A Morte Caminha de Salto Alto

Seems boring for just a while, as the plot builds, then WOW! The ending is twisted just like all Giallos, and you can't figure out who did it. This one has plenty of skulduggery, but it's not the "psycho" style like many Giallos. I don't want to spoil it,but it is well worth the watch. I was delighted. Like almost all Giallos- this would have been banned in the USA in 1971, or at least X rated. This is a WHO DONE IT mystery, and a good one. It satisfied my itch for the classic mystery.

A jewel thief is brutally murdered on a train by a masked assailant. But when the murderer is unable to locate any diamonds, the murderer immediately suspects that the thief's daughter, a Parisian stripper named Nicole (Nieves Navarro aka Susan Scott), may have the diamonds. Nicole, however, claims to know nothing of the diamonds. After a series of threats, both verbal and physical, Nicole decides to flee France with a man she hardly knows. The pair begin a seemingly ideal relationship in a secluded seaside village. But Nicole is unaware that the killer has followed her to England and will stop at nothing to get his hands on the diamonds.

What a fun Giallo! Death Walks on High Heels has one of the most convoluted plots I've run into - even by Giallo standards. While the movie may lack the quantity of murder scenes found in other Gialli (although at least one murder scene is as violent as they come), Death Walks on High Heels makes up for this shortcoming with more plot twists than a mountain road and boatload of red herrings. It had me guessing (incorrectly, I might add) up to the very end. It's all about the mystery and director Luciano Ercoli skillfully casts the shadow of suspicion on just about everyone in the cast. Much of the movie is told quite nicely in flashbacks with bits and pieces of the story being revealed as each person confesses to what they may or may not have seen. There's even a pair of bumbling Scotland Yard detectives who are (surprise, surprise) actually funny. Overall, Death Walks on High Heels is very well done.

The acting is a notch or two above what I've come to expect in a Giallo. The highlight, at least for me, is Nieves Navarro. She is amazing as Nicole. I didn't think I would ever say this, but I think she might have been capable of challenging Edwige Fenech in my mind as the Queen of the Giallo had she made a few more of these movies. I'm looking forward to checking out more of her work.

As much as I enjoyed Death Walks on High Heels, it's not without its flaws. Chief among them, at least to me, is a "cheat" with respect to one of the murders. I don't want to give anything away, but there is one particularly nasty murder that the killer could not have committed given the circumstances immediately following the murder. Hopefully, with repeat viewings, I can reconcile this point in my mind and just enjoy the movie for what it is.

Finally, and I'm really starting to sound like a shill, NoShame's new DVD is fantastic. I would have never dreamed that a movie like Death Walks on High Heels would look this good. Bravo NoShame!

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!...

A really fun giallo that is more than a little of a fishy tale. We get a strange seller of fish on the beach, always popping up, an extraordinary attempt at erotic fish eating and absolutely masses of red herrings. But aside from all that this is a most convoluted tale where nobody could predict the outcome, let alone the hilarious pair from Scotland Yard. Indeed more humour than usual in this slightly longer than usual sparkling giallo. Not filled with killings but when they come they are most effective and explicit, and the sexiness of the opening with the Crazy Horse setting continues throughout, mainly thanks to Nieves Navarro. Opening in Paris then, we move to London, some fine night shots near The Windmill, and finally to 'the countryside, which I had always assumed to be somewhere in the UK but, the clue is in the co-production status and is I learn in fact Spain. Highly recommended.

Luciano Ercoli's Death Walks on High Heels begins with the murder of a famed jewel thief on board a train by a balaclava-clad killer with piercing blue eyes. The police suspect the slaying may be linked to a recent heist during which millions of francs worth of goods were taken, and believe that the missing loot is in the possession of the departed's daughter, Nicole Rochard (Nieves Navarro, here billed as Susan Scott), whose life may be in imminent danger. They may just be right, as the beautiful exotic dancer starts to receive phone calls by someone speaking through a voice-changer. After discovering a pair of blue contact lenses at the home of her boyfriend Michel (Simon Andreu), she flees to England with rich admirer Dr. Robert Matthews (Frank Wolff), only to discover that her would-be assassin may still be lurking.

Regularly paired with Ercoli's fellow giallo Death Walks at Midnight, made the following year, Death Walks on High Heels may not contain the same skill for ingeniously-structured set-pieces of Dario Argento or the gore level of Lucio Fulci, but it has in spades that other key ingredient of the giallo - fun. Many of the Italian thrillers to emerge in the 1970's contain a suitably bonkers and convoluted plot, but High Heels can boast one of the best. It's a film in which anyone and everyone could be the one behind the mask, with inexplicable red herrings at every turn and more than a few moments of extensive, but required, exposition. It plays on the camp appeal of the genre, and very much succeeds in doing so.

There's also Nieves Navarro/Susan Scott, who is not only unbelievably gorgeous, but also manages to transcend the usual roles her type of character gets to play in these types of films (eye candy) and stands out as a playful presence. She also delivers a marvellously bizarre performance in the first of her exotic dance shows we get to see it, which she performs in blackface while wearing a trimmed afro wig as Wolff looks on utterly enamoured. It's weirdly endearing, and highlights the void between now and then in terms of our attitudes towards political correctness. If you try and piece the puzzle together yourself, you'll probably leave yourself in a spin. Like many of the best gialli the Italians have to offer, view it with a blind acceptance of anything the film throws at you and it'll zip by in a flash.