the
Blackmailer. Dominique lets Minou keep the photo when she asks to
borrow it, not telling Dominique that the man in the photo is the
Blackmailer (We also discover that Dominique introduced Minou to
Peter, because he wasn't Dominique's "type". Minou asks
Dominique if she ever slept with Peter and her answer is quite elusive.).
Peter calls his friend Frank (Osvaldo Genazzani; NIGHT
OF THE SCORPION - 1972), the Commissioner of Police, to sit
down with him and Minou to discuss the Blackmailer nearly sexually
assaulting her. Frank tells Minou not to worry, sex maniacs usually
never go after the same woman twice, but if she sees him again to
phone him and he will take care of it, handing her his business card.
When Frank leaves, Minou can see Peter is worried and asks him what
is wrong. He tells her his business has a lot of problems,
development cost have skyrocketed and creditors are pressuring him
(Peter's company is developing a new counter-pressure gauge that will
revolutionize skin diving.). When Minou asks him if one of the
creditors was the deceased Jean Dubois, Peter becomes a little
unhinged, not answering her question and asking why she has to
mention Dubois' name in every conversation they have. When Minou
leaves his office, Peter makes a phone call to Dominique (a
conversation we are not privy to). While Minou is walking out of the
business with George (he tells her that Jean Dubois dying saved the
company because Dubois was a despicable loanshark), she stops to
watch a man using the company's new decompression chamber, George
telling her that he is testing out the company's new revolutionary
gauge. Minou now believes, and many may say rightfully so, that Peter
is a murderer, especially when the Blackmailer phones her at 2:00 am
that night and plays a recording of Peter saying to a co-worker to
take jean Dubois out of the decompression chamber and throw him in
the river to make it look like a suicide. The Blackmailer tells Minou
that if she doesn't come to see him tomorrow, he will turn over the
tape to the police. When Peter asks her who was on the phone, Minou
tells him it was a drunk Dominique, which may not be the best lie she
has told to her husband.
She meets the Blackmailer at his apartment the next day and asks him
how much he wants, pulling out $1,000 in cash from her purse and
handing it to him. He throws the money into the air, saying, "You
think you can buy me with your paper money?" He makes Minou
undress, telling her she is going to beg for his love. We don't see
what happens next until the end, when the Blackmailer unties the
bonds that hold Minou to his bed (his bedroom is full of white
plaster casts of human hands, giving the room a very eerie glow) and
hands her the cassette tape of the recording, saying she deserves it,
but her husband doesn't. When Minou gets home, Peter wants to know
where she has been and she says she was with Dominique, only Peter
reveals that Dominique has been in their home for a long time
(Dominique is quick on her feet and makes up an excuse for Minou, but
is it only for show?). That night, Minou has a nightmare, showing us
what the Blackmailer did to her while she was tied to his bed,
slapping her in the face and being physically and sexually abusive to
her. Minou wakes up screaming and then begs Peter to never leave her.
While Peter is away on business, the Blackmailer pays Minou a visit
to her home and gives her pornographic photos of him making love to
her, telling her he is a photographer by trade and he took photos of
them making love the night before. He also tells her that the
recording is a phony, he simply disguised his voice and pretended to
be Peter just to get these photos of her. He tells Minou she is now
his slave and if she doesn't want Peter to see these photos, she will
give in to his sexual advances, which she does, making violent love
to him. We then discover that the Blackmailer is Dominique's
boyfriend (no surprise there), but is this a blackmail attempt for a
large sum of money or are there far more nefarious plans afoot?
That's all I am going to tell you, but, as always, all the clues to
unlocking this mystery are in this review, so re-read it and see if
you can solve it.
This corkscrew mystery, written by Ernesto Gastaldi (LIBIDO
- 1965; THE MURDER CLINIC -
1966; TORSO - 1973)) and Mahnahen
Velasco (both DEATH WALKS
films, co-written with Gastaldi), was basically unheard of in the
United States until Blue Underground released it on DVD. It then
became a cult item among giallo fans, thanks to the copious nudity by
Dagmar Lassander (WEREWOLF
WOMAN - 1976) and Susan Scott (EMANUELLE
AND THE LAST CANNIBALS - 1977). Unlike most giallo films
from this period, there is precious little blood or graphic violence,
but the fact is this film doesn't need it, because this is a
psychosexual thriller where
violence (with the exception of sexual violence) has no place. The
only violence done here (besides the finale) is the kind that doesn't
leave bruises or any other physical traces. It's being done to
Minou's mind. This film is also very misogynistic in the way it
treats women (a common trait in Italian genre films from this
period), as the characters are either selfish (Peter), into violent
sex (the Blackmailer) or will take sex any way they can get it
(Dominique), even if it means betraying best friend Minou, who has no
idea what she is up against or how to deal with it. This film is also
very sensual, as Lassander and Scott parade around naked or in
various stages of undress, making this a treat for fans of female
flesh (and who isn't?). That is why this film works, as Lassander
bares her soul (and so much more) in her role as Minou, making her
very sympathetic with audiences. When she believes her husband is
guilty of murder, she still protects him, because, to her, love is
more important than guilt. Every husband would be proud to have her
as a wife. As Dominique, Susan Scott is the complete opposite of
Minou in every way and when she tells Minou she would
"adore" being raped by a stranger, we begin to understand
why they are best friends (It is true, opposites do attract). They
feed off each other's experiences, because they know they can never
be like each other, it's not in their genetic makeup to act like
that, so they live vicariously over their best friend's exploits.
That's what makes this film so special with audiences. It's a
psychological thriller first and foremost and then a giallo film,
making it a unique, well-acted experience for viewers who appreciate
something a little different, so I recommend this film wholeheartedly.
Shot as LE
FOTO PROIBITE DI UNA SIGNORA PER BENE (a somewhat literal
translation of the review title) and also known as DAYS OF ANGUISH,
this film had neither a theatrical or VHS release in the United
States, making its first appearance on these shores as a DVD
from Blue Underground
in 2006, who then, in 2013, released it in a three-DVD set titled MIDNIGHT
MOVIES SUSPENSE TRIPLE FEATURE (Volume 13), along with the
films THE FIFTH CORD (1971)
and THE PYJAMA GIRL CASE
(1977). Arrow Video then
released a Blu-Ray
of this film early in 2019 that is full on many informative extras.
For those not looking to spend a lot of money, Amazon Prime offers
the film streaming in a nice widescreen (but not anamorphic) print,
dubbed in English. This film is Not Rated.
FOUR
FLIES ON GREY VELVET (1971) -
When Dario Argento was directing this film, he told everyone that
this would be the final giallo film of his career, as he had just
directed THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE
(1970) and THE CAT O' NINE TAILS
(1971) and was growing tired of the genre, but when his next film,
the 1800's war comedy THE FIVE DAYS
(1973), bombed at the boxoffice, Argento's next film was what many
people (but not me) believe is the greatest giallo film of all time, DEEP
RED (1975). And the rest is history. This film may not be
prime Argento, but any film he directs is better than 90%
of the junk that flooded the market. And this film is one of
Argento's hardest to find (at least in the United States), so when I
found a print streaming on Amazon Prime (and I had to pay for it,
even though I am a Prime member), I just had to review it since I am re-evaluating
my opinion about Argento, finding some of his films, which I was
ambivalent about (including this film), now satisfy my adult sensibilities.
Roberto Tobias (Michael Brandon; a frequent guest star on TV series
and known to children of all ages as the narrator of the PBS
children's series THOMAS
& FRIENDS [1984
- Present]; George Carlin and Ringo Starr, as well as Alec Baldwin,
were previous narrators on the series) is a drummer in a rock band
who is being stalked by a mysterious man in a black hat and
sunglasses. While recording in a studio, Roberto is annoyed to see
the stalker staring at him through a window (Roberto is also annoyed
by a mosquito flying in his face, so he kills it with the snare
cymbals and smiles). After the session is over he sees the stalker
again and decides to follow him, almost losing him on the dark Rome
streets, but corners him in an empty abandoned theater. He grabs the
stalker's arm, demanding to know why he is following him. The stalker
says he has no idea what Roberto is talking about, which makes
Roberto furious ("What do you want? What is your trip?"
says Roberto to the stalker, exposing the film's early-'70s roots).
Roberto knocks the sunglasses off the stalker's face, so the stalker
yells, "Lay off me!" and pulls out a switchblade,
threatening Roberto with it. Roberto tries to take the blade away
from the stalker and both lose their balance, the knife going into
the stalker's stomach and he falls into the orchestra pit, dead.
Roberto then sees someone
wearing a baby mask in one of the balconies is taking his
picture, snapping away with a camera, taking photos of the accidental
death. As we all know, when photos are viewed out of context, they
don't tell the whole story and many times they can make an innocent
person look guilty. Roberto doesn't know it yet, but his life is
about to take a dangerous turn, far more dangerous than simply having
a stalker following him. It's about to turn deadly.
Roberto goes home to his wife, Nina (Mimsy Farmer; AUTOPSY
- 1973), but he can't sleep, lying in bed wide-awake (He tells Nina
nothing about what just happened to him). The phone rings in the
middle of the night, waking Nina up, but when she answers it, no one
is on the line. Nina notices that Roberto is awake, but he still says
nothing to her, except wanting to know whom the call was from, Nina
telling him it must have been a wrong number. We then see the
baby-masked photographer developing the negatives and they, indeed,
make Roberto look guilty of murder. The following morning, Roberto
reads an article in the newspaper (The headline reads "Cadavere
di uno sconosciuto trovato nel flume" which translates to
"Corpse of a stranger found in the flume") and is so caught
up with what is happening in his life, he doesn't hear Nina say
goodbye, as she heads off to go shopping, their maid, Amelia (Marisa
Fabbri; WEEKEND MURDERS
- 1970), saying goodbye to her instead. Nina meets neighbor Maria
(Costanza Spadi) and she is chewing out the mailman (Gildo Di Marco; HIS
NAME WAS HOLY GHOST - 1972) for delivering a crippled
neighbor's mail. Maria tells Nina that the neighbor, Rimbaldi
(Guerrino Crivello; MY DEAR KILLER
- 1972), gets a lot of Swedish pornography in the mail and she is
sick and tired of having to deliver it to him (The mailman makes a
comment to Maria, telling her that she should walk in his shoes for a
day to see how easy it is to get someone else's mail). Roberto then
is handed an envelope at the studio, his name and address written on
it, looking like it was written by a child. Inside the envelope is
the dead stalker's passport, nothing else, and now Roberto knows the
name of the man he "killed". At a party at Roberto's house,
bandmate Mirko (Fabrizio Moroni; MURDER
OBSESSION - 1981) tells a story about a beheading of a thief
that he saw in Saudi Arabia. Another bandmate, Andrea (Stefano Satta
Flores: SALON KITTY -
1976), tells a story about a funeral for a famous French chef, where
the mourners sprinkle parsley and paprika on the chef in his open
coffin. Everyone laughs except for Roberto. Death is no longer funny
to him. Roberto looks through a stack of his music albums and
discovers one of the photos the mysterious baby-masked photographer
took, showing Roberto holding the bloody switchblade while the
stalker falls into the orchestra pit. Roberto tries to take and hide
the photo unnoticed, but Amelia sees him doing it, a look of
disapproval on her face (Hey, all this trivia is important, so pay
attention!). Even the cat sees him doing it, which Roberto does
notice. That night, Roberto has a nightmare where a man is about to
be beheaded by an executioner with a sword in Saudi Arabia, as a
throng of onlookers watch. Just as the sword is about to behead the
man, Roberto wakes up, sweating and trembling, yet his wife sleeps
soundly next to him. Roberto then hears the sound of a human heart
beating, gets out of bed and goes to investigate, finding that the
light switch doesn't work in the living room. The cat hisses at him
and, suddenly, the baby-masked photographer puts a rope around
Roberto's neck and pulls it tighter, whispering, "I could kill
you, but I won't. I'll wait. Who's going to help you? The police,
perhaps? You can't tell anyone. You're all alone." The
blackmailer then releases a choking Roberto and disappears into the
darkness. It is at this time we begin to ask ourselves why this is
happening to Roberto. Is he being blackmailed for money or does the
blackmailer have more personal reasons for doing this? An even better
question to ask is this: Does Roberto know the real reason he is
being blackmailed and he's not telling anyone?
Nina wakes up and wants to know what is bothering Roberto. He breaks
down and tells her everything, about killing a man a couple of days
ago and everything that has happened since, unaware that Amelia is
listening to their conversation. When Roberto goes to show Nina all
the evidence the blackmailer sent him, he discovers it is all missing
from his desk drawer. Nina tells Roberto she doesn't believe him,
telling him it was probably a bad dream and he should talk to a
psychiatrist, which infuriates Roberto. Nina then asks Roberto the
name of the man he killed and he tells her his name was "Carlo
Morosi". Nina tells Roberto she found a bloodstained
handkerchief with the initials "C.M." on it and when
Roberto asks her where she found it, she tells him on the top of her
bedroom dresser and begins to cry. Roberto comforts her and says,
"What are we going to do?" Nina says, "Let's run away.
Let's get away from here. It's the only way."
Before making such a rash decision, Roberto decides to visit hulking
friend Godfried (Bud Spencer; THEY
CALL ME TRINITY - 1970), whom Roberto jokingly calls
"God", because he can practically fix any sticky situation
(When Roberto yells "God! God, where are you?" we hear a
church choir sing "Hallelujah" just before we see Godfried).
Roberto tells Godfried everything that is happening to him (Godfried
has a pet parrot named "Jerkoff" who keeps interrupting
their conversation!), even accusing his bandmates of being in on it.
Godfried tells him to hire private detective Gianni Arrosio to snoop
around and protect him and to get "The Professor" to watch
his house. The Professor (Oreste Lionello; THE
CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS - 1971) is a part-time drunk who
lives on Godfried's property, but Godfried tells Roberto that he is
good at his job, so Roberto brings him back, the Professor watching
his home, making sure no one pays unwanted visits.
Roberto becomes paranoid and, in the pouring rain, he hits someone
wearing a parka over their head with a pipe for getting too close to
his house. It turns out to be the mailman (!), who has a special
delivery letter for Roberto. We then watch as Amelia blackmails
someone over a pay phone, telling the person, "I'm no fool.
Besides all the evidence I got here, I saw you. Look, I don't care
why you are doing it, I'm only interested in the money." She
tells the person to meet her in the park this afternoon and they
better bring the money (In one of Argento's patented tracking shots
[but not in one take], we follow the pay phone's cable from the phone
booth to the phone company's switchboard to the baby-masked
blackmailer's home). The blackmailer then has a flashback where
he/she is in a padded cell in a straightjacket hearing their father
say, "Stop acting like a baby! I never want to see you cry!"
as the camera pans 360° around the padded cell (I guess we know
why the blackmailer wears a baby mask!). We then see Amelia waiting
on a park bench for the blackmailer to arrive. I think we know this
is not going to end well. When the blackmailer doesn't arrive at the
appointed time (It is now nighttime), Amelia walks, and then runs,
out of the park, sensing that someone is following her. She ends up
in a severely narrow alleyway with a tall wall blocking her way. She
screams for help and a couple on the other side of the wall hears
her, but the man tells her that the wall is too high to climb, she
will have to wait until he can find another way to help her. It's too
late to save her anyway, as we watch Amelia's fingernails break as
she claws at the wall, the blackmailer killing her.
Roberto has another party at his home, the same people there that
were at the first party, the only exception being Dalia (Francine
Racette; THE DISAPPEARANCE
- 1977) and Roberto doesn't look happy to see her. Nina informs him
that Amelia is missing and she is also not a happy person, but Andrea
is there, telling the group another "funny" story, this one
about Baron Frankenstein and his queer (as in gay) Monster, who rapes
the Baron. As before, everyone laughs except for Roberto. The police
then phone the house and tell Nina that Amelia has been found with
her throat cut and could she come to the station tomorrow morning to
identify the body. That night, Roberto has the nightmare again where
the executioner in Saudi Arabia is about to lop off a man's head,
only this time it gets really close to the man losing his head before
Roberto wakes up. He hears the cat hissing and knows that someone is
in the house, but he stays in bed. The next morning, he finds a note
taped to the door that reads "E Stato Facile" ("It was
easy") and Nina tells him, "I'm scared. They're out to get
us and it's not blackmail. They want to kill us!" (The Professor
finds their cat dead). Nina becomes more paranoid than Roberto,
giving him a choice: Either they leave the house and never come back
or Roberto tells the police everything.
We then find out that Carlo Morosi (Calisto Calisti; ADIOS,
SABATA - 1970) is actually alive, talking to the blackmailer
and giving a "toy" back: A switchblade with a retractable
blade that squirts blood. Carlo is disgusted with the blackmailer,
saying that murder was never a part of the plan and even killing
Roberto's cat was going too far. Carlo wants to be paid and forget
about the whole thing, only the blackmailer is not so forgiving,
bashing Carlo repeatedly in the head with a full bottle of champagne
and finishing him off by strangling him with a metal coat hanger,
twisting it tight around his neck until Carlo lets out a death throttle.
Roberto finally meets private investigator Gianni Arrosio
(Jean-Pierre Marielle; THE DA
VINCI CODE - 2006), who is gay (How do we know he is gay? He
asks Roberto, "Have you ever had a homosexual
experience?"!). He is not only gay, he has a voracious appetite
and is always hungry. He tells Roberto that he has never solved a
case (!), but he feels lucky today, saying, "Statistically
speaking, one of the most impressive records of failure is destined
to be broken. 84 failures, a record like that couldn't possibly
last!" (He seems very proud of his failures). For some reason,
Roberto hires him on the spot and the limp-wristed Arrosio says to
him, "I will take a very personal interest in your case."
Arrosio starts asking Roberto some very personal questions and we
discover that Nina was left a very large inheritance, but Roberto
doesn't like talking about it because his rock band makes very little
money and he survives on his wife's money. Arrosio tells Roberto that
he won't realize he's around and if he needs any further information,
he'll contact him by phone. As Roberto is walking toward his home,
the Professor tells him to get lost, Nina has been talking to the
police for a long time. Before he can turn around, Nina walks out of
the house with Police Commissioner Peeny (Tom Felleghy; DAMNED
IN VENICE - 1978), so Roberto walks towards them. Nina tells
Roberto that she is going to the police station with Peeny to talk
about Amelia, but when she is done, she is not coming home, she needs
to get away from it all. Roberto tells her he is staying home and
sticking it out because it is better than going to prison. Yes,
Roberto's life is crumbling all around him, but what can he do to
stop it? (Especially when Nina refuses to kiss him goodbye, turning
her head and walking away). With Nina now gone, Delia shows up and
tells Roberto that Nina told her everything because she had no one
else to talk to. She tries to console Roberto by giving him a bath
(!) and massaging his neck while he sits naked in the bathtub. Of
course, this leads to a lovemaking session in the tub. Roberto has
the Saudi Arabia nightmare again, only this time a naked Dalia wakes
him up and they make love again. Arrosio then phones Roberto to tell
him he saw a "strange physical resemblance" in one of the
photos Roberto gave him, but he doesn't tell Roberto who he is
talking about, saying it may be hereditary, but he'll tell him who at
another time. He also tells Roberto that he won't hear from him for a
few days and asks him if this name rings a bell: "Villa
Rapidi". Roberto says no and Arrosio hangs up before he can ask
him why. It turns out that Villa Rapidi is a mental institution and
we see Arrosio talking to a psychiatrist at the institution about
some unknown person, the psychiatrist telling him that the patient
was there for three years, the person suffering from paranoia and an
extreme case of homicidal mania. The psychiatrist also tells Arrosio
that after the patient's father died, all the symptoms of emotional
disturbance disappeared and the patient was completely cured. He has
one more point to add. He suspected that the man was not the
patient's real father. Think you know who it is? All the clues are in
this review, so dust off your magnifying glass, inject yourself with
a seven per cent solution and start deducing.
This is one of Dario Argento's least talked about films in his canon
(just like TWO EVIL EYES
- 1990 and TRAUMA - 1992) and I
really don't know why. I heard and read many complaints saying that
this film is "too dated' and contains "too much humor",
but those two points don't bother me at all. What film made in the
early-'70s doesn't look dated? If it weren't a period piece or a
western, of course it will seem dated, but I look past all that and
enjoy the film for its story, not the hairstyles, clothing or slang
that place it in that time period. As for the humor, what can I say,
Argento always placed humor in his films, sometimes overt and
sometimes well hidden. The humor here comes mainly from the mailman
(who always carries a pipe, just in case Roberto attacks him again)
and Arrosio (Jean Pierre Marielle decided to make his character gay,
even though it wasn't written that way. Argento agreed and Marielle
ad-libbed many of his lines), but you won't be laughing when you see
how the blackmailer kills Arrosio, telling him, "You guessed
right" just before injecting him with an air embolism directly
into his heart. There is much to enjoy here, such as Argento's
flourishes with the camera, giving us some very weird POV shots, his
use of sound to make us jump (such a a phone ringing in a dark room)
and the story itself (screenplay by Argento, from a story by himself,
Mario Foglietti and Luigi Cozzi [director/writer of THE
KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN - 1973 and CONTAMINATION
- 1980]), where Argento keeps throwing us a left when we are
expecting a right, such as letting us believe Dalia is the killer,
only to have her murdered by the real killer. This leads to a very
strange and quite unbelievable plot twist, where a doctor tells the
police and Roberto that the retina of the eye contains the last image
the person saw before dying, so they check Dalia's retina and come up
with an image that looks like four flies (hence the title). As I
said, quite unbelievable, but somehow Argento gets it to work, just
like he did with the finale of THE
BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970) and DEEP
RED (1975). Of course, it helps if you suspend your belief
system, but some people just aren't able to do that, not
understanding that nearly every other giallo
film asks the same thing from you. This is the main difference
between a giallo film and a murder mystery. Murder mysteries want you
to think logically, but giallo films don't necessarily want you to do
that. Realize that and you'll become a giallo fan, too, just like me.
While this is not my favorite giallo film (that would be TORSO
- 1973), it ranks up there in my top twenty. This film offers many
surprises to the viewer and all it asks of you is just to go along
for the ride (Some of the surprises include Roberto realizing the man
being beheaded in his nightmares is actually him; the "four
flies" image being a clever revelation to Roberto; and the
killer meeting a fitting end, another one of Argento's fabulous
camera flourishes. He had to destroy ten cars to get the shot that he
wanted.). This film also originated the "bullet time" shot
made famous in the MATRIX trilogy.
Shot as QUATTRO
MOSCHE DI VELUTTO GRIGIO ("Four Patches of Grey
Velvet"), this film received a U.S. theatrical release from
Paramount Pictures, albeit in an edited version in order to obtain a
PG Rating, missing the nudity, the beheading and some footage in the
closing minutes. Strangely, it never received a legitimate VHS
release in the United States, Paramount refusing to license it to
anyone for reasons still unknown. The first time it appeared on home
video in the States was 2009, when Mya Communications released
it on DVD. I remember the uproar it caused in fan circles, who
complained that the sound was warbled and then taking the Mya print
and releasing it on torrent sites with the sound supposedly
"fixed". It was also supposedly cut, something I was not
able to confirm, as the Mya disc went out of print almost as soon as
it hit the market, people screaming for their money back (after
making copies for themselves, that is). The streaming version on
Amazon Prime, which is not free to Prime members (it will cost you
$1.99 to watch it) is the uncut version in a beautiful widescreen
(not anamorphic) print, restoring all the nudity and violence with
one caveat: even though it is uncut, some scenes are in Italian, but
there are no English subtitles. So brush up on your Italian, because
there is a conversation in the final minutes that should really be
subtitled (It is important to the plot, explaining the killer's
motive). It's a small, but legitimate, complaint but it does not ruin
the film. I just wish that some enterprising company (C'mon Synapse
Films or Blue Underground!) would release this on disc with all the
bells and whistles. It's bound to be a big seller. Also starring Aldo
Bufilandi (BYLETH: THE
DEMON OF INCEST - 1972), Corrado Olmi (APACHE
WOMAN - 1976), Dante Cleri (FATHER
JACKLEG - 1972), Fulvio Mingozzi (SEVEN
BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS - 1972) and a quick cameo by Shirley
Corrigan (THE
DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE - 1971) as a girl at one of Roberto's
parties. The U.S. theatrical version is Rated PG, while the
uncut streaming print is Not Rated.
FRAGMENT
OF FEAR (1970) - British
thriller from the director of the existential action classic VANISHING
POINT (1971) and the not-so-classic actioner (but still one
of my 80's faves) EYE OF THE TIGER
(1986). Recovering drug addict Tim Brett (David Hemmings; DEEP
RED - 1975) is in Italy trying to get his novel published.
His sweet old Aunt Lucy (Flora Robson; THE
BEAST IN THE CELLAR - 1970) agrees to financially back him
in his endeavors, but when she is found brutally murdered in some
Pompeii ruins by a British tour group, Tim puts his book on hold and
tries to solve her murder. It won't be easy for Tim, because his drug
and criminal background (he was no angel during his younger years)
also makes him a prime suspect to the Italian police. Once back in
Britain, he joins forces with fiancée and soon-to-be-wife
Juliet Briston (Gayle Hunnicutt; Hemming's real-life wife at the
time, who also starred with him in the excellent thriller NIGHTMARE
- 1973) to find out more information on Aunt Lucy's mysterious life.
Tim goes to a group retirement home where Aunt Lucy lived and is
greeted with senility in the form of Mrs. Gray (Mona Washbourne; WHAT
BECAME OF JACK AND JILL? - 1971), who knows who the Rolling
Stones are but can't seem to recall what happened yesterday, and
derision in the form of Miss Ward-Cadbury (Yootha Joyce), the home's nurse/caretaker.
Tim does discover from arthritic resident Mr. Vellacot (Roland
Culver) that Aunt Lucy's husband
was killed by a burglar and, ever since that day, Lucy went out of
her way to help young criminals turn their life around (Mr. Vellacot
believes Lucy helped approximately 25 to 30 men walk the
straight-and-narrow). On his way back from the retirement home, Tim
meets a strange lady on a train (who Tim later describes as "a
pathetic old dyke with a face like a bun") and she gives him an
envelope (which Tim initially thinks is a religious pamphlet),
telling him not to open it until he gets home. It turns out not to be
a religious pamphlet at all, but a thinly-veiled threat telling him
to stop investigating Lucy's death. Tim begins to doubt his own
sanity when his tape-recorded notes contain devious laughter that
seems to be in his own voice and he discovers that the threatening
note could only have come from his typewriter (it has a distinctively
flawed "I" key). Is it possible that Tim is back to abusing
drugs or is all this some elaborate setup to blame Tim for Lucy's
death? It doesn't take a genius (or does it?) to recognize that Tim
is being unfairly accused of a bunch of crimes he didn't commit,
including making an indecent proposal to the old dyke on the train
(she files a complaint with the police). Police Sgt. Matthews (Derek
Newark) believes Tim is madder than a hatter, as Tim complains he is
receiving threatening phone calls from a mysterious man ("I am
7, 70, and 700!") telling him to lay-off the investigation and
that he is constantly being watched. This all begins to worry Juliet,
who also begins to believe that Tim is back on the junk (he begins to
sweat profusely and pukes at the most inopportune times), but it
turns out someone is actually spiking Tim's milk. Tim is
strong-willed, nonetheless, and his investigation will lead him to a
retired probation officer named Mr. Copsey (Wilfred Hyde-White; CHAMBER
OF HORRORS - 1966) and a mysterious group known as the
"Stepping Stones", which turn out to be the people Lucy
helped rehabilitate. Can Tim unravel this mystery before the police
arrest him or he is committed to a mental institution for seeing
things that aren't there (such as Sgt. Matthews, who the police never
heard of)? Or will he die before he discovers the truth? This
is an interesting murder mystery with a good performance by David
Hemmings as a man who is slowly being persecuted by forces unknown,
yet he remains unbowed in his determination to uncover the truth,
even if it means losing the trust or alienating those he loves.
Director Richard C. Sarafian (whose son, Deran Sarafian, would later
directs such genre films as ALIEN
PREDATOR [1984] and DEATH
WARRANT [1990] before finding a comfortable niche directing
episodic American TV such as CSI:
and its spin-offs) and screenwriter Paul Dehn (GOLDFINGER
- 1964) have created an excellent puzzle piece mystery that will not
easily be solved by the viewer. What I liked about FRAGMENT
OF FEAR is that it deals with several aspects of life (drug
addiction, love, conspiracies, secret societies, etc.) in a frank and
honest manner, without a hint of unwelcome humor, which belies its PG
(originally GP) rating. I won't give more away except to say that the
film manages to be thrilling and frightening without being
particularly violent or bloody. This film is character driven and
David Hemmings carries the film with his multi-layered performance.
The finale may be a little too ambiguous for some people's liking,
but it serves this film well. Richard Sarafian's last directorial
effort was the disappointing disaster flick SOLAR
CRISIS (1990), which Sarafian decided to take an "Alan
Smithee" credit, a sure sign that he wasn't happy with the final
product. Also starring Adolfo Celi (DEATH
KNOCKS TWICE - 1969), Daniel Massey and Arthur Lowe. I don't
believe FRAGMENT OF FEAR ever received a U.S. home video
release (it did receive a theatrical release). The print I viewed was
sourced from a British VHS tape from RCA/Columbia Home Video. Rated
PG.
FREEWAY (1996)
- The term "graphic" describes every facet of this
modern retelling of Little Red Riding
Hood. The violence, language and sex push this way beyond its R
rating (did the MPAA actually review this film?), making it a
thoroughly remarkable and funny tale of morals in this country. A
juvenile delinquent (the wonderful Reese Witherspoon, who went on to
become a major star is such films as LEGALLY
BLONDE - 2001) takes a trip to her grandmother's house after
her prostitute mother and junkie stepfather are busted by the police.
Along the way, her car breaks down and she gets a ride from a child
psychiatrist (Kiefer Sutherland) who turns out to be a notorious
necropheliac serial killer. She manages to break free and shoots him
a half dozen times but he clings to life, his face horribly
disfigured. She is arrested for attempted murder. Due to her lengthly
juvenile record, the police do not believe her story and she is made
out to be the monster and he the innocent victim, due in a large part
by the efforts of his bitchy wife's (an excellent Brooke Shields)
media campaign of half-truths and misinformation. She is tried as an
adult and sentenced to life inprisonment. Forced to use violence as a
way to survive, she becomes a celebrity in prison and escapes with
the help of three female inmates. Meanwhile, the police are getting
closer to discovering the real truth. The finale takes place at
Grandma's house, where the disfigured serial killer subs for Grandma
and lies in waiting for his revenge. Writer/director Matthew Bright
offers a sassy script, surreal scenes and off-kilter violence and
blends it into a really satisfying brew. Oliver Stone was one of the
executive producers. This film was such a hit on home video and cable
that director Bright made a sequel FREEWAY
2: CONFESSIONS OF A TRICKBABY (1999). FREEWAY
also stars Dan Hedaya, Amanda Plummer, Wolfgang Bodison, Bokeem
Woodbine, Sydney Lassick and Tara Subkoff
(director/producer/screenwriter of #
HORROR - 2015) as "Sharon". Made it's premiere on
HBO with a video release by Republic
Pictures Home Video. Rated
R, but
deserves an NC-17
although I'm not complaining.
GIALLO
IN VENICE (1979) - "I
explore the nature of man. It hurts, but it frees us from constraints."
This is one of the nastiest, most brutal giallo films I have ever
seen, on the same level as Lucio Fulci's THE
NEW YORK RIPPER (1982). While RIPPER
was misogynistic and violent, this film is just nasty in every
aspect. So nasty, it will take the staunchest of person to really
appreciate it. I don't know if I am that person, but I'll seriously try.
The film opens with Fabio (Gianni Dei; SEX
OF THE WITCH - 1973) getting stabbed repeatedly in the
crotch and, believe it or not, the film goes much lower than that as
it progresses. We then see Police
Inspector Angelo De Pol (Jeff Blynn; the Stallone flick CLIFFHANGER
- 1993) standing over Fabio's body, on the shore near a Venice canal,
his pants open and blood everywhere. Near Fabio's body is his wife,
Flavia (Leonora Fani; DOG LAY AFTERNOON
- 1976), and she, too, is dead, dressed in a bright yellow sundress,
her body and clothes soaking wet. Alberto (Giancarlo Del Duca; CRY
OF A PROSTITUTE - 1974), the coroner, is at the crime scene
and he tells the Inspector that it looks like Flavia drowned, as
there are no traces of violence, only minor scratches on her body.
"It's a mystery why the perpetrator pulled her out of the
water" says Alberto. He also says that Fabio was stabbed in the
crotch with a sharp object, but it doesn't look like it was a knife.
He'll know more after he performs the autopsies. One of the
detectives finds pills on Fabio's body and Alberto says it looks like
LSD and the Inspector says, "Yes, just what I wanted to
hear." Does he know something we don't? The Inspector's
assistant, Maestrin (Eolo Capritti; THE
LONG ARM OF THE GODFATHER - 1972), thinks it's a drug deal
gone wrong, but that doesn't explain why Flavia is all wet. Hell, she
wasn't even wearing panties (or, as Alberto says, "I guess she
wasn't worried about catching a cold!"). The Inspector sees an
old man spying on them with binoculars from an apartment complex, so
he sends Maestrin to go question him, in case he saw the murders
happen. The old man, who has an elderly bedridden sister who can't
speak, tells Maestrin he didn't see anything, denies owning
binoculars and accuses him of police brutality! The Inspector, who
has the disgusting habit of eating hardboiled eggs at the most
inopportune times (leaving eggshells where he stands or sits),
chalks-up the murders to a bad drug deal, but I think we know by now
that it is never that easy.
One of Venice's most powerful judges phones the Inspector,
complaining that the murders are on the front page of all the
newspapers. Since it is tourist season, he tells the Inspector to
find the killer and make it quick, because his job is on the line
(one of the most overused giallo clichés). Alberto then phones
the Inspector, telling him that Flavia had sex shortly before she was
killed, but he cannot tell if it was consensual or if it was rape.
The Inspector then questions Flavia's best friend, Marzia
(Mariangela Giordano, listed here as "Maria Angela Giordan";
BURIAL GROUND
- 1980), who is getting phone calls from a man who calls her
"slut" and "whore" (She tells the Inspector that
the man is in love with her!). We discover Marzia and Flavia were
childhood friends, they even went to university together, but they
lost touch and just recently reconnected. Marzia didn't get along
with Fabio (who was an architect), but things improved as time moved
on. They all became friends and did everything together (I know what
you are thinking and you would be right!). She tells the Inspector
that Fabio didn't do drugs, but she looks guilty about something,
especially when the Inspector asks about Fabio and Flavia's sex life.
When he tells her that they found pornographic photos and equipment
to make porno films in Fabio & Flavia's home, Marzia begins
telling the truth, where she says that Fabio had "unusual
requests" during sex. We are then taken back in time (an
elongated flashback), where we see who Fabio and Fabio really were,
at least according to Marzia.
We see Fabio and Flavia sitting in a ferry, as a handsome young man
watches them kissing and making out. They put on a show for him
(Flavia looks unwilling, but Fabio talks her into it) and when the
ferry docks, he follows them home. Before they get home, Fabio &
Flavia put a pornographic show for him, Fabio pulling down Flavia's
panties and fucking her (standing up!) in a boatyard. The man looks
on intently, Fabio making eye contact with him, but the man, who then
looks disgusted, walks away. Once home, Fabio begins playing with a
piece of fruit as if it is a vagina (you have to see it to believe
it!), while Flavia complains that she doesn't want to play sex games
anymore, as it made her feel "shabby". She runs into the
bedroom, strips naked and she and Fabio make love. Like most men,
Fabio finishes before Flavia does, gets up and walks out of the
bedroom (completely naked), and then begins to read an S&M
pornographic comic strip, leaving Flavia to finish the job manually
(If you know what I mean. Even if you don't, no need to worry, as the
camera shows you in extreme close-up!). Fabio gets so turned-on by
the comic strip, he does the same thing (thankfully, not in extreme
close-up!). Fabio then walks into the bedroom, sees his wife naked
and begins whipping her with a cat o' nine tails! (I can't stop using
exclamation points!!!). She begs Fabio to stop, but he just whips her
harder, finishing the job by making love to her (and she loves it!).
Once again, he finishes before his wife does, only this time he falls
asleep in bed (and all this happens in the first 30 minutes!).
Back in the present, the Inspector has tapped Marzia's phone, as he
doesn't believe her explanation about the man who is calling her.
While Marzia is away, Maestrin searches her home, finding, hidden in
one of her dresser drawers, a box of 35mm pornographic slides and a
note that reads "I won't let you stay with that bunch of
perverts. I'd rather kill you!" Of course, the note is unsigned.
We then see Marzia meeting a man at an outdoor bistro and he wants to
know if she destroyed the slides. She tells him no and he demands
that she give them to him. She calls him crazy, not noticing that
there is a man wearing mirrored sunglasses watching them (another
giallo trope). We then discover that the man Marzia is talking to is
named Marco Dezan (an uncredited Maurizio Streccioni; CITY
OF THE WALKING DEAD,
a.k.a. NIGHTMARE CITY
- 1980) and she tells him she is afraid, as "He's back and he
threatened me!" Marco tells her that he's just a student and she
shouldn't take him seriously because "He's a loony."
Marzia says, "He's a fanatic. He's capable of anything.",
so Marco tells her to get out of Venice and go on a vacation if she
is so scared. Is it possible that the man in the mirrored sunglasses
is that fanatic? Marzia and Marco also don't notice that a man
sitting at a table next to them is a cop and he has heard everything.
The Inspector and Maestrin look at the slides from Marzia's house
and they show Fabio, Flavia and Marzia having a ménage a
trois. They also show Marzia & Flavia having lesbian sex, as well
as Marzia & Marco enjoying intercourse. The Inspector knows Marco
Dezan as a criminal and says, "Sex is always the key!"
There is also an unknown woman in the slides, which no one can
identify. The Inspector says something smells funny (it could be his
hardboiled eggs, which he never stops eating!), as this crime doesn't
make sense. Who would want to kill Fabio and Flavia and what possibly
could be their motive? If you have paid close attention to this
review, you have enough clues to figure it out on your own. Just
remember this: The first scene in most giallo films is the most
important and it's no different here. Need more info? OK...
Alberto tells the Inspector that Fabio was stabbed in the crotch
with scissors, the kind that tailors use. He jokingly tells the
Inspector to arrest all the tailors in town and then he will have the
killer. The man in the mirrored sunglasses then pays a prostitute for
sex, demanding that they do it outside and standing up (Now where did
I hear that before?). As they are doing it, the man pulls out some
scissors and stabs her repeatedly in the vagina (nothing is left to
the imagination). The Inspector pulls in Marzia and Marco for
questioning and they both have alibis on where they were when Fabio,
Flavia and the prostitute were killed, as they were with each other,
but are they lying? That's all you are going to get from me without
giving away the ending. But what do Marco, who is set on fire after
being doused with gasoline and Marzia having her right leg cut off
with a hacksaw (while she's alive!) have to do with all this? Yes,
these are only but two scenes (no details are left out) where the
camera lingers on the carnage, where we see Marco's body after he is
burned alive (It is pretty disgusting) and a cleaning lady discovers
Marzia's corpse in her refrigerator, her severed right leg posed next
to her! What does it all mean?
This film wallows in voyeuristic near-pornographic sex, as well as
gratuitous violence (You have to see Marzia getting her leg cut
off!), so much so, I felt like taking a cold shower after watching
it. While this film has no redeeming social value, it does have a
certain something that will not allow you to take your eyes off the
screen. I think it's the filmic filth that this film seems just a
little too accommodating to show, as in flashback, we see Fabio and
Flavia in all sorts of pornographic poses, being it Fabio raping
Flavia outside a store teeming with customers or Fabio letting a
total stranger feel Flavia up in a dark movie theater. There's
nothing Fabio won't do for a sexual thrill (most of it at Flavia's
expense) and this film is more than happy to show them to you, some
linger longer than you will feel comfortable with, especially in the
sad, nihilistic, yet fitting finale, where we discover the real
reason Fabio and Flavia were killed. Which is surprising, since
director Mario Landi was better
known as a director of TV movies and mini-series, his only other
theatrical genre film of note being PATRICK
STILL LIVES (1980), an in-name only sequel to the 1978
Australian horror film PATRICK.
The screenplay, by Aldo Serio (WATCH
ME WHEN I KILL - 1977), is basically nothing but a bunch of
giallo film clichés, spiced-up with plentiful male and female
full-frontal nudity, sex that cross the porn level not so gently and
bloody gore. Sometimes that is all I need from a film, but very
rarely, which makes this film seem worthwhile to me for reasons I
can't put my finger on. Maybe it's because I'm a dirty old bastard,
but for whatever reason, I liked this film. I also doubt that it is a
coincidence that Maestrin looks and dresses like KOJAK
and that many American TV detective clichés are used here,
especially Inspector De Pol's fondness for hardboiled eggs, which is
probably similar to Kojak's fondness for lollipops (but without the
stench or mess). When we discover how Fabio and Flavia ended up dead
near the canal, thanks to the old man with the binoculars, who saw
everything, it is quite shocking and unexpected, taking the meaning
of "voyeurism" to a whole new level, so just go with it,
you will probably like this film, even if it is for all the wrong
reasons. I won't judge you because I am just as guilty.
Shot as GIALLO A VENEZIA
(a literal translation of the review title) and also known as THRILLING
IN VENICE, this film never had a theatrical or VHS release
in the United States. Imagine my surprise to discover that Scorpion
Releasing has delivered a Blu-Ray
of this title and, according to people who have seen it, it looks
beautiful. I found out rather late in the game about this disc and by
then it was already sold out, as Scorpion was first offering the
Blu-Ray to overseas customers, ignoring us here in the States, which
really pissed me off, as they only pressed 1000 copies. It has
something to do with the licensing deal they struck with the film's
owner, who wanted non-U.S. residents to get first dibs on the discs.
By the time it was available here, no copies were available. Let's
hope they press some more copies because this is one film I want to
add to my library, if only to shock people who come over to my
apartment to watch films with me. (UPDATE: I finally managed
to get my hands on the Blu-Ray from Diabolik
DVD and, while lacking in extras, the film itself looks
terrific!) I guarantee they have never seen anything quite like this!
Also look for multiple shots of J&B
Scotch, Italy's favorite alcoholic beverage. I gave up after
about twenty instances of it popping up. Also starring Vassili
Karis (as "Vassili Karamesinis"; BLOODY
PSYCHO - 1989), Michele Renzullo, Maria Tedeschi (PLOT
OF FEAR - 1976), Claudio Zucchet (YETI:
GIANT OF THE 20TH CENTURY - 1977), Alba Maiolini (THE
FLOWER WITH THE DEADLY STING - 1973) and Maria Mancini (SEVEN
WOMEN FOR SATAN - 1974) as the prostitute who gets a pair of
scissors shoved up her hoo-haa. Not Rated, but that's not
surprising, is it?
HER
VENGEANCE (1988) - Five drunk and
violent brothers go to the "Casino Lisboa" and interrupt
the stage show (a French can-can review) by acting rowdy and
beligerent. When the manager of the club, Chieh Ying (Pauline Wong),
asks them to calm down, they grope her, forcing Cheih to slap one of
the brothers and call Security, who throw them out. The brothers wait
for Chieh to get off work, where they grab her, bring her to a
cemetery and gang-rape her (one of the brothers burns her with a
disposable lighter when she refuses to move while he screws her!). In
her shame, Chieh never reports the rape and returns to her regular
routine. One day, she has a burning sensation between her legs, so
she goes to a doctor, who tells her that she has a serious case of VD
(His exact words are: "You must have had filthy sex partners.
Your uterus will soon rot, leading to cancer of the uterus!")
and she will soon die. What is a poor girl to do? Well, since this is
a crazy, out-of-control Hong Kong thriller, she decides to get even
with her five rapists before she kicks-off. After telling her blind
sister her whole sordid story, Chieh leaves mainland China and heads
to Hong Kong in search of Hsiung (Lam Ching-Ying), her
wheelchair-bound Uncle, who was also her blind sister's lover (!).
Hsiung, who runs a nightclub/whorehouse called the San Francisco Bar,
knows a thing or two about vengeance, but he initially refuses to
help Chieh in her plot for revenge since he knows the high price that
usually has to be paid (for him it was the loss of his legs). He does
give her a job as a waitress at his bar, where we watch how Hsiung
deals with unruly customers (he uses his wheelchair as a weapon and
is quite handy with it!). As luck would have it, the five rapist
brothers are in town, so when Chieh spots one of them outside the
bar, she tricks him into driving out to the middle of nowhere for a
"snack" (i.e. a blowjob). She manages to tie the guy's
hands behind his back and then cuts his ear off with a pair of
scissors and finishes him offf by strangling him from behind as he
kicks-out the car windshield. One down, four to go. Chieh tricks
another brother into thinking he's inheriting some insurance money
from his dead brother, but she fails to kill him, even after throwing
acid in his face and stabbing him in the back. She is successful in
her next attempt, impaling another brother in the stomach with a
sharpened pipe while he is filming a porno flick. When the remaining
three brothers find out Chieh's identity and kill her blind sister,
Hsiung has no choice but to join Chieh in her quest for bloody
revenge. The finale is a non-stop barrage of death in depravity that
will make the most jaded gorehound sit up and take notice. This
sleazy, nasty rape/revenge thriller leaves very little to the
imagination, as it is full of nudity, blood and scenes of brutal
violence. As directed by Nam Nai Choi (a.k.a. "Simon Nam"),
who also gave us THE
SEVENTH CURSE (1986) and the ultra-violent and campy RIKI-OH:
THE STORY OF RICKY (1991), the plot of HER VENGEANCE
is your basic "rapist out for revenge" scenario, but the
execution is anything but basic. It's absolutely delirious. Not only
do we get to see various impalements, stabbings, dismemberments,
slashings and head bashings (with exotic pointy fruit!), we are also
privvy to the unusual sights of Hsiung bathing his two leg stumps
(both legs are cut-off above the knees) and a finale that is one of
the most amazing and demented white-knuckle sequences in recent
memory. Without giving too much away, it contains wheelchair-fu, a
homemade crossbow and a never-say-die attitude displayed by one of
the characters that's remarkable in it's savagery and grace. You'll
know what I mean when you see it. If this film does have a fault,
it's the subplot about Chieh Ying's friendship and possible romance
with young man Hsiao Hao (Kelvin Wong). It's a rather pointless
affair, since they will never be able to consummate their
relationship (She's riddled with an STD after all!), but he
eventually becomes a victim of his desires. While trying to stop
Chieh from killing one of her rapists, he pays for it with his life.
If you ever wondered what a Hong Kong version of I
SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (1978) would look like, here it is. What
an amazing piece of trash cinema. Search it out. Would make a good
double feature with Dennis Yu's THE
BEASTS (1980). Also starring Wong Ching, Billy Chow, Shing
Fu On, Shum Wai and Chan Ging as the rapist brothers and Elaine Kam
as Susan, one of Hsiung's bargirls who befriends Chieh and also pays
for it with her life. Originally released on VHS and laserdisc by
MediaAsia (in Manadrin with burned-in English subtitles) and
available on DVD-R from grey market seller Nightcrew Video. Be
advised that an alternate version of this film exists on VCD (on the
Deltamac label) that edits out nearly all the nudity and violence and
replaces them with extended scenes and alternate footage. Not Rated.
HITCHER
IN THE DARK (1989) - Slick,
but boring, Italian-financed and Florida-lensed psycho thriller.
Borrowing cues from THE HITCHER
(1986), this film (also known as THE HITCHER 2 in some
countries) tells the story of young psychopath Mark (Joe Balogh; MOONSTALKER
- 1989; HOLLYWOOD'S
NEW BLOOD - 1989), who picks up female hitchhikers in his
Winnebago, rapes, kills and photographs their dead bodies with his
trusty Polaroid and then drops their bodies in the alligator-infested
waters. Mark then sets his sights on pretty Daniela (Josie Bissett)
when he spots her in a bar. When Daniela catches her boyfriend Kevin
(Jason Saucier; THE CRAWLERS
- 1990) kissing another woman and storms out of the bar, Mark see
this as his perfect opportunity to get Daniela into the Winnebago for
a ride to the bus stop, which
she gladly accepts. After a few minutes talking with Mark, Daniela
can sense that there's a little something "off" about him,
but when she spots Kevin's car skulking behind the Winnebago, she
lets her anger and jealousy get the better of her and decides to stay
with Mark. Bad move. After drinking a can of drugged Coke, Daniela
later wakes up to discover that she is handcuffed and at the mercy of
Mark. A bathroom break affords Daniela a chance to escape, but she is
captured just after making a phone call to her sister asking for
help. Her sister calls Kevin when the police refuse to help and Kevin
begins his search to Daniela, picking up a clue from a pothead biker
who said he saw Daniela get picked-up by a guy driving a motor home.
Kevin begins following every motor home he spots (too bad the pothead
wasn't more specific and told him it was a Winnebago), even breaking
into one and getting the shit kicked out of him by it's angry black
owner. Mark drugs Daniela, cuts and dyes her blonde hair brown to
make her look like the photo of a 39 year-old Russian woman called
Danyetska that he keeps in his RV, which turns out to be his whore
mother. Daniela lets Mark make love to her, but Mark ejaculates
prematurely and goes psycho, slapping Daniela around and then keeping
her in a drugged stupor, where he takes naked Polaroids of her. When
Kevin finally locates Daniela, he, too, becomes a prisoner of Mark
(who carves the word "PIG" on Kevin's chest with a
switchblade) and must watch as Mark threatens to shove a knife up
Daniela's vagina (he doesn't though). It all ends rather badly as
Kevin is stabbed to death, Daniela is left for dead (of a drug
overdose) in the trunk of a car in an auto junkyard and Mark
continues picking-up female hitchhikers, only his latest pick-up is
none other than Daniela, who shoots Mark several times as a final
"fuck you". Don't you just love tender love stories?
Although there is some stylish photography on view, the static
direction by Umberto Lenzi (using his frequent "Humphrey
Humbert" pseudonym), who gave us other genre films such as SPASMO
(1974); ALMOST HUMAN
(1974); EYEBALL
(1975); GHOSTHOUSE
(1987) and WELCOME
TO SPRING BREAK (1988); the unbelievable screenplay by Olga
Pehar (Lenzi's HUNT FOR
THE GOLDEN SCORPION - 1991), which is full of convenient
coincidences (such as Daniela trying to get away in the stolen
Winnebago, only to get it stuck in the mud); and the questionable
acting talents of the three main actors (You thought Jason Saucier
was bad in THE CRAWLERS? Wait until you see him here!); all
join together to make a film that is not only as slow as a snail with
hemorrhoids, it also stinks of desperation and flop sweat. Not one
person in this film acts or reacts like a real human being
(especially Josie Bissett's character, who accepts her punching bag
and rape status a little too easily), so Lenzi tries to divert us by
throwing-in sleazy scenes of nudity (including a wet tee-shirt
contest) and some quick glimpses of gore. The sad fact is that HITCHER
IN THE DARK is a very minor Italian genre effort that is not
worth your time, no matter how bored you are. Watching this will only
increase your boredom. Available from Shriek
Show either as a stand-alone DVD or as part of their triple
feature HIGH
SCHOOL HORRORS DVD box set, with HELL
HIGH (1986) and THE MAJORETTES
(1986) as the co-features. Rated R.
