THE EVIL EYE (1963, TUBI) BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964, TUBI)
Or how Mario Bava 'accidentally' stumbled on the secret sauce ingredients that made these early '60's features the "Dr. No" and "From Russia with Love" of the contemporary giallo genre. That "The Evil Eye" happens to be Bava's last B&W feature and "Blood and Black Lace" a color/stylistic widescreen tour-de-force are also symbolic road signs of Bava's growing stature/confidence as an auteur, even though these giallo building blocks were financial/critical underperformers upon release.
You can tell "Evil Eye" (released by Roger Corman's AIP in the States with a new English dub/music, which is the version streaming on TUBI) it's finding its footing with (a) a quirky/goofy sense of humor (the U.S. music and melodramatic-pitched dub might have something to do with that) and (b) mostly likable characters. Seriously, I wanted to kiss Franco Moruzzi's jolly street cop, he's that huggable! :-P Even young/sexy doctor John Saxon (an American actor playing Italian local... in skin-tight speedos! :-O) looks silly/dorky as he puts the moves on American-tourist-with-penchant-for-mystery-novels Nora Davis (Letícia Román, an Italian actor playing American). Nora's first couple of days early on her planned month-long vacation to Rome are rough. Her elderly hostess drops dead, Davis' purse is taken and she witnesses a stabbing by a serial killer (whose face/identity is visible to us) that has eluded the police for years. Naturally this traumatized-but-eager-beaver civilian sleuth can't let go of her memories and sets out to track down someone authorities don't even believe she really saw. The Italian cops are amused and dismissive, but Saxon is surprisingly supportive of Nora. The finale/twist of "Evil Eye" kind-of sucks, but the road getting there is peppered with enough lighthearted fun and romantic hijinks to make the 90 min. trip tolerable. 3.25 GOOGLY-EYED MARIO BAVA WALL PORTRAITS (out of five).
After a stylish opening credits montage featuring the entire cast of unlikable protagonists posing alongside carefully arranged mannequins (with Bava taking full advantage of his transition to color for maximum visual language impact) "BABL" doesn't waste time getting down to murdering business. The untimely death of fashion model Isabella (Francesca Ungaro) at the hands of a murderer who looks/dresses like "Watchmen's" Rorschach doesn't keep Cameron Mitchell and Eva Bartok's chic modeling agency from staging a previously scheduled runway show. Even with Inspector Silvester (Thomas Reiner) on the case, the discovery of Isabella's private diary full of incriminating gossip sends shivers among every man/woman that knew her. A handful of gorgeous models get either the sharp end of spiked gauntlets, hot furnaces pressed against their pretty faces or get drowned in their bathtubs because of that darn MacGuffin diary. We're so early in the genre that Bava doesn't feel the need to make the kills/narrative hateful, something that'd overwhelm giallo flicks from the early '70's onward.
It's amusing watching the killer work hard to dispose of/stage bodies while outrunning the law, the type of action modern slashers/giallo skip by using 'magic teleportation' tropes. You can also tell it's the early '60's because the idea anyone but a man would be the killer doesn't ever enter the conversation. Ending/killer reveal isn't surprising or satisfying, but being an unexpected giallo trendsetter "BABL" delivers the not-quite-blood-soaked goods. 4 RED MANNEQUINS IN COMPROMISING POSITIONS (out of five).
I watched the Italian cut, J.M., but I took a little time to see the beginning of The Evil Eye. Though the main actors are actually using English, I think the Italian version has a little more comedic punch to it. That ending is not great.
Blood and Black Lace is very important to me because it is the film that made the connection Mario Bava's work that is still strong today. This is the film that developed the template the genre would grow out of.
I watched Blood and Black Lace and it started off strong for me but then ended with a bit of a wimper. I don’t know that Giallo will ever be my jam, but I always like giving it a taste each June.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972, dir. Emilio P. Miraglia)
I'd listened to the soundtrack quite a bit (Bruno Nicolai's theme is one of my favorites), but this was the first time I saw the movie.
