Casa d'appuntamento (1972)

Director:

Ferdinando Merighi

Writers:

Paolo Daniele (story)
Marius Mattei (writer)

Release Date:

16 June 1972 (Italy)

Genre:

Thriller | Horror

Plot Keywords:

Male Nudity | Panties | Eyeball | Mercilessness | Autopsy

Cast

Anita Ekberg	...	Madame Colette
Rosalba Neri	...	Marianne
Evelyne Kraft	...	Eleonora (as Evelyn Kraft)
Howard Vernon	...	Professor Waldemar
Pietro Martellanza	...	Antoine Gottvalles (as Peter Martell)
Barbara Bouchet	...	Francine
Robert Sacchi	...	Inspector Pontaine
Eva Astor
Rolf Eden	...	Pepi
William Alexander
Piera Viotti
Alessandro Perrella
Ada Pometti

Also Known As:

Auge des Bösen (West Germany)
Der Ripper kommt auf leisen Sohlen (West Germany)
French Sex Murders (USA) (DVD title)
Murder in Paris
Murder on 17th Avenue
The Bogeyman and the French Murders
The French Sex Murders (USA)
The Paris Sex Murders

Runtime:

West Germany:83 min

Country:

Italy | West Germany

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:18 (nf) | Germany:18 | Norway:(Banned) (video version) (1986)

Company:

Costantino International Films

Trivia:

The sleazy American writer is named "Mr. Randall" in honor of the film's producer Dick Randall.

Not entirely uninteresting, but not very good either

Although this is definitely one of your lamer Italian gialli, like all gialli it has some points of interest. It has two different chase scenes involving the Eiffel Tower, just so you know (if the title doesn't clue you in) that it's set in Paris. It has an ironic scene where a condemned murderer is decapitated while fleeing police on a motorcycle. It has a strange scene where the police then turn over the disembodied head to a mad scientist, played by Jess Franco regular Howard Vernon, for him to conduct vague "experiments" on. And perhaps strangest of all it has a lead detective who is played by a Humphrey Bogart impersonator, which no one in the movie remarks on, but will have everyone at home scratching their head.

The plot involves the murder of a prostitute in a Paris brothel (run by early 60's sex symbol Anita Ekberg). It's blamed on a jealous client, but the lead detective ("Bogey")suspects otherwise. And when the murders continue after the suspect's ironic-if-he-were-actually-guilty demise, his suspicions are confirmed. The movie has all the standard giallo elements but it's directed without much flair. There's a lot of sex and female nudity (perhaps too much), but it doesn't involve the "name" actresses for the most part who are pretty much wasted in general. Barbara Bouchet is good as a bitchy prostitute but she is murdered before she can even strip out of her sexy red lingerie. Rosalba Neri has a brief nude scene but also a completely throwaway part as the condemned man's ex-wife. And Anita Ekberg, looking middle-aged and none to svelte, also has pretty phoned-in role that pales not just to her early sexy roles, but to the over-the-top trashy stuff she'd do later in movies like "Killer Nun".

Howard Vernon is about as good as he usually is in Franco movies, and as for the Bogart impersonator--well, nobody ever saw him again after this movie. I would definitely not recommend buying an overpriced DVD of this disappointing movie, but it might not be a total waste of 90 minutes of your life, especially if you're kind of a giallo completist like I am.