A White Dress for Marialé

A White Dress for Marialé

Maybe we're not all innocent?

As a child, Marialé (Ida Galli, credited as Evelin Stuart) witnessed her father murder her mother and her mother's lover before turning the gun on himself. Now, years later, she finds herself in a crumbling pallazo married to Paolo (Luigi Pistilli), a rich brute who secretly sedates her. To ease the boredom and seek help, Marialé invites friends over for a raucous party. Guests include her former flame, Massimo (Ivan Rassimov), Semy (Shawn Robinson) and her racist husband Gustavo (Edilio Kim), and Mercedes (Pilar Velasquez), Joe (Giancarlo Bonuglia) and Sebastiano (Ezio Marano), who form their own open love triangle. Passions are unleashed over dinner, but things soon turn serious when one by one, the guests start turning up dead. Is Paolo offing his unwelcome visitors? Has Sebastiano's jealousy finally gotten out of hand? It all leads to a bloody conclusion!

In its first half, A White Dress for Marialé is one of those freak-out gialli like Death Falls Lightly or Spasmo, where a dream-like stream-of-consciousness narrative skips around, disorienting the audience until we're dizzy and confused. In the second half , the movie sobers up and sticks its landing as a standard drawing-room whodunnit. If you find the crazy psych-out style tedious like I do, just watch the first 15 minutes and then skip ahead to the movie's midpoint. 

• It's not a great movie by any stretch, but there's some real talent on both sides of the screen. Ida Galli, Ivan Rassimov and Luigi Pistilli are Giallo all-stars. Editor Francesco Bertuccioli worked on Sister of Ursula and Strip Nude for your Killer and Bruno Nicolai, one of the best composers of giallo scores ever, goes uncredited here.
• The movie was filmed at the Palazzo Borghese in Rome.
• We breeze quickly through character introductions at the beginning of the film, so it's easy to get confused about who's who and how they're all connected. On top of that, Gustavo and Sebastiano sort of resemble each other and they spend half the movie in stage costumes and makeup, making things even more confusing. I had to draw a diagram to keep everything straight.
• There seems to be a half-hearted "relflection" motif, where characters – especially Marialé – are shown in mirrors or reflected in windows. I was expecting it to foreshadow a split-personality twist, but that never came to pass

What the Hell am I Watching?

So much to cover here...

 Let's start with the part where a harmless garter snake – no more than half an inch around – crawls over Mercedes' foot. When she screams, Paolo immediately pulls out a gun and shoots it off her. Paolo is a). more than a little over-reactive and b.) an amazing marksman.

Let's talk about the scene where Semy feels up and gropes an empty suit of armor.

The women in this movie really get brutalized. Before getting murdered, they're constantly slapped around and Mercedes gets raped in one disturbing scene.

Speaking of getting slapped, my brain broke at the sight of Gustavo wearing a ballerina's dress in a slap fight with a naked Semy. The fight is broken up by Joe, who beats Gustavo with a whip. For real. What the hell am I watching?

Throughout the movie, I kept asking myself: Do these people even like each other? Why are they here? Why are they in these toxic relationships?

Fashion Moment

True to the title, Marialé does wear a white dress. In fact it's the same white dress her mother was murdered in. You can clearly see the two bullet holes on her chest. Foreshadowing!

Things get out of hand at the costume dinner.

And the aftermath of the feast looks like a Renaissance Dutch still life.

Maniac Mansion

Maniac Mansion

"Of course it exists. We're in it."

Lost in a fog late a t night, five travelers take refuge in a dark abandoned mansion. The group includes motorcyclist Fred (Andrés Resino), hitchhiker Laura (Lisa Leonardi), lascivious Mr. Porter (Franco Fantasia), skittish Elsa (Analía Gadé), and the Tremonts (Yelena Samarina and Eduardo Fajardo). They soon find that they are not alone when the house's owner, Martha (Ida Galli, credited as Evelin Stewart) appears from the darkness. Her tales of a witch ancestor and local legends about vampires terrify Elsa, who was attacked by mysterious figures in the cemetery outside the house. What are the eerie clawing noises coming from the cellar? Is the house really inhabited by zombies or vampires or ghosts? Or is there a more diabolical – and human – explanation behind this mystery?

Ugh, this movie.  Maniac Mansion (not to be confused with Slaughter Hotel) is a bit of a bait-and-switch. After a slow and meandering exposition the movie ratchets itself up as a standard Gothic tale with all the manufactured atmosphere and production value of a carnival's haunted house ride. It's not until the last fifteen minutes that it reveals itself to be a giallo.  The mystery isn't in figuring out the identity of a killer, but in unraveling the ultimate motives of an overly-elaborate scheme. 

