The Giallo Thread

[michal]

Originally Posted by sjconstable

A while ago I saw Arrow say how many they had planned for this year, and I THINK it only amounted to the ones we know about: Deep Red, Five Dolls for an August Moon, Death Walks on High Heels, Death Walks at Midnight, The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave, The Red Queen Kills 7 Times, and The Bloodstained Butterfly.

Would love to be wrong though!

things may change

[PaulD]

Originally Posted by sjconstable

A while ago I saw Arrow say how many they had planned for this year, and I THINK it only amounted to the ones we know about: Deep Red, Five Dolls for an August Moon, Death Walks on High Heels, Death Walks at Midnight, The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave, The Red Queen Kills 7 Times, and The Bloodstained Butterfly.

Would love to be wrong though!

Didn't know abou the Bloodstained Butterfly!

[sjconstable]

Originally Posted by PaulD

Didn't know abou the Bloodstained Butterfly!

Alan Jones tweeted that he was recording commentaries for The Bloodstained Butterfly and The Red Queen Kills 7 Times for Arrow

[Demoncrat]

That's interesting

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Death Laid an Egg (1968)

Weird and off beat giallo that really isn't a giallo at all. I always though a gialli tended to be a murder mystery.

Death Laid an Egg stars Gina Lollobrigida, Ewa Aulin and Jean-Louis Trintignant in a tale of industrial espionage and menage a trois at the chicken factory.

Once you get to the bottom of this there really isn't an awful lot going on except red herrings galore. Also it's not a film to thrill the viewer but it is quietly compelling viewing. I tend to associate Trintignant with French director Alain Robbe-Grillet and for whatever reason Death Laid an Egg often comes across like a Grillet movie. Be it the abstract filming techniques and slightly surreal dream like atmosphere the film is bathed in. Even the mechanical chicken farm seems hypnotizing on occasions.

The performances by the three leads complement each other and it's their love triangle that holds the film in place for much of the time. Director Guillio Questi keeps things rather restrained and the film eschews many of the typical giallo traits of murder and sex. More in line with Footprints on the Moon than The Case of the Bloody Iris for example, Death Laid an Egg is...interesting.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972)

Sergio Martino's giallo is yet another film based on Edgar Allan Poe's story The Black Cat.

Wait! Come back. It's not as boring as it sounds.

In fact Your Vice... is a quietly effective little thriller. The striking, almost glass like, Anita Strindberg plays the wife of drunken, violent writer, Luigi Pistilli. Fearful of him and his black cat, Satan. Out of the blue, Pistilli's niece, Edwige Fenech, shows up and the story really hots up in a tale of sex, murder and the inevitable fate of being buried behind a wall.

The black cat wandering about has little to do with the story until Strindberg gouges out one of it's eyes, which allows Martino to get lurid with his camera treating us to zoom after zoom of the cat's bloodied empty socket. This plays out in a fine hallucinogenic way making the viewer feel as queasy as Strindberg does.

The story zips along and you don't have to watch long before the next sequence of sleaze or violence occurs. I like Martino as a director. He doesn't convolute his films with bullshit and tends to play things out straight, lacing everything with the exploitative elements we know and love, Your Vice... is no exception. An added bonus for me is the delightfully Gothic atmosphere of the crumbling old house, among many other trappings of the genre on show here.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Crimes of the Black Cat (1972)

More moggies in this classy giallo from Sergio Pastore. This time without reference to Poe and the cat actually does commit murder. The cat's claws are dipped in curure and death is silent and instant when the skin is broken, leaving the police clueless. Blind pianist, Anthony Steffen, overhears a conversation with what seems to be the murderer of fashion models. Together with the help of Sylva Koscina and Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Steffen attempts to solve the crimes of the black cat...being giallo, nothing's ever that simple though.

I really like Crimes of the Black Cat. It's reasonably pacy, slightly sleazy, has a great cast and well written dialogue, not to mention one of the finest razor murders in the genre. It's that final kill in the shower, reminiscent of Psycho (1960), that stays with you long after the credits roll. It's nasty and savage and dares to take English actress Shirley Corrigan to places that Hitchcock feared to take Janet Leigh in a blood thirsty orgy of brutal gore.

The Hitchcock comparison suggests that Crimes of the Black Cat is derivative. It isn't even though it uses elements of more famous Gialli such as the fashion house back drop from Blood and Black Lace (1964) and the blind hero which seems to be lifted from Argento's The Cat O'Nine Tails from the previous year. Perhaps controversially i find this a superior film to Dario's effort.

Director Pastore makes Crimes of the Black Cat a superior genre piece thanks to the plot twists and genuinely odd moments, and indeed characters such as Giovanna Lenzi's Susan. A woman who practically floats around in her white hooded cape almost in direct contrast to the usual giallo murderer dressed all in black.

Crimes of the Black Cat is an excellent example of giallo film making. Recommended.

Footnote. The dvd i have is from the Italian company Dagored, more famous for music releases. The picture is widescreen and seems vhs sourced and is at times of poor quality in some longer shots. Overall it's quite watchable though. Where the film lacks in picture quality it makes up for in subtitles. They are perhaps the finest i've seen in an Italian genre film. Proper detailed conversations rather than the usual shorthand translations we generally get.
The release also comes with a nice fold out poster of the original artwork.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Death Carries a Cane (1973)

A photographer, played by Nieves Navarro, witnesses the murder of a woman through a tourist telescope. Unable to get a clear sight of the killer she informs the police as one by one all witnesses to the killers escape wind up dead.