HITCH-HIKE
(1978) - I decided to revisit this Italian thriller after
listening to David Hess on the extra on the Code Red's Blu-Ray of HOUSE
ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK (1979), where he says his character
in this film is not similar to his role of "Krug Stillo" in LAST
HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972). I hate to argue with a dead man
(Hess passed away in 2011), but I think he was wrong. I would go as
far as to say that Hess wouldn't even have been considered for this
role if the makers didn't want a "Krug-like" character.
The film opens up with alcoholic reporter Walter Mancini (Franco
Nero; THE VISITOR
- 1978) on a hunting trip in Mexico with his wife Eve (Corinne Clery; THE
HUMANOID - 1979). Their marriage is on the rocks as we watch
Walter putting Eve in the scope of his rifle before he pulls the
trigger and kills a stag. Walter is so soused that, at their
campsite, where they meet Harry Stetson (Robert Sommer) and his wife
Lucy (Ann Ferguson), he can't even remember his last name! (One
camp-goer remarks "I've never met an Italian yet that can hold
his booze!"). The sad fact is that Walter can't even touch his
beautiful wife unless he is blind stinking drunk and when he does, it
is just a short leap to rape. So much so, that when Eve and Walter
see two young campers making-out in the woods, Eve says, "They're
making love. We just screw!". Walter and Eve's lives are about
to change dramatically.
While they are driving home to Los Angeles (towing their camper
trailer), they hear on the radio that the police are looking for
three deadly bank robbers who stole $2 million in cash, leaving a
wake of death in their path. Just as soon as they hear the radio
broadcast, Eve almost hits a bunch of boulders in the middle of the
road (Walter is too drunk to drive), forcing her to pull over to the
side of the road. They spot a man getting out of a disabled car and
it is Adam Konitz (David Hess). He asks the couple for a ride, but
Walter doesn't want to give him one. Eve, on the other hand, welcomes
another person in the car, if only not to hear her husband's
incessant drunken ramblings. We all know that Adam is one of the bank
robbers (we see a dead man inside the disabled car, a bullet wound in
his head) and, very soon, Walter and Eve will know it, too. They
introduce themselves to each other (Adam makes an "Adam &
Eve" remark as a sexual overture) and Adam proceeds to play head
games with the couple, much of it sexual, as he begins to touch Eve
in ways that Walter never dreamed of. The problem is, this couple
have already been playing head games with each other, so Adam will
have to work very hard to get the couple to fear for their lives,
especially when he shows them a suitcase containing the $2 million in
cash. We must figure out: Who is playing who?
Driving down the road, they have a close encounter with two
motorcycle cops who set up a roadblock looking for the robbers. With
Adam in the back seat holding a gun on the couple, Walter talks to
one of the policemen, flashing the inside of a matchbook where he has
written "SOS". Adam knows something is wrong by the looks
on the officer's face, so he shoots the two officers dead (The second
officer is shot through his motorcycle helmet, as we watch his brains
explode out of the back of his helmet). Instead of Adam being mad, he
admires Walter's moxey. Their next stop is a gas station, where Adam
stuffs a fifty dollar bill into Eve's cleavage ("I wish I was
that fifty!" says Adam) and tells her to buy two cartons of
Camel cigarettes (everyone here smokes like a chimney) and two
bottles of scotch. While Eve is trying to tell the Mexican clerk
(Ignazio Spalla; ADIOS SABATA
- 1970; billed here as "Pedro Sanchez") that she and her
husband are being held prisoner, Adam makes a deal with Walter to
write a book about his life (Walter has a reel-to-reel tape recorder
in the car, which Adam talks into.). Eve can't get the clerk to
understand her (He doesn't understand or speak English!) and Adam
knew that because he has been to this gas station many time before.
That night, while pulled over to someplace secluded, Adam ties-up
Walter and makes him watch Eve being sexually assaulted (and she
likes it). Then two shots ring out and Adam falls into a lake. He was
shot by his two partners-in-crime, Hawk (Carlo Puri) and Oaks
("John Loffredo"; real name: Joshua Sinclair; THE
LAST SHARK - 1981), who take Walter and Eve hostage and make
them drive to Mexico while they hide out in the trailer with the money.
They are then run off the road by a red tow truck, which then blocks
the road. It's no surprise that Adam is behind the wheel, as he
shoots Hawk in the chest and wings Oaks in the arm. Adam deceives his
two partners and Walter by saying that he is driving his two friends
to a doctor and letting Walter and Eve go free, but when he gets Hawk
and Oaks in the tow truck, he drives the truck over an embankment,
jumping out just before the truck bursts into flames and explodes as
it barrels down a mountainside (It's quite a sight and Adam says to
his partners, "Bye, faggots!"). Adam continues on his trip
with the captive couple, but just who is playing who?
Filled with eye-opening full-frontal nudity by Corrine Clery (who
says in an extra on the disc that it was her favorite role of her
career), such as the scene of Adam running his hands up and down
Eve's naked body as she lies next to a campfire, while a tied-up
Walter is forced to watch her reach a climax, something Walter was
never able to let her achieve. As I said in the beginning of this
review, David Hess basically reprises his Krug role in LHOTL,
demeaning Eve sexually (but the more he does, the more she likes it!)
and laughing maniacally like some out-of-control mental patient,
which we then discover (with a conversation with Walter as he tells
his life story) that is really what he is. When he was younger, he
escaped from a mental institution. But the biggest surprise this film
offers is the unexpected finale, where a totally naked Eve kills Adam
with the same hunting rifle Walter pointed at her on the hunting
trip. She ends up saving Walter's life because Adam was about to kill
him. Walter begins to look at Eve differently, the way she always
hoped he would, but the temptation of $2 million in cash just becomes
too tempting, bringing this film to a totally unexpected, nihilistic
ending (which I won't spoil for you here).
Directed
by Pasquale Festa Campanile (who was nominated for an Academy
Award® in 1964 for co-writing the screenplay of THE
FOUR DAYS OF NAPLES - 1962), who usually made Italian sex
comedies with fantasy elements like WHEN
WOMEN HAD TAILS (1970) and THE
SEX MACHINE (1975), which makes this film all the more
shocking. While it does have plenty of nudity, the violence (which is
sparse) comes quickly, without warning and is bloody. Screenwriters
Campanile, Aldo Crudo (SUPER
STOOGES VS. THE WONDER WOMEN - 1974) & Ottavio Jemma
(who did an uncredited rewrite of Lucio Fulci's A
LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN - 1971) fill this film with insults
and put-downs, as Adam demeans the couple, just as much verbally as
he does physically. Franco Nero is very good in his role (he said he
had a "blast" making this film); his icy blue eyes do just
as much talking as his voice and, for once, he is not dubbed by
someone else (his voice is just as distinctive as his eyes). Also
above average is Ennio Morricone's effective score, which consists of
a plucking banjo, acoustic guitar and other spare instruments,
evocative of the beautiful Mexican scenery. But oh!, that ending. It
must have had the same visceral gut-punch as DIRTY
MARY CRAZY LARRY (1974) did back in the day.
Barely released
theatrically in the United States (as THE
NAKED PREY, distributed by Hallmark
Releasing), this film was shot under the title AUTOSTOP
ROSSO SANGUE ("Blood Red Hitchhiking") and, as far
as I can discern, this never had a legitimate VHS release in the
States (The first time I viewed this film was via a copy of a Greek
VHS tape that I bought at a table of a Chiller convention back in the
mid-90s). This film is available on Blu-Ray from Raro
Video and on DVD from Blue
Underground, both uncut and in widescreen. This review is based
on the DVD (released in 2010), which is basically a port of the older
Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD which was released in 2002. Both contain
the same spare extras, which are a theatrical trailer and a 17-minute
documentary titled "The Devil Thumbs A Ride", where Franco
Nero, Corrine Clery and David Hess reminisce about making this film.
All in all, HITCH-HIKE is a
tense thriller that could have only could have originated from the
minds of those demented Italians. Also starring Leonardo Scavino,
Monica Zanchi, Luigi Birri and Benito Pacifico & Angelo Ragusa as
the Motorcycle Cops. Not Rated.
HOUSE
OF TERROR (1972) - When an
elderly couple is savagely knifed to death by some unknown person in
the titular house, nurse Jennifer Andrews (Jennifer Bishop; BIGFOOT
- 1970; MAKO:
JAWS OF DEATH - 1976) arrives by bus several years later to
take care of the suicidal Marsha (Jacquelyn Hyde; THE
DARK - 1979; SUPERSTITION
- 1982), wife of rich Emmett Kramer (Mitchell Gregg), in the very
same house. Emmett is the son of the elderly couple that was murdered
years earlier and ever since that fateful day, Marsha has gone off
the deep end, trying to kill herself several times and the creepy
housekeeper, Norma (Irenee Byatt), was struck dumb by the sight of
the carnage and hasn't spoken a word ever since. Jennifer has some
problems of her own, as her ex-con boyfriend, Mark (Arell Blanton),
who was just released from prison after serving a three-year stretch
for armed robbery and is the father of Jennifer's young son (who is
staying with her mother while Jennifer does her nursing gig), follows
her from San Francisco in hopes of rekindling their relationship.
When Mark discovers that Jennifer is working for Emmett, one of the
richest people in town, you can practically see dollar signs floating
above his head in a circle.
Jennifer is not treated very nicely in the Kramer household, as
Marsha calls her a tramp and accuses her of having an affair with her
husband; Norma gives her the cold shoulder; someone leaves a teddy
bear with a knife in it's stomach on her bed; someone is spying on
her in her bedroom through a peephole behind a painting; and Emmett
slowly begins putting the moves on her. One stormy night, while Norma
is masturbating in bed while holding a photo of Emmett, Jennifer
wakes up when bloody water seeps from her bedroom ceiling and she
discovers that Marsha has committed suicide by slitting her wrists in
the bathtub. Mark comes up with a plan to make a lot of money off the
suicide by proposing marriage to Jennifer, but first he must talk her
into seducing and marrying Emmett (not a hard to do since Emmett has
been madly in love with her since the fist day they met). Mark moves
into the house and pretends to be Jennifer's brother and he now wants
Jennifer to kill Emmett instead of divorcing him (He says, "Why
have half when you can have it all!"). Mark also picks this time
to tell Jennifer that he killed Marsha and made it look like a
suicide, so in for a penny, in for a pound. Jennifer and Mark wait
two years before the time is right to kill Emmett, but a monkey
wrench gets thrown into their plan by the sudden appearance of
Marsha's twin sister Dolores (Hyde again), a snarky actress who knows
that Mark and Jennifer are up to no good (and has her own romantic
eye on Emmett). Dolores tries to drive Jennifer crazy by restaging
Marsha's "suicide", while Mark cuts the brake line on
Emmett's car, hoping he'll die in a car accident (he doesn't, but he
comes close). Mark then joins forces with Dolores and they throw both
Emmett and Jennifer overboard in the middle of the ocean. Dolores
inherits all of Emmett's money, but the finale finds Dolores trapped
in a hot (and getting hotter) sauna with the corpse of Mark (who was
stabbed in the neck with a steak knife), compliments of housekeeper
Norma, who has regained her power of speech and is now laughing like
an insane loon. Don't you just love happy endings? This murder
mystery/crime thriller, directed/produced by Sergei Goncharoff (his
only directorial effort, although he has produced other films, such
as the Robert Forster-starrer WALKING
THE EDGE [1983]) and written by Tony Crechales (IMPULSE
- 1974; THE GREAT
SKYCOPTER RESCUE - 1980) and E.A. Charles, has a few
effective scenes, but is mostly a boring talkfest. The acting is
second-rate and stagey and the violence is limited to a couple of
bloody stabbings and Emmett's wild ride in his brakeless car (this
was rated PG when released to theaters, although the violence looks
to be trimmed slightly in the stabbing scenes). There's plenty of
colorful 70's fashions, hairstyles and music to keep your eyes and
ears occupied (not to mention the ridiculous makeup applied to both
Marsha and Norma, which makes them look more like zombies than human
beings), but the story is an all-too-common tale of double and triple
crosses, where no one is whom they seem to be, with a creepy (though
not unexpected) final denouement. This is nothing but a typical 70's
MFTV crime thriller with a little extra blood, some mild cursing and
a brief bit of nudity thrown in for good measure. HOUSE
OF TERROR is not terrible, just common. John "Bud"
Cardos, the director of KINGDOM
OF THE SPIDERS (1977), THE
DAY TIME ENDED (1979) and MUTANT
(1984), was Second Unit Director here. Also known as HOUSE OF BLOOD,
SCREAM BLOODY MURDER and FIVE AT THE FUNERAL.
Originally released on VHS by Trans
World Entertainment. Not available on DVD. Rated PG.
THE
HYENA OF LONDON (1964) - "This
is London towards the end of the Nineteenth Century. Our story
begins here, in the British capital, in the winter of 1883, more
precisely December 19th. A memorable date for Londoners. A day that
will mark the end of a frightening nightmare. Martin Bauer, the
ferocious criminal better known as "The Hyena of London."
The man who has terrorized the city for three long years...with
his frightening crimes. The monster and architect of such
unspeakable and horrendous crimes...is
about to be executed.
Just a few more moments and he will be nothing more than a chilling memory."
So begins this film, a stark black and white Gothic mystery based on
the crimes of London serial killer Martin Bauer, but not true in the
least. The truth of the matter is Martin Bauer never existed, as
didn't The Hyena of London. Even if he did exist, he is only a side
note here, used in the beginning and finale of this film simply as a
plot device. But let's get back to the film. We then see Big Ben
chime twelve, as Martin Bauer (actor unknown) is being escorted from
his cell to make the long walk down a dark, stark tunnel to the
gallows, where he is hung by the neck (offscreen) and then buried in
a pauper's grave. We then see an intoxicated cemetery night watchman
stumbling over Martin Bauer's grave, finding his gravesite ransacked
and his body missing from his wooden crate coffin. Is it possible he
has returned from the dead to claim more victims?
A short time later, we are at the town of Bradford, a small village
near London, where John Reed (Mario Militia, using the name
"Robert Burton") is kicked out of a pub because it is
midnight, closing time. John's wife, Margaret (Anita Tedesco; THE
EMBALMER - 1965; using the name "Annie Benson"),
meets him in front of the pub and tries to drag him back home,
telling him she has done this one too many times and it has to stop.
John falls down drunk and passes out on a doorstep while Margaret
tries to wake him up. A stranger approaches Margaret and by the look
on her face, it tells us she is no longer for this world. We hear her
muffled screams and then we are at the Bedford Police Department,
where John has been arrested and charged for the murder of his wife,
but he pleads to Inspector Brett O'Connor (Thomas Walton) that he his
innocent, he loved his wife and he is then dragged away to his jail
cell. Dr. Edward Dalton (Bernard Price) then enters the Inspector's
office, where he tells the Inspector and Scotland Yard attaché
Quayle (Gino Rumor) that Margaret was strangled by someone with quite
ferocious might. Quayle says it is obviously John because drunks are
known to be stronger than they have any right to be. The Inspector
ask Dr. Dalton if it is possible that John is the killer, but before
he can answer, Quayle interjects and says Margaret may have scolded
John bitterly and he snapped, killing her in the process. Dr. Dalton
looks at him and says if a man's life is at stake, you must be very
sure of his guilt. Quayle says he is positively sure that John is the
killer, so Dr. Dalton gives him a dirty look, excuses himself and
walks out of the room. When Dr. Dalton leaves the room, Quayle says,
"He evidently doesn't like me." The Inspector looks him
straight in the eyes and replies, "Evidently."
We then see three women doing their laundry in the Bradford public
fountain. One woman says John is not guilty, but another woman
believes he is innocent. The third woman, Mary (actress unknown),
tells the both of them that she was close friends with Margaret and
they talked often. She tells them Margaret never cheated on John, but
she believes John may have abused Margaret, even though she never
told her that. Enter Henry Dwyn (Tony Kendall; THE
LORELEY'S GRASP - 1973), an old flame of Mary's that she
hasn't seen in over two years. Mary begins to get chummy with Henry,
but he tells her to forget about him and walks away. It is obvious
something is troubling him, as we previously saw him standing on the
street next to the police station, with a look on his face that would
make anyone worried. Could he be the murderer or does he who know is?
Henry then meets his true love, Muriel (Diana Martin; A
TASTE OF KILLING - 1966), who is Dr. Dalton's daughter.
Muriel knows her father would never approve of Henry because he is
broke and comes from a lower-class family, something that is
"beneath" his standards. They have to sneak behind Dr.
Dalton's back to see each other, so they agree to meet in two days
next to their favorite oak tree. When Muriel is riding her horse
home, something in the woods gets her attention. Dr. Dalton hears his
daughter's screams and goes running to Muriel, who has found a body
of a man buried in a shallow grave, his hand jutting out of the dirt.
Back at the house, Dr. Dalton tells servant Peter (our old friend
Luciano Pigozzi; EVIL EYE
- 1975; once again using his frequent "Alan Collins"
pseudonym) to get his horse ready, he has to go to the Inspector's
office to talk about the dead body they found (In case you haven't
guessed, Dr. Dalton is also the official coroner of Bradford). While
Peter is getting the horse and carriage ready (and trying to avoid
Dr. Dalton's pet dog, who is chained to a post and barking at him
viciously), Dr. Dalton pays his daughter a visit in her bedroom.
Muriel hasn't been able to sleep since discovering the dead body, but
her father tells her to put it out of her mind. Dr. Dalton also finds
his assistant, Dr. Anthony Finney (Angelo Dessy; SHANGO
- 1970; who uses the Anglicized name "James Harrison"),
taking a swig of booze from a bottle. Anthony is an alcoholic who
lost a prestigious job in London because of his alcoholism, but Dr.
Dalton took pity on him and hired him as his assistant, but under one
condition, that he never touch a single drop of alcohol again. After
finding Anthony drinking again, Dr. Dalton tells him that if he ever
catches him consuming alcohol or smells it on his breath ever again,
his ass will be out the door and he will make sure no one hires him
as a doctor ever again. (Back then alcoholism wasn't considered an
addiction, but a personal choice. Ah, London in the late-1800s, a
simpler time!). Dr. Dalton tells Anthony that if he leaves the house,
he should tell him where he is going, because he needed him earlier
in the morning and could not find him. Anthony tells him he took an
hour off and went for a walk in the park. Is Anthony lying?
That night, Anthony tries to sneak into Muriel's bedroom, but
housekeeper Margie (Denise Clar) catches him before he is able to
open the door. Before she can ask him what she is doing, Peter
(Margie's husband) calls for her to come downstairs and Anthony walks
away. She tells Peter that Anthony tried to enter Muriel's bedroom
again and Peter says that the must tell Dr. Dalton, but Margie says,
"Why? This doesn't concern us." Peter begrudgingly agrees.
Inspector O'Connor asks Dr. Dalton if he can determine how long the
body Muriel discovered was dead and he says no more than two weeks,
The Inspector also asks if anyone but him and Muriel know about the
dead body and Dr. Dalton says no, so the Inspector tells him it must
remain a secret and that goes for Muriel as well. Dr. Dalton says
don't worry, he will make sure no one else knows about it. The
Inspector wants to do an investigation without worrying the villagers
and to determine if it is related to Margaret's murder, but Quayle
appears and once again states that John Reed killed Margaret and he
could also be responsible for this dead body. Why does Quayle have
such a hard-on for John?
We then see that Anthony is married to Elizabeth (Claude Dantes; BLOOD
AND BLACK LACE - 1964). She demands to know why he suddenly
left London and came to Bradford (she has no idea he's an alcoholic,
something I find hard to believe). She tells Anthony that he makes
her feel like an outsider and that she spent the best years of her
life to be by his side, has he forgotten that? Anthony refuses to
tell her that he's an alcoholic, so Elizabeth calls him a "vile
being" and that she gave up everything to be with him. Anthony
tells her to stop playing the victim, it doesn't suit her. Elizabeth
says she wishes she never met him and then they passionately kiss and
make love in the woods (Reminding me of why I was married two times!).
Dr. Dalton leaves for a conference in London, telling Muriel he will
be back tomorrow night and she should stay home and get some rest
because she is looking pale, but who is the man secretly unlocking
the door to Dr. Dalton's study and entering it? It's another servant,
Chris (John Mathews), and when he walks out of the study carrying a
small black velvet pouch containing Muriel's expensive jewelry,
Margie catches him, but he gives her half of the jewelry and she is
happy. Yes, Bradford is the English version of Peyton Place, where
everyone is harboring a secret or two and hardly anyone can be trusted.
Elizabeth tells Anthony she will spend the night with him tomorrow,
all this sneaking around is turning her on. When Anthony sees Muriel
riding away on her horse, Elizabeth asks him if he knows her and he
says no, but the look on his face tells her another story (leading to
another quarrel). Anthony then tells Elizabeth that they shouldn't
see each other for a while, saying she should go back to London and
await his return, so Elizabeth hops on her horse and follows Muriel,
seeing her meet Henry by the old oak tree (no yellow ribbons, though!
[bad joke]). While the Inspector and Quayle are arguing over the
merits of Scotland Yard, Officer Brown (Attilio Dottesio; DEATH
SMILES ON A MURDERER - 1973) enters the Inspector's office
to tell him that John Reed committed suicide in his jail cell buy
cutting his wrists with a broken dinner plate. Henry tells Muriel
that she has to tell her father about their relationship, he is tired
of sneaking around and wants it out in the open. Muriel tells him
it's best if they wait, but Henry tells her he will never be rich no
matter how long they wait. He also knows that Anthony is lusting
after her and is an alcoholic and it bothers him that he lives under
the same roof as her. Muriel calls Anthony a "good man" and
her father did well to give him a hand. Henry then tells Muriel,
"Your dear father will end up making you a fine old
spinster" and Muriel slaps him in the face. Henry leaves in a
huff, not even saying goodbye to Muriel.
So when is all this interpersonal drama going to end before we get
to the meat of the story? Apparently, not for a while, as more
relationships and lusting are revealed. Chris is sleeping with Margie
and Peter is getting suspicious. Peter catches Henry skulking on the
property (He came there to apologize to Muriel) and tells Chris to
take him to the Inspector. Henry refuses to talk to the Inspector, so
he throws him in jail, telling Chris to have Peter write up a
detailed report of what Henry was doing on the property. Quayle then
gets the idea that Henry is the killer, telling the Inspector that
Henry is a stranger in Bradford, but the Inspector orders Quayle to
go to London and not come back until he has the identity of the dead
body (The Inspector is not going to have Henry end up like John
Reed). Anthony continues lusting after Muriel, finally making her
uncomfortable. When Dr. Dalton returns home and discovers that his
daughters valuable jewelry has been stolen, the most likely suspect
is Henry, but the Inspector is not so sure, telling Peter to have
Chris come to his office tomorrow morning. Quayle comes back from
London with the identity of the dead body. It's serial killer Martin
Bauer (no surprise there), but who dug up his body in London and
reburied it in Bradford? I guess the better question is why did they
do it? Another young woman is then murdered in Bradford and it
couldn't be Henry because he's still in jail. Henry breaks out of his
cell and runs to Muriel, but the killer has
her and is walking through the woods carrying her unconscious
body. We find out in the last five minutes of the film who the
killer actually is, in a rushed finale that tries to tie-up all the
loose ends. It is also confusing as hell, especially the killer's
motivation, which comes out of left field when Officer Brown
discovers the killer's diary (Hint: It is the last person you would
ever suspect, even though we are led to believe it is Peter, as he is
the only person the dog barks at).
This black & white period piece, directed and written by
"Henry Wilson" (actually Gino Mangini, director of the
obscure NO DIAMONDS FOR URSULA
[1967] and the Spaghetti Western BASTARD,
GO AND KILL [1971]), contains too much soap opera and
precious little mystery, but when the killer is revealed and his
motives are made known, it was surprising, at least to me, because it
just comes out of the Twilight Zone (It has a look an feel of one of
those German Edgar Wallace "Krimis" of the early-'60s, such
as INN ON THE RIVER
[1962])). The motive is really "out there", as the killer
invented a serum to transfer the thoughts of a dead person into the
mind of a living one, digging up the corpse of Martin Bauer and using
the serum on himself to see what makes a killer kill, but once
Bauer's thoughts were entered into his brain, he became a serial
killer with no memory of doing the killings! Far out, right? So why
did he do it? For the recognition and appreciation of his peers, of
course! This bit of important information comes out of nowhere and
ends the film. It's like Mangini lost control of his script and
painted himself into a corner, so he added some science fiction to
the plot to wrap things up. This way, audiences could get the
surprise reveal they want and Mangini would get a releasable film.
What this film has in its favor is a thick Gothic atmosphere that
doesn't quit and a larger role than normal for one of my favorite
Italian genre actors, Luciano Pigozzi, Italy's answer to Peter Lorre
(Thanks, Steve!). If you like Italian Gothic films of the early-'60s
(and you should), then this little-seen gem should be part of your
must-see list.
Shot as LA JENA DI LONDRA
(a literal translation of the review title), this film had a short
theatrical release in the United States by Walter Manley Enterprises,
yet no legitimate home video release in any physical format. DVD-Rs
can be found from several gray market sites, such as Rogue
Video and Sinister Cinema.
I saw it for free on YouTube, but the fullscreen English subtitled
print looks it was recorded with a cell phone from a TV screen, so
proceed with caution. It is also available streaming on Amazon Prime,
but it is not free, even for Prime members (It will cost you $1.99 to
rent it, $7.99 to buy it). Also featuring Anthony Wright, William
Burke, Felix De Artal and Tony Wise, none of them having any more
credits, which leads me to believe that they are pseudonyms. Not Rated.
IN
THE HEAT OF PASSION (1991) - Sexy
and effective thriller with many comic moments. Auto mechanic
Charley Bronson (!) (Nick Corri of THE
LAWLESS LAND - 1988) lands a job on one of those
"reality" crime shows portraying a serial rapist loose in
the area. He nearly gets killed in real life while
hanging out at a local Spanish bar when the patrons mistakenly
identify him as the real rapist. While working at the garage he meets
the beautiful, married middle-aged Sally Kirkland (who looks great
here) whose car breaks down. Charley becomes smitten with her and
soon he is donning various disguises so they can engage in acts of
lovemaking behind her rich husband's back. He portrays a cable
installer so he can screw her in her bedroom while her husband is
downstairs. Sally gives him a blowjob in the ladies room of a chic
restaurant while her husband is entertaining clients outside. He
watches her masturbate while impersonating a busboy at one of her
husband's parties. To fulfill one of Sally's fantasies, he dresses as
a rapist and attacks her in her bedroom. In the middle of the game,
her husband walks in on them and a struggle ensues. Charley
accidentally shoots the husband and kills him. He comes up with a
plan to blame the crime on the real serial rapist. Things begin to go
wrong as Charley begins to realize that there's more to Sally than
meets the eye. He begins to check up one her and does not like what
he finds. He has another problem: The real rapist is also after him!
The biggest irony of all is that he is asked by the host of the crime
show (Jack Carter) to return and portray the real serial rapist to
re-enact the crime he actually committed! The film has a satisfying
conclusion which will shock and surprise. Director Rodman Flender (THE
UNBORN - 1991; IDLE HANDS
- 1999), who also wrote and produced, turns in a winner here. He has
a keen eye for details and fills the screen with eccentric characters
and a good dose of humor. This is no comedy though, as the ending
will tell. Sally Kirkland (PARANOIA
- 1998) turns in an excellent performance and look great in and out
of clothes (although some scenes may use a body double). Hot, erotic
and entertaining. Available in R and Unrated versions.
Go for the unrated. A Concorde Home Video Release.
ISLAND
OF BLOOD (1982) - A
truly terrible murder mystery where the viewer must guess the
identity of the
unseen killer. It was originally titled WHODUNIT?
(and a.k.a. SCARED ALIVE)
and unless you have no more than a kindergarten education, it will
not take you long to unmask the psycho. The storyline revolves around
a group of aspiring actors sent to the remote Creep Island to make a
film. Before long they are being slaughtered in various ways, with
the murderer leaving a rock music cassette playing at the murder
site. The lyrics to the song match the killing method, as when one of
the actors is pushed into a pool filled with boiling water, the
lyrics go, "Boil
me, boil me, boil me, face to face."
With no way to get off the island (their boat has blown up) and no
telephone, the motley group of would be actors try unsuccessfully to
stay alive. One is impaled on a spear ("Spear
me, spear me..."),
the producer is blown up ("Burn
me, burn me..."),
another is killed with a nail gun ("Nail
me, nail me..."),
still another takes a battery acid shower ("Burn
me, burn me..."),
the director, Mr. Flem (!), is run through wth a machete ("Stab
me, stab me...") and one actor is cut to pieces with a
chainsaw ("Saw
me, saw me...").
The two remaining cast members think the other is responsible and
try their damnest to avoid each other before the real culprit shows
his face. (Hint: "Burn
me..."
is the only lyric played twice.) The supposedly surprise ending
isn't much of a surprise (it has to do with making snuff films).
Highly derivative of Agatha Christie's TEN
LITTLE INDIANS,
the only point of seeing this film is some decent makeup effects.
The acid shower and chainsaw attack are particularly meaty, but the
acting and hackneyed screenplay as well as some extremely choppy
editing are way below par. The only recognizable actor in this mess
is Rick Dean (credited
as "Dean Richards" in some of the advertising materials),
who later became a contract player for Roger Corman's Concorde Films,
appearing in HEROES
STAND ALONE
(1989), BLOODFIST
3: FORCED TO FIGHT
(1991), Cirio Santiago's RAIDERS
OF THE SUN
(1991), CARNOSAUR 3 (1996)
and, in his best role of his much too short life, as a mysterious
bum in Dan Golden's underrated erotic thriller NAKED
OBSESSION
(1990). Director Bill Naud, who started out directing cheap 60's fare
such as THUNDER IN DIXIE
(1964), also made the black actioner BLACK
JACK (1972) and the boxing comedy RICKY
1
(1988), an asinine ripoff of the Sylvester Stallone ROCKY
series. ISLAND
OF BLOOD
can be summed up with the following lyrics: "Spare
me, spare me...".
Also starring Marie Alise, Rod Gardner, Terry Goodman, Richard Helm
and Jeanine Marie. An Applause Prods. Inc. Home Video Release. Rated
R.
KEMPER:
THE CO-ED KILLER (2008) -
Totally fictitious account of serial killer Edmund Kemper who, in the
early 70's, killed a series of female student hitchhikers, then had
sex with their bodies before dissecting them. (First the true part:
When he was a teenager in 1964, Kemper shot and killed his
grandmother because he "just wanted to see what it felt like to
kill Grandma" and then killed his grandfather because he knew
Grandpa would be angry with him for what he had done. He spent the
rest of the 60's in a psychiatric hospital, where it was discovered
he had an IQ of 136. He was paroled in 1971 into his mother's care,
against the wishes of many doctors at the hospital. Now for the false
portion: This film picks-up after these events. W-a-a-a-a-y after
these events. Somehow, Kemper has miraculously transported himself to
2008 and is beginning his female student killing spree...) The film
begins with Detective Tom Harris (Christopher Stapleton) checking out
Kemper's latest murder scene: The home of a young co-ed Kemper has
killed at the kitchen table, cut off her head and placed it in the
oven. Detective
Harris then receives a call on his cell phone and heads to another
crime scene, where someone has chopped-up a young soccer mom with an
axe and left her dead body on the side of a road. Detective Harris
believes there are two killers on the loose, so he shows the crime
scene photos to good friend Ed Kemper (Robert Sisko), not aware that
Ed is one of the killers (Ed previously helped Harris on another case
that proved beneficial). Ed has a sickly, domineering mother who
verbally abuses him nightly, so while he helps Harris with the soccer
mom case, he makes Harris' life difficult by picking up female
hitchhikers and dumping their raped, slaughtered bodies for Harris to
find. When Ed finally bashes his mother's head in with a hammer and
kills her, Ed finally fesses-up to Harris (by cell phone, of course)
that he is a serial killer and from then on, the cat-and-mouse game
is on (Harris finds Ed's mother's decapitated head in the Kemper
kitchen, hanging with the pots and pans). Ed constantly taunts Harris
over the phone, eventually shooting Harris' partner, Detective Ross
(Sean Thomas), in the arm and getting Harris pulled from the case. Ed
does something drastic to get Harris put back on the case, which
leads to a final showdown between Ed and Harris in an abandoned
hospital; the hospital Ed was born in. The same hospital he may die
in. You know, the circle of life and all that shit. I could
almost forgive that the story was moved nearly forty years into the
future, but it becomes too easy to see why director Rick Bitzelberger
and screenwriter Jack Perez (writer and director of MONSTER
ISLAND - 2004) did so: It not only saves on the expense of
outfitting the actors in 70's period fashions, automobiles and set
direction, it also affords that most of the screen time is spent with
the actors talking on cell phones. If I had to hazard a guess, I
would estimate that 70% of screen time revolves around Ed and Harris
talking to each other on their cell phones. The other 30% is either
Harris talking on the phone to other people or him at various Kemper
crime scenes looking at his handiwork. There is some blood and gore
on view here (slit throats and decapitated heads are the
specialties), but most of it is after the deed has been done. The
acting never rises above the level of a bad TV movie, the worst being
Christopher Stapleton as Detective Harris, who sounds like he's
channeling his inner Clint Eastwood (all he does is talk in a low,
whispering monotone). As far as serial killer films go, KEMPER:
THE CO-ED KILLER is minor league stuff. It's not as bad as
the recent Ulli Lommel serial killer crap, but not as
professional-looking as the recent Michael Feifer stuff.
As a straight-ahead thriller, it is just simply awful and contains
some of the worst police procedurals I've ever seen in a movie. Any
episode of CSI (take your choice of Las Vegas,
Miami or New York)
contains more depth, gore and excitement. Stay away from this one.
Also starring Robin DeMarco, Kate Danson, Ken Weiss, Patricia Place,
Samantha Colburn, Andy E. Horne, Stephanie Skewers, Zoe Canner and
Nancy Harding. A Lightning Entertainment
DVD Release. Rated R.
THE
KILLER IS STILL AMONG US (1986) -
Before reading this review, I suggest you read my review of THE
MONSTER OF FLORENCE (1985), since both films deal with the
same subject matter, only this film is far more exploitative and much
gorier than the other film. The truth of the matter is this: KILLER
contains some hard to watch and very graphic deaths, which MONSTER
dealt with in an even-handed way. While MONSTER can be
considered Italy's equivalent to SILENCE
OF THE LAMBS (1991), this film is Italy's answer to HENRY:
PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986). Since I love exploitation,
this is my preferred film between the two, but that in no way
suggests this is the better film, because it isn't. But who doesn't
like an ultra-gory flick every now and then? Now that you have read
the MONSTER review (I'm trusting you on this), let's get to
this film.
A young couple are necking in a car when the woman says she thought
she saw someone spying on them. The man says there is nobody here but
the two of them, so they continue making out. He's wrong of course
and, as they remove their clothes and get down to business, the
killer strikes, shooting them point blank with a pistol and dragging
the woman's body away, poking her nipples and bare skin with the
sharp blade of a long knife and finishing by shoving a freshly broken
twig up the woman's snatch! Criminology student Christiana Marelli
(Mariangela D'Abbraccio; CREAM HORN
- 1981) then gets a phone call from her sister Chiara (Yvonne
D'Abbraccio), telling her that two theology students were murdered
last night while making love. Two more murders by the same killer.
Chiara tells Christiana that their father, Professor Marelli
(Riccardo Perrotti; THE PSYCHIC -
1977), a criminal profiler for the police, is already at the crime
scene examining the dead bodies, so Christiana leaves her apartment
to join him. She hopes to learn something from her father, telling
him at the crime scene that the most important aspect of criminology
is study. The Professor tells her that if she saw the condition of
these two bodies, she would vomit all over her criminology papers.
(Both Christiana and Chiara are in the same criminology classes and
the Professor wonders out loud how Chiara seemingly knows about the
murders before he does? That is a good question, one you should
remember.). Christiana decided to make these string of killings the
main subject of her final thesis and while the Professor finds it
unusual for a woman, especially his daughter, to be interested in
such matters, he agrees to help her.
A detective finds a prescription for a nervous disorder drug at the
scene of the crime and asks the Professor to give him a psychological
profile on the serial killer and the Professor agrees, but not before
he collects all the facts pertinent to the case. We then see coroner
Dr. Alex (Giovanni Visentin; THE
CARD PLAYER - 2004) performing an autopsy on a male cadaver,
as the Professor and Christiana watch (she looks like she could
upchuck at any moment). When the Professor leaves, Dr. Alex asks
Christiana why a beautiful woman such as herself is interested in
dead bodies, but she doesn't answer him, staring at the incisions he
just made in the cadaver's chest. To further upset her, he lets her
see the dead man's body from the night before. He is missing his
penis (apparently, the killer cut it off and also removed the woman's
vagina, leaving a twig in its place!). Dr. Alex then takes Christiana
for a drink and she apologizes to him for acting like a fool. He
tells her not to worry about it, even though he is the coroner, he
nearly vomited when he saw the condition of the two bodies. Dr. Alex
then asks Christiana out on a date and she accepts, so they go to the
movies. After the date, Dr. Alex drives Christiana back to her
apartment and she tells him before this relationship goes any
further, he has to meet her parents. He says, "Look, if it
doesn't cost me anything, then I'll come," (Classy guy, that Dr.
Alex!). Dr. Alex tells Christiana that he's an orphan, but mothers
love him, so Christiana takes his hand and leads him to her
apartment, thinking he is going to meet her parents. When they get to
her apartment, it is dark and empty. Dr. Alex asks her where her
parents are and she says, "They live in Rome!" They both
share a good laugh and then they have sex! While they are both
in bed after the deed, Christiana says this is her first time with a
doctor and he has an advantage because he knows where to put his
hands (!). After professing their complete liking of each other, Dr.
Alex asks her to please leave these murders alone, it is not healthy
for a beautiful woman to be interested in such things. Taking it as a
warning rather than a suggestion (I'm not even sure which one it is),
Christiana gets upset and leaves the bed, telling Dr. Alex she can't
leave it alone, it's part of her criminology thesis. Dr. Alex advises
her to change her thesis, because nothing good will come from this.
Does he know something Christiana (and the viewer) doesn't?
Christiana refuses and tells Dr. Alex to stay out of her business.
She has an appointment with a forensics expert and will see him later.
The forensics expert tells Christiana that the pistol used in the
latest killings was the same pistol used in all the other murders.
Based on marking on the spent cartridges, he is positive it came from
the same weapon: a Beretta pistol. Dr. Alex tells Christiana that all
seven shots to the woman's body were fatal shots, two in the heart,
four in the lungs and one in the liver, the killer was an exceptional
marksman who knows his anatomy. The Professor has seemingly finished
his psychological profile of the killer, reading off a piece of paper
and telling Christiana and Chiara that the killer is a person who is
above suspicion in normal life, perhaps someone with a good
reputation with the ability to use a knife well, probably a scalpel,
which led him to examine the medical field. Or an engraver, butcher
or tattoo artist. It turns out the Professor was reading from
Christiana's thesis and he doesn't agree with it, jokingly (?) asking
her why she didn't paint the killer as a Boy Scout. The Professor
tells her the killer could be anyone, the victim isn't an enemy, it's
no lovers quarrel, nor a jealous husband. The killer is a maniac and
unfortunately he will strike again, telling Christiana that the rest
of her thesis is just bad literature (Way to break it to her gently,
Dad!). Christiana tells Chiara that their father just tore her a new
asshole, but Chiara says he's probably in a bad mood, someone must
have made him angry in class, she knows how he gets. We then see
someone in a vehicle following Christiana and Chiara as they are
walking down the street. It turns out it is not a car, but an
ambulance and Christiana sees it parked across the street from her
apartment, but she (and we) can't see who is driving it. Christiana
spends the night revising her thesis when she gets a phone call from
someone with a raspy voice, who hangs up on her. A look of worry
fills her face, so she chains her front door and the following
morning reports the phone call to the Commissioner of Police
(Francesco Capitano). He tells her to drop it, it was probably a
wrong number or someone playing a joke on her. He also tells her to
change her criminology thesis if she knows what is good for her. Why
is everyone so interested in her thesis and why do they want her to
change it?
Things get very strange when Christiana goes to a psychiatrist, Dr.
Franco Benincasa (Luigi Mezzanotte; THOR
THE CONQUEROR - 1983), under the ruse that she is having
emotional problems, in hopes of getting some information in what make
a serial killer tick. Dr. Benincasa asks her why she came to him,
since he is listed in the Yellow Pages as a gynecologist (!), so she
fesses up, telling him she was hoping to get some insight on the
"Couples Killer." Dr. Benincasa then pulls out a large
sharp knife, waves it in the air and screams to Christiana, "Get
out! Get OUT!!!" (I told you things were getting strange). When
Christiana leaves his office, she realizes that Chiara is no longer
waiting for her. The nurse tells Christiana that her friend felt ill
and left, so she takes a taxi home.
Feeling in her bones that Dr. Benincasa is the killer (Talk about a
huge coincidence!), Christiana follows him to a tavern, where she
sees him get into a car with another man and leave. She then sees a
biker chick enter the tavern and her interest gets the better of her,
so she enters the tavern. All the men inside take a strange interest
in Christiana, so she makes her way to the bar and sits down next to
the biker chick. She discovers that everyone in the tavern belongs to
a "club", so she hires the biker babe for 100,000 lire to
be her "guide" to show her what this "club" does.
It's very confusing, but it looks like this club spies on couples
making love in their cars, photographing and taping them (maybe even
going as far as to drug them!), using the photographs and recording
to blackmail them (At least that is what I think they are doing. Like
I said, it's confusing.). The biker babe then takes Christiana back
to the tavern, telling her that if she ever sees her again, she's a
dead woman (What???). The next morning, Chiara tells Christiana that
another couple was killed last night, only they were knifed to death
and the police believe the killer must be soaked in their blood.
Could this have any connection to the bloody clothes Christiana
found in her kitchen garbage can, put there by Dr. Alex, who didn't
want to talk about it?
That's basically the entire film in a rather large nutshell,
directed by Camillo Teti (COBRA
MISSION 2 - 1988; BROTHERS
IN WAR - 1988), working with a screenplay co-written by
himself and giallo veteran Ernesto Gastaldi (LIBIDO
- 1965; TORSO - 1973), based on a
story by Giuliano Carnimeo, better known as "Anthony
Ascott", director of the giallo film THE
CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS (1971), as well as EXTERMINATORS
OF THE YEAR 3000 (1983) and THE
RATMAN (1988). Teti films this movie in the vein of a
giallo, painting all the male characters, as well as some of the female
characters, as the serial killer, even though this film is based on a
real-life unsolved serial killer case (You need to read my THE
MONSTER OF FLORENCE review, because I hate repeating
myself). I have wanted to see this film since reading about it in the
essential tome BLOOD &
BLACK LACE, but it was next to impossible to find. Luckily,
someone told me that Rogue Video offered this film in anamorphic
widescreen in its original Italian with easy-to-read yellow subtitles
and I'm glad to report it looks fantastic (Be aware that it is a
DVD-R. I know some people may be troubled by that, but not me.), but
it looks like some of the more extreme violence was edited out (the
sight of the man without a penis; the twig up the vagina; etc.),
as there are jumps in the music score, a sure sign that trims
were made after the film was completed. Still, there is more than
enough of the red stuff on view, such as Christiana finding one of
the killer's victims pinned to the ceiling, blood flowing out his
mouth and into Christiana's mouth as she is screaming (hard to
watch). The film is also populated by some strange characters, put in
the film to point fingers at them as possibly being the killer, but
it is obvious most of them are nothing but red herrings. There is
also plenty of female nudity, especially by Mariangela D'Abbraccio as
Christiana. Like I said in the beginning of this review, sometimes
all I need is a film with exploitable elements to make me happy and
this flick fits the bill nicely. Besides everything I have already
mentioned, there is also a séance performed by a male medium
(Roberto Sanna), who tries to contact one of the serial killer's
victims in hopes they will be able to identify the killer. It doesn't
end well. We see the graphic killing of a naked couple making love in
a tent (the same murder that opened THE
MONSTER OF FLORENCE),
where nothing is left to the imagination.
Shot as L'ASSASSINO
E' ANCORA TRA NOI (a literal translation of the review
title) and also known as THE
MURDERER IS STILL WITH US, this film never received a U.S.
theatrical release or legitimate home video release in any format
(even streaming). So, is the killer unmasked in this film, even
though the real killer was never found? I'll leave that for you to
discover for yourself, so plunk down $11.99 on Amazon (or go to Rogue
Video's website), order the film and discover the pleasures of
bloody, nudity-filled exploitation (I will tell you this, the film
concludes in a rather ingenious way). You won't be sorry you did.
Also featuring Oreste Rotundo, Fabio Carfoni (THE
PIT AND THE PENDULUM -
1991), Marco Bertini and Franco Adducci (THE
NAME OF THE ROSE - 1986). Not Rated.
THE
KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN (1973) -
Giorgio Mainardi (George Hilton) and his rich bitch wife, Norma
(Teresa Velasquez), are having marriage problems. Norma has cut his
bank account off, so Giorgio storms out of the house. He stops at a
phone booth to call his mistress when he spots a killer (the
skull-faced Michel Antoine) disposing a dead female body in a river
(we earlier see the killer load the dead woman's body into a VW
Beetle and he cops a feel after positioning her in the passenger
seat!). Giorgio blackmails the killer into murdering his wife and
making it look like a kidnapping (he takes the killer's monogrammed
lighter and will only give it back to him once the deed is done) and
Giorgio plans on getting a big ransom payday from Norma's wealthy
father. Being a psychopath, the killer (we never learn his name, but
his lighter has the initials "D.A." on it, certainly a
tip-of-the-hat to giallo master Dario Argento) strangles Norma and
puts her corpse in the trunk of his car, while Giorgio is at a party
building an alibi. Complications ensue when a young couple, Luca
(Alessio Orano) and Laura (Cristina Galbo), steal the killer's car
and take it for a joyride, unaware that there's a dead body in the
trunk. The killer steals one of Norma's neighbor's cars and goes
hunting for the couple and his car. Meanwhile, when Giorgio gets
home, he finds the police waiting for him. The
police inspector (Eduardo Fajardo) is suspicious of the whole crime,
which makes Giorgio nervous. The biggest question is why the
kidnapper would steal a neighbor's car when neighbors saw the
kidnapper's car parked in front of Giorgio's house (It's also a
question that Giorgio can't answer since he's unaware of the
complications the killer is going through). Luca and Laura have a few
close calls (including being stopped by a cop who comes very close to
looking in the trunk) while the killer stays one step behind them
cleaning up their messes (He pays off a gas station attendant when
the couple skips out on paying for a fill-up). Giorgio sweats it out
back at his house, while the police inspector begins piecing the
puzzle together. When Luca and Laura spend a night at a deserted
seaside villa, Luca takes the car to get some food and the killer
enters the villa and rapes Laura. When Luca returns (with a new
female friend), Laura breaks free and stabs the killer to death.
After the police inspector questions Luca and Laura, he lays a trap
which he hopes will bring Giorgio's true colors to the forefront.
Giorgio falls for it and ends up being charged with much more than
his role in his wife's murder. He should have gotten rid of that
damned lighter. This Italian/French co-production, directed and
co-scripted by Luigi Cozzi (STARCRASH
- 1979; CONTAMINATION
- 1980; DEMONS 6: DE PROFUNDIS
- 1989) and produced by Umberto Lenzi (ALMOST
HUMAN
- 1974), is a decent thriller, even though there isn't anyone here
who can remotely be considered likable. We all know from the
beginning that Giorgio and the killer are bad men, but Luca and Laura
fail to build much sympathy, especially when we find out that Luca
stole the car just to get into Laura's pants and that Laura (who may
be a virgin) uses that knowledge to cocktease Luca into doing her
bidding. Toss in robbing a gas station attendant and Luca hitting on
a blonde (Femi Benussi) he picks up on the side of the road when he's
running an errand for the blueball-inducing Laura, and these two kids
look no better than Giorgio or the killer. When the killer rapes
Laura, it's intercut with scenes of Luca screwing the blonde in the
back seat of the killer's car. It's a powerful and ironic scene, but
it would have been much more powerful if the kids were at least
likable. As it stands, THE
KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN is a sleazy, but not very bloody or
violent thriller (there's only one very bloody murder and a face
slashing that happens near the end of the film) that holds your
attention thanks to some tense situations. Although categorized as a
giallo by many reviewers, this film doesn't contain the elements
usually found in most giallo films (i.e. mysterious gloved killer;
POV shots; lots of bloody killings), though director Cozzi bathes a
lot of scenes in yellow. Try to count how many yellow objects you
observe in this to see what I mean. If it were a drinking game,
everyone would be drunk after the first twenty minutes. The skeletal
Michel Antoine makes an imposing, scary killer, but I just wish there
were some people here we could actually care about. Filmed as IL RAGNO
("The Spider) and also known as THE
DARK IS DEATH'S FRIEND and THE
KILLER MUST STRIKE AGAIN. Made in 1973, but not released
until 1975. Also starring Dario Griachi, Luigi Antonio Guerra and
Carla Mancini. Available on DVD from Mondo
Macabro. Not Rated.
THE
KILLER RESERVED NINE SEATS
(1974) - Ten people arrive at a deserted theater, owned by
Patrick Davenant's (Chris Avram; A
BAY OF BLOOD - 1971) family, for Patrick's birthday party
and someone is knocking them off one-by-one. All the people gathered
here have secrets they would kill to keep. Kim (Janet Agren; EATEN
ALIVE! - 1980), who is Patrick's fiancee, is having an
affair with artist Russell (Howard Ross; WEREWOLF
WOMAN - 1976). Duncan Foster (Gaetano Russo; THE
RED MONKS - 1988) is dating Patrick's daughter, Lynn (Paola
Senatore; THE
FLOWER WITH THE DEADLY STING - 1973), and they both may be
drug addicts. Patrick's ex-wife, Vivian (Rosanna Schiaffino; SILENCE
THE WITNESS - 1974), is now married to doctor Albert (Andrea
Scotti; THE SLASHER...IS THE SEX MANIAC!
- 1972), but she still loves Patrick dearly and Albert knows it.
