Giallo In Venice (1979) review

GIALLO IN VENICE 1979 aka GIALLO A VENEZIA

Leonora Fani (Flavia), Jeff Blynn (Angelo De Pol), Gianni Dei (Fabio), Mariangela Giordano (Marzia), Michele Renzullo (Andrea Caron)

Directed by Mario Landi

The Short Version: This mediocre murder thriller sustains itself on non-stop sex and nasty gore (far more of the former than the latter) about an inspector with a more than passing resemblance to Maurizio Merli (whose diet consists of nothing but hard-boiled eggs!) investigating a double murder that intertwines with a string of vicious killings. Playing out as borderline porn, it fails horribly as a Giallo with none of the twists and turns of more popular genre entries. The beauty of the Venice canals is the sole respectable quality. The only titillation found is in the film's deserved notoriety as a low point in celluloid tastelessness. For Giallo connoisseurs only.

***WARNING! This review contains images of nudity and violence***

The corpses of a mutilated man and a drowned woman are found near the Giudecca Canal in Venice. Inspector De Pol finds the condition of the bodies peculiar and learns more about the dead couple when his investigation leads him to Marzia, a close friend of one of the deceased. Meanwhile, a crazed killer viciously murders several people who have some sort of connection to the supposed double murder.

For all the negative stigma Lucio Fulci received about misogyny in his films, Mario Landi makes him look like a saint in comparison. If you're familiar with 1980s PATRICK STILL LIVES (Landi's bizarre sequel to PATRICK, Richard Franklin's Australian SciFi-thriller from 1978) you will already know what you're in for with GIALLO IN VENICE. Both films are trash, but the unauthorized PATRICK sequel (Landi's last movie) is at least engaging trash.

GIALLO IN VENICE is a repulsive exercise in lethargy that doesn't care about suspense; nor is it interested in building tension via the usual genre conventions of tossing red herrings at the audience to keep them guessing as to the identity of the killer. Landi's movie instead doesn't hide the killer at all--opting to just show you who it is early on. Surely the writers would make some attempt at a surprise reveal? Well, yes and no. The revelation surrounding the opening double murder during the last few minutes isn't really a shocker when you expect it to have been the surprise all along considering what transpires during the previous 90 tedious minutes. Some may find it revelatory; this reviewer found it predictable, and a dull execution to an unremarkable, if sadistic movie. 

Much of the flick is told in flashback, surrounding the sordid marital relationship of the deceased Fabio and Flavia--a kinky couple who have sex every few minutes no matter the location. Flavia, despite stating she loves her Sadean husband, doesn't seem to enjoy being a 24 hour sperm bank; and especially when Fabio can't "deliver" unless the sexual act is devoid of any romanticism whatsoever; seemingly only attaining arousal after putting Flavia through various tortures--like beating her with a whip; sodomizing her; and, on one occasion, even paying two men to rape her!

The film's other narrative thread involves Italian cinema Scream Queen, Mariangela Giordano,; she being the zombie killing, fighting female of Andrea Bianchi's viscera-strewn classick, BURIAL GROUND (1981). As Marzia, she's not only a close friend of the late Flavia, but Marzia herself has been receiving threatening phone calls from a spurned lover who doesn't approve of her orgiastic proclivities.

A familiar face to Italian horror fans, Giordano appeared in some 50 movies of various genres. The horror and erotic entries are the ones that draw the most attention; although her roles in movies like Carlo Campogalliani's URSUS (1961) and Sergio Garrone's NO ROOM TO DIE (1969) starring Anthony Steffen and William Berger are worth mentioning.

Much like Italian actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice (John Morghen; read our interview HERE and his autobiography review HERE), Giordano has bit the cinematic dust in some of the most sadistic ways imaginable. Without contest, her breast being bitten off (then consumed) by her zombified son after offering him to suckle from it in the notorious BURIAL GROUND (aka THE NIGHTS OF TERROR) is one of the most hilariously jaw-dropping death scenes ever committed to the screen. Not to disqualify the scene where a prostitute is graphically killed by being stabbed repeatedly in the crotch with scissors, Giordano's exit in GIALLO IN VENICE is this film's most infamous sequence--and largely responsible for the long-standing interest in Landi's movie. Her bow-out in Landi's PATRICK STILL LIVES is equally savage--showing the director or writer had a bizarre, maybe even disturbing fascination with genital destruction.

