Evil Eye

Evil Eye

  

"Do you think it's possible for a nightmare to continue when one's awake?"

  

Playboy expatriate Peter Crane (Jorge Rivero), who is haunted by dreams of satanic rituals and anguished souls, is shocked to meet a woman, Yvonne Chevrel (Lone Flemming) who shares the same visions. Peter is inexplicably compelled to murder Yvonne but then immediately wakes up from a dream - but was it a dream? And are the objects that seem to move on their own part of his hallucinations? To add to the confusion, Peter starts receiving threatening calls and letters from a blackmailer, who threatens to expose him as a murderer.  Even though Peter seeks help from psychiatrist Dr. Stone (Richard Conte) and beautiful Dr. Turner (Pilar Velásquez), he keeps envisioning murders before they happen. Is Peter insane? Or is he merely the puppet of a satanic cult? Skeptical Inspector Rameri (Anthony Steffen) tries to find answers and may become a believer in the process.

  

Evil Eye (not to be confused with The Girl Who Knew Too Much, which is sometimes also called The Evil Eye) is an interesting blend of Spasmo's psychadelic weirdness and L'Aldila's sense of supernatural dread, seasoned with elements and images from Dario Argento's early work.  It all amounts to a confusing mishmash of plot threads where motivations and logic get hazy, culminating in an anticlimactic ending that was certainly meant to be a heady twist.

• Evil Eye was co-written by Julio Buchs, who was responsible for Murder By Music. 
• Please to enjoy an appearance by legendary giallo actor Luciano Piggozi (credited here as Alan Collins).
• The Argento influences include shots of a creepy doll, dark trees blowing in the wind, glass breaking in slow motion and a ghostly face appearing in a high window.
• The title makes sense because it refers to the charm pennant that Inspector Ramieri carries (at his wife's insistence) to ward off evil spirits.
• The original Italian title, "Eroticofollia" translates as "Erotic Madness."

What the Hell am I Watching?

Even with all the voodoo stuff, naked ghosts, moving objects and unexplained ideas in this movie, the weirdest scene is the one where Peter and his girlfriend Tanya (Pia Giancaro) shower, brush their teeth and make out all at the same time.

Peter meets an old woman who, it turns out, is a ghost - but her timeline doesn't add up at all. His friend's wife, Elizabeth (Daniella Giordano) says that the old woman died three days before, implying that she was buried or at the morgue. But later, the police find the old woman's body in the yard. If Elizabeth knew the old woman was dead, why did she leave the corpse in her yard for three days? And are we to presume that Peter killed the woman three days ago, forgot about it, and then came back to see Elizabeth? 

Fashion Moment

 Early on, Peter wakes up in this stylish yellow (yes, "giallo") kimono.

Peter sees the doctors about his confusing dreams - but what he really needs is a cure for Saturday Night Fever.

 

And when he stops by Derek and Elizabeth's house, he's decked out in head-to-toe acid washed denim (shirtless, of course).

  

Libido

Libido

"Not like my father! My god! Not like my father!"

As a child, Christian (Giancarlo Gianni) witnessed his father kill a blonde woman before hurling himself off a cliff. Now, many years later, Christian has returned to the house for the first time, accompanied by his wife, Helene (Dominique Boschero), the caretaker Paul (Luciano Pigozzi) and Paul's ditzy blonde wife, Brigitte (Mara Meryl).  Christian's guests are all on edge, unsure weather his return will stir up dark, traumatic memories and slowly but surely, Christian seems to lose his grasp on reality. He sees ghostly figures in the dark, chases phantom footsteps and swears that his dead father is in the house. Is the manor haunted by Christian's father? Or is Christian being gaslighted in an effort to steal his inheritance? If so, who is mastermind behind such a devious plan? 

