With having found director Paolo Cavara second (and final) title in the Giallo Sub-genre, Plot of Fear,to be an extremely distinctive film,I was happily caught by surprise,when a very kind IMDb'er sent me a DVD of Cavara's Giallo debut,which led to me getting ready to find out how deadly Cavara's tarantula really is.
The plot:
Living on her own ever since a photo got secretly sent to her husband,that exposed his wife to be a nymphomaniac,Maria Zani is gripped in her apartment by a stranger who wears a long dark coat,and black gloves.Pinning Zani down to the ground as she tries to fight back in desperation,the stranger stabs Zani in the back of the neck with a needle,which contains a sedative that causes Zani to become paralysed whilst still being fully conscious.Carefully placing Zani so that she can see everything take place that she is unable to stop,the stranger kills Zani by slowly dissecting her abdomen.
Arriving to the murder scene of Maria Zani,Inspector Tellini interviews Zani's ex-husband,who tells Tellini that he had not spoken to his ex-wife for 10 days.Initially suspecting the ex-husband on being the murderer,Tellini begins to fear that Zani's death was committed by a serial killer,when a woman (who like Maria Zani,was also a regular customer of an expensive bathing/massage parlour) is found murdered with her abdomen dissected,and half of a broken needle lodged in her neck.
View on the film:
Featuring not 1,but 3 Bond Girls in the gorgeous trio of Claudine Auger,Barbara Bouchet (who appears completely naked within the first minute of the movie) and Barbara Bach,director Paolo Cavara surprisingly keeps away from making the film look overly glamorous,by allowing this Giallo to soak up a huge amount of Film Noir atmosphere.
Along with cinematography Marcello Gatti, ( and backed by a breathy score from Ennio Morricone) Cavara fully shows the poisonous world that this deadly tarantula inhabits,with all of the male characters in the film wearing post-industrial,dour grey and brown suits,with the backdrop of the city allowing for the characters lives to be filled with murky drug and sex dealings,thank to Cavara and Gatti revealing the city to be one that is rusting away and decaying at ever level,which allows for "hole's" to appear that the ruthless killer can use to their advantage.
Whilst Paolo Cavara's excellent stylish directing give this Giallo a strong Film Noir foundation,the screenplay by Marcello Danon and Lucile Laks disappointingly stops this tarantula from using its killer move. With the potentially tense investigation of Inspector Tellini,the writer's make the mystery one which feels like it is building to a shocking revelation that it never quite reaches,thanks to the moments when Tellini starts to dig up the murky past of Maria Zani and the fellow guests of the bathing/massage parlour feeling surprisingly stilted,which leads to this Giallo tarantula sadly not having the full deadly bite,that it easily could have had.
The plot:
Living on her own ever since a photo got secretly sent to her husband,that exposed his wife to be a nymphomaniac,Maria Zani is gripped in her apartment by a stranger who wears a long dark coat,and black gloves.Pinning Zani down to the ground as she tries to fight back in desperation,the stranger stabs Zani in the back of the neck with a needle,which contains a sedative that causes Zani to become paralysed whilst still being fully conscious.Carefully placing Zani so that she can see everything take place that she is unable to stop,the stranger kills Zani by slowly dissecting her abdomen.
Arriving to the murder scene of Maria Zani,Inspector Tellini interviews Zani's ex-husband,who tells Tellini that he had not spoken to his ex-wife for 10 days.Initially suspecting the ex-husband on being the murderer,Tellini begins to fear that Zani's death was committed by a serial killer,when a woman (who like Maria Zani,was also a regular customer of an expensive bathing/massage parlour) is found murdered with her abdomen dissected,and half of a broken needle lodged in her neck.
View on the film:
Featuring not 1,but 3 Bond Girls in the gorgeous trio of Claudine Auger,Barbara Bouchet (who appears completely naked within the first minute of the movie) and Barbara Bach,director Paolo Cavara surprisingly keeps away from making the film look overly glamorous,by allowing this Giallo to soak up a huge amount of Film Noir atmosphere.
Along with cinematography Marcello Gatti, ( and backed by a breathy score from Ennio Morricone) Cavara fully shows the poisonous world that this deadly tarantula inhabits,with all of the male characters in the film wearing post-industrial,dour grey and brown suits,with the backdrop of the city allowing for the characters lives to be filled with murky drug and sex dealings,thank to Cavara and Gatti revealing the city to be one that is rusting away and decaying at ever level,which allows for "hole's" to appear that the ruthless killer can use to their advantage.
Whilst Paolo Cavara's excellent stylish directing give this Giallo a strong Film Noir foundation,the screenplay by Marcello Danon and Lucile Laks disappointingly stops this tarantula from using its killer move. With the potentially tense investigation of Inspector Tellini,the writer's make the mystery one which feels like it is building to a shocking revelation that it never quite reaches,thanks to the moments when Tellini starts to dig up the murky past of Maria Zani and the fellow guests of the bathing/massage parlour feeling surprisingly stilted,which leads to this Giallo tarantula sadly not having the full deadly bite,that it easily could have had.