La morte risale a ieri sera

Inappropriate title in the German dubbing, great film: Raf VALLONE in an exciting mix of giallo thriller and crime film

A widower (great: Raf Vallone) from Milan lovingly looks after his already grown but mentally retarded daughter (Gill Bray). One day she disappears from their shared apartment without a trace. An inspector (Frank Wolff) investigates, but encounters resistance. Is it possible that a prostitution ring is behind this? The desperate father no longer knows what to do...

Duccio Tessari ("Uomo senza memoria" with the chainsaw-wielding Senta Berger) has presented an impressive film that was co-produced by Artur Brauner and his CCC FILMKUNST. Unfortunately the German title is very inappropriate, there is not much fog in Milan. The alternative title "Murders only happen on Saturdays" is at least a little better. The Italian original could be translated as "Death occurred last night". Eva Renzi (as the inspector's wife) and Beryl Cunningham can be seen in other roles. The event of the film, however, is Raf Vallone, who impresses with his sensitive acting and sheer physical strength. The end of the film still offers a few surprises. In the Italian box office it grossed a decent 568 million ITL.

A gem worth seeing from the almost inexhaustible reservoir of Italian crime films of the 1970s!

A very interesting director and especially this film being a part giallo part cop procedural and we have a sexy 25 year old woman with the mind of a three year old. This being as tasteful as possible and she disappears, the police straight away think of prostitution but there is also some humour but the ending is amazing. The very next year is really a giallo, The Bloodstained Butterfly (1971) and later on Puzzle (1974) both great and earlier Duccio Tessari had two, just as splendid spaghetti westerns, A Pistol for Ringo (1965) and The Return of Ringo (1965). In this film it gets a bit confusing now and again but then a giallo usually does but it is all so well done and with Raf Vallone so really good as the father, it could easily have been a bit silly. Frank Wolff as the inspector and has a great time with Eva Renzi as his wife around the flat, in bed and even strumming his guitar.

Part giallo and part drama, this movie's been overlooked by both the "mainstream" critics and the Italian-horror fans alike, and that's a shame, because it's one of Italy's more serious genre efforts of the 70's. The distraught father's race to find his kidnapped daughter before the police do, is both tense and poignant. It's free of the exploitative elements most genre films have, and along with Tessari's other thriller (Bloodstained Butterfly), one of the most mature Italian thillers of the decade. The ending is painful without being gratuitous, and well above something Hollywood could handle: compare the father's obsession to find the girl in this to Cage's in 8MM and be amazed at how crassly the latter is constructed. See this one!

Frank Wolff puts in a great performance here as a world weary cop in Milan assigned to a missing person's case where a middle aged man keeps referring to his little girl, who turns out to be a six foot tall nymphomaniac with the mind of a three year old! That's pretty sick seeing as all evidence points to her being sent to work as a prostitute.

Wolff is one of these cops that isn't afraid to plant stuff on people, blackmail men who frequent hookers, or have his men slap pimps around. He's also very likable as for every bust he makes, he feels the weight of every crime that goes unpunished, so he winds down at night while playing the guitar, treating his sinusitis, and banging his wife.

During the day he and his subordinates start visiting whore houses in order to track down the missing girl which leads him to befriending hooker with a heart Herrero, who might be the key to the whole case. For a change its Herrero and Wolff's missus are the one who become sort-of friends, leading to all sorts of philosophising and what not.

Another plot thread concerns that of the missing girl's father. A man who just wanted to look after his daughter, what becomes of a man who's only reason for living is missing, and what is he going to do to those responsible, as he highly suspects that one of his neighbours is the kidnapper.

The 'identity of the kidnapper' plot I guess has this film being marked as a giallo, whereas other say it's a euro-crime film. Who gives a crap? It's a good film. Not much by way of gore, or nudity, but the ending was certainly violent enough and the film also has characters that actually display feelings for a change. Duccio Tessari also directed Tony Arzenta and the two films share that highly-stylised look, and in this film Tessari includes a lot of hand held footage, and a lot of scenes where the dialogue is drowned out by external noise.

You know what this film reminded me of? A Touch of Frost. I mean that as a good thing – Wolff does that thing Frost does where he constantly berates his subordinates ("Get a haircut").

A mentally backward 25 year old woman mysteriously vanishes and consequently turns up dead. The investigation then tries to find out who was responsible for the brutal murder. This poliziotteschi/giallo hybrid delves into the dark underbelly of Milan, where it turns out many shady individuals reside. Tonally, this is more on the poliziotteschi side of the fence than the giallo, consequently its a bit darker and nihilistic, with a more cynical view of life overall. Its still an involving mystery/thriller whatever its categorisation though and keeps you guessing. It also benefits from the great Frank Wolff on hand as the police inspector on the case.