Il sorriso della iena

SMILE BEFORE DEATH opens with a bloody "suicide", followed by the hyper-bubbly introductory song. This jarring juxtaposition, oddly, sets up the rest of the film perfectly. Don't worry, you'll hear the theme song again. A lot.

When Nancy (Jenny Tamburi) returns home, telling of her years at boarding school, her rich mother has passed away, and mum's friend, Gianna (Rosalba Neri), is more-than eager to help Nancy get acclimated to life on her mother's estate. Nancy stands to inherit everything.

This doesn't sit well with either Gianna or Nancy's wretched stepfather (Silvano Tranquilli). Let the devilish games begin.

This is a wicked little giallo about lust, obsession, skullduggery, and murder. There are some nice twists and backstabbings, both literal and metaphorical. If you like double-crosses and triple-crosses, then you'll probably love this! Ms. Neri's character is particularly cold and calculating, as well as being breathtaking, whether in or out of her clothing. In fact, there's a great deal of female nudity on display.

An all-around classic...

Judging by the plot and the fact that it's directed by Silvio Amandio, I feared that this Giallo would be a lot like the director's earlier success 'Amuck!', but despite similarities between the pair; Smile Before Death is a lot more than merely a retread of the earlier work. This film adheres more closely to the Giallo tradition of stylish and bloody murders than the earlier movie, but still finds time to ensure that the plot always revolves around the central situation. In fact, it's a miracle that Amandio has managed to keep his script from becoming a complete mess; as aside from this new flair for murders, and the central situation; Smile Before Death is also a twisty little thriller, which manages to pull several things out of the hat before boiling down to a superb and unexpected conclusion. The plot follows the death of a woman named Dorothy. The police declare it suicide, but it's not long before Dorothy's daughter, Nancy, makes her way to her mother's house; where she meets the seductive Gena and her stepfather, Marco. However, things turn sinister when the housekeeper divulges some information that means Dorothy's death may not have been suicide...

The film starts off slowly, and aside from some lush photography that makes good use of its female leads, the film doesn't really commence until the half way point. Amandio keeps the tension bubbling throughout, and sex is always at the forefront of the action. Roberto Pregadio provides a suitable catchy jingle, which accompanies nearly every scene in the movie. The tune is typically Italian, and fits the movie well; but I'd have preferred it if it was played a bit less often, as it soon starts to get old, and the overall impact is lessened. The movie benefits, as Amuck did, from a great leading performance from Rosalba Neri, who is joined by the stunning Luciana Della Robbia. The pair doesn't share any scenes together that are as great as those between Neri and Barbara Bouchet in Amuck, but Silvio Amandio obviously enjoys filming lesbian scenes; and when they're this good, I enjoy watching them! The film is rounded off by an isolated atmosphere, which provides a pressure cooker for the lead characters to roast in. This is a rare Giallo in that, by the conclusion, most aspects of it make sense and while Smile Before Death is hard to track down, I recommend making the effort!

16-year-old boarding school student Nancy (Jenny Tamburi) arrives in town after her mother commits suicide. She is taken in by her stepfather Marco (Silvano Tranquilli), who has already moved in his mistress Gianna (Rosalba Neri). Things get a bit strange when Nancy begins to suspect her mother didn't commit suicide and puts the moves on both of her hosts. This is a nifty little thriller from Silvio (AMUCK!) Amadio with enough twists and turns to keep you interested. The main mystery isn't too hard to guess, but there is a nice extra twist at the end and, of course, another one for good measure. Tamburi and the gorgeous Neri spend a lot of their screen time nude and that certainly helps too. Quite possibly the best thing about the film is a theme that is so catchy with Amadio using it at every opportunity. You will definitely be humming it for days after watching this one.

This obscure giallo was made after director Silvio Amado's excellent "Amuck" (his only work to get a decent DVD release so far), but before his tepid melodrama "So Young, So Lovely, So Vicious". It actually shares elements with both, but I'm pleased to report it is much closer in quality to "Amuck". Visually it is not as stylish (although that might just be due to the crappy available prints), but it has the same interesting plot twists and excellent acting.

After a her mother's suspicious suicide, a pretty teenage girl (Lucia Della Robbins)shows up at her Italian villa where she quickly discovers that her new and recently widowed stepfather (Hiram Keller) is having an affair with her mother's sexy photographer friend (Rosalba Neri, also in "Amuck"). The villainous pair plot to do in the precocious youngster, but it turns out she has her own sinister agenda as she has sexually insinuates herself between the two of them (bedding the stepfather and doing nude photo sessions with Neri). The ending is genuinely a surprise.

Neri is good as always (although she isn't quite as exciting shooting photographs as she is shooting a shotgun in a bikini). I initially thought the teenage girl should have been played by Gloria Guida (who was later in "So Young, So Lovely, So Vicious"). Robbins wasn't a sex bomb like Guida perhaps, but she turns out to be a much better actress going from wholesome innocence to sexual precociousness to scheming malevolence, where Guida could really only have pulled off the middle one very convincingly. Special mention should also be made of the catchy, cooing score, which somehow later made its way into a 1990's American car commercial (go figure). It's even more memorable than the "Sexual!" song from "Amuck". It's not a perfect movie perhaps--it suffers from having only one brief scene of Neri getting naked (made up somewhat by frequent scenes of Della Robbins getting naked)and, of course, it looks pretty crappy. Still with a restored print and a legitimate DVD release it could be a minor classic of the genre.

From the director of the better known "Alla Ricerca del Piacere" (aka "Amuck!") comes this stylish thriller that involves not only a confusing web of love affairs and relationships, but also - towards the climax - a bundle of twists that are guaranteed to surprise every viewer without becoming implausible at any moment.

And this is the big plus of this movie: The twists all work. The first half moves on relatively slow (similar to Silvio Amadio's above mentioned earlier Giallo), but the viewer already gets enough information to know that the plot isn't as simple as it seems. In the second half the film becomes a roller coaster ride of red herrings, plot twists and other surprises, which makes it decisively superior to Amadio's earlier effort.

The acting is also thoroughly convincing, which is especially important once the film is finished and the viewer gets the whole story. But the most remarkable thing in this intriguing Giallo is the lush, ear-catching main theme that will never let one go after being heard for the first time.