Il segreto del vestito rosso

From Silvio Amadio, director of the Gialli "Amuck" and "So Young, So Lovely, So Young", comes this passable international-intrigue thriller with an engaging cast. It attempts to be a sophisticated crime mystery in the Hitchcock vein, and is reasonably entertaining if never anything great.

Hunky American star Hugh O'Brian ('The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp') is cast here as Dick Sherman, an American reporter working in Rome. Re-entering his life is Shelley North (Cyd Charisse, "Brigadoon"), who was there on vacation with her husband Bill, an engineer. Bill has gone missing at roughly the same time as a stranger has been found murdered near a fountain. Dick works to solve the case along with the inspector (Alberto Closas) assigned to the case.

As a mystery, this is nothing special, with a resolution that falls short of real satisfaction. We're supposed to be caught off guard by the reveal of the antagonist, but it would have worked better if the whole mystery were better explained. As it is, it does feature the requisite number of red herrings, and it does have some fairly exciting scenes.

Mostly, it's an effective visual experience. Other than the fact that the ladies (also including Juliette Mayniel and Eleonora Rossi Drago) are lovely, it's well handled in an aesthetic sense, with colourful 2.35:1 photography. The film is additionally enjoyable as something of a travelogue - there are many attractive Italian location shots. We even get to see inside Italy's famed Cinecitta Studios, which is the real treat.

O'Brian may not make anybody forget Cary Grant, but he comes off pretty well as the likeable, earnest hero. In fact, he comes off better than leading lady Charisse. The supporting cast is fairly strong, with some striking character faces among the other players (including a comedy relief pair of bumbling thieves who happen upon an important plot element during their escapades).

"Assassination in Rome" is nothing one has to go out of their way to see, but lovers of crime mysteries in exotic settings are sure to get some value out of it.

Six out of 10.

Cyd Charisse and her husband are in Rome doing the tourist thing, when her husband is kidnapped. She turns to old lover Hugh O'Brien, who's a newspaperman. As he investigates o he behalf, he uncovers a tangled web of drug dealing.

O'Brien was a capable and affordable leading man for Italian movies, and Miss Charisse was vlearly glad to be working again, even if this was a period when American stars went to Europe to try to revive sagging careers. This one is watchable, although the dubbing of the Italian actors in this one -- and even that of O'Brien -- seems typically off a bit.

This one has some Giallo elements (the title with the colour in it, a mysterious murder, loads of style) but may well be one of them spy-thriller type things too (I know nothing about that genre). I'll tell you one thing, though - it's a bit of patience-stretcher even though it's gorgeous looking.

A woman reports her husband missing while on holiday in Rome while a tramp finds a corpse propped up at the Trevi Fountain. A handsome American reporter gets involved with both cases (especially as the woman is his ex!) and starts to find links between them. Meanwhile, two burglars find they've burgled an already ransacked flat but find a strange package in the heel of a shoe. Also there's a fat guy going around spying on folks and there's a cop with a bad stomach also on the case. And the mafia too - I forgot about them. And a hooker. And another one of the reporter's ex-girlfriends. And another one of them too. And an ex-drug addict painter.

The woman lists all the people she knows in Rome: a strange couple and an even stranger old man who kept pestering her husband. After a flashback at the Coliseum, and a visit to the Cinecitta (where an extremely camp man comes onto our reporter!), everyone heads off to Venice to catch up with the mystery there.

As I said, this is a very fine looking film and not too bad a mystery, but considering the other films surrounding it chronologically it could have used a bit more bite, and probably a better explanation (more than "So THAT's who it was"). I still have no idea who the fat guy was in relation to anything else, and he tried to kill the hero about ten times! Maybe I wasn't listening. There are a few twists in here that are pretty good, and the death of the killer turns up in Argento's Cat O Nine Tails (and I'm gonna come right out and say it, a lot of stuff from these early films turns up in Argento's films, but who cares?).

I wish they wouldn't smoke so much in these films. I used to love smoking in Rome - nothing better than a 'Diana' or an 'L&M' on a veranda at night listening to all them cars beeping at each other. Best way to end a hard day's sightseeing and eating. I used to always hit my head of the shutters on the way back in because I was too stupid to lift them up high enough. Now it's caravans in Flamborough and weak lager and fresh air.

Cyd's husband has disappeared while on holiday in Rome and she enlists the help of the American Embassy to locate him. A drunk stumbles upon a dead man at Trevi Fountain. The dead man's apartment is robbed by a couple of inept thieves. Hugh is a newspaper editor in search of a story and learns of former lover Cyd's dilemma and decides to get involved. Enjoyable Italian made thriller with lovely on location photography. Hugh with the help of the inspector eventually ties these pieces together. But not before having to sift through a number of red herrings to get to the motivation behind Cyd's missing husband and the murder. The story is a bit difficult to follow but it moves along at a good pace and will keep your attention.

A body is found near a famous landmark in Rome. At the same time an American goes missing and his wife, "Shelley North" (Cyd Charisse) wants to find him. So she turns to an old flame named "Dick Sherman" (Hugh O'Brien) who happens to be an editor for the local newspaper, "the Rome-American Daily". During the course of his unofficial investigation he comes upon drugs, espionage, gambling and murder. Anyway, while not the best mystery film ever made, this movie still has enough twists and turns to keep most people interested for the most part. I thought Hugh O'Brien turned in a decent performance as did Cyd Charisse to a somewhat lesser degree. Again, while it certainly wasn't a blockbuster by any stretch of the imagination it was decent for the period in which it was made and I think most people who enjoy films of this genre will probably be satisfied. All in all I rate it as about average.