Two cousins inherit their grandfather's house where legend says a ghost known as the Red Queen rises from her grave and kills seven people every 100 years. As luck would have it, it's the anniversary and the bodies start piling up, but is the perpetrator really a ghost, or is it someone from the cousins' past which they'd prefer stay hidden?
Murder, infidelity, prostitution, scheming, backstabbing, sexual assault, psychosexual nightmares, fashion photo shoots, HIPAA violations, and more unnecessary twist than in Howard the Duck's pants. Everything you could want in a Giallo.
{Genre Trivia: The word "Giallo" translates in English to "Jello". This is because one distinct attribute of Giallo films is they always feature a serial killer whos weapon of choice is Strawberry Jello!}
{Editors Note: We'd like to apologize for the above trivia. It is a form of an Italian genre joke called "brutto scherzo di papà". This translates to "Bad Dad Joke"}
{Editors Note 2: We'd like to apologize for the apology above. Also, if interested, the true translation of "Giallo" is Yellow. This is because Italian pulp novels which inspired early Giallo films typically featured a yellow cover.}
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage 1970
This movie appears on many "top 10 giallo" lists, and for good reason. It is exceptional! An expat American gets caught up in a hunt for a serial killer in Italy. The movie has style for days and a compelling brisk pace (90m...chefs kiss). I read the director is a huge fan of Hitchcock (as, apparently, much of Giallo cinema creators are) and it shows. The finale rocks with several reveals. One such reveal involves a painting clue shown throughout the movie which is BANANAS.
(PS: Im sure it is not intentional, but i found two very very strong similarities between this films twisty ending and that of the original Scream film. Additionally the killer is dressed head to toe in black, just like Ghostface. Further proof of the theory that 'Everything is a Remix')
im just dandy! spending some time at an isolated abandoned hotel in the mountains watching nothing but sploitation.
all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeees mashke!
STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER (1975) There’s no way the actual movie can live up to that title, right? But… there is a constant firehose of nudity, and there’s the classic black glove killer POV shots, so I suppose this is giving the audience what they want. The mentality seems to be a “good parts only” movie, tossing out stuff like story and character in favor of more lurid (and likely more profitable) sex n’ violence. I guess it’s fun if you want some pure sleaze, but I doubt I’ll ever watch this a second time.
30 days of Georges Melies, day 6: THE WITCH (1906) A young hero quests to rescue a princess, pursued by a witch the whole time. Nice to see this one have more of a story rather than just a series of outlandish set pieces. It’s also less creepy and more kid-friendly, looking like children’s storybook pages come to life. I especially like the big frog guys that show up at one point.
The director of Strip Nude for Your Killer is Andrea Bianchi, whose films are noted for their aggressively exploitative approach. He did not seem to have any kind of subtlety at all. This is a giallo I have never wanted to revisit despite Edwige Fenech's presence.
THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1963, dir. Mario Bava)
The very first film to be called a giallo. There is a convoluted history to why the Italian word for “yellow” became associated with mystery novels, but they were extremely popular in Italy. When this film came out, I guess the critics were comparing it to those novels. Mystery novels have a prominent and humous role in the story of The Girl Who Know Too Much, in fact. I have reserved this for a first-time watch for several years waiting for the return of the giallo category to Junesploitation.
As someone who has watched gialli for a long time, it is not a matter of being awed to see The Girl Who Knew Too Much for the first time. I enjoyed the experience of the film, but it is hard not to think about it in a historical context now. The genre became something else, particularly in the hands of Dario Argento. The film is far more in the style of an Agatha Christie mystery than the later ones dominated by murder set-pieces. An American tourist arriving in Rome gets entangled in a murder investigation, spurred on by her love of the mystery genre. The deaths are far from graphic, and the film was shot in black and white. I watched the Italian cut, and there is an English dub put out by AIP called The Evil Eye. (That is the version watched by J.M. Vargas today.) They have different edits as well.
I will be away from my computer for a couple of days. (I do not do much on my phone.) I should get a chance to watch some things, though. Enjoy the weekend.
