Ciak si muore

The title 'Clap, You're Dead' refers to the clapperboard used by the film industry, the world of movie-making the setting for this obscure semi-comedic giallo from director Mario Moroni. A maniac is killing the cast of the latest opus by eccentric film maker Benner (Antonio Pierfederici), suspicion falling on fired electrician Richard Hanson (Ivano Staccioli). The sacked sparky is blatantly a red herring, the real culprit glaringly obvious from the first moment he appears on screen, although Police Inspector Menzel (George Ardisson) remains oblivious to the very end.

This minor giallo lacks panache and looks as though it was made on a very meagre budget, with ugly cinematography throughout. The potential for a cool meta-slasher that plays with the 'movie in a movie' setup is squandered by Moroni who seems more intent on getting as much T&A on screen than actually doing anything remotely interesting with the story: the plot is extremely basic, lacking the clever twists and turns one usually expects from the genre, and the death scenes are uninspired. Only the last act shows any degree of ingenuity, a Hitchcockian finale in which the killer dons a Danger Diabolik-style costume (black body-suit and balaclava/hood) in order to sneak up on his next victim during the shooting of Benner's ultimate scene, the twist being that numerous extras are wearing identical costumes. It's too little too late to save the film.

3/10. There's a very good reason why this one is so obscure.

I searched this extremely rare Giallo for quite a while, and now, after I have watched it, I understand, why it is that rare even for Giallo standards: It's simply not a good one. The budget must have been horribly low, and the film never succeeds to keep going. Even the climax at a theatre, where all potential killers are hidden under the same "Diabolik"-style masked dresses, doesn't really deliver the goods. A further problem is that the film often doesn't know if it wants to be funny or serious. Especially the role of the choleric director delivers some rather tiring jokes.

The plot itself is usual Giallo fare: A crew that is filming a horror movie is stalked by a mysterious killer who slays three of the beautiful young actresses. There is a main suspect (a crew member that got fired shortly before the first murder occurs, after he had an argument with the first victim), a police inspector that doesn't search for possible other suspects and a dose of sleazy sex. The violence is mostly kept on a low graphic level, except for a scene, in which a later murder victim gets attacked by the killer in a bathroom: he slams her head against the shower knobs (ouch!). But especially during this scene, the direction of photography is undeniably clumsy and hectic, so the scene loses its potential (the camera work is rather under par anyway).

All in all a disappointing Giallo without the cult potential of rare genre gems like the marvelous "Un Bianco Vestito per Marialè" or "Il Tuo Vizio è una Stanza Chiusa e Solo Io ne ho lo Chiave" to name but two. Interesting for collectors only. Rating: 3 out of 10.

The Giallo genre was at the end of its heyday in 1973 and ended up giving way to the more action orientated Polizi films towards the middle of the seventies. There were still a few Giallo's being made after 1973, but the genre never really reached the heights it did in the early seventies. Mario Moroni's "Clap, You're Dead" obviously takes influence from the later Polizi films; but retains enough of the common Giallo to still be considered a part of the genre. Aside from offering up a plot that includes murder and a detective story, the director has also seen fit to lampoon the film-making process...with largely mixed results. We focus on the production of some trashy horror movie helmed by a hack director. Things go awry when one of the actresses turns up dead and things get even more awry when things go wrong with the production and even more people end up dead. The police begin to suspect Richard; a man sacked from the production, and mounts an investigation into the crimes.

The film actually gets off to a fairly intriguing start; the first murder comes fairly early on and although the director leads us to believe that the film is going to be bloodless; it does at least promise a possibly entertaining mystery plot. Things heat up a bit after the first murder and the film appears to be keeping a good pace; until about the half hour mark when the focus shifts more towards the police investigation, and then things quickly become less interesting as the pace slows down. There are a few murder scenes in the film; although as mentioned they are mostly bloodless and that is a shame. The movie set is actually a fairly good place for it all to take place and while the parody doesn't exactly hit the mark, the film does at least provide some interesting characters. It all boils down to a 'showpiece' ending that gathers up most of the surviving cast and provides a nice conclusion to the mystery. Overall, this is decent enough for a single watch; but I'd only really recommend it to seasoned Giallo enthusiasts.

A sexy actress has her throat cut on a movie set with the cameras rolling and a shadow caught on film may be the murderer's...

This minor, low-budget entry in the giallo canon sounds better than it actually is and doesn't seem to take itself too seriously because the cast and crew of the film-within-a-film border on parody. Among the suspects and victims are an eccentric auteur, a disgruntled writer, some temperamental actresses and a few technicians with axes to grind and this insulated world gives the movie a claustrophobic feel -but breaking out in an extended chase sequence through the midnight streets of Turin only grinds the movie to a near-halt. The unusual finale takes place in a theater with everyone dressed as "Diabolik" -including the killer- but it's too little, too late. With only three murders and no gore, this threadbare thriller is reely nothing special.

As Italian gialli go this is certainly not great, but it is a fairly entertaining movie. It takes place on a movie set where a prima donna actress is murdered. Soon after two other female witnesses are also bumped off. But the plot frankly is pretty stupid and barely makes any sense. This works best as a satire of the Italian movie industry of the era. You have the tyrannical, pretentious director, the disgruntled screenwriter, the bickering and/or nymphomaniacal actresses. In one of the funniest scenes an actress has a star fit about having to perform nude in a scene in the movie-with-in-the-movie where she is a burned at the stake. But, in an ironic in-joke,she gives this entire monologue about exploitation and sexism in the Italian film industry completely naked, and then stalks off to her trailer in the same manner (where she, naturally, meets the killer).There are also a couple of memorable scenes including a costume party/final scene near the end where everyone in the cast and crew dresses up like the characters in "Diabolik" (despite the warning from the police that this will--obviously-- make things very easy for the killer who is still at large).

The co-writer/co-director Robert Mauri earlier directed the horror classic "Slaughter of the Vampires" and later did the trashy "Porno Killers". This is an appropriate transition piece between the two. The only recognizable actress here is Annabella Incotrerra, who was a supporting actress in a number of better-known gialli ("Black Belly of the Tarantula", "Case of the Bloody Irises", "Crimes of the Black Cat"). She's top-billed, but like all the other actress is pretty much just piece of freely displayed tail (but she's certainly the most memorable one, dressing up like a harem girl and doing a sexy dance at a party and then taking a long, gratuitous, and ultimately fatal, shower).

This is a giallo-by-the-numbers really with all the usual ingredients (except that the violence is kept almost entirely offscreen). Still I found it pretty entertaining overall.