Since I’ve seen most of the streaming giallo films with Italian audio and English subtitles, I decided to see if I could find the Arrow Video giallo boxed sets, or at least some of them, for a decent price. Each has three films on Blu-ray but people try to sell them for wild prices like $100 and more. No. Luckily Arrow has most of them for $35 (well, all but one is sold out so I must’ve gotten really lucky). As a bonus, I picked up their Sergio Martino collection. One of the Martino films is also in the White collection (Morte sospetta di una minorenne) so that’s 17 films, 6 I’ve already seen. This will keep me busy.
Le foto proibite di una signora per bene (1970) [ ★★★☆☆ | IMDB | Wikipedia ] – Luciano Ercoli. As with the two La morte… (cammina and accarezza) films (released in ’71 and ’72) this stars Simon Andreu and Nieves Navarro, but the lead is Dagmar Lassander (also in L’iguana della lingua di fuoco in the White set) and the story is less adventurous than those with Navarro. A woman (Lassander) is blackmailed into sex so that the blackmailer (Andreu, definitely not the nice guy here) doesn’t reveal supposed proof he has that her husband is a killer. When she decides to tell her husband and the police, no one can find proof that the blackmailer existed. Lassander does well in the role as she slowly falls apart, especially playing against Navarro’s lightness.
La coda dello scorpio (1971) [ ★★★★☆ | IMDB | Wikipedia ] – Sergio Martino. Another classic that–maybe I’m naive–kept the killer somewhat at arm’s distance. George Hinton and Anita Strindberg as regulars of Italian giallo, plus a small role (no spoilers) with Jenine Renaud of Jess Franco’s duology Two Undercover Angels and Kiss Me Monster (masterpieces! of 1969). Another masterful giallo with the suspects and syncophants piling up to confound the polizia. A woman’s (Strindberg) husband dies in a plane crash and she inherits millions, but the insurance investigator (Hinton) assigned to her case has doubts.
Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho un chiave (1972) [ ★★★★★ | IMDB | Wikipedia ] – Sergio Martino. Required watching. I go with the nonstandard (likely DVD?) version of the movie poster because it looks so much better. The rewatch was enjoyable and then the ending(s) happened and it got fucking bonkers. Seldom has a movie been that watchable to the very last minute, and seldom has it justified the multiple unexpected ending(s).
I really would love a poster for this film but they aren’t as aesthetically satisfying as the film is.
L’assassino ha reservato nove poltrone (1974) [ ★★☆☆☆ | IMDB | Wikipedia ] – Giuseppe Benatti. I made the mistake of watching this with Lisa and it was one of the least enjoyable giallo/Gothic films. She will never watch another. After leaving a party, a group of nine frenemies go to an abandoned theater owned by the wealthiest of them. Each is indebted to him in some way and so after his attempted murder and the subsequent actual murders we’re in a ten-little-Indians countdown to find the culprit. It’s a hodgepodge of murder mystery and pseudo-supernatural (still not sure) with an inexplicable ending that was so left-field-y that I wonder whether I didn’t just misunderstand something. meh
Morte sospetta di una minorenne (1975) [ ★★★★☆ | IMDB | Wikipedia ] – Sergio Martino. My favorite director in this genre, here’s a short filmography of those others that I’ve seen (and the one addition), this film the newest, in bold:
- Lo strano vizio della signora Wardh (1971)
- La coda dello scorpione (1971) – TBD, Sergio Martino Collection
- Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave (1972)
- I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale (1973)
- Morte sospetta di una minorenne (1975)
It’s been long enough since I first watched these other that I need to set up a Martino rewatch weekend. (And I think Lisa would like I corpi…, the others get a bit perverse at times.)
A young prostitute is being pursued and takes advantage of a bystander to hide from her pursuers. When she discards him in order to flee, he becomes a citizen sleuth to find out what happened to her and who is pursuing. Along the way, he adopts a young thief to help him navigate the darker parts of the city and infiltrate where he otherwise couldn’t. There’s some unfortunate 70s barroom piano throwback music, Bernadette Peters hairstyle, and slapstick chase scenes, but otherwise it plays out as a solid police thriller. A bonus, but short, appearance by Barbara Magnolfi from the completely unfortunate film La sorella di Ursula.