Time to Kill, Darling

Director Tonino Valerii is best known for his great Westerns , such as "I Giorni Dell'Ira" (aka. "Day Of Anger" 1967), "Il Prezzo Dell Potere" (aka. "The Price Of Power", 1969) and the comical "Il mio nome è Nessuno" (1973). Films like these make Valerii the Italian Western's most memorable director besides the three Sergios (Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, and Sergio Sollima). But Valerii, who also served as assistant director to Sergio Leone for "A Fistful Of Dollars" and "For A Few Dollars More", is not only a great Western director. "Mio Caro Assassino" aka. "My Dear Killer" of 1972 is an excellent and highly intriguing Giallo and the ideal proof that Valerii is also a master of Thriller/Horror cinema. This is arguably THE Giallo with the most complex plot ever, and the constant twists make this film a tantalizing and absolutely unpredictable experience that no lover of Italian Horror can afford to miss. "My Dear Killer" does not deliver casual entertainment however - This film's exceptional complexity requires the viewer to concentrate on the plot. I can assure however, that no Giallo fan will regret concentrating on this film, which is stunning throughout and excellent in all regards.

Ispector Luca Peretti (George Hilton) is investigating a murder series that is somehow connected with the kidnapping of a little girl that occurred a year earlier... As my fellow Giallo fans should appreciate, the death toll rises constantly, and the twists and number of suspects make it almost impossible to guess who the killer is. This excellently photographed film has the typical atmosphere of good Gialli from the early 70s, and the many twists are highly elaborate. Regular Giallo leading man George Hilton is great in his role as the investigating inspector. The cast furthermore includes such great regulars of Italian genre-cinema as Piero Lulli and William Berger, and all other performances are also very good. This is may not be quite as blood-soaked as some other great Gialli, such as Sergio Martino's "Torso" or most of Dario Argento's films, but the exotic choices of murder weapons should also make this interesting enough for the gorehounds out there. The film's main focus is the complex plot, but the killings are depicted in a violent and very stylish manner. None other than maestro Ennio Morricone delivers the great score, the highlight of which is an exceptionally eerie lullaby theme song. From the great beginning to the ingenious end - "Mio Caro Assassino" is a complex and tantalizing must-see for all Giallo-fans, and also highly recommended to all other lovers of suspense and great cinema in general!

Anyone who ever saw "My Dear Killer" is most likely to agree when I claim that it's nearly impossible to find another horror film with a more convoluted plot! I never thought I'd say this, but this movie almost exaggerates with the constant adding of new twists and complexity! "My Dear Killer", which is a giallo in the purest definition of the term, features nearly a dozen murder victims and an equal amount of suspects. Paying close attention to the development of the plot is difficult enough already, so guessing along for the killer's identity is pretty much out of the question. And yet, it's another wondrous example of Italy's finest horror sub genre, with brutal slaughters, controversial themes and great music! Giallo-regular George Hilton ("All the Colors of the Dark", "Case of the Bloody Iris") plays Peretti, a police detective charged with investigating the eerie murder of an insurance inspector. He was obviously getting too close to someone's dark secrets and, in order to solve the case; Peretti has carry on with the decapitated victim's research. All traces lead to the unsolved kidnapping and eventual murder of a young girl in the area. The killer clearly doesn't know how he is to getting caught, as he precautionary starts to eliminate everyone close to the case. Be advised that the above is a very vague description of the plot, as a more detailed summary would cover several pages. Apart from a few minor holes in the plot and a handful of illogicalness, "My Dear Killer" is a hugely compelling and intense murder-mystery. Especially the violence will appeal to hardcore horror fans, as the killer even uses circular saws and construction machinery! Tonino Valerii is not a very eminent Italian horror filmmaker (or at least not as eminent as, say, Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci or Sergio Martino), but his directing is truly stylish and he obviously read the "big book of giallo-guidelines" carefully before he started making this movie. Highly recommended!

Unlike many other gialli, "Mio Caro Assassino" is not merely a succession of nasty murder scenes; it is bloody yet classy. It boasts an intricate, puzzlelike plot, some very good POV camerawork, a few stunning women (Patty Shepard, Mónica Randall, Helga Line, Marilu Tolo, etc.), a dependable lead in George Hilton (who has cited this film as one of the most noteworthy of his long career), another chilling la-la-la-la-la theme by Ennio Morricone, and a nifty Poirot-like climax, where Hilton gathers all the suspects in the same room and summarizes the case. A superior example of the genre. *** out of 4.

This one starts out originally enough. You don't usually see someone getting murdered by being decapitated by the jaws of a hydraulic digger. The dead guy was some sort of insurance investigator (yet again), but why he wished to dredge up a water filled quarry, and why anyone wanted to kill him, is a mystery only George Hilton can solve.

Yep - George Hilton's back in yet another giallo, only this time he has a moustache! Plus, he's playing this one ultra-serious too. First off, he tracks down the driver of the digger only to find he's hanged himself...except he hasn't, as George proves using the actual corpse of the driver to demonstrate!

George has a quarry-sized mystery on his hands here which seems to be tied in with the kidnap and subsequent murder of a little girl some eighteen months prior, and it seems that the killer is trying to rub out all of the people involved. And some that aren't really that involved, for good measure. George has to retrace what happened back then to find out what's happening right now, and you know what means, right? Suspects!

Suspects! include shifty businessman William Berger, his sister, who is married to the one handed guy, and then there's the staff (especially the driver), and there's the guy who likes to paint nude children (can't see that scene occurring these days!) and also has a bunch of statues in his cupboard, similar to the one that the killer used. Patty Shepherd appears as a teacher, but isn't a suspect, so of course the killer cuts her up with a bandsaw in a rather gory scene - while she's watching Django.

The film veers wildly from gory scenes like that to drawn out scenes of policemen standing around, but, although lacking in the usual craziness, still manages to be a decent giallo due to George Hilton (and William Berger), a nice Ennio Morricone soundtrack, and taking the unusual step of having all the suspects gathered in a room for the reveal of the killer. What - no rooftop chase?

The movie starts with a unique decapitation (via mechanical digger) and raised my hopes but then it got very slow.

After a while i felt so irritated that i stopped caring who's killing who n why.

Saw this for the first time recently after reading some very glowing reviews. Found it be dull. It has some good kills, noteworthy music from the legend, lil nudity n an unpredictable twist but somehow i got a bit detached while viewing. Mayb lack of sleep or like Coventry pointed in his review that the movie needed some attention.

The film has a Agatha Christie denouement- where our lead detective assembles all the surviving suspects in a drawing room, where, when he does his grand unmasking.....

Hilton with his typical 70s moustache somehow didnt convince me as a detective.

No doubt that he was one of the best Spaghetti western icon.

In this film he tried his best to look more like a Bond hero with his suits, boots n pistol aiming but alas.

Mayb he got obsessed that the makers of Bond films may hire him.

(He even played 007 in a comedy spoof of the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, entitled Two Mafiosi Against Goldginger).