The Man With Icy Eyes

The Man With Icy Eyes

"'Icy' doesn't have a color. That's the beauty of it. Understand?"

After a former New Mexico state senator is shot one night outside his home and his briefcase is stolen, the police pick up Carlos Valdes (uncredited), a Mexican laborer who happened to be nearby. Newspaper reporter Eddie Mills (Antonio Sabato) is covering the case and believes that the facts, as presented by the prosecution, don't add up. But Carlos is convicted and sentenced to death, largely based on the testimony of Anne Saxe (Barbara Bouchet), a nude model who claims to have seen Carlos dump the briefcase into a car driven by a mysterious accomplice with cold, gray eyes.  As Eddie digs deeper into the case, he is repeatedly thwarted and harassed by a gang of hooligans, his own editor, and by Isaac Thetman (Corrado Gaipa), a local politico and believer in astrology, who repeatedly predicts that Eddie will die before Carlos is sent to the gas chamber. When witnesses start getting killed off, it seems that Isaac's predictions are coming true. Now, Eddie must race to find the truth before Carlos is executed.

The Man with Icy Eyes (not to be confused with Eyes of Crystal) is a cool little noir-inspired thriller where a lone detective pursues a seemingly simple case that spins into a larger conspiracy. He even falls for a beautiful but dangerous woman with mysterious motives. Setting and filming an Italian movie in New Mexico is a novel twist, but it results in some amusing culture shock. For example, Americans usually don't hang out at outdoor cafés the way Italians do. Especially in the winter.

• Faith Domergue, who plays Carlos's wife, became famous in 1950's sci-fi B movies like This Island Earth, It Came From Beneath the Sea, and The Atomic Man.
• Victor Buono (who plays Eddie's racist boss, John Hammond) is one of those "that guy" actors who showed up in small roles in everything in the 60's and 70's from TV's Batman and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to Beneath the Planet of the Apes and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

What the Hell Am I Watching?

Eddie is in a downtown hotel at 11pm when he realizes that he must stop the execution scheduled at midnight. Within that one hour, he manages to schedule meetings with two witnesses, find and lose Anne, meet with his editor, get in a fight with the hooligans, drive out to the penitentiary for a meeting with Carlos, drive back to the city, threaten a witness, find Anne again, and take her back out to the penitentiary to give her testimony.

Fashion Moment

Eddie's leather jacket is really cool, especially paired with a mock turtleneck. John's vest is also really nice.

But check out the boss's secretary at the Albuquerque Sentinel.

Voom! A spiraling column of black and gray! That hairdo must take hours of maintenance.

 

Seven Blood Stained Orchids

Seven Blood Stained Orchids

"That is one thing you can always be sure of. All criminals are out of their minds."

A serial killer is murdering young women around Rome, leaving a silver crescent moon medallion at the scene of each crime as a trademark. His victims include a prostitute, an artist, a patient in a psych ward, a teacher, and a housewife – but are the killings random or are these women somehow linked? One victim, Giulia (Uschi Glas) manages to survive her attack and, with the help of her husband Mario (Antonio Sabato), she follows the clues to find the murderer. Their search leads them to a crumbling villa, a hippie drug den, and a tour of Rome's Christian churches. Can the couple unmask the killer before he finds Giulia and finishes the job?

If you've never seen a giallo or if you want to show someone what a giallo is, Seven Blood Stained Orchids (not to be confused with The Blood Stained Buterfly) is an excellent place to start. It has all the classic elements: beautiful women getting murdered in elaborate ways, stylized camera work, and the classic faceless giallo killer who wears a black coat, hat and gloves. It's sexy, suspenseful, and a little bit trashy. The story is easy to follow and has a satisfying resolution. This might be Umberto Lenzi's best work.

• There are lots of little homages to Mario Bava's two greatest gialli. The harp in Kathy's apartment and the bathtub drowning scene are homages to Blood and  Black Lace and the scenes in the newspaper office and at the piazza di spagna recall The Girl Who Knew Too Much. Come to think of it, Uschi Glas looks a lot like Leticia Roman in this movie. 
• Also, the poison milk may be a reference to Dario Argento's Cat O'Nine Tails.
• Maria Tedeschi (whom you may remember from a cameo in The Bird With the Crystal Plumage and as Mrs. Moss in The Case of the Bloody Iris) shows up here as a patient in the psych ward.
• You may also remember the improbably named Franco Fantasia (Lt. Renzi) from Knife of Ice.
• Was the old woman in the opening scene murdered? It's never shown, but I think maybe she was, so I've listed her in the body count, above. The killer saw the photo of the woman he was really after on her nightstand and realized that he had the wrong woman. I suspect that he killed her to tie up loose ends, but didn't leave an amulet. That way, her murder wouldn't be connected to the case.

 What the Hell Am I Watching?

So Mario decides to keep the amulet that the killer sent to Guilia? Why? As a memento of the time she was nearly murdered? Not cool, man.

I love the scene where Elena (Rosella Falk) is screaming in her hospital room and we cut to the nurse, who just rolls her eyes and ignores it.

I also adore the fact that Mario (who is a fashion designer and presumably knows a thing or two about sketching) shows people what is essentially a stick figure and asks them if they recognize the guy.  I love it even more that several people can actually put an accurate name to his simple line drawing.

Apparently there's a law in Italy that if you have an awesome car, you can just park it anywhere.

Fashion Moment

This one belongs to Kathy Adams (Marina Malfatti) for her tiny sequined vest and harem pants.