Thrill Me! The Best and Worst of the Giallo Films - Page 2

I kind of think that you being made uncomfortable was kind of the point, no? I've been putting off buying the re-release of Torso (I have no idea what happened to my old DVD) because I'm convinced Blue Underground will announce a Blu-ray release.

Ha ha, you might want to stay away from the Italian Cannibal genre then, along with just about everything Joe D'Amato ever touched. I remember a female friend of mine was complaining about my DVD collection having too many misogynistic movies, and I successfully defended every one of them...right up to New York Ripper...

The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave has the sexualiztion of the violence in all the murders. Just watching the trailer shows one broad getting strangled while topless.

So many of the murders in Giallos are sexual. Just that would make for an interesting book. I would certainly buy it.

I'm thinking about Martino now that Torso has been brought up, and I'm realizing his non-Giallo work is sort of terrible. Mannaja has some evocative visuals, I suppose, and his crap is still entertaining, but it's not very well made.

I've got quite a few D'Amato movies in my Netflix queue. Got Buio Omega a few months back, and it was....interesting. Great Goblin score.

How awesome is my girlfriend? I showed her some of The New York Ripper and she didn't mind it. I'm talking specifically about the Porn Show, and subsequent murder, which is probably the second most brutal murder in the film.

She did find the "toe scene" funny.

Plus this isn't an Italian movie, but she really liked Frontiere(s) a lot.

As far as the cannibal movies go, they all have awesome scores, along with the animal killings, but they do have their own unique "charms". Eaten Alive is the most fun of them, since it's Robert Kerman being hired by a girl to get her sister out of a Jim Jones like cult that lives in the jungle, that is surrounded by a group of cannibals.

Cannibal Holocaust has dark humor in it, among all the disgusting material, and Cannibal Ferox survives by the over the top acting of Giovanni Lombardo Radice, and the great performance by Lorraine De Selle.

I've actually e-mailed back and forth with Giovanni Lombardo Radie. He's a pretty cool guy.

Buio Omega is far and away D'Amato's best film. He's made other entertaining films as a director, but he just didn't give a fuck, and admits to it in interviews. He was more interested in being a producer, and we have him to thank for putting up the money for Stage Fright. Apparently Argento resented Soavi for wanting to break out on his own, and wouldn't help him until after D'Amato put faith in the guy.

That's pretty cool. Didn't know about that. I've heard though that Argento can be a control freak. I know both Demons films may as well have been directed by him since he was in George Lucas "I'm the producer, but I'm really the director, and you are just a ghost director" mode.

The opening scene of the van driving in Buio Omega to the great main theme sets the tone perfectly for the movie. I will say, of all the stuff that occurs in the movie, the grossest thing is that stew that the maid makes. Man, that stuff looked disgusting.

Janet Agren painted gold in Eaten Alive is a good visual.

Neglected to mention Jungle Holocaust. That one is probably the most smallest of the cannibal movies as it's about a man first humiliated by the cannibals, then with the help of a captured cannibal girl (Me Me Lai!) lives off the land until he can get off the island.

it's interesting how some of these movies feature the same actors and actresses. Robert Kerman, Ivan Rassimov, Me Me Lai, were all in multiple cannibal movies.

I still need to see The Man From Deep River, which is the one that started it all.

I've never seen Man From Deep River either. I've heard its pretty much the same plot as Jungle Holocaust, which is why Lenzi apparently thought it was cool to steal footage from it for Eaten Alive.

According to most interviews Soavi actively hated working with Argento when he worked as director instead of second unit.

Yeah, he stole Me Me Lai's death scene. These crazy guys stealing footage from each others films. No wonder so many Italo directors hate each other.

Didn't Soavi get to do second unit work on Fulci's The Gates Of Hell? If I remember correctly Soavi liked working under Fulci, even though Fulci apparently had nothing but contempt for most actors. On the Touch Of Death disc, Zora Kerova says that she was one of about 3 women that Fulci said he could tolerate and actually liked. I wonder who the other 2 were? Possibly Katherine MacColl since they worked on 3 films. Maybe the other was Mimsy Farmer?