Sometimes, things just work out perfectly. I don't feel like I'm usually the recipient of kismet, at least no more than the usual person, but the universe threw me a fastball right down the middle last night when my local revival house showed Tenebrae the night before Junesploitation's Giallo! Day. (I don't think I'm the only person who opts to do their themed watching the night before to have thoughts typed up by mid-day).
Tenebrae is a classic, a star example of the genre, for a reason. It's got everything on the Giallo checklist: black gloves, straight razors, huge breasts, Goblin music, awkward dubbing, red herrings and redder blood splatters. Those factors make it great Giallo 101 or a gateway drug to the genre at large. It helps that the plot is actually structured, with forward momentum and aspects of the mystery revealed in appropriate doses, as opposed to a lot of deep-cut Italian shit that's just like, "Let me lick my dead wife's tit for 30 minutes.*"
An American park ranger suddenly has (frankly incesty) visions of his fashion model sister being attacked and ends up searching for her in Italy. Just so happens that the other models she knew are ending up murdered. Could it lead to a shocking revelation about a dark secret involving his sister?
Decent enough giallo that definitely takes it's notes from Argento. Tom Schanley is kind of a blank slate as the leading man but it kind of works. Donald Pleasance bringing some humor as the requisite in over his head detective. The killer's identity is pretty easy to figure out but this luckily has an ending that bumps it up.
My first Edwige Fennech. She plays a traumatized woman who experiences nightmare visions of a blue-eyed killer. But that's just the beginning of her troubles as she soon gets pulled into a twisty intrigue full of murder and ritualistic orgies, which will make her question her own sanity and reality itself. Sergio Martino creates a blurry, dreamlike atmosphere of constant tension, and Fennech is great at conveying her character's unraveling state of mind. Also, there's no shortage of blood and nudity. I can see why it's considered by many a top-tier giallo.
How could I resist the film frequently identified to be the sleaziest giallo of all time? It is also often listed as one of the lousiest. I’m here to tell you, Junesploitation brothers and sisters, it lived up to all the hype! I watch this sh!t so you don’t have to! But if you insist on entering this eternity-seeming 99 minutes of movie muckery, be prepared for genital mutilation, dememberment, misogyny, perversity, and loooong stretches of softcore scenes padding out the run time. Oh, and lots of hard-boiled eggs. It seems I may actually be tempting YOU to watch this with this review, so I’ll stop here. Prego!
A White Dress for Mariale (1972, dir. Romano Scavolini) Pretty ordinary giallo following the Agatha Christie model of a bunch of people getting together in a mansion and getting killed off one by one. There is nothing remarkable about this one except for the vibes, which are exceptional. I love those Vinegar Syndrome "Forgotten Gialli" boxes, which is how I watched this one.
Deatch Carries a Cane (1973, dir. Maurizio Pradeaux)
Watched on bluray from one of Vinegar Syndrome's Forgotten Gialli sets.
Solid giallo, starts with a woman witnessing a murder through a telescope. We then get a bit of a police procedural all the while the blag gloved/straight razor wielding killer continues to eliminate witnesses.
Very sleazy with some fun details. The crazy 'art' textile dummies. The police inspector always sharpening penicls with a double-edge razor blade. Great score, well acted. Little slow at times. Tries from the get go to convince you who the killer is.
'MODERN-DAY GIALLO FOUNDATION' ONE-TWO PUNCH!
ReplyDeleteTHE EVIL EYE (1963, TUBI)
BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964, TUBI)
Or how Mario Bava 'accidentally' stumbled on the secret sauce ingredients that made these early '60's features the "Dr. No" and "From Russia with Love" of the contemporary giallo genre. That "The Evil Eye" happens to be Bava's last B&W feature and "Blood and Black Lace" a color/stylistic widescreen tour-de-force are also symbolic road signs of Bava's growing stature/confidence as an auteur, even though these giallo building blocks were financial/critical underperformers upon release.