Doris (Lucretia Love; THE
EERIE
MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW - 1974) is having a lesbian relationship
with Patrick's sister Rebecca (Eva Czemerys; WOMEN
IN CELL BLOCK 7 - 1973). Both Russell and Albert owe Patrick
a huge sum of money which they have no intention of paying back. And
a mystery man in a nehru jacket (Eduardo Filipone; FLAVIA
THE HERETIC - 1974) shows up at various times to talk in
riddles (He may be a ghost. He says, "I was in this theater 100
years ago, on this very day. All that's come to pass in this theater
tonight has already happened."). Someone tries to drop a heavy
wooden beam on Patrick, but misses, which causes a lot of
finger-pointing amongst the partygoers. Things turn worse when Kim is
stabbed in the back and killed while performing Shakespeare's Romeo
And Juliet on stage. The group decide to call the police and then
leave, but find the phone line dead and all the doors and windows
locked, with no avenue of escape. After pointing fingers at each
other once again, the group then realizes that no one there knows who
the mystery man is, so they all search for him. Patrick relates a
story to Vivian about how a similar incident happened at this theater
100 years earlier (to the day) and everyone inside was murdered. Is
it possible that his family is cursed? (Patrick tells Vivian,
"Once every hundred years, there's horror and death in my
family, brought about in an insane manner."). Doris is the next
one killed when the masked killer crushes her sternum with a heavy
sliding wooden door. The killer next tries to dispose of Vivian (with
a cigarette to her face), but Russell intervenes and they later find
him hanging from a rope by his neck. Patrick finds an old family
parchment and the drawings on it seem to fortell the order and modes
of the deaths. Rebecca is next to die when the killer strips her
naked, stabs her repeatedly in the vagina with a switchblade, hammers
a spike into her left hand and then poses her and Doris' naked bodies
on stage like some perverted wax figure display. As more people end
up dead, we discover who the killer(s) really is (are), but a
surprise finale shows the killer(s) may indeed have a family curse on
their head(s), and that curse takes an incestuous turn in the crypt
in the canvernous dungeon of the theater. Strikingly similar in
tone to Peter Walker's THE
FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW (1972) and Michele Soavi's STAGE
FRIGHT (1986), this Italian giallo, directed and co-scripted
by Giuseppe Bennati, is less bloody than either of those films, but
packed with nudity, infidelity (it's hard to keep up with who's
screwing who) and a pretty decent mystery. Although some of the
dialogue is risable (One of the guests says, "It looks like
Dracula's summer home!" when they first step into the theater),
the plot is actually very well done and involving. Although talky at
times, this film depends on those talky sections to supply the viewer
with clues, so listen carefully. While most of the murders are
bloodless, there are scenes that are hard to watch, mainly for what's
implied rather than what is shown. Rebecca's vaginal penetration by
switchblade is never shown, but the killer is shown stripping Rebecca
and cutting off her panties with the knife just before he does the
deed, leaving little doubt about what he's doing, as we watch him
thrust the knife and the camera pans to Rebecca's anguished,
pain-filled face. It's the film's standout sequence. Director Bennati
(this was his last film; he passed away in 2006) gives us all the
giallo staples: A masked and gloved killer, plenty of deaths, an
inescapable location and a slowly-unravelling mystery, all served up
in a highly-watchable package. It should also be noted that every
woman here has a full-frontal nude scene, although I believe Janet
Agren used a body double. Also featuring Luigi Antonio Guerra (THE
KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN - 1973) as the theater's caretaker. THE
KILLER RESERVED NINE SEATS was never legally
available in the U.S. on home video, but it was released on an English-friendly
Blu-Ray by German company Camera Obscura in 2014 (You must have
a Blu-Ray player capable of reading Region B discs). Also available
streaming on YouTube on channel "Film&Clips" (the
preferred way of watching it since it is uncut and in anamorphic
widescreen). Be aware that Film&Clips also has the TV Version of
this title on their channel, which should be avoided, as it cuts out
all the nudity and most of the violence. Also available streaming on
Amazon Prime, but it is not free, even for Prime members. Not Rated.
KRUEL
(2014) - Clown horror movies are all the rage, but this one tries
to be different because the clown angle is but a small part of the
whole story and it's not really a horror film. Different doesn't
always translate as being good, though. Ben Hood (Dakota Morrissiey)
and Jo O'Hare (Kierney Nelson) are kissing in a car when Jo notices
something is wrong with Ben. Ben fesses-up and tells Jo that he
cheated on her when she was in college, so Jo breaks up immediately
with him and won't answer his many phone calls or answer his text
messages. Jo's mother Jill (Elizabeth Brewster) and father Dan (Adam
Vernier) are more upset with her for coming home at 3:00AM then
having her heart broken, but Daddy is a tad more understanding. Jo
has been having a really hard time in her life lately: She blew out a
knee and lost her track scholarship to college and has to pay to go
back on her own (if she wants to go back). Now Mom has forbade her
from leaving the house (A grown woman grounded
to the house? Hey, Mom: Fuck you! I'm an adult.); she is only
allowed to leave when she babysits for young boys Brandon (Cooper
Henderson) and Elliott Walters (Matthew Weidle) to make enough money
to (maybe) go back to college. While she is babysitting (apparently
they like to be called "nannies" now) and on the phone
talking to a girlfriend, the ice cream truck comes up the street and
she gives the kids money to go get their favorite ice cream. Elliott
comes running back all ashen-faced with the money still in his hand,
but he refuses to talk about what happened. Matthew has no idea, so
Jo goes outside to talk to the ice cream man. She is in for quite the
surprise when she sees Willie (J.T. Chinn) is a freakish-looking
clown (he has ice cream cones painted over his eye areas). He also
won't talk about what happened, but instead puts on a puppet show (!)
saying how cute Jo is, which freaks her out. The following day, Ben
shows up in the Walters' front yard while Jo is playing with the kids
and apologizes once again for cheating on her. This is his only way
to talk to her since she won't talk to him on the phone or answer his
text messages (Kids today and their text messaging!). While they are
arguing, Elliott ends up missing, which results in a massive police
search complete with helicopters. When the police come up
empty-handed, detectives interrogate Jo and infer that she may be
involved in the kidnapping. Yes, Jo is having a very bad time in her
life right now (To add insult to injury, Elliott's mother [Colleen
Yorke] slaps her in the face). Ben feels partly responsible because
he was keeping Jo too busy to keep proper eyes on the children (he
is). When Ben tells Jo about a crazy man he saw fishing without a
worm or even a hook, she thinks back to Elliott and the thing that
happened between him and Willie and becomes convinced that the clown
pervert is responsible. Ben calls Jo and says he found the ice cream
man, so she jumps into Ben's Jeep and they follow him, but Ben is a
prick and drives right next to the ice cream truck (even though Jo
begs him not to) and Willie sticks his tongue out at them. Jo tells
her story to the police, but they believe Elliott is dead from
drowning in an unfortunate accident (a pile of the clothes he was
wearing were next to the local lake) and discard Jo's accusations.
Ben has discovered where Willie lives and plans on breaking into his
house that night (Willie is a security guard at night) to find
evidence that Willie is a pedophile. Ben and Jo go inside his house
(his front door isn't even locked, which threw up a red flag to me)
and find walls full of freaky photos (believe me, they are weird!)
and lots of toys from the 1940's & 1950's sitting on shelves.
They start turning on by themselves (like some burglar alarm, but
much creepier), forcing Ben and Jo to leave the house. As they are
leaving, a figure approaches Ben's car and breaks his driver side
window. The next morning, Jo goes jogging (What happened to Mom
grounding her?) and Willie unsuccessfully tries to kill her with a
knife. Jo goes to the police, who say that Willie has disappeared and
Ben is now packing heat. Jo and Ben are now a couple again and Willie
breaks into her house, but it all turns out to be a nightmare by Jo
(the image of Jo and Willie on opposite sides of a door in the ad
materials is taken from that nightmare sequence). Jo takes a shower
(she has nice perky breasts; wait I can do a puppet show explaining
it!) and then cries about how her life turned out, but Daddy makes
her feel better about herself. She jumps into Ben's distinctive
yellow Jeep to find him dead and Willie appears behind her and
chloroforms her until she in knocked-out. She wakes up and finds
herself tied to some bathroom in a seasonal motel in the woods (and
this is out-of-season). A still-alive Elliott is there, too, in
another room. They are in the middle of the Okefenokee Swamp (filmed
in Jacksonville & Orlando, Florida). Jo breaks free and hides in
the swamp (She text messages Daddy, but the cell phone goes dead),
but a bullhorn-talking, ATV-riding Willie makes her give herself up
when he says he will kill Elliott. He shoots Jo with a tranquilizer
dart and when she wakes up, Jo is tied to the floor where many lit
candles surround her and has had most of her body painted. Willie
wants him, Jo and Elliott to be a family. Dad has the Sheriff (Tom
Riska) call the telephone company and triangulate the last message Jo
sent to him before her phone died (She only has one of those phones
that sends text messages, but doesn't make phone calls and Dad was
about to give her a real cell phone today [Never heard of such a
thing. How can it be a phone and not make phone calls?]). Dad gets
the information and drives out to the area, where he knocks on
Willie's door and he answers (no one knows what Willie looks like
without his clown makeup). Willie tells Dad that he hasn't seen his
daughter, even though
she is behind the door with a knife to her throat. When Dad notices
Ben's yellow Jeep behind the motel, he calls the Sheriff and breaks
down the front door of Willie's room with an axe, but Willie makes
him drop it when he has a butcher knife to Jo's throat. He slices
Jo's throat anyway (Clowns are funny that way) and we see Dad and
Willie fight as shadows on the wall (the only real creativity in the
film), so we are not sure who has won the fight. Turns out that Dad
was the winner and he tries to stem the bleeding from Jo's throat. Jo
wakes up in the hospital and can't talk, so she writes down how her
father and Elliott are. Her mother says they are fine. Jo then
writes, "Willie?" and Mom tells her not to worry about it.
His body was never found, so Jo and her family move to a different
State. Jo then does a final voice-over as a dedication to the dead
Ben, which would give diabetes to a thin man who has eaten properly
all his life. This is the freshman effort by
director/screenwriter/co-producer Robert Henderson (it seems a lot of
Henderson family members worked both in front and behind the cameras)
and this film's really major distraction is the simply awful acting
ability of Dakota Morrissiey as Ben. He shows about as much emotion
as a rock (I think quartz has him beat) and talks in annoying
monotone, even when he is in danger. The film suffers greatly every
time he is on screen, so it was actually a relief when Jo found him
dead. Too bad it comes during the film's final 20 minutes. Most of
the other actors are below average, but when compared to Morrissiey's
acting, they all look like Laurence Olivier. Since this is a
psychological thriller and not a horror film, there's not much blood
until the final third and Kierney Nelson has a nice rack, but her
nude scene is much too quick. The only real plus in this film is J.T.
Chinn as Willie Kool (yes, that is the last name they gave him
according to the final credits). He brings the right amount of menace
and creepiness to his role, although the clown angle takes up
precious little time. If all the actors were this good, I would
recommend this film, but this is a really long 104 minutes due to the
bad and over-acting. This film tries to show us what it takes to be a
family, warts and all but, unfortunately, the cast of unknown actors
are not up to the task and makes Jo's family unit seem shrill and
unrealistic (What mother grounds her college daughter?). Since this
is Robert Henderson's first film, I'm willing to cut him some slack
(all the technical aspects are fine) and if he had a cast of talented
character actors, the film would have been much, much better. I'll
give Henderson a pass this time, but his second film better wow me.
Also starring Ansley Gordon, Keegan Henderson, Ericka Winterrowd,
Nicholas Williamson, Matthew Weidle, Tom Siedle and Rita Manyette. A Midnight
Releasing DVD Release. Not Rated, but there's nothing
here that goes beyond an R-Rating. NOTE: Believe it or not, I
was channel surfing when I saw this movie was being shown on the
Lifetime Movie Network (LMN) under the title CRUEL!
LIES
(1983) - In this twisty thriller, it's hard to keep up with who's
telling the truth and who is a big fat liar. The film opens with
Stuart Russell (Bruce Davison; WILLARD
- 1971) coming home one night, only to discover that two robbers are
invading his family's gated mansion. After grabbing a shotgun, Stuart
runs upstairs to discover that his mother and father are already dead
and the robbers are about to rape and kill his sister Elizabeth
(Julie Philips). Stuart blasts the two robbers with the shotgun and
saves Elizabeth, but she ends up a babbling basket case who is
committed to an asylum. Four years pass and we are introduced to
struggling actress Robyn Wallace (Ann Dusenberry; CUTTER
AND BONE - 1981). She has just walked off the set of a
low-budget zombie film after the director tries to trick her into
doing a nude scene, which is against her principles (The film's
producer, Harry [genre vet Dick Miller], tells her, "Tits sell
tickets!" to which Robyn replies, "Not these tits!").
Broke and unable to pay her rent, not to mention being fired from her
agent Murray (Bert Remsen; EYE
OF THE TIGER - 1986) and getting blacklisted from films
thanks to her "no nudity" policy, Robyn answers a newspaper
casting call looking for a "blonde femme" and is instantly
hired by casting
agent Jessica Brenner (Gail Strickland) to star as Elizabeth in a
film version of the Russell Family tragedy. After telling Robyn that
Elizabeth committed suicide a year earlier by slitting her throat
with scissors and asking Robyn a few suspicious questions, like
"How's your relationship with your family?" (it's not
good), Jessica tells Robyn that the rehearsals are going to be
unusual (that's an understatement) and that she must sequester
herself away from all outside contact to get "inside"
Elizabeth's head. What follows next is a plot that contains so many
twists and turns, you will need a scorecard to keep track. After
meeting Elizabeth's psychiatrist, Dr. Bartlett (Clu Gulager; RETURN
OF THE LIVING DEAD - 1985), and doing some filmed rehearsals
in character as Elizabeth in the asylum, Robyn is told by Jessica
that financing for the film has fallen through and the movie will not
be made. Robyn then meets Stuart, who tells her that Elizabeth is
still alive and that Jessica is not a casting agent at all, but
actually a psychiatrist at Elizabeth's mental hospital! Jessica is
working in concert with Stuart's evil Uncle Charles (Stacy Keach Sr.)
and they plan on using Robyn's rehearsal footage to convince lawyers
that Elizabeth is not sane enough to claim her inheritance. Stuart
convinces Robyn to impersonate Elizabeth in real life to get even
with his Uncle Charles, but it turns out that Stuart and Jessica are
actually working in tandem, as the real Elizabeth is then murdered
and it is made to look like suicide. Robyn is then committed to the
same asylum where Elizabeth has spent the last four years and is
constantly kept in a doped-up state to stop her from revealing what
actually happened. That's just the beginning, though, as this film
displays so much pretzel logic, Hitchcock and Argento would be proud
(Hint: Elizabeth was Stuart's wife, not his sister). As
directed/produced/scripted by brothers Ken & Jim Wheat (who
directed/scripted the TV movie EWOKS:
THE BATTLE FOR ENDOR [1985] and the horror anthology AFTER
MIDNIGHT [1989], as well as writing the screenplays for such
diverse films as THE RETURN
[1980], THE FLY II [1989] and PITCH
BLACK [2000]), LIES is an excellent thriller that
keeps you guessing right up to the final shot. The subplot involving
Robyn's on-again, off-again scriptwriter boyfriend Eric's (Terrence
Knox; CHILDREN OF THE
CORN II: THE FINAL SACRIFICE - 1993) search for her when she
ends up missing doesn't come across as forced or phony, but as
something that could actually play out in real life. There are so
many double and triple-crosses (and beyond) that the viewer really
has to pay attention to keep up. Bert Remsen, as Harry, delivers the
best line in the film. After he and Eric visit Robyn in the mental
hospital, where Jessica shows them Robyn's rehearsal footage and
expects them to believe it is real, Harry later confesses to Eric
that he knew Robyn was only acting, but amusingly tells Eric,
"Any actress that can deliver a performance like we saw on that
videotape can make her agent a bundle!" Great stuff. While it's
apparent that the Wheats were working with a small budget, everyone
turns in terrific performances, especially Dusenberry (who has a
topless shower scene, proving she's nothing like the character she's
portraying) and there's a surprisingly suspenseful elevator sequence
that rivals any giallo film you may have seen. I really don't know
why this film isn't more popular, because it's one of the best
American thrillers of the early 80's. See it if you ever get the
chance to get your hands on a copy. Also starring Douglas Leonard,
Patience Cleveland and Ann Gibbs. Released on VHS by Key
Video. This screams out for a DVD release! Rated R.
LITTLE
LAURA & BIG JOHN (1972) -
Regional (filmed in Florida) low-budget reality-based crime thriller
based of the exploits of the John Ashley Gang (no, not the late
actor/producer!), who robbed banks and murdered innocent people in
1920's Florida during Prohibition. The movie is told through the eyes
of Laura's (Karen Black; THE PYX -
1973) mother (Ivy Thayer, who speaks directly to the camera), as she
recounts the trials and tribulations her daughter went through being
the partner and lover of John Ashley (singer/actor Fabian Forte; REVENGE
OF THE ZOMBIE - 1981). We know, from the opening offscreen
narration and stock footage of 20's & 30's gangster films, that
John Ashley died at the age of 32, but what became of Laura? Her
mother tells her daughter's story, beginning with Laura's childhood,
when little Laura (Evie Karafotias) and best friend little John
Ashley (Cliff Frates) use to pretend to be king and queen to try and
forget their dirt-poor upbringing in the swamps of Florida. As a
matter of fact, they made a game out of everything, right up till the
end. When John is sought by the police for the murder of a Seminole
Indian (it was actually an accident), he and Laura hide out in a tent
in the Everglades, helped by
John's brother, Bob (Jerry Albert). John eventually turns himself in
to Sheriff Bob Baker (the late Paul Gleason: HE
KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE - 1980) at Bob's urging, thinking that
the case will be thrown out of court for lack of evidence (the
Indian's body was mostly devoured by alligators), but when it looks
like things aren't going John's way and he might be spending a lot of
time in jail before a trial even starts, John breaks out of jail with
Bob's help and a $100 reward is posted for his capture. John forms a
gang with Laura, Bob, Ray (Ben Rossi) and Clarence (Lee Warren) and
they rob a bank in the town of Stuart, netting themselves $5,000, but
during the getaway Ray accidentally shoots John in the right eye.
John is recaptured and put back in jail (He now sports a black
eyepatch, which magically switches from his right eye to his left eye
and back again in one scene!). Bob once again tries to break John out
of jail, but fails and Bob dies in a hail of bullets (and killing a
couple of deputies in the process). John is convicted of bank robbery
and is sentenced to eighteen years hard labor at the notorious
Raiford State Penitentiary, but he easily escapes (It's hilarious how
easy it was!) and there is now a $500 reward for his capture. John
and Laura hide out in New York City and begin to get homesick, so
they begin robbing barber shops, bars and diners from Philadelphia to
Washington D.C. to finance their trip back to Florida. John gets his
old gang back together, with the new addition of Hanford (Kenny
Miller: BLOOD STALKERS
- 1975) and try their hands at rum running using a boat along the
Florida coastline. That doesn't work out too well for them (they are
the most inept crooks I have ever seen), so they decide to rob banks
again, this time the Bank of Pompano. When John's Pa (Phil Philbin)
is killed by the law for protecting his son, John and his gang
step-up their robbing spree and John now has a $1,000 reward for his
capture, dead or alive. John and his gang are gunned-down in an
ambush set up by Sheriff Baker, leaving Laura without a man for the
first time in her life, turning her into a hopeless alcoholic. Let
that be a lesson to you kids! This is a ridiculously disjointed
and badly edited crime film, co-directed and co written by Luke
Moberly and Bob Woodburn who, thankfully, separately or collectively,
never made another film. LITTLE
LAURA & BIG JOHN just seems to meander along at a much
too leisurely pace, with some of the worst-staged action sequences
and headache-inducing, ear-bleeding original songs I have ever had
the displeasure to see and hear (Wait until you hear the song about
Raiford Prison. I felt like shooting myself in the eye before
realizing that I was born with only one good eye!). Both Fabian Forte
and Karen Black are terrible here, even if they really don't have
much to do. For an R-Rated crime thriller, there's very little bloody
violence and precious little nudity, except for a nude girl on the
beach named Jacksonville (Terri Juston), who also gets her own
embarassing song and is chased around by Kenny Miller (who looks like
he would be more comfortable in the arms of a naked John). This is
simply a horrible low-budget period film without much to recommend
except that it is based on reality. Released theatrically by Crown
International Pictures and originally available on VHS by VCI
Home Video and then on many budget VHS labels. The defunct BCI
Eclipse released this film as part of a double feature on DVD with VAN
NUYS BLVD. (1979) as part of their "Starlight Drive-In
Theater" line, which is long OOP. Rhino
Home Video also released the film on DVD, as did Mill Creek, as
part of their SAVAGE
CINEMA 12-MOVIE COLLECTION. They are all fullscreen
presentations. Rated R.
A
LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN (1971) -
Carol Hammond (Florinda Bolkan; LAST
HOUSE ON THE BEACH - 1978) has a recurring nightmare that
begins with her running down the aisle of a passenger train trying to
open the compartments, but being ignored by the people inside, like
she is invisible. The aisle then transforms into the corridor of an
apartment complex, full of naked writhing bodies that Carol must run
through. At the end of the corridor is a big red bed, and waiting on
that bed is a naked Julia Durer (Anita Strindberg; WHO
SAW HER DIE? - 1972), a neighbor of Carol's. The nightmare
finishes with Julia and Carol engaging in some lesbian sex (Hey, are
we sure this is a nightmare? More like a wet dream if you ask me!).
Carol's psychiatrist, Dr. Kerr (George Rigaud), tells Carol that what
she is dreaming is probably her innermost desires manifesting
themselves. Carol is an uptight, "proper" woman, whose dry,
boring dinner parties are ruined by Julia's loud, music- filled sex
parties in her apartment next door, but we get the feeling that Carol
would much rather be over at Julia's place than having a stuffy
dinner with her lawyer husband, Frank (Jean Sorel; MURDER
IN A BLUE WORLD - 1973), and father, Edmond (Leo Genn).
Carol's dreams get more bizarre and violent (such as being chased by
a giant swan, watching a woman bleed to death while holding
her exposed innards and seeing Julia slashed to death in her bed),
so when Julia is actually discovered murdered in her bed, Carol
begins to question her sanity. Police Inspector Corvin (Stanley
Baker; INNOCENT BYSTANDERS
- 1972) and Sgt. Brandon (Alberto De Mendoza; HUMAN
COBRAS - 1971) are brought in to investigate Julia's death
and they eventually question Carol (who believes she killed Julia
with her one-of-a-kind letter opener). Frank (who is having an affair
with a yet-unknown woman) becomes worried that someone is trying to
set-up Carol by using her dreams as a blueprint for murder, so he
goes to Edmond (who owns the high-priced law firm that Frank works
for) to gain access to Inspector Corvin's files, especially when he
notices Carol's fur coat and letter opener at the crime scene. As we
will soon find out, the symbolisms and people in Carol's dreams will
be key in unlocking the murder mystery. The audio tapes of her
sessions with Dr. Kerr hold the clues to the murders. As more people
within Carol's circle end up dead and Carol herself is viciously
stabbed by a red-headed man, Inspector Corvin will get involved in a
blackmail plot, a hunchback and various other undesirables before
unmasking the real killer, who may or may not be suffering from a
case of schizophrenia. This excellent giallo, the first one to
be directed and scripted by genre master Lucio Fulci (DON'T
TORTURE A DUCKLING - 1972; ZOMBIE
- 1979; MURDER ROCK-DANCING DEATH -
1984; A CAT IN THE BRAIN
- 1990), contains many striking and unsettling scenes, as well as
some very unusual characters. The strangest character of all is
Stanley Baker's Inspector Corvin, who has a bad habit of whistling at
the most inopportune times, like when questioning suspects or
standing over the bodies of murder victims. It's quite disorienting
for the audience. Above all, this is a film about secrets. It seems
everyone here is harboring at least one (Frank and his mistress;
Carol's past; Edmond's suspicions about Frank; etc.), that it's quite
possible that anyone here could be the killer. There are also some
truly disturbing images on view, including the shocking view of three
live dogs splayed open in a lab, their beating hearts exposed while
they wimper in pain. It not only takes the viewer by surprise, it
also leaves a lasting impression in your mind that won't likely leave
for quite some time. While bloody and violent in spots, A
LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN (what a great title!) is also one
of Lucio Fulci's most cerebral films and will take a lot of fans of
his later gore films by surprise. This is a lyrical, haunting film
(scored by Ennio Morricone) that offers a lot of brain, as well as
eye, candy. Some of the images and camera set-ups are so beautifully
done (especially the large shadow of the swan chasing Carol), that
they could be paintings and the plot moves at a brisk pace without
seeming far-fetched. This is one of the best early 70's giallo films
(released theatrically in the U.S. by American International Pictures
in edited form inder the title SCHIZOID,
which gives away the entire final act!) that is must-viewing for
fans of the genre. Also starring Edy Gall, Sylvia Monti, Penny Brown,
Mike Kennedy and Ezio Marano. Available on DVD
in a beautiful uncut widescreen print from Media
Blasters/Shriek Show. Not Rated.
MACABRE
(1980) - This first official directorial film by Lamberto Bava is
a strangely fascinating and perverse look at obsessive love that is
almost ruined by an unbelievable last shot, which immediately takes
you out of the film, but since it is the last shot, you can forget
about it and enjoy what came before it. Maybe enjoy is not the right
word, but there's no denying that it is perverse.
Refined New Orleans belle Jane Baker (Bernice Stegers; XTRO
- 1982) is cheating on her husband Leslie (Fernando Pannullo) with
handsome gentleman Fred Kellerman (Roberto Posse; THE
SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A MINOR - 1975). June cheats so much
that she and Fred have rented an apartment in a creepy
mansion-turned-boardinghouse, run by the blind Robert Duval (Stanko
Molnar; Bava's A
BLADE IN THE DARK - 1983), who spends his free time
repairing woodwind instruments and is secretly in love with Jane. He
can hear her moaning when she makes love to Fred (Fact: Blind people
have exceptional hearing), wishing it were he instead of Fred.
Jane's young daughter Lucy (Veronica Zinny) is sick and tired of her
mother leaving her alone to baby-sit for her younger brother every
time Mom's away screwing her boyfriend (Dad's always away on
business). One day, when Lucy calls her mother at the apartment to
come home and spend time with her children and she doesn't answer
(Mom wants nothing to interfere with her time with Fred, as waiting
for him is just as important to her as screwing him!), she decides to
teach Mom a deadly lesson for being away so often. She drowns her
brother in the bathtub (!) and then phones her, saying her son has
been in a bad accident. Jane leaves the mansion a nervous wreck, so
Fred insists on driving her home in her car. Jane is such a wreck
that Fred can't keep his eyes on the road, resulting in a deadly car
accident, where the car hits a guardrail and it takes Fred's head
clean off his shoulders!
A year passes and Jane is released from the psychiatric hospital she
was committed to, put there due to the grief she suffered from losing
her son and Fred (but mainly Fred). Leslie divorced Jane during her
time in the hospital and received custody of daughter Lucy, but Jane
isn't too worried about that. Why? Well, the first thing Jane does
when she gets out of the hospital is to go to the mansion and rent
the same room she shared with Fred. Robert is still there and he is
happy to accommodate Jane, following her previous written
instructions to make the apartment look exactly like it was before
the car accident, but with one caveat. She asked that a padlock be
put on the freezer in the refrigerator and she is to have the only
key. Robert was more than happy to oblige, only thinking this will be
the time when he can have Jane to himself, but he is in for a rude
awakening. When Jane first enters the apartment, a rush of nostalgia
rushes over her. She puts a homemade shrine she has created for Fred
(with locks of his hair, a champagne cork, his Visa card and even
used cigarette butts!) on a dresser facing the bed (so she can look
at it when she lays down) and when she sees that her robe falls down
by itself off a hook, she thinks Robert is in the room and starts
calling out his name. Robert hears Jane moaning and thinks (like we
do) that she is masturbating, but as we will discover later in the
film, it is something much more disgusting and perverted (it is also
strange that Jane doesn't have one photo of her dead son in the
entire apartment).
Robert realizes that he needs a shave, shower and a change of
clothes, so he cleans himself up, puts on his best suit and cooks
dinner (It's not easy for a blind man to do these things, as we see
during a brief montage sequence). He then makes the trek upstairs,
knocks on Jane's door and invites her to have dinner with him (she
answers the door with her nightgown open, exposing her breasts, but
she still covers up, knowing full well that Robert is blind), but she
says she can't come because she has a previous appointment and asks
for a rain check, yet Robert notices that she doesn't leave her
apartment the entire night. What is going on?
The next day, Leslie comes to the mansion so that Jane can see Lucy,
but when she hugs Mom and won't let go, we can see a look of panic
and disgust on Jane's face. It is also obvious that Lucy is a very
sick and twisted little girl who has plans for Mom. Long story short,
things come to a head (so to speak) when Robert picks the padlock on
the freezer and feels something in there that he thought he would
never touch. (If anyone has ever rented or purchased Vestron Video's
slightly edited version of this film on VHS, titled FROZEN
TERROR, they will know what that object is, as the box art
gives the surprise away!). For those of you that don't know what it
is or have lived in a cave for all your lives and want to be
surprised: Warning: MAJOR SPOILER!!! The object in the freezer
is Fred's decapitated head, which Jane pulls out every so often to
make sweet love to! END OF SPOILER!!!
Robert is so upset on what he has discovered that he slips a note to
Lucy to give to her father, telling him to call Robert immediately.
Leslie calls Robert and he tells him what he found, only Leslie
doesn't want to hear it, telling Robert he erased Jane from his life
since the day he discovered her cheating on him, which he thinks is
the cause of his son's death. As a matter of fact, if it weren't for
the court appointed visits she has with Lucy, he would rather not see
her at all ("As far as I'm concerned, she's dead!"). Leslie
ends the phone call by telling Robert to get his head examined
because his love for Jane is fucking with his mind. What Leslie and
Robert don't realize is that Lucy overheard the entire conversation
and it gives her an idea on how to get the ultimate revenge on her mother.
Lucy sneaks into Jane's apartment (after accusing Robert of being in
love with her mother and stealing her away from her own daughter),
finds the key to the padlock, unlocks the freezer door and sees the
object for herself. Later on that day, Lucy tells Robert and Jane
that she wants to cook dinner for them, which she does. The first
course is vegetable stew, only Robert won't eat it because it smells
funny (Fact: Blind people have a keener sense of smell than most
seeing people). Jane is happy to dig in, though, but when she takes
the first spoonful and puts it in her mouth, she immediately tastes
something strange. It's Fred's earring, still attached to his
earlobe! Jane gets ill and runs to the bathroom, Lucy following close
behind. Lucy tells her mother that she killed her brother ("You
don't know how hard it was for me to hold him underwater, with all
that kicking!"). Jane goes psycho and kills Lucy by strangling
her with her bare hands and then putting her body in the bathtub,
which she fills up with water, holding her body underwater until it
can't float. Robert goes upstairs to find out what is happening, only
to have Jane push him down a flight of stairs, knocking him out. Jane
then locks all the doors in the mansion so no one can leave or get
in. Jane then pulls the object out of the freezer, puts it on a
pillow on her bed and begins to French kiss it! (Raising the hairs on
the backs of the necks of everyone watching it) while moaning loudly.
Robert wakes up and Jane grabs a knife and tries to kill him, only to
have Robert kill her by shoving her face in a working portable
electric oven, burning her face beyond recognition. Robert then hears
something coming from Jane's bedroom and goes to investigate, climbing
on Jane's bed. Suddenly, the object comes flying through the air,
biting him on the neck! The nonsense end scrawl says that doctors
couldn't find a reason for Robert's death and it remains a mystery up
to this day.
Besides the ridiculous ending (which Lamberto Bava says was
tacked-on without his permission), this is a fairly engrossing
psychological thriller with precious little blood or gore (we don't
even see Fred lose his head, just a bloody guardrail on top of the
steering wheel). But this film doesn't need it, as the psychological
mystery elements sustain the film until the insulting
"surprise" finale. The English dubbers also had a field day
with their over-exaggerated Southern accents, but Veronica Zinny is
absolutely creepy as the evil Lucy, even with her accent. So creepy
and evil, you'll want to kill her yourselves, especially when she
explains to Jane how she killed her brother. I consider this Lamberto
Bava's most polished and professional film. Even though it's his
first film as a credited director, I find most of his later films,
such as DEVIL FISH
(1984), YOU'LL
DIE AT MIDNIGHT (1986), DELIRIUM:
PHOTO OF GIOIA (1987), BODY
PUZZLE (1992) and, yes, even DEMONS
(1985) and its sequel (1986), to be
lesser films than this, not because they were gorier, but because the
stories seemed incomplete, a case of flash and style over content. As
I have stated in several of my other Lamberto Bava reviews, I believe
he regressed as a director as his career progressed, for one simple
reason, the stories never delivered, in both content and characters.
The screenplay for this film, written by Bava, Pupi Avati
(director/writer of BALSAMUS:
MAN OF SATAN - 1970 and ZEDER:
REVENGE OF THE DEAD - 1983), his brother Antonio Avati (a
co-writer/producer of many of his brother's films) and Roberto Gandus (NO
WAY OUT - 1973; MADHOUSE -
1981), doesn't have that problem, as the main characters are
well-written and we get involved in them, except for that insane,
unbelievable ending. I know others are going to disagree with
me, but I think this is Lamberto Bava's best film, just like THE
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974) was Tobe Hooper's best film.
Sometimes the first film in a director's career turns out to be their best.
Shot as MACABRO (a
literal translation of the review title), this film received a
limited theatrical release in the United States courtesy of Edward L.
Montoro's Film
Ventures International and, as I have mentioned previously,
received an edited fullscreen VHS release from Vestron
Video under the title FROZEN TERROR.
This was released on VHS & DVD, unedited and in its OAR, early
in the New Millennium, by Anchor Bay Entertainment, who also released
it as part of a double
feature DVD, with Bava's A
BLADE IN THE DARK (1983). Blue
Underground then released it on DVD & Blu-Ray and also
released it as part of a triple
feature DVD, with BLADE
and father Mario Bava's SHOCK
(1977), so this film is not very hard to find if you wish to view it.
Also starring Ferdinando Orlandi (Pupi Avati's THE
HOUSE WITH
LAUGHING WINDOWS - 1976) and Elisa Kadigia Bove. Not Rated,
but nothing to lose your head over (sorry!).
MAD
DOG (1977) - This is a pretty poor
example of "poliziotteschi" or what we call the Italian
Police Thriller. It starts out well enough, but too many coincidences
and gaping plot holes do this film in, even though it has a great
cast of pros. Nanni Vitali (Helmut Berger; DORIAN
GRAY - 1970) and three inmates pull off a daring daylight
prison escape with a getaway driver pulling up to take them away.
Just at the same time, Detective Inspector Giulio Santini (Richard
Harrison; FIREBACK
- 1983) is pulling up to the prison and gives chase. He manages to
shoot the getaway driver in the head, but Vitali shoots Santini's car
and he jumps out just before it explodes. Vitali has escaped to get
even with all the people responsible for putting him behind bars. His
first target is a male stool pigeon who gave information to the cops
and his girlfiend Giuliana Caroli (Marisa Mell; VIOLENT
BLOOD BATH - 1973). Vitali makes the stool pigeon watch as
he rapes Giuliana and the proceeds to beat the stoolie until he is a
bloody mess and dead. They dig a grave and cover his body in lime.
Vitali not only decides to keep Giuliana as a hostage,
but also as a sexual plaything. Inspector Santini follows the clues
and leads him to Giuliana's apartment. She answers the door, but
answers his questions nervous enough to make him more than
suspicious, so he assigns a cop, Pappalardo (Gigi Bonos; FRANKENSTEIN
'80 - 1973) keep an eye out on her apartment. Vitali was
hiding in her apartment and wants her to reconnect with her estranged
father, who she hasn't spoken to in over a year. No, he doesn't like
family reunions; it's part of a plan to steal millions of dollars at
the security firm daddy works at (they hold the pay for several
companies) and then leave the country millionaires. He then again
rapes Giuliana. After 3 days, Vitali allows Giuliana leave the
apartment to go see her father, but she goes sees Inspector Santini
instead and spills the beans. Santini tells her to act like
everything is normal. The police will be waiting at the security firm
when Vitali and his men arrive and they will use counterfeit money,
to boot. Vitali and his three escaped inmates go to the security
firm, but something goes wrong and Santini takes all the women
workers (including Giuliana) hostage and they take off in a van. They
run into a police blockade a few miles away, but Vitali uses a car he
has stored in the area (as a getaway car) and crashes through the
police barrier, getting away. Santini at least now has the three
escaped convicts and makes them dig up the stoolie's corpse. Santini
also knows Vitali well enough to know he will go after Giuliana,
which he tries to do with a high-powered rifle across the street, but
all he does is shoot Giuliana in the leg (not seriously) while she is
on the phone with Santini. Vitali gets away and Santini makes
Giuliana stay at her father's house and they reconnect as a family
again (Awwwww). Vitali hits his sister Rosa (Maria Pascucci) up for
some money since the robbery money was counterfeit and he then
kidnaps a Judge (Claudio Gora; MEAN
FRANK AND CRAZY TONY
- 1973), who sent him to prison, and his daughter Carla (Marina
Giordana), who happens to be the father and sister of Santini (How's
that for a coincidence, especially since Santini talked to his father
on the phone earlier and there was no mention he was a judge? We
thought he was a retired policeman.). Vitali calls up Santini and
asks for an enormous amount of money for ransom and gives him three
days to collect it. Vitale has another buddy just out of prison help
him and he shoots and seriously injures the judge. Vitali strips
Carla topless and begins cutting her with a strait-razor. Santini
shows up and shoots and kills the other man and then begins to beat
the snot out of Vitali, saying he's not going to kill him, but make
him spend the rest of his useless life in prison. After Santini gives
Vitali an appropriate beatdown (complete with slow-motion 2x4
breaking), the police take the bloodied Vitali away and it turns out
the Judge will live. A happy ending for all! This was the last
directorial and screenplay assignment by Sergio
Grieco (ARGOMAN
THE FANTASTIC SUPERMAN - 1967), who passed away in 1982. It
was time for him to give up because besides the nunsploitation film THE
SINFUL NUNS OF SAINT VALENTINE (1974), the 70's were pretty
much a bust for him. He is better known for directing peplum films in
the early-to-mid-60's and then spy films (especially the Agent 077
series) during the rest of the 60's, mixed with some forgettable
Spaghetti Westerns. This is a pretty boring example of an Italian
Police Thriller where most logic is thrown out the window (How many
times can Vitali get away? How did Santini find out so quickly where
his father and sister were?) and besides the rapes of Giuliana, the
bloody beatdowns of the stoolie and Vitali and the razor cutting of
Carla, most bad taste is kept to a minimum (Bear in mind that this is
a genre known for its bad taste. See Umberto Lenzi's ALMOST
HUMAN [1974] for proof.). Although it looks like most of the
actors here were speaking English, they were very badly dubbed (by
Nick Alexander and Ted Rusoff, no less!) and the dialogue contains
such cringe-worthy lines as, "So have a drink twat!" and
"One move and I'll cut off her tit!". This lower-tier
thriller (and keep in mind that I love Richard Harrison, so it pains
me to give this film a negative review) is also known as THE
MAD DOG KILLER and BEAST
WITH A GUN, as well as a half-dozen other titles since it
fell into the Public Domain. Originally released on VHS by Genesis
Home Video and then widescreen versions on DVD, first by Anchor
Bay Entertainment and then by Blue
Underground (each using a different title). It is also available
fullscreen on various DVD compilations, such as the 50-Film DRIVE
IN MOVIE CLASSICS by Mill Creek Entertainment. I hate to say
this, but don't waste your time unless you are a Richard Harrison
completist. Watch RICCO THE MEAN MACHINE
(1973) instead. Also starring Vittorio Duse, Ezio Marano, Alberto
Squillante, Giovanni Pazzafini, Sergio Smacchi and Antonio Basile. A
Blue Underground DVD Release. Not Rated.
MADHOUSE
(1981) -
Italian made slasher film lensed in Savannah, Georgia which shares
many of the same plot
elements as HAPPY
BIRTHDAY TO ME
(made a year earlier). Unfortunately it's deadly dull, the boredom
broken up by infrequent bits of gore. Julia (Trish Everly) is rapidly
approaching her 25th birthday. Her grotesquely deformed twin sister
Mary, riddled with a debilitating disease and mentally unstable,
escapes from the hospital and starts killing Julia's friends and
neighbors with the help of her equally deranged Uncle James (Dennis
Robertson) and her pet rotweiller. Mary hates Julia because, since
they were both born on the same day, she had to share her presents
and the cake with her. Mary, along with Uncle James (who's a
priest!), gather all their victims together and give Julia a birthday
party she will not soon forget. Though bloody in spots, the film is
edited to receive an R rating as is evidenced by the electric drill
sequence and the finale (which involves a hatchet). It moves at a
snail's pace, taking forever to get going. Dennis Robertson gives a
hammy performance as Uncle James, spouting Mother Goose while
slashing the cast. Director Ovidio G. Assonitis also made the
terrible TENTACLES
(1977) and the good EXORCIST
(1973) rip-off BEYOND
THE DOOR
(1974), both using the name "Oliver Hellman". Here he uses
his real name. He must be proud of this one. I was just bored. Also
starring Michael Macrae and Morgan Hart. A Virgin
Vision VHS Release. Also available on Blu-Ray
from Arrow Video. Rated
R.
MADONNA
(1990) - No, this isn't a film about the Material Girl, rather,
this is an interesting cheapo thriller, co-written by Ed
Kelleher, who also co-wrote the abysmal VOODOO
DOLLS the same year and co-wrote the cult films INVASION
OF THE BLOOD FARMERS
in 1972 and SHRIEK
OF THE MUTILATED in 1974. It opens when a son shoots and
kills his father in a diner (after arguing about the son's mistress)
and the cook kills the son with a shotgun. The wife of the son pays a
private dick to get all the info he can on the woman, but that turns
out easier said than done because the P.I. can't find any information
on her as she doesn't seem to exist. That woman, who now uses the
name Laura (Deborah Mansey), has her sights now set on married ad
executive Richard Bloch (Eric Kramer), for reasons that, for now, are
still unclear. He at first rebuffs Laura's feminine wiles, but a man
can only stand so much. He finally succumbs at a party and the affair
is on. Meanwhile, Richard's wife Annie (Pascale Devigne) becomes
suspicious of Richard's staying out late with lame excuses (and,
somehow, is connected to the father/son murder in the beginning) and
the P.I. begins to patch together Laura's past and it's not pretty
(DO NOT read the back of the video box if you want to stay surprised
as it gives away the film's punchline). Since I'm not about to give
away Laura's secret, I'll just say it's not Richard that Laura is
after and this is all an intricate plot that is all related to
Laura's past and the father/son murder in the beginning of the film.
And, yes, the word "Madonna" does play an important part in
the plot. Director Alain Zaloum (SUSPICIOUS
MINDS - 1997) purposely builds the film slowly. Besides the
first murders in the beginning, no blood is spilled until very nearly
the end and when it happens, it hits hard because we have begun to
care about the characters. For a change, people in this film actually
act like real people, as we see Richard turn from loving family man
to cold hearted bastard, thanks to Laura's influence. Don't get me
wrong. This film is no great shakes, but it is a pleasant diversion
from most of the "erotic thrillers" of this time period and
the unusual twist to the basic cheating husband syndrome makes this
more engrossing than most. This Canadian-made thriller is good for at
least one viewing, but is harder than hell to find. If you get a
chance to pick this up, do so. Also starring James Horan, Gordon Day
and Ray Roth. Also known as MADONNA: A CASE OF BLOOD AMBITION
to try to lure idiots to rent it thinking that it had something to do
with Madonna's Blonde Ambition Tour. An Atlas
Entertainment Corporation VHS Release. Also available on DVD
from Code Red as part of a double feature with VOODOO DOLLS. Self-Imposed
R Rating.
THE
MAJORETTES (1986) -
This film has a hard time making up its' mind what direction it wants
to take.
The first two-thirds concerns itself with a slasher dressed in
camouflage who is murdering the high school majorettes "ONE
BY ONE"
(the film's alternate title). This portion has enough red herrings
to feed a large Vietnamese family: There's the retarded janitor who
likes to take pictures of the girls in the locker room from his
closet peephole; the sadistic nurse who is taking care of the
stroke-ridden grandmother of one of the majorettes. She is also the
janitor's mother; the crazy drug dealer who got one of the murdered
majorettes pregnant; the town priest who babtizes his disciples in a
lake (the victims are stabbed then placed in water); and the sheriff
(don't read the rest if you want to see the film!). When the retarded
janitor accidently photographs the sheriff butchering a majorette in
the locker room, this film veers off into many tangents. The nurse,
armed with the incriminating photos, blackmails the sheriff to do her
bidding. She wants him to kill the majorette related to the
grandmother in her care after she turns 18 (two weeks away), so
grandma will inherit her $500,000.00. She then plans on giving
grandma a lethal injection of insulin so she will inherit it (it's in
the will). Things go awry when the majorette in question and a
boyfriend are kidnapped by the drug dealer and his gang because the
boyfriend ratted to the cops about an arguement the dealer had with
the dead pregnant majorette. Are you with me so far? The retarded
janitor sees the kidnapping taking place and follows them to an
abandoned warehouse. He walks in on the attempted rape of the
majorette and a struggle ensues. The janitor and the majorette are
shot dead. The drug dealing gang flee leaving the boyfriend to vow
revenge. He grabs an automatic rifle, goes to the gang's hideout and
systematically slaughters them. But, you may ask, "What about
the sheriff?" He goes to see the nurse, hangs her, leaves his
camouflage clothing in her son's darkroom so it will look like he was
the killer, takes the incriminating photos and is last seen watching
a group of pre-teen majorettes performing their routines. THE END.
The premise may sound interesting but it is hampered by a couple of
factors. First, the acting is poor, too substandard to carry off the
complex storyline. The second factor is the overall cheesiness of the
production. This is a barebones production which never rises above a
Grade Z level, with its' static camerawork, poor sound quality and
lackluster direction. One expects more from screenwriter/producer
John Russo and director Bill Hinzman since they were both involved in
some capacity with the original NIGHT
OF THE LIVING DEAD.
Russ Streiner, also from NOTLD, puts in an appearance here as the
water-happy priest. Hinzman later directed REVENGE
OF THE LIVING ZOMBIES
(a.k.a. FLESH
EATER
- 1988), another poor, low-tech film. THE
MAJORETTES
(based on the novel of the same name by Russo) is a valiant try, but
misses its mark by a New York mile. Russo's MIDNIGHT
(1980) was much more entertaining than this. Starring: Kevin Kindlin,
Terrie Godfrey, Mark V. Jevicky & Sueanne Seamens/ Dir:
Bill Hinzman/ Prod & Sc: John Russo/ A Ross &
Hinzman Production/ A Vestron
Video Release/A Tempe Video
Release/ Also available from Shriek
Show as a stand-alone DVD or
as part of their HIGH
SCHOOL HORRORS TRIPLE FEATURE DVD compilation.
Rated
R.
MASSIVE
RETALIATION (1984) - When
news of an impending nuclear war is about to break out between the
United States and Russia, three survivalist families head to their
well-protected computerized ranch in the middle of nowhere with the
intentions of surviving a nuclear explosion with their families
intact. When the van with their children, driven by teenager Eric
Briscoe (Jason Gedrick), doesn't show up at the ranch at the
pre-arranged time (the van's water pump breaks), the families get
worried and start arguing amongst themselves. Eric finds an auto
parts store, but the owner refuses to take his credit card ("What
good is credit if there's going to be a war going on?"), so
Eric tries stealing the water pump. The owner pulls a shotgun and
Eric gets arrested. The sheriff takes pity on Eric and sets him free,
so Eric pays him back by stealing the water pump out of the sheriff's
van! Eric hightails it out of town on his bike and makes it back to
the kids (who are making fun of one little girl wetting herself). He
installs the water pump and heads off to the ranch. Meanwhile, the
families continue the in-fighting
and Dr. Lee Briscoe (Peter Donat, who portrayed David Duchovny's
father, William Mulder, on THE X-FILES
[1993 - 2002]) begins wearing Army fatigues and starts barking orders
to everyone else. Some townspeople, including rednecks Virgil (Johnny
Weissmuller Jr.) and Ernie (Bob Goldthwait), try to steal gas from
the ranch (gas stations start charging $20 a gallon, which is not
unthinkable in today's economy and may become true earlier than you
may think), but are chased off by Lee's gunfire. When Kirk Fredericks
(Tom Bower, a terrific character actor [you may know him better as
the gas station attendant in the 2006 THE
HILLS HAVE EYES remake] who looks to be slumming here)
shoots family friend Suzie Barker (Mimi Farina) by mistake, Lee
refuses to help her ("If I help her, more will come!"), but
Kirk's wife Lois (Marilyn Hassett) is a nurse and removes the bullet.
Virgil and Ernie return in a cropdusting plane and taint the ranch's
water reservoir with poison. Virgil and Ernie then intercept Eric's
van and take the kids hostage. Lee loses what little mind he has left
(he punches son Eric in the face for getting caught!) and starts
talking about "acceptable losses" among the children during
a planned rescue attempt. When Harry (Michael Pritchard) hears on the
radio that the U.S. and Russia have agreed to a cease fire, he goes
to tell everyone at the hostage standoff, but is shot by Virgil. To
make a long story short, Lee goes crazy, shoots Kirk in the leg and
the children get in between their parents and the hostage takers and
join hands. Leave it to the children to be the voice of reason.
Clean-up on aisle six! I just threw up! The main problem with
this boring thriller is the families are so unlikable (including the
kids), you'll be wishing for their demise to be long and painful.
Their constant bickering and back-stabbing is so annoying, you'll
wonder how the hell they became friends in the first place. Not much
happens during the entire film, as one-time director/producer Thomas
A. Cohen has no idea how to end a scene. Many of them just fade to
black and the next scene begins, which screams of inexperience or
downright laziness. The action scenes are equally horrendous and
badly staged. There's a terrible car chase through a minefield where,
when the mine explode, they look about as dangerous as a toothless
dog. The cheap dimestore moralizing is laughable and the breaking
point comes in the unrealistic plan the families come up with to
rescue their children. The whole film stinks of Christian religious
philosophies, from the opening and closing gospel tune, making the
medical doctor the bad guy (better to leave your fate to God, than in
the hands of man) and the "A child shall lead them" corny
finale. I've seen better morals in fortune cookies. The violence is
non-existant (just a couple of bullet wounds) and the acting is way
below par (Try not to laugh as comedian Bob(cat) Goldthwait, in his
first acting role, says after being shot, "Virgil, I'm bleeding
pretty badly!"). The soap opera dialogue (by scripters Larry
Wittnebert and Richard Beban) and bleak outlook of the human
condition (it basically says that everyone is better off dead should
the bombs be dropped) could only appeal to religious zealots and
those without a clue. If you don't fall into those two categories,
just stay away and save yourself an agonizing 90 minutes. Should have
been titled MASSIVE BOWEL MOVEMENT. The same story was told
much better in Ray Milland's PANIC
IN YEAR ZERO (1962) and THE
TWILIGHT ZONE episode titled "The Shelter". Also
starring Karlene Crockett, Susan O'Connell, Christopher Burton and
Molly Cohen. A Vestron
Video Release. Not Rated, but no stronger than a PG.
