Blonde Köder für den Mörder

Death Knocks Twice is a somewhat interesting thriller that is often considered a part of the Giallo genre, despite putting much of its focus on other areas of the plot; which shows in a nutshell just how meandering this film is considering that a murder plot makes up the backbone of it. The film was made in 1969; just before the Giallo genre would gain popularity and Italian directors would go into overdrive making them. This one was actually a co-production with West Germany; thus further calling it's credibility with the genre into repute. The plot focuses on Francisco di Villaverde; a talented artist who has a deadly hobby, which involves strangling girls after having sex with them. He strangles a girl on the beach and this is witnessed by a couple of body guards, who just so happen to work for a local gangster who just so happens to want to buy a piece of property owned by Francisco di Villaverde. This story is then fused with a love story between the artist and the gangster's wife as she can't resist his charms in spite of his murderous nature.

The film gets off to a good start as we witness the central character murdering a woman on a beach...but from there it just peters out as we descend further into the plot. It loses focus as it goes on and the film quickly gets boring. In its favour, the film does have three of the best stars of Italian cinema in its cast list. A young Fabio Testi takes the lead role and hints at the kind of performance that the charismatic actor would go on to give. The beautiful Anita Ekberg also appears as does one of the most underrated actors of cult Italian cinema; the excellent Adolfo Celi. The film is directed by Harald Philipp and while he does capture some nice looking locations; his direction in general is nothing fascinating and certainly not a patch on the likes of Dario Argento who would go on to make some of the best films of the genre. It all boils down to a decent conclusion; but by then I couldn't really care what happened to be honest which is a bit of a shame. This is not an easy film to come by and I don't see any reason why that would change as it's not a particularly memorable entry.

DEATH KNOCKS TWICE is an excellent vehicle for both leading man Dean Reed (in this film he reminds me of a cross between James Franciscus, Tab Hunter, and the pre-burnout Jan-Michael Vincent), who plays a detective out to solve a murder and robbery while stumbling across other corrupt activities, and for leading hunk Fabio Testi, who opens the film with a semi-nude outdoor love scene and seems to play half the film without his shirt on. If Joe Dallesandro had begun his European career at this point, he would have been great in this part, but Testi plays a sulking hunk well too, and here he is a spoiled painter who lives in a wonderful beach-front villa and sleeps with various women who meet untimely ends. The film may tend to introduce too many characters too soon, and the mystery does not seem so mysterious in the initial reels, but somehow the whole thing chugs along and becomes more exciting in its second half, which features an excellent high-speed car chase on a wet winding country road and some exciting stunts from Reed. There is a superb all-star Euro-trash cast, including Adolfo Celi, Anita Ekberg, Werner Peters, Leon Askin, Nadia Tiller, and Ricardo Garrone (the film was co-written by his brother, Sergio), and direction is handled by the reliable German director Harald Philipp, whose credits include some of my favorite films such as MANHATTAN NIGHT OF MURDER with George Nader as Jerry Cotton, and RAMPAGE AT APACHE WELLS, an adaptation of Karl May's novel THE OIL PRINCE, starring Stewart Granger as Old Surehand and Pierre Brice as Winnetou. The feel of the film is halfway between some of the later German crime films of the Edgar Wallace cycle, and some of the earlier proto-giallo films of the mid and late 60s. One wonders if Dean Reed viewed this film as a critique of capitalistic decadence (which it certainly is, although that may be unintended) or just a good leading role to give the Italian period of his acting career a shot in the arm. Either way, he handles himself well, looks great, and has charisma to burn. DEATH KNOCKS TWICE (the title will make sense when you see it) is not a must-see film, but I'm glad I watched it again, and the combination of director and stars make it desirable to the fan of European genre-films. Also, Dean Reed was not that prolific of an actor and some of his films have never circulated in English-language versions (to my knowledge), so anything that can be found is worth watching. My copy was taped off a TV station in Aruba back in the 1980's. A letter-boxed, restored version would certainly be welcome!

At the start of this slightly tongue-in-cheek but routine Italy-Monaco co-production, Francisco Villaverde (Fabio Testi) romances a young woman on a beach. After smooching a bit and gamboling fully clothed in the ocean, they end up under a pier. During a sandy tryst, Fabio appears to throttle her as two witnesses look on. He runs off in a panic, and someone makes off with a diamond necklace around her neck.

Enter Bob Martin (Dean Reed), a private investigator whose boss is played by Leon Askin (the Nazi general in the Hogan's Heroes TV series, here dubbed with a New York accent). Martin spends the rest of the movie looking for the necklace, and in the process uncovers a serial killer.