The filmmakers do manage to generate some minor tension during one sequence when the killer is watching Giordano having sex. His head tilting, nose bending against a window whilst ogling as she rides her brutish lover. The killer himself, wearing sunglasses throughout, has as creepy a countenance as you could ask for--staring wildly with a pale pallor. The reflection of violence in his sunglasses is as stylish as Landi manages here. 

 

In more capable hands, GIALLO IN VENICE could've been a polished production even if you retained the tasteless elements. As it is, the script is sloppy; one example being the introduction of an old man character who claims he saw nothing, but towards the end he's suddenly seen everything. Why even include him at all? The pacing is sluggish, the editing so haphazard, Landi and company succeed in making sex look boring. At nearly 99 minutes, a good 15 of that could've been shaved off and you'd of lost nothing of consequence.

Music is a vital component in these movies and Landi's picture fails in that area as well. Relying on cues from INTERRABANG (1969) and stock music that can be heard in BURIAL GROUND (1981), only the latter fits with the onscreen action. The jazzy sounds of the former are jarring by their inclusion.

American actor Jeff Blynn is the frizzy-haired cop on the case. For much of the film he's wracking his brain in trying to figure out the connection between a drowned lady, a male with his manhood mutilated within close proximity; and a string of savage murders. In virtually every scene he's in, Blynn is eating a hard-boiled egg. We never see him with a gun, but we do see him with lots of eggs. It's apparently an attempt at humor to off-set the oppressively sleazy atmosphere the film wallows in from start to finish.

Blynn appeared in several other Italian productions, one of the most important being the action-packed WEAPONS OF DEATH (1977) with Leonard Mann and Henry Silva. Something of a sequel to Umberto Lenzi's magnificent VIOLENT NAPLES (1976), Blynn has a striking resemblance to Italian macho icon Maurizio Merli. Leonard Mann, however, is the main cop on the case, playing Commissioner Belli to Merli's Commissioner Betti from Lenzi's movie.

Available for years on the bootleg market, Scorpion Releasing has done their own HD scan--putting far more effort into the film than it deserves. Artist Devon Whitehead delivers a fantastic cover artwork that will no doubt help move some blu-ray units. He's a phenomenal talent who, if this cover is anything to go by, knows how to help sell a product. Meanwhile, the useless commentary track (a Ric Meyers style reading of IMDb credits and Wikipedia notes minus excessive made-up information) is in the Rifftrax mold; so if a relentless attempt at humor by way of a predilection for porn is your cup of tea, then you may derive some enjoyment from the commentary that the film is unable to offer.

If you're a devoted Giallo fan, or fan of Italian horror, you've likely already seen GIALLO IN VENICE; so the question of a purchase is already answered. For those with a passing interest in the genre, there's far better examples of the form whether from Giallo master Dario Argento; or lesser, but equally classy and violent entries like Giuseppe Bennati's THE KILLER RESERVED NINE SEATS (1974). GIALLO IN VENICE is more of a dank curio that isn't as good as you'd hope it'd be, but as visually nasty and unsettling as its reputation suggests.

Specs and Extras: Brand new 2018 HD Scan with extensive color correction done in the USA; Italian with English subtitles; trailers for THE PSYCHIC, MURDER ROCK, ENIGMA ROSSO, OPERA; Audio Commentary by Troy Howarth; New artwork and poster of artwork by Devon Whitehead; Reversible cover with original poster art; Running time: 01:38:48

So Sweet, So Dead (1972) review

 

SO SWEET, SO DEAD aka RIVELAZIONI DI UN MANIACO SESSUALE AL CAPO DELLA SQUADRA MOBILE (REVELATIONS OF A SEX MANIAC TO THE HEAD OF THE POLICE SQUAD), THE SLASHER ...IS THE SEX MANIAC!