MIKEY
(1991) - We
first spot nine year old Mikey (Brian Bonsall) disposing of his
adoptive family. He drowns his adoptive little sister, throws a
plugged-in hair dryer into Mom's bath water and slugs Dad across the
head repeatedly with an aluminum bat. When the police arrive, Mikey
blames the deaths on a burglar. He is put up for adoption again and
finds a new Daddy and Mommy to live with, the Trentons (John Diehl
and Mimi Craven). Everything goes smoothly until Mikey meets (and
instantly falls in love with)
his next door neighbor's teenage daughter (Josie Bissett). When Mikey
finds out she has a boyfriend, he tries to break them up, even going
as far as killing her cat and blaming it on the boyfriend. When that
doesn't work, he electrocutes the boyfriend in a jacuzzi. Meanwhile,
Mikey's schoolteacher (the lovely Ashley Lawrence of HELLRAISER
1 & 2.)
grows suspicious of him. She finds out that Mikey's real family was
abusive and every foster family he has had since has turned up dead.
She goes to warn the Trentons and finds Mikey a formidable opponent.
This kid is smart. In the finale, Mikey disposes of his new family
and anyone else who gets in his way. His weapons of choice are: bow
and arrow, slingshot, claw hammer and molitov cocktail. He gets away
with his crimes as we next spot Mikey (now called Josh) meeting his
new adoptive parents. While basically a junior version of THE
STEPFATHER
(1987), this film works because of Brian Bonsall's chilling portrayal
of Mikey. He acts like a normal kid when it suits him, but don't get
him pissed off. He will not only kill you, he will also videotape
your death. One of his favorite pasttimes is watching "Mikey's
Funniest Home Killings", a compilation video of his murders!
Bonsall also knows how to deliver his lines with goosebump-inducing
effect. My favorite line is one he delivers to Lawrence on their
final confrontation. He says to her, "Can you teach me one more
thing? Teach me how to DIE!" before slingshotting a marble
between her eyes. Bonsall, who was already an accomplished actor at
this young age, once played the youngest Keaton on TV's FAMILY
TIES
(1982 - 1989) and was also seen essaying the role of Worf's son on STAR
TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
(1987 - 1994). He has since quit acting to concentrate on forming a
punk rock band and getting into legal trouble. That's a shame,
because this kid had talent. Director Dennis Dimster-Dank, who does a
good job of maintaining suspense, was once an actor, starring with
Katherine Hepburn in OLLY
OLLY OXEN FREE
(1978). He also co-wrote the screenplay for CYBORG
COP III (a.k.a.
TERMINAL
IMPACT
- 1995). Everyone involved with MIKEY
has a right to be proud. This is good solid entertainment.
Recommended. An Imperial
Entertainment Release. Rated
R.
THE
MONSTER OF FLORENCE (1985) - "A
man - a unique case in the history of criminology - whose madness
has generated sixteen incomprehensible and atrocious murders. A
homicidal maniac, who is still at large, who was described by that
press as...
The Monster of Florence" So begins this unusual true
crime film, which is part giallo, part detective drama (with a writer
instead of a police officer doing the detecting) and totally
chilling, because it actually happened. But first a little background.
Florence was in the grip of a serial killer from August 21, 1968 to
September 8, 1985, where the "Monster of Venice" killed
sixteen people in a series of brutal double murders, gunning
lovebirds down (usually
in their cars) and doing the unthinkable to his women victims. He
held the province of Florence, Italy in a state of panic and fear for
nearly 17 years and was never caught (much like our "Zodiac
Killer"). There have been many theories on who the Monster of
Florence (also referred to as "The Surgeon of Death")
really was, but it was never proven to a definitive degree.
Some people believe he was arrested for another crime and was in
jail, some believe he died (There was a lot of talk that a man named
Mario Nancini, who died in 1986, was the killer, but it was never
proven to be true, even though a lot of Italy law enforcement
officials, up to this day, believe it to be true) and some believe
that he just stopped killing (highly unlikely), but no matter the
reason, he had an adverse effect on Florence's residents and those
that lived there during his reign of terror will never forget him.
This film is based on the best selling book "Il Mostro De
Firenze", written by former District Attorney Alberto Bevilacque
and crime reporter Mario Spezi (Bevilacque refused to allow his name
to be used on this film, so only Spezi is given a story credit). So
is this film any good? Read on to discover my answer.
September 8, 1985: A young couple
are making love in a tent in the woods when a man in black boots
walks up to the tens, cuts a hole in it with a large knife and
empties his pistol (a .22 caliber Beretta, his weapon of choice) into
the young couple's naked bodies. The naked man, who was hit five
times, manages to run out of the tent, but the killer catches him,
stabbing him with his large knife. The killer then drags his body
back to the tent, where he does something to the female's body (read
on), washes his bloody hands in a nearby creek and then leaves. The
next morning, the police and a large group of press are at the crime
scene. This is a crime scene both the police and the press have been
at more times then they care to remember and tempers flare when the
police catch some photographers taking photos of the victims'
mutilated bodies. What none of them know is that this will be the
Monster of Florence's last victims and the police are no closer now
in figuring out who the killer is than when he first struck in 1968.
Newspaper reporter Giulia (Bettina Giovannini; VOICES
FROM BEYOND - 1991), who has been reporting on this case for
the past four years, is working with veteran reporter Enrico
(Gabriele Tinti; THE
MURDER SECRET - 1989), is letting the killings affect her
emotionally, something a reporter should never let happen. What is
particularly disturbing is what the serial killer is doing to his
female victims: He cuts out their vaginas and removes one of their
breasts. The Police Commissioner (Gianfranco Baroni) wants to know
why, but only the killer can answer that question. He also wants to
know why the killer only kills one couple every couple of years,
during the summer and only on a moonless night (all real facts of the
case). Giulia's fiancé, Andreas Ackerman (Leonard Mann; CUT
AND RUN - 1985) is a novelist who has been working on a book
about the killings for several years and Giulia has noticed that what
he has already written is eerily coming true. She has also noticed
that Andreas has been acting strange lately, distant and non-verbal
and he disappears for days. I know what you are thinking, but Andreas
tells Giulia that he is beginning to doubt that anyone would be
interested in his book and he is thinking about a career change. Is
he telling the truth?
Andreas visits the recent crime scene, where he meets the mother
(Anna Orso; EXTERMINATORS
OF THE YEAR 3000 - 1983) of a previous Monster of Florence
victim, telling him about her daughter, what she was wearing and how
she was about to marry to young man that was murdered beside her. The
mother tells Andreas that she thinks that the killer will never be
caught and the only emotion she has left is hate. This is how Andreas
is able to get facts for his book, by talking to family members of
past victims. They tell him much more than they would tell the
police. Andreas goes home and begins banging away at his typewriter,
while thinking about the information he got about the first murders
on August 21, 1968, where the
Monster of Florence walked up to a car where a young couple were
making love, emptying his Beretta into their bodies (It looks
strangely identical to the "Son of Sam" murders that
gripped New York City in the summers of 1976 & 1977). Andreas
believes the answer to the question of why the serial killer kills
can be found in the first murders (and he is probably correct,
because a killer's motive can usually be found in his first killing).
We discover that the woman killed in the car back in 1968 was
cheating on her husband. In fact she had many lovers. But how will
this lead Andreas to the killer's identity?
We then travel back to Florence in 1968 (The Warsaw Pact invasion of
Czechoslovakia [a.k.a. "Operation Danube"] is playing on
the TV), where we see the nameless woman days before her murder (none
of the victims are given proper names, to protect the filmmakers from
lawsuits). She is a prostitute, who supports her deadbeat husband and
young son by doing the horizontal tango with "clients" out
of her own home, with her husband in the next room (he even interrupt
his wife and lover to give them coffee!). The next morning, an
unknown man (we only see from his POV) confront the woman outside her
home, telling her he needs to see her. She tells him to make an
appointment like everyone else and drives off with a client in his
car (the same client and car the woman was killed in). Andreas comes
to the conclusion that the killer is a spurned lover or suitor, but
is he right? Back in 1968, the killer phones the woman's husband,
telling him that he slipped a note under his front door. The husband
read the note and burns it, as we will never know what was written in
it. Is this all in Andreas' mind or does he know more than he is
telling? You
will be asking yourself those questions several times in this film,
but you may not like the answer, because they are nothing but
conjecture, because the killer was never caught, but don't let that
detract you from this film, because it is quite good.
Directed and co-written by Cesare Ferrario, who didn't make anything
of note that would tickle the fancy of a genre film lover, yet this
movie is a suspenseful foray into the mind of a serial killer. I like
to consider this film as Italy's equivalent to SILENCE
OF THE LAMBS (1991) or even HENRY:
PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986), but without the graphic
gore. Leonard Mann is simply wonderful as Andreas and we are with him
as he tries to solve the killings based solely on the evidence he
collected from the victims' families and his sharp, deductive mind.
Soon, Andreas is obsessed and possessed by this case, as everything
he sees reminds him of the murders (even when he and Giulia go to the
opera) and in one instance in the film, he accidentally meets the
serial killer, but he doesn't know it. Yes, this is a fictional
account of a real-life serial killer, but there is a lot of truth to
it, making this film a good bet for giallo and thriller fans alike.
It's not exploitative (there is nudity and blood, however), even if
it does play fast and loose with some of the facts (which is why none
of the victims are given proper names), but that does not mean you
will not find much to like here. The film works due to Leonard Mann,
who as writer Andreas has an "Aha!" moment and runs with
it, ignoring everything around him, even Giulia. While the murders
aren't particularly bloody (except for the opening double killing),
just knowing what the Monster of Florence does to his female victims
adds an extra layer of nastiness to the killings, which are shown
matter-of-factly, making them hard to watch. Since we know how the
film ends, it doesn't negate the fact that this is a good film, full
of great performances and shot almost documentary style. The film is
shown in chapters, the first chapter dealing with the victims' point
of view and the second chapter illustrating the killer's side, yet
still breaking the film down year-by-year according to the killer's
murders. It is an interesting premise, showing us both sides of the
killings, giving the murders some added emotional power. The killings
are filmed with two cameras (one for the victims' view and the other
the killer's), giving us different angles of the same killings, yet
they seem very different (And they are. There is a big difference
being the killer and being his victim). So sit down, try to relax (it
won't be easy) and watch a film that deserves to be more popular than
it is.
Shot as IL MOSTRO DI FIRENZE
(a literal translation of the review title) and also known as NIGHT
RIPPER, this film never obtained a theatrical or home video
release in any format in the United States. I saw a very nice
anamorphic print on YouTube, which is in Italian with English
subtitles, the way it should be seen. Also starring Francesca Muzio,
Lydia Mancinelli, Federico Pacifici (THE OMEN
- 2006), Antonio Ballerio and Alberto Di Stasio as the Monster of
Florence. Another Italian film to deal with the same subject matter
is the much gorier and exploitative THE
KILLER IS STILL AMONG US (1986), directed by Camillo Teti (COBRA
MISSION 2 - 1988) Not Rated.
THE
MURDER CLINIC (1966) -
This mid-'60s film can be considered one of the blueprints for giallo
films to come, as it contains all the genre's staples, including an
unknown killer dressed in black, a location that is out of the way
and inescapable, a weapon used in many of these films and a cast of
red herrings. What it is missing are some of the more prevalent
ingredients that we expect from giallo films, namely nudity and
violence, but since this is the mid-'60s, that is to be expected.
Still, it was quite shocking in its day and some scenes still shock today.
Morley 1870: Someone wearing a black hooded robe, black leather
gloves and carrying a straight razor is carving up the patients and
staff of the Vance Rest Home, a psychiatric clinic for "nervous
(i.e. loony) people that is located deep in the woods. The clinic is
run by the extremely tough Dr. Robert Vance (William Berger; KEOMA
- 1976) and the even tougher head nurse, Sheena (Harriet Medin White; BLACK
SABBATH - 1963). A new nurse, Mary (Barbara Wilson, in her
only film), is starting today, due to the last nurse
"disappearing" (i.e. murdered) in the middle of the night.
Sheena takes Mary on her rounds and introduces her to the home's
patients, including the mute Janey (Anna Marie Polani, as "Ann
Sherman"; HERCULES
AGAINST THE MOON MEN - 1964) and the manic Fred (Massimo
Righi, as "Max Dean"; BLOOD
AND BLACK LACE - 1964), who can become extremely violent at
the drop of a hat. Also at the clinic, but not patients, are Dr.
Vance's wife, Lizabeth (Mary Young; SECRET
AGENT 777 - 1965), who has a heart condition, another nurse
named Katty (Rossella Bergamonti, as "Patricia Carr"; GOD
MADE THEM...I
KILL THEM - 1968), who is having a secret affair with male
nurse Ivan (Germano Longo, as "Grant Laramy"; ATLAS
IN THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS - 1961), who is the rest home's
muscle, subduing patients who get violent or try to escape. Rounding
out this cast of characters is butler/groundskeeper Walter (William
Gold), a hulking bald man who unfortunately gets on Dr. Vance's nerves.
When Sheena introduces Mary to Fred, he is calm and polite, but some
loud shuffling of feet on the upstairs floor directly above Fred's
room turns him violent and he tries to attack Mary, forcing Ivan to
restrain Fred to his bed while Dr. Vance injects him with a sedative.
The loud noise on the floor above is not easily ignored (it would
drive anyone insane), so when Dr. Vance excuses himself and heads
upstairs, Mary decides to follow him, only to be stopped by Walter,
who tells her that no one except for Dr. Vance is allowed upstairs
and that includes the staff. We discover that there is a hideously
scarred woman named Laura (Delfi Mauro, as "Delphine
Maurin"; DANGER! DEATH RAY
- 1967) who lives upstairs (She has a club foot and wears the same
black robe and gloves as the killer, but as we all know by watching
giallo films, a reveal such as this so early in the film usually
means she is nothing but a red herring). We can tell Dr. Vance cares
deeply about her, but Laura refuses to show him her face (There's a
good reason for that, she's fucking butt-ugly!). We have no idea why
Dr. Vance cares so deeply for her (at least not yet), but what we do
know is Dr. Vance and Sheena (who assists him) are working on a
regeneration formula that will make scarred skin look normal again,
but time after time the formula fails (he tests it on guinea pigs,
which he slices open with a scalpel, applying the formula on the
incision), yet he hopes his latest tweaks to the formula is a success.
The killer then tries to slice Janey in her bed, but since she is
mute she cannot scream, so she jumps out her bedroom window and tries
to escape the killer on the home's grounds (I'm not 100% sure, but it
looks like the same location as that used in PATRICK
STILL LIVES - 1980), but the killer grabs her and slices her
throat with the straight razor, killing her. The next morning, Mary
goes to check up on Janey (they have become fond of each other), only
to have Dr. Vance tell her that Janey's relatives took her away last
night because they didn't believe she belonged in such a place. Mary
finds that explanation hard to believe, but Sheena backs up Dr.
Vance's story and tells Mary to get back to work, she has other
patients to take care of. I'm pretty sure neither Dr. Vance or Sheena
are the killer, but why would they both lie to Mary? Do they know who
the killer is?
We are then in a horse-drawn carriage, occupied by two people,
Gisele de Bramtone (Francoise Prevost; THE
POSSESSOR - 1975) and her husband Marc (Philippe Hersent; SILVER
SADDLE - 1978). It is obvious that their marriage is
troubled since all they do is argue with each other. Marc tells
Gisele that he is taking her someplace where she can straighten out
her life (She's a serial cheater and crook, a bitch with a capital
"C"). She begs Marc to stop at the nearest town because she
has been in the carriage for far too long, she needs a bath and a
soft hotel bed to sleep in. Marc refuses (he knows she is up to
something), but when the carriage breaks down, Gisele pummels Marc
over the head with an iron bar, killing him. She then wanders in the
woods and secretly spots Dr. Vance burying Janey's body. Not one to
look a gift horse in the mouth, Gisele pretends to pass out and when
Dr. Vance finds her, he takes her to his rest home to recuperate. She
insinuates herself into Dr. Vance's life, which pisses off Lizabeth,
especially when her husband tells her to give Gisele some of her
clothes, telling her all they are doing is taking up space in her
closet! Soon, Gisele shows her true colors, telling Dr. Vance that
she saw him burying the body in the woods, blackmailing him for a
large sum of cash, unless he wants her to show the police where the
body is buried. Dr. Vance agrees to the cash payout, telling her he
will need some time to get that much cash together. He really doesn't
have to worry, though, because the killer enters Gisele's bedroom
that night and kills her by slicing her throat.
Dr. Vance blames Fred for Gisele's murder, since later that same
night he tried to kill Mary in her bedroom, but Ivan stopped him
before he could finish the deed. Dr. Vance has Ivan put Fred in a
dungeon cell (every mental institution has one!) and tells everyone
the killer has been apprehended. But is Fred the robed killer (he
wasn't wearing one when he attacked Mary)? Don't count on it! We then
discover that Laura is Lizabeth's sister, as a prolonged flashback
shows us how she became horribly scarred. Back then, Dr. Vance was a
prominent (and rich) surgeon who just got married to Lizabeth. Laura
then pays them a visit and Dr. Vance becomes infatuated with her,
spending more time with Laura than his new wife, but Lizabeth seems
happy that her sister and husband are enjoying themselves and
laughing all the time. Dr. Vance was also building his dream clinic
and takes Lizabeth and Laura to the site to see how construction is
progressing. While standing on a wooden platform above the
construction, the rope protecting Laura from falling gives way and
she falls into a vat of lye, scarring her entire body. Even though
Dr. Vance was cleared of any wrongdoing, he was blackballed by his
peers, who accused him of pushing Laura into the lye. Unable to find
a job as a surgeon, Dr. Vance loses his prominence and goes broke,
forcing him to take the job at this out-of-the-way rest home, far
away from anyone who knows who he actually is. The flashback then ends.
The real killer is obvious to anyone with half a brain, as the robed
murderer tries to kill Mary, but Laura stops it from happening,
saving Mary. The killer has murdered both Fred and Katty, so it is
not too much of a reach to reveal that the killer is Lizabeth. She
was the one who loosened the rope, causing her sister to become
horribly scarred. Sheena then discovers that Dr. Vance's formula
actually works, but is it too late for it to do any good? I'll let
you discover that for yourself.
This Italy/France co-production is a nifty giallo flick that has a
strong pedigree when it comes to the screenwriters. "Julian
Berry" is actually Ernesto Gastaldi, who authored or co-authored
some of the finest giallo films out there, including THE
SWEET BODY OF DEBORAH (1968), THE
STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (1971) and my favorite giallo
film of all time, TORSO (1973).
Gastaldi's co-writer on this film,
"Martin Hardy", is actually Luciano Martino, who provided
the stories to SO SWEET...SO
PERVERSE (1969) and YOUR
VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY (1972), as
well as producing over 130 Italian films in nearly every genre,
including his brother Sergio Martino's THE
CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL (1971), ALL
THE COLORS OF THE DARK (1971), THE
SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A MINOR (1975) and MOUNTAIN
OF THE CANNIBAL GOD (1978). He also produced films for
Umberto Lenzi (ALMOST HUMAN
- 1974), Lucio Fulci (CITY
OF THE LIVING DEAD - 1980) and many other masters of Italian
genre cinema (He passed away in 2013). Since this is a mid-'60s
giallo film, director/producer Elio Scardamaglia, who takes the
pseudonym "Michael Hamilton" (This was his only directorial
effort, although he was also a successful producer in his own right [A
BULLET FOR SANDOVAL - 1969]), shows no nudity and very
little graphic violence, but I dare you not to be shocked when Laura
reveals her scarred face for the first time. That scene still gets to
me over the years, no matter how many times I have watched it. It is
also a blueprint for the countless giallo films that followed it (I
know there have been earlier giallo films, but this one contains many
of the elements that future giallo flicks would explore much more
graphically). Keep that in mind and you should have a good time with
this film.
Shot as LA LAMA NEL CORPO
("The Knife In The Body", the name of the Robert Williams
novel this film is based on), this film was released theatrically
in the United States under the review title (by Joseph
Brenner Associates) and then as REVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD,
as part of the gimmicky "Orgy
Of The Living Dead" triple feature ad campaign, with CURSE
OF THE LIVING DEAD (actually Mario Bava's KILL,
BABY...KILL!
- 1966) and FANGS
OF THE LIVING DEAD (a.k.a. MALENKA,
THE VAMPIRE'S NIECE - 1969). All three films were severely
edited in order to get a PG Rating and to fit in an allotted time
slot that made theater owners happy (longer times means less people
in the seats daily). The only legitimate U.S. disc release I could
find was Code Red's SIX PACK
VOLUME TWO and out of the six films on this 2-DVD set, it is
the only one in fullscreen. If you want to see a beautiful widescreen
print of this film (uncut and dubbed in English), it can be found
streaming on YouTube from user "Giallo Cinema." While the
edited theatrical version is Rated PG, this uncut widescreen
print is Not Rated. As I said earlier, there is no nudity or
graphic violence on view, but the story is very adult and mature in
its approach, so it's definitely not for kids (when I saw this film
on TV as a child, it was butchered beyond recognition).
MURDER
IN A BLUE WORLD (1972) - If
this futuristic Spanish thriller reminds you a little of Stanley
Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
(1971), it's purely intentional (this film is also known as CLOCKWORK
TERROR). As humanity enters the 21st Century, the teenage
and young adult population are growing agressive and scientists
can't understand why. A quartet of leather-wearing, whip-wielding
hooligans, who ride around in a dune buggy while sporting red
motorcycle helmets, roam the countryside breaking into houses, raping
the occupants (both male and female!) and terrorizing the populace.
Gang member David (Chris Mitchum) becomes tired of the lifestyle and
wants to leave, but gang leader Mick (Antonio del Real) beats him to
a pulp before he lets him depart. As he is recovering from his
wounds, David spots Ana (Sue Lyons; END
OF THE WORLD - 1977), an award-winning health
caregiver (in other words, a nurse), disposing of the body of her
latest victim (a man in a leg brace that she picked up at an auction
of Flash Gordon comic panels!). Yes, Ana is a serial killer and her
boyfriend, Victor (Jean Sorel; SHORT
NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS - 1971), who has no idea of Ana's
murderous behavior, is running secret experiments in a government
laboratory where he tries to excise criminal and violent behavior
from the human brain using a complex method of hypnosis and
electroshock therapy. The police ask Victor to look into a string of
violent murders of young men, stabbed in the heart with a scalpel,
since they believe the killer is a homosexual psychopath with medical
experience. Victor begins his investigation, not aware that the
killer is actually Ana, who likes to listen to her victims'
heartbeats (by putting her ear to their bare chests) before plunging
in the scalpel. We watch Ana take on various disguises (old woman,
maid, rich heiress) as she picks out her victims (she even dresses as
a man and picks up a young guy at a gay bar!), bringing them back to
her home for the kill, but this time she's unaware that David is
hiding in her house, watching her latest kill. David eventually lets
Ana know his intentions, blackmailing her for huge sums of money to
keep him quiet, but David doesn't realize that he's being followed by
Mick and the gang. They beat the shit out of David and he is brought
to, you guessed it, the hospital that Ana works at. She begins to
worry when Victor informs her that David is to be moved to Victor's
lab for "rehabilitation" once his wounds are healed. This
is not going to turn out well. Not well at all. This strange,
off-the-wall thriller, from director Eloy de la Iglesia (CANNIBAL
MAN - 1972), is at first hard to categorize because the
first half hour is all over the map, introducing the characters, a rape
sequence lifted directly from A
CLOCKWORK ORANGE (the film is also name-checked, just before
the rape happens and all that's missing is Malcolm McDowall singing
Gene Kelly's "Singing In The Rain") and the future's
unhealthy habit of watching too much TV. The TV sections are a
precursor to the scenes we would later see in ROBOCOP
(1987), as we watch TV commercials for products like Blue Drink
("for a blue world") and Panther Underwear. Once we realize
just exactly what Ana is (I had a good laugh when one of her victims
was the actor who was selling Panther Underwear on TV), the film
settles in and becomes more of a standard futuristic thriller, but
with some strange quirks, visuals and music choices that make it
stand out from the pack. The future depicted here can best be
described as round and lacking sharp corners. Everything is circular
in shape (the furniture, objects d'art and even the giant TV screens)
with nothing remotely pointy in sight (besides medical instruments)
and the main form of entertainment for future society seems to be TV.
Lots and lots of TV. The screenplay, by de la Iglesia and four other
scripters, implies that violence is needed if society is to survive.
When Victor shows Ana three of his "successes" (victims of
his experimental procedure), she is shocked, because all she sees are
three soulless beings sitting around a dinner table, prattling on
about nothing while acting like proper uppercrust members of society.
Her "rescue" of David from his hospital bed, where she
tells him, "They'll kill you with life. False life!" before
killing him with a scalpel to the heart is a revealing moment,
especially with the ironic and disturbing final shots that proceed it
(I won't spoil it for you). This is an unusual, little-seen gem just
waiting to be rediscovered. A young Chris Mitchum (who is poorly
dubbed here) would go on to appear in the excellent THE
MEAN MACHINE (1973) and FINAL
SCORE (1986), probably the best Indonesian action film ever
made. Also starring Ramon Pons, Alfredo Alba, David Carpenter,
Eduardo Calvo and Charly Bravo as the unfortunate Panther Underwear
actor. Available on DVD in a widescreen print from British label
Pagan Films Ltd.. Never available legitimately on home video in the
United States. Not Rated.
MURDER-ROCK:
DANCING DEATH (1984) - Someone is
killing the dancers at the Arts For Living Center in New York City.
The first one killed is Susan (Angela Lemerman). She is chloroformed
while taking a shower and then has a huge hatpin shoved through her
left breast, puncturing her heart. Since Susan was a member of a
group of dancers being auditioned for three available openings in a
big musical show and she was considered "one of the best",
police Lieutenant Borges (Cosimo Cinieri) believes the murderer may
be one of the dancers trying to thin out the list of prospective
candidates for the openings. Tough-as-nails choreographer Candace
Norman (Olga Karlatos of CYCLONE
- 1978), who keeps working her dancers to the breaking point as the
bodies begin piling up, begins receiving threatening phone calls from
some unknown person and she has nightmares about the mysterious
George Webb (Ray Lovelock of LAST
HOUSE ON THE BEACH [1978] and LIVE
LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN [1976]) attacking her with a
giant hatpin, even though she has never met him and doesn't know his
name. She begins an investigation of her own when she spots George's
face on a billboard. Why does someone she has never met keep haunting
her dreams? The
next to die is Janice (Carla Buzzanca), who finds her pet canary
impaled on a hatpin before the killer does the same to her.
Lieutenant Borges has a large pool of suspects to choose from: Dick
Gibson (Claudio Cassinelli), the Center's administrator, who has had
an affair with both Susan and Janice; Willy Stark (Cristian
Borromeo), Susan's lover and dance partner; Marge (Geretta Marie
Fields), Candace's assistant choreographer who thinks Candace is
working her dancers too hard; not to mention all the female dancers,
who stand to gain a lucrative new job as the other dancers die.
Candace makes contact with George Webb, who turns out to be an
ex-model who is now an alcoholic. Candace cleans him up and they
become lovers, but it's apparent that George is not telling her all
about his past. When dancer Jill (Maria Vittoria Tolazzi) becomes the
latest victim of the hatpin killer, Lieutenant Borges catches a break
when Jill's wheelchair-bound sister takes a photo of the
killing-in-process (It turns out to be a faceless photo of the killer
in an Armani jacket holding the hatpin, but it does hold an important
clue). The finale finds that Candace and George did meet once before
(but only for a split second), which has permanently scarred her
fragile psyche. His billboard photo triggered her thirst for revenge.
Will she get away with it? A lot of people tend to pass this
film off as one of director Lucio Fulci's minor 80's films, but I
disagree. I find this to be one of his most enjoyable, if
far-fetched, 80's films, even though it's severely lacking in the
gore department. Those looking for blood-and-guts in the same vein as
his ZOMBIE (1979), GATES
OF HELL (a.k.a. CITY
OF THE LIVING DEAD
- 1980), THE BEYOND (1981) or NEW
YORK RIPPER (1982) will be greatly disappointed, because
this is more like a 70's giallo film. There's some blood, but the
story (script by Fulci, Vincenzo Mannino, Gianfranco Clerici and
Roberto Gianviti) is more interested in the mystery elements and this
film has more red herrings than a fish market. Fulci manages to
actually pull off a fair amount of suspense and atmosphere (Candace's
nightmare being a standout). He also puts in his trademark "What
The Fuck?" sequences, including a scene where Lieutenant Borges
slaps the shit out of a false confessor when he calls the dead
Janice (who was Puerto Rican) a "spic". Apparently,
the Lieutenant doesn't like racist remarks! Fulci also fills the film
with plenty of nudity and lots of crotch and ass shots of the females
dancing in their leotards to music supplied by Keith Emerson (who
also scored NIGHTHAWKS -
1981). Most of the music is electronic New Wave or Hip-Hop (some of
the dancers are seen break dancing and there's also a little nod to FLASHDANCE,
which was made a year earlier), but there's an infectious tune
("Are The Streets To Blame", sung by Doreen Charter) that's
repeated several times that will take days to leave your head (The
lyrics go, "Paranoia's comin' your way...."). The film ends
with a quote from John Huston from his film THE
ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950). While not in the same league as the
prime 70's giallos made by Dario Argento (DEEP
RED - 1975) or even by Fulci himself (LIZARD
IN A WOMAN'S SKIN - 1971; DON'T
TORTURE A DUCKLING - 1972), MURDER
ROCK is still an entertaining little mystery with much to
recommend. Also starring Giuseppe Mannajuolo, Berna Maria do Carmo,
Belinda Busato, Carlo Caldera and Robert Gligorov. A Shriek
Show DVD Release. It's a deluxe two DVD edition with too many
extras to list here. If you're a Lucio Fulci fan, this is a must. Not
Rated. UPDATE:
Now available on Blu-Ray
from Scorpion Releasing.
MY
FRIENDS NEED KILLING (1976) -
Army veteran and former P.O.W. Gene Kline (Greg Mullavey) has
recurring nightmares about the atrocities he was forced to view while
a soldier in the Vietnam War. He comes to the conclusion that the
only way to set things right is to kill all those responsible for the
atrocities he witnessed and was forced to participate in. He sends
all his former Army buddies letters telling them he is coming for a
visit and then kills them in ways that are fitting to their war
crimes. The first man he visits, he ties to a bed, inserts a needle
and tube in his arm and slowly bleeds him to death. He then travels
to Texas, to the home of Gil Perkins (Clayton Wilcox) and his wife
Susan (Carolyn Ames). Gil and Gene go hunting, get drunk and talk
about the "good times" in Vietnam. That night, Gene goes to
the Perkins' bedroom, makes Susan tie-up Gil (after he pumps a couple
of bullets into his hand and leg) and then rapes Susan ("Shut
up, you slant-eyed bitch!"), making Gil watch (Gil screams,
"She wasn't even there!"). Gene then kills them both
(off-screen). Gene's wife, Laura (Meredith MacRae),
becomes worried when Gene doesn't come home, so she calls his
psychiatrist, Dr. MacLaine (Eric Morris), for some help. Laura finds
an address book with the names of Gene's Army buddies and gives it to
the doctor. Meanwhile, Gene travels to San Francisco to visit Army
pal Les Drago (Roger Cruz), who is now a stage actor. After some
sightseeing, Les takes Gene to the theater, where Gene forces Les to
perform Shakespeare and them makes him swallow an overdose of pills
while reminding him of the children they killed in Vietnam. After
calling his wife and saying his goodbyes, Gene travels back home to
Los Angeles to visit Walter Miller (Bill Michael), a fellow P.O.W..
After watching Walter parachute out of a plane, Gene stabs him
numerous times with a bayonette in a field after talking about their
time in the war camp. Laura and Dr. MacLaine drive to Walter's house
after talking to Walter's wife, Georgia (Laurie Burton), on the
phone. In a scene sure to raise goosebumps, Gene confronts the
pregnant Georgia in her bedroom, knife in hand, just as she goes into
labor. Rather than kill her, Gene delivers the baby. When Laura and
Dr. MacLaine arrive at the Miller's home, they find Georgia and the
baby safe in the bedroom. Laura finds Gene dead in the backyard,
swinging from a tree, a rope around his neck. His nightmare is now
over. This grim revenge thriller, directed/produced/scripted by
the late Paul Leder (I
DISMEMBER MAMA - 1974; THE
BABY DOLL MURDERS - 1993), benefits greatly by Greg
Mullavey's tortured performance as a man without hope. Mullavey, a
regular in many of Leder's films, is a top-notch actor who was
woefully underutilized in films, but he gained a modicum of
recognition starring as Louise Lasser's husband on TV's MARY
HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN during 1976 to 1978. This film is
Mullavey's show all the way, as he quietly travels from town to town,
leaving bodies in his wake, letting the punishment fit the crime.
Leder films most of the scenes statically, mainly in medium or
extreme close-ups, all the time letting the camera linger on
Mullavey's agonizing, tortured face. Leder was never a great
filmmaker (his daughter, director Mimi Leder [DEEP
IMPACT - 1998], and son Reuben Leder, a TV producer and
writer [WALKER, TEXAS RANGER
{1993 - 2001}], found much more success in the business than he did),
but he always turned out interesting, low-budget mysteries and
thrillers (SKETCHES OF
A STRANGLER - 1978; THE
ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT
- 1987). Co-star Meredith MacRea was Mullavey's real-life wife at the
time (they were divorced in 1987). MY
FRIENDS NEED KILLING is a short (73 minutes), unapologetic
look at a damaged Vietnam veteran. It's bloody without being graphic
and relies on Mullavey's acting talent to convey an atmosphere of
hopelessness. It's not for everyone's taste (it generally gets panned
when reviewed), but I liked it. Available in a hard to find DVD from
Jef Films. The print I viewed was a grainy dub of a Dutch-subtitled
VHS. Rated R.
NAKED
YOU DIE (1968) - This late-60's
giallo opens with a black gloved killer strangling a woman taking a
bath and stuffing her nude body in a trunk. During the opening
credits, we follow the trunk; it's first strapped onto the roof of a
taxi, then loaded onto a train and, finally, strapped to the roof of
a van that contains the new hires heading to the all-girls St. Hilda
College. Some of the new hires include: riding teacher Richard
Barrett (Mark Damon), a good-looking chap who headmistress Miss
Transfield (Vivienne Stapleton) doesn't trust with her young female
staff and students; and gym teacher Mr. Di Brazzi ("John
Hawkwood"; real name: Giovanni Di Benedetto), who plans to teach
the students skin diving and has brought the equipment with him. We
learn that most of the students are away for the holidays (only six
have stayed behind) and the schoolgrounds also contain a zoo, full of
exotic animals looked after by the elderly Professor Andre (Aldo De
Carellis). When student Betty Ann ("Katleen Parker"; a.k.a.
Caterina Trentini) goes down to the basement to collect a piece of
her luggage, she notices the trunk (the one with the body in it) and
pays for it with her life. The killer strangles her and leaves her
lifeless body in the basement. When the other students notice Betty
Ann is missing, Miss
Transfield searches the basement, but by then the killer has moved
her body. When Miss Transfield and her assistant, Mrs. Clay (Ludmila
Lvova), search the grounds and come up empty, they put the rest of
the girls on a curfew. Of course, one of the girls, Lucille (Eleonora
Brown), breaks curfew and finds Betty Ann's body in the bughouse of
the zoo. She believes the creepy groundskeeper, La Floret ("Alan
Collins"; real name: Luciano Pigozzi), is responsible, but when
Richard (who is having a fling with Lucille) checks the bughouse,
Betty Ann's body is gone. As La Floret watches outside, peeping onto
the women's shower, he spots the killer strangling Cynthia (Malisa
Longo), who the killer mistakenly thinks is Lucille. Police Inspector
Durant (Michael Rennie) is called in to investigate Cynthia's death
and Betty Ann's disappearance and the killer murders La Floret to
keep him from talking to the police. Can Lucille convince Inspector
Durant and Richard that she is telling the truth? The killer has a
few more people to dispose of before the motive becomes clear (the
first murder of the woman in the bathtub plays an important part in
solving the mystery). This giallo may seem tame today, but for
1968 it was quite daring, with it's scenes of nudity mixed with
murder. Director/co-scripter Antonio
Margheriti (using his "Anthony Dawson" pseudonym), who
also directed the gothic giallo SEVEN
DEATH IN THE CAT'S EYE
(1973), the gore-filled CANNIBAL
APOCALYPSE (1980) and dozens of other films in many other
genres, has fashioned a murder mystery (Italian maestro Mario Bava
gets a co-story credit) that's easy to solve early on if you really
try. Maybe I've seen too many giallo films in my lifetime to be
partial, but this was an easy one to solve. But, since this was one
if the first crop of films that kick-started the modern-day giallo
genre, it should be required viewing to fans of the genre, if just to
see how far the boundaries were pushed when giallo caught fire in the
70's. This film contains restrained nudity (just quick flashes and no
full frontal) and violence (the bloodiest it gets is a shot of a
sickle sticking out of La Floret's stomach), nothing like the sights
on view in 70's giallo films. This film may also be too comedic for
some giallo fans' tastes, especially the finale, which is a take-off
on James Bond films. Michael Rennie (THE
DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL - 1951; THE
POWER - 1968) is wasted here in what amounts to nothing but
an extended cameo. I would still recommend this film for fans of
Margheriti's body of work and for those interested in late-60's
giallo films. Also known as THE
YOUNG, THE EVIL & THE SAVAGE
(released theatrically in the U.S. under this title by American
International Pictures with 12 minutes of footage edited out), SCHOOLGIRL
KILLER (on U.S. VHS from AIR
Video using this title and shorn of nearly 15 minutes of
footage), THE MINISKIRT MURDERS
and SEVEN VIRGINS
FOR THE DEVIL. On-screen title: NUDE...SI
MUORE. Also starring Sally Smith, Patrizia Valturri, Franco
DeRosa, Ester Masing and Sylvia Dionisio. Available in a nice
widescreen uncut print on DVD from Dark
Sky Films. Not Rated.
NIGHTMARE
(1973) - Haunting and deliberately paced supernatural thriller
that is based on a play called VOICES,
written by Richard Lortz, which played on New York's Broadway at the
Barrymore Theater in 1972 for only eight performances (with Richard
Kiley and Julie Harris starring). The film stars David Hemmings (DARK
FORCES - 1980) as Robert and Gayle Hunnicutt (THE
LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE - 1973) as Claire, a married couple who
are on a boating holiday with their young son David (Adam Bridge),
when the unthinkable happens. While drunk and making love on the boat
as they are docked near a dam, little David takes a stroll across the
dam and disappears. Robert and Claire panic when they find David's
life jacket at the foot of the dam and their extensive search of the
area (in which the police get involved in) turns up nothing. It's
believed that David fell in the water and drowned, with the strong
currents carrying him away to places unknown. Claire tries to kill herself
by overdosing on sleeping pills, but Robert stops her. Another
suicide attempt by slitting her wrists with a razor lands Claire in a
sanitarium, where she and Robert separate for a while. They reconcile
by taking a car trip to Claire's dead aunt's country home, but they
nearly don't make it there when the extremely foggy road nearly
causes a head-on collision with another car. Once at the country
home, Robert makes crass jokes about suicide while Claire can only
think about the day they lost David and her stay at the sanitarium.
Both are dealing with the loss of their son in their own way, but
neither are doing a good job at it (She accuses Robert of having a
lover while she was committed and Robert just wants to get her drunk
and make love, which is what led to this whole disaster in the first
place). The country home has no electricity or heat, so they must
rely on oil lanterns and the fireplace (when they try to light
candles on a candelabra, a strange breeze blows them out), but the
lack of basic modern necessities leads to further problems, like
Claire hearing the voices of children and telling Robert that there
is something wrong with the house and they should leave. It's clear
to the viewer that Robert and Claire should no longer be together
because the harder they try, the worse it gets. When the truth comes
out that Claire's family is rich and Robert may have married her only
for her money, which he still hasn't seen a penny of thanks to
Claire's nasty mother, the question becomes: Did Robert bring her to
the house to kill her (the thought of it excites Claire, who accepts
death more than life) or to drive her crazy? Is Claire actually
seeing the ghostly visages of children Jessica (Eva Griffith), John
(Russell Lewis) and their mother (Lynn Farleigh) or is this part of
Robert's plan? Claire believes she is psychic and tells Robert that
when David first died, she went to a medium (Peggy Ann Clifford),
heard David's voice and is convinced that David is still alive. When
Robert also begins to see and hear the ghosts (after he and Claire
make love for the first time since David died), it sets the stage for
the film's eerie final reveal and seals the fate of our two main
characters. While nothing more than a two character filmed
stage play, director Kevin Billington (THE
LIGHT AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD - 1971) and screenwriters
George Kirgo & Robert Enders (also the Producer) had the good
sense to have accomplished actors David Hemmings and Gayle Hunnicutt
(who also appeared together in FRAGMENT
OF FEAR [1970] and were actually married to each other at
the time, divorcing in 1975) speak the words and make the most of the
limited locations (80% of the film takes place in the main room at
the country estate). Billington also makes the wise choice to show
Claire's thoughts and flashbacks as a series of tightly edited shock
cuts, which are effective and unnerving. While NIGHTMARE (also
known as VOICES) is nothing more
than two great actors insulting each other for ninety minutes, it
still has the same creepy vibe you'll find in THE
UNINVITED (1944), THE INNOCENTS
(1961) and THE HAUNTING
(1963). Those looking for a more conventional haunted house thriller
like THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL
(1959) will be disappointed, though. The ending may remind people of CARNIVAL
OF SOULS (1962), but let's remember that this film was made
years before CARNIVAL would find cult success on home video.
It should be noted that David Hemmings (who passed away in 2003) was
not only an accomplished actor, he also directed a great deal of
American TV during the 80's & 90's, including episodes of MAGNUM
P.I. (1980 - 1988), WEREWOLF
(1987 - 1988) and QUANTUM LEAP
(1989 - 1993) and was once quoted as saying during his long
sabbatical as an actor: "People thought I was dead. But I
wasn't. I was just directing THE
A-TEAM (1983 - 1987)"! A Mirisch Video Company VHS
Release. Not available on DVD. Not Rated.
NIGHTMARE
COUNTY (1971) - You gotta
love a film that opens with a quote from John F. Kennedy ("Those
who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution
inevitable.") and then immediately shows two hippies being
brutally gunned-down as they step out of their VW Beetle, doused with
gasoline and set on fire. Then the real film kicks in. Too bad. In a
small town that survives on it's orange orchards, a group of migrant
workers, mainly hippie types, have been toiling in the orchards for
months and wish to vote in the town's upcoming elections, but can't
since they have no permanent residence in town. Their savior turns
out to be Jonas Smith (director/screenwriter Sean McGregor), an
ex-townie who returns to his hometown riding on a motorcycle and
signs over his late father's farm to the migrant workers, giving them
a permanent address and, therefore, a right to vote in the upcoming
elections. This doesn't sit too well with the local political
bigwigs, including the Mayor, Judge and Sheriff, who team together to
harass Jonas every opportunity they get. It doesn't help that Jonas
rekindles his romance
with County Clerk Eva Michaels (Gayle Hemingway), who happens to be
the Sheriff's daughter and a romantic interest for Harlan (Chase
Cordell), the Sheriff's deputy. At least Harlan thinks he's the
romantic interest, but Eva only has eyes for Jonas. As election night
draws nearer, things in town get downright dangerous, especially when
the migrant workers register to vote. When Jonas discovers that one
of the workers, a hulking dude named Cowboy, killed the two hippies
in the beginning of the film because they were going to tell Jonas
that he was using heroin, Jonas kicks him out of the group, with
Cowboy vowing revenge. Election night comes and all of the cronies
are voted out of their offices, replaced by "long haired
hippies", so the cronies devise a plan to drive the hippies out
of town before they come into power. The Sheriff and Harlan begin
arresting the workers on trumped-up charges and offer them all a
deal: Do hard county time or get the hell out of town. Things
backfire for the cronies when TV reporters and camera arrive in town
and an outpouring of positive public opinion for the hippies turn
things around, but just like JFK, his brother Robert or Martin Luther
King, all good causes come with a deadly price to be paid. This
terribly dated film, made in 1971 but not released until 1975, is
full of "Us vs. the Establishment" dialogue and scenes of
hippie abuse (always a good thing in my book), but the violence level
is much too tame for it's own good. The biggest problem in
director/scripter Sean McGregor's (GENTLE
SAVAGE - 1973; DEVIL
TIMES FIVE - 1974) BILLY JACK
(1971) rip-off is that he decided to cast himself in the lead role of
Jonas. He's simply terrible in the role, as he couldn't act his way
out of a paper bag and whenever he opens his mouth, his pronounced
lisp makes it very hard for the viewer to understand a single word he
is saying. After a promising violent opening, the film quickly
deteriorates into a young against the old scenario and, besides a
couple of fistfights and an instance where a pressure hose is turned
on a bunch of hippies in a jail cell, nothing much happens until the
finale, where Cowboy, strung-out on junk, invades Eva's home, smashes
her face into a mirror and then rapes and kills her (off-screen). The
Sheriff then gets into a knock-down, drag-out fight with Cowboy (I've
never seen more breakaway furniture in one room since a Wild West
barroom fight), killing him, grabs his daughter's dead body and
carries her to a televised press conference, where he shoots Jonas
two times in the chest on live TV in the downbeat finale. Toss in a
music soundtrack filled with sappy hippie ballads with titles like
" Grass Of Solution", "Gods And Raging Winds" and
the titular "November Children"
(the film's early release title), and what you end up with is a film
that tries to address serious issues, but hasn't got a clue in it's
tiny little head how to do it. There's a reason why this sat on a
shelf for over four years. It's horrendous and was outdated before it
was even finished. Also starring Jody McCrea, Beau Gibson, R.N.
Bullard, Woody Lee, Robert Reynolds, Michael Verona, Conchita
Thornton, Duke Douglas and Ted Wilde. Originally released on VHS by
Family Home Video and not available on DVD. Rated R.
NIGHTMARE
HONEYMOON (1973)
- David (Dack Rambo) and Jill (Rebecca Dianna Smith) have just
gotten married in a big ceremony on Jill's widowed father Henry's
(Pat Hingle) sprawling Mississippi estate. They have a big hurdle to
clear before they can have
their honeymoon: Henry has a family tradition to interrupt all
family honeymoons by having the entire clan sing beneath the window
of the honeymoon suite all night long. David and Jill, looking to
break that tradition, hop into a car in the middle of their wedding
reception and speed off, with Dad and the rest of the family in hot
pursuit. They manage to lose the posse by hiding out at a remote
motel in the Louisiana bayou. They decide to go for a swim when they
witness Lee (John Beck) and Sandy (Roy Jenson) murder Mr. Carroll
(David Huddleston) over a deal gone bad. Lee (who is a psychopath)
and Sandy corner the couple, where they knock out David and rape Jill
(off-screen). David wants to go to the police but Jill stops him,
because she does not want anyone (especially her father) to know she
was raped. David and Jill are now two totally different people than
they were a couple of hours before. They drive down the highway to go
to their honeymoon suite and, when they arrive, they are just two
broken human beings. Unable to consummate their marriage (would you
be able to?), they argue for a while and then Vietnam veteran David
decides revenge is the best answer. Using the info he heard Lee talk
about at the murder scene and using the phone book for his first
clue, David and Jill embark on a journey where they meet more
violence and death before they learn that nothing will change the way
they really feel about each other. Never available on home
video in any format in the U.S. (when will MGM open their vaults and
start releasing these forgotten gems?), NIGHTMARE
HONEYMOON played on TV during the 70's and early 80's before
disappearing into the ether. Director Elliot Silverstein (THE
CAR - 1977) has made a film that's not especially violent
(it's rated PG), but it is a very intense film. Made back in the day
when films rated PG weren't just kid's films, the change in tone from
freewheeling to menacing is quite shocking to the system and although
we never see much of the violence, the threat hangs heavily in the
air. The scene where Jill calls her father on the phone to tell him
what happened and then realizes that she can't bear to do so is a
wonderful piece of emotional cinema. Although talky in spots, it
acquits itself by continually surprising the viewer as the screenplay
(by S. Lee Pogostin) never panders or talks down to the audience.
This is an adult story where the bad guys are extremely bad (Lee
threatens Jill with a knife by saying, "Quiet knives are for
loud girls.") and the good guys find out that doing bad things
always comes with a price. Be prepared to pay it. This is an
excellent underappreciated thriller that, unfortunately, is not
available to the general public. Also starring Jay Robinson, Dennis
Patrick, Jim Boles and Dennis Burkley. I got this on DVD-R in an
excellent print from a seller who wishes to remain nameless (for
legal reasons). Search the internet for this one. Rated PG.
NIGHT
OF BLOODY HORROR (1969)
-
Ah, memories. I was 16 years old when I first saw this flick
on a triple bill with WOMEN
AND BLOODY TERROR
(1970) and NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER
(1972) in 1973. I was disappointed, to say the least, when these
films failed to live up to their titles (see ad mats). Well, Im
older now and decided to review these films with a more mature mind
(insert your own joke here). Theyre still trash, with WOMEN
hardly worth a mention because its basically a soap opera with
a couple of gunshots thrown in, but NIGHT
OF BLOODY HORROR
does contain some horrific moments (STRANGLER is the best of
the trio). All the films were directed by Joy N. Houck Jr. (CREATURE
FROM BLACK LAKE,
a.k.a.
DEMON OF THE LAKE -
1976 and THE BRAIN MACHINE
- 1977) and two of them feature Gerald McRaney
(TVs MAJOR
DAD
[1989 - 1993]). In NIGHT,
McRaney portrays Wesley, a confused man prone to blackouts (complete
with a superimposed hypno-wheel to give you a headache) with a
domineering religious fanatic mother. When his fiancee is stabbed in
the head at a church confessional and a nurse friend is axed in the
chest, Wesley is arrested and charged with both murders. Out on bail,
he must figure out if he indeed did the murders during his blackouts
or if someone else is involved. It doesnt help his case that he
spent 13 years in a mental institution for accidentally shooting his
brother when he was 5 years old. Or was it him? It wont be hard
for you to figure out (Hint: Mother did it.). Wildly outdated, with
garish colors, 60s fashions and hairdos (you can see that even
in 1969, McRaney was beginning to lose his hair) and spots of fake
gore (axe attacks, stabbings and a severed hand), one can only view
this film as an obscure artifact from a baby boomers childhood.
Its neither good or bad, it just is. Also starring Gaye Yellen,
Herbert Nelson and Evelyn Hendricks with an appearance by an awful
rock group called "The Bored". No longer available on a
legitimate video label (Paragon)
or on DVD or Blu-Ray, NIGHT
OF BLOODY HORROR can be purchased through various internet
order outlets including Video Search Of Miami (VSOM; long defunct) or eBay.
Rated
R.
NIGHT
OF THE JUGGLER (1979) -
"I gotta feeling it's gonna be another goddamned New York
day." Those words, spoken by police Lt. Tonelli (Richard
Castellano), perfectly describes what is about to happen to
ex-cop-turned-truck driver Sean Boyd (James Brolin). Sean is a
divorced dad who has custody of his young daughter Kathy (Abby
Bluestone) and today is Kathy's 13th birthday.
