Pena de muerte

A most misleading title English for a very fine film, which may be why it has become so neglected. Fernando Rey is great as the ageing judge reflecting upon his career as someone keen to make use of the death penalty wherever he saw necessary. Some of this seems to be coming back to haunt him and we see something of these terrible murders (hence the title, but still misleading, this is no stalk and slash). Instead we have a gripping tale with many twists and turns and if we see little gore or skin for that matter, there are other compensations. Not least the lovely Marisa Mell who puts in a sterling performance matching that of the great man himself. Good solid thriller with giallo undertones and a very good dub plus fine cinematography. Well worth catching if you can.

It's not very violent, there's just a bit of blood, and there's a swimming pool but no baths in this interesting giallo from the director of The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue.

Fernando Rey is a nervous, OCD-afflicted Judge on holiday with his young wife Marissa Mell, who is trying her hardest to put up with all his quirks. Both have problems. Fernando discovers that a money order has been sent to a man he condemned to death three years after his execution, and this money seems to have been sent by the dead man himself. This not only prompts some flashbacks, but also leads him to discover that a family has been brutally murdered in the exact same way the executed man carried out his initial attacks.

Marissa Mell's problems is that her ex-boyfriend has reappeared on the scene and Fernando's behaviour isn't exactly helping her stay faithful, so while he's off trying to track down some copy-cat killer this ex of hers is giving her the eyeball, putting the moves on her, but is he legit or is he up to something? When other crimes start to be recreated, things get a bit desperate for Fernando.

If you've watched several hundred of these films already you may find that this one is easy to solve, but when you've got Fernando Rey in the main role that's okay, because he's a fascinating actor to watch. Other than that, this is a bit of a lightweight giallo without the cheese or over the top madness we've come to expect. Not a bad film though.

The English language title - "Violent Blood Bath" - is an unfortunate misnomer. It gives the impression that this as a splatter movie and yet the entire amount of blood shown in this movie was less than 1/2 bottle of Max Factor #5. The Italian title - "The Private Life of a Public Prosecutor" - is more descriptive but less grabbing.

This is a competently made movie: well acted by both Fernando Rey and Marisa Mell, a dark beauty. It is dubbed so well that it is hardly noticeable. It is beautifully photographed, for the most part, in some interesting, and very scenic, locations.

It has enough suspense, although you may guess who the real killer is before the actual denouement . Not a great movie; it is definitely above average and well worth a look.

Bloodless Soap Opera

This is by far one of the least bloody giallo out there. It is very slow to start. And slow throughout. It's filmed and acted in a manner reminiscent of a soap opera. There is little mystery about who the killer is. You'll figure it out quickly even if you didn't read the tagline.

There is one final twist in the last seconds of the film which I did not see coming, and I really appreciated it. That was the strongest part of the film imo.

Overall, I'd say to skip this lackluster effort.

There's a rich history of rebranding well-made Italian and Spanish crime thrillers that had perfectly good titles with a sensationalised title for release abroad. Fulci's 'One on Top of the Other' comes to mind, presented in America with the tawdry title, 'Perversion Story'. In the case of 'Pena de Muerte' ('Death Penalty'), the English title, 'Violent Blood Bath', is so terribly inaccurate, it would have scared away the intended audience and attracted an audience who would have been severely disappointed with the content.

While 'Pena de Muerte' isn't exactly a Hitchcock-level thriller, it does have an intriguing premise I have never seen: a prosecutor well-known for successfully convicting murderers (and sending them to death) suddenly has a copycat murderer recreating the crimes of the cases he's prosecuted. Played by veteran actor Fernando Rey, the prosecutor has to help the cops unravel this mystery as the deaths get closer and closer to him.

Giallo regular Marisa Mell plays his wife, and really gets to show off her acting chops. The direction is above average and it moves along at a nice pace. Other than some minor quibbles with logic, the only major flaw for me was that the twist is pretty obvious. A couple of well-placed red herrings would have helped.

While it's not exactly a 'violent blood bath', to the disappointment of horror and giallo fans, 'Pena de Muerte' does live up to its original name, which makes a lot more sense by the end of the film.