Le notti della violenza

A masked killer in long dark coat stalks and strangles to death beautiful prostitutes.Comissario Ferretii wants to find the elusive killer..."La Notti Della Violenza" is an unjustly forgotten giallo with elegant mood of noir cinema.The script is entertaining and offers some unusual ideas.Plenty of red herrings and a bizarre unexpected twist at the end.The scenes of stalking and violent attacks on women are quite tame,though.It seems that the version I saw which lasted 77 minutes seems to be missing about 14 minutes.If you are a fan of 60's gialli you can't go wrong with Roberto Mauri's unreal "La Notti Della Violenza".7 white masks out of 10.

Roman nights – a masked killer is stalking and killing all the women he meets. The main victims are, of course, prostitutes.

"Le notti della violenza" may not be a groundbreaking giallo but it's atmospheric, it features, as it's to be expected, lots of pretty women (among them Marilu Tolo, Lisa Gastoni, Helene Chanel etc..) and the cameras are sensitive to feminine beauty (but as we are in 1965 not much can be shown). In short, "Le notti della violenza", in spite of being an early giallo, displays all the characteristics of the giallo genre – women being pursued, killed, slapped around, asking for protection and crying like broken dolls when mistreated. But it's not really a misogynistic film – it shows, it relishes and (in a way) it denounces (!).

"Le notti della violenza" is what one could call, a spontaneous giallo, this means, gialli that were made with few resources, but got the most out of them.

"Le notti della violenza" can't be put in the same league with, for instance, Mario Bava's classic "Blood and Black Lace" (1963) or Bazzoni's psychological giallo "La donna del lago" (1965), but it's still interesting if you like films for entertainment: As I said before, it's atmospheric (the silhouette of a woman seen through a window in the night, a lonely meadow, bushes, pines trees, someone stalking..) and it's also a perfect time capsule – the women, their hairdos, the music, the parties etc..

The plot mixes a deranged killer, a prostitution and drug ring and there are even hints about the atomic age! But no need to be afraid! In spite of all, the story is simple enough. The main drawback (for those that don't understand Italian) is that the copies available are in Italian without subtitles.

Hey girls! When undressing in your room, it's a good idea to make sure the light source is between you and the window, and not the other way round. That way you may not attract so many stalkers and potential murderers.

Carla does not heed this warning, and get herself strangle one night while heading to her job as a hooker. Turns out her dad is some political big wig and her pimp lady was into all sorts of rackets, which means things get complicated really quickly.

What also complicates matters more is that Carla's killer strikes a few more times (but doesn't get to murder anyone) and every time he's described by a witness as a different famous actor! This confuses the police greatly, and they vent their anger by arresting the massive drugs ring connected to Carla's organisation, and having a few punch ups along the way.

Like all good giallo, this one has a masked killer, and like all good giallo, it strays away from the giallo template by throwing in a few twists towards the end, and blending it in with some Euro-crime business too. I never guessed the ending, especially as my suspect was kidnapped by the killer! It's maybe tame in terms of Gialli (with one murder), but ticks along nicely. I can't believe the same guy that made this also made the crap fest King of Kong Island!

During a series of vicious attacks, the city's police commissioner finds that the different descriptions of the culprit have led him down the wrong path with the killer using disguises to carry out his spree and forces him to race to stop the killings and save the next victims.

This one turned out to be quite the distressing and flawed effort. The main problem on display here is the fact that this one just doesn't generate anywhere near the required genre thrills to be that interesting. Since the main guise of the film should be the series of attacks on the different street-workers in the area, that this one spends so much time instead on extraneous efforts is such a detriment that it brings out several problems as a result. The lack of time on the stalking, in general, is a big problem since it never allows us to get to know the killer or the victims either so it just seems quite bland during these few scattered scenes throughout here. Likewise, since this one becomes a procedural effort much more so than actually focusing on the stalking and slashing that it never becomes all that enjoyable as a result since these scenes are just criminally boring with the needless going over of facts repeatedly or going on with the friends of the victims in their lives as the spree continues around them which manages to make for a truly bland and utterly uninteresting time since precious little of it sets up the actual mystery around the killer. It has no time for such pointless and unnecessary interludes as the killer being shown stalking a group holding a party near a crime-scene and not take out anyone during that sequence, and the inclusion of the drug ring as a whole just makes no sense to be featured which just comes out of nowhere and has nothing at all to do with the rest of the story involving the killer striking his victims. The other big flaw here is the generally lifeless air about the main stalking scenes just makes this all the more paltry. What should be rather frenetic and exciting scenes end up being just dull in combination with the horrid lighting that makes everything so dark it's hard to tell what's going on beyond a flurry of arms being thrown about to the sounds of a beating that should've been seen on screen. Since so many of the attacks fail to actually kill the victim and left the killer escape just really undermines what's going on as the potential for some excitement to occur here in the attacks might've made this one a little more exciting. These here really bring this one down although it does have a few minor points of interest. The main thing here is the fact that the concept of the strikes where the maniac stalks couples and attacks them makes this one seemingly enjoyable enough to work with a normal storyline, and there's some potential in some of the attacks here which give this a minor boost. The only other effort that works here is the finale which has some action and a rather nice set=up about it that really does work for this one. Otherwise, there's not much that works here.

Today's Rating/PG: Violence.