Luciano Ercoli directed three giallo movies in the early 1970s after the genre blew up in Italy. Death Walks at Midnight is his best to me. It's his most straightforward one, the most coherent, and the most like other Argento movies from the time. Not that other gialli aren't good but I like the ones that emphasize slasher, mystery, and investigation over the psychological, erotic, and noir aspects some others have. This has a perfect balance between all those ingredients that make a giallo a giallo. Susan Scott (aka Nieves Navarro) plays one of the toughest and sassiest female characters in any giallo movie. The investigation and mystery turn up a lot of links that actually make sense at the end. While some people may not talk about the "final fight" scenes in giallo movies this one has one of the more memorable and well choreographed ones. The final reveal isn't just a typical reveal it seems way more exciting than most maybe because both the killer reveal and the backstory were unexpected.
Synopsis: "Valentina, a beautiful fashion model, takes an experimental drug as part of a scientific experiment. While influenced by the drug, Valentina has a vision of a young woman being brutally murdered with a viciously spiked glove. It turns out that a woman was killed in exactly the same way not long ago and soon Valentina finds herself stalked by the same killer."
The movie starts with Valentina (Nieves Navarro) modeling for her friend, reporter Gio Baldi (Simon Andreu) and experimenting with a new hallucinogenic drug. She apparently sees a murder happen across the way. This in itself is interesting because the cops and her friend later dismiss what she sees as a hallucination. In a way the details she can see from as far away as she is doesn't seem real. This movie has one gory kill early on and one toward the end with the same bladed glove that you can see on the movie's poster above. Some early giallo weren't this bloody or gory. I enjoy how in the kill Ercoli has the blood splash on the sunglasses of the killer. This same killer turns up in places you wouldn't expect throughout the whole movie and on several occasions is stalking Valentina around. In one of the film's adherence to giallo tropes she apparently sees the man in a car then the cops don't believe her. He stalks her around quite similarly to how Ivan Rassimov's character in All the Colors of the Dark stalks Edwige Fenech's character in that movie. Another giallo trope is the objects of evidence that suddenly go missing when the character is about to have someone on their side. Valentina and her friend Verushka (Claudie Lange) find out that the murderer with the sunglasses is linked to Verushka's sister and a model that was killed six months before. This is the murder the cops told Valentina she saw. That twist is similar to something Lucio Fulci would do with the Psychic.
This movie wouldn't work without Nieves Navarro's strong performance. During the suspenseful scenes her eyes go so wide and it enhances how scared she seems. She is very sassy and takes nothing from any men throughout this whole movie. She yells at the inspector after he doesn't believe her story and again later on when he doesn't believe her about the picture she found implicating the guy with the sunglasses. Her boyfriend Stefano (Peter Martell) gets drunk and slaps her at one point and she even gives him the business about not wanting to be with him anymore after that. Progressive for the time. A man tries to force her into the backseat of his car and she kicks and punches him in the face before getting away. Verushka leaves her alone while they investigate an asylum and when she sees her again later she berates calls her out for it. Her journalist friend, Gio publishes her account of seeing the murder and she throws a rock at him through a glass window. If that doesn't sound like a tough female character, and one who can handle herself I don't know what is.
There are some other great moments and things in this movie. There is a suspenseful scene early on where Valentina is delivered a message to go to the building across from her home. She is pursued by the man in sunglasses and breaks a glass shard to alert Stefano across the way. During a scene at the cemetery a rope holding a hanging statue is cut and nearly hits Valentina. There is one swinging 60s type scene at a bar where Nieves Navarro is wearing one of the most ridiculous wigs ever. As I said before the killer reveal and final reveal are great in this movie. It's one of those you may want to watch again, not just the reveal scene but the whole movie to pick up extra details. The final fight which involves some Captain Kirk fighting and one giggling killer Death Wish style is great. As the movie goes on everyone seems like a suspect so the reveal only seems more satisfying at that point. While I enjoy the sultry human voice element to the intro scene in Gianni Ferrio's score the rest of it is okay. Not as memorable as something Bruno Nicolai or Morricone would make but not bad.
Nieves Navarro's wig
Rating: 9.5/10
Dubbing Cast:
- Ted Rusoff dubbed Simon Andreu as Gio
- Michael Forest dubbed Peter Martell as Stefano
- Frank Von Kuegelen dubbed Fabrizio Moresco as Pepito and Alessandro Perrella as the Van Driver
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