While walking her to school, Kathy is grabbed by mistake by
delusional kidnapper Gus Soltic (Cliff Gorman), who thinks he is
taking the daughter of rich real estate investor Hampton Richmond
Clayton III (Marco St. John). As Gus gets away with Cathy in his car,
Sean commandeers a cab (driven by a young Mandy Patinkin) and gives
chase. And what a chase it is. When both Gus' car and the cab
crashes, Gus takes Kathy down into the subway system, with Sean close
behind. The chase then leads from the subway to the streets of Times
Square, where Gus steals a phone company van and Sean grabs a station
wagon belonging to a street preacher (Barton Heyman). The chase
continues until Sean crashes the wagon and Gus finally gets away with
Kathy. Gus brings Kathy to his dilapidated tenement building (he
complains to Kathy about how all the "spics and niggers"
have ruined his neighborhood), but he doesn't believe Kathy when she
tells him that her father is not wealthy. Lt. Tonelli (who is always
complaining about his daughter's upcoming wedding) arrests Sean and
brings him downtown, where he runs into old cop nemesis Sgt. Otis
Barnes (Dan Hedaya) who, when Sean was a cop, reported Otis for being
on the take. Otis tries to give Sean the old rubber hose treatment,
but Sean knocks him out, escapes from the precinct and begins his
long search for Kathy. Gus calls the Clayton household and demands
one million dollars in ransom, still not aware that he has the wrong
girl (the man simply won't believe Kathy). The Claytons call the cops
and Lt. Tonelli takes Gus' second call, pretending to be Mr. Clayton
and suddenly realizes that Gus has Sean's kid. Not only does Sean
have to look for his daughter, he must now also dodge the vengeful
Otis, who is looking to kill Sean. As Lt. Tonelli sets up the ransom
drop, Sean goes through a series of encounters, including a porn
house peep show, a guard dog training center and fighting a vicious
street gang, as he inches closer to Gus and Kathy. This is one
of those films where the City of New York is just as valid a
character as the rest of the cast. This is the old New York City,
before Rudy Giuliani grabbed it by the shirt collar and shook all the
dirt out of it. This is New York City when you could find a hot dog
vender on every corner and Times Square was still full of hookers,
porn shops and grindhouses. This is New York City when, as soon as
you park your car in a "bad" neighborhood
,
gangs would strip it on the street in a matter of minutes. Ah, the
good old days! I almost have a tear in my eye thinking about it. NIGHT
OF THE JUGGLER is a gritty, grimy thriller that pulls no
punches and definitely is not a postcard for New York City tourism.
Sean meets the dregs of society, including slimy porn shop workers,
pimps, hookers, street gangs and, of course, crooked cops. All is not
hopeless for Sean, though, as he does find some helpful people,
including a hooker (porn legend Sharon Mitchell) with an important
clue, a dog trainer (Julie Carmen) who helps him get through a bad
part of town and a couple of cabbies, one who is the only cabbie
willing to drive him to Gus' neighborhood. The film's highlight is
when Otis chases Sean through the busy streets of New York, firing
his shotgun at Sean without caring about all the innocent pedestrians
that may get in the way. As Otis is blowing apart newstands, hot dog
carts and store windows while Sean is ducking for cover, it looks
like the pedestrians on the streets were truly not aware what was
about to happen, adding greatly to the realism. The film also takes
an unusual turn when Gus and Kathy begin to actually talk to each
other, talking about her weight problem (she's a little on the chunky
side), his abusive mother and how his neighborhood has literally gone
to the dogs, thanks to greedy real estate developers (his reason
behind the kidnapping). Gus talks to Kathy as he would to an adult,
revealing a lot about his motivations behind all this. James Brolin
and Cliff Gorman have never been better, but director Robert Butler
(who is mainly a TV director, who occasionally left that medium for
theatrical films, like TURBULENCE
[1997]) wisely lets New York City take center stage and it never
looked more like a junkie begging for a fix than it does here. It
just oozes sleaze. I wonder if then-Mayor Ed Koch knew what he was
signing-on for here when he OK'd the permits for this. This is a true
unsung classic just screaming out for a long-overdue DVD release.
Also known as PURSUED
and NEW
YORK KILLER. Also starring Linda G. Miller (ALICE,
SWEET ALICE - 1976), Sully Boyar, Dorothy Lyman and a cameo
by porn star Serena. A Media
Home Entertainment Release. Rated R.
NIGHT
OF THE STRANGLER (1972) -
Dated racial revenge thriller with an unusual storyline and an even
more unusual leading man. The film opens with Vance (Micky Dolenz of
The Monkees) meeting his sister Denise (Susan McCullough) at the New
Orleans airport. Denise has just flown in from Vassar and has some
important news to tell Vance, but she wants to wait to spill the
beans until they get to the
house of their older brother Dan (James Ralston), a strict Southern
lawyer who makes Archie Bunker look like the Pope. Once they are at
the house, Denise tells Vance and Dan that she is quitting school
because she is getting married next week in New York. Oh, and by the
way, she's pregnant and her new husband-to-be is black! Vance, the
more liberal of the two brothers, is slightly shocked, but seemingly
takes the news in stride. Dan, on the other hand, flies into a blind
rage, slapping Denise repeatedly about her face while screaming,
"You let a degenerate nigger enter your body?!?" and
demanding that she get an abortion. Dan disowns Denise on the spot
when she refuses and threatens to kill her "nigger
boyfriend", while rubbing Vance's face in the fact that he is
marrying Vance's ex-girlfriend Carol (Ann Barrett) because "she
couldn't take any more of your nigger-loving ways!" Vance trys
to talk Denise out of the marriage ("These things just don't
work'"), but seems to come over to her side once he sees how
serious she is about it. Denise flies back to New York and is walking
in a park with her black boyfriend Jesse, when a hippie on a bicycle
(Michael Wright) carrying a guitar case stops by a park bench and
opens the case, which contains a high-powered rifle. He takes careful
aim and kills Jesse (attentive viewers will notice that we never see
Jesse's face), much to Denise's horror. Denise writes an entry in her
diary that says, "The only thing I know is that Dan is
responsible for Jesse's death! And Vance - I just don't know about
him - Vance?" Someone wearing black Army boots, black gloves and
a "Peace" symbol belt buckle then sneaks into Denise's
apartment and drowns her in the bathtub. He strips her naked, slits
her wrists with a razor and positions her body in the tub to make it
look like a suicide; taking a few of Denise's belongings (including
her diary and a photo of Vance in the Army) before he leaves. We then
follow black priest Father Jessie (Chuck Patterson) as he returns to
New Orleans after a long absence in a seminary. Father Babbin
(Stocker Fontelieu) informs Jessie of Denise's suicide (he was a
family friend since childhood) and asks him to mend the huge rift
between Vance and Dan that the suicide caused. Vance has become an
alcoholic and shows up at the wedding of Dan and Carol blind stinking
drunk. Father Jessie breaks up a fight between Dan and Vance by
punching Dan in the face (Dan calls Jessie a "damn black
nigger" in church) and escorts Vance outside (but not before a
soused Vance calls the wedding "beauty and the bigot").
It's not long before a series of murders begin, all intricate
booby-traps that seem to be rooted in Vietnam. Carol is bitten in the
face by a poisonous Asian snake that was delivered in a vase of roses
that came from Vance's flower shop. Dan, of course, blames Vance,
although it is clear to the audience that the killer wears gloves
(this time they are white) for a reason. After Dan is forced to shoot
and kill his black gardener Willie (Warren J. Kenner) when he holds a
knife to Dan's throat (Dan fired Willie for having the gall of
talking to Carol without his permission, which led to the death of
Willie's sick wife due to him having no money for her medicine), the
same hippie that killed Denise's boyfriend attempts to kill Dan (It
seems Dan refuses to pay the Mob for the contract hit he put on Jesse
in the park, which is a real stupid move), but he is
shot and killed by a passing cop before he can fire his rifle. The
real killer steps-up his murder spree, killing Vance's new bride,
Anne (Katie Tillie), with a booby-trapped, curare-soaked
spring-loaded arrow that impales her back when she sits down in the
passenger seat of Vance's car. This makes Vance think that Dan was
responsible, so he goes to Dan's house and stabs him in the chest,
but Dan shoots and kills Vance with a pistol. The killer reveals
himself to a dying Dan (it's really no surprise) and thrusts the
knife deeper into Dan's chest after explaining to Dan why he did what
he did and declaring, "This jive-ass nigger got you all!" A
savvy police detective, Lt. DeVivo (Michael Anthony, who is quite
good here), has the final laugh when the killer believes he got away
with it all. The first thing you'll notice about NIGHT
OF THE STRANGLER (also known as IS
THE FATHER BLACK ENOUGH?, which is a much more appropriate
title and a nice play on words; DIRTY DAN,
in which the poster artwork concentrates on Dolenz's older brother;
and ACE OF SPADES, which
is just downright racist) is how well Micky Dolenz (HEAD
- 1968; DEADFALL - 1993 and
the all but lost KEEP OFF MY GRASS!
- 1972) holds his own here. A lot of people don't realize that he was
a child actor before he became a member of The Monkees. He's actually
pretty good as a brother that's torn between two sides: His strict
Southern family upbringing and his own conscience, which changed once
he served in the Vietnam War. Although the storyline is way too dated
(although I can still imagine some Southerners rooting for Dan),
director Joy N. Houck Jr. (NIGHT OF
BLOODY HORROR - 1969; WOMEN
AND BLOODY TERROR - 1970; CREATURE
FROM BLACK LAKE - 1976) and screenwriters J.J. Milane,
Robert A. Weaver and Jeffrey Newton keep the film moving at a brisk
pace, even though it is rather obvious who the killer is. The
Jesse/Father Jessie connection is just too much of a coincidence to
be overlooked (especially since we never see Denise's boyfriend's
face). James Ralston paints a rather broad stroke as Dan, who is not
only a Southern bigot, he's a lawyer, to boot (double hiss!). There's
some nice early 70's New Orleans photography and some violent scenes
(the car seat booby-trap is a doozy) to keep viewers entertained and
there's an air of sleazy 70's exploitation that you just can't
replicate in films today. On those points alone, I would recommend NIGHT
OF THE STRANGLER. Also starring Harold Sylvester Jr. and Ed
Brown. Originally released on VHS by Paragon
Video and available on DVD
from Vinegar Syndrome
and AGFA. Rated R.
NIGHT
TRAIN MURDERS (1974) -
This is one of those films which played throughout the 70s and
80s under numerous titles such as LAST
HOUSE-PART II;
THE
NEW HOUSE ON THE LEFT,
SECOND
HOUSE FROM THE LEFT,
TORTURE
TRAIN, LAST
STOP ON THE NIGHT TRAIN
and LATE
NIGHT TRAINS.
The first three alternate titles suggest that it is
a sequel to Wes Cravens LAST
HOUSE ON THE LEFT
(1972). Dont you believe it. What we have here is a sleazy
Italian thriller about grue-some sexual murders committed aboard a
travelling train during the Christmas holiday. Two nubile young
girls, on vacation from their parents, get more than they bargain for
when they are held captive on the train by a trio of degenerates (a
psychopath, a drug addict and a nymphomaniac!). They force the two
girls to strip, give the drug addict a hand job and pull a peeping
tom passenger into the rail car and force him to rape one of the
girls. When the drug addict has trouble raping the other girl, who is
a virgin (He exclaims, "Shes as tight as a frightened
asshole!"), he tries to loosen her up by shoving a knife up her
vagina! Needless to say, she dies and the other girl tries to escape
by jumping off the train but dies in the attempt. The parents of one
of the girls meet the train at the junction to pick up their
daughter. When she does not come off they figure she took a later
train. The father (who is a doctor) is asked to help a woman who is
bleeding from the leg. It turns out the woman is the nymphomaniac and
before long the parents are inviting the trio over to their house,
neither party knowing who the others are. Circumstances lead the
parents to find out the truth and they exact bloody revenge. Hey,
wait a minute. This could very well be a sequel to LAST
HOUSE!
Although slow in the beginning, the film picks up steam (pardon the
pun) in the middle and never lets up. Director Aldo Lado (SHORT
NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS - 1971; WHO
SAW HER DIE
- 1972; THE
HUMANOID
- 1979; DISOBEDIENCE
- 1981) leaves nothing to the imagination as youll view rapes,
knifings, beatings and two impalements to the groin (one male, one
female) all under the subtext of nonviolence. Not a bad little flick
if youre in the right frame of mind (say, the mind of a sick
psychopath!). Starring Flavio Bucci (PROPERTY
IS NO LONGER A THEFT - 1973), Macha Meril (DEEP
RED - 1975), Gianfranco De Grassi (THE
CHURCH - 1989), Enrico Maria Salerno (EXECUTION
SQUAD - 1972), Marina Berti (WHAT
HAVE THEY DONE TO
YOUR DAUGHTERS? - 1974), Franco Fabrizi (MANHUNT
- 1972) and Irene Miracle (INFERNO
- 1980). Music by Ennio Morricone. Available on video in many cut
versions. Luminous Film & Video Wurks (who no longer seem to be
in business) use to offer a pristine uncut version (with German
subtitles), the only way to watch it for a long time. Now available
on DVD and Blu-Ray
from Blue Underground
fully uncut and in widescreen.
PACT
WITH THE DEVIL (2002) - I
am a huge Malcolm McDowell fan. So huge, in fact, that I could watch
him painting a house for two hours. That being said, I have noticed
lately that he's been appearing in, how should I say this, less than
stellar films. But he always seems to rise above the material. This
is one of those films. In this modern retelling of the Dorian Gray
legend, McDowell
stars as Henry, a manager of a fashion photographer who, in 1980,
discovers Louis (Ethan Erickson), a handsome gofer on a photo shoot
who Henry thinks could be the next big male supermodel. Henry manages
Louis' career and he indeed becomes the next big thing. Henry opens
up to Louis about growing old (He says, "By 50, every man has
the face he deserves.") and tells him the story of Dorian Gray
and gets the brilliant idea to change Louis' name to Dorian. Dorian
goes home half-drunk and stares at a huge framed head shot of himself
that Harry had taken. He stares at the photo on the wall and writes
"Dorian" in his own blood on a mirror opposite the photo.
From that moment on, Dorian's life will never be the same. No matter
how much punishment Dorian dishes out to his body (with drugs,
alcohol, sex or violence), it does not seem to affect him. His photo,
on the other hand, shows all the effects of the abuse. As time passes
by, Dorian becomes hugely successful but, privately, is a wreck (but
always looks perfect) as he abuses drugs, abuses women and abuses
life, all under the watchful eye of Henry. Dorian begins a slow
spiral into depravity which ends in a double murder. Told in a
series of flashbacks, PACT
WITH THE DEVIL opens up at the scene of the double murder,
with Henry telling Detective Giatti (Ron Lea) Dorian's story as the
bodies are taken away. Since we are not privy to who is murdered or
the reasons behind the murders, Director Allan A. Goldstein (DEATH
WISH V: THE FACE OF DEATH - 1994; VIRUS
- 1996) teases the viewer throughout the running time (not
necessarily a bad thing), but anyone familiar with Oscar Wilde's
novel won't be surprised by the outcome. As always, McDowell steals
the show as the smarmy manager who we all know is just the Devil in
disguise. He can be threatening by just raising his eyebrows and be
your best friend by doing the same exact thing. The ever-changing
photo of Dorian is also a good visual gag. As Dorian is abusing
himself, the photo really takes a beating. Ethan Erickson must have
been in the makeup chair a few times as, by the end, he looks like a
rotting corpse in the final photo. This is an average film made
above-average by Malcolm McDowell's performance and some perverse
situations. Harry Alan Towers was one of the producers on this
Canada/UK production. Also known as DORIAN. Also starring
Jennifer Nitsch, Christoph Waltz, Victoria Sanchez, Karen Cliche and
Amy Sloane. A DEJ Productions Release. Rated R. For other good
McDowell performances in the same vein, see my reviews of ISLAND
OF THE DEAD (2000) and THE
BARBER (2001).
THE
PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK (1975) -
I consider this film the equivalent of NIGHT
OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), but with a much more realistic
premise (screenplay by Gabriel Burgos, Vincente Aranda and Joaquim
Jordà). The story finds seven rich men of high standing in
society (including Paul Naschy, Alberto De Mendoza; Antonio Mayans,
Tomás Picó, Emiliano Redondo, Ricardo Palacios and
Barta Barri) arriving at the palatial mansion of Carla (Nadiuska; GUYANA,
CRIME
OF THE CENTURY
- 1979) for a weekend of drink and debauchery all in the name
of...the Marquis De Sade! All the men sit around a table (wearing
grotesque rubber masks) deep in the basement of the mansion, when all
the women to be used as sexual playthings arrive, including Berta
(Theresa Gimpera; CRYPT
OF THE LIVING DEAD - 1973), Lily (Maria Perschy; THE
HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE - 1973), Julia Saly, Diana Polakov,
Leonia Devine, Estela Delgado and Carmen Platero. Just as the sexual
gameplaying is about to begin, the mansion begins to rumble and
glasses and plates fall off the table. The intrepid Professor Fulton
(De Mendoza) deducts that a few atomic bombs went off
and by his findings they have two days to collect all the food and
water they will need to survive for two months deep in the mansion's
sub-basement before the radioactivity is blown-in by the winds. The
men decide to take a trip to the local town to get as much food and
bottled water as they can, only to discover that every citizen has
turned blind from the bright flashes of the bombs' lights (a fact
that is actually true; that why scientists and observers wear special
glasses when they watch atomic or nuclear bombs go off; if they
didn't, they would go blind). When one of the men overreacts and
shoots seven of the blind people dead, the guys stock-up on as much
food and water as they can and head back to the mansion, but not
before Victor (Pico) snaps the neck of the offending man who killed
all those innocent people. Once back at the mansion, they learn that
the blind people don't need eyes to exact revenge, begin to storm the
castle and at first they are unsuccessful (My favorite line comes
when Borne [Naschy] asks Prof. Fulton if they are safe and he replies
rather glibly: "Yeah, and the Easter Bunny shits jelly
beans!"). Pretty soon the group of unaffected people begin to
act strangely, like Pico walking on all fours naked while wearing a
grotesque pig mask and constant bickering between the group. The mass
of blind people manage to kill a couple who run away and, in one of
the film's most effective scenes, the blind people break through the
ceiling of one of the rooms and lower the corpses of the dead couple ever-so-slowly
to the floor, showing that eyes are not necessary to kill (the eyes
of the dead woman are cut out!). The remaining people hear a warning
on a transistor radio telling them that "The War is over! The
War is over!" and to head for the nearest highway to be
picked-up by the government and be moved to safety. That is exactly
what our intrepid group try, but they are being followed very closely
by the blind people, who catch one women, put a pistol in her mouth
and pull the trigger. Sooner or later they catch up and kill most of
the group, until all that is left are Prof. Fulton and Lily (who were
to be paired up as sexual partners before this all began) and they
manage to find the main road and are picked-up in a government bus by
people wearing radiation suits. Thinking they are finally saved, they
don't notice that the bus is being pumped full of poison gas. The
last time we see Prof. Fulton and Lily, they are being dumped in a
mass grave in a quarry by the government they trusted. While not one
of director Leon Klimovsky's better films (he's also directed WEREWOLF
SHADOW - 1971; DR.
JEKYLL VS. THE WOLFMAN
- 1972; A
DRAGONFLY FOR EACH CORPSE - 1973; VENGEANCE
OF THE ZOMBIES - 1973 [all starring Paul Naschy]; THE
VAMPIRE'S NIGHT ORGY - 1972, and many more), this film does
make some good points on how the rich believe they deserve more than
the "peasants" and them surviving the atomic blasts
unscathed proves that fact. But like all caste system beliefs, it
comes back to bite you in the ass, as these poor "peasants"
prove to the super-rich and influential. All the money and influence
you had is thrown out the window in a situation like this and I
believe this was Klimovsky's way of showing it. While the gore is
sparse (this isn't really about blood and guts anyway, but revenge),
this DVD by Code Red offers two versions: an abridged widescreen
anamorphic print that can best be described as in poor shape. It is
missing the first five minutes of the film (including the credits)
and is full of frame jumps, dialogue cut-off and emulsion scratches.
The DVD also offers a fullscreen 82-minute version (the running time
of the U.S. theatrical version; the Spanish version [the title is "Último
Deseo"]
runs 12 minutes longer) that was taken from a 1 inch Sun Video tape.
I still prefer the widescreen version because it is sharper-looking
and is really not missing anything important, except for the head-scratching
discussion about Lenin and Stalin in the beginning of the film (it
actually plays better if you never heard that conversation).
While THE PEOPLE
WHO OWN THE DARK is not perfect, it is a perfectly fine way
to spend 82 minutes of your time and not be bored. When this was
originally released to theaters, all the actors were given Anglicized
names (Paul Naschy became "Paul Mackey", Maria Perschy
became "Maria Pershing" and so on), even though it looked
like most of them were speaking English that was over-dubbed, and it
was listed as being distributed by "Sean S. Cunningham Films
Ltd.", he of FRIDAY THE 13TH
fame. When Cunningham was contacted about his involvement with this
film, he was honestly confused about the whole situation, since he
never heard of the film! It seems the unscrupulous unknown
distributor, who released this film theatrically in 1980, just after
Cunningham's film became a bonifide smash hit, decided to use his
name to increase revenues. I don't know whether it did or not, but
VHS tapes and even the Code Red DVD list Sean S. Cunningham as the
producer and presenter, a claim I still find highly dubious today.
Goya Award® winning director/screenwriter Vicente Aranda (THE
BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE - 1972), who passed away on May 26,
2015 at age 88, was one of the screenwriters here. It's the only
screenplay he was involved with where he wasn't the director.
Released on VHS by budget company Star
Classics, with a DVD & Blu-Ray
release by Code Red. You can
try to find the DVD, but good luck unless you want to spend a lot of
money on eBay or Amazon from sellers looking to rip-off anyone they
can. I enjoyed the film, no matter the controversy that surrounds it.
Also starring Gumersindo Andrés, Gonzalo Tejada and Adolfo
Thous. Rated R.
PERFECT
VICTIMS (1988) - A sick
thriller that's truly a product of it's time. A psychotic man named
Brandon Poole (Tom Dugan), mad at the female race because he's
contracted the AIDS virus, travels around in his pickup truck
infecting women with the disease. Brandon, who works for a moving
company, picks his next two victims, aspiring models Carrie (Jackie
Swanson) and Melissa (Nikolette Scorcese), when he moves their
belongings into a new apartment in Los Angeles. When in the apartment
during the moving phase, Brandon drugs the milk in the refrigerator
and returns that night to find them passed out on the floor. He
breaks into the apartment and what he does next in unbelievably
sadistic. He spits through a plastic tube directly into Carrie's nose
(!) and then cuts his wrist and bleeds into Melissa's mouth. He then
rapes Carrie and when he hears her baby crying in the next room, he
screams to Carrie, "I have news for you, slut. Your kid is an
orphan!" Police Lt. Kevin White (Clarence Williams III) is
assigned to investigate when Carrie and Melissa are brought to the
hospital. He at first thinks that the girls are nothing but two
cokeheads, but when the medical report comes back that their
assailant is infected with AIDS, he knows that there's a new type of
serial killer on the loose. Liz Walters (Deborah Shelton, also one of
the Executive Producers), the owner of a modeling agency
who just signed Carrie and Melissa to contracts, shows up at the
hospital concerned about her newest charges. When she appears on TV
and condemns the vicious acts of violence, calling the rapist an
"animal", Brandon views it and begins stalking her. His
first attack on Liz is unsuccessful, thanks to a stun gun in Liz's
purse and the sudden appearance of her boyfriend, Steve (Lyman Ward; CREATURE
- 1984). After infecting another woman he meets at a bar and killing
a nosy co-worker and the prostitute he is with, Brandon begins
calling Liz on the phone ("Hello, bitch!") and tells her
that she, Carrie and Melissa are "dogmeat" and will not
escape his wrath. Lt. White gets an important clue from an old guy
walking his dog (genre vet John Agar) and Liz picks up Carrie, her
baby and Melissa and brings them to Steve's seaside villa, which is
protected by guard dogs. They stupidly put the guard dogs in the
garage, which gives Brandon the chance to enter the house and
terrorize the three women (and the baby). It's gonna be a long
night. The idea of an AIDS-infected serial killer was daring
for it's time (it's not even mentioned on the VHS box and any mention
of AIDS was edited out of the TV prints!), when contracting the
disease was considered a death sentence. We have, of course, come a
long way since then, but this film is so sleazy in it's depictions of
the way Brandon infects his victims, it's hard to shake-off the dirt.
Director/co-scripter/composer Shuki Levy, who would later give us BLIND
VISION (1992; also with Shelton, who was once Levi's
real-life wife) and was one of the main people responsible for
unleashing the extremely popular kid series, THE
MIGHTY MORPHIN' POWER RANGERS, to TV in the mid-90's (still
going strong on TV, with a major motion picture released in March of
2017!), delivers a film that is devoid of humor (The closest it comes
to humor is when Clarence Williams III introduces his character to a
hospital nurse by saying, "Hello, I'm White!", or when one
of Brandon's co-workers says to him, "Why don't you lighten up
Brandon? Take a dump or something!") and that's hard to watch in
spots, especially the rape scenes. Some scenes bring up the emotional
impact of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT
(1972) or I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE
(1978), especially the attack on Carrie and Melissa early in the
film. If you aren't aware that Brandon has AIDS when this attack
takes place, it loses resonance, so a second viewing is required for
this scene to pack an emotional gut-punch. Tom Duggan (NIGHTWISH
- 1988) is just plain nasty as the woman-hating Brandon. Looking at
his pock-marked face and hearing his Southern drawl as he spits out
vitriol, calling women "pigs", "stupid twats" or
worse, is as horrendous a villian as you'll ever see in 80's cinema.
I wouldn't exactly call PERFECT VICTIMS entertaining cinema,
because it's not. What it is, though, is cinema of the extreme, a
dirty little film that doesn't shy away from showing us something
really seedy and demented. It brings everyone's fear of AIDS (whether
justified or not) front and center, a scare film and a cautionary
tale from the unsure late 80's. The ending is a little too pat (it
feels like it was tacked-on at the last minute to give audiences
something to feel good about), but there's also a shocking
last-minute discovery hidden in Brandon's apartment that sent chills
down my spine (it proves that he has been doing this for quite some
time). Not for everyone's tastes, but well-made. Filmed under the
more appropriate title HIDDEN RAGE.
Worth Keeter (DOGS OF HELL
- 1982) was First Assistant Director. Also starring Geoffrey Rivas,
Phil Roberson, S. Marc Jordan, Lorinne Vorzoff, Alan Berger and Jill
Jacobson. An Academy
Entertainment Home Video Release. Rated R.
THE
PHOTOGRAPHER (1974) - Comedic
psycho-thriller starring Michael Callan (FREEWAY
- 1988) as Adrian Wilde, a nature-cum-fashion photographer (dog
photos are his specialty) with more than one shutter out of synch.
The first time we meet Adrian, he has talked aspiring model Quinn
(Susan Damante) into posing nude in his studio (all tastefully done,
since this is a PG-rated film) before taking her to a secluded
section of Griffith Park for the conclusion of the photo shoot, where
he poisons Quinn's drink and takes photos of her in the throes of
death. After placing her corpse back in her car, Adrian heads home to
have dinner with his overbearing, alcoholic mother (Barbara Nichols: THE
POWER - 1968), who constantly belittles him every chance she
gets. Adrian was seriously scarred emotionally as a child when he
discovered his mother screwing some random guy and was nearly
strangled by mom's lover when he was caught spying on them. It seems
Mrs. Wilde hasn't changed much since Adrian was a child, as she still
has affairs with younger men, including Adrian's friend Clinton
(Associate Producer Spencer Milligan). Adrian's childhood psychosis
forces him to kill women, with each victim being a temporary
replacement for the disgust he has for his slutty mother.
Over-the-hill cops Lt. Luther Jacoby (Harold J. Stone; MITCHELL
- 1975) and Sgt. Sid Collins (Edward Andrews) are assigned to
investigate Quinn's murder, but they have few clues to work with.
Luther can't seem to get over
the surprised look on the face of Quinn's corpse and he vows to find
her murderer. When forensic pathologist Joe Hennesey (Jed Allen) ties
Quinn's murder to an earlier killing of another young woman, Luther
and Sid realize they have a serial killer on the loose. Adrian kills
middle-aged Karri Stephenson (Betty Anne Rees) next when he comes to
her home to take photos of her prized schnauzer and she makes a pass
at him (He throws a clock radio into her bathtub, electrocuting her,
after screaming over-and-over, "Don't kiss me, Mother!" in
a scene that will have you howling in [unintentional?] laughter).
Adrian's favorite hangout is a bowling alley (One day I'm going to do
a list of genre films that have scenes of bowling alleys in them, as
there are just too many for it to be a coincidence), where he and
Clinton spend their time bowling a few frames, hatching hair-brained
schemes and ordering beer from pretty waitress Candy (Patty Bodeen),
who has the hots for Adrian. Adrian steps-up his killing spree (he
strangles the owner of a dog show and hangs another model in a
deserted mansion) and starts to get sloppy, leaving clues at the
crime scenes which Luther and Sid slowly begin putting together. But
before they can arrest Adrian, he is stabbed to death by Candy (the
only woman Adrian showed any romantic interest in), who has a deadly
secret from her past and is much more psychotic than Adrian could
ever hope to be. Her secret is a doozy and makes for a fitting and
ironic demise for poor Adrian. While THE
PHOTOGRAPHER could never be accused of being a good film
(it's just too disjointed to gel as a whole), it is still a fun film
to watch, if only for the strange predilections of nearly every main
character. Director/producer/screenwriter William Byron Hillman (who
remade this film in 1982 as DOUBLE EXPOSURE,
with Michael Callan returning as Adrian Wilde) certainly gives his
characters some strange habits, whether it's Adrian's hatred of women
(he's not gay, but he performs some uniquely outrageous monologues,
where he looks into a mirror and takes on the personae of both his
mother and his younger, boyish, self that must be heard and seen to
be fully appreciated); Mrs. Wilde's nightly excursions to get soused
and laid; Clinton's obsessions with dogs and stolen merchandise;
Luther's promise to himself to stick to a healthy diet while partner
Sid crams junk food into his mouth in nearly every scene he is in;
and, finally, coroner Joe trying to create the perfect tomato soup or
eating opulent meals in the morgue. Callan overacts shamelessly as
Adrian (at one point he growls like a dog while chasing one victim
[there's a lot of images and talk of dogs strewn throughout the
film]), so much so, he quickly becomes more a caricature than
character, but he's a hoot-and-a-half to watch. Director Hillman (who
also made the David Heavener actioner RAGIN'
CAJUN - 1991) may have been reaching for something a little
more serious than the final product (although there are many examples
of intentional humor to be found here), but he has fashioned a weird
little flick that deserves to be a camp classic, John Hayes, the
director of such genre fare as DREAM
NO EVIL (1970), GRAVE
OF THE VAMPIRE (1972) and MAMA'S
DIRTY GIRLS (1974), was one of the Executive Producers. THE
JEFFERSONS'
(1975 - 1985) Isabel Sanford puts in a cameo as Mrs. Slade, a witness
who breaks the case wide open. Also starring Liv Lindeland, Jennifer
Leak and Ronda Copeland. Originally released on VHS by Charter
Entertainment and still awaiting a DVD release (Sage Stallone
and Grindhouse Releasing
own the DVD rights, but have been dragging their feet on getting this
released). Rated PG, but remember, this is the 70's version of
a PG, not the sissy PG of today.
PLOT
OF FEAR (1976) - "We're
all corruptible, all of us can kill." This is a very interesting
hybrid, a mixture of "poliziottesci" and giallo genres by
the director of MONDO CANE
(1962) and BLACK
BELLY OF THE TARANTULA (1971), that also has a wicked sense
of humor that will make you laugh at some of the sights and sounds,
as well as make you cringe, sometimes at the same time. A film that
can make you do that is worthy of your time.
A man in a toga named Mattia Grandi welcomes prostitute Laura
Falconieri (Greta Vajant; BALSAMUS,
MAN OF SATAN - 1970) into his home (where opening his front
door is akin to opening a safe!). It's time for some S&M, as
Laura slaps Mattia hard across the face (he kisses her hand and says
he hopes his face didn't hurt it!). Mattia says, "Do it
again!" as Laura puts her hands around his neck, choking the
life out of him and leaving a drawing from a book of children's fairy
tales next to his dead body. Then, Daniele Patucchi's (SACRIFICE!
- 1972) funky music score fills the room as the opening credits play,
where we see Laura traveling home on a bus. When the bus stops at her
destination (she's the only passenger), she tries to get off, but the
door doesn't open. She screams at the bus driver to open the door,
when she sees a black-gloved (what else?) figure coming towards her,
large wrench in hand. The figure then splits her head open with it,
leaving another drawing from the same children's book on her dead body.
Inspector Gaspare Lomenzo (Michele Placido; THE
PYJAMA GIRL CASE - 1977) is in charge of investigating the
deaths of Mattia and Laura, so he and his assistant, Giotto
(co-screenwriter Enrico Oldoini), pull-in a group of prostitutes and
question them. One hooker tells the Inspector that Mattia was into
S&M, so he should question prostitutes from the fetish area in
Porta Volta. He is then chewed-out by the Chief Inspector (Tom
Skerritt; THE DEVIL'S RAIN
- 1975; who doesn't dub his own voice) for not investigating any of
the eight other murders committed during the day (Rome was tough in
the '70s!). He tells the Chief Investigator that Mattia and Laura's
murders are connected, because both of them had pages from the same
book, a German children's fairy tale titled "Shock-Headed
Peter", on their bodies. The Chief Inspector tells him to find a
connection and to make it quick. Some other detectives then chime-in
with their own theories of the crimes. One detective blames it on a
sexually permissive society hooked on violent movies and TV shows,
while another says, based on the theories of Freud, the killer is a
lunatic who wants to get caught. Inspector Lomenzo doesn't recognize
that detective and asks his name, and it turns out he is not a
detective at all, but rather a thief that has been collared, showing
the Inspector the handcuffs on his wrists!
We then see the killer pasting the newspaper obituary notices for
Mattia and Laura into a scrapbook. Inspector Lomenzo goes home, where
he meets a "foxy chick" on the elevator. He goes home to
his black girlfriend Ruth (Mary Ruth League), telling her about the
foxy chick he has seen on the elevator several times (he even makes a
"jungle bunny" joke!). We are then at the offices of sleazy
private investigator Peter Struwwel (Eli Wallach; STATELINE
MOTEL - 1973; who also doesn't dub his own voice), who has
cameras and other electronic surveillance equipment throughout the
building so he can keep tabs on his associates and look at young
female asses! He has his associate Pandolfi (Jacques Herlin; SECRET
AGENT SUPER DRAGON - 1966) record a conversation he is
having with Angelo Scanavini (Quinto Parmeggiani; WEEKEND
MURDERS - 1970), a friend of Mattia and Laura who is not
satisfied with how the police investigation is going. He tells
Peter he believes their murders have something to do with an event
that happened at "Villa Hoffmann" four years earlier. He
was at Villa Hoffmann with a group of people who called themselves
the "Wildlife Friends" and a prostitute was accidentally
killed. The Inspector questions Peter about Villa Hoffmann, but Peter
seems more interested in rubbing all his electronic equipment in the
Inspector's face, knowing full well that the police department can't
afford such things, but he does give the Inspector important
information on Villa Hoffmann's owner, big game hunter and black
marketeer Hoffmann (John Steiner; DEPORTED
WOMEN OF THE SS SPECIAL SECTION - 1976). But the Inspector
has more pressing matters, namely a hooker that is tied to a tree by
the killer, doused in gasoline and burned alive, another page from
the German fairy tale book left by her burned dead body (a really
graphic and well-done sequence). We then see Angelo Scanavini go home
to his sick mother (his front door is protected by the same safe-like
device as Mattia's), where he hears his mother's day nurse moaning
loudly in the bathroom, masturbating! When she leaves, Angelo sits
down in front of the TV and watches a live interview program, where
one of his friends is talking about Italy's bad economy. Suddenly,
while his friend is talking, he is shot in the head! (I told you Rome
was a tough town!). Is this killing related to the other murders?
You're damn right it is!
At a party with his girlfriend, the Inspector notices the foxy chick
is sitting on the couch. She notices him, too. Ruth, who is a model,
leaves the party with a photographer named Evelyn. The Inspector,
thinking Evelyn is a woman, is shocked to discover she is actually a
man (and a good-looking one), so Ruth leaves the party with him (and
disappears for the rest of the film), giving the Inspector the
perfect opportunity to meet the foxy chick. Her name is Jeanne
(Corinne Cléry; HITCH-HIKE
- 1978) and they begin a love affair. The Chief Inspector wants him
to investigate the man killed on live TV, not knowing that it is
linked to the three other murders he is currently investigating. (we
watch the killer paste the man's obituary announcement into the scrapbook).
This is what happens in the first 30 minutes of the film, as we
discover what actually happened at Villa Hoffmann four years earlier.
The "Wildlife Friends" were having a "wildlife
orgy" with a bunch of prostitutes and are "playfully"
torturing young prostitute Rosa Catena (Sarah Ceccarini; NAZI
LOVE CAMP 27 - 1977), making her believe that they are going
to feed her to a live tiger kept on the grounds. She has a heart
attack and dies, but Hoffman doesn't want the police to know about
the orgies, so they cover-up Rosa's death, having a doctor pronounce
her dead of cardiac arrest at another location. At this orgy were all
the murdered people, as well as Angelo Scanavini and Jeanne, all of
them witnessing Rosa's death. We must figure out who is responsible
for the murders and what the pages in the German fairy tale book
represent (If you know German, you could have guessed who was
responsible almost immediately!). We learn that anyone can kill,
given the right circumstances (and the killer's name is mentioned in
this review).
Half the fun of discovering who the killer is is the trip
director/co-screenwriter Paolo Cavara (DEAF
SMITH AND JOHNNY EARS - 1972) takes us on. When we first see
the Wildlife Friends in action, they are watching an animated porn
cartoon that must be seen to be believed (it has
to do with a twirling mechanical penis being inserted into a woman's
bottom!). The film is full of weird set-pieces like this, most of
them humorous. The film wouldn't have worked if not for the
exceptional performance of Michele Placido as the Inspector, a
tour-de-force of bewilderment and humorous asides. His seduction of
Jeanne is worth the price of admission alone, as it is both funny and
sexy (Jeanne: "Are you in love with me?" Inspector:
"Yeah, but pretend I didn't tell you!"). As with most
giallo films, there is some extreme nudity (Corrine Clery never
looked more beautiful), as well as some graphic violence, including
the burning of the hooker and Angelo Scanavini's death, where he is
hit by a car and his face goes through the windshield. We also take a
trip to a slaughterhouse where, among the slaughtered pigs, hangs the
body of another male member of the Wilderness Friends, a meathook
sticking out of his neck and other sights, some bloody, some humorous
(such as the Inspector questioning a drunk woman). While it's hard to
ignore Tom Skerritt and Eli Wallach speaking in voices that are not
their own (they both have distinctive speech patterns, although the
person who dubs Wallach does a very good job of matching his lip
movements), there is much to enjoy here, more than enough to overlook
a couple of hiccups. I wish Paolo Cavara made more films like this,
but he died rather young at the age of 56 in 1982. The wonderful
screenplay was written by Cavara and co-star Enrico Oldoini (who
would turn to directing, making BYE
BYE BABY - 1988, and many others), with an assist from
Bernardino Zapponi, who was responsible for the script of Dario
Argento's DEEP RED
(1975) another giallo that used children's motifs as a central plot device.
Shot as E TANTA PAURA
(a literal translation of the review title), this film never has a
theatrical or legitimate VHS release in the United States. It made
its first appearance on these shores on DVD, from Raro
Video. As with most Raro releases, the picture is stunning and
it is offered in its original Italian with English subs or English
dubbed. Extras on the disc include interviews with Enrico Oldoini,
actor Michele Placido (who is still making films up to this day, even
directing a few) and Paolo Cavara's son, Pietro, who offers us
insights on his father's body of work. Also included is a PDF file
containing background on this film, written by Fangoria's Chris
Alexander (which I have scanned HERE).
Another great package from Raro and cheap, too (less than $9.00 and
worth three times that!). No Blu-Ray at the time of this review, but
Raro usually turns their DVDs into Blus, so look for one in the
future. Also starring "Eddy Fay" (Edoardo Faieta; YETI:
GIANT OF THE 20TH CENTURY - 1977), Claudio Zucchet (BURIAL
GROUND - 1980), Enzo Robutti (THE
EYE BEHIND THE WALL - 1977), Cecilia Polizzi, Mario Mercalli (THE
TEENAGE PROSTITUTION RACKET - 1975) and Maria Tedeschi (THE
CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS - 1971) as Angelo's sick mother.. Not
Rated.
POINT
OF TERROR (1971) - More soap
opera than anything else, this film still has enough exploitative
elements to qualify it as a thriller. Over the opening credits, we
watch lounge singer Tony Trelos (the enigmatic Peter Carpenter; VIXEN
- 1968; BLOOD MANIA
- 1970), dressed in a horrendous red frilly jumpsuit, crooning his
tune "This Is..." at a cocktail bar called the Lobster
House ("No Cover. No Minimum."). He then, for some unknown
reason, begins to scream and we find out it was all a nightmare. He
wakes up at the beach, where he is relaxing and catching some rays.
Along comes Andrea Hillard (Dyanne Thorne; ILSA:
SHE-WOLF OF THE SS - 1974), the sexy wife of
wheelchair-bound record executive Martin Hilliard (Joe Marston; THE
DISEMBODIED - 1957), and they strike up a conversation. She
agrees to come to the Lobster House to hear him sing (and to start a
romantic relationship). Andrea brings along boozy friend Fran (Leslie
Simms; AUNTIE LEE'S MEAT PIES
- 1991) to the Lobster House, where they watch Tony belt out
"Drifter Of The Heart". Andrea invites Tony back to her
house, where she agrees to cut a record of an original song Tony has
wrote and then they make out a little. Martin hears and sees the
whole thing and when Andrea brings Tony to the recording studio to
sing "Lifebeats", everyone likes what they hear, even
Martin, who gets a phone call from one of his cronies at the studio.
Martin tells his crony to release the record (hey, he likes to make
money just like the rest of us!), but it will be the last recording
of Tony's career, because he will make sure that his contract will
ensure that he will never cut another record again. When Martin spots
Andrea and Tony making love in the huge built-in pool (Thorne nudity
alert!), he waits for Tony
to leave and confronts Andrea. They get into a terrible fight (It
seems Andrea was drunk one night when driving her and Martin home,
which resulted in an accident that put Martin in the wheelchair. She
may also have been involved in the stabbing death of Martin's first
wife, where, in flashbacks, we see someone in a mask stabbing her
over-and-over with a huge knife, the only really bloody scene in the
entire film.) and Andrea uses Martin and his wheelchair like some
mock bullfight, where Martin falls in the pool and drowns. The police
deem it an accident, but little does Andrea know is that Tony never
really left. He watched the whole murder just out of sight. At
Martin's funeral, Tony meets Martin's daughter Helayne (Lory Hanson),
a beautiful young woman who Andrea made Martin send away to boarding
school in Europe when they were married. It's apparent that it is
love at first sight for the both of them, but Andrea threatens to
destroy Tony's career (even after telling her that he saw her murder
Martin) if he gets any closer to Helayne. While Andrea is away for a
month on business, Tony ignores Andrea's threats and romances Helayne
(taking her on a romantic horseback ride), even after Fran tells her
that Tony and Andrea were having an affair. Helayne doesn't care
because she actually cares about Tony and they quickly get married in
Tijuana, Mexico. When Andrea comes home and finds out that Tony has
married Helayne, she laughs in his face, telling him that Helayne
will get none of Martin's vast fortune, because there is a
stipulation in his will that states if Helayne gets married before
she turns twenty-five, she is cut out of the will. When Tony tells
Andrea that he doesn't care (turns out he loves Helayne as much as
she loves him), Andrea gets pissed-off and tells Tony his recording
days are over. Tony tells her that he'll find some other way to make
a living, which further infuriates Andrea and she begins kicking him
in the nuts and biting his leg. When she jumps on Tony's back, he
twirls her around and she falls over the fence by the swimming pool
and dies on the rocky shore over a hundred feet below. The detective
involved in the case determines it is an accident (while he helps
himself to all the deserts and fruits at the poolside!) and Tony and
Helayne are free to continue their happy marriage. Well, almost. Just
before they got married, Tony's sometimes-girlfriend Sally (Paula
Mitchell; THE MAD BOMBER
- 1972) informs him that she is pregnant. Tony told her to get an
abortion and when he got back from Tijuana, he would check in on her.
After Andrea's death, Tony gets a call from Sally and she wants him
to meets her at her house. Once there, Sally unloads a few bullets
into Tony's chest and Tony falls down to the ground. He screams his
last dying breath and suddenly wakes up on the same beach as we saw
in the beginning of the film. Yes, this was all a nightmare, but when
Andrea stops by to introduce herself, Tony realizes that he is about
to relive the nightmare all over again. Ah, the circle of life!
Director Alex Nicol (THE
SCREAMING SKULL
- 1958), who also acted on TV [most notably on the original THE
TWILIGHT ZONE episode titled "Young Man's Fancy" -
1962, and the original THE
OUTER LIMITS episode titled "Moonstone" - 1964]
and in such films as BLOODY MAMA
(1970), THE NIGHT
GOD SCREAMED - 1971 and THE CLONES
(1973), does what he can with the weak script by Ernest A. Charles
(his only film writing credit; he also appears here as the
food-stealing detective) and Tony Crechales (HOUSE
OF TERROR - 1972; IMPULSE
- 1974; THE GREAT
SKYCOPTER RESCUE - 1980), but the film doesn't really add up
to much. This was the last film in the short-lived career of Peter
Carpenter (who co-produced and co-wrote the story of this fim with
Chris Marconi and starred/co-wrote in the previously-mentioned BLOOD
MANIA, also co-produced by Marconi and co-written by
Crechales [which was paired with this film for many years as a
theatrical double bill by Crown International Pictures]), who the
IMDb lists as passing away in December of 1971 and co-star Leslie
Simms (in a DVD interview extra; she says that Marconi was gay and
that the definitely straight Carpenter's real first name was
"Page", which his agent made him change to
"Peter") claims he died between 1978 to 1981 of
complications due to pneumonia. Whatever the truth, it's a shame,
because Carpenter could have been a fairly decent leading man in
B-films (he actually sings all the songs in this film, too) and he is
clearly the best thing about this film (well, besides Thorne's naked
breasts, that is). He even does some full backside nudity, so you can
see his ass, a treat for all the ladies and gay men in the audience.
Carpenter only made four films, including (besides the three already
mentioned) LOVE ME LIKE I DO
(1970), a wife-swapping drama also starring Dyanne Thorne. POINT
OF TERROR definitely has that early-70's vibe, with the long
sideburns, funky hairdos and colorful clothes, but besides that,
Thorne's nudity and Carpenter's acting, there's not much to recommend
here. The story is so old hat that it has been done a thousand times
before and the leisurely pace kills any potential this film had. Not
released until 1973. Also starring Al Dunlap, Dana Diamond, Tony Kent
and Roberta Robson. The print used for the DVD, from Scorpion
Releasing, looks sharp, colorful, mostly blemish-free and is
shown in it's original aspect ratio. Rated R. UPDATE:
It's March of 2021 as I am writing this and I have just discovered
that Peter Carpenter didn't die in the '70s as many people thought.
He actually quit acting in 1971 when his career as an actor didn't
pan out like he thought it would and went into hiding in Los Angeles,
California, opening up a dance studio under his real name (Nathaniel
Joseph Carpenter), where he taught dance and then became a painter,
dying on April 2, 1996 of A.I.D.S. at the age of 56 (not of natural
causes as it is erroneously reported on IMDb). It was easy to hide
from the public in the '70s, '80s & early-'90s, since the
Internet wasn't around and long before everyone had a camera at their
disposal, so Carpenter lived his life, dated many beautiful women and
ran a business where no one noticed him. Still, it's a sad ending for
someone who I admired. He had all the elements to become a good genre
actor, but he made his decision and stood by it. Another long mystery resolved!
PRIVATE
OBSESSION (1994) - Lee
Frost returns! After nearly 20 years away from directing, Lee
Frost comes back to the fold with his take on Stephen Kings MISERY
(1990). A somewhat crazed fan named Richard (Michael Christian, who
is also the Associate Producer) kidnaps world-reknown model Emanuelle
(Shannon Whirry) and locks her in a specialy built area of his house
complete with breakproof glass,
electronic locks and hidden cameras. Richard begins a slow, torturous
campaign to turn Emanuelle into his idea of the perfect woman.
Richard knows that she is an advocate of womens rights and
keeps her locked in the room, playing one of her televised speeches
over and over again on a TV set next to her bed. When she unplugs the
TV, Richard turns off the water, takes away her clothes and refuses
to give her anything to eat until she plugs the TV back in. After a
couple of days without water or food (she stoops so low as to drink
some water from the toilet tank!), she gives in and plugs the TV set
back in. Richard turns the water back on, buys her some expensive
clothes and cooks her a gourmet dinner. She gets drunk, does a
striptease in front of the camera and has hot sex with Richard. After
the act is done, Emanuelle unsuccessfully tries to escape, which
really ticks Richard off. He takes all her clothes, towels and
blankets and turns off the water again until she repents and tells
him that it is a mans world and she will do whatever he wants.
Richard accepts her apology and has sex with her again. The tables
are turned when Richard is duped by Emanuelle and gets trapped in his
own escape-proof rooms. It is now Emanuelles turn to play her
televised speech over and over again to an unappreciative Richard.
And she likes it! Completely devoid of violence, this low-budget
erotic thriller relies heavily on the ample naked charms of Shannon
Whirry (ANIMAL
INSTINCTS
- 1992) and the unrated, so-close-to porn, sex scenes. Michael
Christian (POOR
PRETTY EDDIE
- 1973; a.k.a. HEARTBREAK MOTEL;
a.k.a. BLACK VENGEANCE)
plays Richard as someone who doesnt need to resort to physical
violence to get his way (even Emanuelles kidnapping is
painless). Richard would rather use mental torture than harm
Emanuelle physically. Bo Svenson and Rip Taylor (sans hairpiece) have
cameos as a private dick and travel agent respectively. Lee Frost not
only wrote and directed, he also edited (he shows some editing
prowess in a scene involving a doggie door), wrote the lyrics to some
of the songs and puts in a brief appearance as a private dick named
Jerry. This film is basically a two character play, and while it is
slow going in some spots, it does hold the attention due to
Whirrys uninhibited performance. This is not the best film of
Frosts career, but new Frost is better than no Frost at all.
Welcome back, Lee! A Triboro Entertainment Group Home Video VHS &
DVD Release. Unrated.
