La mort marche à talons hauts

After a heist, the notorious jewel thief Rochard is murdered in a train. In Paris, his daughter Nicole Rochard (Susan Scott), who is a stripper, is summoned by the police that wants to know the whereabouts of valuable diamonds that her father had stolen. She goes with her boyfriend Michel Aumont (Simon Andreu) and tells that does not know anything about the missing diamonds. During the night, a blue eye masked man breaks in her apartment and threatens her, asking where the diamonds are. Nicole seeks protection with Michel but in the morning she finds contact lens in his bathroom and she suspects Michel may be the masked man. She seeks out her costumer Dr. Robert Matthews (Frank Wolff), who had hit on her, and she asks him if she could go with in to London. Matthews, who is married, brings Nicole to a house by the sea in a village and she poses of his wife. But soon the masked man comes to England and begins a crime spree. The Scotland Yard Inspector Baxter (Carlo Gentili) and his assistant are assigned to investigate the case . "La morte cammina con i tacchi alti", a.k.a. "Death Walks on High Heels", is a giallo with a complex screenplay with many twists. There are many suspects but the killer´s identity is unexpected. The conclusion is well-resolved. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Morte Caminha de Salto Alto" ("The Death Walks on High Heels")

A good plot, coupled with good editing, makes for a good noirish giallo. Direction drags at times, hence a lower rating. Woman-in-peril film with all of the standard giallo tropes. Becomes a little surreal once she arrives in the UK. An entertaining Ercoli effort, albeit slow pacing at times.

A famed jewel thief named Rochard is slashed to death on a train. His daughter Nicole, a famous nightclub performer in Paris, is questioned by the police about some missing diamonds but she claims to know nothing about this. Nicole is then terrorized by a masked man with piercing blue eyes who demands to know where her father has hidden the stolen diamonds.

The film is written by no less a figure than Ernesto Gastaldi, who is considered by some to be the father of giallo. The director, Luciano Ercoli, is interestingly perhaps better known as a producer or production designer. He more or less fell into directing as a cost-cutting measure -- one less person to hire. (Tim Lucas compares Ercoli to Brian DePalma... and there is some truth to that.)

Who doesn't love composer Stelvio Cipriani, probably among the top composers in Italy (behind perhaps Ennio Morricone and Goblin for genre film). What we get here is rather sparse (many scenes have no music at all) but the man does what he does well. Not surprisingly, his work has been used by Quentin Tarantino, the champion of such films as this.

A note on the lead actor, an American. Frank Wolff had bit roles in his first two films, Roger Corman's "I Mobster" and "The Wasp Woman". On Corman's advice, Frank Wolff remained in Europe and became a well-known character actor in over fifty, mostly Italian-made, films of the 1960s, including crime/suspense "gialli" and spaghetti westerns.

Director Ercoli obviously does not have the name recognition of Mario Bava or Dario Argento, but he still knows how to make a great giallo (with a dollop of influence from Argento's "Bird With the Crystal Plumage"). A masked and gloved killer, a bit of mirrors, and an unhealthy fascination with eyes -- close-ups of eyes, false eyes, windows that look like eyes. Nobody knows eyes like the Italians!

The Arrow Video blu-ray allows the viewer to watch either the Italian or English versions (because sometimes you need a dub, and sometimes you don't). The disc also comes with: Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas, by far the most knowledgeable non-Italian scholar of the Italian genre film. Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi. A featurette comprising newly-edited archive footage of director Luciano Ercoli and actress Nieves Navarro. A career-spanning interview with composer Stelvio Cipriani. Italian genre fans (which includes pretty much all horror fans) will love this disc, part of Arrow's "Death Walks Twice" set.

"La Morte cammina con i tacchi alti" (Death walks on high heels) features another of the giallo goddesses: Susan Scott (aka Nieves Navarro).

Like many giallos, this is a sensuous film. It's not fast paced as today's movies, where car chases, bombs exploding, bullets flying taking toll etc.. succeed each other non-stop.

But "La Morte cammina con i tacchi alti" is a thriller alright - right from the beginning we see a murder on a train. A black-hooded killer (dressed in black) kills a patch-eyed man. He searches the victims's cabin, but he doesn't find what he was looking for.

