Recently I bought Troy Howarth’s excellent books- So Deadly, So Perverse (Volumes 1 & 2), covering 50 years of the Italian “Giallo” thriller. “Giallos” were the yellow paperbacks that signified a certain type of sexy mystery, and the movies reflected the 70s and 80s culture with groovy fashions, modern apartments, gorgeous women in peril, and a black-gloved figure menacing them.
A friend pointed out that there’s usually close ups of bottles of scotch in many of these movies and while going through the films again I was shocked at how right this was. If it’s product placement, then every Italian thriller was subsidized by J & B.
The maestro of the macabre Mario Bava is credited with ushering in these films with The Girl Who Knew Too Much (aka Evil Eye), which includes many of the tropes used in subsequent thrillers. But it was Dario Argento’s international hit- The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, that formed the template which was copied endlessly by other Italian directors, often slipping animal and insect names into the title, like Four Flies On Grey Velvet, The Iquana With The Tongue Of Fire, Cat ‘o Nine Tails, The Bloodstained Butterfly etc.). The convoluted plots were usually rife with sex and violence. I often get an urge to re-watch these films, and now with many of them showing up remastered on Blu-ray, it’s been a pleasure wallowing in the twisty plots of this perversely enjoyable genre. Here are 21 that really rise to the top of my “Giallo” favorites:
Blood And Black Lace (Mario Bava). A mysterious, masked psycho stalks victims around a haute couture fashion salon. The director’s imaginative use of lighting and color influenced filmmakers as varied as Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton. Every frame of this film is exquisite. Just the credit sequence with color tableaus showing the stars of the film is absolutely brilliant.
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento). Tony Musante plays an American author who stumbles on the scene of an attempted murder at an art gallery and saves a woman’s life. His passport is confiscated and he is unable to leave the city, so he turns amateur detective, putting himself and his beautiful girlfriend (Suzy Kendall) in jeopardy. Stylish, smart and incredibly suspenseful, with stunning visuals from cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and a haunting Ennio Morricone score. This still seems thrillingly fresh.
Black Belly Of The Tarantula (Paolo Cavara) Excellent mystery about a psychopath targeting “loose” women and using an acupuncture needle first to incapacitate them before killing them. Giancarlo Giannini (Seven Beauties) plays the conflicted policeman, unsure if he is up to the task of solving the crimes. Stefania Sandrelli (The Conformist) plays his loving wife. Expertly directed and with wonderful co-stars (Rossella Falk, Barbara Bach, Barbara Bouchet), everything just works perfectly here.
Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (Umberto Lenzi) Seemingly random woman are murdered and a half-moon pendant is left at the scene of the crime. One of the victims lives, but pretends to have died and hides out with her husband. This terrific thriller was vaguely based on famed mystery writer Cornell Woolrich’s Rendezvous In Black. It’s a uniquely perverse idea for a murderer’s motive. By all means check out the movies director Lenzi did with actress Carroll Baker like Paranoia (1969), So Sweet, So Perverse (1969), A Quiet Place To Kill (1970) and Knife Of Ice (1972). They’re wonderfully warped.
The Case Of The Scorpion’s Tail (Sergio Martino) George Hilton plays an insurance investigator following the widow of a businessman (who died in a suspicious plane explosion) as she travels to Greece to cash in the million dollar policy. Slickly directed by Martino, the movie is incredibly stylish and filled with plenty of red herrings and unexpected, murderous twists.
The House With Laughing Windows (Pupi Avati). Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) arrives by ferry to the small Italian village to restore a fresco of Saint Sebastian at a church by the infamous artist Legnani (“the painter of the agony”). Weird incidents begin. He gets threatening phone calls to “leave the painting alone!” His friend gets pushed out of a window to his death. He finds a tape recording with a croaking voice chanting “Soft, hot, blood, death, the colors, the purity.” He meets the town drunk who knows the real story behind Legnani and his evil sisters. And yes, there is an actual house with laughing windows. A slow burn of a film but with a killer ending.
What Have You Done To Solange? (Massimo Dallamano) Enrico (Fabio Testi) is a married gym teacher having an affair with a student at a prestigious Catholic girl’s school in London. One day while having a romantic boat ride on the river he thinks he sees a girl getting attacked but is afraid to go to the police without revealing his partner’s identity. Several more students get killed and the authorities begin to circle Enrico as the main suspect. Loosely based on an Edgar Wallace novel, the actual murders are shockingly savage. Maybe not on the level of the notorious Giallo a Venezia, but still pretty rough. The difference is, when you get to the final reveal it all makes logical sense.
The Fifth Cord (Luigi Bazzoni) The visual brilliance of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (The Conformist) adds much to this mystery about a reporter (Franco Nero) trying to uncover a killer who murders victims born under the sign of Aries. There are incredible sequences- one with a small boy alone in a house pursued by the murderer, and a phenomenal chase with Franco Nero in a warehouse at the end.
The Strange Vice Of Mrs. Wardh (Sergio Martino). The eternally beautiful Edwige Fenech stars as a married woman in Vienna who is stalked by a sadistic old lover, blackmailed by a stranger and forced to ward off attacks from a razor-wielding serial killer. Convoluted, preposterous and utterly fabulous.
A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin (Lucio Fulci) This psychological thriller is about Carol (Florinda Bolkan– great as always), a Londoner who has erotic dreams about her neighbor Deborah (Silvia Monti). When Deborah is found stabbed to death, Carol becomes the chief suspect in her murder. Special-effects genius Carlo Rambaldi’s (E.T.) notorious dog vivisection scene was so realistic the filmmakers were brought into court to prove that it was faked.
