Madness

"If they kill someone with an electric drill do they take it out on Black & Decker?"

Lovercraft Publications (sic) is under attack from the media for promoting violence with their giallo comic book series "Doctor Dark," but artist Giovanna (Monica Carpanese), writer Nico (Gabriele Gori) and publisher Marzio (Achille Bregnini) insist that art imitates life and not vice versa. Never the less, someone dressed as Doctor Dark is murdering people just like in the comic books and Giovanna finds that she is the next target! The police quickly apprehend a suspect but is he the real killer? What motivates Doctor Dark to gouge out his victim's eyes? And could someone close to Giovanna be responsible?

Madness (originally titled Eyes Without a Face, but not to be confused with the French thriller of the same name from 1960) is a decent late-period giallo that really leans in hard to the classic tropes. You'll find an interesting pool of possible suspects, some good mis-directs and laughably over-the-top acting that borders on Telenovela-style emoting. The story seems to be lifted from Dario Argento's Tenebre, but with enough minor changes to make it a compelling watch.

• Thirty years into the history of giallo, the writers managed to create a murder weapon I've never seen before on screen - a two-pronged dagger that, when inserted in the victims nose, pops their eyeballs out of their head. Very gruesome. Bravi.

• The threatening answering machine messages Giovanna gets on her phone count as "tape recorder used as a mis-direct" in the checklist above.

• The police apparently figured that their first suspect wasn't the real killer and followed Giovanna and Nico to their vacation retreat, expecting the killer to follow. Basically, they used Giovanna as bait without her knowledge or consent. I think that qualifies them as "inept."

 

• No composer is credited, but some really good cues were selected, including a sultry flute theme that harkens back to giallo's groovy 70's heyday.

What the Hell Am I Watching?

Sometimes when the color yellow pops up in a giallo it has special significance, marking a person, place or object. Madness has quite a few significant pops of yellow, but only a few seem to be intentionally placed.

 

The first few times we see her, Publisher's Assistant Emy (Emy Valentino) uses yellow as a signature color. But after a few scenes, she changes to shades of pink.

Later, Doctor Dark looms over this crime scene in the background, against a yellow background.

Besides the two-pronged dagger, the killer's other weapon of choice is a yellow poison.

Finally, the sailboat that acts as the setting for the whole third act is full of yellow accents, possibly foreshadowing danger for our characters and directing our attention to boat captain Marco (Carlo Granchi).

Fashion Moment:

Madness really is trying to get back to the classic era of giallo and nothing communicates that more than the look of the classic giallo killer: a black trench coat, hat and gloves with an eyeless black mask. This guy could have walked out of The Fifth Cord, The Case of the Bloody Iris or any number of 70's gialli.

The Designated Victim

 

"You have a great talent for simplifying everything, don't you?"

 

Advertising executive Stefano (Tomas Milian) has the opportunity to sell his company for a massive sum, but the shares are in his wife's name and Luisa (Marisa Bartoli) refuses to sell. Despondent, Stefano takes his mistress Fabienne (Katia Christine) to Venice, where they meet Russell Brand look-alike, Count Matteo Tiepolo (Pierre Clémenti), a flamboyant libertine, in a chance encounter. Stefano keeps crossing paths with Matteo and the two share their problems - Stefano tells about his wife and Matteo confides about his abusive brother. Their problems would each be solved with the death of someone in their lives and Matteo suggests that they kill for each other. With no motive connecting them to each other's crimes, neither would be a suspect. Problems escalate for Stefano until his wife turns up dead. Did Matteo take his joke too far? Is he expecting Stefano to kill his brother in return? With the police hot on his trail, Stefano has to think fast.

Though she wasn't given credit, The Designated Victim (not to be confused with The Fourth Victim) is clearly based on Patricia Highsmith's "Strangers on a Train." It's a fantastic concept ideally suited for a giallo remake, but this adaptation suffers from slow pacing, too many unnecessary scenes and too much detail weighing down the plot. It could easily have been edited down to a lean and more suspenseful hour and 15 minute-long film.

• This movie almost didn't make it onto the list, because it lacks the mystery component essential to my definition of "giallo" - we know who the killers are throughout the movie. But it's so stylish and uses so many other tropes of the genre that I decided to include it anyway.

• In an egregious example of "inept police," Stefano tries to tell the Commissioner the whole story but the Commissioner not only won't believe him, but refuses to investigate the claims and stubbornly insists on sticking with his own (incorrect) theory.

