I've said before that I like Sergio Martino's gialli because they are all different. This has the psychological horror and mystery of All the Colors of the Dark and the somewhat supernatural feel and gothic look of that movie as well. The difference is in the location and themes. This deals with the burnout of going from being a famous person to a has been and how that negatively influence someone into alcoholism and domestic violence. The film also has a strong Edgar Allen Poe influence as well with similarities to the Black Cat and the Tell Tale Heart and the psychology of guilt. The kills in this are about as brutal as those in Martino's more violent films. This is also almost as erotic, but a little bit more intimate than Torso as Edwige Fenech spends most of this movie getting around to having sex with anything that seems to move. The characters that Fenech, Anita Strindberg, and Luigi Pistilli play in this movie are also much different from any others they played in other gialli. Strindberg in particular plays a character with so many dimensions it might be the best performance by a woman in a giallo movie.
Synopsis: Failed writer and alcoholic Oliviero (Luigi Pistilli) takes out his frustrations on his wife Irina (Anita Strindbeg). Irina is terrified that Oliviero is planning to kill her. She confides this in his niece Floriana (Edwige Fenech) who has come to visit. A killer dressed in black is killing people Oliviero and Irina know in the village where they live.
The film starts with Oliviero hosting an orgy for some local hippies. In this sequence he takes every opportunity to belittle and make fun of his wife. It should be noted that one of the stripping hippies dancing is a very young Dalila De Lazzaro. Soon the African-American housekeeper whom Oliviero was having an affair turns up dead. The same thing happens to another woman he was having an affair with. Oliviero is the primary suspect. Floriana shows up by train. A woman who showed up around the time Floriana did is also killed but her Aunt catches the murderer and kills him. Meanwhile Irina is frustrated and tormented by Oliviero's black cat, the last living vestige of Oliviero's mother. She eventually stabs one of the cat's eyes out. Irina and Floriana start an affair. She plays games with both Oliviero and Irina as she starts to blackmail either one of them for control of the inheritance should one of them kill one another.
There are a lot of things I love about this movie. The village setting while still very lavish is much more gothic than something out of Torso. Not quite as cavernous as something from All the Colors of the Dark. Something quite gothic and reminding of Hitchcock's Rebecca is the painting of Oliviero's mother and the. dress of hers from that picture that Oliviero likes. His maid and Irina at different times have the dress on and this puts him in a sort of trance. The black cat stuff and how Irina is haunted by it is very much like Edgar Allan Poe. The short story of the black cat is present in this film just as a subplot. The main plot is actually similar to an Umberto Lenzi giallo with three people contending with trysts and blackmail. The difference being that there is a slasher subplot that is much more interesting and exciting than those more noir elements. The kills in this, mostly done with razor blades and knives are quite bloody. They don't disappoint. The one murder set piece involving the maid is quite great with atmosphere as a thunderstorm is raging when that kill happens. This movie and Torso were both no stranger to political incorrectness with the dialogue about a black woman in giallo movie. This also has more close ups on people's eyes than some other Martino films and of course they look great.
Spoiler Section
I've always liked that the three main roles in this are different for the actors and much more fleshed out characters than most giallo movies. Edwige's character with her short hair and sassiness is much more different than other characters she's played and its a turn to a femme fatale for her. Strindberg goes through so many dimensions throughout, starting as a supposedly helpless victim, to someone who can fight back to a full on femme fatale murderer on her own. The lesbian sex scene between her and Fenech is actually less exploitative and more sensual than the scenes between Fenech and Pistilli as well as her and Riccardo Salvino. I actually enjoy the relationship between her and Riccardo Salvino's Dario character. The moment where she goes to his motocross race and his bike breaks down is actually a great use of comedy to bring some levity into this movie.
I don't love the short hair look for Edwige in this movie but its her so she can never look bad
Throughout the second half I love how the tension reaches a point where Oliviero and Irina just start talking about killing each other right in front of one another, or talk to Floriana about it when one of the others can hear everything they are saying. Giallo movies always have a twist that one ups the first twist or reveal in the movie. In this we get several. I like how Martino always has little details that come back later. For example, how when Oliviero and Fausta talk about a sexcapade later that night and her boss, Bartello can hear them. Bartello turns out to be murderer of the prostitute and supposedly the murderer of the maid. Ivan Rassimov shows up randomly at one point to give the dress back to Irina. You never know why he shows up randomly until later when it is revealed him and Irina have been killing people the whole time. While him knowing exactly where to dump the oil slick on the road so that Dario and Floriana crash later is a bit of strech, at least Irina had heard them talking about going away. That whole scene at the end reminded me of the chase sequence in Hitchcock's Family Plot. While the scene of Irina killing the cat is somewhat unintentionally hilarious, it leads to a great reveal at the end. That also has a supernatural feel as it is hard to know if that cat is really alive or what is really happening at the end there. How long was that cat stuck in the wall? Or did it get in there another way? Either way I really love this ending. I love how Floriana went full femme fatale when she pushed Ivan Rassimov off the cliff. She further reveals she killed Oliviero's mother and had the maid killed. Doesn't want to share the money with anyone that one. I've said before that All the Colors of the Dark seems like an influence on Eyes Wide Shut but this movie made me rally think Kubrick watched gialli, or least some of Martino's. Oliviero's typewriter says vendetta over and over again and it really reminded me of the typewriter part in The Shining.
This movie has actually gotten better for me overtime and it's now one of my favorite gialli and another A+ from Martino. Edwige is getting around to everyone in this movie, so much so it makes me think I would've had a chance to hook up with her in the 70s. This is meanest Pistilli has ever been in a movie but it fits the character well. Any score in Martino's movies is good and of course Bruno Nicolai did the score so you can never go wrong there. Seeing my two biggest giallo crushes, with Fenech and Strindberg in the same movie is awesome.
Rating: 10/10
English Dubbing Cast:
- Edward Mannix subs Luigi Pistilli as Oliviero
- Susan Spafford dubs Anita Strindberg as Irina
- Frank Von Kuegelen dubs Riccardo Salvino as Dario
Trivia: Edwige gets top billing even though she doesn't appear until 32 minutes in. The title of the film is a reference to a note received by Fenech's character in the Strange of Mrs.Wardh.
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