Farley Granger (Inspector Capuana), Sylvia Koscina (Barbara Capuana), Chris Avram (Prof. Casali), Silvano Tranquilli (Paolo Santangeli), Annabella Incontrera (Franca Santangeli), Angela Covello (Bettina Santangeli), Femi Benussi (Serena), Luciano Rossi (Gastone), Nieves Navarro (Lily), Krista Nell (Renata), Jessica Dublin (Rossella)

Directed by Roberto Bianchi Montero

***WARNING! This review contains images of nudity***

The Short Version: An unusually good script punctuates this tale about a depraved avenger of morality snuffing out licentious Italian housewives married to men of stature. The newly transferred police inspector finds small town life of little difference from the manic city in Roberto Montero's sex and breasts obsessed giallo thriller. The minimalist political pandering is a welcome change of pace -- supplanted by a storyline demonstrative of immorality; and it's brought to you by a director who dabbled in movies with sexual themes, and ended his career doing porn pictures. One helluva punch at the end, too. SO SWEET is so recommended.

A serial killer with a twisted moral sensibility is slashing the unfaithful wives of prominent, successful men and leaving photographic evidence of their infidelity at the scene of the crime. Curiously, the faces of the men in the photos have been removed. Inspector Capuana is a former Sicilian policeman trying to piece the small town murder mystery together. Coming up with a number of false leads and obstacles in his way, Capuana learns more than he bargained for upon discovering the killers identity.

Roberto Montero's movie starts off in suitably nasty fashion displaying a perfectly posed, and naked female corpse with knife wounds on various parts of her body. His giallo thriller gets off to a fabulously grim start with this gruesomely sexual image; and while it maintains a level of professionalism and sleaze appeal, the nastiness of this opening scene dissipates quickly. The murder scenes all occur in the same fashion and never get too messy. However, there's a great deal of suspense derived leading up to some of them.

The film has some striking subtext regarding women of status in their marriages to powerful men. It doesn't paint them in a very dutiful, or positive light. They're often depicted as gossiping, callous, horny females who want their cake and eat it too; or simply have lost interest in their significant other and seek satisfaction elsewhere -- sometimes with other men of power. The inspector doesn't shirk from making his opinions known when referring to the licentious, and now dead women as whores.

The writers touch on a variety of pertinent subjects, but some of these are just glossed over without much time spent on them. Young adults interested in politics and anarchy are among the topics broached. Loneliness, societal detachment and homosexuality are likewise touched upon. The decline of Italian culture into a more salacious arena where married couples, as one character puts it, knowingly look for other sexual partners via newspaper ads is likewise explored.

The film wallows in a sexual paradigm indicative of the decade; and of a deviancy that knows no social status -- from the bourgeois, to the squalor at the bottom of the totem pole. The difference is the former hide their lewd conduct to preserve reputation while those of lesser standing (prostitutes and such) depend on their reputations to stay in business. The picture also paints with a voyeuristic brush in that both the killer, and the cops are constantly watching and snapping away with cameras. 

Refreshingly, Montero avoids leftist-centered politics that dominate so many Italian productions with their sometimes overbearingly repetitive reliance on social class warfare. However, the film does flirt with politics on a few occasions with dialog regarding the medias opposition to civic authorities and their handling of the murder case by protecting the names of those involved to save their reputations. This later proves contradictory as it becomes apparent that everybody knows your business in a small town.

Jettisoning a central political theme, the main focus is on morality; and at the crux of that morality is the promiscuity of the women depicted in the film. The men aren't free from guilt, but it's the women (all of upper class standing, mind you) whose lives are being ended out of some sort of moral retribution -- depraved as it may be. The means by which the women are dispatched is always the same, and equally coital in nature. The carnal violence visited upon their bodies results in cut throats and slashes at the breasts and extremities; the last two clearly denoting the killers hatred towards feminine sexual proclivities. At one point in the movie, the black-clad killer is confronted by a male paramour. The slasher shows no interest in killing the man, but merely keeping him at bay to make his escape. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the justification, and the frequent reasoning for the ladies' lascivious behavior is stated rather succinctly by one of the female characters with 'it's the adventure that gives danger its flavor'. Montero's script is steeped in a dichotomy of sex and death. The progeny of the giallo, the slasher movie, often presented sex (of the teen-aged, premarital variety) as a precursor to death. In SO SWEET, SO DEAD, it's extramarital affairs that result in murders, but directed exclusively at (older) women. Some may find this misogynistic while others may see this as societal decline with Catholicism being quietly subjugated by hedonism.