• The title The Designated Victim is the direct translation of the Italian La Vittima Designata, but it's sometimes mis-translated as Murder By Design.

That the Hell Am I Watching?:

There's a lot of wild stuff in this movie involving Matteo's machinations, but the weirdest involves his partner at the beginning of the film.

 

Serious Vampira vibes. I believe this is actress Cathy Marchand, who is uncredited in the movie. On the boat back from the Casino, Stefano asks about their relationship. Matto refers to her as his "slave" and casually mentions that he recently "sold" her just for the experience. Yikes.

At that point Stefano should have said "Well, thanks for the ride, I'll just swim from here," then dived off the boat and freestyled it back to his hotel. Roll credits.

Fashion Moment:

It's not surprising that Matteo, an obscenely wealthy hedonist, has the most decadent wardrobe. Layers and layers of clothes and always with those leather gloves and a floor-length coat around his shoulders. He's not afraid of color, but his fashion sense seems to be based on texture, more than anything else.

While we're here, let's take a moment to appreciate this pair of high-angle interior shots in all their mod 1970's technicolor glory.

The Fish With the Eyes of Gold

"But don't you forget that we're looking for a madman, not a con man.

A madman obsessed with fish."

 

While hitchhiking through a Spanish beach town, Derek (Wal Davis) gets picked up by Monica (Monserrat Prous), who drives him directly to a hotel for some aggressive adult time. When he awakes hung over, he sees Monica stabbed to death in bed next to him and flees to his friend Zachary's house. It turns out that Zachary witnessed a woman getting stabbed on the beach just a day before and with police suspicions looming, the two men set out to prove Derek's innocence. The investigation leads them to a jewler's shop, the local aquarium and the hospital. Who is the killer and why are they targeting the people closest to Derek? The answer lies in a mysterious golden pendant.

The Fish With the Eyes of Gold (not to be confused with Seven Deaths in a Cat's Eye) is a meticulous study of the Italian-style giallo that was reaching its peak in the mid-70's. While it's clear that the creators paid close attention to the work of Ernesto Gastaldi and Dario Argento, this rare title is ultimately unsatisfying due to a nonsensical ending that's spoiled in the first 15 minutes.  If you love giallo for its signature style, with wild fashion, mod design, and bed-hopping characters, there's still lots to enjoy, but don't expect a lot from the writing.

• The title "sort of" makes sense because, while the titular fish does have eyes of gold, it also has everything else of gold. It's a pendant made of gold. I'm sure they singled out the eyes to fit it into the Argento title formula, a la The Bird With the Crystal Plumage.

• At the halfway mark in this movie, please to enjoy the craziest car wreck ever committed to film. The out of control car takes a cautious, low-speed dip down a hillside. Cut to Derek pretending to tumble out in shock, followed by a shot of him dragging Zachary's body from the gently overturned, flaming car. This is followed by a massive explosion, that was clearly over-charged. I wouldn't be surprised if ears are still ringing 40 years later.

• Note that one of the murders listed is shown in a flashback, years before the main action of the movie takes place.

• The "main characters in a creative profession" are Zachary and his wife, Virginia. Also, their student, Marina is said to be an aspiring designer and artist.

• I'd just like to point out that the owner of the Aquarium named his daughter Marina.

What the Hell am I Watching?

SPOILERS AHEAD:

The killer's motivation is told through a flashback of his boyhood trauma, as he watches his mother spill a fish tank on the floor as she was being stabbed by her husband. Seeing fish and fish imagery later in life sets off his psychosis. You may look at all this and think it's a direct ripoff of Dario Argento's Deep Red.

The boy is even hiding behind a curtain and wearing a suit, just like in Deep Red. HOWEVER, The Fish With the Eyes of Gold came out the year before Deep Red, probably while Deep Red was already written and in production. It's more likely that both films were influenced by 1965's Libido, co-written and co-directed by Ernesto Gastaldi. Libido featured a flashback where a boy in a suit witnesses his father kill his mother while he plays with a Jiminy Cricket music box and, later in life, the sound of the music box triggers a homicidal rage.

Fashion Moment:

Derek only has a few outfits in his travel bag, but he makes each one count.

 

It's hard to tell on this screenshot, but the last one is an embroidered design on a black mesh fabric.

Bonus: Here's a close-up of the fish sketch that could only be done by a psychotic mind (teased in the flashback scene):