Alta tensión (1972) User Reviews

"High Voltage" could have packed a real wallop

[melvelvit-1 · 8/10 · 10 July 2014]

José's a poor but handsome garage mechanic who sees an opportunity to better himself by betting on a supposedly rigged jai alai game but only gets himself cleaned out and beaten up for his efforts. He's rescued by Elisa, an up-and-coming photographer, and he soon becomes her boy toy, not minding too much that she's also being kept by her patron, Count Pablo. At an exhibition the Count arranges for Elisa, José meets the nobleman's alluring wife, Laura, who wants her husband dead. José falls for both Laura and her schemes and the first of many twists comes when he finds out Laura's the rich one, not her husband. To make matters even more complicated, José shoots the wrong man which leads the Count to blackmail him into killing Laura but when he isn't able to pull that off either, Laura and the Count get together to try and kill José...

There's even more in store in this psychological (or "bloodless") giallo worthy of the corkers churned out in the late '60s by Umberto Lenzi & Carroll Baker. The giallo's unsung queen, exotic Marisa Mell, is the kind of femme fatale made famous by DOUBLE INDEMNITY's Phyllis Dietrichson and HIGH VOLTAGE reinforces the Italian horror sub-genre's relationship to the American film noir with its James M. Cain-like story of an amoral sap getting far more than he bargained for after being seduced into killing a wicked woman's husband. HIGH VOLTAGE (live wires actually figure into the story) is also a neat little treatise on the decadent rich and the poor fools who aspire to be like them. This may or may not have been intentional but the lack of nudity was typical of Franco-era Spain which, unfortunately, prevents the film from becoming the "high voltage" erotic thriller it should have been. On the plus side, however, the body count gets respectable towards the end and duplicity runs rampant. There were also some genuinely suspenseful moments to go with the off-the-wall ending and the garish colors, decor, and fashions are pure '70s. So is the sexy Helga Liné, who pops up near the end as a jaded party guest, come to think of it. A groovy 8/10

Decent and intriguing Spanish/Italian Giallo with a lot of twists and turns

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 2 October 2023]

It starts colorful in atttractive credit titles with enjoyable musical score by composer Gianni Ferrio set the mood for a suspenseful thriller. Acceptable thriller dealing José (Juan Luis Galiardo) , a young mechanic, arrives in Madrid to make a big hit , but his aims go wrong. Eternal loser José, who makes a living as a mechanic in an automobile repair shop and dreams of a better life in high society. The script and his work allow the viewer clear access to José's ambitions, frustrations and setbacks. José is nice, has a good heart, wants to get ahead quickly and is tired of being treated contemptuously by the wealthy people and having to keep hardly his head above shoulders with his lousy job. In a sports bet, his last savings are stolen, a new disaster he just lost and going on. The acquaintance of the distinctive photographer Elisa Folbert (Patrizia Adiutori) allows the unfortunate boy to make his way into the upper class. At a vernissage in Madrid, José meets the rich Laura (Marisa Mell is aptly cast in the role of a manipulative woman), she's a gorgeous young woman who uses her sex to achieve her goals and is married to the much older Moncada (Gabrielle Ferzetti), whom he hates as best he can. At her luxury mansion, Laura makes the elegant mechanic a lucrative offer to kill her husband, since she is tied to her father due to an unpleasant clause in her dad's will and cannot freely dispose of her fortune. José, who long ago fell in love with a femme fatale, agrees, thus setting off a chain reaction of intrigue and mistakes. Laura seduces him with darks purports and she makes him a proposition he can't refuse and then his troubles really begin. He moves into her luxurious house with him to plan the sinister purport.