Personally, I don't think the filmmakers -- the director in particular -- were trying to make a concerted statement on immorality. Moral decay is the central motif, but considering the director previously dabbled in sexually oriented motion pictures, and ended his career doing porn movies, it would seem Montero was simply making a movie using a subject he was familiar with.

In the pictures only true misstep, at approximately 45 minutes in, the film introduces a subplot that threatens to derail the police procedural of the first half. This concerns a young revolutionary named Bettina who witnesses one of the murders. This deviation lasts about five minutes before it's abandoned altogether, and Bettina is never seen again. After that, we're back into the main storyline right up to the rather shocking ending.

Giorgio Gaslini's score is quite beautiful and jazzy, even if it sounds like the same few cues playing in a loop. There's little diversity in the soundtrack, but you will likely find yourself humming along just the same.

The plentiful murders themselves are repetitive, and occasionally feel pedestrian in execution. Some of these sequences are enlivened by variances in location, while others succeed by a suspenseful build.

In America, the film was modified with hardcore porn inserts and re-christened PENETRATION some time in the late 1970s. It also played under a variety of other titles. Considering the trajectory Roberto Montero's career took around this time towards the end of the decade, a porno version of SO SWEET, SO DEAD kind of makes sense.

SUSPECTS: Who do you think is the killer?

Gastone the morgue attendant: He is fascinated with the bodies of the young women. He laughs wildly upon satisfaction with his work. He fawns over their "remodeled" corpses, and is essentially a societal outcast and possible necrophiliac.

Professor Casali: Works closely with inspector Capuana in deciphering the mindset of the mysterious black masked, black gloved murderer.

Paolo Santangeli, the lawyer: His wife is among the murdered women. He was enjoying dalliances with his crippled next door neighbors' wife, Lily. He lies to the inspector about the last time he saw his wife before her death.

Fans of Giallo cinema are rewarded with a tight story that touches on numerous topics, but focuses primarily on a single one. The sexual content is high in this, so if you're into sleaze done classy, this is par for your course. SO SWEET, SO DEAD is capped by a great shock ending, too. Lots of big names here in what was a fairly obscure murder thriller till Camera Obscura gave it newly restored life on the digital format.

This review is representative of the Camera Obscura R2 DVD.

In the Folds of the Flesh (1970) review

IN THE FOLDS OF THE FLESH 1970 aka NELLE PIEGHE DELLA CARNE

Eleonora Rossi Drago (Lucille Radiguet), Anna Maria Pierangeli (Falez/Ester), Alfredo Mayo (Colin), Fernando Sancho (Paschal), Luciano Catenacci (Antoine), Victor Alcazar (Derek/Alex)

Directed by Sergio Bergonzelli

"You have a little fun and then...all of a sudden, they all wind up dead. It's a regular ritual. You create the problem...and our job is the final solution. We're experts at it...like to help us out?"

***WARNING! This review contains pics of nudity and graphic violence***


A criminal escapes from prison leading the police on a high speed chase towards a castle by the sea. The convict makes it to the grounds of the chateau and spies a woman burying a corpse, the decapitated body of her husband, Andre. Startled, the escaped prisoner is recaptured by the police and hauled away. The castle itself is occupied by a demented family of psychopaths and thirteen years later, various family members and acquaintances make their way to the ominous abode for assorted nefarious reasons and all meet their doom at the hands of the crazies.


Not long after, the prisoner, Paschal, has gotten out and makes his way back to the citadel to blackmail the terrible triumvirate for the time he spent incarcerated without telling what he saw thirteen years prior. After sexually violating the women, Paschal is soon dispatched as well. A short time later, another visitor shows up at the bloody bastion, this time claiming to be the real Andre, a mobster who specialized in blackmail. Claiming to have altered his looks via cosmetic surgery, the presence of Andre sends the insane trio spiraling further into madness.


Exploitation director Bergonzelli directs this totally bizarre and maddeningly psychedelic trip into the world of a demented family of psycho sexual maniacs. Insanity and carnal depravity are the order of the day. Released right at the time when the burgeoning giallo thrillers were about to grab audiences by the throat, it accomplishes it's fitfully disturbing agenda without utilizing what would become the genre mainstay...the black gloved killer.