All indications are that Villaverde, a wealthy artist, is insane, so Martin sends his fiancée to help capture him. How? He convinces her to seduce and drive Villaverde into a state of murderous excitement. Nice guy. Villaverde is married to the perfect killer's wife. "Is that blood?" she asks, pointing to his shirt the day he commits murder. No, he says, it's a strawberry stain. She buys it.

Meanwhile, the local hotel manager and his lieutenant are desperately looking around for a spare $10,000 to pay off a gangster (Adolfo Celi). Martin starts investigating them when it appears that Villaverde is not the killer. After much snooping around and a few karate fights in dark rooms, Martin realizes the real killers work for the hotel. He is aided by the manager's dog, a smart German Shepherd named Fritz that can open doors and chases a car several miles.

In spite of the strong whodunit story, DEATH KNOCKS TWICE morphs into a cheesy spy thriller at the halfway point. It is probably is only James Bond-slash-giallo movie. A brief Anita Ekberg nude scene is missing from other video versions.

Dean Reed, a former U. S. country-and-western singer, is too boyish to pull off his mock-cool act, and with his blonde locks comes off looking like a sadistic Beach Boy. Reed's real life was a lot more interesting. After recording a hit record, "A Summer Romance," in 1959, Reed went to Mexico and then Argentina. He emerged in Europe in the 1960s as a left-wing radical, which was in vogue at the time. In Moscow, he introduced Russians to country-and-western music. Reed drifted into acting, eventually appearing in forgotten German and Italian potboilers, mostly westerns. In 1986, Reed was found dead -- reportedly by accident -- in a lake near his home in East Berlin.

This one has a hugely complicated plot, so let's see if we can describe it in one sentence!

Fabio Testi is an artist who likes to bed blondes on the side while his wife kind of spies on them but he may also be murdering them, although that's hard to determine as at the time of the first murder two other people are present who may or may not have been involved and at least someone there that night has stolen the victim's really expensive necklace, prompting her husband to hire a Roger Moore lookalike who heads of for the hotel with his fiancé and her dad, only to find that the staff at the hotel are under the thumb of a lady mob boss who is squeezing them for money, which means that they don't want a murder to go public and may be up to no good themselves as they plot to bump off their violent bosses, of which Adolfi Celli may be the most violent.

That's a LOT of PLOT and takes up about an hour or so of running time. It doesn't help that our hero is a Roger Moore clone who doesn't seem to mind pimping out his wife as a potential murder victim (although we do get some tense scenes involving her and Testi). Testi is good as the supposed killer artist and Adolfi Celli is also good as the old gangster who's possibly the cruellest person involved in the story. There's a really wince-inducing part where he squeezes a guy's hand while the guy is holding a glass of whiskey, with gory results.

There's also a kind of lack of style here, although on the other hand there is a 'trash' vibe that will become familiar during the next 300 Italian films I watch. I almost forgot to mention the sub-plot involving the dog that Roger Moore befriends which lends the latter part of the film a kind of 'Lassie' vibe which was kind of funny.

Interest constantly waning during this one. Maybe I'm growing jaded of the giallo. Maybe not. Maybe it's because the kids are off school and won't go to bed, the bastards.

Fabio Testi plays amateur artist Francesco Villaverde, who wears a cravat and ties his shirt up at the front to reveal his midriff; despite his 'flamboyant' attire, he is actually something of a ladies man, even if he does like to throttle his women after making love. When a rich woman, Mrs Simmons, is found strangled on the beach, her husband (Renato Baldini) hires private detectives Bob Martin (Dean Reed) and Pepe (Leon Askin) to find the man responsible. Naturally, Villaverde is the chief suspect, but is this case that straight-forward?

The answer to that question is 'No'. Death Knocks Twice introduces so many characters and plot-threads in quick succession that it's easy to become lost, and consequently, to lose interest. The plot is all over the place, featuring a missing diamond necklace (stolen from the dead Mrs. Simmons), a gambling boat, a hotel owner named Charly (Werner Peters) who wants to expand his business, a crime boss (played by Adolfo Celi), and a crooked art collector called Locatelli (Riccardo Garrone). Bob's girlfriend Ellen (Ini Assmann **snigger**) is given the job of flirting outrageously with Villaverde, putting her life in danger. To be honest, It wasn't long before I didn't have a clue what was going on, but I stayed the distance in the hope it would all make sense in the end. It didn't.

Fortunately, there are quite a few attractive ladies (a couple of whom get naked) to help make the film easier to bear, my favourite being the drop-dead-gorgeous Hélène Chanel as blonde bartender Angela (who doesn't strip off, but who still steals the show as far as I am concerned).

3/10, plus a bonus point for the lovely Ms. Chanel.