Das Antlitz des Todes

This is not a giallo. I want to get this out of the way immediately b/c it has effected some reviewers opinions of the film. There are no slashings and no body count here. There is no shadowy killer dressed in black stalking victims. There is no chase sequence. None of that.

Now for what this movie is. This is the movie Umberto Lenzi always wanted to make but never quite achieved. It's the wealthy woman in a dangerous world where a lover manipulates her, and you're not sure who to trust, but you're pretty sure everyone is motivated by money. The acting is great all around. But what makes this one stand out is a script that blessedly actually makes sense and a wonderful soundtrack by Piero Piccioni!

Go into it knowing this one is a slow burn psychological thriller, and you'll have a much better time :)

The polyvalent Spanish director José Maria Forqué tries to show in this Italian coproduction that he could also make for his part a giallo. He uses the codes of the style, notably taking inspiration from Lenzi's works, and convenes great giallo actors alongside famous Argentinian actresses. The film itself opens on credits including smart drawings combining Art Nouveau and pop style, upon a mixed theme of Leda and Swan Lake.

The swan girl in question is Ruth (Analia Gadé, Murder Mansion / Quando Marta urlo dalla tomba), a very wealthy woman who wants to divorce from her husband Michel (Tony Kendall, La Jena di Londra), because she is in love with the handsome playboy Paul (Jean Sorel, Paranoia). They thus leave together for a splendid area on the sea coast to live their perfect love. Here they meet Roland (Maurizio Bonuglia, Giornata nera per l'Ariete), a Paul's friend and former comrade-in-arms, who acts to serve their idyll, and Danielle (Rosanna Yanni, Cross Current / Un Omicidio perfetto a termine di legge), a strange girl who seems to watch them. In a spleen moment Ruth reminds herself that she has always been frightened "to have to grow old alone", but Paul comforts her saying: "you won't get old". And accidents are not long to start happening.

For giallo followers, the trick is rather simple, and logically the director chooses to reveal it for the middle of his film. But the main issue thus remaining is: how our swan girl will try to react to the plot? How will she handle the inquiry of the local commissioner (Julio Peña, Tre Notti Violente)? Will she manage to be sufficiently clever to get through the knots woven all around her? Or should a "third lion" be even smarter to snatch the bet? This giallo made in the classic way won't quite shake up the standards of the style. (Viewed in Italian 1h40 version.)

It deals with a married couple called Ruth (Analia Gade) and Michel (Tony Kendall) , but they separate due to Ruth finds another man , Paul (Jean Sorel) . Later on , Ruth and his new lover Paul taking a fun vacation at a beach location. As they go to her sunny , idyllic beach side villa to spend summer in Playa de Haro , Costa Brava , Gerona . They are having a great time together , and then weird things begin happening . Enjoying the vacation with her beloved boyfriend , Ruth suffers suddenly serious accidents . Throught the road she is surprisingly stressed when the brakes of the car fail , and Ruth narrowly escapes death . After that , the driving equipment goes faulty , and Ruth almost drowns . Then Ruth will stop at nothing to discover the truth and at whatever cost . Her life being extremely exhausted , physically tired, and morally disturbed due to the successive attempts .Ruth suspects Michel of being the person behind the mechanical faults of the car and the diving equipment , but Paul dismisses such a possibility , as he does suggest her to rest and forget . While other characters (Rosanna Yanni and Maurizio Bonuglia) shine in rather opaque roles . Along the way , a stubborn police inspector (Julio Peña) is investigating the rare events . As the main question of the movie is to guess who's attempting to murder Ruth.

A peculiar Spanish film posing like an Italian production, but it is more a Spanish film than an Italian , in fact on the credit titles show up various names of Spanish actors as well as technician team . Here stands out the attractive credit titles with charming drawings from Macián studios . Umberto Lenzi's early genre works "Orgasmo" , ¨Spasmo¨and "Paranoia" were undoubtedly the main examples of this Gialli narrative structure, but that doesn't change the high quality of Forqué's work , because it remains exciting and intriguing enough . It is set in Costa Brava , Gerona Spain , dealing with the wife well played by Analia Gadé alongside her two male co-stars , the Italians Jean Sorel and and Tony Kendall . Concerning the usual themes in the Giallo films such as an undercover killer , red herrings , various suspicious people , brief nudism , sinister appearances and anything else. Stars the Argentinean Analia Gade who had a successful career along with two Italian gallants : Jean Sorel who starred some Giallos and Tony Kendall who performed various films in all kinds of Eurotrash genres . They are well accompanied by a fine support cast, such as Rosanna Yanni , Maurizio Bonuglia , Julio Peña , among others.