From the outset, it's no secret just who has committed a ghastly murder, or who else is involved. What isn't readily apparent is why this family of homicidal killers are the way they are. Over the course of Bergonzelli's movie, various flashbacks told from different perspectives reveal bits and pieces of information. It isn't until the last 15 minutes that the film takes on a dizzying amount of plot twists thrust upon the audience making a first viewing a confusing ordeal.


The film is haphazardly directed, but then the totally insane nature of the whole affair makes it all work in its favor. Perhaps all the zany zooms and chaotic editing was intentional. Not only that, but there's a good amount of experimental filmmaking on display featuring black and white photography, still photos that rapidly propels plot elements and sometimes are seen as pages from a book. There is also some swirling kaleidoscopic effects for some shots that help drive home the frenzied atmosphere of the picture.


Some of the weird and wild excesses found in Bergonzelli's movie include incest, animal murder, decapitations, flesh eating vultures in cages, acid bath revenge and numerous scenes of sexual lunatics at play. The crazy family unit also keep a good deal of human bones kept about the house. Chalked up to Etruscan discoveries, the method by which the sadists dispose of their victims tells a possibly different story. There's an uncomfortable scene of animal violence here. The close up strangulation of a dog that has sniffed out the location of a buried body is rather excruciating to watch. Hopefully, it wasn't real, but it adds a grim quality to an already unhinged movie. There's even a stopover to a loony bin to meet a character that figures later on in the plot.


One of the most over the top sequences and the most distasteful is a Nazi death camp flashback that's shot totally in black and white detailing an occurrence involving one of the main characters. A flood of completely nude women are herded into a gas chamber and killed. One of them is kept from this agonizing death by one of the officers and must stand by and watch her mother,sister and friends choke to death in front of her. This sequence has little relevance aside from adding one more sadistic layer to the debauched and sadistic nature of this European platter of immorality.


There's also a hint of some European crime film elements inherent in the movie. The escaped prisoner (played by the burly Fernando Sancho), the mention of the castle owner, Andre (whom is a mobster), a brief shoot out seen in one of the many flashbacks, the presence of crime movie actor, Luciano Catenacci and the roughing up of a captive by two thugs whilst a young girl watches swinging on a swingset all point to another genre that would soon be coming into vogue at the Italian cinemas.


The final 15 minutes is a cavalcade of twists and reveals that will cause even the most attentive viewer to lose track. Andre comes back home, revealing to his wife, Lucille, that he has changed his face with surgery so as to throw off the police and is curious where his other daughter, Ester is. Lucille, unsure if Andre is who he says he is, explains that she is dead, but Andre demands to see her body for consolement. Mere minutes later, viewers are assaulted with even more flashbacks that divulge everything you have seen up to this point as nothing more than lies.


A good cast with the most lively addition being the presence of spaghetti western player, Fernando Sancho. He looks as if he has just stepped off the set of a dusty Euroater playing a typical bad guy only this time in modern dress. His section in the film is one of the best and anybody that has ever wanted to see Sancho naked, you see his backside briefly in one of the more gross scenes in the movie. What's funny is that when Sancho steps into the tub, he is completely shorn of clothes, yet when the camera is in the front of him, he is clearly bathing with underwear on.


The aforementioned Luciano Catenacci will be instantly recognizable to Italian genre fans as he played many villain roles in the Italian crime genre such as ALMOST HUMAN (1974) and SYNDICATE SADISTS (1975). Also recognizable to fans of Paul Naschy, is the presence of Victor Alcazar (Vic Winner) as a doomed visitor to the castle who meets a bloody end at the hands of one of the insane females. He is onscreen briefly in this Italian-Spanish co-production.


Truly a long hidden and obscure genre gem, it is now available in a colorful DVD from Severin Films. It definitely offers up an incredible amount of sleazy and salacious charms for Italian genre buffs and giallo fans alike. Just don't go into this film expecting a blood bath. While it features a lot of severed heads, it never becomes overly gory resigning itself to just being unsettling and disturbing with its scenes of sexual deviancy and assorted other unpleasantries.

This review is representative of the region 1 Severin DVD.