L'occhio nel labirinto (1972)

Director:

Mario Caiano

Writers:

Mario Caiano (writer)
Horst Hächler (writer)

Release Date:

24 March 1972 (Italy)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Giallo | Topless | Murder | Female Nudity | Beautiful Woman

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Rosemary Dexter	...	Julie
Adolfo Celi	...	Frank
Alida Valli	...	Gerda
Horst Frank	...	Luca
Sybil Danning	...	Toni
Franco Ressel	...	Eugene
Michael Maien	...	Louis
Benjamin Lev	...	Saro
Gigi Rizzi	...	Thomas
Peter Kranz
Gaetano Donati
Elisa Mainardi	...	Orphanage Director
Mario Cantatore
Rosita Torosh	...	Luca's Secretary

Also Known As:

Blood
Eye in the Labyrinth (USA) (dubbed version)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

Italy | West Germany

Language:

Italian | Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Elba Island, Livorno, Tuscany, Italy

Company:

TV13 Filmproduktion

Goofs:

Continuity: During the Scrabble game, the word ASSI is played with its first S being also the one of the word MUSICA already placed on the board. On the next turn, ASSI has moved one square upper, his second S being now the one of MUSICA.

Quotes:

[first title card]
Title Card: "...a labyrinth is built to bewilder the mind of man. Its architecture, however rich in symmetries it might be, is subordinate to this end" - J.L. Borges

If Freud would write Gialli screenplays ...

I can't but concur wholeheartedly with pretty much everything that my fellow reviewer Lazarillo already wrote in his user-comment. "Eye in the Labyrinth" is an Italian Giallo that literally thrives on Freudian psycho-sexual gibberish, and if you don't "believe" in Sigmund Freud's analytical theories, chances are that you won't enjoy this movie for one bit. Personally I'm not a big supporter of psychology, but I do fancy everything which concerns early 70's and obscure Italian cult cinema so I still could at least moderately enjoy this film. The plot introduces Julie, an emotionally troubled young girl who starts her own private investigation in search for her psychiatrist that went missing. The trail leads to a fancy resort where her beloved doctor threw perverted sex parties and ran a whole lot of other illegal affairs. Julie gradually becomes entangled in a web of mystery, hallucinations and dead end clues, but still there's no trace of Louis the psychiatrist. As the plot of "Eye in the Labyrinth" slowly unfolds, the film raises confusion instead of to clarifying the events and it actually requires an extended monologue at the end in order to tie all the loose ends together. The denouement is fairly logical and acceptable, but it's definitely a whole lot of senseless nonsense and – as said – you need to switch on your Freudian mindset. "Eye in the Labyrinth" contains relatively few violence or imaginative murder sequences (with the notable exception of one fantastic burning-car moment) in comparison with most Italian Gialli of that period, but there's plentiful of sleaze and nudity to compensate. For example, a still very young Sybil Danning makes an appearance as one of the random topless murder victims and her presence alone forms a nice extra treat for avid cult purchasers.