Fulci loved Kerova because she was always game, and respected MacColl. Giovanni Lombardo Radice has mostly nice things to say about Fulci too.

Everyone loved Soavi according to all the interviews I've read, but as soon as he tried to work alone Argento started acting coldly towards him. Soavi thinks it had something to do with him choosing to working second unit with Gilliam instead of Argento.

Argento jealous of Gilliam maybe?

So I went to a local used bookstore and someone had just sold an awesome pile of Italian horror. I only had enough money in my budget for 3, so I have an official copy of Cat in the Brain (yep, still a piece of crap) and will finally be seeing The Bloodstained Shadow, but the funny part of the story is the copy of Blade of the Ripper I got. At first I thought it was the Hammer Jack the Ripper flick, then I saw it was Sergio Martino. I read the back, and it sounded familiar, but I'd never heard of it. Turns out Mya just didn't use the title The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wradh. I thought I had something I'd never heard of. Oh well, the NoShame disc is way the hell out of print.

Remember the other titles that were in that pile, Gabe?

I have a fondness for Cat In The Brain. Especially the end where Lucio Fulci sails off into the sunset. Would have been a nice way to finish off his directorial career. Still need to see his last movie.

It was a lot of Mya, Synapse and Shriek Show titles, ironically basically everything I happen to not own (except Fucli's The Psychic, which I finally broke down and bought last month). Black Demons, Hitcher in the Dark, The Other Hell...um...Dead Pit...some other stuff.

The Guy appears to be hanging on to Hunchback of Rue Morgue and Horrible, which are the two I really want.

Door Into Silence is pretty boring, but worth seeing for fans. I still need to see Aenigma and House of Clocks, then I think I'll have seen every Fulci film since Beatrice Cenci.

Florinda Bolkan.

I wish my laptop hadn't been fucked when this thread started... absolutely brilliant thread that I hope does not die (by black gloved pervy killer!)

Anyway, I just read through it all and realised there was one masterpiece missing, a non Argento, Fulci, Bava, Martino, Lenzi or any of the other obvious suspects bona fide great Giallo... I am talking about THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS.

It's brilliant and has a chilling sense of gloom and portent about it... anyone else seen it? I saw it on the back on a helluva lot of great reviews and it still lived up to the hype.

I've got Strip Nude for Your Killer, The House with Laughing Windows and Fifth Cord slowly creepy up my queue, but they've been there forever. The only two gialli that dropped off to the 'saved' section were Mrs. Wardh (which is now rectified), and Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I have the Key. This thread has made me want to buy every used copy of every gialli I run into at the used stores lately. I almost picked up All the Colours of the Dark the other day, and I don't even remember liking that one all that much.

The best thing about ALL THE COLORS is the opening credit sequence.

EDIT: Other than Fenech's nude scenes.

So I wrote a song last year using almost exclusively Giallo titles as lyrics. Thought you guys would think that was funny. Most people just stare at me.

Strip Nude For Your Killer is everything the title says it is. Lots of lovely fully naked ladies, including one who struts around in nothing but shoes before she is killed.

The downside is that it's not Ladies Strip Nude For Your Killer. It's Strip Nude For Your Killer, so a couple of guys, including a really obese guy *Sideshow Bob Shudder* get naked.

Lyrics please!

Rene, I know exactly what you mean about STRIP NUDE... I wanted to erase that fat guy from my eyes with wire wool!

The FIFTH CORD is a fine entry in the genre but, to be honest, the main things it has going for it is a fantastic score by Ennio Morricone and, without a doubt, some of the most fantastic cinematography in the genre (hell, maybe in film) as it was shot by one of the masters Vittorio Storaro, who also shot BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and, outside of Gialli, THE CONFORMIST, THE LAST EMPEROR and APOCALYPSE NOW.

Ha Ha, no I suck. Though I'm happy with the riff.

I just stocked the fuck up on Gialli thanks to a poor sap selling off his collection at Half Priced Books. I haven't watched any of them yet (I still have a pile of stuff to review), but I've got Bloodstained Shadow, Strip Nude, Your Vice is a Locked Room, Death Laid an Egg, and like 4 more I can't remember off the top of my head.

