The other IMDb reviewers have done a fine job evaluating this Umberto Lenzi thriller, and I'll chime in with just a few comments.
With Joe D'Amato of all people as cameraman, this low-budget European B movie looks sumptuous, with excellent driving scenes (pegged to star Carroll Baker introduced as a race car driver) and consistently attractive Majorca locations befitting a jet set backdrop. The only crappy scene for me was the mandatory (and now dated/unwatchable) visit to a discotheque where Baker and many extras are shot in low angle montages attempting to do the frug and other dance steps.
While Lenzi dangles DIABOLIQUE as a red herring plot gimmick, the real ripoff here is from an equally distinguished source, René Clément's PURPLE NOON. Long one of my all-time favorites, that classic Patricia Highsmith movie presented the thriller format in sundrenched, always bright & beautiful settings, probably the best such example of that approach since LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN in the '40s.
SPOILER ALERT:
Lenzi adopts the same against-the-grain (no Gothic or gloomy visuals) look and carefully imitates the key elements of PURPLE NOON's suspense. The murder takes place on a yacht, and the final twist of the film, the "return of the repressed" frisson moment, is identical, as the incriminating corpse is dredged up from Davy Jones Locker not as part of the official search but rather accidentally from another search instigated by the guilty parties.
Side note: In the '80s I was motion picture editor in NYC at Variety newspaper and I once asked our Rome correspondent Deborah Young about Italian directors' personalities, since she dealt with them on a one-to-one basis daily. She responded with a surprise for me, stating that Umberto Lenzi was the classiest of the lot, a true gentleman. Having been exposed in America to drive-in and 42nd St. showings of his often lurid and exploitation-oriented films I was surprised, but it was another lesson in the dangers of equating one's work (and its artifacts) with the creator's personal attributes.
With Joe D'Amato of all people as cameraman, this low-budget European B movie looks sumptuous, with excellent driving scenes (pegged to star Carroll Baker introduced as a race car driver) and consistently attractive Majorca locations befitting a jet set backdrop. The only crappy scene for me was the mandatory (and now dated/unwatchable) visit to a discotheque where Baker and many extras are shot in low angle montages attempting to do the frug and other dance steps.
While Lenzi dangles DIABOLIQUE as a red herring plot gimmick, the real ripoff here is from an equally distinguished source, René Clément's PURPLE NOON. Long one of my all-time favorites, that classic Patricia Highsmith movie presented the thriller format in sundrenched, always bright & beautiful settings, probably the best such example of that approach since LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN in the '40s.
SPOILER ALERT:
Lenzi adopts the same against-the-grain (no Gothic or gloomy visuals) look and carefully imitates the key elements of PURPLE NOON's suspense. The murder takes place on a yacht, and the final twist of the film, the "return of the repressed" frisson moment, is identical, as the incriminating corpse is dredged up from Davy Jones Locker not as part of the official search but rather accidentally from another search instigated by the guilty parties.
Side note: In the '80s I was motion picture editor in NYC at Variety newspaper and I once asked our Rome correspondent Deborah Young about Italian directors' personalities, since she dealt with them on a one-to-one basis daily. She responded with a surprise for me, stating that Umberto Lenzi was the classiest of the lot, a true gentleman. Having been exposed in America to drive-in and 42nd St. showings of his often lurid and exploitation-oriented films I was surprised, but it was another lesson in the dangers of equating one's work (and its artifacts) with the creator's personal attributes.