Musician Piero Piccioni adds a gorgeous musical background which also captures the mood of the "holidays" and stimulates dreams, adding exciting and thrilling moments . It contains an appropriate and sunny cinematography by expert cameraman Alejandro Ulloa who photographed several International co-productions , such as The House on Garibaldi Street , Tarots , Pancho Villa , Compañeros! , Karate , colt and impostor, Eagles Over London and Horror Express . Being shot on various locations in Playa de Aro, Costa Brava, Gerona, Catalonia, Madrid , Spain and Puglia, Italy . The motion picture with interesting script by prestigious Rafael Azcona was professionally directed by Jose Maria Forque and he was winner Sant Jordi Award 1960, Best Spanish Director. Jose Maria Forque was a craftsman who directed all kinds of genres as Comedy : Un Millon en la Basura, La vil seduccion, Bring a Little loving, Vacaciones para Ivette . Softcore : Beyond Erotica, La Mujer de la Tierra Caliente . Giallo and thrillers : Tarot , In the Eye of the Hurricane, La Legion del Silencio, A devil under the pillow. His greatest succeses were : Embajadores en el Infierno, Amanecer de la Puerta Oscura and the clasic comedy : Atraco a las 3. And he also made important TV series as Miguel Servet and Ramon y Cajal. This In the eye of the hurricane (1971) is without hesitation , definitely one of the most underrated Gialli that unfortunately has not yet been able to make a triumphant breakthrough , being an acceptable and interesting entry in this popular genre developed in the Seventies . Rating : 6.5/10 . Acceptable film , specially appointed for Giallo enthusiasts.

April 2021

Unusally for me, i hadnt seen this giallo until a couple of years ago, i have already seen my favourite giallos 30 or 40 times, but i was just watching this for the 3rd time the other day.

1st time, i wasn't really sure i thought much of it, then with the 2nd viewing it was definitely a keeper and the 3rd viewing suddenly this is a really good giallo.

I think the only disappointment is the lead actress is not really an established gaillo actress, such as Edwige Fenech or Barbara Bouchet or Anita Strindberg, so i could just care about her a little bit more.

Still its a very good giallo

9 out of 10.

Fabulously flamboyant Spanish filmmaker, José María Forqué dazzlingly conjurors up one of the more luridly louche offerings of the superbly slinky, perkily permissive 1970s, with his divinely duplicitous Giallo, 'In The Eye of the Hurricane' which eye-bogglingly remains an entrancing, diabolically devious, slaveringly salty, perkily psycho-delic, salaciously skin-drenched, tantalizingly twisted, irresistibly glamorous Giallo diorama for refined film hedonists of all ages!

The stylish, sensationally suspenseful, tremulously titillating, dreamy-delicious erotic thriller, 'In The Eye of the Hurricane' is also known as the far more mellifluous-sounding, 'La Volpe dalla coda di velluto' (1971) and is generously endowed with an abundantly sultry, appealingly sun-slathered sexiness, now all glamorously gussied up in fashionably freakadelic High Definition! This erotically charged, murderously overheated ménages à trois is a deadly-decadent descent into juicily jet-setting, 'Martini-minxes-gone-mad', aqua-netting Giallo doom! This exquisitely playful Costa-del-death' celluloid curiosity has an outrageously camp 'swans-in-the-bathtub' eccentricity that electrifies 'In The Eye of the Hurricane' with an arrestingly perverse quality, making the misbegotten machinations of these handsome protagonists all the more fascinating! Those estimable cult aficionados at 88 Films have once again lovingly restored another exotic, little-seen 70s Giallo gem to a remarkably pristine quality!