• There's some real talent in front of the camera on this one, including Ida Galli (from The Bloodstained Butterfly and La Dolce Vita), Franco Fantasia (Seven Blood Stained Orchids and El Cid) and George Rigaud (The Case of the Bloody Iris and Death Walks on High Heels).
• Believe it or not, this movie actually won an award. Eduardo Fajardo took home Best Supporting Actor at Spain's National Syndicate of Spectacle Awards in 1972.
• There are several love scenes but no nudity in the film.

What the Hell Am I Watching?

The creepiest thing in the movie isn't the spooky atmosphere or the zombie vampire witches – it's learning about Elsa's daddy issues. Her father (George Rigaud) died of a heart attack while having an affair with her best friend in Elsa's bed. (*shudder*) In a flashback, we watch her take revenge by sleeping with her future no-good husband Ernest (Alberto Dalbés) in her father's bed.

They keep referring to the nearby city as "Mullen." Is it possible that they're all mispronouncing "Milan?"

Fashion Moment

Martha's luxurious silk robe stands out as the only pop of color in this drab little movie.

Laura's fitted leather jacket is also pretty chic. Can't say the same for Fred's bold plaid.

 

Weekend Murders

Weekend Murders

"Aren't they just too revolting, these family reunions?"

Henry Carter, 2nd Earl of Vale has died at his lavish country estate in Suffolk, England and his relatives have all gathered for the reading of his will. A few token odds and ends are allotted, but the vast majority of the Earl's wealth goes to his niece, Barbara (Anna Moffo), who cared for him in his old age. The rest of the greedy family is naturally upset but things get serious when the butler, Peter (Ballard Berkley), turns up dead and a sniper's bullet barely misses Barbara's head. Inspector Grey (Lance Percival) is called in from Scotland Yard and, assisted by bumbling local constable Aloisius Thorpe (Gastone Moschin), sets out to solve the case. But over the course of the next few days, more people turn up dead and family secrets are revealed. Could the murderer be George (Chris Chittell), the prankster with a morbid sense of humor or his shrewish mother, Aunt Gladys (Marisa Fabbri)? Maybe it was Anthony Carter (Peter Baldwin) whose wife, Isabelle (Ida Galli, credited as Eveline Stewart) is having an affair?  Grey and Thorpe must find the killer fast!

Weekend Murders features elaborate pranks, physical comedy, and a wacky score by Francesco De Masi that parodies Tchaikovsky. There's no blood, only brief nudity and sexy scenes, and, really, it's closer in tone to cozy English whodunnits or the 1985 comedy Clue than to more conventional gialli. But it's still a fun little movie, especially after the halfway point, when Sargent Thorpe stops being annoying and becomes a competent detective. The final reveal – in a scene where the suspects are gathered and the murderer is pointed out – turns out to be delightfully ingenious.

• The movie starts with the discovery of the third body and then flashes back to the previous Wednesday to fill in the story.
• The title "sort of" makes sense because the murders take place over more than a weekend. 
• The musical references to Tchaikovsky, punctuated by gunshots, make more sense with the original Italian title, Concerto Per Pistola Solista or Concerto For Solo Pistol.
• Even though we never meet him and he dies of natural causes before the movie starts, I'm including Henry Carter's death in the body count above.
• The ending of the movie is ambiguous, but I'm going to be optimistic and count it as a "fake murder."
• You may remember Marisa Fabbri as the maid in Dario Argento's Four Flies On Gray Velvet. You may also remember Beryl Cunningham as the stripper in So Sweet... So Dead.
•  English actor Lance Percival performed the voices of Paul and Ringo in the animated TV series The Beatles well as in the 1968 film Yellow Submarine.

 What the Hell Am I Watching?

Uppity Aunt Gladys nearly has a stroke when he meets her nephew's new wife – African-American Pauline Collins (Beryl Cunningham).

There's a crazy scene with a rape gone bad... but it's not what you think. George, wearing a mask, breaks into the maid's room to rape her, but she just laughs and says that he should have just asked. At this point, George has guilt-induced visions of his overbearing mother and flees screaming from the room.

Later – less than 24 hours after her husband is gunned down by the killer – George approaches Pauline and clumsily puts the moves on her. "Why not?" she says, as the two disappear into her room.

Fashion Moment

We're dealing with moneyed English elite here, so the clothes are impeccable... but super-boring.  It's Pauline, already an outsider in her new family, who stands out further with some flashy, trendy fashion choices.

She wears a colorful sweater, miniskirt, and thigh-high patent leather boots to the reading of Henry's will.

At dinner, she goes for this dramatic Seven Year Itch-inspired gown and blonde wig.

Mourning the death of her husband, she sports this striking white fringe coat, reminiscent of angels' wings.

