Gentilmente antes de morir

Sergio Martino's effort "Your Vice is a closeted room and only I don't have the key" is a crossover between the giallo genre, horror and sexy atmosphere as they were many during the 70's in Italy. It's (very)freely adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat while keeping a giallo narrative structure for an hour and so...then move back to the Poe territory. Il tuo Vizio... has quite daring visuals for one hour, Martino's usual trademark in his early 70's works : wild camera angles, edgy editing. Then it suddendly cools down as the story sticks around with the Black Cat thing.

The screenplay developped a maniac on the loose killing young girls (again) in a very nasty way (gore galore!) while Anita Strindberg fights with drunken & debauched husband Luigi Pistilli. he's a no good writer who writes all night...only one sentence over and over. Then comes sexy Edwige Fenech who stands for Strinberg's cause...before sleeping with her husband and the delivery man. Lesbian scenes, straight scenes, stuntss,sex scenes, murders scenes, sex again then murders...this is a very well known territory that brings up finally some good surprises in the end.

This is definitely Anita Strindberg's best work to date. She is absolutely fantastic as the cheated wife who goes over the edge, showing every human emotion with a professionalism rarely seen on the screen. Too bad her career went dry after 1975, she was a real winner here with great acting capabilities. Miss Fenech got a THEOREM-like character but still very eager to drop every clothes she got. She gets a very bitchy part here which is very unsual in her career as she went along either with victims characters or sexy ones. Oh, and there's still weird Ivan Rassimov as the mysterious stranger (as usual) snooping around Strindberg's house : he was already in Martino's previous TUTTI I COLORI DEL BUIO.

Apart from the screenplay's weaknesses and incapacity of bringing something fresh and new to the Poe's story, this Martino flick is quite memorable and fun to watch.But as it tries to link several genres, it really doesn't know where to go and who to please and finally ends up as a curisoity from the 70's. Nevertheless a gem strictly for genre addicts.

Superwonderscope says :7.

I watched this with a few people and it was really fun to laugh along at the ridiculous plot developments. It starts off way too serious and strange... there is a spousal abuse scene that is difficult to watch. That happens in an... orgy party I guess... scene, and the movie has frequent nudity and sexuality. The Poe story seems to only influence the movie a little, but knowing the Poe story does certainly spoil the very ending. Regardless, the most enjoyable part of this was laughing my friends at how crazy the plot and characters became. The ending is typical for Giallo, and overall this movie isn't terrible and isn't great. Some fun and good moments are here, adding up to pretty middle-of-the-road fare.

Author Oliviero Rouvigny (Luigi Pistilli) is, simply put, a vile pig. His long-suffering wife, Irina (Anita Strindberg) endures most of his abuse, along with his vast array of lovers and mistresses. When one of them is slashed to death, Oliviero is suspect number one on the police inspector's list, along with the horde of hippies that hang out at the writer's enormous estate. When another murder takes place right in the mansion, Oliviero decides to cover it up.

What could all of this have to do with Oliviero's mother? Annnd, what's going on with her old gown? Annnnd, just what is the deal with that irascible black cat named "Satan"?

Enter Floriana (Edwige Feneche), a long-lost relative, who just happens to come for an extended visit. Her stay definitely livens up the place, for Oliviero AND Irina! Meanwhile, more vicious attacks occur.

YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY is a classic, suspenseful giallo with some wicked twists and turns. Ms. Faneche is both seductive and strong in her wily role, while Pistilli plays Oliviero as the perfectly washed up hack he's become, plagued by his addictions and weaknesses.

EXTRA CREDIT FOR: #1- Ms. Strindberg and her... metamorphosis! #2- A grand finale for the ages! Great stuff!...

Once a successful writer, nowadays in mental crisis, the depraved libertine Oliviero (Luigi Pistilli) is living at his mansion near Verona, but he can't break out of a persistent pain after the death of his adored mum . Today , Oliviero being plagued by nightmares but he takes great joy in mistreating his attractive wife Irina (Anita Strinberg) who lives in terror and their black servant Brenda (Angela La Vorgna) , as he enjoys humiliating her in front of his friends as well as a prohibited love affair with an ex-student (Daniel Giordano) . But when someone slits the throat of a young girl , Oliviero becomes the prime suspect, further complicating his already fragile relationship with Irina . Along the way , the stealthy killer strikes again . Then things go wrong , as if killing wasn't enough, Oliviero's bombshell niece Floriana (Edwige Fenech) enters the triangular equation . More and more killings take place , watching all is a black cat named Satan and a silver-haired stranger observes as well . Various women are mercilessly pursued by an ominous killer wielding a knife . A blood-drenched nightmare from which you awaken too late !

