This one has a hugely complicated plot, so let's see if we can describe it in one sentence!
Fabio Testi is an artist who likes to bed blondes on the side while his wife kind of spies on them but he may also be murdering them, although that's hard to determine as at the time of the first murder two other people are present who may or may not have been involved and at least someone there that night has stolen the victim's really expensive necklace, prompting her husband to hire a Roger Moore lookalike who heads of for the hotel with his fiancé and her dad, only to find that the staff at the hotel are under the thumb of a lady mob boss who is squeezing them for money, which means that they don't want a murder to go public and may be up to no good themselves as they plot to bump off their violent bosses, of which Adolfi Celli may be the most violent.
That's a LOT of PLOT and takes up about an hour or so of running time. It doesn't help that our hero is a Roger Moore clone who doesn't seem to mind pimping out his wife as a potential murder victim (although we do get some tense scenes involving her and Testi). Testi is good as the supposed killer artist and Adolfi Celli is also good as the old gangster who's possibly the cruellest person involved in the story. There's a really wince-inducing part where he squeezes a guy's hand while the guy is holding a glass of whiskey, with gory results.
There's also a kind of lack of style here, although on the other hand there is a 'trash' vibe that will become familiar during the next 300 Italian films I watch. I almost forgot to mention the sub-plot involving the dog that Roger Moore befriends which lends the latter part of the film a kind of 'Lassie' vibe which was kind of funny.
Interest constantly waning during this one. Maybe I'm growing jaded of the giallo. Maybe not. Maybe it's because the kids are off school and won't go to bed, the bastards.
Fabio Testi is an artist who likes to bed blondes on the side while his wife kind of spies on them but he may also be murdering them, although that's hard to determine as at the time of the first murder two other people are present who may or may not have been involved and at least someone there that night has stolen the victim's really expensive necklace, prompting her husband to hire a Roger Moore lookalike who heads of for the hotel with his fiancé and her dad, only to find that the staff at the hotel are under the thumb of a lady mob boss who is squeezing them for money, which means that they don't want a murder to go public and may be up to no good themselves as they plot to bump off their violent bosses, of which Adolfi Celli may be the most violent.
That's a LOT of PLOT and takes up about an hour or so of running time. It doesn't help that our hero is a Roger Moore clone who doesn't seem to mind pimping out his wife as a potential murder victim (although we do get some tense scenes involving her and Testi). Testi is good as the supposed killer artist and Adolfi Celli is also good as the old gangster who's possibly the cruellest person involved in the story. There's a really wince-inducing part where he squeezes a guy's hand while the guy is holding a glass of whiskey, with gory results.
There's also a kind of lack of style here, although on the other hand there is a 'trash' vibe that will become familiar during the next 300 Italian films I watch. I almost forgot to mention the sub-plot involving the dog that Roger Moore befriends which lends the latter part of the film a kind of 'Lassie' vibe which was kind of funny.
Interest constantly waning during this one. Maybe I'm growing jaded of the giallo. Maybe not. Maybe it's because the kids are off school and won't go to bed, the bastards.