Spasmo

Spasmo

Director: Umberto Lenzi

Year: 1974

Christian and his girlfriend are taking a walk on a deserted beach when they discover a woman's body lying. A closer look proves that she's alive. The next day Christian meets her again at a yacht party and they fall in love. Later at a nearby motel, something weird happens as they prepare to go to bed together: An intruder breaks in and starts beating Christian who accidentally shoots him with his own gun. A few hours later they find out that the corpse is missing and a series of weird incidents takes place.

Spasmo is quite an odd film that doesn't make sense very often, the dialogue is ridiculous in places & then there are the latex dummies which are constantly being hung & stabbed, yet never seem to play an important part in the film. 

This is a pretty confusing Umberto Lenzi flick starring Robert Hoffmann & Suzy Kendall. The Ennio Morricone score didn't have the most memorable theme but really came to life in the more tension felt scenes, very disorientating at times. The twists in the final 15-20 minutes keep coming and coming in a what-the-fuck kinda way. 

That said, Spasmo remains a unique and highly entertaining Giallo despite it's many flaws, it may be incoherent with a daft plot but this oddity somehow delivers the goods.

★★★½

Suzy Kendall being strangled, as usual.

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh

Genre: Giallo, Erotic Thriller

Original Title: Lo strano vizio della signora Wardh

AKA: The Next Victim! / Blade of the Ripper

Director: Sergio Martino 

Year: 1971

An ambassador's wife discovers that one of the men in her life - either her husband, an ex-lover or her current lover - may be a vicious serial killer.

This Sergio Martino picture goes by many different names, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh. Blade of the Ripper, Next! & The Next Victim. This is Martino's first Gialli & is fine first attempt that combines all the classic Gialli trademarks & pairs the King & queen of the genre, George Hilton & Edwige Fenech together. 

The director's camera flair is there, the exotic locations, the beautifully shot kills & Fenech's body is constantly on show. For some reason I prefer most of Martino's other Gialli to this, though this is definitely one I want to revisit as I feel a second viewing could benefit my enjoyment of the film.

Rating: ★★★½

The ever creepy Ivan Rassimov.

All The Colors Of The Dark

All The Colors Of The Dark
Original Title: Tutti i colori del buio
AKA: They're Coming to Get You / Day Of The Maniac / Demons of the Dead

Genre: Giallo

Director: Sergio Martino

Year: 1972

A woman recovering from a car accident in which she lost her unborn child finds herself pursued by a coven of devil worshipers.

Fenech X4, I'd give my left testical for just one of her.

They Are Coming To Get You, Day Of The Maniac, Demons of the Dead & All The Colors Of The Dark are just some of the titles of director Sergio Martino's third Giallo picture goes under. It has an impressive cast with leads from two of the genres most recognisable names in Edwige Fenech & George Hilton & a great supporting cast that includes Susan Scott & Ivan Rassimov. The plot borrows heavily from Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby & has a very confused & paranoid Edwige Fenech get mixed up with a devil worshipping cult. To make matters worse she has Ivan Rassimov (who here sports the bluest eyes you'll ever see) constantly stalking her. If anybody was born to play those type of creepy characters it was him.

Out of Martino's Gialli I'd say this was probably his most ambitious, it relies on the psychological drama instead of the gory kills & for the most part the film delivers. Visually it's a treat, making great use of its London setting. The camera angels used on the main apartment block really helped add a sense of paranoia to Fenech's character. Despite all this, the highlight without a doubt is the amazing Bruno Nicolai score. For my money it's one of the defining scores of the genre with its use of sitars, psychedelic rock, choirs & creepy moments, it really helps create a paranoid atmosphere to the picture & lets the films themes feel that more stronger.

A pretty much essential Giallo which for my money is Martino's second best Gialli just behind the wondeful The Case of the Scorpion's Tail .

 Rating: ★★★★ 

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

Original Title: Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave

AKA: Excite Me/Eye of the Black Cat/Gently Before She Dies
Genre: Giallo
Director: Sergio Martino
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069421/

Oliviero is a burned-out writer, living at his estate near Venice, his dead mother dominating his imagination. He is also a degenerate: sleeps with his maid and his ex-student, hosts Bacchanalia for local hippies, and humiliates his wife Irina in front of strangers. She lives in terror. When a young woman is murdered, police suspect Oliviero. 

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key has a lot of positives going for it.

- First of all the title even by Giallo standards has to be one of the most ridiculous that the genre has to offer.
- It's directed by Sergio Martino who seems to always strike gold.
- A solid Bruno Nicolai score. For my money he is the king of the Giallo scores, yes even better than Ennio Morricone
- A cast that includes Edwige Fenech, Anita Strindberg, Luigi Pistilli & Ivan Rassimov
- & lastly but most important.. a cat called Satan.

With all these wonderful things in its favour I can't help but feel slightly disappointed. That's not to say that this isn't an entertaining Giallo that doesn't deliver because that's far from the case, I just feel with so many positives it should be up there with the very best yet it never quite reaches those levels, perhaps I was just upset with the fact Fenech sports a short hair-do in this film!. However it remains another very good Martino picture with some great characters (Pistilli is such a bastard here!) & a really fantastic payoff with the cat Satan at the very end.

Rating:  ★★★½

Luigi Pistilli, knows how to treat his women