A Morte Caminha de Salto Alto

A famed jewel thief named Rochard is slashed to death on a train. His daughter Nicole, a famous nightclub performer in Paris, is questioned by the police about some missing diamonds but she claims to know nothing about this. Nicole is then terrorized by a masked man with piercing blue eyes who demands to know where her father has hidden the stolen diamonds.

The film is written by no less a figure than Ernesto Gastaldi, who is considered by some to be the father of giallo. The director, Luciano Ercoli, is interestingly perhaps better known as a producer or production designer. He more or less fell into directing as a cost-cutting measure -- one less person to hire. (Tim Lucas compares Ercoli to Brian DePalma... and there is some truth to that.)

Who doesn't love composer Stelvio Cipriani, probably among the top composers in Italy (behind perhaps Ennio Morricone and Goblin for genre film). What we get here is rather sparse (many scenes have no music at all) but the man does what he does well. Not surprisingly, his work has been used by Quentin Tarantino, the champion of such films as this.

A note on the lead actor, an American. Frank Wolff had bit roles in his first two films, Roger Corman's "I Mobster" and "The Wasp Woman". On Corman's advice, Frank Wolff remained in Europe and became a well-known character actor in over fifty, mostly Italian-made, films of the 1960s, including crime/suspense "gialli" and spaghetti westerns.

Director Ercoli obviously does not have the name recognition of Mario Bava or Dario Argento, but he still knows how to make a great giallo (with a dollop of influence from Argento's "Bird With the Crystal Plumage"). A masked and gloved killer, a bit of mirrors, and an unhealthy fascination with eyes -- close-ups of eyes, false eyes, windows that look like eyes. Nobody knows eyes like the Italians!

The Arrow Video blu-ray allows the viewer to watch either the Italian or English versions (because sometimes you need a dub, and sometimes you don't). The disc also comes with: Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas, by far the most knowledgeable non-Italian scholar of the Italian genre film. Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi. A featurette comprising newly-edited archive footage of director Luciano Ercoli and actress Nieves Navarro. A career-spanning interview with composer Stelvio Cipriani. Italian genre fans (which includes pretty much all horror fans) will love this disc, part of Arrow's "Death Walks Twice" set.

A good plot, coupled with good editing, makes for a good noirish giallo. Direction drags at times, hence a lower rating. Woman-in-peril film with all of the standard giallo tropes. Becomes a little surreal once she arrives in the UK. An entertaining Ercoli effort, albeit slow pacing at times.

"La Morte cammina con i tacchi alti" (Death walks on high heels) features another of the giallo goddesses: Susan Scott (aka Nieves Navarro).

Like many giallos, this is a sensuous film. It's not fast paced as today's movies, where car chases, bombs exploding, bullets flying taking toll etc.. succeed each other non-stop.

But "La Morte cammina con i tacchi alti" is a thriller alright - right from the beginning we see a murder on a train. A black-hooded killer (dressed in black) kills a patch-eyed man. He searches the victims's cabin, but he doesn't find what he was looking for.

There was a big robbery. A safe was cracked and valuable jewels were stolen. The man killed in his cabin was thought to be in possession of the jewels. Cut.

Paris. Nicole Rochard (Susan Scott) is the daughter of the man that was killed in the train. She is a dancer and strip-teaser. Now the killer will go after her. He wants to know where are the jewels, but Nicole doesn't (?) know. She will flee to England (first to London and then to a small village on the English coast), but death is following her. Needless to say, killings will happen and the Scotland Yard will step in. I've tried not to give away much of the story so as not to spoil your fun.

The Italian cinema had at the time very good technicians. The soundtrack, lighting effects, costumes and decor etc.., were taken care by masters of the craft. For many giallo films, even if they had average directors, the atmosphere and charm were created by the combined effort of the film crew. Just check out "La Dama Rossa uccide sette volte" to see what I'm meaning.

Susan Scott (like other giallo goddesses) is a perfect damsel in distress. Whatever she does (no matter what, as another reviewer pointed out), is arousing, be it dancing, bulging her eyes in fear, painting her nails etc.. The other actors do a good job as well - Simon Andreu as Michel, Nicole's Parisian boyfriend soon to follow her to England; Frank Wolff, as the classy Dr. Robert Matthews, with whom Nicole elopes to England; Carlo Gentile and Fabrizio Moresco, as inspector Baxter and his faithful assistant Bergson; the beautiful Claude Lange, as Vanessa..., and last but not least, the actors playing the local villagers - the people of the pub; Luciano Rossi, as the sinister Hallory; the strange street fish seller; the wandering and curious Captain Lenny (George Rigaud)..... Scenery and actors work in perfect harmony.