FOOTPRINTS (LE ORME) has been remastered for a Region 2 release from Shameless. Marketed as a giallo, with actors and off-screen talent (the Bazzoni/Storaro partnership of THE FIFTH CORD) familiar to the genre, but the story is a second-rate Twilight Zone episode padded to feature length. A Portuguese translator (Florinda Bolkan) can't remember anything that occurred over a three-day period, and follows a torn postcard photo of a hotel to a remote island for information. Recurring nightmares inspired by a cheap science fiction movie have a significant (and silly) role. Almost nothing happens until the predictable ending, and Klaus Kinski is wasted in a cameo. If it weren't for a strong performance from Bolkan and Storaro's dependable visuals the movie would be a complete bore. Still, it gets high marks on the IMDb -- critics comparing Bazzoni to Resnais and Antonioni (!) -- so you may want to check it out.

I loved DEATH SMILES ON A MURDERER, which D'Amato directed under his real name, Aristide Massaccesi. A hypnotizing, dream-like allure heightened by Massaccesi's cinematography and the gorgeous score from Berto Pisano. Well worth seeing.

So I've been working on this Italian Horror checklist for my chudblog, and I'm almost done with the Cannibal and Zombie section, which means Giallo really should be next, but it's the second most overwhelming subgenre next to Spaghetti Westerns. It's going to be pretty incomplete. I've seen and memorized all Bava, Fulci and Argento's, and now have my hands on all of Martino's stuff, along with a few others, but its going to be disappointing. Also, it's really hard to watch several Gialli in a row since the directors ripped each other off visually all the time, and the basics of the plots are often interchangeable.

Death laid an egg is a decent entry in the genre. . It's heavy on the paranoia like most and contains the odd red herring but it's more concerned with the relationships between the leads than the actual murders that take place. Jean-Louis Trintignant's blank expression is used to goood effect and I thought the actresses that play his wife and her cousin(very nice) were equally as good.

There's some sharp imagery and interesting cuts on show. It's lot more composed than the director's spaghetti western, Django, Kill… If You Live, Shoot! which I was very disappointed by. There's one particular cut involving a car crash which I thought was stunning.


I blind bought the Shameless release of The Designated Victim a while back and thankfully enjoyed it.
It's seen as a very loose remake of Strangers on a Train and contains a typically good performance from Tomas Milian. Some of the footage scavenged by Shameless to try and make it the most complete cut available is scrappy at best but it didn't distract from the quality of the film. It's a very solid thriller with a neat ending.

Scholars, hook me up - just bought these at a pulp paperback show for $3 each. What order should I watch them in?

What Have You Done To Solange?
Torso (seen this one)
Seven Blood-Stained Orchids
The Black Belly of the Tarantula
Strip Nude For Your Killer

Also got Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, Love Camp 7, and some triple feature of sleaze containing Virgin Forest, Virgin Maid, and I'm No Virgin.

Depends. In terms of legitimate quality, it's all downhill after Solange, but I would do it like this:

Torso
Strip Nude For Your Killer
The Black Belly of the Tarantula
Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (I really, really like this film; there's a quality to it that's unusual for Lenzi)
What Have You Done To Solange?

Edit: The mention of Love Camp 7 reminded me that I got Exploitation Digital's SS Hell Pack Triple Feature awhile back. SS Girls/SS Experiment Love Camp/SS Camp Woman's Hell. Pretty great. Bruno Mattei couldn't direct traffic, but he knows exactly what elements to bring in to make it all worth while.

So that's worst to best? Or did you go mixtape on me?

*I* think that's worst to best. As I may have said earlier in the thread, I feel that Torso's rep is overblown (though it has moments). Strip Nude is fun, but it's not even trying to be a good movie. Some might flip Black Belly and Orchids, but whatever. Solange is the shit.

For sheer star power, I would put BLACK BELLY at the top of the heap. SOLANGE is probably the better movie, though.