There was a big robbery. A safe was cracked and valuable jewels were stolen. The man killed in his cabin was thought to be in possession of the jewels. Cut.

Paris. Nicole Rochard (Susan Scott) is the daughter of the man that was killed in the train. She is a dancer and strip-teaser. Now the killer will go after her. He wants to know where are the jewels, but Nicole doesn't (?) know. She will flee to England (first to London and then to a small village on the English coast), but death is following her. Needless to say, killings will happen and the Scotland Yard will step in. I've tried not to give away much of the story so as not to spoil your fun.

The Italian cinema had at the time very good technicians. The soundtrack, lighting effects, costumes and decor etc.., were taken care by masters of the craft. For many giallo films, even if they had average directors, the atmosphere and charm were created by the combined effort of the film crew. Just check out "La Dama Rossa uccide sette volte" to see what I'm meaning.

Susan Scott (like other giallo goddesses) is a perfect damsel in distress. Whatever she does (no matter what, as another reviewer pointed out), is arousing, be it dancing, bulging her eyes in fear, painting her nails etc.. The other actors do a good job as well - Simon Andreu as Michel, Nicole's Parisian boyfriend soon to follow her to England; Frank Wolff, as the classy Dr. Robert Matthews, with whom Nicole elopes to England; Carlo Gentile and Fabrizio Moresco, as inspector Baxter and his faithful assistant Bergson; the beautiful Claude Lange, as Vanessa..., and last but not least, the actors playing the local villagers - the people of the pub; Luciano Rossi, as the sinister Hallory; the strange street fish seller; the wandering and curious Captain Lenny (George Rigaud)..... Scenery and actors work in perfect harmony.

"La Morte cammina con i tacchi alti" is an entertaining and sensual thriller, but if you only like non-stop "bang bang sock boom crash" , then avoid this film.

A jewel thief is brutally murdered on a train by a masked assailant. But when the murderer is unable to locate any diamonds, the murderer immediately suspects that the thief's daughter, a Parisian stripper named Nicole (Nieves Navarro aka Susan Scott), may have the diamonds. Nicole, however, claims to know nothing of the diamonds. After a series of threats, both verbal and physical, Nicole decides to flee France with a man she hardly knows. The pair begin a seemingly ideal relationship in a secluded seaside village. But Nicole is unaware that the killer has followed her to England and will stop at nothing to get his hands on the diamonds.

What a fun Giallo! Death Walks on High Heels has one of the most convoluted plots I've run into - even by Giallo standards. While the movie may lack the quantity of murder scenes found in other Gialli (although at least one murder scene is as violent as they come), Death Walks on High Heels makes up for this shortcoming with more plot twists than a mountain road and boatload of red herrings. It had me guessing (incorrectly, I might add) up to the very end. It's all about the mystery and director Luciano Ercoli skillfully casts the shadow of suspicion on just about everyone in the cast. Much of the movie is told quite nicely in flashbacks with bits and pieces of the story being revealed as each person confesses to what they may or may not have seen. There's even a pair of bumbling Scotland Yard detectives who are (surprise, surprise) actually funny. Overall, Death Walks on High Heels is very well done.

The acting is a notch or two above what I've come to expect in a Giallo. The highlight, at least for me, is Nieves Navarro. She is amazing as Nicole. I didn't think I would ever say this, but I think she might have been capable of challenging Edwige Fenech in my mind as the Queen of the Giallo had she made a few more of these movies. I'm looking forward to checking out more of her work.

As much as I enjoyed Death Walks on High Heels, it's not without its flaws. Chief among them, at least to me, is a "cheat" with respect to one of the murders. I don't want to give anything away, but there is one particularly nasty murder that the killer could not have committed given the circumstances immediately following the murder. Hopefully, with repeat viewings, I can reconcile this point in my mind and just enjoy the movie for what it is.

Finally, and I'm really starting to sound like a shill, NoShame's new DVD is fantastic. I would have never dreamed that a movie like Death Walks on High Heels would look this good. Bravo NoShame!