Les cartes ne mentent jamais

First I would like to make clear that I'm commenting on the Spanish film "Tarot", released in English under the title "Autopsy". There is an Italian giallo called "Macchie solari" that was also released under the title "Autopsy". This caused a lot of confusion.

"Tarot" (Autopsy) is starred by Sue Lyon, Fernando Rey and Gloria Grahame and directed by Jose Maria Forque.

"Tarot" is one of of those typical European thrillers of the 60s/70s that describe a world in which ambiguity, amorality and corruption prevail. Angela (Sue Lyon) is an American girl who is traveling Europe looking for... (?). She's not your typical tourist going places carrying Traveler's checks or credit cards. Angela meets a rich old man, Arthur (Fernando Rey). He falls for her. It seems that Angela has discovered a gold mine. There are other people living around Arthur - his good-looking valet Marc (Christian Hay), the housekeeper Natalie (Gloria Grahame) and the maid Rosa (Mara Goyanes). Angela, from the very beginning, feels attraction for the handsome valet Marc.... The tarot cards tell that pain, suffering and maybe even worst may cross her path....

"Tarot" may not be a very original film, but it's certainly fun to watch and it doesn't pass judgement on the characters. Sue Lyon (so brilliant in "Lolita"), 11 years later, acts in a role that has a faint resemblance to Lolita. Even the film itself has a slight Nabokovian touch. Some scenes from the film could have been extracted from "Laughter in the dark" by Nabokov. But these are only appearances, because "Tarot" tells a completely different story.

Fernando Rey has also worked in similar roles (in "Viridiana", he is the old uncle who falls for his niece, and in "Cet Obscure Objet du Desir", he falls in love for a beautiful young woman that happens to be two different women or maybe a mirage). And there's also Gloria Grahame (a big star of 50s noirs). Christian Hay is also very effective, as well as the rest of the cast, but I was particularly surprised by Sue Lyon's acting. Her joy, fears, perplexity and tears seem heartfelt.

As I said before, even if "Tarot" is not very original, it 's surely entertaining. The theme of the innocent American woman traveling in "corrupt" Europe, entering what seems a harmless game and suddenly finding herself caught in a spider's web, had been explored before by Umberto Lenzi and others. Don't expect too much and you'll like the film.

Tarot AKA: Autopsy AKA: The Magician AKA: Angela probably has the most names of any film. It's up there!

The plot is similar to the thrillers that Umberto Lenzi and Carroll Baker made together. I prefer the script here compared to many of Lenzi's scripts. There are some legitimate surprises! The acting is also quite good. Sue Lyon is particularly memorable.

Worth tracking down if you're into these thrillers.

A young American tourist (Sue Lyon) thinks she's hit the jackpot when a handsome Spaniard offers her money for sex. It turns out though he's procuring her for his blind, elderly employer (Fernando Rey). Embarrassed, she has sex with the old man anyway. He falls for her, and she in turn falls for the young servant. She and the servant agree that she should marry the blind old man, and then they can have access to his money while carrying on whenever he is out of earshot. Complicating matters, however, the servant himself is also sexually involved with the older head housekeeper (Gloria Grahame), who is suspicious (and jealous) of the new young lady of the house. Not surprisingly this all leads to murder.

This movie has a lot of the elements of an Italian giallo, especially the old-fashioned kind Carroll Baker often starred in the late 60's. Sue Lyon was actually kind of younger version of Carrol Baker. She got her start in the scandalous Stanley Kubrick film "Lolita" where Baker got her start in the similarly notorious "Baby Doll". Like Baker, Lyon basically left Hollywood for Europe because her reputation was in tatters after an interracial marriage (no big deal today, but unheard of in the 1960s). She was really no better nor no worse an actress than Baker, but she really doesn't throw herself into this erotic role the way the older actress would have. Lyon is definitely attractive (and has brief nude scenes), but she adds only enough sex appeal here to make this movie kind of tepid, where it easily could have been very erotic and perverse with a stronger central performance. Luckily, two old pros are on hand in the form of Spanish actor Fernando Rey (who starred in several Bunuel films) and American Gloria Graham (whose interesting career stretched from 50's film noir to the 70's American drive-in).

The Spanish director Jose-Maria Forque had directed the Spanish-Italian giallo "In the Eye of the Hurricane" and would go onto direct the sordid but entertaining "Beyond Erotica". This film actually has slightly higher pretensions than your typical giallo. As another reviewer mentioned, it does seem like a kind of loose adaptation of the novel "Laughter in the Dark" by Vladimir Nabokov (who, of course, also authored "Lolita"). It's also known as "Tarot" since Lyon's character is always playing with tarot cards (which makes a lot more sense than the title "Autopsy" which was shared by at least two other movies that same year). This isn't great, but it's certainly worth seeing.

Young American woman, cycling through Spain without a lot of money, is prostituted out to a wealthy older man who is blind; she begins to spend time with him and eventually agrees to get married, but only so she can be closer to the millionaire's handsome valet--who's got his eye on the old man's fortune. After a bungled opening, this Euro-trash melodrama actually becomes a rather tasty dish, helped by the Spanish locations and a decent cast. Fernando Rey and Gloria Grahame are both good, though it is Sue Lyon's movie and she's an intriguing presence, a lovely enigma. With her luscious white-blonde hair and dry resolve, Lyon at first doesn't appear to take charge of this acting opportunity (she goes with the flow), but this non-approach works for the character, who may be either an opportunist or just your average tarot card-reading girl with a heart of gold. The low-end production is pretty much held together with tape, and the editing on the version I saw was just a notch above incompetent, but the narrative-heavy plot is an entertaining one. ** from ****

This is entertaining enough but I couldn't help thinking it could have been something a whole lot better. I assume this was dubbed after shooting and I'm wondering if Sue Lyon and Gloria Grahame actually did their own because they both seem so flat at times. I'm not really a fan of Lyons, anyway, and I thought she looked pretty rotten through most of this, just brightening up for a few set pieces. Fernando Rey is okay but even he seems a bit lacklustre here. The story is well enough told for the first half if seeming a bit predictable and then everything changes but is not handled too well and some of the developments strike as a bit silly. Nevertheless there is just enough to keep this going with some real nastiness and a fair bit of skin. Christian Hay as the man they all love is excellent.