Giallo Time

I think I mentioned earlier that I'd spent a couple of weeks around Halloween re-watching some of my DVD collection of giallo movies.  Well, here's half a dozen of the titles I revisited, dominated by a quartet of Dario Argento films.  Cat O'Nine Tails is probably the first giallo I remember seeing, catching the English dubbed version on a late Saturday night showing on BBC1 more than thirty years go.  Although, in many ways, an atypical example of the genre, focussing more upon the thriller elements of the story than the bizarre, it intrigued me enough to want to watch more Italian movies of the type and more Argento movies.  Watching Profondo Rosso/Deep Red again confirmed it, in my mind, as the probable high point of the genre and certainly the high point of Argento's career, (I know that many people favour Suspiria, which is also a great movie, but I just feel that in the earlier film not only does Argento demonstrate the full range of his directorial techniques to excellent effect, but that he better balances the outlandish and realistic elements of the plot into a near perfect blend).  Again, this was a film that I'd first encountered on TV decades ago, catching the last few minutes of a late night showing of the english dub on ITV.  Fascinated by what I'd witnessed, I waited in vain for it to be repeated.  In the event, I had to wait until I obtained it on DVD many, many years later to enjoy it in its full glory, in its longer, English sub-titled, Italian edit.  Of the non Argento titles, Who Saw Her Die is an excellent Venice-set giallo starring George Lazenby that I've written about at length before.  It also features in a major role young Nicoletta Elmi, that slightly weird little red haired girl who seemed to be in every other Italian horror  movie in the seventies (she also playsa smaller, but nonetheless significant, role in Profondo Rosso).  The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is almost a generic giallo in that incorporates just about all of the tropes you'sd expect from the genre.  It is also, in its costume design, decor, music, milieu and colour scheme, pretty much 'peak' seventies - it encapsulates completely what most people today seem to think the seventies looked, felt and sounded like.

The other half of the draw includes an old favourite, in the form of Strip Nude For Your Killer, which I've written at length about before, but remains, quite possibly, the sleaziest giallo of all time, opening with an illegal backstreet abortion and ending with the slimy 'hero' trying to get his girlfriend to have anal sex with him, despite her protestations.  Torso is another of those giallo movies which also counts as a proto-slasher movie, foreshadowing many elements of the later genre.  Phantom of Death, which I wrote about recently, is another giallo/slasher hybrid and, as I noted in an earlier post, much better than I remembered it being.  The same applies to Lucio Fulci's Lizard in a Woman's Skin, which has the added novelty of having been shot in London (the exteriors at least) and featuring a couple of well known British actors in the form of Stanley Baker and Leo Genn.  It also has the advantage of a plot that, more or less, makes sense as it unfolds.  Orgasmo, like Cat O'Nine Tails, is more straight psychological thriller than pure giallo, but is beautifully shot against some attractive locations, (including, in the final act, London).  This restored version, including several sequences cut from the original English language release, also makes more sense, with those sequences imparting some vital plot information.  Finally, The Bloodstained Shadow remains a somewhat understated classic of the genre.  It's a slow burner plot-wise, but incredibly atmospheric with some great moody cinematography, although once it gets moving, the pace rapidly accelerates through a series of plot twists to a downbeat conclusion.  Although stylistically and thematically quite different from Argento's Tenebrae, The Bloodstained Shadow shares with that film the central conceit of having two killers operating, one using the other as a cover. Bloodstained Shadow complicates the set-up by having both killers thinking each knows the other's deep dark secret, but with only one of them knowing the other's identity, with the second killer having to work through a series of targets to be sure of eliminating their rival.  

So there you have it - my Halloween viewing: a dozen giallo movies, which I found that still enjoyed.  Not that they constituted my entire giallo DVD collection - there are still a few more, which I'll probably now rewatch over Christmas - good festive viewing!