‘It’s a short step from the straitjacket to the dog collar.’
During a summer heatwave, Rome is plagued by a series of suicides. A young pathologist starts to think there’s a murderer on the loose when one of the victims turns out to be someone she’s just met…
Trippy Giallo from co-writer and director Armando Crispino that takes an unconventional approach to the familiar mix of horror and mystery. Mimsy Farmer stars, with support from Barry Primus and Ray Lovelock.
Rome is baking in a savage heatwave, with high sunspot and solar activity. Young doctor Simona Sanna (Farmer) is working as a pathologist while writing a thesis on suicide for her master’s degree. The hot weather seems to be linked to a spate of individual self-destruction, with corpses piling up at an alarming rate. Farmer is also struggling with her relationship with her father, Gianni (Massimo Serato), who is living the bachelor life and often keeps his young girlfriends in the apartment above hers. By contrast, Farmer has a hang-up about sex and is reluctant to surrender to the advances of photographer boyfriend, Edgar (Lovelock).
One night, American girl Betty Lenox (Gaby Wagner) knocks on Farmer’s door. She assumes Wagner is her father’s latest conquest, but they only talk briefly before she leaves to take a telephone call in the apartment above. Another suicide arrives at the hospital the next day; a young woman found on the beach, who has apparently shot herself in the face. After reconstruction work, Farmer realises the body is that of Wagner and discovers that her father has gone into hiding.
It’s perhaps telling that Crispino’s film eventually got to theatres in Italy in January 1975, when the copyright date on the title card is 1973. That’s not necessarily a reflection on the quality of the finished article but perhaps more a consequence of Crispino’s unusual filmmaking choices. The film begins with five quick-fire suicides, intercut with close-ups of some of that unusual solar activity. Accompanied by an unsettling, slightly discordant score from the masterful Ennio Morricone, it’s a striking opening. Things only get more surreal immediately afterwards as we join Farmer at work and watch her freak out as she sees newly arrived corpses grinning at her, getting up off their slabs and then getting off with each other!
There’s certainly a touch of Roman Polanski’s ‘Repulsion’ (1965) in these early stages as Farmer appears to be a less than reliable narrator, and she gives a terrifically edgy, nervy performance. She’s tied up in knots over having sex with her handsome boyfriend and feels betrayed and thoroughly disgusted by her father and his promiscuous lifestyle. It doesn’t help that creepy co-worker Ivo (Ernesto Colli) tries to assault her or that Lovelock gets out of hand when parked in his car. The combination of Farmer’s performance, Crispino’s direction and Morricone’s score creates a very odd, perturbing atmosphere where even the mundane seems unreal and unreliable.
However, it’s easy to see why distributors might be a little shy of the film, especially given that the arrival of Wagner’s brother, Paul Lenox (Primus), takes the movie into more standard Giallo territory. However, it’s quite a while before this happens, and by then, a more mainstream audience may have checked out, dismissing the film as incoherent and weird. These more standard plot developments are perfectly serviceable, and we get some more suspects in the shape of Serrano’s brother, Lello (Carlo Cataneo), cynical artist Danielle (Angela Goodwin) and the lecherous building caretaker Leonardo Severini), who tries to look up Farmer’s dress. Honestly, the poor girl can’t catch a break with the men in her life. Crispino is also careful to hold over some of the visual flourishes from the first half to help tie things together. However, those enjoying the more surreal aspects of the experience may be a little disappointed when the film reverts to a more familiar type. Overall, the finished results do have a slightly schizophrenic feel.
Although this is most certainly Farmer’s show, and she rises to the occasion with merit, there’s also good work elsewhere in the cast. Lovelock convinces as her cocksure, insensitive boyfriend, and Serrato is as reliable as ever. Primus is a little short-changed by the script as his former racing driver turned priest with a violent streak is potentially very interesting, but Crispino, writing with Lucio Battistrada, gives him little chance to develop it. The cinematography by veteran Carlo Carlini is excellent, however, and the production utilises some fine views of historic Rome and its architecture.
Given the invention on display here, it’s disappointing to report that Crispino had a somewhat brief and rather underwhelming screen career. Beginning as one of four writers on the well-regarded crime drama ‘Vento del Sud’ (1960), more co-writing assignments followed before he got the opportunity to co-direct ‘Le piacevoli notti’ (1966), a comedy with Vittorio Gassman and Gina Lollobrigida. The first opportunity to direct a script that he’d worked on came with Spaghetti Western ‘John il bastardo/John the Bastard’ (1967). He also wrote and directed the unmemorable Lee Van Cleef war picture ‘Commandos’ (1968) and Giallo-horror ‘The Dead Are Alive!/L’etrusco uccide ancora/The Etruscan Kills Again’ (1972). His big-screen career closed out with the obscure horror sex-comedy ‘Frankenstein: Italian Style/Frankenstein all’italiana’ (1975), and a forgotten TV movie in 1981. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 78.
Not wholly successful, but it’s still an unusual Giallo that deserves a watch, and the leading lady is superb.
Mark David Welsh 