THE
PSYCHIC (1977) - This is one of
director Lucio Fulci's least talked about films of the '70s, yet it
is one of his most accomplished, reminding me of Dario Argento's DEEP
RED (1975) in tone and storytelling. You have to really
watch this film to fully appreciate it, as all the clues are there to
solve the mystery, but they are cleverly hidden, so it will take keen
eyes to spot them. This is a giallo film with horror overtones and it
is a good choice for those who like to use both their brains
and their eyes, making it a very satisfying experience (I hated this
film when I first saw it in a theater, but it was drastically cut to
achieve an R-Rating).
Dover, England October 12, 1959 11:45 AM: Little schoolgirl Virginia
(Fausta Avelli; RINGS OF FEAR
- 1978) is in Florence, Italy and suffers from "visions".
This particular vision shows her mother (Elizabeth Turner; CANNIBAL
APOCALYPSE - 1980) driving to the top of the white cliffs of
Dover, getting out of her car and then committing suicide by jumping
off the top of the cliffs, her face tearing away as it hits the rocks
on her way down (a very good and gory effect). Little Virginia
screams and then we are transported to 1977 Italy, where the adult
Virginia (Jennifer O'Neill; THE
FLOWER IN HIS MOUTH - 1975) is driving to the airport with
her husband Francesco (Gianni Garko; NIGHT
OF THE DEVILS - 1972) and then watches him as he flies away
on a small plane on business. On the drive home, Virginia has another
vision, where she sees an elderly woman being murdered by a man with
a limp, who then walls her up in bricks, hiding her body in a house.
Pay very close to this vision, because it contains nearly all the
visual clues to solve this mystery and there are many. After the
vision is over, Virginia is snapped out of her trance by a policeman
knocking on her car window, as she subconsciously pulled the car over
to the side of the road. Virginia then goes to the office of her good
friend, parapsychologist Luca Fattori (Marc Porel; LIVE
LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN - 1976), and tells him about her
latest vision. Luca is familiar with her visions, as he tape-records
every one, which his secretary, Bruna (Jenny Tamburi; THE
SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A MINOR - 1975), transcribes, writing
them down in a journal (which is also important in solving this mystery).
A short time later, Virginia, who is an interior decorator by trade,
decides to surprise her husband by restoring his childhood home,
which he hasn't been to in many years. As soon as the caretaker (Vito
Passeri; Fulci's DON'T
TORTURE A DUCKLING - 1972) takes Virginia into the house,
where all the furniture and wall hangings are covered in dusty white
sheets, she gets the eerie feeling that she has been there before. As
she starts removing the sheets from the living room, she realizes
this is the same room as her latest vision, same mirror, same red
lampshade, same everything, only a dresser is blocking the area where
she saw the old woman being walled-up. She moves the dresser and
begins destroying the wall with a hand pickaxe she found in the
basement, eventually finding a skeleton behind the bricks. The police
are called in, but Inspector Rossi (Paolo Pacino) is rightfully
baffled as to how Virginia knew there was a body in the wall, as she
told him this was the first time she was physically in the house, but
she saw the murder of an old woman in a vision (Would you believe
her?). When the police take the skeleton away, the forensics
department determines that the skeleton is that of a model who
disappeared in 1972...oh, and she was only 35 years old. That can't
be says Virginia, the woman in her vision was much older, but when
the Inspector shows her and Francesco a photo of the model, Virginia
remembers seeing her on a magazine cover in her vision, but what can
that possibly mean? Francesco then confesses that he dated the model
long before he met Virginia, but one day she just disappeared and he
never saw her again. The Inspector arrests Francesco on suspicion of
murder and throws him in jail, while Virginia tries to prove him
innocent, with the help of Luca, Bruna and her journal (which Luca
didn't even know that she created).
Virginia remembers a yellow taxicab in her vision and Bruna, who is
a veritable encyclopedia, mentions that taxis didn't become yellow in
this town until 1972 and since there were only 16 yellow cabs in
1972, they should question the drivers to see if they remember the
model and where they took her. They hit pay dirt with one of the
drivers, who remembers picking up the model (He remembers her wearing
a miniskirt, saying, "I saw everything!"), but she wasn't
alone. She was with a bearded man...who walked with a limp and the
driver dropped them off at an art gallery (Which Virginia and Luca go
to, picking up another clue from her vision, a Vermeer painting).
They then discover that the bearded man is Emilio Rospini (Gabriele
Ferzetti; THE SMILING MANIACS
- 1975), who was a Superintendent of the town back in 1972, but he is
now a professor at the university.
The only problem is, according to Virginia, the man in her vision
didn't have a beard and according to photos from 1972, Emilio always
had the beard. In the next scene (which takes place in 1977), we see
a barber shaving off Emilio's beard, telling the barber that his wife
thinks he looks better without it. It the becomes obvious (at least
to me), that Virginia's vision didn't take place in the past, it's a
vision of the future (it makes perfect sense, the hole on the wall,
Emilio shaving off his beard, the old woman still being alive, as
Virginia saw her recently, etc). But the questions then become: Why
did Virginia have a vision of the future, since all her other visions
were of the immediate present or the past? Why did she have this
specific vision? Can she stop it from happening and can she get her
husband and the police to believe her? (Francesco doesn't believe in
visions, even after being thrown in jail) Is Virginia's life in danger?
Francesco's sister, Gloria (Evelyn Stewart; THE
NIGHT CHILD - 1975), smokes the same hand-rolled cigarettes
(in yellow rolling paper) as in Virginia's vision and she blames
Virginia for putting her brother in jail. Virginia does get a clue
from Gloria that places her husband in the United States when the
model was killed, but it is not enough proof for the Inspector or the
Police Commissioner (Fabrizio Jovine; Fulci's CONTRABAND
- 1980) to get her husband released from prison. The old woman from
Virginia's vision calls Virginia and leaves a message on her
answering machine, telling Virginia that she can "help"
her. Help her how? When Virginia plays back the message for Luca, he
tells her to forget about it, it is probably a crank call.
Virginia gets an idea on how to free her husband, so she pretends to
be a reporter for the New York Times, goes to Emilio's house and
discovers that the old woman is actually Emilio's rich wife, Giovanna
(Lorendana Savelli). When Giovanna leaves the room, Virginia accuses
Emilio of killing the model, telling him she knows he was having an
affair with her. As more clues from Virginia's vision become clear,
it becomes obvious that Virginia herself is responsible for the
actions in her vision. If Virginia never accused Emilio of sleeping
with the murdered model, his extremely wealthy wife would have never
knew (she overheard Virginia's accusations against her husband). She
threatens to divorce Emilio, leaving him penniless, which is why he
must kill her before she contacts a lawyer, but he never gets the
chance to brick her up (Watch the film to find out why). Not only is
Virginia guilty of a future crime, her actions may be responsible for
her own murder (by someone close to her). Can Virginia stop it before
it happens? It doesn't turn out the way you think it will.
This may be Lucio Fulci's most intrinsically plotted film, as nearly
every scene has an important clue to solving the mystery. Since we
basically know whodunit (but do we really?), the film becomes a
really tense thriller as we wonder if Virginia will collect all the
clues in time and solve
her vision. The screenplay, written by Fulci, Dardano Sacchetti
(Argento's THE CAT O' NINE TAILS
- 1971; Fulci's THE
HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY - 1981) and Roberto Gianviti (SEVEN
BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS - 1972; FIVE
WOMEN FOR THE KILLER - 1974), is well thought-out and makes
perfect sense, but just like any vision (or dream), it takes time to
make clear, putting the clues together in a cohesive whole. The
biggest stumbling block that Virginia has to go through is that no
one will believe her, not her husband, not the police, not even Luca,
but it will become clear to the viewer why certain people are too
quick to refuse, as they have hidden agendas and secrets of their own
that they don't want exposed in a vision. Virginia doesn't help
herself when she stages the crime scene to fit her vision (knocking
over a statue, leaving the mirror wide open to be shattered, moving
furniture around), which only leaves her wide open to harm from
people she thought she trusted. You will also question some of
Virginia's actions, but it will all become clear during the film's
white-knuckle finale, which I won't give away here. Those expecting a
Fulci gorefest, in the vein of his ZOMBIE
(1979) or THE NEW
YORK RIPPER (1982), are going to be disappointed (there's
just the opening suicide and later shots of a bloody head), but those
who like a crackling good mystery (Such as Fulci's A
LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN - 1971), with a thought provoking
ending, are going to be rewarded in spades. I'll just leave you to
think about this: Not all limps are permanent.
Shot as SETTE NOTE IN NERO ("Seven
Notes In Black") and also known as MURDER
TO THE TUNE OF THE SEVEN BLACK NOTES, this film was released
theatrically in the U.S. (under the review title), severely
compromised and missing several key scenes, by Brandon Chase's Group
1 International Distribution, with a fullscreen VHS release (using
the U.S. theatrical print) by Lightning
Video and, later, a budget VHS release by Video
Treasures. The uncut widescreen DVD from Severin
Films is troublesome, because it was first released with the
volume level so low, you had to turn the sound up all the way to the
max just to hear anything (and it still wasn't enough). Severin
supposedly fixed the problem on later pressings, but Amazon still
sells the original pressing (I should know, I purchased one in
2017!). No Blu-Ray yet in the U.S. (at the time of this review), but
look for that to be rectified soon, as most of Fulci's output has
been released in that format. Also starring Riccardo Parisio Perrotti
(Fulci's MURDER-ROCK: DANCING DEATH
- 1984), Bruno Corazzari (Fulci's THE
FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE - 1975), Salvatore Puntillo (DEEP
RED - 1975), Franco Agrisano, Veronica Miichielini, Luigi
Diberti (THE STENDHAL SYNDROME
- 1996) and Ugo D'Alessio as the Art Gallery Owner. The edited
theatrical version is Rated R, but the Severin DVD is Not Rated.
PSYCHOUT
FOR MURDER (1969) - I must
confess that this film holds some nostalgic charm to me, but not for
any reason you may think. When I started creating scrapbooks filled
with genre film ad mats, this
ad mat was the first one to be glued into my very first
scrapbook (Which I quit doing in 1994, after eighteen volumes,
because all ad mats were beginning to look alike). I have never seen
the film until recently, even though I downloaded a workprint of it
off a torrent site years ago (Don't judge me, I haven't done it for
years and never will again!), which turned out to be so fuzzy (like a
third generation VHS dupe) that I deleted it from my hard drive.
Thanks to YouTube channel "Giallo
Realm", I was not only able to watch a nice Italian print of
the film with English subtitles, I was also able to watch the
re-edited American version of the film, but that print was only
slightly better looking than the torrent download. This thriller, in
no way a Giallo film by any stretch of the imagination, is an
inventive tale about a daughter getting revenge on her rich
industrialist father for caring more about money than he does her.
This is a review if the Italian version. I will address the American
version at the end of this review.
The film opens with Licia (Adrienne Larussa; the lead in Lucio
Fulci's BEATRICE CENCI -
1969) making love to her boyfriend Mario (Nino Castelnuovo (STRIP
NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER - 1975) in a whorehouse (It was his
idea, to put some excitement in their lovemaking). After telling
Licia that he loves her, but she will never be able to love him
because he isn't wealthy, she tells Mario that money doesn't matter
to her, she does love him. Suddenly, the whorehouse is raided by the
police and Mario and Licia escape through a back door, but are met by
Press reporters and photographers at the door, who take pictures of
Licia and Mario coming out of the house of ill repute. Yes, this was
a setup created by Mario to blackmail Licia's rich industrialist
father, Marco Brignoli (Rossano Brazzi; FORMULA
FOR A MURDER - 1985), for a huge sum of money. Marco has
just opened a huge factory in town that would employ most of the
people living there, so a story like this would ruin him if he
doesn't buy himself out of this mess and do something with his
daughter. He wants to put Licia into an insane asylum for a period of
time to make it look like his daughter has some serious mental
issues, but Licia refuses to go, packing her bags and going to
Mario's place to live with him, but when she gets there, she
discovers a huge satchel of cash lying on the floor and knows her
father is there. He appears and Licia finally knows that Mario set
her up and doesn't love her, he was only interested in the money.
Defeated, broken and all alone, Licia agrees to go to the mental
asylum, so her father (or, rather, his chauffeur) drives her to the
asylum for a "short" stay. Once in the asylum, Licia is
kept in a heavily drugged state, her only visitor being her sister
Giovanna (Paola Pitagora; REVOLVER
- 1973), who brings flowers every time she visits. Her daddy
basically ignores her, never coming to visit her, but things are
about to change when she is released unannounced from the asylum.
Daddy will no longer be able to ignore her again. Licia has a plan to
make her father's and, everyone else she believes who did her wrong,
lives a living hell and the way she does it is quite unique and deadly.
The first place Licia goes to is Mario's swanky new home (paid with
her father's bribe money) and she pulls a pistol on Mario, but
instead of killing him, she makes him a partner in her plan to get
revenge. He happily agrees because he now has access to Licia's
heavenly body again. The next stop Licia makes is her father's
mansion, but the only people happy to see her are Giovanna and her
handsome new husband Francesco (Alberto de Mendoza; HUMAN
COBRAS - 1971). Licia begins to put the moves on Francesco,
first at the pool in a skimpy bikini, but Giovanna thinks it is
funny because her sister is probably lonely after spending time in
the asylum (Giovanna also believes even though Francesco loves her,
he only married her for her family's money). Licia decides to put a
little pain in Giavanna and Francesco's marriage, as she removes the
electric power cord from the electric grill and places the plug in
the pool's water just for a second, just to give her sister and
husband the shock of their lives (Licia smiles after watching
Giavanna and Francesco twitching in pain). Licia's plans are
downright intellectual, using fishing line to move a mirror and her
bedroom door so when Francesco is sleeping in bed, he can see Licia
lying nude on her bed, tempting him even more, but he still won't
come to her. Licia then attends her father's meeting with an
important Church Monsignore (Marcello Bonini Olas; BLACK
MAGIC RITES - 1973), where he intends on showing footage of
how his new factory is beneficial to everyone in town, but when the
film begins to play, we see footage of Marco undressing his mistress,
Laura (Idelma Carlo), who is the wife of an important politician
(Nestor Garay; DEFEAT
OF THE MAFIA - 1970) who is partners with Marco in the
factory, Laura making all the important business decisions in Marco's
life, like he is her puppet. Marco believes his enemies are doing
this to him to ruin him, not knowing that all this is Licia's doing.
Licia then turns her attention to her father's nerdy press secretary
Paterlini (Renzo Petretto) by bringing him to Mario's house, getting
him on the couch and undressing him, but Mario suddenly appears,
camera in hand and takes pictures of Paterlini and Licia
together. Licia tells him if he doesn't tell her where her
father is buying land to complete the second phase of the factory,
she will release the photos to the Press and her father. Paterlini
knows if this happens, his life is ruined, so her tells her the
location of the property. We then see a bunch of hippies painting
signs and planting them on the property, the signs denouncing Marco
and his business practices, forcing the second phase to not happen
and nearly ruining Marco (Laura leaves him after giving him a
tongue-lashing for being a lousy businessman and lover). Things turn
deadly when Licia tempts Francesco one too many times. This time she
throws pebbles at the window of Giovanna and Francesco's bedroom
window, waking up Francesco, who goes to the window and sees Licia
doing a slow striptease by the pool. He can't take it anymore, so he
tiptoes out of the bedroom and down to the pool, but Licia isn't
there. He comes inside and goes back to bed, where he sees a naked
Licia in bed looking right at him (thanks to her fishing line
mirror/bedroom door trick). He gets up, goes to her bedroom and
begins to make love to her, but Licia makes enough noise to wake up
Giovanna, who follows the moans to Licia's bedroom, seeing her
husband in bed with her sister. Giovanna cries, laughs and then cries
again, running out to the mansion's second floor balcony and killing
herself by taking a dive off the balcony. Marco is now truly alone,
Francesco leaving the family in shame after attending his wife's
funeral, looking at Marco in disgust when he calls out his name, but
Licia isn't done with her father yet. Her next move turns out to be
even more deadly. She tells her father that she and Mario are going
to get married and he better accept it, he has no choice. She knows
that her father will do anything to stop her from marrying a
"blackmailing commoner" so he sets up an appointment to
talk to Mario and offer him more money not to marry Licia at his home
tomorrow. Licia overhears the conversation and her final plan is
about to come to fruition.
Licia goes to Mario's house and says she is happy that they are
about to get married. They toast to their upcoming nuptuals, but
Licia has drugged Mario's glass of champagne and he passes out. Licia
places a drugged Mario in bed, tapes her father's pistol to the
footboard of the bed and ties fishing line to the trigger and the
door. When Marco arrives and opens the door after Mario doesn't
answer, the trigger is pulled and Mario is shot directly in the
middle of his forehead, killing him instantly. Marco grabs the pistol
and then leaves without taking it. A short time later, Licia
tells her father that she has the pistol and if he doesn't do exactly
as she says, she will give the pistol to the police, his fingerprints
being the only ones on the gun. Licia tells him that he will have to
spend the rest of his life with her, never knowing when she will
change her mind and turn him in to the police. We then see Licia and
Marco having dinner together, Licia looking directly at her father
and smiling, while Marco tries to ignore her, as their butler (Nerio
Bernardi; SATANIK
- 1968) serves them, not a word being spoken between them. Marco has
only this to look forward to for the rest of his life, as the camera
pulls back and and the film goes to black. THE
END.
This is one of only three films that star Rossano Brazzi directed
(using the pseudonym "Edward Ross" here) during his long
career as an actor, the other two being the Christmas matinee
perrennial THE
CHRISTMAS THAT ALMOST WASN'T (1966; even I saw this at a
matinee in the mid-'60s!) and the thriller CRIMINAL
AFFAIR (1968; using his "Edward Ross" pseudonym).
Brazzi also co-wrote the screenplay (using his real name) with the
help of Diana Crispo (nothing else worth mentioning), Renato Polselli
(director/screenwriter of such strange films as THE
VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA - 1960; THE
MONSTER OF THE OPERA - 1964; DELIRIUM
- 1972; the aforementioned BLACK
MAGIC RITES - 1973; and MANIA
- 1974, just to mention a few) and Piero Regnoli (screenwriter of THE
DEVIL'S COMMANDMENT - 1957; THE
THIRD EYE - 1966; PATRICK
STILL LIVES - 1980 and director/screenwriter of THE
PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE - 1960). The participation of
Poselli and Regnoli helps explain some of the far-out choices Licia
makes in this film, including the pool electroshock (giving her
sister and husband a taste of what she went through in the asylum),
Giovanna's sudden, unexpected suicide (she's the only person in this
film with a conscience), her seduction of Francesco and Mario's
death. While there is very little graphic violence or nudity on view
(when Ms. Larussa is naked, we think we see more than we actually do,
thanks to some good camera placements, where body poses or objects
block us from seeing the naughty bits), there is really no need for
it, as this is Adrienne Larussa's film all the way. She's not only
beautiful to look at, but her plan of revenge is well thought-out,
giving us sly little smiles
when her actions causes consequences to happen. The American version
of this film reshuffles some scenes in this film and opens in a very
different way, showing us Licia having a freak-out sequence in the
asylum and then visiting her psychiatrist in his asylum office (new
footage not in the Italian version, apparently directed by someone
called "Ted Kneeland", who gets a "Co-Director"
credit in this version, just below Rossano Brazzi's nom-de-plume),
where she explains to him why she is in this place. The entire film
proper then plays as a giant flashback sequence, ending in the same
way the Italian version did, but since Licia is in the asylum and
telling her doctor what exactly happened, it ruins the ending of the
film, showing us that it was her father who really won, placing her
back into the asylum and labeling her psychotic. Just like nearly
every Italian film released in the United States, it had to be edited
because audiences wouldn't understand such a downbeat finale, like we
were idiots. That's why if two differents versions are offered for a
film, always go for the Italian version, as it is as the filmmakers
intended it to be seen. Rossano Brazzi's brother, Oscar Brazzi,
produced this film and also produced FRANKENSTEIN'S
CASTLE OF FREAKS (1973), also starring Rossano. Oscar also
directed a handful of films from 1968 to 1980, including SEX
OF THE DEVIL (1971), also starring his brother, before
passing away in 1998 (Rossano passed away in 1994). This is a very
good revenge thriller that offers enough crazy set-pieces to
make it stand out from the pack.
Shot as SALVARE
LA FACCIA ("Saving Face") and also known as DADDY
SAID THE WORLD WAS LOVELY, this film obtained a theatrical
release in the United States (under the review title) from Times
Film Corporation, but it was the edited print. It never received a
legitimate home video release in the U.S., neither on VHS, disc or
streaming, relying on gray market sellers like Sinister
Cinema and Rogue Video
to release it on DVD-R
(they are both awful prints of the American version, making me wonder
if there is any good print of this version available). The only place
to see an open-matte, high definition print of the Italian version
(In Italian with easy-to-read yellow English subtitles and it looks
gorgeous), is on the YouTube channel "Giallo Realm", one of
my favorite YouTube channels, who often end up in YouTube Jail for
reasons I really don't quite understand (Italian film production
companies are really protective of their films, even if they never
received any kind of release overseas). If you like revenge thrillers
that have a little bit of sex and some violence, you can do a lot
worse than this one and, believe me, I have. Also featuring Lia Tanzi (THE
VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS - 1973), Jorge Guillermo Contini and
Alba Maiolini (THE
FLOWER WITH THE DEADLY STING - 1973). The American version
is Rated R, while the Italian version is Not Rated.
PUNK
VACATION (1987) - If you haven't
read the profile of RaeDon
Home Video in the "Video Companies Of The 80's"
section of this site, I would recommend that you do so before reading
this review. It may give you some insight as to why RaeDon released
some of the worst films on VHS; films so bad that even Troma would
turn their nose up at them. PUNK VACATION fits perfectly into
RaeDon's canon of pure crap, but it is crap that's strangely
fascinating. A gang of motorcycle-riding punks (both male and female)
stop in some podunk California town and kill the father and rape the
sister of Lisa (Sandra Bogan), who all run a small café/gas
station. Lisa's boyfriend, Deputy Steve Reed (Stephen Fiachi),
responds to an alarm at the café and hits one of the punks
with his car, sending him to the hospital, along with Lisa's sister,
who is now catatonic. Ramrod (Roxanne Rogers), the leader of the
punks, refuses to leave this sleepy little burg until they rescue
their comrade in
the hospital, but Lisa is so enraged she tries to stab the
hospitalized punk with a pair of scissors, but fails. Steve tells
Lisa to leave the punks to him and the police, but she tells him that
she'll handle this on her own terms. Lisa grabs a pistol and heads to
the punks' temporary hideout, where she tries to capture them but
ends up as their prisoner instead. Ramrod, who incredulously changes
her appearance to look exactly like Lisa (!), goes into town and
enters the hospital, where she unsuccessfully tries to free her
handcuffed comrade before barely escaping herself. When Steve
realizes that the punks have Lisa, he has Deputy Don (Don Martin)
help him try to rescue her. They sneak-up on the barn where the punks
are hiding (Steve shoots the punk's lookout with a rifle he has
outfitted with a cucumber silencer!) and rescue Lisa, but not before
shooting Ramrod in the hand and another punk in the leg. Steve, Don
and Lisa (who is only wearing her bra and panties until Don, not
Steve, offers her his jacket!) escape into the rocky terrain and,
eventually, to town with the punks not far behind (Steve kills
another punk on a motorcycle). After burning all their dead in a huge
bonfire, Ramrod (shouting "Kill the Pigs!") leads the rest
of the punks on a raid of the town. They cut off the town from
outside interference and begin their attack, but the police have
formed a posse full of gun nuts, who begin hunting down the punks on
the outskirts of town. After a pretty even match between the punks
and the police, Lisa ends the ordeal by wounding Ramrod and allowing
her and the rest of the punks to leave town. I guess she forgot about
her dead father and comatose little sister. She not only turns the
other cheek, she totally fails in her role as a vigilante. What a
fucking disappointment she turned out to be, not to mention failing
to satisfy our taste for bloody revenge. Although competently
filmed, one-and-only-time director Stanley Lewis manages to botch
nearly every other aspect of the film; hiring hammy amateur actors
(Louis Waldron, who portrays Sheriff Virgil, should win some type of
bad acting award for over-emoting as a stereotypical Southern hick
sheriff); forgetting that action films should at least have a handful
of action scenes (there's really none until the anemic finale); and
padding the film with unnecessary filler. The screenplay, by Lance
Smith and Harvey Richelson, does try to be humorous at times (Ramrod
elects one of the punks to be the military leader because he had some
ROTC training in high school!) and portrays some of the punks (though
not all) as normal teenagers looking to have one final childish fling
before becoming and acting like adults, but the majority of the film
is just extremely stupid people (both the punks and the townspeople,
especially Steve and the cops) doing the most asinine things at the
most inopportune times. If you don't mind the stupidity of it all and
the almost total lack of bloody violence, PUNK VACATION may
scratch that small itch you have for little-seen regional rarities
(filmed in and around Santa Monica, California). All others stay
away. Also starring Patrick Reynolds, Billy Palmieri, Robert
Garrison, Kevin Lewis, Delta Giordano, Jesse Galante, Gary Retmeier,
Allegra Swift, Karen Renee and Raymond Fusci. A RaeDon
Home Video VHS Release. Believe it or not, this was released on Blu-Ray
& DVD from wonderful new label Vinegar
Syndrome in its original aspect ratio. Who would have thought we
would see the day?. Unrated.
RABID
DOGS (1974) -
After robbing a pharmaceutical company of their weekly payroll (and
leaving several dead), Doc (Maurice Poli),
Thirtytwo (Luigi Montefiori) and Blade (Aldo Caponi) take innocent
bystander Maria (Lea Lander) hostage and hijack a car with a father
(Riccardo Cucciolla) and his sick, unconscious son on board. I do not
want to spoil the outcome but you will experience what is probably
the sweatiest, most-claustrophobic terror-filled ride of your life.
This is filmmaking at its best, since 90% of its running
time takes place inside the close confines of a car and yet never
gets stale or repetitive. Not very graphic by todays standards,
this film still raises the hair on the back of your neck due to
realistic performances, natural scenery, implied rape and degradation
(Maria is forced to urinate standing up while Blade and Thirtytwo
laugh hysterically). Add to that a totally surprise ending and what
you have here is a totally unique and worthwhile discovery. Directed
by the late maestro Mario Bava (PLANET
OF THE VAMPIRES - 1965; A
BAY OF BLOOD - 1971) in 1974, it was never completed due to
a key investor being killed in a traffic accident. The film sat in
legal limbo for over 20 years and was completed by star Lea Landers
and others using Bavas editing notes (the same way Orson
Welles TOUCH
OF EVIL
[1958] was reconstructed recently). A new opening was filmed (it
makes sense after viewing the ending) and it was released on DVD only
in 1997. Its a shame it wasnt released in 1974, because
it would have given Mario Bava more respect than he had received in
his later years (he was 60 when this was made). In Italian language
with English subtitles supplied by Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog fame.
If you have a DVD player (everyone should!), this is an important
film to add to your library. Besides, its the only way
youll discover why Montefiores (a.k.a. George Eastman)
character is called Thirtytwo! RABID
DOGS (Cani
Arrabbiati),
also known as KIDNAPPED, is
available from Lucertola Media (and is now long OOP) and by Starz
Home Entertainment. Remade
in 2015 as a French/Canada release
using the same name.
Not Rated.
THE
RED QUEEN KILLS SEVEN TIMES
(1972) - After watching director Emilio P. Miraglia's THE
NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE (1971), I just had to
watch this giallo film, which was Miraglia's last directorial
feature. It's a pity he never made any thing else, because this is a
very entertaining mystery with many visual touches, great atmosphere,
copious nudity and bouts of graphic violence. Fans of the giallo
genre should check this out.
A little girl named Kitty is singing to her doll, which she has
named Elizabeth, on the property of her family castle. Her sister
Eveline skips up to her and steals her doll, running away with Kitty
chasing after her. They run into the castle and into their
grandfather, Tobias Wildenbrück's (Rudolf Schündler; SUSPIRIA
- 1977),
bedroom. Tobias tells Eveline to give the doll back, but Eveline
looks at a macabre painting in his room and she says, "Kitty is
the Black Queen and I am the Red Queen". She then grabs a dagger
and stabs the doll seven times, screaming "I hate you! I hate
you!", much to the horror of Tobias and Kitty. Eveline then cuts
the doll's head off, holds it in the air and laughs maniacally. Kitty
tackles her sister and after a short while she calms down. Eveline
tells her grandfather that whenever she looks at the painting, "I
felt something inside me." Tobias tells the two young
sisters the story of the painting: "Many, many years ago, the
Red Queen and the Black Queen lived in this castle. They were sisters
like you two. They'd hated each other since they were children. The
Black Queen silently put up with the Red Queen's wicked schemes,
waiting for the time when she could have vengeance. When the Red
Queen fell in love with a man, The Black Queen finally got her
revenge and murdered her sister one night while she was sleeping. She
brutally stabbed her seven times. Legend has it that it that a year
after her death the Red Queen came back to life, spreading terror.
She murdered six innocent people. The seventh was the Black
Queen. At peace once again, the Red Queen returned to her
grave, but the same thing happened a hundred years earlier, and a
hundred years later, always in this castle and always between two
sisters, and it will keep happening every hundred years."
(If you think this was a harsh tale to tell children, think of the
Grimm Fairy Tales. They were just as violent, if not moreso.). When
Kitty asks when it is going to happen again, Tobias says,
"Fourteen years. In 1972 to be precise." Grandpa then tells
his nurse to throw the painting away. So begins this gruesome tale of
the macabre.
It is now January of 1972 and Tobias is much older and feeble, as
his other daughter, Franziska (Marina Malfatti; SEVEN
BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS - 1972), is taking care of him. Tobias
hasn't seen Kitty or Eveline in months. While Grandpa is in bed, a
woman in a red cape and holding a dagger approaches him. He has a
heart attack and dies (1 down, 6 to go). Franziska hears her
grandfather calling her name, runs to his bedroom and finds him dead,
the Red Queen running through the castle grounds, laughing. An adult
Kitty (Barbara Bouchet; CRY OF A PROSTITUTE
- 1974) attends her grandfather's funeral, where Franziska's husband,
Herbert (Nino Korda; FIRE,
ICE & DYNAMITE - 1990), tells Kitty that as Tobias'
favorite daughter, she will get the lion's share of the inheritance
and his and Franziska's share will be half of Kitty's. Herbert then
tells Kitty that he saw the Red Queen last night running through the
park and that she looked just like Eveline. Kitty says that is
ridiculous and has a flashback to a few months earlier. Kitty and
Eveline are fighting on the castle grounds and when Kitty slaps
Evelyn, her head hits a stone pillar, cracking her head open and
falling into the lake, dead. Franziska silently tells Kitty that she
and Herbert know Eveline is dead (no one else does), but are they
trying to scare Kitty?
Kitty works as a professional photographer, shooting women modeling
clothes for Springe's Department Store. Kitty's boyfriend is Martin
Hoffmann (Ugo Pagliai; SHADOWMAN
- 1974), an executive at Springe's. Kitty brings Martin to the
reading of her grandfather's will. In the will, Tobias says the the
splitting of his fortune will not take place until the beginning of
1973. He has chosen a Mr. Bauer to be the executor of his will,
giving him an envelope containing instructions on how he is to split
his fortune and it is not to be opened until the beginning of 1973.
This takes everyone by surprise.
Eveline's boyfriend, Peter (Fabrizio Moresco; DEATH
WALKS AT MIDNIGHT - 1972), pulls a knife on Kitty and wants
to know where Eveline is (Kitty has told everyone Eveline is in
America). He tells Kitty that he really doesn't want to know where
his girlfriend is, as he wants money and plenty of it. He will return
later to collect. The Red Queen strikes again, stabbing Springe
executive Hans Meyer (Bruno Bertocci; MILANO
CALIBRO 9 - 1972) seven times in the back in the parking lot
of the department store (2 down, 5 to go). The Red Queen laughs and
runs away. Model Lulu Palm (Sybil Danning; DAY
OF THE COBRA - 1980) finds Hans' body and screams. Police
Inspector Toller (Marino Masé; KIDNAP
SYNDICATE - 1975) questions Lulu and the staff, where Lulu
tells him that Hans was always looking for a sexual thrill and that
she procured prostitutes for him. We also learn that Martin will
inherit Hans' position as general manager of Springe's.
The police have a drawing of the Red Queen based on eyewitness
accounts and Kitty notices that it looks just like Eveline. She
wonders how Eveline could have been connected to Hans Meyer. When
Kitty gets home there is a message on her answering machine from
Eveline, who says she is coming to kill her. Kitty begins to believe
that Eveline is alive, so she and Franziska go to the castle's
basement cell where they both hid Eveline's dead body. They find
blood on the walls (and plenty of bats!), but Eveline's decomposing
body is still there. We then find out that Martin is married to a
crazy woman named Elizabeth (Carla Mancini; THE
VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS - 1973), who has escaped from her
asylum cell. She tells Martin that she is visited by Eveline often in
her asylum room and told her that she will kill Martin if she keeps
seeing Kitty. The Red Queen then kidnaps Kitty's assistant Lenore
(Maria Antonietta Guido), throws her in the back of a van and then
stabs her seven times in the torso, her private parts and her legs (3
down, 4 to go).
Lulu shows up at Martin's front door, strips naked and says,
"Even the police know I'm an incredible nymphomaniac!" They
then make love (Who can turn down a naked Sybil Danning???). Martin
admires a necklace Lulu is wearing and all she will say about it is,
"I only wear it on special occasions. An old friend gave it to
me." Elizabeth shows up in front of Martin's apartment. The Red
Queen gives Elizabeth her dagger and when she climbs over a dangerous
iron fence, the Red Queen pulls her leg out from underneath her and
she impales herself under her chin by the fence's sharp spikes. The
Red Queen laughs and drives away in Martin's car. Elizabeth's last
words are, "Eveline, Eveline..." (4 down, 3 to go).
Inspector Toller begins to look at Martin as a major suspect. The
Inspector receives a phone call from a woman telling him to talk to
Rosemary Muller
(Maria Pia Giancaro; WHEN
WOMEN PLAYED DING DONG - 1971), Hans Meyer's secretary. The
Inspector believes that she is also Martin's new lover, since she
resigned her position when Hans was killed. Martin feels the walls
closing in on him, so he begs Kitty to tell the Inspector where
Eveline is. Kitty finally confesses to Martin that she killed Eveline
and in a flashback we discover just how Herbert and Franziska knew
about her death. They were both there and helped Kitty cover-up the
crime. Kitty begins having nightmares of Eveline stabbing her. Peter
shows up, rips off all Kitty's clothes and rapes her when she won't
give him any money.
We then find out that Peter is a drug addict and is working in
cahoots with Rosemary. But why? While high on heroin, the Red Queen
gets Peter to come to Martin's car, snags his coat in the car door
and drags him to his death, his head getting caved-in when it hits a
light pole (5 down, 2 to go). Will there be a sixth and seventh
victim? Remember what Tobias told his two young granddaughters and
figure it out for yourself. Is Eveline alive? You must be nuts if you
think I am going to give it away. I have given you enough clues for
you to play Sherlock Holmes.
Wonderfully shot, with some fluid, nightmarish visions (the shot of
the Red Queen running to Kitty's bed beats anything that Dario
Argento has given us) and the mystery element is actually well
thought-out and not as outlandish as other giallo films (Screenplay
by Miraglia and Fabio Pittorru [THE
WEEKEND MURDERS - 1970]). All I will tell you is this: Pay
close attention to the necklace Lulu is wearing and think of one
character whose name is mentioned, but is never seen (it is mentioned
in this review). It's hard to believe that Emilio P. Miraglia never
directed another film after this (as far as I can discover, he is
still alive, but in his early-90s [at the time of this review]).
Based on EVELYN
and this film, it's easy to see that he knew what he wanted in a
shot, as the widescreen image always has something going on,
important information that is lost when cropped for fullscreen presentations.
Released theatrically in the United States in a severely hacked-up
edition by Cannon Group Film Distributors titled both FEAST
OF FLESH and BLOOD FEAST,
both titles paired with director Joel M. Reed's BLOOD
BATH (1976). These editions were Rated PG and are missing
all the nudity and bloody gore that make this film so special. Never
released on VHS in the States, it is available on uncut widescreen
DVD from NoShame Films (as
part of the long OOP "The Emilio Miraglia Killer Queen Box
Set") and on Blu-Ray from Arrow
Video. This review is based on the print I saw streaming on
Amazon Prime. It is not only uncut and in widescreen, but also in the
original Italian language with English subtitles. It looks gorgeous,
like it was shot yesterday. This is a very creepy giallo that will
stay with you long after the film ends. Oh, yes: Beware of the rats!
Also known as HORROR HOUSE.
Also featuring Sisto Brunetti, Dolores Calò, Nestore
Cavaricci and Alfonso Giganti. Not Rated.
RINGS
OF FEAR (1978) - This
relentlessly sleazy giallo was supposed to be director Massimo
Dallamano's final entry in his "schoolgirls in peril"
trilogy (the first two films were WHAT
HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? [a.k.a THE
SCHOOL THAT COULDN'T SCREAM - 1972] and WHAT
HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? [a.k.a THE
COED MURDERS - 1974]), but he tragically died in an
automobile accident before production began (he does get credit as
one of the six screenwriters). Directorial reigns were handed over to
Alberto Negrin (this is his only theatrical feature) who is a
well-known Italian TV movie and mini-series director (such as the
highly enjoyable TOWER
OF THE FIRSTBORN - 1998). Based on this film, I would have
liked to see Negrin direct more feature films.
The film opens with the body of a young woman wrapped in plastic in
the trunk of a car. Someone throws her body off a cliff to the raging
river below. Inspector Gianni Di Salvo (Fabio Testi; CONTRABAND
- 1980) is called-in when her nude body is found, her vagina bloody
and disfigured. The body is that of Angela Russo and the Inspector
calls her mother (Helga Liné; THE
LORELEY'S GRASP - 1973) to come and identify the body. She
brings her very young daughter, Emily (Fausta Avelli; THE
PSYCHIC - 1977) to the morgue (!) and she seems very
troubled. Emily tells the Inspector that her sister belonged to a
clique known as "The Inseparables" and that he should talk
to Paola (Elke Ohrner) and Virginia (Brigitte Wagner), who were
Angela's friends at the all-girls school she was a student at. We are
then whisked to the girls locker room, where they strip naked (If
they are young girls, I'm a monkey's uncle!), take showers and it
reveals that they are not alone, as someone is peeping on them
through a hole drilled in a wall. The Inspector questions the
school's headmistress, Miss Graham (María Asquerino; HOUSE
OF INSANE WOMEN - 1971) and when he doesn't get the right
answers from her, he yells out, "Someone with a cock this big
raped Angela Russo and threw her in the river!" It turns out
that this school is a hotbed of sex, as we watch Virginia making love
to Max van der Weyden (Tony Isbert; REST
IN PIECES - 1987) in the school's church. The Inspector
finds a drawing of a cat in Angela's diary and when his assistant,
Don (Bruno Alessandro), is driving him, he sees the same drawing
spray-painted on a billboard (What's the connection?). It seems that
little Emily is also playing detective, as she hands a
"clue" over to the Inspector. It is a dart that was used to
make Virginia's horse bolt. Could someone be trying to kill her? The
Inspector rushes to the school, barges into the girls' sleeping
quarters and wakes them up. Why does Miss Graham act so suspiciously?
Max is killed when the Yamaha motorcycle he is riding on is forced
into the path of an oncoming bus, the killer leaving a note on his
body that says: "Run towards the black shadow. Death will come
to Legion". It is signed "Nemesis". Someone tries to
kill the Inspector by setting his trailer on fire, but he escapes. He
is having a very bad day, because when he goes to the apartment of
his girlfriend Christina (Christine Kaufmann; MURDERS
IN THE RUE MORGUE - 1971), she says she is leaving him. His
superior, Chief Inspector Louis Roccaglio (Ivan Desny; WHO?
- 1974) wants the case solved as fast as possible, so the Inspector
goes to the home of Michael Parravicini (Jack Taylor; WAX
- 2014), a teacher at the school who sleeps with his students. When
he shows him the note left on Max's body, Michael gets very nervous.
The Inspector also notices that the drawing of the cat is on
Michael's Jeep (Hmmmmm...). We then see Virginia getting an abortion,
intercut with a flashback she has where she witnesses Angela getting
raped with a large dildo at an orgy (This film gets sleazier by the
minute, especially the POV shot from Angela's vagina as the dildo is
about to enter it!). Someone tries to kill Virginia by putting
marbles at the top of a staircase (!) and she falls down the stairs,
seriously hurt but not dead. The Inspector goes to the hospital,
where Paola wants to talk to him but not at the hospital. The
Inspector never gets to talk to her, as she is murdered that night.
He talks to Paola's father (Ricardo Merino), but gets nowhere. The
Inspector is certain that Michael is the killer, so he takes him on a
rollercoaster ride (!), threatening to throw him off if he doesn't
confess. All Michael is able to tell the Inspector is that the two
dead girls were friends with Max and he is being
blackmailed by someone who has compromising photos of him having sex
with the schoolgirls. That night, Michael is stabbed in the neck by
Nemesis. The police find Michael's body wrapped in plastic and
floating down the river. On his body is a police case file that says
the Chief Inspector dismissed a case of Michael having sex with an
underage girl.
The Chief Inspector explains the case to the Inspector. He was paid
to look the other way when the school held orgies. He then commits
suicide in front of the Inspector by jumping off a bridge (!). Just
who is the killer? You wouldn't believe me if I told you. All I will
say is that one of the killers will never be punished. I have
given you the clues. Now it is your turn to play detective.
This Italy/West Germany/Spain co-production is one of the most lurid
giallo films I have ever seen and that's saying something. The film,
originally titled ENIGMA
RUSSO ("Red Enigma") is also known as RED
RINGS OF FEAR, TRAUMA
and VIRGIN TERROR.
Under any title, this is sleazy entertainment of the first degree,
as director Alberto Negrin tosses in plentiful nudity, lots of
perverse situations and lots of weird POV shots, like the
vagina/dildo, a spray paint nozzle painting the screen black, a
corpse looking up from the water and a bureau drawer opening up to
reveal a naked Virginia. Negrin co-wrote the screenplay with Massimo
Dallamano (THE NIGHT CHILD
- 1975), Peter Berling (who acted in such films as MANHUNT
[1972]; he has an uncredited cameo in this film), Marcello Coscia (LET
SLEEPING CORPSES LIE - 1974), Franco Ferrini (DEMONS
- 1985; TWO EVIL EYES -
1990) & Stefano Ubezio. This may be sleaze, but it's Grade A
sleaze. If Riz Ortolani's (HOW
TO KILL A JUDGE - 1974) brassy score sounds familiar, it is
because it was "borrowed" from Dallamano's SUPER
BITCH (1973). If there is one negative complaint about this
film it is this: Why give Christine Kaufmann second billing if she is
just going to appear in a couple of scenes and then disappears
completely in the middle of the film?
Originally released uncut on fullscreen VHS by Wizard Video (under
the title TRAUMA). Full
Moon released a fullscreen DVD (which they mistakenly credit
Arthur Kennedy as one of the stars), a port of the Wizard Video
print, as part of their "Full Moon Grindhouse Collection"
in 2013. But the one you really want to get is the Blu-Ray from
Scorpion Releasing, under the title RED
RINGS OF FEAR. It is the only way this film should be seen,
as it is a spotless print and the colors pop. I am glad that films
like this are getting the deluxe treatment on Blu-Ray. Also starring
Wal Davis, Taida Urruzola, Fabián Conde, Tony Valento,
José Nodar and Carmen Carro. Not Rated.
SCREAM
FOR VENGEANCE (1979) - In
this atypical low-budget thriller, a foursome of masked burglars
break into the house of a wealthy jewelry store owner and hold his
wife and daughter hostage while three of the burglars drive the owner
to his store, where they plan on grabbing a small fortune in diamonds
and jewels. While the three burglars are driving to the store with
Dad, the lone cackling burglar, Luke (Bob Elliott), begins undressing
and feeling-up the tied-up teenage daughter while holding a butcher
knife to her throat. Mom kicks Luke in the nuts and then kicks the
ski mask off his face, revealing his identity. Luke loses it and
viciously slashes Mom's throat and repeatedly stabs her in the chest
and stomach, then turning his attention to the daughter, whom he
rapes and then kills with his silencer-equipped pistol. At the
jewelry store, Dad sets off the alarm and the burglars shoot him
several times with their silencer-equipped pistols. As they run out
of the store with their loot, the burglars are spotted by Jenny
Bradley (Sally Lockett) and Mark Davis (Nicholas Jacquez), who were
just leaving the Laundromat. They are taken hostage and driven to the
burglars' hideout cabin in the woods. As luck would have it, Jenny
is the granddaughter of a wealthy Senator, so the burglars have hit
a double payday. Not only did they get the jewels, they now plan to
ransom Jenny to her grandfather for a bundle of money. Alas, they
never get the chance to do so. Jenny and Mark, who have never met
each other before that night, pretend to be engaged to throw their
captors off balance. They overpower and kill one of the burglars when
the other three head to town for supplies and grab a shotgun, a .45
and a .38. They then steal a pickup truck and head towards
civilization, but are immediately spotted by the other three burglars
and the chase is on. Mark kills another burglar with a shotgun blast
through the windshield, but during the chase, their pickup is
disabled, forcing Mark and Jenny to flee into the woods. Luke and the
last remaining burglar flank the couple on both ends, wounding Jenny
in the leg with a rifle shot. They are recaptured for a short time,
but turn the tables on their captors. Jenny shoots the other burglar
several times in the back and the rape-happy Luke gets a pitchfork in
the gut after he seriously wounds Mark and tries to sexually assault
Jenny. Even though they have just met, Mark and Jenny have come to
depend on each other and eventually fall in love. Though
ultra-low-budget, this regional thriller (lensed in Spring Hill,
Missouri) is remarkable for a few reasons. It's well-acted by a cast
of unknowns, has an effective music score and contains bursts of
eye-opening graphic violence and nudity. Director/screenwriter Bob
Bliss (who, as far as I can tell, has never directed another film)
manages to tell a compelling story with a meager budget and a cast of
non-pros (who also don't seem to have appeared in anything else),
which only adds to the film's strange atmosphere. It starts out as a
crime drama, turns into a chase actioner and ends as a revenge
thriller. While the film is technically sloppy in spots (the editing
is choppy and there are some bad camera setups), the overall tone of
the proceedings is dark and brooding. You are never sure what is
going to happen next, as the film switches gears so often, the viewer
is left off-kilter and uncertain what the next scene will bring (I
was certain that Mark was a jerk and a gigolo, especially when he
comes-on to Jenny in the Laundromat, but he steps up when the
situation demands it). Don't get me wrong; this film has no higher
aspirations than a cheap thriller, but it's down and dirty, with
plenty of violence (bloody bullet squibs, a brutal stabbing, the
pitchfork impalement) and two very uncomfortable rape scenes
(especially Luke's rape of the daughter in the beginning, as he runs
the knife across her body while saying things like, "Sixteen and
never been...kissed!"). At it's core, SCREAM
FOR VENGEANCE tells a simple story rather effectively. If
you can get past some of the technical shortcomings and several of
the actors' 70's porn-style bushy moustaches, I think you will find
yourself liking this. Also starring Walter Atamanuik, R.E. Roudebush
and Steve Scearchy as the other burglars. Featuring Leonard Belove,
Jane McMahon and Susie Gardner as the unfortunate family that sets
the whole film in motion. The version I viewed was ripped from a
Dutch-subtitled VHS tape. Released on VHS in the U.S. by Magnum
Entertainment under the title VENGEANCE,
but this uncut tape is long OOP and very hard to find. Most grey
market seller offer the Dutch version on DVD-R because it is also
uncut. The British VHS on the Intervision label is missing nearly two
minutes of footage. Not Rated.
SEVEN
DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE (1973) -
The unexpected arrival of young Corringa (Jane Birkin) at the
Scottish MacGrieff Castle couldn't have come at at better, or worse,
time, depending on who you talk to. The financially-strapped
MacGrieffs, Lady Mary (Francoise Christophe) and her mentally ill son
Lord James (Hiram Keller), have just hit-up Corringa's mother, Lady
Alicia (Dana Ghia), for a loan, but she refuses, telling Lady Mary
that Corringa will soon inherit the family fortune on her rapidlly
approaching 18th birthday. The sexually liberated Corringa (who was
just expelled from school) accidentally throws her Bible in the
roaring fireplace and you know what that means: Something bad is
about to happen. At dinner, the mad Lord James insults everyone at
the table, forcing Lady Alicia and Corringa to get up and walk out of
the room. Family physician Dr. Franz (Anton Diffring), who loves Lady
Mary, explains to everyone left at the dinner table, including Father
Robinson (Venantino Venantini) and Suzanne (Doris Kunstmann), that
when Lord James was a child, he killed his sister and spent some time
in an insane asylum. Dr. Franz begs Lady Mary to sell the castle, but
she stubbornly refuses. Could she
be hiding something? That night, Lady Alicia is savagely attacked in
her bedroom by an unseen gloved assailant and killed, while Corringa
finds a hidden passage in her bedroom and is assaulted by the same
assailant when she follows the passageway to the castle's basement.
The only witness to both crimes was an orange-haired tabby cat and,
at Lady Alicia's funeral the next day, Lady Mary orders that the cat
be locked-in Lady Alicia's crypt. Lady Mary now hopes that Corringa
falls in love with her son, which will in turn infuse the family
fortunes and save the castle from foreclosure. This is where things
get weird. Corringa discovers that Lord James keeps a live circus
gorilla in his artist studio, Dr. Franz is sleeping with Suzanne (who
is bisexual) in some plan to gain control of the castle (Corringa's
sudden appearance has thrown a monkey [ahem!] wrench into their
plans) and the butler, Angus (Luciano Pigozzi, a.k.a. "Alan
Collins"), is murdered by the gloved killer when he sets the cat
free from the crypt. As more people are killed, the question becomes:
Who is the killer and what is his/her motive? Is it possible that the
killer is a vampire? Or is it the gorilla? (Wouldn't it be sweet if
it were a vampire gorilla?) Alas, it's none of the above, as we find
out Lord James may not be mad after all and one member in the castle
isn't who they say they are. This French/Italian/German co-production,
directed by Antonio
Margheriti (CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE
- 1980; TIGER JOE -
1982; ARK OF THE SUN GOD
- 1983), using his frequent pseudonym "Anthony M. Dawson",
is a decent, if uneventful and soap opera-ish, murder mystery. It's
like a cross between the gothic horror films of the 60's (which
includes Margheriti's CASTLE
OF BLOOD
- 1964) and the giallo films that became so popular in the 70's. As
with most giallo films of the 70's, most of the action in SEVEN
DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE takes place at a secluded location.
