Since being left rather ho-hum from my viewing of Paolo Cavara's rather middle of the road Giallo The Black Belly Of The Tarantula,I started to watch his second and final Giallo expecting something similar.Instead,what I found was a very good Giallo,which whilst flawed,still has some pretty original ideas that I have not seen in any previous Giallo.
The plot:
Bringing in the local prostitutes to a police station over questions about a series of gruesome murders,which have started ever since a prostitute "actidentally" died at a party being held in a mansion that was filled with the "rich and famous residents of the city".Inspector Gaspare Lomenzo quickly begins to relies that he is heading for a dead end,with the only clue that he and his partner have been able to find being that the mysterious killer leaves behind illustration's from the children's book Struwwelpeter next to the victims bodies.Checking for any similar murders having taken place in the cold case files,Gaspare angry discovers that one of the files has been stolen.
Pushing to get any info out of the city's "higher-ups" Gaspare speaks to one of the city's biggest "power players",who tells Gaspare that he will only do an interview if he is allowed to record it,with some of his audio recording equipment!.Due to only getting a few tiny bits of interesting information,Gaspare begins to feel desperate in his attempts of tracking down the now notorious "cartoon killer",this leads to him chatting with one of the other prostitutes who attended the now notorious "villa party",which leads to Gaspare finally finding out what happened on the night that may drag the city deep into the gutter
View on the film:
As the opening credits started on this interesting Giallo,I was very surprised to hear that composer Daniele Patucchi (who also did the score for Umberto Lenzi's The Man From Deep River) had given the film a dub score!.
Whilst this at first originally seemed like an odd choice,it actually made the film a lot more colourful then it would have been with a "trditsional" score,thanks to the music making even the slower scenes feel lively,with the deep bass giving the film a nice groove.
For the screenplay writers Enrico Oldoini and Bernardino Zapponi impressively attempt to create a three-in-one movie,by giving the Agatha Christie rich people in a mansion plot a new twist,thanks to all of the "wealthy higher-ups" characters being made to look like a bunch of sleezeballs who sit around watching dirty cartoons,and are putting on their best impression of being "classy" posh people whenever they are in public.
Along with the Christie/Giallo element to the film of all the rich people being killed one by one,the writers also give the film a strong side of Italian Crime,with the scenes of the main detectives finding clues thanks to the pictures from the children's book Struwwelpeter being left as the killers main ID, (which actually made me smile,due to my dad perhaps having found some of the original drawings for Struwwelpeter a few years ago!) and a fantastic, very realistic final fight scene from director Paolo Cavara having a terrific,gritty feel.
Although the Giallo and Italian Crime parts of the films plot were parts that I found fairly entertaining,the main thing that completely gripped me with this film was its great moments of intercepting paranoia,with the scenes of someone secretly recording and filming peoples conversations giving the film a terrific Watergate-style "Paranoid Political-Thriller" feel,which I've not seen before in any of the Giallos that I have watched in the past.
Since the films daring screenplay attempts to take on several different genres,I was left a little bit disappointed that Cavara's directing was good but sadly did not reach the outstanding level that he could have achieved with this film,mostly due to the film being given a muddling middle-section and an overall uneven quality about it,with Cavara not including a scene or section in the film that ties all of the films threads together,which leads the film being filled with some very enjoyable moments,but not being the edge of the seat gripping Giallo that it easily could have been.
The plot:
Bringing in the local prostitutes to a police station over questions about a series of gruesome murders,which have started ever since a prostitute "actidentally" died at a party being held in a mansion that was filled with the "rich and famous residents of the city".Inspector Gaspare Lomenzo quickly begins to relies that he is heading for a dead end,with the only clue that he and his partner have been able to find being that the mysterious killer leaves behind illustration's from the children's book Struwwelpeter next to the victims bodies.Checking for any similar murders having taken place in the cold case files,Gaspare angry discovers that one of the files has been stolen.
Pushing to get any info out of the city's "higher-ups" Gaspare speaks to one of the city's biggest "power players",who tells Gaspare that he will only do an interview if he is allowed to record it,with some of his audio recording equipment!.Due to only getting a few tiny bits of interesting information,Gaspare begins to feel desperate in his attempts of tracking down the now notorious "cartoon killer",this leads to him chatting with one of the other prostitutes who attended the now notorious "villa party",which leads to Gaspare finally finding out what happened on the night that may drag the city deep into the gutter
View on the film:
As the opening credits started on this interesting Giallo,I was very surprised to hear that composer Daniele Patucchi (who also did the score for Umberto Lenzi's The Man From Deep River) had given the film a dub score!.
Whilst this at first originally seemed like an odd choice,it actually made the film a lot more colourful then it would have been with a "trditsional" score,thanks to the music making even the slower scenes feel lively,with the deep bass giving the film a nice groove.
For the screenplay writers Enrico Oldoini and Bernardino Zapponi impressively attempt to create a three-in-one movie,by giving the Agatha Christie rich people in a mansion plot a new twist,thanks to all of the "wealthy higher-ups" characters being made to look like a bunch of sleezeballs who sit around watching dirty cartoons,and are putting on their best impression of being "classy" posh people whenever they are in public.
Along with the Christie/Giallo element to the film of all the rich people being killed one by one,the writers also give the film a strong side of Italian Crime,with the scenes of the main detectives finding clues thanks to the pictures from the children's book Struwwelpeter being left as the killers main ID, (which actually made me smile,due to my dad perhaps having found some of the original drawings for Struwwelpeter a few years ago!) and a fantastic, very realistic final fight scene from director Paolo Cavara having a terrific,gritty feel.
Although the Giallo and Italian Crime parts of the films plot were parts that I found fairly entertaining,the main thing that completely gripped me with this film was its great moments of intercepting paranoia,with the scenes of someone secretly recording and filming peoples conversations giving the film a terrific Watergate-style "Paranoid Political-Thriller" feel,which I've not seen before in any of the Giallos that I have watched in the past.
Since the films daring screenplay attempts to take on several different genres,I was left a little bit disappointed that Cavara's directing was good but sadly did not reach the outstanding level that he could have achieved with this film,mostly due to the film being given a muddling middle-section and an overall uneven quality about it,with Cavara not including a scene or section in the film that ties all of the films threads together,which leads the film being filled with some very enjoyable moments,but not being the edge of the seat gripping Giallo that it easily could have been.