You can tell "Evil Eye" (released by Roger Corman's AIP in the States with a new English dub/music, which is the version streaming on TUBI) it's finding its footing with (a) a quirky/goofy sense of humor (the U.S. music and melodramatic-pitched dub might have something to do with that) and (b) mostly likable characters. Seriously, I wanted to kiss Franco Moruzzi's jolly street cop, he's that huggable! :-P Even young/sexy doctor John Saxon (an American actor playing Italian local... in skin-tight speedos! :-O) looks silly/dorky as he puts the moves on American-tourist-with-penchant-for-mystery-novels Nora Davis (Letícia Román, an Italian actor playing American). Nora's first couple of days early on her planned month-long vacation to Rome are rough. Her elderly hostess drops dead, Davis' purse is taken and she witnesses a stabbing by a serial killer (whose face/identity is visible to us) that has eluded the police for years. Naturally this traumatized-but-eager-beaver civilian sleuth can't let go of her memories and sets out to track down someone authorities don't even believe she really saw. The Italian cops are amused and dismissive, but Saxon is surprisingly supportive of Nora. The finale/twist of "Evil Eye" kind-of sucks, but the road getting there is peppered with enough lighthearted fun and romantic hijinks to make the 90 min. trip tolerable. 3.25 GOOGLY-EYED MARIO BAVA WALL PORTRAITS (out of five).
After a stylish opening credits montage featuring the entire cast of unlikable protagonists posing alongside carefully arranged mannequins (with Bava taking full advantage of his transition to color for maximum visual language impact) "BABL" doesn't waste time getting down to murdering business. The untimely death of fashion model Isabella (Francesca Ungaro) at the hands of a murderer who looks/dresses like "Watchmen's" Rorschach doesn't keep Cameron Mitchell and Eva Bartok's chic modeling agency from staging a previously scheduled runway show. Even with Inspector Silvester (Thomas Reiner) on the case, the discovery of Isabella's private diary full of incriminating gossip sends shivers among every man/woman that knew her. A handful of gorgeous models get either the sharp end of spiked gauntlets, hot furnaces pressed against their pretty faces or get drowned in their bathtubs because of that darn MacGuffin diary. We're so early in the genre that Bava doesn't feel the need to make the kills/narrative hateful, something that'd overwhelm giallo flicks from the early '70's onward.
It's amusing watching the killer work hard to dispose of/stage bodies while outrunning the law, the type of action modern slashers/giallo skip by using 'magic teleportation' tropes. You can also tell it's the early '60's because the idea anyone but a man would be the killer doesn't ever enter the conversation. Ending/killer reveal isn't surprising or satisfying, but being an unexpected giallo trendsetter "BABL" delivers the not-quite-blood-soaked goods. 4 RED MANNEQUINS IN COMPROMISING POSITIONS (out of five).
Classy double!
DeleteI'm a classy guy. 😘😛
DeleteI watched the Italian cut, J.M., but I took a little time to see the beginning of The Evil Eye. Though the main actors are actually using English, I think the Italian version has a little more comedic punch to it. That ending is not great.
DeleteBlood and Black Lace is very important to me because it is the film that made the connection Mario Bava's work that is still strong today. This is the film that developed the template the genre would grow out of.
I watched Blood and Black Lace and it started off strong for me but then ended with a bit of a wimper. I don’t know that Giallo will ever be my jam, but I always like giving it a taste each June.
DeleteThe Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972, dir. Emilio P. Miraglia)
ReplyDeleteI'd listened to the soundtrack quite a bit (Bruno Nicolai's theme is one of my favorites), but this was the first time I saw the movie.
Two cousins inherit their grandfather's house where legend says a ghost known as the Red Queen rises from her grave and kills seven people every 100 years. As luck would have it, it's the anniversary and the bodies start piling up, but is the perpetrator really a ghost, or is it someone from the cousins' past which they'd prefer stay hidden?
Murder, infidelity, prostitution, scheming, backstabbing, sexual assault, psychosexual nightmares, fashion photo shoots, HIPAA violations, and more unnecessary twist than in Howard the Duck's pants. Everything you could want in a Giallo.
I love that experience of absorbing the score to a film well before you actually see it. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST was such an experience for me.
