La última señora Anderson

The plot becomes too convoluted during the second half, but the first 30 minutes or so forms an excellent mystery focused on Mr. Anderson's unlucky marriages to 3 women all of whom died in 'accidents' within a year after their weddings.

One of the writers was Santiago Moncada, who wrote stories and scripts for some 60 Spanish/Italian productions including the excellent neo/post/whatever noir thriller 'Corruption of Chris Miller' from about the same time as 'Fourth Victim'.

The mood is set by one of the best opening sequences I've seen in a giallo-esque picture, accompanied by Piero Umiliani's languid, dreamy theme featuring those theremin-like female vocals common to Italian 70's thrillers, ooohhh-ing over a dreamy gentle but melancholy descending melody.

We see a handsome middle aged man looking through a large window on a sunny day at a beautiful blonde woman floating alone in the backyard pool, reclining on a clear plastic inflatable chair. She looks very relaxed, slumped to one side, maybe asleep under her sunglasses, a drained cocktail glass at poolside. The dreamy sad music continues.

Then we see that the cigarette in her limp hand has burned all the way down to her fingers, but she doesn't react to the burning ashes at all. Something is wrong with her.

The sad music sound fearful and menacing as it hits an ominous chord.

The burning cig has begun to melt the arm of the plastic chair, and it gradually sinks as the inert comatose woman slowly rolls over into the water and lies floating face down. The man watching her runs down some stairs through a big mansion and out to the pool, where the woman is obviously dead....

The movie should've continued with the 'dead wives' mystery, but it goes off on a silly tangent. Nevertheless, it has a unique flavor different from most giallos, which makes it recommended.

Carroll Baker made a handful of giallos (Italian thrillers) and this one is certainly the best ;it must be the screenplay :it does not fall apart after the first reel and suspense is sustained throughout ; Michael Craig 's character ,three times widower ,might be a cross between French Blue Beard and Cary Grant in Hitchcock's "suspicion": hence the English title "the fourth victim ".Even though she knows about her new husband 's shady past , Baker marries him : but hasn't she skeletons in her closet too? And who is this mysterious woman who prowls around the mansion?And is the housekeeper candid when she tells she thinks her master is totally innocent ,that all these deaths are accidental ? Directing is just OK , Baker is gorgeous , her co-star is suave and handsome, no masterpiece but watchable all the same.

Michael Craig stars as Arthur Anderson whose blonde wife is found suspiciously drowned in their swimming pool.Because he two previous wives also died strange deaths Anderson is charged with murder and only gets off because his motherly housekeeper lies to clear his name.Soon a pretty blonde woman(Carroll Baker)shows up and starts flirting with Anderson but it's clear from the get-go that she may not be who she seems to be.She quickly becomes the fourth Mrs. Anderson."The Fourth Victim" is very rare Spanish giallo with capable cast and nice score by Piero Umiliani.There is not much gore and the pace is slow,but last 20 minutes are quite twisted.6 out of 10.

This film begins with a wealthy British man by the name of "Arthur Anderson" (Michael Craig) driving to his house and discovering his wife face down in the swimming pool. So after taking the body upstairs to the bedroom he and his maid "Felicity Downing" (Miranda Campa) dry off the body, change her clothes and then call the police. A couple of days later, Arthur is charged with murder due primarily to the fact that this was the third wife he has had in three years and all of them had died leaving him as the beneficiary of their insurance policies. However, with only the fact that drugs had been found in her system and no proof as to whether he had anything to do with it, he is subsequently acquitted. Not long afterward he hears a noise in his yard and upon going to check it out sees a stunning blonde woman by the name of "Julie Spencer" (Carrol Baker) swimming in the same pool his wife had drown in not too long before. After a brief conversation she leaves but soon after that they begin to spend more time together which eventually leads to marriage. Unfortunately, there is much more to Julie than meets the eye and soon the two of them become deathly suspicious of one another. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film starts off exceedingly slow and maintains that pace for quite a while afterward. Fortunately, the mystery and intrigue pick up about two-thirds of the way through and partially redeems what otherwise could have been a rather boring movie. All things considered then, while this wasn't a great mystery-thriller by any means, I suppose it was okay for a rainy day and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

A wealthy man keeps finding his wives dead under mysterious circumstances and, after standing trial and getting off, a mysterious woman enters his life and strange things start to happen.

For a giallo, The Fourth Victim is low on violence and sleaze, but the performances are better than average and the script won't make you cringe as much as many similar films. There are enough twists and turns to keep you interested without having to slice up bodies every 10 minutes. Some of the twists are silly, but silliness is to be expected with this sort of Italian thriller.