An unsettling and thrilling Giallo produced and written by Luciano Martino freely adapted from the story "The Black Cat" by E. A. Poe , including habitual grisly killings. Sergio Martino's Gialli getting certain success , being compellingly shot , including well staged crimes with plenty of startling visual content and adding the mysterious series killer thematic and subsequent red herrings . The main question of the movie is find out who's behind the grisly murders and to guess what's Floriana's game and who's the observant stranger at the Oliviero's secluded, blood-spattered mansion . This is the usual Gialli with a series of murders committed around the estate of a degenerate author , it results in a complex intrigue , tension , suspense , stabbing and a weird threat shows up lurking or stalking throughout garden, building , cellar , corridors and grim interiors . The film combines atmospheric blending of thrills , chills , nudism and suspenseful final . The rather perplexing tale weavers so many red herrings when ultimately the murderer is unmasked . Being an Italian production here appears ordinary Latin actors usual in the 60s and 70s sub-genres : Poliziesco , Spaghetti Western , Giallo , Horror , Sex comedy , Euro-spy , such as : Edwige Fenech as the young, beautiful, and self-confident niece Floriana , Luigi Pistilli as the burned-out , abusive writer whose adorable dead mother goes on dominating his imagination , Anita Strindberg as the mistreated , charming wife , Ivan Rassimov as a suspect watcher , Enrica Bonaccorti as a Hooker , Daniela Giordano as a gorgeous student and very brief appearance by Dalila Di Lazzaro as a Stripper .

Nice ambiance and appropriate settings , enhanced by the well photographed Padua , carried out by good cameraman Giancarlo Ferrando . Shot on location in Montagnana, Padua, Veneto , Lazio, Italy , Villa Lugli, Bresseo, Teolo, Padova, Veneto, and Elios Studios, Rome . As well as terrifying and Giallo style musical score by Bruno Nicolai, usual collaborator to Ennio Morricone . The motion picture was professionally directed by Sergio Martino who delivers the goods with skillness and aplomb enough . Competently made by the prolific filmmaker Sergio Martino who usually uses pseudonym as Martin Dolman . Sergio began his cinematic career in his early 20s as an assistant to his writer/producer brother Luciano Martino and handled second unit director chores on Mario Bava's The Whip and the body (1963), and made his directorial debut in 1969 with the mondo documentary Mille peccati... nessuna virtù (1969). He really hit his stride in the early 1970s with several superior Giallo murder mystery thrillers that usually starred popular actress Edwige Fenech (who was married to Martino's brother Luciano at the time) : The strange vice of the Mrs Ward (1971), All the Colors of the Dark (1972) , Scorpion tail (1971) and Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave or Vicios prohibidos (1972) . Talented and versatile writer/director Sergio Martino has made a vast array of often solid and entertaining films in all kind of genres as horror , Giallo , comedy , Western , and science fiction in a career that spans over 40 years . He was especially expert on Pasta Western as proved in ¨Mannaja¨,¨Arizona returns¨; Giallo such as : ¨The case of scorpion's tail ¨ , ¨Torso¨ ,¨The scorpion with two tails¨ , ¨The strange vice of Mrs Ward¨; Cannibal movies as "Mountain of the Cannibal God", Italian crime thrillers as "Violent Professionals" and ¨Sci-Fi as ¨Destroyer¨ , "2019: After the Fall of New York" . Rating: 6.5/10 , acceptable and passable , this is a great Giallo in which the camera stalks in sinister style throughout a story with decent visual skills . This is a bewildering story , enjoyable as well as violent , and it will appeal to hardcore Giallo fans . A hugely chilling and entertaining flick.

Only thing I can compliment in this movie is some clever use of camera, decent, though, as usual, over the top acting and some hints of dread. What remains is, I can only guess, having seen the same director's movie "Torso", trademark style of Sergio Martino. A LOT of nudity and some gore mixed with a "Black Cat" story from E.A.P. If you are even little familiar with the story, you basically know how the movie will end few minutes in. I do not consider this to be giallo, in true meaning of that word... This is yet another thriller with very little things to be scared of, since you don't really care for any of the characters, because they are all sleazy and perverse. 6/10 and I don't really recommend it. You are not missing anything significant by not watching this movie.