Libido (not to be confused with the crime thriller In the Folds of the Flesh, which is sometimes also known as Libido) is a very early giallo and one of the first written by Ernesto Gastaldi, the man whose credits read as a list of the greatest gialli ever made and who created the template for the slasher film with Torso.  Libido starts as a Psycho-style psychological thriller, introduces elements of gothic horror (thunderstorms, an old castle, muddy footprints, etc.) and finishes with a string of devious cons, double-crosses and mis-directs, ramping up the action all the way to the end. Gastaldi was clearly a fan of Mario Bava but also learned a lot from the French classic Diabolique.

• You may know Giancarlo Gianni from his roles in Casino Royale and A Quantum of Solace. Dominique Boschero would appear in several other gialli, such as Who Saw Her Die? And giallo superstar Luciano Pigozzi - the "Italian Peter Lorre" - was featured in the classics Blood and Black Lace and Naked You Die.
• This was the first directorial effort for both Gastaldi and co-director Vittorio Salerno.
• Please note that the 2nd death listed above - Christian's father - is one that's talked about but not shown.
• The movie opens with a Freud quote defining the concept of "libido" in clinical terms, but that provocative title doesn't really suit this mostly buttoned-up production.

 What the Hell am I Watching?

Libido may not be very well-known, but it turns out to be a highly influential giallo movie. If you're already a giallo fan, you will be shocked by the opening scene: Christian, as a young boy, is dressed in a short-pants suit with knee socks playing with a mechanical toy that plays a creepy sing-songy tune. He hears a scream and witnesses a murder, scarring him emotionally for the rest of his life.

Sound familiar? There's no way that Dario Argento didn't have this scene in mind ten years later when he wrote the beginning of Deep Red.

Also, the rest of the movie involves a psychologically unbalanced man named Christian who holes up in a cliffside mansion with a blonde woman, an older caretaker and the caretaker's bubbleheaded younger wife.  I'd say that's also a pretty good description of the middle third of Spasmo.

Fashion Moment

Brigitte is young, adventurous, and clueless about social cues, so her fashion sense tends to be a little daring. In one memorable scene, the camera leers as she dances the hula, wearing only black underwear and a feather boa.

Later, Helene's eyes nearly pop out of her head when Brigitte reveals this tiny pusstcat bikini.

But she does glam it up later with this elegant evening look.

As a side note, here's the musical toy that sets Christian off. He says it's Jiminy Cricket, but there's no way that's not Mr. Peanut.

Bloodsucker Leads the Dance

Bloodsucker Leads the Dance

"The world is a stage. But sometimes it isn't."

It's 1902 in the city of Dublin and just as a troupe of actresses finish the closing night of their show, handsome Count Richard Marnack (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) arrives. He is infatuated with actress Evelyn (Patrizia Webley) and invites her and her colleagues – actresses Cora (Krista Nell), Rosalind (Mariza Damon), and Penny (Lidia Olizzi) and stagehand Samuel (Leo Valeriano) – to join him at his  castle. While Evelyn and the Count take romantic walks by the seaside and Evelyn and Penny entertain themselves in their bedroom, lusty Cora nets herself a local fisherman. But things turn sinister when the Count admits his family's dark past – both his father and his grandfather murdered their wives with the same ceremonial dagger and the Count's own wife went missing several years ago and is presumed dead. Before long, the visitors start turning up dead, decapitated with the same cursed blade. Could the killer be Sybil (Femi Benussi), the jealous maid or Gregory (Luciano Pigozzi), the creepy gardener? Is it possible that a ghost of the Count's ancestor has returned to fulfill the family curse?

The title Bloodsucker Leads the Dance is, perhaps, the most misleading non-sequiter in a genre filled with nonsensical titles. There are no vampires, as the title suggests, no one dances (even metaphorically), and there is certainly no one who leads any dancing. I suppose that's why the movie is sometimes known as The Passion of Evelyn, which is a little more apt. It seems that all the money for this film went into the period costumes and locations - and certainly not the script with its laughably awful dialogue (see above). It did have lofty aspirations, though, borrowing elements from such esteemed literary sources as Rebecca, Jane Eyre, and The Man in the Iron Mask.