Delete{Genre Trivia: The word "Giallo" translates in English to "Jello". This is because one distinct attribute of Giallo films is they always feature a serial killer whos weapon of choice is Strawberry Jello!}
ReplyDelete{Editors Note: We'd like to apologize for the above trivia. It is a form of an Italian genre joke called "brutto scherzo di papà". This translates to "Bad Dad Joke"}
{Editors Note 2: We'd like to apologize for the apology above. Also, if interested, the true translation of "Giallo" is Yellow. This is because Italian pulp novels which inspired early Giallo films typically featured a yellow cover.}
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage 1970
This movie appears on many "top 10 giallo" lists, and for good reason. It is exceptional! An expat American gets caught up in a hunt for a serial killer in Italy. The movie has style for days and a compelling brisk pace (90m...chefs kiss). I read the director is a huge fan of Hitchcock (as, apparently, much of Giallo cinema creators are) and it shows. The finale rocks with several reveals. One such reveal involves a painting clue shown throughout the movie which is BANANAS.
(PS: Im sure it is not intentional, but i found two very very strong similarities between this films twisty ending and that of the original Scream film. Additionally the killer is dressed head to toe in black, just like Ghostface. Further proof of the theory that 'Everything is a Remix')
You alright Mashke? Junesploitation's getting to you already?
Deleteim just dandy! spending some time at an isolated abandoned hotel in the mountains watching nothing but sploitation.
Deleteall work and no play makes mashke a dull boy
all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy
all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy
all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy
all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy
all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy
all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy
all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy
all work and no play makes mashke a dull boy
herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeees mashke!
STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER (1975)
ReplyDeleteThere’s no way the actual movie can live up to that title, right? But… there is a constant firehose of nudity, and there’s the classic black glove killer POV shots, so I suppose this is giving the audience what they want. The mentality seems to be a “good parts only” movie, tossing out stuff like story and character in favor of more lurid (and likely more profitable) sex n’ violence. I guess it’s fun if you want some pure sleaze, but I doubt I’ll ever watch this a second time.
30 days of Georges Melies, day 6: THE WITCH (1906)
A young hero quests to rescue a princess, pursued by a witch the whole time. Nice to see this one have more of a story rather than just a series of outlandish set pieces. It’s also less creepy and more kid-friendly, looking like children’s storybook pages come to life. I especially like the big frog guys that show up at one point.
The director of Strip Nude for Your Killer is Andrea Bianchi, whose films are noted for their aggressively exploitative approach. He did not seem to have any kind of subtlety at all. This is a giallo I have never wanted to revisit despite Edwige Fenech's presence.
DeleteYOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND I ONLY HAVE THE KEY (1972, Dir. Sergio Martino):
ReplyDeleteItalian law dictates that you cannot be held responsible for anything that happens after Edwige Fenech randomly shows up at your house.
THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1963, dir. Mario Bava)
ReplyDeleteThe very first film to be called a giallo. There is a convoluted history to why the Italian word for “yellow” became associated with mystery novels, but they were extremely popular in Italy. When this film came out, I guess the critics were comparing it to those novels. Mystery novels have a prominent and humous role in the story of The Girl Who Know Too Much, in fact. I have reserved this for a first-time watch for several years waiting for the return of the giallo category to Junesploitation.
As someone who has watched gialli for a long time, it is not a matter of being awed to see The Girl Who Knew Too Much for the first time. I enjoyed the experience of the film, but it is hard not to think about it in a historical context now. The genre became something else, particularly in the hands of Dario Argento. The film is far more in the style of an Agatha Christie mystery than the later ones dominated by murder set-pieces. An American tourist arriving in Rome gets entangled in a murder investigation, spurred on by her love of the mystery genre. The deaths are far from graphic, and the film was shot in black and white. I watched the Italian cut, and there is an English dub put out by AIP called The Evil Eye. (That is the version watched by J.M. Vargas today.) They have different edits as well.
this was my #2 choice for today...i gotta check it out soon.
DeleteI will be away from my computer for a couple of days. (I do not do much on my phone.) I should get a chance to watch some things, though. Enjoy the weekend.
