Blonde Köder für den Mörder (1969)

User Rating:

4.7/10   

Director:

Harald Philipp

Writers:

Sergio Garrone (writer)
Harald Philipp (writer)

Release Date:

November 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

While looking for a stolen diamond necklace,the private investigator Bob Martin uncovers a smart serial killer. |

Plot Keywords:

Serial Killer | Beautiful Woman | Sex | Murder | Female Nudity

Cast

Dean Reed	...	Bob Martin
Fabio Testi	...	Francisco di Villaverde
Ini Assmann	...	Ellen Kent
Leon Askin	...	Pepe Mangano
Werner Peters	...	Charly Hollmann
Nadja Tiller	...	Maria di Villaverde
Anita Ekberg	...	Sophia Perretti
Adolfo Celi	...	Perretti, aka Max Spiegler
Riccardo Garrone	...	Amato Locatelli
Mario Brega	...	Riccardo
Hélène Chanel	...	Angela (as Helene Chanel)
Femi Benussi	...	Mabel Simmons
Renato Baldini	...	Mr. Simmons
Tom Felleghy	...	Berry (as Tom Felleghi)
Bruno Arié

Also Known As:

Death Knocks Twice
La morte bussa due volte (Italy)
The Blonde Connection (USA)

Runtime:

Netherlands:81 min | USA:90 min | West Germany:95 min

Country:

West Germany | Italy

Language:

German

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:18 | USA:Not Rated

Company:

Maris Film

Early giallo--worth seeing I guess

This is an early gialli (pre-"Bird with Crystal Plumage")and is thus neither as violent, sexually graphic, or visually stylish as some of the later ones, but it's worth seeing for fans of the giallo genre.

This movie has a lot going for it. The great Fabio Testi plays a deranged artist who can't seem to resist strangling his female partners during sex. The voluptuous Anita Ekberg (the fountain-bather in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita") is an older, married female art dealer who just can't resist Testi's possibly homicidal charms and becomes the potential victim of an elaborate murder plot. The villainous Adolf Celli plays her oft-cuckolded husband, a scary gangster called "The Professor". Even a young Femi Benussi gets into the act in one of her earliest have-naked-sex-and-get-brutally-murdered-minutes-later cameos.

Unfortunately, the lead, American actor Dean Reed, is about as charisma-free as they come. Part of it his character, a private detective who callously uses his faithful fiancée as bait to snare the dangerous, sex-crazed artist. I was hoping something would happen--that she would cheat on him with Testi at the very least, but she is unaccountably loyal to this idiot. Even stranger, the detective at one point befriends a vicious dog belonging to another character, and the dog later rescues him at a crucial point (what is this--"Lassie"?). What either the dog or the girl see in this guy is beyond me.