Torso (Sergio Martino) This movie is a big favorite of director Eli Roth. Suzy Kendall plays Jane, a student in Perugia, Italy- where co-eds are getting strangled by a masked madman who also takes a hacksaw to the bodies. Jane and her girlfriends go away for the weekend, at a villa in the country, and unfortunately the killer follows them. There is one long suspense sequence that is just unforgettable. I also adore the original title: The Bodies Presented Traces Of Carnal Violence.
The Killer Must Kill Again (Luigi Cozzi)) Giorgio (handsome George Hilton) is a philandering husband who catches a man (Antoine Saint-John) pushing a Volkswagen off a pier with a dead victim inside. Giorgio blackmails the psychopath into disposing of his own wealthy wife. The plan goes awry when two young lovers steal the killer’s car and drive to the beach, unaware that Giorgio’s wife’s corpse is in the trunk. The “killer” has the most incredible face- with sunken cheeks and deep-set eyes- in this deliciously nasty thriller by Cozzi.
Amuck (Silvio Amadio) Greta (sexy Barbara Bouchet) arrives by boat to a villa outside Venice and goes to work as secretary for author Richard Stuart (Farley Granger), a decadent Nietzsche-lover and ascot-abuser. Richard lives with his swinger wife Eleanora (Rosalba Neri). Greta is secretly there to find out what happened to her good friend Sally who was Richard’s former secretary and disappeared without a trace. Greta is drugged and seduced by Eleanor and enters into their degenerate lifestyle filled with wild drunken parties, sex, narcotics and pornography. The closer she gets to the truth, the more her life is in danger. A wickedly ironic twist saves her life. Farley Granger (Strangers On A Train) did a lot of these Italian thrillers, some better than others.
A Blade In The Dark (Lamberto Bava) Bruno, (handsome Andrea Occhipinti) is a musician who rents an isolated house for a month to compose the film score for a horror film. Michele Soavi (the director of Cemetery Man) is his real estate agent. Unfortunately, the former tenant “Linda” had a deadly secret that still haunts the house. A lunatic secretly spies on Bruno, sabotages the score and offs strangers with a handy X-Acto knife. If you can search out a copy with the Italian soundtrack it’s preferable to the atrocious English dubbing. The son of the great Mario Bava, Lamberto, directed other oddball thrillers like the bizarre Delirium and the fabulously twisted Body Puzzle.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (Emilio Miraglia) According to Wildenbruck family legend, every 100 years a vengeful spirit in a red cloak called the “Red Queen” returns to kill seven times. Kitty Wildenbruck (Barbara Bouchet) is a fashion model who accidentally murders her sister Evelyn and hides her body on the estate. Suddenly a shadowy figure in a red cape with a maniacal laugh stalks and kills, and Kitty wonders if it isn’t Evelyn back for revenge. Miraglia’s film has great gothic atmosphere and is incredibly enjoyable.
Don’t Torture A Duckling (Lucio Fulci) A Southern Italian village is terrorized by a series of child killings. A journalist (Tomas Milian) attempts to make sense of the crimes, while the superstitious townspeople focus their suspicion on the local “witch” (Florinda Bolkan). Barbara Bouchet plays a decadent wealthy woman who vacations nearby and sexually teases the young men in town. Fulci’s film is intense, thought provoking, and absolutely riveting.
Bay Of Blood (Mario Bava) (aka Twitch Of The Death Nerve) A wealthy countess is murdered and what follows is a series of bloody killings that really mask a greedy siege by all the relatives set to inherit the wealthy property around a lake. Surprisingly gory for its time, this was the precursor to the body-count films of the 80s. Darkly witty and just a blast.
Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key (Sergio Martino). First-rate Italian thriller by Martino about a decadent writer, living in a villa in Verona with his abused wife (Anita Strindberg), who becomes a suspect when a series of women are found murdered. This even throws in some Edgar Allan Poe plot twists for good measure.
Death Walks At Midnight (Luciano Ercoli) Stunning Susan Scott plays a fashion model who gets talked into taking an experimental hallucinogen by her reporter boyfriend. Under the influence of the drug she thinks she witnesses a murder across the way in an apartment building. Of the three “Giallos” by director Ercoli, including Forbidden Photos Of A Lady Above Suspicion (1970) and Death Walks On High Heels (1971), I like this film the best. Maybe because the killer wears a cool, medieval spiked iron glove to smash and tear at his victims.
Strip Nude For Your Killer (Andrea Bianchi) There has always been criticism about the gratuitous sex and violence in this genre, so it’s refreshing to see a movie that just unapologetically revels in it. A killer wearing a motorcycle helmet, dressed head to toe in leather, is targeting people who work for the Albatross Modeling Agency in Milan. Edwige Fenech (in a short hairdo) works for the agency, as does her randy photographer boyfriend Carlo (Nino Casteinuovo). Trust me, many in the cast take the title quite literally in this sleaze great.
Tenebre (Dario Argento) Peter Neal (Anthony Franciosa) is an American mystery writer who arrives in Rome for a book tour only to find that a killer has been jamming pages of his books down his victim’s throats. Argento’s film has incredible visual flourishes. In one elongated sequence (accompanied by a pounding rock score), a roving camera sweeps over the top of a house and down along the side to watch the killer breaking in. It’s pointless, yet breathtaking at the same time. The violence is also outrageous and almost operatic. And, the sublime Daria Nicolodi is in it.
What!! So many great movies I haven’t heard of or seen? This has got to change!