Cold Eyes of Fear

I recently watched the Italian thriller 🇮🇹 Cold Eyes of Fear (1971) on Tubi. The story centers on a wealthy family led by the father, a successful lawyer. In an attempt to irritate his father, the son brings home a beautiful, ordinary woman for a weekend fling. But his plans take a dark turn when a man his father once sent to prison shows up seeking revenge.

Directed by Enzo G. Castellari (Escape from the Bronx), the film stars Giovanna Ralli (Deadfall), Frank Wolff (Once Upon a Time in the West), Fernando Rey (The French Connection), and Karin Schubert (The Panther Squad).

This film leans more toward a whodunit thriller than a traditional giallo or Italian horror. However, it incorporates familiar elements from those genres. The acting is somewhat stiff at times, and dramatic moments often feature prolonged close-ups and lingering stares, which became unintentionally funny after a while. Still, the cast interacts well, and the film offers the expected mix of attractive female leads, nudity, and sex scenes.

The action sequences, particularly for the time, are well done, with some impressive fight scenes, though there aren't enough of them to build real tension or make the stakes feel high. Unfortunately, the ending is anticlimactic and doesn't quite live up to the build-up.

Overall, Cold Eyes of Fear is unremarkable and lacks enough engaging content to recommend. I'd score it a 4/10 and suggest skipping it.

This is an average example of the Italian Giallo, the story set in London, switching between a solicitor's office and his stately house, which is occupied by his solicitor nephew and a prostitute.

The plot is fairly good, involving an elaborate revenge on the elder solicitor for a wrongful judgement some years earlier. This film has some good twists but is tense only at times. It seems to drag and much more could have been made of the frightful atmosphere in the house. Instead, we have over-used extreme close-ups and plenty of screaming and shouting.

Not a bad film by any means, but there are plenty better examples of the genre.

Moving and bleak Italian/Spanish film with high doses of violence and a lot of dialogue . This spooky picture about some criminals holding the couple hostage at home contains shocks , suspense , grisly killings and numerous creepy scenes . It is a passable home invasion thriller with noticeable flaws . It deals with a solicitor called Peter (Gianni Garco , famous Spaghetti actor as Sartana) , son of a respectable judge (Fernando Rey) , picks up Anna (Giovanna Ralli) , a prostitute from the club in which is shown a nude spectacle (performed by Karin Schubert as Nightclub Actress) and takes her back to his father 's place . The duo soon discover they are not alone , as a mugger called Quill (Julian Mateos), is waiting for them . Subsequently , there appears Arthur Welt (Frank Wolff who ulteriorly committed suicide) , the lead maniac disguised as a bobby , and things get worse . The couple is besieged and terrorized by the psycho-killer attackers and then look for some means to getaway .

Tension , suspense , and unsettling scenes when a couple is harassed by two dangerous criminals . "Cold Eyes of Fear" provides that mindless entertainment in spades, with a few head-scratches along the way. It displays relentless thriller , intrigue , shocks , hard-edged drama , plot twists , creepy images and some violence when crimes and fights takes place . The villains in this movie are a mixed bag , each of the burglars have their own agenda that we find out over the course of the movie through the use of flashbacks . This flawed film written by Leo Anchoriz , an ordinary secondary actor , packs thrilling and hair-raising frames , twists and turns . You can attempt to put all the pieces together at the final but you'll only end up confused and disappointed , it's not worth the effort . This violent story belongs to ¨Home invasion sub-genre¨ similarly to ¨Michael Hanake's Funny Games¨, ¨William Wyler's Desperate hours¨, ¨Michael Cimino's Desperate Hours¨and recently : ¨Miguel Angel Vivas's Kidnapped¨ as well as ¨Joel Schumacher's Trespass¨. The overall result is chilling proof that E. G. Castell can take us back into a luxurious mansion while delivering a completely different scare . While the look is suitable eerie and frightening , the plot spreads to the breaking point and the ending turns out to be a little frustrating . The cast is pretty well , as Frank Wolff's eccentric performance really adds to the gravity of the situation and makes for a gripping protagonist-antagonist dynamic . Gorgeous Giovanna Ralli as an Italian woman of dubious virtue , Ralli played classic films as ¨El General De La Rovere¨ , but also acted in Spaghetti as ¨The mercenary¨ and Giallos . And Julian Mateos , a famed Spanish actor , player in US Western as well as Spaghetti as ¨Hellbenders¨ , ¨Four rode out¨ , ¨Catlow¨ , ¨Shalako¨, ¨Return of seven magnificent¨ . Special mention for Fernando Rey as a prestigious judge , Rey was Luis Buñuel's usual actor and unforgettable in ¨French Connection I and II¨. Atmospheric cinematography by Antonio L. Ballesteros shot at Cinecitta and in London . Jazzy musical score by the great Ennio Morricone , including some rare and atonal sounds.