 

The Case of the Scorpion's Tail

The Case of the Scorpion's Tail

"Even a sex maniac must pay his laundry bill."

After Lisa Baumer's (Ida Galli) estranged husband dies in an airline explosion, she must travel to Athens to collect the million dollar insurance premium. While there, she is confronted by her husband's mistress, Lara (Janine Reynard), who demands a cut of the money, but Lisa refuses. Soon after cashing the check, Lisa is murdered and the money is stolen. Insurance investigator Peter Lynch (George Hilton) has been trailing Lisa, but now his mission is to track down the missing money and find the killer, along with local Police Insepctor Stavros (Luigi Pistilli), Interpol detective John Stanley (Alberto diMendoza), and ace reporter Cleo Dupont (Anita Strinberg). As the clues pile up, the killer continues to strike. Could Stanley or Stavros be the killer? Was Baumer really on that plane, like everyone assumes? And what answers can be found in a scorpion-shaped cufflink and a hidden underwater cave?

The Case Of the Scorpion's Tail (not to be confused with The Scorpion With Two Tails) benefits from a first-class script. The plot has great twists, suspicion shifts throughout the story, and there are some effective scenes of action and suspense. Not to mention the fantastic cast of giallo all-stars.  Like Marion in Psycho, our main character, Lisa, is killed off in the first 25 minutes of the movie, giving the film an anything-can-happen sense of reckless danger. Anyone could be the killer and anyone could be the next victim and that's a thrilling feeling.

• The Case Of the Scorpion's Tail features another great score by Bruno Nicolai and fantastic editing by Eugenio Alabiso.
• Martino and his screenwriters really utilize this cast beautifully. The ladies are appropriately alluring, Hilton plays right to his strengths as a bad-boy love interest, diMendoza plays another cop with no-nonsense conviction, and Luis Barboo, as Lara's goon, gets a good rooftop fight scene.

What the Hell Am I Watching?

Are we really to believe that the killer is able to hack through  a solid wood door with a switchblade?

Fashion Moment

On one hand, it's good to see Luigi Pistilli wearing something besides cable-knit fisherman sweaters. But if the alternative is ties like this one, I'd rather see him back in those bulky pullovers.

The Bloodstained Butterfly

 
The Bloodstained Butterfly

"It's very rare that so much massive and convincing evidence accumulates

against a person who committed a crime."

When a French teenager is murdered in a park in Milan, Italy, the police work quickly and efficiently to find the killer. After analyzing all the clues and eyewitness testimony, they arrest sportscaster Allesandro Marchi with a case built on state-of-the-art forensic science. Allesandro's wife Marcia (Ida Galli) and daugher Sarah (Wendy D'Olive) put their faith in attorney Giullio Corrado (Günther Stoll), who refutes the evidence, piece by piece. But as the case unfolds, deeper layers are exposed, secrets are unearthed, and allegiances shift. Is someone framing Allesandro? Who would benefit from his conviction? And is Sara's boyfriend Giorgio (Helmut Berger) hiding a connection to the case? Things aren't looking good for Allesandro... until another dead body turns up.

The Bloodstained Butterfly (not to be confused with The Bloodstained Shadow) is a rarity in the world of giallo: the mystery unfolds largely in a courtroom.  Through flashbacks and character interactions between court sessions, we slowly learn the truth about the girl's murder. The clever writing allows us to consider and re-consider the evidence as it develops, just like a jury would. Giallo is a genre that keeps looking to Hitchcock for inspiration and this one seems to get a lot of cues from The Wrong Man.

• There is a butterfly necklace in The Bloodstained Butterfly, but it's not stained with blood. I'm sure it's meant as a metaphor.
• Tchaikovsky's 1st Piano Concerto features strongly on the soundtrack and then blends in with the jazzy piano-driven score.
• The beautiful cinematography is the work of Carlo Carlini, who worked with such notable directors as Antonio Margheretti and Frederico Fellini.
• Besides the novelty of a courtroom setting, The Bloodstained Butterfly also introduces the main characters at the beginning of the film with a special set of  titles.
• Allesandro's surname is Marchi which, in Italian, means "rotten."
• The recurring gag with people commenting on the quality of the police station coffee is a clever way to lighten the mood by a degree or two when things get too serious.

What the Hell am I Watching?

There's a scene where Sarah laments her father's situation and digs for some affection.  Sullen Giorgio clearly doesn't pick up on her signals.

Sarah: Poor father, He's the only person who truly loves me.

Giorgio: Give me a cigarette please.

Shortly after this, they share a weirdly aggressive and emotional sex scene. It's hard to tell if they're angry at each other, hurting each other, or enjoying themselves. The reason for this becomes clear by the end of the film.

Fashion Moment

Allesandro's mistress takes the stand in head-turning style.