I'm a little bit behind in posting my latest viewings so excuse me whilst I try and catch up a bit...
The Euro-goodies of course keep on flowing...
Five Women for the Killer (5 donne per l'assassino) (1974) 
Middling giallo about a reporter who comes home from an overseas assignment to find his baby (who may not actually be his because he's infertile) in the hospital and his wife dead.
One of the the most noticeable things about this one is the abundance of J&B product placement, plus the reveal ending is kind of spoiled by a very obvious 'clue' as to who the killer is near the end... I guess they'd emptied the red herring barrel by then.
Overall it's a pretty engaging film and rather nasty in places - what with our gloved killer going around slashing the wombs of pregnant women. A jazzy score adds to the psychedelic mania on offer and the performances are generally pretty solid.
65/100
The Weapon, The Hour, The Motive (L'arma, l'ora, il movente) (1972) 
After a sexually promiscuous priest is stabbed to death in a church, it is up to Renzo Montagnani's detective to find the culprit - however, he instead decides to arrest the wrong man (the unscrupulous looking church caretaker) and shacks up with one of the dead priest's ex-lovers. Red herrings aplenty, seedy goings on within the clergy, a weird kid who may have witnessed the murder, and a graphic throat slashing are some of the high-lights of this rather interesting slightly off-beat but stylish gialli. Recommended.
71/100
The House of the Yellow Carpet (La casa del tappeto giallo) (1983) 
A curious home invasion thriller that turns psychologically giallo concerning Franca and her husband Antonio, who decide to sell a yellow rug which was a gift of Franca's stepfather. One day, while Antonio is out, a strange man calls around saying he wishes to buy the rug. He then holds Franca hostage and says he killed his wife on that same yellow rug. Franca then kills the man, or has she...
Despite a simple, but fairly effective story line,
The House of the Yellow Carpet unfortunately falls victim to being made in the '80s where the giallo trend was waning and films, for want of a better term, were becoming more 'TV like' as the Italian studios were no longer interested in pumping money into home grown crime/mystery/thriller films. This is reflected in the overall production quality and the acting. The script is also a little lacking at times, although the plot certainly carries it through to its rather weird conclusion pretty effectively. Whilst not up there with some of the genre greats from the early '70s, this one is certainly a curio that's worth checking out for fans of the genre.
52/100