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.

Boasting one of the most outlandish titles of the giallo genre, Sergio Martino's Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key is yet another loose adaptation of one of Edgar Allen Poe's most famous titles, The Black Cat. Like most Poe adaptations, the film shares little with its source material, apart from the presence of the titular black cat, here named Satan. While it is chocked full of narrative stumbles and frustrating red herrings, Martino's refusal to bend to the genre rules of the giallo makes Your Vice an extremely interesting entry into the genre, avoiding being bogged down with drawn-out set pieces and mind-bending visuals, and instead focusing on the psychological - and physical - interplay between its two leads.

Bored writer Oliviero (Luigi Pistilli) spends the majority of his time throwing drug and alcohol-fuelled parties for the local hippies, and enjoys mentally and physically abusing his long- suffering wife Irina (Anita Strindberg) in front of them. When a young student is brutally murdered on the night she had arranged to meet Oliviero, the wife-beating pig naturally becomes the prime suspect and withdraws into a state of deep paranoia at his labyrinthine mansion. When their maid also shows up dead, Oliviero and Irina hide the body just before the arrival of his niece Floriana (Edwige Fenech). Floriana is a confident and wise young woman, and hatches a plan with Irina to deal with her abusive husband. But not all is as it seems, and just who is the handsome grey-haired man lurking behind every corner?

Far from your average giallo, Your Vice... doesn't subvert the genre but frequently surprises. The plot and ludicrous climax, like most gialli, seem not be taken from the yellow-covered pulp fiction they are normally adapted from, but something akin to an episode of Scooby- Doo. While that may seem like a criticism, it really isn't - it's the type of insanity that makes these movies so much fun to watch. Bolstered by a fantastic score by Bruno Nicolai and lavish cinematography by Giancarlo Ferrando, they are nonetheless overshadowed by Fenech, surely one of the most beautiful women to ever grace the screen. Floriana is a no-nonsense, well-travelled lady, and just when you think you have her worked out, the film throws in a surprising, if in no way believable, twist. It may not be remembered as Martino's best entry into the genre (1973's Torso is certainly up there), but Your Vice... throws in enough twists and turns to keep it consistently entertaining and occasionally disturbing.

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.

Even by gialli standards this movie is pretty off-the-wall, but it is also, strangely enough, probably the most faithful adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story "The Black Cat" that I have ever seen. There is a bit of a gender role reversal where it is the wife who is tormented by the black cat (named "Satan") which is the cherished pet of her cruel, alcoholic husband. The mother-obsessed husband takes out his writer's block on his long-suffering spouse and may be responsible for a string of serial killings. Thrown into the mix is a black maid who seems to only be in the movie so the sleazy characters can make a lot of racist, offensive comments about her--oh yeah, and also so she can get naked. And speaking of getting naked, Edwige Fenech also shows up as the husband's sexy, conniving niece and demonstrates once again her extreme aversion to wearing clothes. In between nude scenes, however, Fenech really seems to be doing some acting this time, and she plays against type here as a villain rather than a victim. She seduces both her uncle AND her aunt, and pretty much everyone else in the movie (with the possible exception of "Satan" the cat).

Not that this is a good movie. It has an idiotic subplot where Fenech has an affair with a goofy-looking motorcross racer for no apparent reason other than to pad the running length with some racing footage that would do a lot better in a sports video than in a giallo. The movie also isn't nearly as well directed as some of Sergio Martino's other gialli like "Torso" or "All the Colors of Darkness" (also with Fenech). And Martino-regular Ivan Rassimov is tragically wasted in a perfunctory role. Still even a bad Martino-Fenech giallo is not without its charms. And if you're an Edgar Allen Poe fan, you'll especially enjoy this one.

Behind the dynamic title of this Sergio Martino giallo is an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poes' 'The Black Cat', albeit a rather loose one for a while. Luigi Pistilli ("A Bay of Blood") plays Oliviero, a washed up author living on a villa with his very put upon and frazzled wife Irina (Anita Strindberg). Irinas' neuroses soon manifest themselves in her antagonistic relationship with Olivieros' black cat (amusingly named Satan), while assorted characters occasionally get murdered on or around the premises. Complicating matters is the arrival of Olivieros' sultry niece Floriana (genre star Edwige Fenech).

Martinos' film does go on longer than it needs to, with a subplot about Florianas' romance with a delivery man / motorbike racer not really adding anything to the story. It might disappoint viewers hoping for more sleaze, or a higher body count, or more flamboyant stylistics. It actually functions more as a character study and portrait of a descent into debauchery (for Oliviero) and madness (for Irina). This domestic drama is interesting stuff, with some pointed dialogue, but the film is never more fun than when it's giving in to the more exploitative tendencies of the genre. To that end, viewers will be satisfied with some lesbian sex and nudity, and some pretty good (but never overdone) gore. Bruno Nicolai composed the wonderful music score, and this benefits further from the location shooting and photography. (Those opening credits are particularly well done.) This definitely hits its stride once Fenech shows up, and the story more closely follows the classic Poe tale.

The acting is solid from all concerned (Ivan Rassimov plays a mystery man named Walter, Franco Nebbia the standard police inspector character you always get in this sort of entertainment), with special mention going out to Ms. Strindberg. You do feel pretty bad for this lady given the treatment that she must put up with. Fenech is at her absolute sexiest.

Enjoyable for fans of the genre.

Seven out of 10.