"La Morte cammina con i tacchi alti" is an entertaining and sensual thriller, but if you only like non-stop "bang bang sock boom crash" , then avoid this film.

Back in the early seventies, during the absolute most glorious years for the Giallo sub genre, I guess it must have been some sort of intense and obsessive competition between the eminent Italian directors to come up with the most exaggeratedly convoluted plots. These movies distinguish themselves from the other sub genres in horror by continuously misleading the audience when it comes to the revealing the identity of a sadistic and (usually) masked serial killer, who barbarically slaughters gorgeous and preferably naked ladies with sharp & shining weaponry. If the directors really did try to surpass each other with complex plot-structures and far-fetched denouements, then I bet Luciano Ercoli was one of the genuine winners of that game! He only made three Gialli and, even though they're not as famous as the works of Dario Argento or Sergio Martino, his films easily rank among the most twisted and extraordinary genre efforts I've ever seen. Ercoli's movies can be recognized by their awkward and flamboyant titles already. Fans of Italian cult-cinema from the 70's are most likely to be intrigued by titles like "Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion", "Death Walks at Midnight" and – of course – "Death Walks in High Heels". Such appealing titles already hint at eventful crime-stories, and by God does Luciano Ercole ever deliver! "Death Walks in High Heels" is easily my personal favorite of his, as it's a tasteful and well-filled Giallo dish containing all the right ingredients such as graphic murders, beautiful music, suspense and copious amounts of female nudity, demented characters and crazy red herrings. The story opens with the brutal stabbing of a guy with an eye-patch who's fleeing from Paris on the night train. We quickly learn the victim was a notorious criminal who recently stole a valuable loot of diamonds from a bank safe in Paris. When his assailant can't find the diamonds in the luggage, he begins to stalk and threaten the jewel thief's beautiful daughter Nicole, who works as a popular striptease dancer in several Parisian nightclubs. Nicole suspects her drunkard boyfriend to be the culprit and she promptly flees to a little British seaside village with an eye-surgeon she hardly knows. The two enjoy a vivid and highly sexual relationship for a short while, but Nicole's aggressor followed her to England and the death toll rapidly increases. The already fascinating plot of "Death Walks on High Heels" even gets more compelling when a couple of important characters perish and the witty inspectors of Scotland Yard interfere with the investigation.

What a thoroughly engaging and exhilarating crime/thriller! The script doesn't always make sense and I counted at least three major holes/errors in the plot (situations that are pretty much impossible given the explanation during the climax), but "Death Walks in High Heels" is a tremendously entertaining film that you won't mind watching several times without ever getting bored. Luciano Ercoli cleverly sustains a fast pacing as well as a high tension-level, mainly by constantly switching locations, introducing new yet fundamental supportive characters and even implementing insightful flashbacks. The film starts in Paris with only three main characters, yet during the climax in the little English village there suddenly is nearly a dozen people involved in the mystery and several others have already died. Granted, this isn't the most violent Giallo available on the market (although one particular killing sequence is effectively nauseating), but the lack in bloodshed is widely compensated by the insane number of red herrings and ingenious little details to improve the mystery. Ernesto Gastaldi, whose pen literally was a nearly inexhaustible source for Italian cult classics, largely scripted "Death Walks in High Heels" and this also partly explains the film's success. The photography is stunning and extremely stylish, Stelvio Cipriani's score is more than enchanting and – last but not least – the acting performances are very pleasing. Susan Scott is an adequate actress and, moreover, a truly ravishing woman! She's probably the only living female creature who can turn you on simply by eating raw pieces of fish. No kidding! The others (male) actors do a fine job too, including Frank Wolff, Simon Andreu and the always suspicious-looking Luciano Rossi. The absolute best role is for Carlo Gentilli, as the cynic Scotland Yard inspector Baxter. Priority-viewing for the rapidly increasing number of Giallo-fans.

DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS opens with a murder on a train by a masked perpetrator. Apparently, the killer was looking for something valuable, but found nothing. The police investigate, and believe the victim was responsible for a big heist.

The daughter of the deceased, Nicole (Susan Scott) begs to differ. Not-so-surprisingly, she begins receiving calls from a mysterious person with a mechanical voice. Being a stripper, she surmises that it's just another weirdo, and shrugs it off. This isn't wise. Terror and death ensue, along with some VERY unexpected twists!

A classic giallo, this movie has murder, mystery, suspense, and a fantastic finale!...