Ordine firmato in bianco

The Italian Mafia imports a New York gangster to spearhead an important heist but when an innocent bystander gets killed, he and his gang must hole up in a remote hunting lodge where a black-gloved killer starts taking them out one by one and painting their foreheads white.

Most murder mysteries end when the killer's unmasked but in this giallo- cum-political thriller, that's when the twists kick in. Made during "the leaden years" (an Italian term for the 1970s when political corruption, terrorism, and violent protests dominated the news), ORDERS SIGNED IN WHITE pulls no punches in its depiction of a venal judicial system in league with the criminals it's supposed to prosecute. One character's even referred to as "a citizen above suspicion" but as important as that guy was, he's only the tip of a rancid iceberg. What's interesting, too, is that there's really no "good guys" to root for since all the characters are morally bankrupt at best. Portly director Gianni Manera also stars (a bad choice) but other than that, it's very good and there's even a lesbian sex scene.

From the outer reaches of the Euro-trash comes this daft mash-up of heist movie and giallo, all delivered in a strange way by director/actor Gianni Marena, who seemingly had the idea to cram as much as possible into this near two hour film. Stick with it though - it gets funnier as it goes on.

Gianni plays Luca, a hard case drafted in from America to pull a heist. For some reason he goes to Paris first for a meeting before heading to Italy to pull the heist, which means that almost half an hour passes before we get to the heist. Long story short, the gang steal 800 million lire, inadvertently shoot an employee, then head for the hills to hide out, awaiting instructions from Sicily.

Now forgive me for being a bit vague about the next bit, but the print I watched of the film was a bit dark so it was hard to make out. We have three guys and three (or four) women staying in this villa, all wanting their cut for the heist, but what we also have now is a black gloved killer stalking around the house, and his/her first victim is (I think) one of the women involved in a lesbian sex scene that has nothing to do with anything. Dafter still, the killer likes to paint the top of the victim's head white! Why? No idea.

Somehow Luca thinks that the best way to avoid the killer would be to move to another house, and I've got to admit with the mute, crazy housekeeper and the gruff caretaker things are a bit more 'giallo'. Here, they receive news from Sicily to stay put with the money, so obviously they all start bickering, including one fellow who has a hissy fit because the rest of the gang think his movie making plans are stupid. I've got to point out here that while he's describing this reddened images of what looked like New York are superimposed on the screen. Once again: no idea.

Things pick up when the killer starts offing people again, including someone in the garden who didn't seem related to the film at all. Also, one of their victims isn't quite dead and starts chasing the mute housekeeper around the house with their head painted white and a knife sticking out their back! My second favourite bit of the film was when one character is driving through open countryside before realising the brake lines have been cut in the car, before suddenly driving off a huge cliff that appears from nowhere.

My favourite bit is when Luca starts losing his mind and has this weird dream where the gang are all happy and hanging around a ski slope before being interrupted by policemen on skis, before the dream switches to the gang dressed in black and carrying a coffin, droning on about "A litre of bile for the sheep". It's as if Marena thought "Hey! Devil worship plots are popular - better throw that in too". His scream as he wakes up is the icing on the cake.

I'm still leaving plenty to discover here. Everything about the film: the acting, the editing, the cinematography, is strangely 'off'. Marena only directed three film, but I want to see the other two!

This begins as an elaborate heist movie, takes turns at being a giallo and haunted house one and ends up a political thriller with large doses of surreal/seventies crazy cinema to complete the mix. Gianni Manera stars as well as directing and clearly was somewhat out of his depth behind the camera. rarely dull, though, this just about maintains the interest despite a good deal of confusing comings and goings in the middle. Runs for 93 minutes according to IMDb but is recorded in Italian sources as 115mins and that is certainly what mine runs at, so goodness knows what sense the chopped version would make. As it is we have the varied group who had been got together to carry out the robbery, the aftermath as they are holed up awaiting mafia instructions and finally the political denouement. Quite audacious at times, for instance, one of the gang tells of how he'd like to spend the take on making a movie and as he speaks we see one superimposed as he speaks. Probably not essential viewing for giallo fans but those as fascinated as I by Italian politics and its social implications in the seventies, well worth seeing, even if it is, as here, a taped from Italian TV and wrung through a VHS player before being presented as DVD-r version!