• Here's how the movie breaks down: 20 minutes of exposition, then 40 minutes of gratuitous nudity and grownup time, and then the murders all occur and are wrapped up in the last 25 minutes. This definitely falls under the category of a "sexy" giallo.
• Director Alfredo Rizzo was also an actor. He focused mainly on low-budget horror flicks, but perhaps his biggest mainstream success was as a cab driver in the Audrey Hepburn movie Roman Holiday.
• Bloodsucker Leads the Dance features two giallo all-stars: you may remember Femi Benussi from Strip Nude for your Killer and Luciano Pigozzi from the classics Blood and Black Lace and Naked You Die.

What the Hell am I Watching?

The movie is strange enough, but the versions you'll see on DVD and Netflix have a wonderfully crazy special bonus: an eight-minute intro by horror host Redemption. Imagine a lesbian vampire Isabella Rossellini look-alike with a geographically untraceable accent wearing black-wings, leather, and white contacts. Now imagine her making out with mostly-naked chicks dripping with fake blood in slow motion. Then, in her sexy, slow purr, she talks a little about the history and development of the horror genre. It's exactly as awesome as it sounds.

Bloodsucker Leads the Dance drinking game! Drink whenever someone insults Samuel's masculinity. Chug whenever the camera lingers on a horse's butt.

Fashion Moment

Here's the scene where Evelyn first arrives in her room at the castle.
 

Notice that her amber dress and blond curls are in perfect harmony with the room's maple furnishings and gold filigree. Even the creamy sheets match her blouse. It's as if this is just where she belongs. For ever and ever.

Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye

Seven Deaths In the Cat's Eye

"James, I shall truly go mad if this keeps on."

After being expelled from her boarding school for naughty behavior, Corringa (Jane Birkin) visits her relatives at the family castle in Scotland. Among those living at the castle, she finds her mother (Dana Ghia), her aunt, Lady Mary MacGrieff (Françoise Christophe), her uncle, Dr. Franz (Anton Diffring), and their son, Lord James MacGrieff (Hiram Keller), who is as moody and troubled as he his young and handsome. When Corringa's mother is brutally murdered, she learns that the people in these parts take the family lore – stories of vampires and murder – very seriously. After the funeral, Corringa is shocked to discover that her mother's coffin has been busted open and that the body is missing.  When more and more people are found dead, Corringa is left to wonder if her mother has become a vampire and if James could be one too. It would certainly explain his odd behavior. The only witness to the gruesome attacks is the family cat.  But is it a witness... or the killer?

Seven Deaths In the Cat's Eye (not to be confused with The Cat With Jade Eyes) is Antonio Margheriti's fusion of giallo and Gothic horror. I'd say that the movie is about 50% of each and wavers between the two worlds but, in the end, it's clearly a giallo. In a way, the Gothic elements (dark castle, family curse, vampires, catacombs, bats, etc.) act as a cover for the killer and his very human motives, diverting attention away from what's really going on. To put it another way, superstition is an accomplice in the killings.

• The castle and most of the fashions may be from the 19th Century or earlier, but the movie is actually set in the 1920's. We can tell by the jazz records, the mention of Sigmund Freud, and Corringa's modern attire in the funeral scene (see below).
• A gorilla locked in a castle suspected of murder? This is a not-even-subtle appropriation from Poe's "Murders In the Rue Morgue." The supernatural angle and the family curse are clearly inspired by "The Fall of the House of Usher."
• If Antonio Margheriti's name sounds familiar, then you my be a Tarantino fan. In Inglourious Basterds, Sgt. Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth) goes undercover as Italian cameraman "Antonio Margheriti" when the commandos infiltrate the Nazi movie premiere. It's Tarantino's homage to the great pulp director.

What the Hell Am I Watching?

You read correctly. This is a movie that sheds suspicion of murder on a fluffy lap cat.  In fact, here's a drinking game for Seven Deaths In the Cat's Eye: drink every time the cat shoots a menacing look at the camera. Sip if it's just a drawing of the cat.

