Smile Before Death/Il sorriso della iena (1972)

‘I usually give my old clothes to the servants and husbands to friends.’

A teenage girl comes home unannounced from boarding school after her mother’s supposed suicide. She finds her stepfather apparently sharing the family home with a woman photographer. The relationships between the trio take some surprising turns as the days pass…

This small-scale Giallo from director Silvio Amadio rejects an escalating body count to focus on the suspicious intentions of a small group of characters. Some familiar faces appear in front of the camera in another example of the murder mystery thriller that took Italian cinema by storm in the early 1970s and laid the groundwork for the American slasher craze that followed.

When middle-aged swinger Dorothy Emerson (Zora Gheorgieva) is found dead in her bathroom with her throat cut, the police chalk it up as a suicide. Although she was sleeping with young stud Paolo (Hiram Keller), her husband Marco (Silvano Tranquilli) had a rock-solid alibi for the time she died, and the two had been in an open marriage for years. However, the circumstances don’t sit well with daughter Nancy (Jenny Tamburi). When she comes home from boarding school, she finds photographer Gianna (Rosalba Neri) already with one foot in the door of her stepfather’s luxury home.

Tranquilli and Neri welcome the girl, however, and Neri, in particular, makes a special effort, giving the teenager a makeover and some lessons in modelling. Despite the red carpet treatment, Tamburi still questions her mother’s suicide, and her suspicions are shared by housekeeper Dana Magda (Dana Ghia). The younger girl’s fresh-faced innocence starts to attract Tranquilli as they spend more time together, and she seems to return his growing interest while Neri struggles with jealousy on the sidelines. After almost being electrocuted in her studio, the photographer suspects that one of them is out to kill her.

This film reached Italian theatres barely two months after director Amadio’s previous project ‘Amuck!/Alla ricerca del piacere’ (1972), and the two share much in common. Both are twisted tales of lust and murder centred around a small group of characters and their hidden motivations and shifting relationships. This second effort is even smaller in scale, with only the three principals receiving significant screen time and Neri returning in a similar role. Once again, she’s the lover of an older, dissolute man; in ‘Amuck!/Alla ricerca del piacere’ (1972), it was Farley Granger’s washed-up writer, here it’s Tranquilli’s idle nobleman, who’s sponging off the estate of his wealthy wife. Barbara Bouchet, who starred in the former film, even appears here in an uncredited bit as a party guest.

If both projects were being developed concurrently, Amadio’s primary focus was likely ‘Amuck!/Alla ricerca del piacere’ (1972), as this feels very much like a ‘second-hand’, minor project. Judged on its own merits, the film does not have any glaring flaws, far from it, but the plot is a little thin and underdeveloped, and the direction that the story takes is unlikely to surprise anyone experienced with such thrillers. The final twist also pushes credibility a little, and it isn’t particularly well-executed either, but it is nicely ironic and ties up all the threads very neatly. It’s the film’s most noteworthy element.

Thankfully, the performances of the small cast keep the audience invested, with Tamburi (appearing as Luciana Della Robbia) handed the film’s most interesting role. Her Lolita-like temptress is the catalyst for the unfolding drama and provides a good opportunity to present an ambiguous, off-centre character, and she rises to the challenge admirably. Neri is excellent as ever, but Tranquilli doesn’t make much of an impression as the third side of the triangle. Unfortunately, neither character is given much depth in the script by Amadio and his writing team, Francesco Di Dio and Francesco Villa. These collaborators have only two other credits between them, so it’s tempting to say that their lack of experience shows. However, it should be acknowledged that, in the early 1970s, the Italian film industry was turning out product at a rate comparable with the major studios during Hollywood’s Golden Age, so there may have been time constraints.

There are a few other issues which detract a little from the viewing experience as well. The extended flashback sequences are fine in themselves, but they are not well-integrated into the narrative, and it can take a few moments for an audience to catch up, which was probably not intended. There’s also very little here for Giallo fans on the lookout for striking visual compositions or unsettling atmosphere, elements which Amadio delivered with apparent ease in ‘Amuck!/Alla ricerca del piacere’ (1972). The nudity and touch of sleaze have little impact, and the limited number of murders are staged in a very underwhelming fashion. The worst offender, though, is the jolly musical theme by Roberto Pregadio. It’s obviously intended as an ironic counterpoint to the grim drama, and it works well initially, but it’s over-used to such an extent that it becomes distracting and, eventually, quite annoying.

This was only Tamburi’s third role and her first of significance. However, despite the promise she displays here, she was soon back on ‘Lolita’ duty for ‘Seduction/La seduzione’ (1973). Although ‘The Sinful Nuns of Saint Valentine/Le communicate di San Valentino’ (1974) is not nearly as trashy as the title would suggest, she was typed in projects of a similar stamp. ‘Sins Within the Family/Peccati in famiglia’ (1975) was followed by ’Sins Without Intentions/Peccato senza malizia’ (1975) and the horror sex comedy ‘Frankenstein: Italian Style/Frankenstein all’italiana’ (1975). She returned to the Giallo with Sergio Martino’s ‘The Suspicious Death of a Minor/Morte sospetta di una minorenne’ (1975) and Lucio Fulci’s ‘The Psychic, Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes/Sette note in nero’ (1977), but only in supporting roles. During the 1980s, she appeared more on television, retiring from the screen at the end of the decade. She went on to work as a casting director and opened a drama school before passing away in 2006 at the age of 53.

A minor, efficient Giallo but unlikely to linger too long in the memory.