Das Geheimnis der jungen Witwe

I do readily concede that I know close to squat about Director Massimo Dallamano, having only watched his poliziotto entitled COLT 38 SPECIAL SQUAD, which made chases and gory action its main menu.

By comparison, A BLACK VEIL FOR LISA pays a shade more attention to character building. The ever reliable British actor John Mills plays Hamburg-based Interpol Inspector Franz Bulon who, in spite of his undeniable professionalism, prioritizes keeping an eye on his often absent from home wife, the stunningly dishy, fine-featured Luciana Paluzzi who had come to international notice three years earlier in THUNDERBALL, with Connery's James Bond handing her slippers to cover her nudity.

In BLACK VEIL FOR LISA, Paluzzi displays fabulous nudity and not just to cuckolded hubby Mills, who she also deceives by passing classified info to a Porsche-driving villain who deals in tulips and murder, in addition to bedding him and handsome hitman Max, smugly played by Robert Hoffmann.

Competent cinematography from Angelo Lotti, reasonably deft screenplay from Belli and Petrilli, with interesting nuances adding to Paluzzi's sensual survival instinct and sexiness, allowing her to completely steal the show.

The ending could and should have been more credibly done, difficult to believe that a police inspector and a habitual hitman should put up such innocuous personal defense.

As a footnote, a word of appreciation for the presence of great, very classy German car models of the 1960s: Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Opel, Volkswagen all there.

Enjoyable police thriller 8/10.

Not the wildest of gialli, if indeed, it really does qualify as one, but a most competent and engaging mystery. John Mills is surprisingly good as the ageing husband to the flirty Bond girl, Luciana Paluzzi and although the bad boy seems far too glamorous for the role, Robert Hoffman does well. Decent script, which always helps and what starts simply enough becomes far more involved as we progress. Indeed we quickly learn who the killer is but not why or just how many are involved. That Mills plays as an Englishman gives this a certain slant that helps make the film different from others of the time and though the music is somewhat flat, seems fitting enough for the drab location. I don't know where this was shot but it doesn't look like Italy so is perhaps Germany or even Austria. No stunning set pieces and the flashes of nudity seem added and likely to not be Paluzzi.

So few Euro directors have done more to exile themselves from the arthouse pantheon than Massimo Dallamano. His work is slick, trashy and stylish in the manner of a fashion supplement in one of the cheaper Sunday newspapers. Yet at least three of his films are compelling studies in morbid sexuality and erotic obsession. A Black Veil for Lisa is nowhere near as famous as Venus in Furs or Dorian Gray, but it's still an intriguing brew. Imagine a giallo version of Proust's La Prisonniere with sex, drugs and serial killings thrown into the mix.

Like the other two films, it has a protagonist whose physical beauty and sexual magnetism leave her immune to the qualms of everyday good behaviour. Lisa is played by Luciana Paluzzi - a voluptuous, flame-haired tigress who's best remembered as the bad girl in Thunderball. Like almost every Bond girl since Ursula Andress, she somehow failed to become a great star. Bitterly unjust, as Paluzzi in this film is a femme fatale to rival Rita Hayworth in Gilda. We can well understand the anxieties of her drab and dreary husband (John Mills) who obsessively polices her every move.

The mystery, of course, is why Lisa married this old dolt in the first place. Suspecting his wife of sleeping around, Mills commits a grave breach of professional ethics (he's a police inspector, no less) and blackmails a hunky hitman (Robert Hoffmann) to kill her. Naturally, Lisa and said hitman fall in love...and there are plenty more twists where that came from. A Black Veil for Lisa could never be mistaken for Art. Still, it's a potent reminder that Trash is often more fun!

Regarded by some cult cineastes as a relatively unsung Giallo stylist maestro, Massimo 'What Have They Done to Solange' Dallamano ably directed one of the earlier entries in the soon-to-be-blooming Gialli cycle. 'A Black Veil for Lisa' aka 'La Morte Non Ha Sesso' remains a tremendously engrossing, twist-laden 60s terror treat. Exploiting the prototypically menacing Giallo motif of darkly glistering, black gloved killer, it eschews much of the gruesome hysteria, providing a more sombre examination of debilitating paranoia, sexual infidelity and the toxic jealousies it inevitably engenders.

''A Black Veil for Lisa' has a gripping, Krimi-like narrative, wherein a slick, shadowy hit-man (Robert Hoffman)is hired by vicious drug dealers to bump off all those who might expose their malign activities. His executions come to the attention of troubled, increasingly paranoid Inspector, Franz Bulon (John Mills). Bulon's valiant investigations fatefully propose a coolly logical, devastatingly immoral solution to his marital torment! John Mills is on compellingly terse form as the cuckolded inspector, and, Robert Hoffman is sinfully suave as the blue-eyed libidinous hitman. The preternaturally luscious, dazzlingly beautiful starlet, Luciana Paluzzi making for memorably luminous eye candy! Doing little more than sultrily slink about in a salacious serenade of risqué regalia, this tantalizing auburn-haired temptress does it with an eye-boggling élan!

Maestro, Dallamano directs his engaging 60s Giallo with real cinematic verve, and the garotte taut narrative wickedly wends its thrilling way to a genuinely desperate, nerve-flayingly dramatic conclusion! Evocatively shot in picturesque Hamburg, 'A Black Veil for Lisa' remains a rewardingly refined late-night entertainment. This visually stylish, stiletto cool, psychologically tweaked thriller has credible performances and is all together cinematic. A Black Veil for Lisa's somewhat incongruent obscurity belies an engrossing, beauteous-looking Martini-age Giallo classic!

Builds up to a predictable finale.

First, this film lacks important giallo qualities. Most importantly, there is no mystery about who the killer is. It's a relatively bloodless film with little cat-and-mouse/stalking shenanigans to speak of.

On the plus side, there are some good characters here. They are well-written and well-acted. However, after the build up of suspense around tulips and around the police report in the envelope, there is no payoff. Things play out to their natural conclusion. There are no surprises to be had here.