The cat's name is "Kitty," by the way.

Fashion Moment

Sad but fashion-forward. Corringa wears black feathers and a stylish bell hat. It's what all the flappers in mourning are wearing this season.

The Case of the Bloody Iris

The Case of the Bloody Iris  

"Ill tear you like I tore the petals of the iris! You're an object and you belong to me!"

Jennifer Lansbury (Edwige Fenech) recently escaped from a naked hippie group-sex cult, led by her jealous "husband" Adam (Ben Cara) (it's not certain if their "celestial marriage" is legal) and is making a living in the city as a model. Her new boyfriend, architect Andrea Barto (George Hilton) is also her new landlord, but people in his building have a bad habit of getting murdered. Commissioner Enci (Giampiero Albertini) and his assistant Redi (Franco Agostini) are on the case. Adam is overtly stalking Jennifer, but is he the killer? Could it be the creepy old lady down the hall or even Andrea himself? And is the closeted lesbian next door somehow involved? Here's a hint: The answer to one of these question is "yes."

The Case of the Bloody Iris (not to be confused with Seven Blood Stained Orchids) is, without question, one of my favorite gialli for a number of reasons: the wonderful cast of crazy characters, the stylish direction, the sexy harpsichord music, and the fantastic, fast-moving script that keeps the mystery constantly moving and evolving.  But most of all, The Case of the Bloody Iris succeeds because it is scary, bloody, sexy, trashy, and suspenseful in the perfect proportions. While many gialli focus only on the scares, gore, or sex, this one has everything. Plus, it's funny! That's an element that most gialli ignore completely, but the supporting cast delivers much-needed comic relief between the scares and the bewbs. Clearly, director Anthony Ascott knows that above all else, movies are supposed to be fun.

•  If you think Oreste Lionello ("Arthur" the photographer) looks like an Italian Woody Allen, that's no accident. Lionello was a successful voice-over actor and was the Italian voice of Woody Allen for years. He also dubbed Robin Williams, Gene Wilder, and Charlie Chaplin.
• You may also recognize the "Italian Peter Lorrie," Luciano Pigozzi (from the classics Blood & Black Lace and Naked You Die) as the nightclub owner.
• This marks the third collaboration of giallo's "Golden Couple," Edwige Fenech and George Hilton. They previously worked together in Blade of the Ripper (a.k.a. The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh) and All the Colors of the Dark (which, technically, is not a giallo).
• Notice the harp in Sheila's room - an obvious homage to Blood and Black Lace.
• In the background of one of the street scenes, look for a poster for the movie Dirty Harry, under it's Italian title: Ispettore Callaghan: il caso Scorpio è tuo

What the Hell Am I Watching?
Oh my god, take your pick of scenes. Model Mizar Harrington (Carla Brait) has an unusual nightclub act: she invites men from the audience to wrestle with her for three minutes and if they win... it's not clear what happens. Sexy times? A cash prize? The point is, no one ever wins.

After Mizar is murdered in her bathtub, Jennifer and Marilyn move into the apartment and Marilyin thinks it would be a fun, kooky prank to fake her own drowning. This does not go over well with Andrea and Jennifer. Andrea slaps the naked girl across the face and she just shrugs it off as if to say "Eh, I had it coming."

At one point, Jennifer gets back into her apartment and finds Adam waiting for her. He rips her clothes off and throws her on the couch. And that's where the scene ends. Seriously. Did he rape her? Did he just turn around and leave? Did she fight back? We'll never know.

At the police station, Jennifer meets with Commissioner Enci, who tells her to stay in the apartment to draw out the killer. Enci is clearly psychotic.

Fashion Moment
 There's a lot of crazy early-70's fashion in this film, but I love Sheila's masculine suits best. Notice that the first time we see Jennifer, she's topless (in body paint) and her wardrobe is very girly, but it becomes increasingly masculine as the film progresses, as she gets closer to Sheila, until she's wearing similar suits.