A passable and attractive dramatic thriller with a surprising premise, plot twists, being competently paced and made in Gialloesque style . A psychological giallo from Spain that can compete with the best representatives of American Film Noir in terms of setting, slickness and elegance and not by chance has many parallels and bears remarkable resemblance with "Double Indemnity", the classic by Billy Wilder. "High Tension" shows the master's perfect skill especially in a brilliantly arranged dream sequence. Dealing with a naive, ambitious but very prone to being deceived young - very well played by Juan Luis Galiardo- who after being conned he loses his savings, and is taken in by photographer Elisa -Patrizia Adiutori- who introduces him to Pablo -Gabriele Ferzetti- , an elderly wealthy man, and his wife Laura -Marisa Mell- who sets her sights on him . Stars Marisa Mell who is really gorgeous as the suspect woman who first seduces an old man and subsequently attempts to get rid of him. When she's not filling the screen with her eruptive passion, she's cool, regal, calculating. A precision performance as captivating as in "Una sull'altra" , "Marta", "Pena de muerte" or "La encadenada". Furthermore, she wears a snappy wardrobe that fits perfectly into the contemporary Southern European of yesteryear. Due to the censorship-induced chastity of the Franco dictatorship, the eroticism in "High Tension" remains fairly discreet, though in some of the versions broadcasting around, there's nudism enough, which is certainly good for the film as a whole, but may not be so pleasant for die-hard giallo fans. In any case, the erotic tension between Galiardo and Mell is excellently balanced and creates an uplifting crackling atmosphere from the first moment they meet. The quartet of main characters is completed by Gabriele Ferzetti as the aging man, who plays the cunning Moncada with his characteristic indifference and ambiguity, and Patrizia Adiutori, the only uninterrupted positive character in the film. They are well accompanied by a fine Spanish support cast with plenty of familar faces, giving brief but enjoyable acting, such as : Helga Liné, Manuel Alexandre, Jacinto San Emeterio, Gogó Rojo, José María Caffarel, Mary Begoña, Eduardo Calvo, Juan Amigo, José Riesgo, Luis Gaspar, Loreta Tovar, among others.

Shot in Madrid and Castilla y León, and adequately photographed by cameraman Mario Montuori. The motion picture written by Federico de Urrutia and based on an idea by José Luis Martínez Mollá, was competently directed Julio Buchs , including some gaps and shortcomings . Julio was a fine artisan who wrote and directed some thrillers, comedies and Paella Westerns until his early death of a heart attack on January 20, 1973, ten days before his father, in his apartment in Madrid at only 46 years old.forty six years old. The was son of the legendary silent film master José Buchs. All of his twelve works as a director were characterized by care, style, verve and a certain professionality on the staging. Although most of them were B movies like thrillers as ¨Alta tension¨, " Las trompetas del Apocalipsis" ór ¨El salario del crimen¨. In 1975, the horror film »Malocchio« (directed by Mario Siciliano) was made posthumously, for which Buchs had written the script with his favorite co-writer Federico De Urrutia. He also made religious dramas as ¨Encrucijada para una monja¨or ¨Crossroads for a Nun" (1967) . Paella westerns as ¨Mestizo¨, ¨Los desesperados¨or ¨The Despaired" (1969, with Ernest Borgnine), ¨El hombre que mato Billy the Kid¨. And comedies as ¨El apartamento de la tentacion¨, ¨Una señora llamada Andres¨ and ¨Cuidado con las señoras¨. Outside of Spain and Italy, the thriller "High tension" was not shown anywhere, however today it is a film to discover and enjoy, it's visually an almost lost gem: it's a mystery how this good film could have been so forgotten. Watch it at whatever cost. Rating : 6.5/10 .

Splendid thriller

[kanabuma · 10/10 · 13 December 2017]

Before watching this movie, I hadn't expected much about the plot of this movie, because I thought it to be a cheap b-grade movie. But it's not. It's a quality thriller movie. Juan Luis was very handsome and the two leading actresses were really gorgeous. I would have watched this movie, even without any plot, just for these actors. People might have seen twist endings like the one in this movie. But I have never seen such a nice twist end in a thriller movie. A thoroughly enjoyable movie, without any dull moment. I strongly recommend this movie for fans of beautiful thriller movies.

Almost worthless!

[RodrigAndrisan · 24 May 2021]

No, it's not a quality thriller movie. I've seen it twice. Watch the movie carefully! When he commits the crime, José (Juan Luis Galiardo) shoots several bullets with a pistol with silencer, wearing black gloves. When he gives the gun to Laura Moncada (Marisa Mell), he hands it to her without wearing gloves. So, only now he has left his fingerprints on the gun. Laura Moncada grabs the gun with one hand without wearing a glove, so her fingerprints are also on the gun. Which can incriminate her too. What she finally says to José, before shooting him in the arm with another small pistol, tied to fingerprints, doesn't make sense, it's absurd. As is the whole plot of the film, based on a screenplay written by the director of the film, Julio Buchs. Pablo Moncada (Gabriele Ferzetti) Laura's husband tells José that he has 2 witnesses to the crime. Witnesses who do not appear at all. Why? Because they doesn't exist. The blind man who appears twice and asks José to light his cigarette is a completely ridiculous character. That's not a real witness. If the others who had written about the film would had thought logically, they would not have been so excited about the "quality" of the film, giving it 8 and 10 stars, respectively. I don't give it not even one star. The film is very predictable, boring, a lot of talk. Under mediocre. And, although only 4 years older, Marisa Mell is no longer the beauty of "Danger: Diabolik" (1968).