What Have You Done To Solange? was good! I realized I'd seen Fabio Testi in spaghetti westerns and polizieschi, but never a giallo. I like his professor beard.

Only an Italian flick could ask us to emptathize with a protagonist who's dry humping his teen student during a series of student murders, and sets her up in a secret sex apartment. Unsubtly, his wife goes from chilly shrew to sexy sidekick once the teen girlfriend ends up murdered and he tries to crack the case.

AWESOME spoiler-filled trailers on the DVD:

The Sweet House Of Horrors (Fulci; looks like it was shot on 1" tape)

Spasmo Spasmo! Spasmo! SPASMO! (Lenzi, nudity)

House Of The Park On The Edge (yes, that's how it's titled, Deodato, nudity, David Hess)

The House Of Clocks (more late 80s Fulci shit)

Fabio Testi was never more Connery looking than in Solange.

To my shame, never saw The Bird With the Crystal Plumage before tonight (got the blu for Christmas). It really is the blueprint for WAY too many gialli which followed it, huh? And I'm not sure any of the successors improved on it. But what a pleasure. Where was THIS Argento for the last few years? Here's a guy in love with cinema. Here's a guy who will throw a camera out a goddamn window to get a shot. Exhilarating stuff.

I also got The Fifth Cord for Xmas, so maybe I'll see how much of Plumage's credit is going to Storaro.

This broke my brain. I've always associated you with Giallo. Is this not the case, or was it just a bizarre blind spot in your giallo career? Either way, great movie.

Fat Elvis, Gabe Powers, Malmordo and at least two other guys are way more versed in giallo than I am. (I banged the Polizieschi drum loudly, but again, those Elvis and Malmordo are way more well versed than me.)

Honestly I started with Argento at Suspiria and worked my way outward, and at some point I just decided to wait for the blu (which looks about as good as one of my better upscaled dvds).

Good lord, the "panty murder."

I take it you've seen Deep Red.

Was going to ask about the transfer. I bought this on DVD two years ago and I think it'll do me fine.

My Argento gialli experience (and dvd collection) was previously limited to Tenebrae, Deep Red, Cat O'Nine Tails and Four Flies On Grey Velvet (though I haven't upgraded that one from the horrible horror con bootleg that I was given years ago). I backed into Plumage, which is a shame because it pretty much beats them all for me.

You should check out OPERA. It probably signifies the beginning of Argento's decline and it's one of his worst giallo's, but it's still really well made and it's a fucking hoot.

But you're up on Sergio Sollima (reminding me that I needed to see REVOLVER), and in my book that puts you ahead with the crime thrillers.

CRYSTAL PLUMAGE is a lot of fun, and it introduced me to one of the great American pulp writers, Fredric Brown, whose terrific novel The Screaming Mimi (1949) laid the foundation for Argento's script (and elements found their way into subsequent works -- FOUR FLIES' Godfrey or "God" was originally a Brown character). You should track down a copy of the novel and give it a read; I find it even stronger than the movie.

What about the first American film adaptation? I'm too lazy to read.

It's indifferently acted and directed, and stupidly reveals the killer's identity and source of psychosis early on. A complete bore. I like to pretend it doesn't exist.

Easy to do considering it's never been on home video. Where'd you find it?

I was kidding about the reading thing. I'm just backlogged.

I found a bootleg many years back, but Sony made it available last month:

http://www.sonypictures.com/homevide...c=043396369252

The best Argento giallo for me is Deep Red. That was the first one I saw, but Phil is right about Plumage setting up the basic formula.

That trailer for The House On Park Of The Edge is really The House On The Edge Of The Park. It's a really really REALLY sleazy giallo done by Ruggero Deodato. Seriously, every woman either has a full frontal or a topless shot, and there's a really depraved and wince inducing scene involving Hess, a teenage girl, and a straight razor.

There was a better trailer on Youtube a few years back, but it got taken down. If I would have been able to save it at that time, I'd upload it.

Still have to see some of these others that Blue Underground are offering like Black Belly Of The Tarantula, The Fifth Cord, and The Pyjama Girl Case.