Greta, una misteriosa mujer con amnesia, es acogida por los adinerados señores von Ravensbruck. Los tres pronto entran en un triángulo amoroso que se vuelve mortal, a medida que el truculent... Leer todoGreta, una misteriosa mujer con amnesia, es acogida por los adinerados señores von Ravensbruck. Los tres pronto entran en un triángulo amoroso que se vuelve mortal, a medida que el truculento pasado de Greta se va revelando poco a poco.Greta, una misteriosa mujer con amnesia, es acogida por los adinerados señores von Ravensbruck. Los tres pronto entran en un triángulo amoroso que se vuelve mortal, a medida que el truculento pasado de Greta se va revelando poco a poco.
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Elenco
- Professor Kempte
- (as Franco Cerulli)
- Sturges Corpse
- (sin créditos)
- Gertrud - The Maid
- (sin créditos)
- Party Guest
- (sin créditos)
- Dr. Sturges' Mute Assistant
- (sin créditos)
- Mask Ball Guest
- (sin créditos)
Opiniones destacadas
** (out of 4)
Joe D'Amato directed this extremely bizarre and downright confusing film that tries to mix Gothic horror with the giallo. I'm not exactly sure what the hell the film is about but it goes something like this. After a carriage wreck, a young woman (Ewa Aulin) is left without her memory so she stays with a husband and wife who both take a sexual liking to her. There's also a strange murderer going around and there's also a weird doctor (Klaus Kinski) who is trying to create a formula that will bring the dead back to life. Before long, the wife kills the young woman but soon she reappears. Is it a ghost or something else? As I said, this film makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There are several other story lines that I could have included in the plot but I'm not exactly sure what they had to do with anything either. D'Amato does a good job with the cinematography, which added with the music score makes for some nice atmosphere. Aulin is easy on the eyes and delivers the best performance in the film but overall this thing it too much of a mess to really enjoy. The film's pace, although gets quite tiresome after a while.
That's the basic, skeletal plot. The rest of DEATH SMILES ON A MURDERER is a series of love affairs, sexual situations, and a soap opera story line with an Edgar Allan Poe tie-in, interrupted by gruesome deaths. This may sound cockeyed and absurd, and it is. However, there's something eerie about it that makes it watchable. It's held together by a sort of nightmare logic.
Beautifully filmed, with haunting set pieces, it seems nonsensical, yet satisfying nonetheless. Ms. Aulin is both stunningly beautiful and terrifying!
EXTRA POINTS FOR: The graveyard scene!...
Summarizing the plot of 'Death Smiled at Murder' isn't a very easy thing to do as it handles about multiple macabre topics. A sinister doctor is on the verge of translating an ancient formula carrying the secret of how to raise the dead. A beautiful young girl and her deranged brother seem to be involved in this process as well but they first annihilate the entire population of a countryside mansion. The owners of this mansion, a rich couple, are both romantically involved with the gorgeous girl named Greta. The acting is fairly good as well, with Klaus Kinski on top. His role in the film isn't very essential, but his up-to-no-good grimaces provide the story with an extra bit of eeriness. With this film, D'Amato proved being capable of delivering films that are on the same quality-level as some of the Jess Franco films and maybe some of the weakest Mario Bava films. Recommended to every fan of top-Eurosleaze
Both the Husband and his Wife fall in love with Greta, and the Wife especially turns out to be rather jealous and walls up Greta in the dungeon. After that some even more bizarre happenings occurs resulting in the gruesome death of the Wife. But what happened to the walled up Greta? Well, that little chore is up to the local Police Inspector, and he hasn't got a clue as to what is going on, because Greta has vanished. This all culminates in a fairly good, if not confusing, ending that seems to put most of pieces back in order.
The plot (if that word applies here)involves two different doctors who seem to be reviving the dead for some reason--or are they? (I'm not being mysterious here--I really don't know). One of them is Klaus Kinski, but I suspect the famously temperamental actor might have stormed off the set so they gave part of his role to somebody else. Ewe Aulin is the dead(?) woman who seems no worse for wear. After her carriage crashes on the estate of a nobleman (who coincidentally is the doctor's son),he and his wife take her in and they both fall in love with her. The wife, however, is very jealous (although it's not clear of whom) and keeps trying to kill this possibly already dead girl. After an unsuccessful bathtub drowning (which naturally turns into a steamy lesbian sex scene) she seals her in a tomb with the family cat (for yet another Italian homage to Edgar Allen Poe) before the movie sinks completely into incomprehensibility.
This film resembles other latter-day Italian gothics like "The Devil's Wedding Night" (with Rosalba Neri) or "The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave" (with Erika Blanc). I would have preferred Neri or Blanc to Aulin in this kind of movie--they all look good naked, of course, but Blanc and Neri are a lot better in these evil roles. The cinematography here is definitely superior to the other two films, however, and is the best thing about this movie (it's easy to forget that D'Amato was a superb cinematographer before he became a world-renowned pornographer). Fans of virtuoso cinematography, non-linear Eurohorror, and badly-dubbed Eurobabes, who aren't bothered too much by a complete lack of plot will probably like this. Others may not.
¿Sabías que…?
- TriviaAll the guts used in the film were real intestine.
- Citas
Greta von Holstein: Franz! Franz! Try to catch me! If you do, I'll be your slave for a month, and I'll do anything you want. Anything!
- ConexionesFeatured in Porno Holocaust - Die Filme des Joe D'Amato (2001)
Selecciones populares
- How long is Death Smiles on a Murderer?Con tecnología de Alexa
Detalles
- Fecha de lanzamiento
- País de origen
- Idioma
- También se conoce como
- Death Smiles on a Murderer
- Locaciones de filmación
- Productora
- Ver más créditos de la compañía en IMDbPro
- Tiempo de ejecución
- 1h 28min(88 min)
- Relación de aspecto
- 1.85 : 1