Here it is a castle and, like all giallos (gialli?), there is no
shortage of suspects. The addition of a gorilla as one of the
suspects is indeed offbeat, but it is only used sparingly (a good
thing, too, because it's nothing but a man in a cheap gorilla suit)
and you know it's only use is as a red herring. It's nice to see
Anton Diffring (CIRCUS OF HORRORS
- 1960) playing such a callous character, but he doesn't dub his own
voice, so it's a little distracting. The murders on view are
restrained for a giallo. While blood splashes on the walls and there
are some macabre sights on view (including rats eating a corpse in
the beginning of the film, which is an important clue in solving the
mystery), we never actually see the murders committed, as they are
either filmed in the shadows or the camera moves away before the
killer strikes. As with YOUR
VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY and CRIMES
OF THE BLACK CAT (both 1972), a cat witnesses every murder
and plays a key role in unmasking the killer. Cats, you gotta love
'em! This is an OK mystery that will entertain you as long as you
don't expect buckets of gore. On-screen title: SEVEN DEATHS IN THE
CATS EYES. Also starring George Korrade, Serge Gainsbourg and
Bianca Doria. Originally available on VHS from Prism
Entertainment. Available on DVD from Blue
Underground. Not Rated.
SEX
OF THE WITCH (1973) - "Soon
it will be all over. I see shadows losing their color...that
lose themselves. Shadows taking on human form. My nieces and
nephews, like a dream, I see their signs. I hear them around me,
assisting in my fate. I can't see them any more, but I know their
sullen faces well...vague
and distant. I can't believe their faces are alive. They will never
understand death, perhaps only you alone. This death I jealously
possess, my fate is drawn into it. I die content. I feel a cold chill
and my body is numb. It's a sweet feeling that brings me joy. It
takes me
away from the horrendous glare of my daughter Evelyn. She's spent her
miserable life cultivating greed and jealousy. I leave jealous. I
take with me the reputation of our name...Hilton.
I have the impression it's me. I lay dying, yet I'm far from death.
We descended into dark caverns, looking for the secret of life. They
are the cadavers. They are gray lifeless ghosts,
the new generation without any cares, with false youth and the empty
expressions of people without a destiny. People who have had their
past robbed from them. I only loved myself, and rightly so. It wasn't
narcissism, it was my will, a testimony of truth. It is all ending;
what was alive, impenetrable from suffering, from regret. It's not
only me who is dying; I am illuminated with certainty. Soon the
Hiltons will perish. The shame upon our great name."
These are the final thoughts of the elderly Thomas Hilton (Simone
Santo; GO GORILLA GO -
1975) as he dies in his bed with his "family" surrounding
him, cursing them as he takes his final breath; the looks on their
faces seem to say, "Will you die already, old man!" These
are a family of despicable people, only interested in themselves and
no one else, especially daughter Evelyn (Jessica Dublin; THE
SLASHER...IS THE SEX MANIAC! - 1972), who can't be bothered
being at her dying father's bedside, because she is having sex with
butler Tony (the recently deceased Franco
Garofalo, as "Christopher Oakes"; HELL
OF THE LIVING DEAD - 1980) instead! The rest of the family
give their dead uncle a peck on the forehead and leave the room,
while Evelyn says to Tony, "More. I'm dying!" At Tomas
Hilton's funeral a few hours later, Tony tells niece Susan (Susanna
Levi) he knows she was close to her Uncle and regrets the pain she is
feeling. He, too, was close to her Uncle and feels the same pain
(Sure he does!). On the drive back to town, all the nieces and
nephews can think about is their share of the Hilton pie and whether
their Uncle's homosexual secretary, Simon Boskin (Gianni Dei; PATRICK
STILL LIVES - 1980), will be mentioned in the will.
We then see Evelyn entering the herbal shop run by her Aunt Ingrid
(Annamaria Tornello; FRANKENSTEIN'S
CASTLE OF FREAKS - 1973), Thomas's sister, and she says to
Evelyn, "Now, only you and I know the Hilton secret." At
the reading of the will a few days later, the Notary (Ferrucio
Viotti; DAY OF ANGER -
1967) reveals that everyone, including Simon (but not Tony), will
have equal shares in the Hilton fortune, but only once they reach the
age of thirty. If an heir dies before then, their share will be
distributed evenly amongst the surviving members. I think I have seen
enough "reading of the will" movies to know where this film
is heading. It's called murder, but with a twist you will never see
coming (Really. You couldn't guess what's coming in a million
years!). Nephew Jonny (Giovanni Petrucci; SHOOT
FIRST...ASK QUESTIONS LATER - 1975) will be the first to
turn thirty in one month and five days, but I'm willing to wager he
never makes it. Simon tells Susan that her Uncle once told him that
someone would destroy the family after his death and that person
would be Evelyn. "It appears there's a secret between her and
Ingrid", says Simon. But someone other than Evelyn will murder
the Hilton heirs in various ways, trying to wipe out the Hilton name
from the history books and by the Hilton family's actions, I can't
think of better people to wipe off the map. These are despicable
people who only care about sex and other debaucheries, at least most
of them are (Susan shows Simon a wound she has had since she was
young, telling him it happened when Ingrid was "playing"
with her. At this time we don't see the wound, but in order for Simon
to see it, Susan has to strip nude.). We then see Jonny at a drug and
sex orgy and when he stumbles back to the Hilton castle, someone
beats him over the face and head with an ancient iron weapon, turning
his face to a bloody pulp and killing him.
A Police Inspector (Donald O'Brien; KEOMA
- 1976) and his assistant (Irio Fantini; THE
SICILIAN CONNECTION - 1972) arrive at the castle after
Evelyn discovers Jonny's body and calls the police. The Inspector
says it looks like Jonny was hit with something metal, like a
medieval weapon, but the Hilton family say they've never seen a
weapon like that in the castle. The Inspector finds two nails from
Java (sharp metal fingernails that are slipped over the thumb and
index finger) and tells his assistant to find out who purchased them.
The Inspector gathers all the Hilton heirs into one room and begins
to question them, as Tony watches the ambulance drive away with
Jonny's body. The Inspector tells the gathering of Hiltons that the
clause in the will is an excellent motive for murder, saying one of
them is the murderer and none of them are to leave the castle until
he finds out who it is. Tony tells the Inspector that housekeeper
Gloria (Marzia Damon; THE
BLOODSUCKER LEADS THE DANCE - 1975) was with him all night
and Gloria says it is true, Tony has no reason to lie because he
wasn't even mentioned in the will. Suddenly, the Inspector no longer
believes that the clause in the will was the motive for Jonny's
murder, saying it was for another reason he is not sure about yet. It
could have something to do with a threatening letter the Notary found
addressed to himself in the library this morning (The letter says
that Jonny's murder was just a smokescreen), niece Ann (Camille
Keaton; TRAGIC CEREMONY
- 1972) saying she was in the library last night and the letter
wasn't there. The Inspector says it couldn't be a stranger who left
the note, since the castle hasn't had any visitors, but Susan
interrupts, telling the Inspector to find the killer quickly,
otherwise this will be "left hanging over us." She doesn't
want that to happen and wants the killer caught. The Inspector asks
the Notary if he knows who wrote him that letter and he slyly smiles,
gets in his car and drives away. We then see Ingrid pay Evelyn a
secret visit outside, where she hands Evelyn a package and says not
to worry, it's the same as all the other times. What is it? Simon,
who is not as gay as most people believe (We see him having sex with
Susan a short while ago), ruminates about Thomas' love of classical
music, while the Hilton clan complain to the Inspector that not
allowing them to leave the castle grounds is making them feel like
prisoners. Susan says, "If you've go nothing concrete, no clues,
no evidence, then..." and The Inspector stops her and says,
"Then, what? This is murder. I can't have sympathy for any of
you, whether I like you or not. My duty is to catch the killer. I'm
not keeping you here out of spite. I have a strong feeling the killer
is in this room. Here, amongst you!" (The camera pans around the
room while the Inspector is saying this and they all look guilty as hell.).
A young woman named Lucy (Lorenza Guerrieri; NAKED
YOU DIE - 1968) pays Tony and Gloria a visit and they have a
ménage a trois. Nephew Edward (Augusto Nobile) and Susan also
make love in another bedroom (I guess they are more than kissin'
cousins!). It seems the only thing this family has in common is sex.
Susan only creates sculptures that have an erotic theme, telling the
Inspector that she only sculpts what she knows.
As night approaches, we see the Assistant Inspector sleeping on a
chair in the hallway where Jonny was killed and we can see the nails
from Java are missing from their case (Susan put them on her fingers
earlier in the day, but she put them back). We then see a strange man
(Sergio Ferrero; BARBARELLA
- 1968), someone we have never seen before, entering Ann's bedroom
wearing the nails from Java. He climbs on Ann and proceeds to slice
her breasts and chest with the nails, but she likes it! The next
morning, the Inspector finds the ancient weapon that killed Jonny
hidden in a hole in the castle's outer stone wall. We then see that
one of the Hilton women is a drug addict, as we watch a pair of
female hands reach into a secret compartment and pull out her
"works" and using a syringe to inject a drug into her veins
(It shouldn't be too hard to figure out who it is). Ann's brother Nat
(Maurizio Tanfani; an Assistant Director on THE
OTHER HELL - 1980) pays her a visit at the castle and tells
her that he's glad that Jonny is dead; he knows Ann was in love with
him, but he was never right for her, saying this about Jonny's death:
"Deep down, he deserved it." When the Inspector hears this,
he arrests Nat on suspicion of murder, but is he really responsible?
And who is this strange man terrorizing everyone at the castle? He
knows all the castle's secret passageways, using them to get to his
victims and to escape. Think you know
who the killer is? Let me just say this: You will never guess the
identity of the killer because one of the Hiltons is a witch. Is this
strange man a man at all?
This nudity and sex-filled giallo flick, directed and written by
Angelo "Elo" Pannaccio, who also gave us the Spaghetti
Western DEATH PLAYED THE FLUTE
(1972), the supernatural EXORCIST
(1973) rip-off THE POSSESSOR
(1975) and the Nazisploitation flick HOLOCAUST
2 (1980), plays a major trick on the audience by changing
the film from a giallo to a supernatural horror film during the last
ten minutes. It will either infuriate you or come as quite a jolt.
The giallo fanatic in me wanted to hate the film, but the finale is
so unusual and unexpected, I couldn't help but admire its chutzpa.
Ninety percent of this film plays out like a standard giallo flick,
but the final few minutes come straight out of the supernatural when
we finally discover who the strange man really is. Right after
discovering the man's identity, we see Tony and Gloria checking the
rooms in the castle, revealing the surprise fates of the Hilton
family members. Throwing a monkey wrench into the film's final
minutes should have made me want to kick in my TV screen, but I must
say that the final three minutes did tickle my fancy. This is nothing
spectacular, but it is diverting enough for at least one viewing,
thanks to the plentiful nudity and the way the film quickly switches
gears during the final minutes. I was wondering if the title would
live up it its name and it did. Giving Pannaccio some uncredited help
with the screenplay was Franco Brocani, who is better known for being
Second Assistant Director on GANGSTER'S
LAW (1969) and for directing the nonsensical art fantasy
horror film NECROPOLIS
(1970), which, if you haven't seen it, I recommend you do because it
is braindead fun. Pannaccio went on to close out his career by
directing porn films in the '80s. He passed away in 2001. The music
score, by Danielle Patucchi (PLOT
OF FEAR - 1976; WARRIOR
OF THE LOST WORLD - 1983), is also excellent and reminded me
of Ennio Morricone's score for THE
STENDHAL SYNDROME (1996). Coincidence or plagiarism? You
decide! (I serious doubt it is the latter because Morricone has
always been above board).
Shot as IL SESSO
DELLA STREGA (a literal translation of the review title),
this film never received a theatrical of home video release in any
format in the United States, but it can be found streaming on YouTube
from user "Giallo Realm" in a nice anamorphic widescreen
print, subtitled in English. When is some U.S.-based disc company
going to realize that there are many unsung Italian gems just waiting
to be released in the States? Too many are just sitting in obscurity
waiting to be discovered. Not Rated.
SIEGE
OF TERROR (1968) - In New
York City, we see the lovely (and married) Carla Warren (Libertad
Leblanc) lying in bed in a hotel room, gun in hand. Lover Nick
(Carlos Piñar; ENCOUNTERS
IN THE DEEP - 1979) walks into the room and Carla mistakenly
(?) pulls the trigger and a bullet enters Nick's forehead above his
left eye. Nick falls down dead on top of Carla, blood from his wound
spilling all over Carla, including Nick's bloody hand and his
distinctive signet ring (it plays an important part in the plot,
maybe too important for its own good).
Carla then take an airplane to Miami International Airport and
disembarks. Her chauffeur greets her and takes her bags to the car.
Carla then sees someone who looks exactly like Nick and notices his
distinctive signet ring on his hand (from hundreds of feet away!).
She calls out Nick's name and tries to follow him, but loses him in
the crowd. Is she going crazy? Also at the airport is hotel detective
Andrew (Tony Kendall; THE
WHIP AND THE BODY - 1963). He is there to pick up girlfriend
Marta (Loredana Giustini; JOHN
THE BASTARD - 1967), but she notices Andrew can't keep his
eyes off Carla, so she tells him that Carla is married to an
important and famous psychiatrist, Dr. Frederick Warren (Riccardo
Garrone; DEATH KNOCKS TWICE
- 1969), and to pay more attention to her than some pretty married
woman. Andrew tells Marta that that's no problem, Dr. Warren is
staying at the Grand Hotel, where he's the establishment's private
dick. Marta gets mad, but Andrew consoles her, saying that she's the
only girl for him, but she doesn't believe him (I'm not sure I do, either).
Once in her hotel room, Carla tells her husband that she saw Nick at
the airport, but Fred tells her to calm down and quit acting crazy,
he disposed of Nick's corpse and no one will find his body or think
she had anything to do with his disappearance. Fred wants to make
love to his wife, but she is unable to since killing Nick and it
makes Fred quite angry, even though he tries to be an understanding
husband. Carla keeps rambling on about seeing Nick, so Fred gives her
a tranquilizer and puts her to bed, telling her he has some business
to take care of and will be back later. While Carla is sleeping, we
can see a shadow moving underneath the adjoining door to the
bathroom. Carla hears a crash, sees the shadow moving and calls the
Front Desk. She tells Andrew that someone is in her hotel room and
then screams loudly. Andrew runs to Carla's room and checks the
bathroom out, only to find the window open (it is too far up for
anyone to climb) and a broken glass on the bathroom floor. Andrew
tells Carla that no one is there and it was probably the wind that
knocked down the glass. Carla thanks Andrew for coming so quick and
then goes back to sleep.
The next morning, with Fred once again away on business, Carla goes
to the front desk and asks Andrew if she knows anyone who can give
her a tour of Miami, as she has never been to this city before.
Andrew says he knows the perfect person, him, so he ditches his
responsibilities as a house dick and takes her to all the best
tourist attractions, including the Miama Seaquarium, where Carla
meets and feeds Flipper (!) and then to the Everglades National Park,
where Andrew takes her on an airboat ride (Man, that looks fun!).
Andrew forgot he was supposed to take Marta out to dinner that night
and when he comes back to the hotel at night with Carla in tow, he
doesn't notice that Marta is in the lobby waiting for him. Marta
leaves in a huff and when Willy (Lorenzo Robledo; NIGHT
OF THE WALKING DEAD - 1975) at the Front Desk tells Andrew
that Marta was waiting for him for quite a while and just left,
Andrew realizes the mistake he made, tries phoning Marta, but she
keeps on hanging up on him, so the next morning he buys some flowers
and goes to her home, where her understanding father, psychiatrist
Dr. MacGregor (Francisco Piquer; SOUND
OF HORROR - 1964), tells Andrew he will have to work on how
he treats his daughter, but he's on Andrew's side. Marta doesn't want
to hear Andrew's excuses, telling him she saw him with Carla, but
Andrew tries to explain to her that there's no romance between him
and Carla, he was simply giving her a tour of Miami (he is telling
the truth). Marta doesn't believe him, so Andrew storms out of the
house, telling Marta it is over between them for good this time. It's not.
Andrew
knows something is wrong with Carla, especially earlier, when she
dropped her purse and the contents spilled all over the floor. Andrew
helps her pick up the items, but he pockets a bottle of harmless
over-the-counter pills, which will be important to uncovering the
truth. Long story short, Carla tells her husband about being shown
around town by Andrew (she also tells him about the bathroom
incident) and he gets angry, telling her not to talk to him again. He
begins spying with binoculars on Carla at the pool and sees her once
again talking to a concerned Andrew, who is sure something is wrong
with her, but she won't tell him what is wrong. To avoid Carla from
seeing Andrew further, Fred rents a beachhouse for them to live in
while in Miami, hiring a maid, Ursula (María Muné), to
give Carla peace of mind. Marta and Andrew end up burying the
hatchet, but when Marta complains on not being able to sleep, Andrew
pulls out the pills he took from Carla. After her father assures
Marta that these pills are harmless, she takes a couple and soon
begins freaking out, much to the surprise of her father and Andrew.
Dr. MacGregor tastes one of the pills and tells Andrew that these
pills are pure LSD. Is Carla aware she is taking LSD? If not, who is
giving them to her? Andrew is determined to find out.
In a twist everybody saw coming, it turns out Nick is not dead. He
is working in conjunction with Fred on an experiment to change Carla
(it really doesn't make much sense at all!). Flashbacks show us that
Carla was a bikini-clad go-go dancer (but not topless) at a New York
City discotheque and her manager/wannabe pimp Nick, notices that
Frederick was very interested in her, so he convinces Carla to
romance and marry him. Nick then comes up with a plan to kill
Frederick in a burglary gone wrong so Carla can inherit all of his
money and share it with him. He hands Carla the gun, assures her it
is loaded with blanks and tells her to pull the trigger. This is
where the beginning of the film happens, as Carla thinks she has
murdered Nick, but he was faking all along, working with Frederick
from the beginning to change Carla's personality (what???) for a
handsome sum of money. Turns out it was Nick all along haunting
Carla, but now Nick wants his money immediately so he can leave Miami
and live a good life. Can Andrew, Dr. MacGregor and, yes, even Marta,
save Carla in time, or will she fall victim to Frederick's dastardly
plan (whatever it is)?
This
pretty well-worn Spain/Italy co-production has a Giallo plot that is
so standard, a child could write it, but it does have a few redeeming
moments. Tony Kendall looks like he is having the time of his life in
Miami, piloting an airboat like a pro and smiling throughout the
majority of the film, like he was enjoying his time there. The
photography (by Giuseppe Alberti, in his only cinematographer effort,
although he handled First Assistant Camera duties on such films as HER
HAREM [1967] and Mario Bava's RABID
DOGS [1974] & SHOCK
[1977]) does offer a few surprises, such as Marta's freak-out scene,
a nostalgic look back to late-'60s Times Square in NYC, some
beautiful Miami travelogue footage and a few rather good POV shots.
The music soundtrack, by Carlo Savina (CRYPT
OF THE VAMPIRE and CASTLE
OF THE LIVING DEAD [both 1964]) is better than it has any
right to be, especially when Carla discovers the dead body of Ursula
in her closet (something that makes Fred very angry, as he didn't
want anyone to die from his experiment, which leads to bad blood
between him and Nick, resulting in one of their deaths).
Director/screenwriter Luis Marquina had been directing films since
1935 (he passed away in 1980) and this seems to be his only genre
effort (he did co-write the screenplay to MR.
SUPERINVISIBLE - 1970), so that's some explanation as to why
the plot here is so clichéd. There's no nudity and very little
blood (besides the opening shots) in this film, shot in 1968 and not
released until 1972 (thanks to Spain's dictator, Francisco Franco,
voicing displeasure with the way it portrayed women [it turns out
Carla was not as innocent as she seemed, as she was all-in for the
murder part of Nick's plot!]) but if you are in the right frame of
mind, you may find yourself enjoying it for what it is: a TV
Movie-like detective plot with hardly anything having to be excised
to be aired uncut. It's still a rare film, though, but not every rare
film can be an absolute winner. Sometimes they are rare for a reason.
It's not awful, just ordinary.
Shot as CERCO
DE TERROR
(a literal translation of the review title) and also known as CORRUPTION,
this film had no release in the United States, neither theatrically
or on legitimate home video in any format. I saw it streaming on the
YouTube channel "Giallo Realm", who offer a pretty colorful
open-matte fullframe print in Spanish and subtitled in English. If
you want to watch this (and this seems to be the only place to do
so), you should do it at your earliest convenience, as Giallo Realm
often finds itself in "YouTube Jail" and one of these days
it will be a life sentence! Also featuring Luciano de Pazos and
José María Caffarel (KILL!
KILL! KILL! KILL! - 1971) Not Rated, but nothing
really objectionable.
THE
SLASHER...IS THE SEX MANIAC! (1972) -
During the '70s & '80s, hundreds (if not thousands) of Italian
genre films were released to U.S. theaters, many of them renamed
with lurid titles. I miss those days. Thanks to companies like Blue
Underground, Severin Films, Scorpion Releasing and Code Red (just to
mention a few), these films are finding a new life on DVD &
Blu-Ray, many of them uncut for the first time in the States (the
majority of these film were edited to achieve an R-Rating). Which
brings me to this film, a shockingly sleazy giallo full of nudity and blood.
In a small Italian town full of "prominent" citizens, a
serial killer is murdering unfaithful wives, by
slashing their throats, breasts and vaginas. Police Inspector Capuana
(Farley Granger; AMUCK - 1971) is put
in charge of finding the unknown killer, but he will have to tread
lightly because, if he doesn't, the "important" citizens in
this town could get him fired. The killer also leaves intimate photos
next to the bodies of his naked female victims, with the man in the
photos having his face scratched out with a razor blade. Inspector
Capuana believes that the man in the photos is that of the killer,
but he has to prove it to his superiors. We then watch the killer
(who refers to himself as "The Avenger") as he stalks his
latest victim, a young housewife named Serena (Femi Benussi; STRIP
NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER - 1975). When she meets her lover in a
park, we watch the killer snap photos of them together, like some
psychotic private investigator. She takes her lover to her beach
house and, when he leaves, the killer strikes. He is wearing a long
black overcoat, black gloves, large black hat and a black stocking
over his face to obscure his identity (he looks just like the killer
in Mario Bava's proto-slasher BLOOD
AND BLACK LACE - 1964). He chases Serena to the beach, where
he slits her throat and stabs her repeatedly (a strong, atmospheric
sequence filmed in slow-motion).
We then get to meet some of the film's red herrings (or not):
There's Gastone (Luciano
Rossi; CONTRABAND -
1980), an autopsy room worker who may be a necrophiliac (He says to
Serena's corpse, "You're much prettier than when you were
alive!") who lives in the house of Professor Casali (Chris
Avram; A BAY OF BLOOD
- 1971), who also acts suspiciously and tells Inspector Capuana that
the killer is probably impotant or a homosexual (WTF?!?). We also
meet several other men and women who could be the killer (giallo
films are not biased about the sex of a killer), including Franca
(Annabella Incontrera; CRIMES OF THE
BLACK CAT - 1972), who is cheating on her husband, hotshot
lawyer Paolo Santangeli (Silvano Tranquilli; THE
LEGEND OF BLOOD CASTLE - 1972). Nearly everyone in this film
has something to hide, even Inspector Capuana's wife, Barbara (Sylva
Koscina; MANHUNT - 1972),
but what is she hiding? (It doesn't take a genius to know her secret).
We then watch Lilly (Susan Scott; TRAP
THEM AND KILL THEM - 1977), who is the next door neighbor of
Franca, Paolo and their teenage daughter Bettina (Angela Covello; TORSO
- 1973), making love to Paolo in a hotel room. When she gets home,
her crippled husband (Benito Stefanelli; BATTLE
OF THE AMAZONS - 1973) acts like he knows she is cheating on
him. That night, while Bettina is walking her new boyfriend, Piero
(Fabrizio Moresco; DUCK, YOU SUCKER
- 1971), out of the house, she spots the killer murdering Lilly by
her pool. She reports it to Inspector Capuana, who finds more photos
next to Lilly's body. Only this time the photos hold an important
clue to the killer's identity. That
We are then transported to a tarot card reader telling the fortunes
of Renata (Krista Nell; THE
FEAST OF SATAN - 1971) and Giannina (Irene Pollmer), two of
Barbara's best friends, telling both of them not to go home because
it is not safe. They ignore her warnings and we then watch the
unfaithful Renata getting killed by The Avenger in her bathroom while
waiting for her lover, Gianni (Andrea Scotti), to arrive. The killer
slices Renata's throat and stabs her in the vagina (!) before Gianni
confronts the killer (It is at this time that we get a close look of
the face behind the black stocking). The killer slices Gianni's hand
and gets away. When Barbara learns her best friend was killed, she
implores her husband to quit the police force, but he refuses,
telling her that he loves his job. Gastone confesses to the Inspector
that he is the killer, but is he?
I'll never tell, because I never give the killer's identity away in
any giallo film I review, but I always leave enough clues for you,
the reader, to play detective. I will tell you this: The Inspector
gets a phone call from the killer, which he records. After listening
to the tape several times, he realizes that Barbara is cheating on
him. The Inspector sets up a trap with his wife as bait, but instead
of saving her, he lets the Avenger kill her (That will teach her for
cheating on him!) and once the killer is through, Inspector Capuana
enters his house and shoots the killer dead.
The original title of the film is RIVELAZIONI
DI UN MANIACO SESSUALE AL CAPODELLA SQUADRA MOBILE
("Revelations Of A Sex Maniac By The Head Of The Flying
Squad"); it was distributed under the title SO
SWEET, SO DEAD when originally released in the U.S and other
countries (that's the title of the print on the excellent Code Red Blu-Ray,
even though it is sold under the review title). The film contains
some ingenious sequences, including the previously mentioned beach
killing scene and the shot of pussy willows hiding Lilly's vagina
when she gets out of bed after having sex with her lover (How's that
for symbolism?). There's also a scene where Barbara and her
girlfriends get nude massages. What does this have to do with the
plot, you may ask? Nothing really. I just mentioned it because it was
hot. This film gained some notoriety back in the day (1976), when
William Mishkin (whose company distributed this film) hired Straw
Weisman (the director of DEADMATE
- 1988) to shoot some hardcore sex scenes (featuring Harry Reems, Kim
Pope, Marc Stevens & Tina Russell) and insert them into this
film, renaming it PENETRATION.
When the late Farley Granger (who was gay in real-life) found out he
was starring in a porno film, he threatened legal action, which
forced Mishkin to pull the film from porno theaters in the U.S. (it
continued to play across Europe). Directed deftly by Roberto Bianchi
Montero (THARUS, SON OF ATTILA
- 1962; A WOMAN FOR 7 BASTARDS
- 1974), with a twisty screenplay by Montero, Luigi Angelo &
Italo Fasan, this film doesn't shy away from full frontal female
nudity and gory deaths, making this a good bet for fans of giallo flicks.
Originally released on fullscreen VHS by Monterey
Home Video (as THE SLASHER),
which was shorn of nearly 20 minutes of footage, with a DVD release
by Mya Communications (it is also available on fullscreen DVD on
Amazon from Desert Island Classics, but it is just a port of the
edited VHS version). The Code
Red Blu-Ray is the only way to go. While the disc is lacking in
extras (just a trailer for this film and other Italian genre films),
the print is flawless. I'm really beginning to become a huge fan of
Code Red's output. Also starring Sandro Pizzochero (as Barbara's
lover, Roberto), Jessica Dublin, Paul Oxon and Ivano Staccioli. This
film has a huge cast of seasoned pros. The Blu-Ray can be purchased
from Diabolik DVD. Rated R.
SOMETHING
CREEPING IN THE DARK (1971) -
"When will this nightmare end? There are too many things we
don't understand!" You can say that again! It's time once again
to turn back the clock and watch a film that doesn't get a lot of
play. There's a reason for that. It's part supernatural horror, part
crime drama, part giallo and completely boring. I don't know what
kind of audience this film was made for, but it surely wasn't for
someone like me (and I can be very forgiving!).
Donald Forrest (Giacomo Rossi Stuart; THE
BLOODSUCKER LEADS THE DANCE - 1975) and his wife Sylvia
(Lucia Bosé; THE
LEGEND OF BLOOD CASTLE - 1972) are driving down a rainswept
road to visit Sylvia's friend, who is recuperating from rhinoplasty
(a nosejob). It's quite obvious by the way they are snapping at each
other that their marriage is on the rocks. Also on this road on this
dark and thunder-stormy night are escaped killer Spike (Farley
Granger; THE RED
HEADED CORPSE - 1972), who is being chased by Inspector
Wright (Dino Fazio; this film's Producer) and a detective named Sam
(Franco Beltramme; PLAY MOTEL
- 1979), as well as Dr. Williams (Stelvio Rosi, as "Stan
Cooper"; THE
HANGING WOMAN - 1972), his assistant/nurse Susan (Mia
Genberg) and Professor Lawrence (Francesco Lavagnino, this film's
music composer; this being his only acting role). Spike races by
everyone, with the Inspector and Sam close behind him, when he
notices that the bridge is washed out, the raging river rising
quickly. Spike pulls over to the side of the road and the Inspector
uses his car to block his way. They exit out of the car, their guns
drawn, Spike raising his hands above his head. Spike then tries to
escape, knocking Sam to the ground and pulling out a switchblade, but
a knife is no match for the Inspector's gun, so he gives up, the
Inspector calling him a "stinking murderer". When everyone
on the road realizes that they can't make it to their destinations,
they all converge on a mysterious house by the bridge. The Inspector
knocks on the door and the house's owner Joe (Gianni Medici, as
"John Hamilton"; FANGS
OF THE LIVING DEAD - 1969) answers. The Inspector asks to
use the phone, but Joe doesn't want to let anyone in, so the
Inspector uses his position to make him open the door, which Joe
does. Dr. Williams wants to use the phone first, saying that he was
on his way to the hospital to perform an emergency operation, but the
Inspector says his business is more important. The Inspector calls
his station, but as he is about to tell them his location, the phone
goes dead. The Inspector tells everyone that they must stay at the
house for the night, because all the roads are flooded, which doesn't
please Joe but, once again, the Inspector uses his position to get
Joe to change his mind. We then discover why Joe has taken this
stance: He has his unnamed girlfriend (Giulia Rovai) staying in a
bedroom and tells her not to leave the room or make herself known to
anyone else.
Once everyone gets settled in, Spike starts to play the piano and
Sylvia stands there enthralled, daydreaming that she is making love
to Spike while holding a bloody switchblade in her hand. The
Inspector orders Spike to stop tickling the ivories and handcuffs
him, Sylvia asking Spike what it feels like to kill a person, pissing
off the Inspector. Spike gives her a long, elegant speech on what it
means to take a life, which then pisses off Donald. Joe then tells
everyone that this house actually belongs to the estate of Sheila
Marlow, who died last year in a "mysterious, tragic death",
according to Professor Lawrence. The Professor then tells everyone
that Sheila enthralled both men and women with her beautiful looks
and that she had a strong interest in the occult. "If she were
born a hundred years ago, she would have been labeled a witch and
burned at the stake", continues the Professor, also telling
everyone that Sheila was accused of killing her husband, but was
acquitted at her trial. Why does the Professor know so much about Sheila?
Joe says that Sheila held many seances before her mysterious death
and shows them the table where she held her seances. Sylvia wants
everyone to hold a seance to contact Sheila, telling them that Donald
is an excellent medium, but he wants nothing to do with it. Sylvia,
the Professor, Dr. Williams and Susan hold a seance to contact
Sheila, where everyone at the table twitch like epileptics and Donald
becomes possessed by the spirit of Sheila, talking in her voice.
"It's dark! Give me a voice, give me a face!" says the
possessed Donald and, suddenly, the wind blows open the doors, Donald
laughing like a maniac. Dr. Williams is forced to slap Donald about
his face to snap him out of his trance. But there is a more serious
problem: Spike has escaped, knocking out Sam and running outside. The
storm has stopped, so the Inspector and Sam go outside to look for
Spike and soon find him, Spike saying he couldn't go any further
because water has surrounded the house, making it impossible for him
(or anyone) to leave. We then discover that Dr. Williams and Susan
met the Professor just hours earlier. They picked him up at the side
of the road, the Professor telling them that his car had broken down
and he needed a ride. Is it possible that this house was his intended destination?
Just like most giallo films, everyone seems to be harboring a
secret, even the buttoned-down and staid Susan. Did fate deliver them
to this house or is there a more down-to-earth explanation? Why does
Joe tell the unnamed girl not to make herself known to anyone else?
Why is Spike always smiling? Why is Susan the only one with a
suitcase and what's in it? Why is Donald so easily possessed? Is he
really a medium or is it all an act? What is the real reason
Professor Lawrence was hitch-hiking? Why is Dr. Williams no longer
worried about the emergency operation he was going to perform? What
secret is the Inspector and Sam hiding from everyone else? Is Spike
really a killer or is he being set up? Why do all the clocks stop in
the house at midnight? Is Sheila's spirit roaming the house and is
she deadly? All these questions
and many, many more will never be answered, because this film is
full of many so unanswered questions and not a single one of them is
properly explained!
The biggest problem with this film is it can't make up its mind
which genre it belongs in. This was director/screenwriter Mario
Colucci last directorial effort. He was assistant director on the
horror film THE
PLAYGIRLS AND THE VAMPIRE (1960) and then directed mostly
forgettable films, including the spaghetti western REVENGE
FOR REVENGE (1968). While this film has some fine, moody
cinematography (by Giuseppe Aquari; THE
KILLER RESERVED NINE SEATS - 1974), it really doesn't
matter, because the film is all over the place, mixing haunted house
themes (the camera floats to the ceiling to convey Sheila's spirit),
with hamfisted crime and mystery elements, making this strange stew
indigestible. It just doesn't work here, although the cast of
seasoned pros give it the old college try, but even they can't hide
the film's creaky plot. Case in point is Donald's death, as he sits
in a chair, a bullet in his chest. He rambles on and on, talking in
riddles, trying to get us to believe something supernatural is going
on, but it doesn't wash, as it feels unnecessary and false (and
spirits don't shoot bullets!). The whole film feels false and doesn't
contain an ounce of believability. We don't give a damn what happens
to anyone here, as they are all worthless pawns in a losing chess game..
While there is some female nudity, especially by Joe's nameless
girlfriend, it, too, seems forced, as it was inserted into the film
to get our minds off the absurdities of the plot. Mario
Colucci's screenplay is as bland as his direction. Filmed as QUALCOSA
STRISCIA NEL BUIO ("Something Creeping In The
Night"), this film obtained a U.S. theatrical release
(distributed by Joseph Green Pictures), but I can find no legitimate
U.S. VHS or disc release. I purchased this film on DVD-R through
Amazon from an outfit called Rogue
Video. Imagine my surprise to discover that the disc was in
anamorphic widescreen and the print used looked flawless, without one
single emulsion scratch or speck of dust or dirt. I may just have to
purchase more little-known films from them if they look and sound
like this one. I just wish the film itself was better, but that is
not the fault of Rogue Video. Not Rated, but there is no
graphic violence on view, another reason why this film is such a
bore. The cop-out finale gives us no explanation if anything
supernatural is happening, ending with the Professor saying,
"It's not for us to know, only to believe or disbelieve.",
as the camera pans to a photo of Sheila and we then hear a woman
laughing. Need I go on?
SOUNDS
OF SILENCE (1989) -
Swedish director Peter Borg follows-up his weird horror film SCORCHED
HEAT (1987) with this, a supernatural murder mystery
involving ghost children, personal demons and death (and, thankfully,
no Simon & Garfunkel on the soundtrack). Struggling American
photographer Peter Mitchell (Peter Nelson) learns from lawyer Larry
Haughton (Troy Donahue; BLOOD
NASTY - 1989; in a quick booze money cameo) that he's
inherited a house in Sweden when his spinster relative, Annie Holst
(Elsa Gastrin), died in her sleep. Never knowing that he had such a
relative, Peter still hops on a plane with novelist fiancée
Sarah (Kristen Jensen) and her deaf son Dennis (Dennis Castillo) and
heads to Sweden. They are met at the Swedish airport by lawyer Thomas
Hansen (Rico Ronnback), who hands Peter the keys to the house and
written directions on how to get there, but otherwise mysteriously
avoids answering any of Peter's other questions.
Of course, Peter manages to get lost on the drive, but whenever he
asks the locals where the "Annie Holst House" is, he is met
with cold, quiet stares. Peter eventually finds the house, which
turns out to be a forty-room mansion, but it is Dennis who
immediately senses something is wrong here. Annie's housekeeper,
Margaret Johnson (Vanja Rodefeldt), tells them the story of Annie's
illegitimate son Bill (Jonas Iversson), who was put in a nearby
orphanage (Annie couldn't bear the shame of having other people know
she had a child out of wedlock), but died with all the other orphans
in some catastrophic incident when he was a young boy. Annie loved
her son, even after he died, so she and Margaret would make weekly
walks to the deserted orphanage to talk and hug Bill's ghost. Bill
begins appearing to Dennis, leading him to the orphanage and slowly
giving Dennis clues as to really what happened that fateful night.
Dennis also has nightmares about a creepy kid and a ghastly-looking
man carrying a cane, but they may not be nightmares at all (Dennis
wakes up the following morning with muddy feet, like he's been
walking in his sleep). The deaf Dennis convinces Peter that Bill is
real, but Peter cannot see him (Maybe the photos he has taken will
prove Dennis correct?). As Dennis and Peter get closer to the truth,
it becomes apparent that some people involved in the catastrophe are
still very much alive and would rather not have the truth uncovered.
A visit from lawyer Thomas and Sarah nearly getting raped by plumber
Frank (Johnny Harborg) leads Peter, Dennis, Sarah and Thomas to the
home of elderly Charles (Gunnar Ohlund), who Dennis instantly
recognizes as the older version of the man with the cane that haunts
his dreams. It turns out that Charles was in charge of the orphanage
during the deaths of the children and Dennis believes that he is a
murderer. After Thomas is killed by Frank, Dennis and the ghost
orphans have a final showdown with Charles and Frank in the unmarked
graveyard next to the orphanage. The final score: Ghost Children:
2. Bad Guys: 1. As far as supernatural thrillers go, SOUNDS
OF SILENCE delivers it's fair share of shivers (especially
when the ghostly children appear), but the mystery angle is way too
easy to figure out since the cast of living suspects is very small.
Director Peter Borg, who co-wrote the script with Marc Fiorini, fills
the screen with creepy, fog-shrouded visuals and the use of a deaf
kid as a conduit for ghostly revenge is a novel idea, but the film is
so lackluster in nearly all other departments, including acting (at
least the main actors here don't speak Swenglish, that odd
combination of Swedish/English that permeated Borg's SCORCHED HEAT)
and the storyline (Sarah is a poor excuse for a mother, as she
doesn't believe a word her son tells her in sign language. Truth be
told, Dennis would be lucky to have Peter as his step-father, even
though he doesn't understand sign language at all.), that it moves at
a snail's pace (At 105 minutes, the film runs at least 20 minutes too
long). The lack of any substantial blood or violence (just a hand
being cut with a knife and the after-effects of Thomas getting hit on
the head with a sledgehammer) will also turn-off those looking for
more than a simple ghost story. There are some scares to be had here,
but only for those that can look past the shortcomings. At least the
deaf Dennis doesn't miraculously get his hearing back in the finale.
That's something, anyway. Proceed at your own risk. Also starring
Bruno Desire, Hasse Andersson and Peter Borg as Young Charles.
Available on VHS from Magnum
Entertainment. Not available on DVD. Not Rated.
SPASMO (1974)
- "I
have a razor in my room. It's big, sharp and sexy!"
Weird giallo that begins with a necking couple discovering what they
think is a woman hanging amongst the ruins of an old Spanish fort
next to the ocean. They are relieved, but weirded out, when they find
out that it is only a life-like latex doll. We are then introduced to
Christian Bauman (Robert Hoffman) and his girlfriend. They are near
the same Spanish fort when they discover
a female body lying on the beach. After being led to believe it's
another latex doll (thanks to the eerie opening credits), we soon
discover that it is actually Barbara (Suzy Kendall; THE
BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE a.k.a. THE
PHANTOM OF TERROR - 1970) who, for some reason, is passed
out. Before she can explain to Christian why she is on the beach, she
disappears, but leaves behind a thermos with the word
"Tucania" printed on it. Christian is instantly smitten
with Barbara and traces the thermos to a yacht named Tucania, owned
by the mysterious Alex (Mario Erpichini). At a party on the yacht,
Christian hooks-up with Barbara (after he callously ditches his
girlfriend), but a hired killer named Tatum (Adolfo Lastretti) is
watching the boat. Barbara brings Christian to a motel for some
mattress dancing, but she makes him shave his beard first (She says,
"I'm very suspicious of men with beards."). While he is in
the bathroom shaving, Tatum appears and there's a struggle for his
gun. Christian shoots Tatum in the stomach and he and Barbara are
about to split when Alex arrives. All three of them go back to the
yacht when Christian realizes that he left his necklace in the motel
bathroom (he removed it when he was shaving). He goes back to
retrieve the necklace only to find Tatum's body missing. Christian
and Barbara hide out in an empty seaside mansion, only to discover
that they are not alone. After finding a bloody pair of pruning
shears, they discover that the mansion is occupied by strange couple
Malcolm (Guido Alberti) and Clorinda (Monica Monet). Soon, Christian
begins to doubt his own sanity, as the yacht and Alex disappear,
Tatum (who looks no worse for wear) shows up at the mansion looking
to finish his job and a multitude of life-size latex dolls are found
scattered throughout the town, all missing limbs or with knives
sticking in them. Is Christian going mad or is something strange and
sinister going on? Bet on the latter, as Barbara seems to be
influencing Christian's actions and the appearances of a man called
Luca (Franco Silva) and Christian's brother Fritz (Ivan Rassimov)
play an important part in unlocking the mystery. And what does
Clorinda have to do with Chri
stian's
mysterious past? This maddening mystery is all over the map,
with scattershot acting (Robert Hoffman and Suzy Kendall make for
stiff leading actors) and a script that bites off more than it can
chew (there a way too many subplots to keep track of), but
director/co-scipter Umberto Lenzi (ALMOST
HUMAN - 1974; ROME
ARMED TO THE TEETH - 1976) manages to throw in some
perversity and a lot of weird visuals to keep you watching till the
end. The sight of numerous female dolls strewn about town, tied to
trees with legs or arms missing, is an eerie sight and the importance
of their discovery isn't made clear until the film is nearly over.
And it's a doozy. While most of the film turns out to be nothing but
your standard "Drive your brother crazy so you can inherit your
father's business" scenario, there are some good points to this
film, including an evocative Ennio Morricone score, some decent
deaths (including a nasty death-by-car scene) and some atmospheric
camerawork, but, surprisingly, very little blood. A sequence I found
utterly ridiculous was the home movie that Ivan Rassimov (THE
HUMANOID - 1979) watches towards the end of the film. It's
so tightly edited and well-shot, it's hard to believe that it was
shot by anyone who didn't have a masters in editing and
cinematography. The film also contains almost no nudity, unless you
count the exposed breasts on the latex dolls. The lack of blood and
nudity was done purposely by Lenzi (who reveals in an interview on
the DVD that Lucio Fulci was originally slated to direct, but dropped
out to make another film), who wanted this film to be more
psychological and show the "darkness of the human soul." SPASMO
is nothing exceptional, but it is diverting enough to keep you
entertained for 93 minutes. Too bad that the leads are so damn stiff
and boring, though. Also starring Maria Pia Conte, Luigi Antonio
Guerra and Rosita Tirosh. This did get a U.S. theatrical release in
the mid-70's (with a lurid and misleading ad campaign), with an extra
ten minutes of gory footage (shot by George A. Romero, of all
people!) to beef-up the death scenes. Umberto Lenzi calls this extra
footage "reprehensible" in the interview on the DVD. Be
aware that the widescreen DVD released by Media
Blasters/Shriek Show is the original Italian cut of the film and
is missing those inserts. Available on DVD
& Blu-Ray from Scorpion
Releasing. Not Rated.
STORM
WARNING (2007) - Australian
lawyer Rob (Robert Taylor; THE HARD WORD
- 2002) and his French wife Pia (Nadia Fares; THE
CRIMSON RIVERS - 2000) take a small motor/sailboat out on
the ocean for a little fishing/pleasure cruising when an approaching
storm forces them to find safety in a twisty tributary of a swampy
enclave. This place is the antithesis of safe. After passing many
disabled and derelict boats on their journey, the bickering duo are
forced to leave their craft when they run out of navagatible water
and have to make their way on foot. They get hopelessly lost and
stumble upon a farmhouse, which, at first, seems deserted, but, as I
am sure you can guess, is anything but. It is actually the home of a
family of psychotic pot farmers, which includes father Poppy (John
Brumpton) and brothers Jimmy (David Lyons) and Brett (Matthew
Wilkinson). Rob is a bit of a wuss ever since he was violently mugged
a few months earlier, so Pia wears the pants in the family. She's
going to need
those balls, as the inbred family takes pleasure in making life
unpleasant for the duo, first stealing their clothes and making Pia
show her naked ass to them and then threatening to castrate Rob
unless Pia kills and cooks a wallaby (a small species of kangaroo)
for dinner. When Rob and Pia try to escape and are recaptured, Brett
breaks Rob's leg and the brothers try to rape Pia, even when she
reveals that she is two months pregnant, but they are cut short by
Poppy, who has bigger plans for her. It seems Daddy wants her all to
himself (He says to Brett: "You can have him [Rob] if you want,
but the Sheila is mine!"), but Pia is not about to go down
without a fight. She turns into a French female Rambo and before this
stormy, rain-filled night is through, there will be three brutal
deaths: one by fishing gear and a head-bashing; one by a bottle with
a very jagged opening (you gotta see it to believe it), followed by
the even sharper teeth of a canine; and one by the spinning blades of
an airboat. The French, they are a funny race (and, according to this
film, not ones to be fucked-around with). Although it takes a
while to get in gear, STORM WARNING
turns out to be a bloody, if preposterous (Why in the hell would you
lock your prey in a barn full of potential weapons?), horror flick.
Director Jamie Blanks (URBAN LEGEND
- 1998; VALENTINE - 2001),
who also composed the film's effective music score (a mixture of
electronica and traditional Australian instruments), and veteran
Australian film screenwriter Everett DeRoche (LONG
WEEKEND - 1977; PATRICK
- 1978; ROAD GAMES - 1981; RAZORBACK
- 1984) deliver a small bodycount, but pile-on the degradation and
abuse and, when the deaths do come, they are bloody and memorable. It
may be a little too hard to swallow when, all of a sudden, Pia
becomes a master of boobytraps, but the results are hard to ignore.
There's a nasty death by fish hooks that's bound to make a lot of
viewers turn their heads in disgust, but it's a walk in the park
compared to Pia's homemade IUD device, which I guarantee will not
soon be forgotten once you see it put into action (Let's just say you
should always check every orifice for sharp objects before sticking
your dick into it and, if you forget to, don't let the hungry family
dog see the results!). Although this film is nothing but a riff on a
story made popular by THE
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974), director Blanks and scripter
DeRoche turn the premise on it's head, making it an absurdist black
comedy (With lines of dialogue like, "I smell the cunt of a
bitch who's going to die!", how could it not be?) which presents
the lone woman character as a strong individual (Rob is absolutely
worthless here and the other male characters have no redeeming
qualities whatsoever) and leaves no room for a sequel (unless the
inbred family's dog wants to get revenge, but I doubt it because he's
pretty well-fed by the end of the film). An enjoyable piece of bloody
fluff which has no higher aspirations than to entertain. A Dimension
Extreme Films DVD Release. Unrated and bloody well proud of it.
(STRANGE)
SHADOWS IN AN EMPTY ROOM (1976) -
This is a good action/mystery film, known for its pulse-pounding car
chase (by Rémy Julienne and his team of precision stunt
drivers; he was also second unit director) which, in my opinion, has
yet to be beaten. It also stars many familiar Canadian actors, most
of them still alive (at the time of this review).
The film opens with Dr. George Tracer
(Martin Landau; WITHOUT
WARNING - 1979) having a heated conversation with Louise
Saitta (Carole Laure; NAKED MASSACRE
- 1976) on the grounds of a college campus in Montreal, but we don't
hear what they are arguing about. She then calls her brother, Tony
Saitta (Stuart Whitman; GUYANA:
CRIME OF THE CENTURY - 1979), a Captain on the Ottawa Police
Force, but he is too busy breaking up a bank robbery to take the
call. A short time later, Dr. Tracer is called to the college to
treat a female student who has overdosed. That student is Louise and,
when he discovers she is faking it to make him look like a fool, he
gets very upset because a bunch of students at a party laugh at him,
including his son Robert (Jean LeClerc; THE
UNCANNY - 1977). It is obvious that Dr. Tracer and Louise
are lovers and when she drops dead at the party of an apparent
overdose, Tony comes to Montreal with partner Sgt. Ned Matthews (John
Saxon; CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE
- 1980) to investigate her death.
Tony meets a cadre of potential suspects, all who attended Louise's
funeral. Julie Foster (Tisa Farrow; ANTHROPOPHAGUS
- 1980), a blind student at the college who was Louise's best friend,
tells Tony that his sister was very troubled the last few weeks of
her life, but she doesn't know why. Tony searches Louise's apartment
and finds some photos that pique his interest. Tony believes his
sister was murdered, so he has a talk with her ex-boyfriend, Fred
(Dave Nichols), who tells him about and argument he saw between
Louise and Dr. Tracer. When the autopsy results come back and Tony
discovers that his sister was poisoned, he confronts Dr. Tracer, who
tells Tony he did not murder Louise and he can prove that he gave her
a stimulant during her fake overdose, as those pills are still in his
medical bag. He retrieves the bag and opens it, but the pills are not
there. Dr. Tracer begs Tony to ask Margie Cohn (Gayle Hunnicutt; LEGEND
OF HELL HOUSE - 1973), as she saw him giving Louise the
pills at the party. Sgt. Matthews did background checks at everyone
at Louise's funeral and tells Tony that Margie is known to sleep
around. Sure enough, when Tony goes to question Margie, he
finds her sleeping with Robert. She backs up Dr. Tracer's claim about
the pills, but she will not swear to it in a court of law.
Meanwhile, we watch some unknown killer murdering a woman by bashing
her head in over and over with a metal pipe and dumping her body at a
construction site. It turns out the victim wasn't a woman at all, but
rather a transvestite who happened to be Margie's brother. Tony and
Sgt. Matthews go to arrest Dr. Tracer, but he has his lawyer waiting
for them at his house. That doesn't deter Tony, who slaps the cuffs
on the doctor and brings him to the station. Sgt. Mathews does an
extensive background check on Dr. Tracer and finds a photo of Louise
wearing a necklace that is familiar to Tony, but he can't place
it...yet. After learning about Margie's brother's death, Tony
searches for some transvestites that can clue him in on what the
brother was up to before his death. He finds two of them, one who
beats the snot out of Tony, sending him through a balcony window.
Tony finally gets the upper hand, sending the tranny through the
other balcony window and shoving a hot curling iron up the ass of the
other tranny (!). One of the trannies has a key to a locker at a bus
station and when Tony goes to open it, he is attacked by two men, who
turn out to be detectives who were surveilling the locker. When Tony
opens the locker, he finds the necklace. Julie tells Tony that his
sister gave her a necklace a day before she died. Tony then talks to
a dwarf stoolie at a racetrack and chases a suspect into a crowded
public bathroom, where he does what all good detectives do: kick-in a
stall door (interrupting a priest taking a crap!) and shoving the
suspect's head into a sink full of water when he refuses to talk (at
least it was a toilet bowl!). This leads to the car chase I talked
about at the beginning of the review.
