‘We have the same tastes, aside from the rhinoceroses.’
A troubled teenager flees to Madrid after murdering a prostitute. Taking up residence in a boarding house, he begins a tentative relationship with the landlady’s daughter, but his past threatens him at every turn…
Workmanlike if uninspired Spanish Giallo that failed to find an audience on its original release. Co-writer and director Jesús García de Dueñas assembles a cast that includes Lola Flores, James Philbrook and Maria Rohm.
When unhappy teenager Julio Nieto (Domingo Codesido Ascanio) seeks solace in the arms of a prostitute (Rohm), things end badly. Fleeing the murder scene the following day, Ascanio tries to connect with his parents, Carmen (Mayrata O’Wisiedo) and Don Enrique (Philbrook). However, neither has any time for him, so he flees to Madrid, taking a room at the boarding house run by dance teacher Doña Dolores (Flores) and posing as a student. Belatedly realising he may have dropped the ball as a parent, Philbrook sets out to find his son, employing a detective to help with the search.
Life at the boarding house is a challenge for the socially awkward Ascanio, but it’s eased by the presence of Flores’ pretty daughter, Mónica (Teresa Rabal). The other residents include sex pest Mr Juanito (Juan José Otegui), elderly doctor Gonzalo (Francisco Pierrá), secret prostitute Teresa (Rohm, again) and crime writer Raimundo (José Vivó). Unfortunately for Ascanio, there’s nothing this mismatched crew enjoy more than discussing the so-called ‘Wire Murderer’ at the dinner table, little realising, of course, that he’s sitting there right with them. When Ascanio reluctantly starts a relationship with the eager Rabal, it seems like a new start for him, but can he keep his dark impulses under control?
The first question that arises when watching de Dueñas’ film is, who was it intended for? Obviously, it does not follow the typical ‘whodunit’ Giallo template, so there’s nothing here for mystery fans to speculate about beyond Ascanio’s motivations. There’s little content for horror fans, either. The kills are pretty bloody but very brief, and the body count is extremely low. Similarly, de Dueñas makes little effort to ramp up suspense at these moments, shooting in a very straightforward, almost documentary style. When he does try to amp up the style to reflect Ascanio’s fractured psyche, it’s not poorly handled, but neither is it particularly original or creative.
What may have been more in the director’s mind is the thread of social commentary that runs through the drama. One familiar Giallo trope is present and correct: the killer motivated by a traumatic childhood event. This occurs at the hands of the pre-teen Ascanio’s babysitter (Rohm in her third role!), her employment necessitated by her parents leaving the child behind when they take an extended break in Japan. This theme of parental neglect and its tragic consequences is featured prominently in recently released Italian Gialli, such as ‘What Have They Done To Your Daughters?/La polizia chiede aiuto’ (1974). Here, it’s upfront once again, with O’Wisiedo utterly disinterested in her troublesome offspring and high-flying businessman Philbrook spending more time talking to the local Port Authority than his son. To the character’s credit, he tries to make amends when he realises that Ascanio has bolted, but it’s far too late in the day for that. The damage has been done.
As a result of all this, it seems that de Dueñas is trying to present Ascanio as a tragic figure, even a victim. However, it’s a real stretch to sympathise with a character who garrotted a defenceless woman in the drama’s opening scenes. The director also leans in with repeated shots of Easter processions in the streets of Madrid. These feature masked penitents carrying crosses and occur in the brief running time so often that it seems as if it must have been intended as more than just splashes of local colour. The childhood incident also includes the accidental decapitation of a Christ figurine, which ties in perhaps a little too closely with the murders and all this religious iconography. Similarly, having Rohm play the catalyst for Ascanio’s murderous urges and two of his victims feels like cheap pop psychology. Fortunately, the actress is talented enough that all three women are sufficiently different.
In terms of performance, the most convincing work comes with the mother-and-daughter dynamic presented by Flores and Rabal. The older woman is feeling her age, and the younger one is trying to break free of her mother’s shackles. Again, this plays into the theme of parental neglect. Flores might be very present in her daughter’s life but plainly resents her vibrancy and youth, even to the extent of trying to seduce a horrified Ascanio. Unfortunately, his character is one of the film’s biggest problems. Julio is written as a sulky, disconnected teen, and Ascanio (who appears under the name of David Carpenter) struggles to give him any further dimension. Somewhat bizarrely, given his slight physical build, he had played the title role in the poorly regarded ‘Tarzan in King Solomon’s Mines/Tarzán en las minas del rey Salomón’ (1973) a couple of years earlier.
The most recognisable face in front of the camera is undoubtedly Rohm. She may not have had the longest career as an actor, but she packed a lot of genre work into her 13 years of credits. After a few years in minor roles, her big break came with a supporting turn in the action comedy ‘Five Golden Dragons’ (1967). This was followed by showings in a couple of the Fu Manchu movies with Christopher Lee and the two Sumuru films with Shirley Eaton, another character created by author Sax Rohmer. There was also the jungle adventure ‘The Face of Eve’ (1968), ‘House of a Thousand Dolls/La casa de las mil muñecas’ (1967) with Vincent Price and ‘The Bloody Judge’ (1970) and ‘Count Dracula’ (1970), both again with Lee. The common thread of all these films was producer Harry Alan Towers, who usually wrote or co-wrote the scripts. He and Rohm married in 1964, so her frequent appearances in his films was perhaps inevitable. However, it should be noted that her performances were consistently strong. In later years, she took character roles outside the Towers stable in projects such as ‘Black Beauty’ (1971), ‘Treasure Island’ (1972) and ‘The Call of the Wild’ (1972) with Charlton Heston. After retiring from acting, she helped her husband in a producer’s role, and the couple remained married until he died in 2009. She passed away in 2018.
A project with some potential, but one that needed more development and a better script.
Mark David Welsh 
Just when you think you’ve seen every giallo, a review of another one pops up. Spanish gialli are not as stylish as the Italians. The casting of Maria Rohm is a plus. She was one of the great beauties of Euro movies.
Yes, I know! This was one I only found out about very recently, along with four others released in 1975 that I did not know about before. You’ve probably noticed that I’m reveiwing these in roughly chronological order of release but, by the time I get to the end, I’ll probably have to go back to the start and pick up all the ones that I’ve missed. The one thing I would say about the obscure ones is that they’re usually obscure for a reason! Not necessarily bad, just unremarkable.