Directed by Maurizio Pradeaux, and one of only two gialli he made out of a rather tiny seven film career, the other being 1977's Death Steps in the Dark. Death Carries a Cane is promising but on the whole meanders about a little too much for my liking. Despite having a high sleaze quota with frequent nudity and some graphic razor murders, the in between stuff just isn't that involving. However the finale with Navarro being stalked by the killer in a darkened greenhouse (i think) is suspensefully executed.

The dialogue, albeit dubbed on this release from Full Moon, (Under the title Tormentor) is uninspired as is Pradeaux's camera work, although none of this is helped by the out of his control pan and scan hatchet job on the film. There are numerous scenes of dialogue which are so badly handled, especially across desks,as in the police station, that none of the actors are on screen whilst speaking, with the camera seemingly focused on inanimate objects in the centre of the original widescreen print. It is distracting and does harm the film's overall impact.

Despite this obvious problem the film possesses some nice touches, the typical giallo killer - black hat, coat and gloves, being one. I also like the idea of the cane. The killer holds his victims down using the cane handle before slashing their throats with the razor. Yes it's practically a cliched idea but it's one that works for me in a film with practically no clues as to the killers identity.

Death Carries a Cane is unremarkable but still more than watchable example of the giallo thriller despite it's woeful pan and scan print and despite it's flaws is still worth picking up for anyone wanting a less expensive release than the German one.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Murder Obsession (1981)

Riccardo Freda's intriguing giallo is a mish mash of ideas and genres. From knife wielding giallo mystery to full blown Gothic horror, Murder Obsession is something of a delight.

Playing out something akin to Poe or even Agatha Christie once the cast are assembled at an old Gothic mansion, home to Anita Strindberg and her butler.

Freda adds some bizarre hallucinatory imagery to proceedings, including Silvia Dionisio stripped and knifed on a cross and most memorably having her run through a weird, creepy, woodland where the branches tear at her clothes and flesh, leaving her naked and screaming. Of course Riccardo Freda is no stranger to Gothic films having directed I' Vampiri, The Horrible Dr. Hichcock and The Ghost, therefore his set pieces are a highlight of the movie.

The giallo elements are strong, with the black gloved killer on the prowl throughout, especially when drowning Laura Gemser in the bath or indeed cutting her open in the woods (obviously she wasn't actually drowned though). The film also sports some incestuous overtones between Strindberg and her son, Michael, as played by Stefano Patrizi. In fact it's the mother / son relationship that is key to the whole film.

At times the gorgeous Strindberg seems miscast. At 43 she is only 12 years older than Patrizi in real life, and never seems like the ailing matriarch she is supposedly playing. Despite this possible miscasting she is easily the best thing about the film, her character being sly and manipulative as well as incredibly sexy. In fact with her, Gemser and Dionisio on frequent show the film is never short of eye candy.

Gory and sleazy, Murder Obsession is a fine example of a later giallo thriller.

The print used by Raro for their region 1 dvd is quite beautiful to look at.

Recommended.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Fifth Cord (1971)

Franco Nero plays a journalist with a booze problem (lucky old J&B) who the police suspect is a murderer. Clearly concerned by this he sets out to discover who is killing seemingly random people but leaving a black glove with a finger removed on each victim.

The Fifth Cord is an enjoyable giallo. It's years since i watched the film and i'd forgotten much of it, which is always a bonus when it comes to a rewatch, meaning i didn't know what was coming next nor how the film was resolved. Director Luigi Bazzoni keeps us guessing who the killer is throughout and at times i did wonder if it was actually Nero who was the culprit. Perhaps slightly out of the ordinary for the giallo genre, the victims aren't restricted to being female, the male folk also come under attack here.

The film is technically impressive. Bazzoni is a fine director and is aided by the visually stunning photography of Vittorio Storaro. In fact it's the photography that makes The Fifth Cord stand out more than any one other aspect. Well that and Ennio Morricone's score.

Despite it being enjoyable The Fifth Cord isn't perfect by any means. There isn't an awful lot of suspense, meaning the kills, whilst well done, aren't edge of the seat stuff in the best traditions of Argento, Martino, or personal favourite of mine, Antonio Margheriti.The rest of the cast seem to flit in and out of proceedings. Some such as Rossella Falk don't have much screen time at all but her death, (the one with the most suspense i should add) is rather memorable and well executed, if you'll pardon the pun, with Storaro's framing an absolute delight. It's this haphazzardness of screen time that means aside from Nero there's not really anyone to empathize with.

Luckily Franco Nero, a legend of Italian cinema, holds the film together. He's a natural fit for the alcoholic reporter, his often laid back, laconic style somewhat perfect casting for a role that could be considered cliched in Italian crime thrillers of the era.

Bazzoni also directed the more obscure Footprints on the Moon(1975). A real love it or hate it example of gialli. Whilst The Fifth Cord doesn't compare with that later film it's still an enjoyable example of the genre.