L'uomo più velenoso del cobra (1971)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Bitto Albertini

Writers:

Ernesto Gastaldi (writer)
Eduardo Manzanos Brochero (screenplay)

Release Date:

5 August 1971 (Italy)

Genre:

Crime

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Beautiful Woman | Giallo

Cast

George Ardisson	...	Tony Garden
Erika Blanc	...	Leslie Garden
Alberto de Mendoza	...	George MacGreves
Janine Reynaud	...	Clara
Luciano Pigozzi	...	Mortimer
Aurora de Alba	...	Leslie's friend
Luis Induni	...	Humphrey
Gilberto Galimberti	...	Maxie (as Gill Rolland)
Miguel Del Castillo
Gianni Pulone
Percy Hogan
Fabián Conde
Benedikte
Fernando Hilbeck	...	Killer

Also Known As:

Cobras humanas (Spain)
Human Cobras (USA) (dubbed version)
Target: Murder
The Man More Venomous Than the Cobra (USA) (literal English title)

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

Spain | Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Spain

Company:

Copercines, Cooperativa Cinematográfica

One of the Weakest Gialli I Have Ever Seen

When Johnny Garden was murdered, his fiancee, Leslie, and his brother, Tony, go to New York, USA and Nairobi, Kenya to figure out who killed him. But, in Kenya, Leslie sees Johnny's illusion, and a girl who introduces herself as Johnny's friend is found dead in Tony's room... Although the first thirty-minute of this Spanish-Italian co-produced Giallo sets in Europe and USA (and it should be said this thirty-minute is definitely of a cheap B-action-film rather than of a Giallo), this is a Giallo which is best known with and only with regard of its unique setting in Kenya. And I can admit this Kenyan setting produces almost unexpectedly visual impacts, especially in the sequence that Tony Garden disposes of the troublesome body of the almost strange girl and then the police find it. (Unfortunately, this highly impressive sequence is badly independent and therefore is almost unconnected with the latter sequences. Indeed, this film per se seems to be full of strange segmentalness.) Sadly, this apparently enterprising Giallo has not a few problems. For instance, neither George Ardisson, who plays Tony, nor Erika Blanc, who plays Leslie, looks like a desirable hero(ine) whom audiences naturally empathise. Of course, this film has its Italian title, L'UOMO PIU VELENOSO DEL COBRA, so it can be said and even presupposed they are calculated to be venomous. But their apparent venomousness destroys the twisted developmentalness of the very story of this film, and this strange self-destractiveness is the very reason why I am not impressed by the new turn which the last sequence of the film takes. And to make matters worse, Stelvio Cipriani's music is, if not inadequate, disappointingly weak. And this weakness seems to be the same kind of that of Jerry Goldsmith's music in the junk-rather-than-jungly adventure film titled CONGO. In conclusion, I have to say this 1971 film is one of the weakest and even most boring Gialli I have ever seen.