A Quarta Vítima

This film begins with a wealthy British man by the name of "Arthur Anderson" (Michael Craig) driving to his house and discovering his wife face down in the swimming pool. So after taking the body upstairs to the bedroom he and his maid "Felicity Downing" (Miranda Campa) dry off the body, change her clothes and then call the police. A couple of days later, Arthur is charged with murder due primarily to the fact that this was the third wife he has had in three years and all of them had died leaving him as the beneficiary of their insurance policies. However, with only the fact that drugs had been found in her system and no proof as to whether he had anything to do with it, he is subsequently acquitted. Not long afterward he hears a noise in his yard and upon going to check it out sees a stunning blonde woman by the name of "Julie Spencer" (Carrol Baker) swimming in the same pool his wife had drown in not too long before. After a brief conversation she leaves but soon after that they begin to spend more time together which eventually leads to marriage. Unfortunately, there is much more to Julie than meets the eye and soon the two of them become deathly suspicious of one another. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film starts off exceedingly slow and maintains that pace for quite a while afterward. Fortunately, the mystery and intrigue pick up about two-thirds of the way through and partially redeems what otherwise could have been a rather boring movie. All things considered then, while this wasn't a great mystery-thriller by any means, I suppose it was okay for a rainy day and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

The plot becomes too convoluted during the second half, but the first 30 minutes or so forms an excellent mystery focused on Mr. Anderson's unlucky marriages to 3 women all of whom died in 'accidents' within a year after their weddings.

One of the writers was Santiago Moncada, who wrote stories and scripts for some 60 Spanish/Italian productions including the excellent neo/post/whatever noir thriller 'Corruption of Chris Miller' from about the same time as 'Fourth Victim'.

The mood is set by one of the best opening sequences I've seen in a giallo-esque picture, accompanied by Piero Umiliani's languid, dreamy theme featuring those theremin-like female vocals common to Italian 70's thrillers, ooohhh-ing over a dreamy gentle but melancholy descending melody.

We see a handsome middle aged man looking through a large window on a sunny day at a beautiful blonde woman floating alone in the backyard pool, reclining on a clear plastic inflatable chair. She looks very relaxed, slumped to one side, maybe asleep under her sunglasses, a drained cocktail glass at poolside. The dreamy sad music continues.

Then we see that the cigarette in her limp hand has burned all the way down to her fingers, but she doesn't react to the burning ashes at all. Something is wrong with her.

The sad music sound fearful and menacing as it hits an ominous chord.

The burning cig has begun to melt the arm of the plastic chair, and it gradually sinks as the inert comatose woman slowly rolls over into the water and lies floating face down. The man watching her runs down some stairs through a big mansion and out to the pool, where the woman is obviously dead....

The movie should've continued with the 'dead wives' mystery, but it goes off on a silly tangent. Nevertheless, it has a unique flavor different from most giallos, which makes it recommended.

This is quite a stylish production with a fine cast and a good ending. However, it is rather slow which may cause some viewers to lose interest half way through the film. This is definitely worth seeing if you are a fan of obscure giallo's or Spanish Horror/Exploitation (like me!), otherwise it's probably not worth tracking down. (For those interested, there is only one video release of this that anybody has been able to find, which was on "Master Home Video" in Greece. It was fully uncut, but is long deleted as it was released sometime between 1984 and 1987. The cover art is very cool and totally misleading!)

I recently watched the Italian giallo Fourth Victim (1971) on Tubi. The storyline follows a man whose third wife mysteriously dies...much like the two wives before her. The husband inherited large sums of money in each case and is the primary suspect. As the police poke around the circumstances a new blond arrives at the husbands doorstep with her own motives, but what are they? Could she want to be the fourth victim and why?

This movie is directed by Eugenio Martín (Horror Express) and stars Carroll Baker (Kindergarten Cop), Michael Craig (I Promised to Pay), Enzo Garinei (Dr. Clown) and Marina Malfatti (All the Colors of the Dark).

This picture has a tremendously unique storyline with a nice mix of murder mystery and slasher elements. The kills only take place at the very beginning and very end, and both scenes are shot in classic giallo fashion. The "who done it" elements are solid and have a classic 70s feel to them. Michael Craig delivers an excellent performance as a strong, rigid character who could care less what the police or society thinks of him and is just doing his best to get through the circumstances, no matter who is poking into his affairs. Carroll Baker is gorgeous and delivers her conniving role to perfection. The ending is rewarding with a classic giallo twist.

Overall, this is an above average addition to the giallo genre that I would score a 5.5-6/10 and recommend seeing once.

This international thriller with influences from America, England, Italy and Spain is sometimes called a giallo but I would say it's just a murder mystery thriller from the 70s. There's no serial killer sneaking around with black gloves, nudity is non-existent, gore is similarly off the table, and for the majority of the film it plays out like a British soap opera with a continental sense of style. Giallo-like twists do occur near the end.

I think this is one of the more coherent and easily watchable films from the era, even for people who are not completists nor super fans of gialli. The atmosphere isn't terribly creepy nor is it especially fashionable but it is rather lovely and has the requisite big houses with gold curtains.