Il mostro

Intriguing Italian mix of comedy and giallo. We are closer to the Volonte thrillers than Dario Argento here.

Dorreli is a low rank journalist, with a desk next to the toilet at Tribuna Sera newspaper. His correspondence contains a serial killer's letters, which he exploits. Circulation jumps. It takes him a while to realise the identity of the killer.

While all this is happening, Johnnie neglects his red head son.

Top rank technicians on form, though Morricone has done more distinctive work. Formidable central performance and direction which manages to mix bad taste comedy, murder mystery and comment on contemporary press ethics, parenting and publicity.

This one is good enough to make the viewer wonder about all Zampa's other inaccessible films.

People who are looking for a bloody giallo will be disappointed; the thriller side takes a back seat to the social comment ;actually the excellent Johnny Dorelli is akin to Kirk Douglas's character in Billy Wilder's "ace in the hole" .He wants to become a great reporter , no matter what it claims human lives ....

A godsend:a serial killer "il mostro" sends him clues to his horrible crimes;so he's able to publish them in his tabloid ;more,it seems that the mysterious monster "helps " him to predate where and when the crime will be committed.

The average viewer will have guessed the killer's identity halfway through ,but it does not matter ; the mother/son final fight won't fool no one. But the whodunit was not the subject of the film ; it's a ferocious social satire which denounces the press and the avid for bloody stories hoi polloi .