‘l’ll see you at the cemetery at dawn.’
When an ageing railway worker is run down by a train in an apparent accident, his three daughters are amazed to find out that he was a rich man. However, they can’t touch a penny of the money until his adopted son reaches the age of 21 and three years seems such a long time to wait…
Impressively twisted Giallo thriller from director Vittorio Sindoni that may not rise to the top of the pile, but still delivers a solid 80 or so minutes of entertainment. The ‘reading of the will’ set up may be all too familiar, harking all the way back to ‘The Cat and the Canary’ (1927) but the vibe feels very different here.
Gone are the usual claustrophobic labyrinth of dark streets, shadowed passageways and dusty libraries. Instead there’s an abundance of daytime location filming and a small town setting centred around the railway crossing run by old man Arnaldo De Angeilis.
Events begin with our crossing guard switching the points for a scheduled train early one morning. Unfortunately, his hearing aid is on the blink and when the points mysteriously switch back, his next ride proves to be right to the end of the line. It’s an effective opening with intercut shots of the train approaching in silence and of De Angelis walking the tracks completely oblivious to the rising roar of the oncoming engine. Undeniably, it’s a simple device, but it really works.
‘Shouldn’t you be using a putter from there?’
After his death, it turns out that all the money he supposedly lost through reckless business speculation is still in his bank account, and it amounts to a very tidy sum indeed. This seems like good news for his three lovely daughters, but they’ll have to wait to get their hands on the loot until backward sibling Janot (Ernesto Colli) comes of age.
Youngest Collette (Valeria Ciangottini) doesn’t seem all that bothered by the delay, even if her policeman boyfriend Etienne (Virgilio Gazzolo) is a little disappointed. lt’s much worse for her sisters though, who are both saddled with far more demanding partners. Dark-haired Simone (Fem Benussi) is having an affair with smarmy club owner Jules (lsarco Ravaioli) and Rosalie (Giovanna Lenzi, billed here as Jeanette Len) is saddled with the obnoxious Leon (Ivo Garrani) who is in deep with a loan shark.
There was a late disqualification in the ‘Best Hairdo’ contest…
Of course, Colli turns up dead in fairly short order and a mysterious killer starts working their way through the rest of the cast. Enter out of town detective Chief inspector Gerard (Tom Drake) who’s not happy with Gazzolo’s investigation, and forces prime suspect Garrani to go on the run. A number of plot twists pile up to wrong foot the audience before things are finally resolved and the killer unmasked.
Being an early example of the Giallo sub-genre, this is a rather bloodless affair with most of the murders happening off-screen and far more of a ‘mystery’ feel than one bordering on horror. Compensation comes, however, with a tight screenplay and those late twists, which tie up the plot pretty satisfactorily and are genuinely surprising. Performances are solid, although Drake is saddled with a less than convincing hairpiece. He was a Hollywood supporting actor, mostly active in the 1940s, who featured in Judy Garland musical ‘Meet Me In St. Louis’ (1944) before transferring to television for most of the rest of his career. Cult movie fans may recognise him from his role in the woeful ‘House of the Black Death’ (1965) with John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr.
Technically, some of the striking locations are crisply photographed by Ascenzio Rossi and Sindoni keeps a good focus on the story. Given that it was his first gig as a director, it’s a little surprising that his filmography shows nothing more than domestic projects that seem little known outside of his homeland, especially as he contributed to the screenplay. Although I do have one nitpick about the story. Why did De Angelis keep his wealth a secret from his family? Did he take the job running the railway crossing just to convince everyone that he had lost his money? Why? It’s never addressed.
As an aside, I do have to wonder what’s with all these rich men and their last wills and testaments? Why are there always unusual ‘conditions’ attached? Conditions which inevitably provide motives for greedy relatives to commit murder. Perhaps they need better legal advice or just a good dose of common sense.
Above average dark thriller with a good script that comes with some neat twists.
Mark David Welsh 