Hombre sin memoria

Luc Merenda suffers from amnesia.His memory is fragmented but he seems to remember that he was once married to Senta Berger.When he returns to her his past partners in crime appear and want to get the money he has hidden somewhere...Superbly shot Italian giallo with violent and exciting finale which includes chainsaw vs chair duel.Luc Merenda is a pretty good lead and Senta Berger makes for a beautiful heroine and there's also a smaller role for genre regular Anita Strindberg.There are several suspenseful moments in "Puzzle",so fans of Italian gialli won't be disappointed.The film lack sleaze and high body-count,but overlook that and you have one of the best Italian giallos of early 70's with lovingly breezy Gianni Ferrio score.8 giallos out of 10.

I was just amazed when I finished watching this Italian thriller. Inspired in quite a few American and European movies of this kind, it gets you intrigued from the start till the end. Strange events, mysterious characters, (including the main one who is an amnesic man who doesn´t know who he is or why someone is trying to kill him), the right rhythm and really thrilling moments make this movie one of the best Italian thrillers I´ve ever seen. Absolutely recommended.

In London, an amnesiac is abducted and beaten by a stranger who calls him a "dirty son of a double-crosser." When a sniper's bullet kills his attacker, the amnesiac flees the country with airline tickets provided by a wife he never knew he had. Arriving in Portofino, the amnesiac is called a "dirty rotten bastard" by his wife, and threatened by another stranger to return a million dollars in uncut heroin - or die. Duccio Tessari's stylish L'UOMO SENZA MEMORIA/MAN WITHOUT A MEMORY, aka PUZZLE (1974), tears a page or two from Terence Young's WAIT UNTIL DARK, substituting for sightlessness a memory loss that seems self-willed. The more the amnesiac (Luc Merenda) learns of his past, the more he wants to forget (Hal Hartley's indie AMATEUR mined similar territory twenty years later). Tessari (A PISTOL FOR RINGO, DEATH OCCURRED LAST NIGHT, THE BLOODSTAINED BUTTERFLY) and scenarist Ernesto Gastaldi (WEREWOLF IN A GIRL'S DORMITORY, TORSO) make the principal characters surprisingly likeable for giallo pawns and the derivativeness of the narrative is offset by a series of nicely staged setpieces (a razor slashing predates Angie Dickinson's postcoital comeuppance in Brian DePalma's DRESSED TO KILL by more than half a decade). Senta Berger proves an above average heroine, and even gets to brandish a chainsaw in the film's tense conclusion. This film won't convert any new fans to the giallo genre, but should provide an invigorating diversion to those familiar with the rules of the game.

Luc Merenda plays Pete, a guy in London who has no memory following a car crash eight months previous. In fact, although his driving license says Peter, he might actually be called Ted. At least that's what the guy who tries to kill him calls him, before he himself is killed by a mystery assassin. It's around this time that Pete/Ted receives a telegram telling him to get ass over to Italy, where his wife is waiting for him. Problem being is that Ted didn't even know he was married.

Still, he heads over there anyway, and luckily enough a mysterious guy with a runny nose points out his wife at the train station. Now Sara's got problems of her own, seeing as she'd written off Ted's disappearance and now gotten a job as a swimming instructor at a local school, hooking up with new guy Reinhart (Orisini). Sara actually finds this new Ted a lot more pleasing than the old one, and starts falling in love with him all over, much to the dismay of Reinhart.

Runny nose guy turns out to be George, a very aggressive man who claims that Ted owes him something, and that he needs it before 'they' kill him, and if doesn't get it, he's going to kill Ted, but Sara first. Ted around this time also starts getting flashes of the past, and that turns out not to be good news, as his first recalled memory is seeing a man getting his throat cut by a mystery figure. To make things worse, George also starts on Sara, but when someone slashes her dog's throat, he's adamant that it wasn't him.

The first thing you'll notice is the complete absence of the black gloved killer in this giallo, but all the mysterious plot elements are there for the viewer to figure out. Is Ted suffering from amnesia or is he pretending? If he's not pretending, how can he trust anything that's going on, or anyone he meets? And what exactly is it that George is after?

This film, while not action packed, has a lot going for it. Starting with the great cinematography and use of colour (as usual for a giallo), the predominant colour here is blue, which appears in many shades and forms. Better still is Bruno Corazzari having a much larger role than usual. He always plays sinister types, but here he's given the space to branch out and his presence hangs over much of the film. His best scene is when he corners Sara, who is recovering with a broken leg, and just stands throwing lit match over lit match at her. Not life threatening, but a tense scene indeed. Umberto Orisini also has a bigger role than usual and has a very natural acting style I notice, that serves him well throughout the film. Luc Merenda of course is all eyebrows and glowering, and still comes across like a really thin Arnie.

There's a lack of blood and gore in this one that pays off in a later scene involving a chainsaw. One thing I did notice was that when one character falls to their death, the dummy's head falls off. Strange gaff from Tessari, whose composition and execution are usually flawless.

Luc Merenda has amnesia. He woke up from an auto accident about a year ago and has been unable to remember anything about his life. He had identification on him, but nothing can be found about his past. His psychiatrist introduces him to someone who claims to know him, but he immediately attacks Merenda demanding to know where the stuff is. Someone shoots and kills him through Merenda's window.

Merenda learned a bit from the guy. He learned that his name is actually "Ted Walden" and that he has a wife waiting for him in Italy. When someone sends him info about his wife and a train ticket, he goes to see her.

His wife is Senta Berger. She's assumed for the last year that Merenda ran out on her. She learns of his imminent arrival, but someone breaks into her house ... but doesn't take anything. When Merenda arrives, he's confronted by Bruno Corazzari who claims they are friends and partners in a shady deal that was to net them $1 million. The problem is that Merenda has the goods, and if he doesn't start remembering, the big boss will come after all of them.

After this fairly compelling setup, this film settles into a long rut before livening up for a delightfully absurd climax involving Chekhov's chainsaw and a villain undone when the rug is literally pulled out from under him. I think anyone watching this will know who the main villain is long before the film bothers to tell you, but it's a mildly entertaining diversion. It's pretty tame for a giallo, especially one this late in the cycle, but Duccio Tessari delivers this one just fine.

Anita Strindberg has a tiny, but fairly significant role.