Libido

Four people arrive at a seaside mansion, which is the ancestral home of one of the party - a young man who witnessed his father murdering a woman there when he was a child. Various antagonisms exist between the characters and to make matters worse, there is a hefty inheritance at stake - isn't there always?! And will history repeat itself in the form of murder?!! Do you know what, it might just...

This very early giallo owes more to the likes of the French classic Les Diaboliques and Hammer psychological thrillers such as Taste of Fear, than it does Mario Bava's early giallo proto-types, The Girl Who Knew Too Much or Blood and Black Lace. To this end, it doesn't have a maniac on the loose scenario and instead focuses on a small cast, where the central character is so emotionally vulnerable that we are not sure if they are being driven mad or insane to begin with. It's a fairly basic and minimalistic movie in a lot of ways but it does have some visual black and white elegance and nice touches such as the mirrored room. The small cast isn't bad either with future Hannibal and Bond actor Giancarlo Giannini suitably intense as the psychologically damaged son, giallo regular Dominique Boschero a welcome presence once more as his wife, character actor of dozens of side roles Luciano Pigozzi is successfully shifty once again as the lawyer and Mara Maryl (who came up with the idea for the film!) romps about in bikinis as the resident fox. But what may define Libido most of all in giallo terms, is that the most prominent screenwriter of the genre, Ernesto Gastaldi, was given a rare opportunity to direct here. He doesn't do a bad job and the film, while a bit unexciting for the most part, does have a fairly diverting final third where events do ramp up a bit. Its no classic but it's a nice example of a very early Italian thriller.

With a six letter title ending in 'O' and a central character who is clearly mentally unstable, I was expecting Libido to be heavily inspired by Hitchcock's Psycho, but the film actually has more in common with French classic Les Diaboliques (1955), the plot involving two women conspiring to drive a young man crazy so that they can claim his inheritance.

When Christian Coreau (Giancarlo Giannini) was a child, he witnessed his father kill a woman before committing suicide; this left Christian more than a little twitchy and fearful that he might follow in his father's footsteps. Shortly before turning twenty-five and inheriting his dead dad's fortune, Christian returns to his childhood home with his wife Helene (Dominique Boschero), his lawyer Paul (Luciano Pigozzi), and Paul's wife Brigitte (Mara Maryl). While there, Christian starts to see strange things that gradually loosen the few screws he has left.

Fans of this kind of thing won't take long to figure out what is going on (although I wrongly assumed that Paul was in on the act as well), but even though the whole thing is rather trite, it's still a fair amount of fun, not least because the two actresses are rather tasty and spend a lot of time scantily dressed. The ending is also rather neat, with several twists taking it beyond the expected. I've read several reviews calling this an early giallo, but I think that anyone hoping for such will be a tad disappointed: it's more of a mystery/thriller, and not a bad one at that.

6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for Mara Maryl's pussy cat bikini. Miaow!

Libido is the kind of film that proves I'm totally justified in obsessively tracking down every Italian horror film I can find in chronological order, because it's a Giallo that fools you into thinking you've got the plot all worked out, then turns it all on its head, then turns it all on its head again, then boots you in the balls with a sufficiently nasty ending.

Christian is one of those unlucky kids who accidentally witnesses his father murdering some floozy in a mirrored room. Seems his dad took a header off a cliff shortly afterwards, leaving his creepy mansion in the hands of Paul until Christian turns 23 in three months time. Now the time is closing in, Christian, and his wife, and Paul, and his really, really ditzy wife all head off to the mansion to do the admin before the fortune falls into Christian's hands.

Paul's wife Bridgette (played by gorgeous Mara Maryl) finds the mirrored room and wants to sleep there, so later on Christian gets an eyeful when she dances in her pants for Paul, while Christian's brain juice is getting all donked up with a mixture of desire, trauma from a flashback, and wondering how six hundred year old actor Pigozzi isn't cracking a fatty right there on screen.

Also it seems that Christian's dad might not be dead at all as his pipe turns up and his favourite chair starts moving on its own (wouldn't be a mid-sixties Italian film without all that crap happening I guess!). So is Christian mad, or is someone trying to drive him mad, or has his father actually returned from the dead to tie up another floozy? This film starts off very intriguing (the credits are played out over various images of the murdered woman) and then fools you into thinking it's a mediocre Scooby Doo type thing before making you care about characters you were suspicious about from the start. I only spotted one single clue in the dialogue that may have pointed to the ending but that was that. So many twists in this one and the dark ending makes this one of the best Gialli from the sixties I've watched so far. They should have given Luciano Pigozzi bigger roles like the one he as here - He ditches the 'Igor' type act that he had in Terror Creature From the Grave and comes across as initially a bad guy to a guy perhaps discovering too late that he been made a mug of.

One last note: Dario Argento must have had his notebook out for this one - children witnessing murders, creepy toys, kid's music - all of these turn up in Profondo Rosso!

The great Mario Bava is often credited with introducing the Giallo genre with The Girl Who Knew Too Much, and then refining it two years later with his masterpiece Blood and Black Lace; but Ernesto Gastaldi would go on to become one of the premier Giallo screenwriters with such classics as The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh and The Case of the Bloody Iris under his belt; and this little film is his first contribution to the genre. Libido is certainly not as 'Giallo' as Blood and Black Lace; but many of the genre trademarks are present, and it is a very nice little thriller. The film begins with a sequence that sees a young boy witness his father kill his mother inside a room lined with mirrors. His father later kills himself and the boy winds up in a mental hospital; his estate entrusted to his lawyer until the boy turns twenty five. Its years later and the boy is a man and married. He goes to stay in the old house (not really sure why) along with his wife and the lawyer and his wife. However, it's not long before he starts finding clues that maybe his father has returned...

The surreal, dreamlike quality is a feature of many Giallo's - and it's a big part of this one too. The screenplay ensures that the audience is always kept guessing and we're never sure of exactly what is going on; and this ensures that the proceedings are always interesting. The film is shot in black and white and obviously very cheaply too (the film was allegedly shot in just eighteen days for a bet), plus the fact that the copy I saw was extremely poor quality means that the cinematography is not particularly nice looking; and so the film may not appeal to the fans of the some of the higher quality genre entries. The cast is very small and features just four performers; and all of them perform well enough. Giancarlo Giannini is the lead actor and is decent in the role; although he would go on to much bigger and better things, while Dominique Boschero and Mara Maryl provide eye candy and the cast is rounded off by Luciano Pigozzi. The film is good for the duration and then things are really kicked up a gear in the final third when the twists start to come into play. Overall, Libido is a very good, if not quite brilliant Giallo, and is recommended to fans of the genre.

This well-made four-person thriller follows on the tradition of such films as "Gaslight" and "Diabolique", while at the same time anticpating later gialli motifs such as the haunting music tune and the black gloves. Slow-paced first half, entertaining second half, with enough plot twists to get your head spinning. **1/2 out of 4.