DeleteTenebrae (1982)
ReplyDeleteSometimes, things just work out perfectly. I don't feel like I'm usually the recipient of kismet, at least no more than the usual person, but the universe threw me a fastball right down the middle last night when my local revival house showed Tenebrae the night before Junesploitation's Giallo! Day. (I don't think I'm the only person who opts to do their themed watching the night before to have thoughts typed up by mid-day).
Tenebrae is a classic, a star example of the genre, for a reason. It's got everything on the Giallo checklist: black gloves, straight razors, huge breasts, Goblin music, awkward dubbing, red herrings and redder blood splatters. Those factors make it great Giallo 101 or a gateway drug to the genre at large. It helps that the plot is actually structured, with forward momentum and aspects of the mystery revealed in appropriate doses, as opposed to a lot of deep-cut Italian shit that's just like, "Let me lick my dead wife's tit for 30 minutes.*"
*I haven't seen that one...yet...
Awesome you got to see this on the big screen!
DeleteNothing Underneath (1985)
ReplyDeleteDir. Carlo Vanzina
An American park ranger suddenly has (frankly incesty) visions of his fashion model sister being attacked and ends up searching for her in Italy. Just so happens that the other models she knew are ending up murdered. Could it lead to a shocking revelation about a dark secret involving his sister?
Decent enough giallo that definitely takes it's notes from Argento. Tom Schanley is kind of a blank slate as the leading man but it kind of works. Donald Pleasance bringing some humor as the requisite in over his head detective. The killer's identity is pretty easy to figure out but this luckily has an ending that bumps it up.
All the Colors of the Dark (1972)
ReplyDeleteMy first Edwige Fennech. She plays a traumatized woman who experiences nightmare visions of a blue-eyed killer. But that's just the beginning of her troubles as she soon gets pulled into a twisty intrigue full of murder and ritualistic orgies, which will make her question her own sanity and reality itself. Sergio Martino creates a blurry, dreamlike atmosphere of constant tension, and Fennech is great at conveying her character's unraveling state of mind. Also, there's no shortage of blood and nudity. I can see why it's considered by many a top-tier giallo.
GIALLO IN VENICE (1979, Mario Landi)
ReplyDeleteHow could I resist the film frequently identified to be the sleaziest giallo of all time? It is also often listed as one of the lousiest. I’m here to tell you, Junesploitation brothers and sisters, it lived up to all the hype! I watch this sh!t so you don’t have to! But if you insist on entering this eternity-seeming 99 minutes of movie muckery, be prepared for genital mutilation, dememberment, misogyny, perversity, and loooong stretches of softcore scenes padding out the run time. Oh, and lots of hard-boiled eggs. It seems I may actually be tempting YOU to watch this with this review, so I’ll stop here. Prego!
That detective had eggs with him everywhere he went, and often tried to share his eggs with everyone he talked to. W-T-F??!! 🥵🫣
Deletewelp...that settles it...one of my Free Spaces may just indeed be EGGSPLOITATION! {queue vincent price @ egghead voice "egggcellent!"}
DeleteA White Dress for Mariale (1972, dir. Romano Scavolini)
ReplyDeletePretty ordinary giallo following the Agatha Christie model of a bunch of people getting together in a mansion and getting killed off one by one. There is nothing remarkable about this one except for the vibes, which are exceptional. I love those Vinegar Syndrome "Forgotten Gialli" boxes, which is how I watched this one.
Deatch Carries a Cane (1973, dir. Maurizio Pradeaux)
ReplyDeleteWatched on bluray from one of Vinegar Syndrome's Forgotten Gialli sets.
Solid giallo, starts with a woman witnessing a murder through a telescope. We then get a bit of a police procedural all the while the blag gloved/straight razor wielding killer continues to eliminate witnesses.
Very sleazy with some fun details. The crazy 'art' textile dummies. The police inspector always sharpening penicls with a double-edge razor blade. Great score, well acted. Little slow at times. Tries from the get go to convince you who the killer is.