Tony lays waste to the streets of Montreal while chasing a
crater-faced suspect (Jerome Thibergien; RABID
- 1977), as they play bumper cars with innocent drivers, destroy fire
hydrants, empty boxes and other things that we demand from a good
chase (no flower or fruit stand though). The chase ends when Tony and
the suspect flip their cars on a highway and Tony gets some vital
information from the suspect. It leads him to a jewelry store where
the necklace was stolen during a heist. What Tony discovers he almost
can't handle. His sister is not as innocent as he believed,
which forces him to free Dr. Tracer. When Tony sees a composite
drawing of one of the suspects at the jewelry heist, it turns out to
be Louise in disguise. Since a person was killed in
the heist, was Louise responsible?
This film brought a flood of memories back to me since it was one of
the films that played endlessly on HBO during its early years.
Director Alberto De Martino (THE
BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER - 1963; CRIME
BOSS - 1972; THE TEMPTER
- 1974; BLOOD LINK - 1983), using
his frequent "Martin Herbert" pseudonym, films this
like a giallo film, as we don't know who the killer is, there are
plenty of red herrings and deaths, as well as some funny dialogue.
When the blind Julie says she heard a certain person kill Margie,
Tony and Sgt. Matthews find that person dead, hanging from his neck.
Sgt. Matthew turns to Tony and says, "Maybe Julie can identify
him!" Besides that one line of dialogue, John Saxon is wasted
here in a thankless role. The screenplay, by "Vincent Mann"
(Vincenzo Mannino; HOUSE
ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK - 1979) & "Frank Clark"
(Gianfranco Clerici; DON'T
TORTURE A DUCKLING - 1972), is very twisty, but it is not
hard to figure out who the killer really is. Half the fun of
watching this film are the events that lead up to the reveal, such as
the tranny fight (which was heavily edited for its TV showings) and
the excellent car chase. This is Stuart Whitman's film all the way. I
was surprised to learn that Whitman was still alive (he turned 90 in
February 2018), as I haven't seen him in anything for years. He's
quite good here, as are the supporting cast, especially the late
Martin Landau (My friend since the mid-'80s. I called him "Uncle
Marty"). This was made during the summer break, when he was on
hiatus filming SPACE: 1999 (1975
- 1977) and 18 years before he won an Academy Award® and Golden
Globe® for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi
in ED WOOD (1994).
Filmed as UNA
MAGNUM SPECIAL PER TONY SAITTA ("A Magnum Special For
Tony Saitta") and also known as BLAZING
MAGNUM,
this film has a U.S. theatrical release (under the full review
title) from American International Pictures (A.I.P.), with a
fullscreen VHS release by Vestron
Video in 1985. The DVD and Blu-Ray, from Scorpion
Releasing/Kino Lorber,
is in its OAR and uncut. It looks and sounds great, especially the
squealing tires during the chase scene (My neighbor from the next
apartment heard it and wanted to know what I was watching. He stayed
and watched the rest of the film with me, borrowing my disc so he
could watch the full film. If that isn't an endorsement, I don't know
what is!). Films like this could have only come from the
"anything goes" '70s and I'm glad I lived (and survived)
that decade. Also starring Jean Marchand, Anthony Forrest (KILLER'S
MOON - 1978); Julie Wildman (THEY
CAME FROM WITHIN - 1975). Andrée St-Laurent and Peter
MacNeill (CATHY'S CURSE
- 1977). Rated R.
TENEBRE
(1982) - This is by far my favorite Dario Argento giallo film for
many reasons. The murders are brutal and bloody, the location
cinematography is stunning and the mystery is sick and twisted.
Watching it again for the first time in nearly twenty years has made
me a fan, once again, of Argento's peculiar way of framing a scene,
because he has a style all his own that no one could ever hope to
copy (and, believe me, some have tried and failed spectacularly).
We watch famous author Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa; WEB
OF THE SPIDER - 1971) bicycling to Kennedy Airport while his
chauffeur follows him in a limousine (Anyone who lives in New York
City knows that it is impossible to bike to the airport, especially
the way Peter does it!). Once at the airport, the chauffeur hands
Peter his overhead bag and he waits to board a flight to Rome. Before
he boards the plane, Peter gets a phone call, so he places his
overhead bag on the floor and takes the call at the front desk. It's
a phone call from his former lover, Jane (Veronica Lario), and Peter
is quite perturbed and hangs up the phone. During this time, we see a
woman looking at Peter's unattended bag and when Peter gets back, he
notices that the bag has been moved, but thinks nothing of it. We see
the woman knocking on the glass of a phone booth and Jane steps out
of it, looking intensely at Peter but not making her presence known.
Was something put in Peter's bag to be smuggled out of the States or
is it something more ominous? (Remember, this was two decades before
9-11 changed the way we fly.).
We are then in Rome, watching a woman named Elsa Manni (Ania
Pieroni; HOUSE BY
THE CEMETERY - 1981), shoplifting Peter's new novel
"Tenebrae" from a department store, only the store manager
(Ennio Girolami; KILLER CROCODILE
- 1989) catches her and takes her to his office, where we learn that
Elsa has been arrested twelve times for shoplifting. Elsa uses her
female charms to convince the manager to let her go and she goes
home, where she is accosted by a dentally challenged vagrant before
she can get to her front door. She breaks free and runs inside,
trying to make a phone call, but the line is dead. With the vagrant
pounding on her glass door, we see someone wearing black gloves
holding a straight razor to Elsa's throat, while ripping pages out of
Peter's book and stuffing them in Elsa's mouth. The killer then
slashes Elsa about the face, chest and throat, killing her, the
vagrant seeing the killing through a clear part of the frosted glass
door and running away. And then the killer takes her photo, snapping
away with a camera.
Peter arrives at the Rome airport, where he is met by his agent,
Bullmer (John Saxon; CANNIBAL
APOCALYPSE - 1980), and a throng of reporters. At a hotel
suite, Peter is holding court to that throng of reporters, where we
learn that Peter's book has been number one on the bestseller list in
Italy for twelve weeks. Peter is particularly unnerved when reporter
friend Tilde (Mirella D'Angelo; MAYA
- 1988) asks him why he thinks so little of women ("Tenebrae is
a sexist novel!"), because all the women in his book meet
violent deaths. Peter has known Tilde for over ten years and is
surprised by her question, telling her it is just a book and not to
judge a man by what he writes (He jokingly says to her, "Would
it help if I told you I voted for the Equal Rights Amendment?").
Bullmer can see that the room is about to become contentious, so he
pulls Peter out of the room and calls off the rest of the interviews.
Peter notices a thin man in the room who is staring at him and
Bullmer tells him that's Christiano Berti (John Steiner; PLOT
OF FEAR - 1976), a reporter for a major Italian TV station
and not to worry because "He's a big fan of your work."
Peter's personal secretary, Anne (Daria Nicolodi; Argento's DEEP
RED - 1975), has made sure that Peter is comfortable in Rome
and Bullmer has a surprise for Peter. He has hired a young man named
Gianni (Christian Borromeo; HOUSE
ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK - 1979) to look after Peter, telling
him that one day he will become a world-class agent in Italy. Peter
tells Anne that he bought her a gift, but when he opens his bag and
pulls it out, he finds the expensive watch he has purchased has been
smashed into pieces. I guess we now know what happened to his bag
back at Kennedy airport, but who shoved an envelope under Peter's
hotel door and what is in it?
When Peter enters his hotel room with Anne and Gianni, he is
surprised to find Rome Homicide Inspector Germani (Giuliano Gemma; TEX
AND THE LORD OF THE DEEP - 1985) and his female partner,
Inspector Altieri (Carola Stagnaro; THE
PHANTOM OF DEATH - 1987), waiting to talk to him. Inspector
Germani asks Peter if he knew Elsa Manni and he says no, this is his
first time in Rome. Peter is taken aback by the questions the
Inspector and his partner are asking him, especially when a photo of
Elsa's dead bloody body is thrust in his face. Peter then asks the
Inspector, "If someone was killed with a Smith & Wesson
revolver, do you go and interview the president of Smith &
Wesson?" (It's a fair question). The Inspector tells Peter that
he has read all of his books except for Tenebrae, which he has just
started reading, but someone told him that in his latest book, a
woman is killed with a straight razor, just like Elsa was. It's just
too much of a coincidence to overlook. The Inspector hands Peter an
envelope, telling him he found it on the floor when he opened his
hotel room door and the envelope is addressed to him. Peter opens the
envelope and inside it is a note that reads, "There's only one
answer to the fury that tortured him", written like a ransom
note, with letters and words taken from newspapers and magazines.
It's a passage from Peter's book, but what does it mean? The
Inspector tells Peter he doubts this is the only letter he will get
from the killer, so he should inform him immediately when he gets
another one. While the Inspector and his partner are still in the
room, Peter gets a phone call from the killer, who talks in a
whisper, sounding like a woman. The killer tells Peter that this will
not be the only victim, because his book is forcing the killer to
commit murder. The Inspector listens to the call on another phone and
is able to discern that it is coming from a phone booth just outside
of the hotel, but when he and his partner get there, it is empty. We
then watch the killer having some kind of fit, taking a couple of
pills and having a strange flashback, where a topless woman
(transsexual actress Eva Robins; HERCULES
- 1983) and a group of young men are on a beach. One of the young men
tries to run away, but the other men tackle him to the ground and the
woman steps on his face with one of her red high heel shoes, the heel
going inside his mouth.
We then see one of Argento's patented "one take, no edits"
(actually 2 ½ minutes long) tracking shots of the camera
traveling up and down Tilde's two-floor house, as the killer slices
Tilde's throat and then attacks and kills her lesbian lover (Ippolita
Santarelli), her head going through a pane of glass in slow motion
(another Argento trademark). Just before Tilde's throat is cut, we
can hear the killer say, Pervert! Filthy slimy pervert!" in the
whisper-like female voice. Another note is slid under Peter's door
and it is written in Latin and translates to, "So passes the
glory of Lesbos."
Just before Peter appears on Christiano Berti's afternoon TV show,
he talks to Christiano, who seems more interested in the aberrant
behavior of the characters in the book rather than the actual story,
but he talks to Christiano and he drops the subject on the TV show,
sticking to just the story itself. When leaving the TV studio, Peter
thinks he sees his former lover Jane, but Anne says it couldn't be
her, she's in New York. Peter is sure it was her and wonders if she
was responsible for destroying the watch in his luggage. It becomes
apparent that anyone, man or woman, who knows Peter, could be the
killer because, while Peter may be cheery on the outside, he has some
dark baggage far more dangerous than a broken watch.
Another recent acquaintance of Peter, Maria (Lara Wendel; GHOSTHOUSE
- 1987) is attacked by a dog, forcing her to take refuge in a house
she has never been to before. Maria finds all the killer's death
photos on a table and then goes to call the police, but the killer
stops her, whispering "Spy!" and chasing her outside, where
she is butchered with an axe. The killer slides another note under
Peter's door, this note saying that all perverts need to be
eliminated and when they are, the "Corruptor" (Peter) will
be next. Peter believes Christiano used the same phrasing when he
talked to him just before appearing on his TV show. Anne then sees
Jane outside the hotel, but she ignores Anne and drives away. Peter
gets a great idea for a new book and it involves trapping Christiano
with Gianni's help without any interference by the police. Gianni
witnesses the killer planting an axe in Christiano's head and runs to
Peter, who has been hit on the head and is almost unconscious. Gianni
didn't see the killer's face, but tells Peter that Christiano knew
the killer. So who is the killer? I have given you more than enough
clues to figure it out on your own, but if you need more information,
I'll tell you this: If you think there is only one killer, you are
wrong, or as Sherlock Holmes (actually Arthur Conan Doyle) once said:
"When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however
improbable, must be the truth."
This may be Dario Argento's most accessible giallo film. While there
is plenty of graphic violence (including Gianni getting whacked on
the top of his head with an axe) and quite a bit of nudity, it's the
mystery that takes center stage. The fakeout ending really works
here, once you realize that the killer is straight-up batshit crazy
and is only pretending to be sane. Jane's death is the highlight of
the film, as the killer chops off her right arm at the elbow from
outside a window and her stump sprays bright red blood on a nice
white wall. It should also be noted that the film is purposely
drained of color, except for the murders, which are bright and nasty.
The film switches from drained to full color during the finale when
the killer dies a really brutal death. Once you see the sharp metal
spikes on a sculpture in Jane's rented home, you just know it will be
used in the grand finale. The music score, by Claudio Simonetti,
Massimo Morante and Fabio Pignatelli (listed as "Simonetti-Morante-Pignatelli"
in the credits; Simonetti and Pignatelli being members of
"Goblin") is also excellent, setting a mood of dread for
the long tracking shot of Tilde's house that works remarkably well.
The late Giuliano Gemma,
who many people will remember for his Spaghetti Westerns, such as DAY
OF ANGER (1967), THE
PRICE OF POWER (1969) and SILVER
SADDLE (1978), is very good as Inspector Germani, who likes
to drink scotch
on the job and is a fan of mystery novels, so much so, that he tells
Peter that he knew who the killer was in his latest book before he
got to page 30. This knowledge helps him to identify the real
killer but, unfortunately, it doesn't spare his life (that fakeout
ending I was talking about). This film is so full of standout
sequences that it is difficult to pick a favorite, but the scene
towards the end of the film, where Bullmer is sitting on a concrete
bench in the middle of the EUR ("Esposizione Universale
Roma", a residential and business district in Rome that is used
in many Italian genre films), watching the lives of people as the
camera does a 360° pan around him, is definitely one of my
favorites, if only for how it concludes. Bullmer sees people
fighting, lovers kissing and a little boy playing with a rubber ball,
bringing a smile to his face. Unfortunately, it will be Bullmer's
final smile, as the killer approaches him and stabs him viciously
with a large knife, in full view of all the people he was smiling at.
An understated scene showing Argento's mastery with a camera. This
may be Argento's truly last good pure giallo film, as most of his
films after this are more horror than giallo (except for the inferior THE
CARD PLAYER - 2004 and the minor DO
YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? - 2005, which was actually an Italian TV
movie), making this required viewing for giallo and mystery fans alike.
Shot as TENEBRAE
("Darkness" or "Shadows"), this film received an
abortive theatrical release in the United States (from Bedford
Entertainment) under the title UNSANE
in severely edited form (even worse than New Line Cinema's lousy edit
of Argento's PHENOMENA
[1984], under the title CREEPERS).
This chopped-up version, missing over ten minutes of footage,
shortens or eliminates most of the nudity and violence (editing
Jane's death so badly, you really have no idea how she dies; even the
"one take, no edit" scene is shortened!), making the film
unwatchable. This version was also released on VHS from Fox Hills
Video. It wasn't until 1999, when Anchor Bay Entertainment released
it uncut in its OAR on VHS and DVD, did we get to see the film the
way it was meant to be seen. In 2014, Synapse
Films released an upgraded version on DVD
and Blu-Ray and this is the version you want to get, if only for
the 90 minute extra, titled "Yellow Fever", which gives you
a detailed rundown of the origins of the giallo genre and the
influence it has had on slasher films. This is a worthy addition to
your film library. Also starring Marino Mase (CONTAMINATION
- 1980), Fulvio Mingozzi (Argento's SUSPIRIA
- 1977), Mirella Banti (WHITE FIRE
- 1984) and cameos by Lamberto Bava (this film's First Assistant
Director and Director of the giallo film YOU'LL
DIE AT MIDNIGHT - 1986) as an elevator repairman and Michele
Soavi (this film's Second Assistant Director and Director of the
bloody slasher film STAGEFRIGHT
- 1987) as Maria's boyfriend. It should also be noted that actress
Theresa Russell dubs Daria Nicolodi's voice in this film. The
severely edited version is Rated R and the uncut version is Not
Rated.
TERROR
ON ALCATRAZ (1986) - Aldo Ray
portrays real-life Alcatraz escapee Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood
portrays the same character in ESCAPE
FROM ALCATRAZ - 1979, which gets name-checked here) in this
fictional horror thriller. Years have passed since his escape (and
the closing of Alcatraz as a prison) and Frank is a bitter and
violent man (he puts a cigarette out on girlfriend Mona's breast for
removing a newspaper from his suitcase!) who needs to return to
Alcatraz to retrieve a key that opens a safety deposit box full of
stolen loot. After killing a former Alcatraz guard who use to torture
him (he slits his throat with a straight razor and then impales him
on a piece of wood), Frank hops on a boat as part of a sightseeing
tour of Alcatraz. One member of the tour group, Greg (Scott Ryder),
an avowed Alcatraz expert, recognizes Frank, but no one else believes
him. Franks stays on Alcatraz while the other tourists embark back to
port. A group of young tourists
decide to sneak back on to Alcatraz to check out Greg's claim, which
pisses off Frank, since he's been planning this caper for years. He
then proceeds to kill the tourists and Park Rangers, so he leaves no
witnesses. Since Greg knows the most about the island, he becomes the
unofficial leader of the group, but he proves more stupid than
knowledgable. Frank plants a meat cleaver in the face of Kenneth
(Gary Gorman) as he's tooting on some cocaine. He then kills a female
Park Ranger by drowning her in a vat of water. Greg proves to be a
complete idiot as he tries to talk Frank into letting him live. Frank
repays him by splitting his head in two with the meat cleaver. After
killing another Ranger by disembowelment (off-screen) and taking his
uniform and hanging (off-screen) tourist Dean (Peter Kienaas), last
remaining Terry (Lisa Ramirez) and Clarissa (Alisa Wilson) run for
their lives as Frank snaps the neck of Matthew (Peter Rodriguez), a
militant Indian. Frank kills everyone but Terry (the police blame
Indian Matthew for all the murders and don't believe Terry's story
about Frank), finds the key and sets out to retrieve his loot. In a
finale that seems to never end, Frank meets a surprising demise in
the bank vault, when someone related to his past gives him his
comeuppance. This film works better as a brochure for Alcatraz
tourism than it does as a thriller. It takes over 45 minutes to set
up the plot (and character quirks) before the first tourist murder
takes place. Until then, the film plays like an actual tourist
documentary, as the on-location photography and tour guide narration
by Ranger Emily (Veronica Porche Ali) and Greg takes up much of
the screen time. When the murders finally kick in, it's really no big
deal, as the deaths aren't that original and only a couple are
bloody. Aldo Ray skulks around the prison in an overcoat and fedora,
looking like some third-rate Mickey Spillane (and did we really need
to see his overweight hairy man-boobs as he walks around shirtless in
the beginning and end of the film?) and screaming his lines ("I'm
gonna kill YOU!") like a madman without a cause. I'm sure if
the real Frank Morris were alive, he would take offense to this. I
like to think this film was made to piss him off and make him come
out of hiding. It didn't work. It's a pretty mild film, marred by
weak acting (even Ray, in a rare end-of-career starring role, is
pretty one-note), lame effects (the bloodiest effect is the last shot
of the film) and a finale that never ends. It takes 20 minutes after
leaving Alcatraz for Ray to get to the bank vault. First he goes out
to dinner with girlfriend Mona (Sandy Brooke), complains about his
steak and refuses to pay the bill! I wonder what director Philip
Marcus (KANDYLAND - 1987) was
trying to achieve here? It's part horror, part thriller and part pseudo-documentary,
none of it very good. Also starring Robert Axelrod, Phildi Carlo and
Nancy Wheeler. A Trans
World Entertainment Home Video Release. Not Rated.
TOGETHER
BROTHERS (1974) - When a
well-respected black street cop nicknamed Mr. Kool (Ed Bernard) is
viciously gunned-down in the street one night and it is witnessed by
little boy Tommy (Anthony Wilson), his brother H.J. (Ahmad Nurradin)
and his gang of teenage friends try to protect Tommy while they try
to find the killer. The trauma of witnessing the murder has struck
Tommy dumb, so Tommy's grandmother
(Frances E. Williams) hires Dr. Johnson (Glynn Turman, in a
glorified cameo) to help him. Dr. Johnson tells H.J. to stay close to
Tommy, because he could snap out of his condition at any moment.
During Mr. Kool's funeral, Tommy breaks free of H.J. and his friends
and is almost icepicked by the unseen killer (H.J. says to Mr. Kool's
widow, "He was really a together brother." to which she
replies, "What my husband died for was bullshit!"). The
police (including the black officers) look down on H.J. and his gang
(One black officer says to H.J., "He believed in you and look
where it got him."), so H.J. does his own investigation into Mr.
Kool's death. He and his gang go to the Spanish part of town to talk
to gang leader Vega (Richard Yniguez) and ask him to help steal some
files pertaining to Mr. Kool's arrests out of the police station.
Vega and H.J. stage a fake rumble between their gangs as a diversion
to pull the police out of the station so H.J. and Vega can enter the
station and steal the files. Once he has his hands on the arrest
records, H.J. doles out names of recently released felons that may
have had a grudge against Mr. Kool for his friends to track down.
Their investigations lead them to whorehouses, run-down tenement
buildings, a poolhall (where they get the shit kicked out of them for
asking questions) and other places kids have no places being in. They
strike out with everyone on the list, until they find out that a
psychotic baby kidnapper (and homosexual) named Billy Most (Lincoln
Kilpatrick, who also starred in CHOSEN
SURVIVORS the same year) was just released from prison and
he had a definite grudge against Mr. Kool. When Billy Most discovers
H.J.'s investigation, he knifes and kills H.J.'s girlfriend and then
goes after Tommy. H.J. nearly shoots Billy Most, but Tommy suddenly
breaks his silence and calls out his name, stopping H.J. from
becoming what Mr. Kool preached against: Becoming a criminal.
Although this film gets called a blaxploitation film in many
reference books and web sites, that about as far from the truth as
you can get. Even though the majority of the cast is black, this is a
straightforward thriller that deals with friendship, loyalty and the
search for th
e
truth amongst a population of pimps, hookers, low-level criminals,
drug addicts and even transvestites in this unnamed town of urban
blight (actually filmed in Galveston, Texas). Director William A.
Graham (HONKY - 1971; CALENDAR
GIRL MURDERS - 1984) keeps everything as real as possible,
by filming on locations that are bleak and colorless, hiring a group
of non-pros that makes up most of the cast (making most of the
interplay seem loose and natural) and making the violence suspenseful
without being too graphic. Mr. Kool's death is shocking, as the
killer pumps a full clip into his body and then strips him down to
his underwear, just to add insult to injury. The final third falls
apart once we find out who the killer is and his motivation for
killing Mr. Kool is revealed (it's a little too melodramatic for my
taste and doesn't fit in with the realism of the rest of the film),
but TOGETHER BROTHERS
is a fine, little-seen thriller from the mid-70's that holds your
interest throughout. This is an adult film about how kids can do the
right thing, sometimes doing it the wrong way, but doing it with the
best intentions. Although this film is rated PG, it's definitely not
made for younger kids, as it is full of foul language, adult
situations and violence. This was made during the time when a PG
rating didn't automatically mean dumbed-down kiddie fare. I miss
those days. Also starring Nelson Sims, Kenneth Bell, Owen Pace, Kim
Dorsey and Craig Campfield as Maria, the ugliest, hairy-chested
transvestite you will ever see. Since this is the 70's, he pays for
his transvestism with his life. This film has never been legally
available on home video in the United States, probably because 20th
Century Fox (who released this to theaters) didn't want to pay for
the music of the two Barry White (and the Love Unlimited Orchestra)
songs that are on the soundtrack. Maybe that will change in the
future, now that Mr. White is no longer with us. The gray market DVD
(on the Blax label) has a decent fullscreen print, along with a
couple of trailers (one has the Something
Weird Video bug burned onto it) and a really racist Merrie
Melodies cartoon, titled "Jungle Jitters" (black cannibals
cook a white vacuum cleaner salesman, "Hold the onions!")
as extras. Rated PG.
TOO
BEAUTIFUL TO DIE (1988) -
This film belongs in a sub-genre I like to call the "Sexy Model
Giallo" (some publications refer to it as "Designer
Giallo") that existed in the mid-to-late-'80s. It includes such
films as MYSTERE (1983), NOTHING
UNDERNEATH (1985), FASHION
CRIMES (1986), DELIRIUM:
PHOTO OF GIOIA (1987); TEMPTATION
(1988); OBSESSION: A
TASTE FOR FEAR (1988); and FATAL
TEMPTATION (1988). Like those films, this one contains
beautiful women (usually models) in various states of undress being
knocked-off by an unknown killer. This film also has a fairly
entertaining (but predictable) mystery and some graphic violence to
go along with the female
nudity, making it a good choice for giallo fans, as well as fans of
beautiful naked women (and who isn't at least one of them?).
The film opens with four models wearing identical creepy female
masks striking poses for director David (Francois-Eric Gendron; DEADLY
GAMES - 1989), who is shooting a fashion video. David is
particularly enamored with model Sylvia O'Neal (Gioia Maria Scola; RAIDERS
OF ATLANTIS - 1983), so he tells her lecherous agent, Alex
Conti (Giovanni Tamberi; SPECTERS
- 1987), that he wants Sylvia to appear in a music video for the song
"Blades" that he is shooting on Monday. Alex says no
problem, she will be there. We soon find out that Alex is pimping out
his models, as he shows a video of his models to an old man named
Ajice (Carlo Carli; TORMENTOR
- 1972), who tells Alex that he wants Sylvia for Sunday night. Alex
tells him that's impossible, Sylvia is saving herself for marriage,
he could get a hundred girls like her for him, but the man is
adamant, ordering Alex to make sure she is there on Sunday night
(It's quite obvious that Ajice has something on Alex, as he obliges
quickly to his demand). When Sunday night comes, we see Alex in his
opulent home (where he is playing an 8-bit pornographic video game on
his computer!) and Sylvia is upstairs in a hot tub with three other
models. Suddenly, Ajice appears behind Sylvia, grabs her and rapes
her in the hot tub, the other three models, Leslie (Norhanna
Arrifin), Michelle (Helena Jesus) and Lauren (Randi Ingerman; DESPERATE
CRIMES - 1993), holding Sylvia's legs apart while Ajice
rapes her, telling Sylvia to relax and just enjoy it, they, too, have
made "love" to this man, it's just business as usual when
working for Alex. When Ajice is finished with her, Sylvia comes
running down the stairs, furious at Alex for allowing such a man to
take her virginity. She then steals Alex's car (Hey, he stole her
virginity!) and drives off (after hitting a security guard on his
bicycle), Alex yelling at her that she will never work in this town
again. His words are very prophetic.
The next morning, at the "Blades" video shoot, Alex tells
David that Sylvia is not here, he has been unable to get in contact
with her all morning. David is distressed she is not there, so he
begins shooting the music video with Alex's three other models. While
Alex is watching the shoot, he is approached by Police Lieutenant
Randan (Francois Marthouret), who tells Alex that his car was
discovered in a ditch on fire and a body was found in the driver's
seat, but the body was so badly burned that it is impossible to make
identification. Alex tells him that Sylvia O'Neal "borrowed"
his car last night around 1:00 AM, but he fails to mention o the
Lieutenant why she took the car, telling him a blatant lie instead.
The Lieutenant finds it odd that a passing motorist saw his car
explode at 4:00 AM...just ten kilometers from Alex's home, wondering
what Sylvia did in those three hours and why she was so close to his
house. Alex is quick on his feet, telling the Lieutenant that
Sylvia was probably on her way back to return the car. The Lieutenant
tells Alex he is probably right (but we can see he doesn't believe
him) and then talks to David, admiring the unusual blades that he is
using as props on the shoot. David tells him he had the props
department fashion the blades specifically for this music video, also
telling him that he was not at Alex's house last night, he just
returned from London this morning.
The next day, Alex and his models visit David's house and discover
his entire home is computerized (an '80s version of Amazon's Alexa,
as it were). David tells Alex he refuses to shoot any more of the
music video until he finds a replacement for Sylvia, she was
"special" and it will be hard to find someone that has her
look and presence. David, along with Alex and his three models, go to
a club, where David spots pretty young Melanie Roberts (Florence
Guerin; BIZARRE - 1987) dancing
provocatively in a very short skirt to some German industrial music.
David knows immediately he has found Sylvia's replacement.
Meanwhile, the forensics team examines pieces the skull found in
Alex's car and, with the help of a computer program, discovers a hole
in the right temple caused by a .22 caliber bullet. Since no gun was
found in or around the burning car, the Lieutenant can come to no
other conclusion that it was murder, not a suicide. While all this is
happening, Melanie tells Leslie that she need a place to stay, the
hotel she is at is not up to her standards. Leslie tells her she can
come live with her (Sylvia was her former roommate). They become fast
friends and do everything together. One night, Leslie has a bad
nightmare and Melanie hears her scream out Sylvia's name. Melanie
asks her why she screamed out Sylvia's name and Leslie says she is
mistaken, her nightmare wasn't about Sylvia (even though we could see
it was). Why is she lying?
During the music video shoot, where everyone is wearing skintight
black outfits, complete with black masks and swinging the prop blades
around in rhythmic fashion, looking like something from a MAD
MAX/ROAD WARRIOR
music video, something very bad happens to Leslie when she is put in
a pod that looks like a futuristic version of an iron maiden (or
"Virgin of Nuremberg"). When David yells, "Cut!"
and tells them to take Leslie out of the pod before she suffocates,
they open the pod and Leslie falls to the ground dead, her throat
impaled and bleeding profusely. When the Lieutenant and forensics
team get to the crime scene, they discover that someone has replaced
one of the rubber spikes from the inside of the pod with a metal one,
it impaling Leslie's throat and killing her. The Lieutenant asks
David who has access to the set and he tells him that anyone could
have done it, as they are no guards at night at this studio, so
anyone could have pulled the switch (Melanie and David begin a sexual
relationship shortly after Leslie's murder).
Ajice phones Alex and accuses him of setting him up for murder, as
the police want to question him and demands he come over to his house
to discuss the matter. The next day, we discover in a front-page
newspaper article that Ajice was murdered, butchered like a hog.
Michelle sees Ajice's photo in the newspaper and phones Alex from the
studio, who tells her that he went over to Ajice's house last night,
but he wouldn't answer his doorbell or phone, saying that he must
have been already dead. Michelle tells him she believes someone wants
to kill everyone who was at his house Sunday night. As she is talking
to Alex, the killer enters the studio carrying one of the prop blades
(even though they are props, they are well-balanced and very sharp).
The killer chases Michelle through the studio and onto the catwalks
above the stage, impaling the blade into her stomach. Michelle falls
off the catwalk and plunges to the stage below, dead as a doornail.
Lauren sees a TV news story on Michelle's death and phones Alex,
telling him she wants to go to the police and tell them everything
because she doesn't want to die. Alex tells her not to be stupid,
they could get charged with prostitution, rape and even tax evasion
(?), warning her not to go to the cops. Alex tells her he has an idea
and needs to check some information at the office, but first he has
to shake the two detectives the Lieutenant put on his tail. He tells
Lauren to sit tight, relax, wait for his call and not to open her
door for anyone, especially if it is someone she knows (Lauren calls
Alex a "bastard" and hangs up the phone). Alex loses the
two cops following him by exiting out the back door of a coffee shop
(the Lieutenant calls them "shit brains") and then goes to
his office, where he makes an important discovery. Lauren gets a
phone call from the killer, who plays a recording of Sylvia's voice,
so she gets scared and runs out of her house, hops in her car and
speeds off, losing the two cops following her. Alex goes to the
studio and phone the killer, leaving a blackmail message on the
answering machine, but the killer is in the studio and slashes Alex
in the back with the prop blade (Alex looks at the killer and says,
"It can't be!"). Alex tries to run away, but the killer
thrusts the blade through a glass door into Alex's stomach, but he
does something with a flash mounted on a tripod that manages to take
a photo of the killer before he dies. Lauren arrives at the studio
and finds Alex dead, sitting in a director's chair. Lauren then
drives to David's house and says she needs someone to talk to,
telling him everything that happened on that Sunday night. David then
leaves, telling Lauren to make herself comfortable until he returns.
David goes to the morgue and asks the guard if he can see Sylvia's
coffin. He finds some fresh flowers on top of her coffin (they are
still wet) and asks the guard who put them there. The guard tells him
he saw no one in the morgue since he has been there, only him. Lauren
finds a pocketbook in David's house, revealing that the owner of the
purse is actually Sylvia's sister (That may seem like I am giving
away the killer's identity, but am I really?).
When the Lieutenant arrives at the studio and the scene of Alex's
murder, he discovers the photo Alex left that seemingly shows the
image of the killer. He races over to David's house, where the killer
is chasing Lauren through David's high-tech home. Think you know who
it is? (Hint: Both the killer and Sylvia are from the same town in
New York: Poughkeepsie). As always, the clues to unmask the killer
are in this review, but it doesn't take a genius to know who it is,
as there are not many people left. Happy hunting.
While nothing extraordinary, this giallo, directed by Dario Piana
(his only other directorial credits are the DTV
films THE DEATHS OF IAN STONE
[2007] and LOST BOYS: THE THIRST
[2010] and written by Claudio Mancini (a Producer by trade,
responsible for films such as MY
NAME IS
NOBODY [1973] and CONTAMINATION
[1980]) and Achille Manzotti (another Producer by trade, responsible
for LIGHT BLAST [1985]
and BEYOND DARKNESS
[1990]), with an uncredited assist from Sergio Donati, who has
written or co-written films such as WEEKEND
MURDERS (1970), MEAN
FRANK AND CRAZY TONY (1973) and SCREAMERS
(1980), is still an enjoyable exercise in sleaze and female nudity,
helped by the fact that the women are very beautiful. There are also
some white-knuckle scenes of suspense throughout the film, especially
the conclusion, where the killer is finally unmasked (literally!).
This is my favorite film in the "Sexy Model Giallo"
sub-genre for those facts alone. It's really not much of a mystery,
but it is well-filmed (by Alan Jones; BULLSEYE!
- 1990) with a music score (by Roberto Cacciapaglia) that sounds like
a PSYCHO (1960) riff, with songs
by Frankie Goes To Hollywood ("Warriors Of The Wasteland"),
Toto ("I Won't Hold You Back") and Huey Lewis & The
News ("Perfect World") also heard on the soundtrack. Yes,
this is an '80s thriller, but that's not a bad thing here. I believe
it works because it revels in '80s excess, from drug use, music,
fashions, hairstyles and attitude. Anyone who lived back then are
bound to enjoy this film, as it will be a nostalgic trip back to a
time where all we thought about were ourselves (the "Me
Generation"). That may sound harsh, but that's just the way it
was back then, a time in our history that is best forgotten, but
looked on with both fondness and fury (at least it was by me, but I
would rather not talk about it!). This film is a perfect reminder of
those times and therefore gets a big thumbs-up from this reviewer.
Shot as SOTTO
IL VESTITO NIENTE II ("Nothing Under The Dress II",
trying to pass itself off as a sequel to recently deceased director Carlo
Vanzina's NOTHING UNDERNEATH
- 1985, but besides the title, they have very little in common except
for models being killed) and also known as THEY ONLY COME OUT AT NIGHT,
this film had neither a theatrical or home video release in any
format in the United States. I caught a rather nice anamorphic
widescreen print streaming on YouTube from user "Giallo
Realm", dubbed in English. It is also available on DVD-R from
various gray market sellers on the Internet and is shown
intermittently on streaming Roku channel B-Movie TV. Also featuring
Raffaele Biondi, Stefano Capaccioli. Marco Giorgetti and Enzo
Giraldo. Not Rated.
TORMENTOR
(1972) - Many people consider this a minor film in the giallo
genre and I must agree, although it has a certain style all its own.
The mystery element is not quite up to snuff although the film as a
whole is quite entertaining, even if it is for all the wrong reasons.
Granted, it's no DEEP RED
(1976) or TORSO (1973), but what is?
Rome: Professional photographer Kitty (Susan Scott; THE
SLASHER...IS THE SEX MANIAC! - 1972) is looking for her
performance artist
boyfriend Alberto (Robert Hoffmann; SPASMO
- 1974) through a coin-operated telescope and spots a man in a large
black hat and black gloves killing a woman in her apartment. Just as
she is about to see his face, the telescope goes black, needing
another coin. She misses seeing his face, but gets the address of the
apartment by the building's number (57) and notices a chestnut vendor
and a customer near the murder scene. Susan and Alberto go to the
police and talk to Inspector Merughi (George Martin; THREE
SUPERMEN IN THE JUNGLE - 1970), but he has a problem
believing her since she cannot identify the killer and all she has is
a building number and not an actual address. Alberto, who performs an
art show where he stabs mannequins (!), shows some photos that Kitty
took of his show to TV and film scorer Marco (Simón Andreu; NIGHT
OF THE SORCERERS - 1973) in hopes that he will use them ion
a TV dance show he is scoring (Alberto says about Kitty's photos:
"It's the only thing she does well, besides making love." !).
Kitty calls her friend, newspaper reporter Lidia (Anuska Borova), in
hope of finding out who was killed, but Lidia tells her that no body
has been found yet (The first time we see Lidia, she is naked and
trying to make love to Marco, but he is not able to "rise"
to the occasion. When Kitty asks if she has heard the news, she says,
"Dear Marco is impotent, how about that?" !!!) The
Inspector pays Kitty and Alberto a visit in their apartment, telling
them that the have found the body of a female dancer, so Kitty
retells him the story and says that the killer wore a black hat, just
like the one Alberto owns (Why does Alberto look and act guilty all
the time?).
We then see the killer, who walks with a cane, pick out his favorite
straight razor and knock on the door of Rocco, the chestnut vendor
(Gualtiero Rispoli). When he answers the door, no one is there. He
hears something outside his window, so he opens it and the killer
grabs him around the neck with the curved handle of the cane and then
slashes his throat with the razor. Lidia arrives at the murder scene
and tells the Inspector that this may be the work of a sex maniac
(WTF?!?). The forensics team find cane imprints in the soil outside
the vendor's window, the same cane prints that were at the scenes of
two other murders, including the dancer's (The Inspector turns to his
assistant Lolli [Rodolfo Lolli] and says, "Give me the files on
all deviants and sex offenders with leg disabilities." Double WTF?!?!?!?).
We then see someone sneaking into Kitty's bedroom, pulling the
covers off her sleeping naked body and taking photos of her. It is
then revealed to be Alberto, who is in the habit of taking naked
photos of his girlfriend without her permission. The inspector
suspects Alberto is the killer because, the last time he saw him, he
was walking with a limp. Alberto tells him that he sprained his
ankle, but his reason is very suspicious, especially when the
Inspector shows Alberto a photo of him with the dead dancer at a
performance art show he enacted a couple of months earlier. Alberto
explains that he always gets drunk at his shows and doesn't remember
everyone he meets, before he storms out of the Inspector's office.
Alberto becomes front page news as the major suspect in the string of
murders. As we well know, in giallo films, the person we suspect the
most of being the killer usually isn't. Alberto gets a phone call
from Marta (Nerina Montagnani), an old lady who tells him that for
$2,000 she will tell him who the killer is. Before Alberto can get
her the money, Marta is savagely killed by the razor-wielding killer
(she grabs the razor with her hand before he slices her throat,
leaving a deep gash in her hand). Alberto goes to the Inspector with
a recording of Marta's phone message and asks if the Inspector is
going to pick her up. The Inspector replies, "Yeah, in a meat
wagon!" Alberto couldn't look more guilty if he tried.
We then see Marco playing piano as a dancer, with the smallest
breasts I have ever seen on a grown woman, prances around him and
Lidia. Lidia then gets a phone call from her twin sister Sylvia (also
played by Anuska Borova) because she has something important to tell
her concerning Marco, but she blows her sister off (Why can't people
tell important news over the phone?). We the see the black-gloved
killer slicing the neck of a dancer named Magda Hopkins (Cristina
Tamborra) while she is sleeping in her bed. Marco plays piano while
looking at the article on Magda's killing. Lidia strips naked in
front of him and they make love.
The Inspector tells Alberto that he wants to use Kitty as bait to
lure the killer. Kitty agrees to do it because Magda was her friend.
We then see Kitty dressed as a prostitute, walking the streets of
Rome's dirtier district (When she asks for $100 from a creep who
tries to pick her up, he says, "For a hundred bucks I could get
the greatest lay in the world, you stupid whore!" and then he
drives away). The Inspector and Alberto are watching her from an
unmarked car, but so is the killer, who is watching her from the
shadows of night. When Kitty thinks she is getting into the killer's
car (She holds up his cane), the Inspector and some police cars block
his way, only it turns out to be the Chief of Police (Orlando
Baralla) and the Inspector ends up with egg on his face (Everyone
seems to have a cane!).
Lidia thinks she has the story of her career when she locates Nina
Ferretti (Rosita Torosh), the woman who was the chestnut vendor's
customer during the original murder, but when Nina arrives at the
dance academy to talk to Lidia, she sees a framed photo on a desk,
screams and runs away. She drives to a phone booth and calls the
police, telling the Inspector that she know who the killer is (But
she doesn't tell him who it is over the damn phone!). Before Nina can
make it to the Police Department, the killer is waiting for her in
the backseat of her car, strangling her and
then slicing her throat (The film's most inventive scene, as the
wiper blades are cleaning away the rain that is falling outside, but
they can't wipe away the blood that sprays on the inside of the windshield).
Alberto thinks he has it all figured out, since all the murdered
women were dancers. Alberto sets up a trap with the help of Kitty and
the dance academy secretary (Anna Liberati), who was Magda's lesbian
lover (!), but first they must stop while Kitty takes a bathroom
break (She says, "It must be the emotion. I've gotta go
pee-pee!"), twice! Just who is the killer? I'll never tell, but
it doesn't take a genius to figure it out because there are so few
red herrings here.
Besides some highly risible dialogue (the dubbers were having loads
of fun here) and Kitty unable to control her bladder during the
finale, this is a fairly entertaining giallo flick. Shot under the
title PASSI DI DANZA SU UNA
LAMA DI RASOIO ("Dance Steps On The Edge Of A
Razor") and also known as DEATH
CARRIES A CANE (a much better title than the review title,
since there isn't much tormenting going on), this film concludes with
a tense finale in a greenhouse, where the Inspector shoots the killer
just as he is about to murder Kitty and then we hear a long-winded
explanation from Lidia on what the killers' motivation was (it's
quite unbelievable, but adheres to giallo conventions).
This Italy/Spain co-production, directed by Maurizio Pradeaux (CHURCHILL'S
LEOPARDS - 1970; DEATH
STEPS IN THE DARK - 1977), is nothing special, but it is
good for a laugh. The screenplay, by Pradeaux, Alfonso Balcázar
(SCHOOL OF DEATH -
1975), Arpad DeRiso (CROSS
CURRENT - 1971) and co-star George Martin is nothing
special, but I was not bored in the least. I know that is faint
praise, but I have seen more than my share of uninteresting giallo
films that offered nothing but boredom. Susan Scott (real name:
Nieves Navarro) and Simón Andreu also appeared together in DEATH
WALKS ON HIGH HEELS (1971) and DEATH
WALKS AT MIDNIGHT (1972), two other giallo films, both
directed by Luciano Ercoli and unrelated to this film.
Originally released on fullscreen VHS by Wizard
Video in the mid-'80s with a fullscreen DVD from Full
Moon to follow in 2013 as part of their "Full
Moon's Grindhouse Collection". Unfortunately, that is all
there is available legally in the States (at the time of this review)
and my review is based on this DVD. The print is soft-looking, but
watchable. There are lots of close-ups of eyeballs. Oh, well, beggars
can't be choosers. I just hope that Raro Video releases a widescreen
version of this film in the future. They have given lesser giallo
films their chance to shine, so I hope they do the same for this one.
Also starring Luciano
Rossi (DEATH
SMILES ON A MURDERER - 1973), Serafino Profumo, Carlo Carli,
Elisa Mainardi, Salvatore Borgese and Giovanni Pulone as the fireman
Kitty runs to when she spies the original murder, but he says he
can't report it because he is cheating on his wife! Rated R.
TORSO
(1973) - This is one of the best giallo films ever made. I know
that's a pretty big statement and a lot of people are going to
disagree with me (hell, I review dozens of giallo films on this site
and I usually love them all), but this film, especially in its
original Italian uncut form (which is a mix of English language and
Italian/with English subtitles), deals with sexuality and,
especially, sexual violence, in such a frank and brutal way, once you
watch it (and I mean really WATCH it, not put it on while you are
doing something else), you will never forget it. The film opens at a
photo-shoot (or rather, a secret photo-shoot), where we see Carol
(Cristina Airoldi) and Flo (Patrizia Adiutori) making love to some
unknown man as the camera clicks away. An eyeless doll hides one of
the girl's private parts, as we see the man striking the doll's hair
and sticking
his fingers into its empty eye sockets (How's that for symbolism?).
We then switch to Italian Professor Franz (John Richardson; FRANKENSTEIN
'80 - 1972), who is teaching a class on painter Perugino and
his fascination with St. Sebastian, as the camera pans across the
students in the class (Cinematographer Giancarlo Ferrando has a way
of making all the girls look innocent, while the men and male teens
look like they are hiding something or leer like sexual perverts.
You'll be seeing a lot of both in this film). After the lecture is
over, students Jane (Suzy Kendall; SPASMO
- 1974), Daniela (Tina Aumont; LIFESPAN
- 1974) and Stefano (Roberto Bisacco; HANDS
OF STEEL - 1986) confront Franz on why he was so harsh in
his assessment of Perugino's later career. Franz gives a brief
explanation and leaves, but to the viewer, we see that both Jane and
Franz are interested in each other. Stefano ask Daniela if he can
give her a lift home, but she brushes him aside, saying she is going
home with Jane. Stefano looks really mad (as do two motorcycle thugs
standing next to him) and then, for some reason, seems to follow Flo
and her boyfriend John (Fausto De Bella) as they drive off, which
Daniela notices. The next time we see Flo and John, they are parked
at an abandoned building making out in the car. John then notices
someone in a gray ski mask and black leather gloves (a giallo staple)
is watching them. He gets out of the car and chases the stranger, but
when John doesn't return, Flo gets nervous, turns on the car's
headlights and gets out to look for him. The black-gloved stranger
reaches into the car and turns off the lights, so Flo returns to a
car, only for the stranger to strangle Flo with a red & black
patterned scarf, fondle her breasts and then graphically cut open her
chest with a knife. As the camera pans back we see John's dead body,
his throat slit wide open (a really graphic image, especially for
1973), as the shot expertly turns to daytime with Inspector Martino
(Luciano De Ambrosis) and his squad hovering around John's body. He
interviews a bum who discovered the body, but gets nowhere with him
(The bum tells the Inspector that he was about to take a crap
outside, but once he saw John's dead body, he became constipated!).
We then see the mysterious Roberto (Luc Merenda; KIDNAP
SYNDICATE - 1975) buying the same exact patterned scarf that
killed Flo from street vendor Gianni (Ernesto Colli; AUTOPSY
- 1973), while he and Gianni leer at the miniskirt-wearing Carol, who
once hearing of her friend Flo's death, screams out "No!
No!" and runs away. Because of Flo's untimely death, classes are
closed for the day at the University, so Franz asks Jane if she would
like to get a drink with him, which she readily accepts. Franz tells
Jane that he is pleasantly surprised that an American could show so
much interest in Perugino (you really should Google him) and Jane
replies that she doesn't know whether to take that as a compliment or
an insult. Franz and Jane hit it off rather nicely and, as this
meeting ends, Franz asks her to go to a music concert with him in the
near future and she says yes. As Jane is walking to her car, she
notices Carol arguing with Daniele's Uncle Nino (Carlo Alighiero; THE
CAT O' NINE TAILS - 1971) and hears Nino say that he wants
to break-off his relationship with Carol because of the circumstances
going on, it could become public knowledge and ruin him. Nino then
spots Jane and drives away quickly. Stefano picks up a hooker
(Rosaria della Femmina) from the street and they go back to her
place. When he is unable to perform, the hooker calls him
"queer", which seems to set off a trigger where Stefano
becomes violent, slapping the hooker and then putting his hands
around her neck, but somehow stops himself from strangling her.
Carol, who is acting extremely jittery, spots Roberto leering at her
(there's a lot of leering going on in this film) through a cafe
window, and then blows-off Daniela, instead jumping on the back of a
motorcycle of one of the two thugs we saw earlier in the film. We see
Carol smoking a joint at the party, while the two motorcycle thugs
fondle her breasts, When they try unbuttoning her pants, she pushes
their hands away and tells them no. She then leaves the party and
ends up in a foggy marsh, with the two thugs jumping on their
motorcycles trying to find her (One of them says, "I'll strangle
that bitch!"), until one falls off his bike and they decide it's
not worth the trouble. The ski-masked killer is not so forgiving,
though, as he strangles Carol with the same patterned scarf that
killed Flo, only this time he graphically pokes her eyes out with his
fingers (subliminal frames pop-up showing the fingers going into the
doll like we saw in the beginning of the film) before he fondles her
breasts and cuts open her chest. Inspector Martino is clueless and
appeals to the University students to offer up some clues. Daniele
tells Jane that the last time she saw Carol was when she jumped on
the back of a motorcycle and maybe she should tell the Inspector.
Jane tells her that she has an over-active imagination and since the
two motorcycle thugs are also University students, she shouldn't get
them in trouble without more concrete proof. Once at home, Daniele
gets a threatening phone call (if you look close enough, you can tell
who is making the call), telling her to keep her mouth shut or she
will get strangled with a red & black scarf. Her Uncle Nino
arrives and when Daniele tells him about the phone call, he tells her
that she should take a few of her female friends to his country
estate for the weekend for some rest and relaxation. Before Daniele
and her friends go to the country estate (Jane has something to do
and will join them later), Daniele is nearly sexually assaulted by
Stefano (who professes his love for her, saying she and him were
meant to be together forever), and Gianni the scarf seller, after
being interviewed by Inspector Martino, makes a phone call to someone
saying that he has to sell his business (it's obviously a blackmail
call). The next time we see Gianni, he is stuffing two bundles of
cash into his sports-coat, but someone driving a car crushes Gianni's
head over and over with the bumper of his car against a stone wall
(it's the first time in quite a while that I nearly turned my eyes
away because this scene is so graphic and that's quite a
compliment!). Now that we have enough red herrings to fill a sardine
can, including Uncle Nino, who leers at his nearly naked niece while
she is getting a neck rub from Jane, we have to figure out exactly
who the killer is. It could be any man still alive at this point,
even the country estate's village idiot (Enrico De Marco). Nearly
every male holds some deep dark secret, so it won't be easy to spot
the real killer (and I'm not going to tell). I will tell you that the
last 25 minutes of the film is a white knuckle ride (and nearly
dialogue-free), as the late-arriving Jane falls down a flight of
stairs and sprains her ankle, so when the killer arrives and murders
all the girls in the house, he has no idea Jane is in an upstairs
bedroom knocked out with a sleeping pill. When Jane wakes up, she
watches horrified as the killer (we still don't know who it is, but
some of the suspects have been murdered or are revealed as nice guys)
cuts up her friends into pieces with a tree branch saw (really
graphic) and stuffs their body parts in a burlap sack so he can bury
them outside. Will Jane survive or succumb to the k