Blood and Black Lace

Blood and Black Lace

"Perhaps the sight of beauty makes him lose control of himself and kill."

When fashion model Isabella (Francesca Ungaro) is brutally murdered, her colleagues at the Christian Couture fashion house are distressed. But when her diary surfaces, filled with the details of a complex web of blackmail, everyone wants to get their hands on it to keep their secrets from being exposed – and one person will even kill! As the diary changes hands, the models are murdered one by one by a faceless figure in black. Could one of the implicated models, like Peggy (Mary Arden) or Greta (Lea Lander, credited as Lea Krugher) be responsible? Or was it Max Marian (Cameron Mitchell), the fashion house's business manager?  It's up to Inspector Silvester (Thomas Reiner) to untangle this mystery.

Blood and Black Lace isn't the first giallo film, but I'm starting this blog with it because it is absolutely a must-see for those who are interested in the world of giallo. This movie is by far the most iconic and influential film of the genre, setting up the format of a series of beautiful women getting murdered in stylish ways, as well as introducing the "look" of the classic giallo killer: a faceless man in a black hat, coat, pants, and gloves. I highly recommend viewing the DVD of Blood and Black Lace because it includes the best, most illuminating commentary track I've ever heard, by Bava scholar Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog. Here are a few highlights:

• Mario Bava defied convention by shooting this movie in vivid, saturated color. Up until then, color was for comedies and musicals, while dramas and thrillers were always done in black and white.
• Because of this, Bava was able to color-code the film. Each killing and character is assigned its own color, reflected in lighting, set design, and costumes. Isabella is red; Nicole is blue; Peggy is gold; Greta is green; Tao-Li is white; the final murders are black. These color assignments recur throughout the film. For example, it's Isabella's murder that starts the plot, so flashes of red (her diary, fingernail polish, Max's phone) tie objects and characters back to her murder. Some have speculated that this is an homage to Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Masque of the Red Death," set in an allegorical series of colored rooms.
• As I mentioned, Blood and Black Lace is highly influential in the world of giallo. Dario Argento's color sense can be traced back here, plots, settings, and characters are often borrowed and, throughout the genre, you'll see mannequins and harps used as props as a tip of the hat to this film. Most notably, though, the movie Death Walks at Midnight borrows Blood and Black Lace's signature murder weapon – a unique spiked iron glove.
• Near the end of the movie, the camera moves through the dark studio into the office, through a doorway draped in red velvet curtains, like a theater proscenium – literally "opening the curtain" on the film's final scene. Dario Argento would borrow this effect in Four Flies on Gray Velvet, Deep Red, and Opera.
• So you thought Scream was clever, having two killers in cahoots, giving each other an alibi? Guess what? Blood and Black Lace did it first, back in 1964. That's 14 years before the genre that Scream parodies was even invented.

What the Hell am I Watching?

This is a classy production, but it really pushes the envelope when it comes to the murder scenes, by 1964 standards.  For example, poor Peggy is choked, beat up, dragged up a flight of stairs, and burned alive on a hot stove. Then her body is loaded into the trunk of a car, driven to the country, hauled up more stairs, and hidden behind a screen before the police discover it. Mary Arden spent more time playing a corpse in this movie than she did playing a live person.

Nicole's (Ariana Gorini) murder really raises the bar on artistry, though. Bava expertly and stylishly cranks up the suspense as Nicole makes her way through a dark antique shop, lit only by flashing neon lights. It is both beautiful and frightening. And that's what giallo is all about.

Fashion Moment

This is a movie set in the world of fashion, so clothes and accessories figure in pretty strongly to the story. First, have a look at Fashion Director Christina Como (Eva Bartok). She only wears black since the death of her husband, but this evening look is stunning.

 

Only Nicole is  brave enough to wear the "cursed" black dress that Isabella was supposed to model.

In that same scene, all eyes are on Nicole's purse, which holds Isabella's diary.

And, of course, we must mention the movie's most memorable accessory: the iconic spiked metal glove.