The picture produced by Jose Frade/Atlantida Films was professionally directed by Enzo Girolami Castellari , though has some flaws and gaps . Enzo is a craftsman whose father was filmmaker Marino Girolami and his brother Ennio Girolami . He had a lot of hit-smashes in the action cinema and Spaghetti . His first film was ¨Seven Winchester for a massacre¨ ; after the movie 's success, the same producers approached Castellari again to direct a Western ¨Jonny Hamlet¨ the next year, which he accepted . Enzo usually makes experimental editing techniques such as unbroken transitions from one scene to another and a cameo appearance in his films . Castellari often works with Guido and Maurizio De Angelis and uses to do slow motion shootouts and choreographic death scenes . Enzo is a good professional working in all kind of genres , but he made Western especially . His first one was ¨Some dollars for Django¨ co-directed by Leon Klimovsky , but actually , for the most part of its filming by the disagreements arising with Klimovsky was realized by Enzo G. Castellari, which this film was his directorial debut in a sub-genre that became one of its greatest representatives ; in fact if you compare the beginning of "7 Winchester for a massacre" which would direct the next year and the end this one seem to be similar direction . After that , he went on directing ¨ Johnny Hamlet¨ , ¨Kill them everybody and came back alone¨, ¨Tedeum¨ , ¨Cipolla colt¨ , ¨Go kill and come back¨, and the masterpiece : ¨Keoma¨ and finally its inferior sequel ¨Jonathan of the Bears¨ with Franco Nero . Some of them are serious , others are goofy and plenty of slapstick and slapdash . He also directed successful wartime movies as ¨Inglorious bastards ¨ , ¨Eagles over London¨ , Sci-Fi : ¨1990 : Bronx warriors¨ , "The New Barbarians: Warriors of the Wasteland" , "Escape from the Bronx" , Adventures : ¨Tuareg¨, ¨Adventures and loves of Scaramouche¨ , Simbad¨, "The Shark Hunter" and Poliziotteschi : "Day of the Cobra" , ¨Striker¨, ¨Heroin Busters¨. The pic will appeal to Eurocult fans and Italian-Spanish production enthusiasts.

As far as I know this is Enzo Castellari's only venture into the giallo genre, and I'd also heard it wasn't that good. That's not true, and it's barely even a giallo, so maybe I should check my sources or just watch the film. Chocks away!

Sporting incredible sideburns, Gianni Garko is a posh solicitor who quite wisely spends his free time with strippers and hookers who on this occasion takes home an Italian lady. When I say home, I mean his rich uncle's home in a rich part of London. You know, the kind that has a butler in it and a driveway. The Italian lady is playing hard to get even though she's a hooker, and the discovery of the dead butler is a bad enough dampner on the proceedings, so sex totally goes out the window when a gun-toting cockney emerges from the gloom.

He's a kind of 'Alright Guvnor, knees ap Maaver Bhraaan' cockney type but his motivations are not quite clear. Adding to Gianni's woes is his uncle (Fernando Rey), who is a judge and keeps calling to harass him about case files. Fernando sends a policeman over to the house with some files, and while he's trying to whisper that he's being held hostage, the policeman punches him square in the face. Uh-oh! Looks like there's a doings-a-transpiring!

Turns out the copper is the head bad guy which isn't much of a surprise seeing as he's played by Frank Wolff. Frank's motivations aren't quite clear but he does mention quite early on that he's wired Fernando Rey's office to blow up the moment he opens his door, so now the game is on for Gianni to free himself and the hooker, get rid of Frank and his partner, and save Fernando in the nick of time. Either that or he can just have a lot of punch ups while the hooker plays mind games with the two of them.

As this is one of those films that could almost be a stage play in terms of limited set and characters, Enzo's usual hyperactivity makes sure that things don't get boring, so he throws in loads of jarring editing techniques, unusual camera angles (like filming Gianni through the bottom of a jug of icy water he's having his head forced into, or through those finger holes you used to get on telephones), loads of twists (even the cockney becomes unsure of Frank's motives), and an overly violent ending just to cap things off.

Although Fernando Rey shouts down the phone a lot and doesn't do much else, Frank and Gianni do well in their roles, with Frank constantly mocking Gianni's Eton and 'playing rugger', with Gianni alternating between snivelling wimp and stiff upper lip radge mentalness.

I've never seen an Enzo film I didn't like, so you might want to knock the praise in this review down a bit. Ennio Morricone's freeform jazz soundtrack is a winner too.

This is one of the weakest Italian thrillers I've seen. It's a giallo/house-invasion hybrid but it doesn't really succeed in either genre. The film begins like a typical giallo with an opening credit sequence following a car through the streets of London to a Morricone soundtrack; this is followed by a textbook giallo stalk scene which, somewhat bizarrely, turns out to be a stage show. Up to this point the movie is perfectly serviceable but really, this is as good as it gets. The majority of the remainder of the film is about a lawyer and a prostitute who are held captive by a couple of bad guys. And, to be perfectly honest, they don't get up to anything very interesting.

Unlike other weak giallos, like Slaughter Hotel for example, this movie neither delivers much sleaze or is photographed particularly attractively. And the score, while being a stronger aspect of the film, is basically Morricone-by-numbers. However, there is some fun to be had with the ridiculous dubbing, which makes the actors appear that they cannot act for toffee; and the guy called Quill has a very very silly accent. No one in the U.K. talks like this trust me.

Overall, I'm not sure who I can recommend this to. Fans of giallos will find it too unsuspenseful and uninvolving and those who like house invasion movies will not find it anywhere sleazy enough. At best it offers a few laughs and some semi-inventive scenes. But really, it's not very good.