Exorcismo Num Fio de Navalha

"Death Carries a Cane" does a pretty good job in misleading and misdirecting you. So you never know who the killer is until the ending. But the motive given for the killer doesn't make any sense. With much more effort that could have made this movie into a classic. Also some scenes did not make sense at all. Like there were scenes cut out that have to give a logical explanation for what they are doing in the scene. This giallo might be a tad sleazy for some but in a healthy way. Because the women in this move are pretty attractive. Especially Nieves Navarro (or Susan Scott). There is something about this woman that screams sophistication. All the more hilarious later on when she is being made fun of towards the end. Overall not the most impressive giallo still a good one for a rainy Sunday.

Susan Scott of "Death walks at midnight" and "Orgasmo Nero" fame stars in this fairly unremarkable entry into the giallo genre directed by Maurizio Pradeaux. She witnesses a murder of a girl through a telescope, but fails to see the killer's face (who's dressed in typical giallo fashion). With the help of her boyfriend (Robert Hoffman from Umberto Lenzi's "Spasmo") she starts her investigation, while the killer proceeds to cut the witnesses' throats with a straight razor. There's nothing special about 'Death Walks With a Cane', it's a routine giallo with little originality about it. You've got all the usual stuff here: violent murders, weird characters,crazy plot twists, but there's still something missing. Firstly - suspense, the movie is pretty damn low on thrills. Secondly - sense of style. What kind of giallo is this without stylish locations? The story is supposed to be taking place in Rome, but the action mainly revolves in some un-photogeic back streets. No gorgeous architecture,just old shacks. The most upsetting thing about the film is the camera-work: flat and uninspired, with lots of pointless zooms and occasionally out of focus. Only during the murder scenes do the proceedings look a little more lively with some nice camera angles. The murders are gory and quite well executed. The score for the film composed by Roberto Pregadio isn't progressive or groovy or pounding or anything at all. Merely generic. There's a good deal of nudity in 'Death Walks With a Cane'. Robert Hoffman (who was just excellent in "Spasmo") and Scott do what they can with the material they're given, battling through some hysterically funny dialogue. The supporting cast includes Simon Andreu and Luciano Rossi who's always played demented creeps in westerns and police films. Sadly, this time Luciano Rossi is wasted as just one more red herring. The film isn't great, still worth a look for giallo fans but had a potential to be a lot better. If you want to see the same cast in a decent film, watch "Death walks at midnight".

While waiting for the arrival of her boyfriend at an observation point, Kitty (Susan Scott) a keen photographer peers through a tourist telescope and manages to catch sight of the brutal murder of a woman through the window of a nearby house. She is unable to get a good view of the killer's face though and when her boyfriend Alberto Morosini(Robert Hoffman) arrives out of breath and limping, she tells Alberto of her ordeal. Alberto drives her to the police, who tell her they have no news of any killings locally. In the following days even the newspapers have no account of any murder, the police don't seem to have interest until they finally discover the body of the victim and then when some of the witnesses who seen the killer flee, are brutally slain, the police devoid of any leads and led by Inspector Merughi call in the limping Alberto as they believe the killer is a cripple with a cane, Alberto's name is released to the press and soon even Kitty begins to suspect Alberto.

It has to be said that Death Carries a Cane is low on thrills, but it does contain some violent murders and a nice gimmick for the killer, in that he uses his cane to hold down his victim before slashing their throats with a razor blade and in grand Giallo tradition the killer is replete with Black Hat/Gloves/Coat, the killers motive however is not revealed until the finale and we the viewer are not given much of a clue as who his identity and we only ever seen his hand or his frame in silhouette. The film itself lacks any kind of visual style, the colourless film stock is grainy which gives the impression of drabness, the locations for the most part are uninspired. There's also a back story of impotent composer Marco(Simon Andreu)and his ambitious reporter girlfriend and the seeming connection to the murderer of a girls ballet school, but even Giallo regulars Scott, Hoffman and Andreu fail to liven it up and Scott's obligatory nude scene seems like the fulfilment of a contractual obligation and less to do with the plot. Roberto Pregadio's score is generic and fails to liven up even the few moments of suspense, having said that it still held my interest and contained some nice kills but nothing spectacular. For Giallo completists only.

This is a rather mediocre giallo, yet another one co-starring Susan Scott and Simon Andreu; though not a Luciano Ercoli film, it would place somewhere between his two DEATH WALKS titles.

The backdrop for the mystery this time around is a dance academy - hence the original title, which translates to DANCE STEPS ON A RAZOR'S BLADE; the English one, then, refers to the fact that the killer is ostensibly lame. Among its roster of artistically-oriented(!) characters is a photographer (Scott), her special-effects technician boyfriend Robert Hoffman, a musician/producer played by Andreu and Anuska Borova as a scoop-seeking female reporter (who has a twin sister, a former dancer whose colleagues are being brutally murdered!). George Martin(!), who plays the Police Inspector, also co-wrote the script with the director; his face seemed oddly familiar to me but, looking at his filmography on the IMDb, I only recognized the fine Spaghetti Western THE RETURN OF RINGO (1965) - which, incidentally, also featured Scott (under her original Spanish name of Nieves Navarro)!

The film provides plenty of red herrings throughout, but the final revelation is so abruptly presented as to be practically unintelligible! As was the case with THE FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION (1970), Scott is decked out in some horrendous 70s fashions (worst of all an over-sized cap like the one Jack Nicholson - in The Joker's guise - would wear in BATMAN [1989]!). Besides, the film's overall visual style is pretty uninspired (apart from the stalkings, done from the killer's POV), with its eye squarely on the narrative's exploitable elements - witness the numerous wholly gratuitous sex scenes, and even featuring a dance pirouette that culminates in a striptease! The dubbing, too, is among the worst I've had to sit through for this type of film. Roberto Pregadio's score is pretty nice, though - whose main theme, in keeping with the musical elements of the plot, is turned into a recurring motif.

This movie has all the elements of a good giallo, but it somehow manages to fumble every one of them. All gialli have ridiculously convoluted plots, but the plot of this movie could best be described as random and meandering, and it never succeeds in developing any real tension. While looking through a viewfinder in a park the heroine (Nieves Navarro) accidentally spots a woman being killed by a man with a cane and a straight razor. Suspicion falls on the heroine's boyfriend (the incredibly bland Robert Hoffman)even though his girlfriend is the only witness or potential witness(including a street vendor, a blackmailer, and a prostitute)who is NOT immediately murdered as well. Meanwhile, as the boyfriend is forced to investigate the murders to clear his own name, the killer also continues going after his main targets--pretty young women associated with a mysterious dance academy.

There are way too many characters in this story (even a minor female journalist character has an identical twin sister for no good reason)and almost all of them carry a cane. (Be careful though because this is the kind of movie where even the cane itself might be a red herring). The final revelation of the motivation of the killer is always enjoyably ridiculous in gialli, but here it is just plain dumb. The only thing that might recommend this movie is the gratuitous nudity. EVERY woman that appears on the screen in this movie finds a reason to get naked (including a memorable scene where a ballerina suddenly decides to go topless during her routine). Even this becomes a liability, however--Nieves Navarro is actually a pretty good actress and I'm sure no one will complain about her two gratuitous sex scenes, but does she really need to stand out around bare-ass naked when all she's doing is discussing the case with her boyfriend?

In its favor this movie DOES have some amount of visual style, and it will probably be looked on more favorably when it is released on legitimate DVD (which shouldn't be too long--THREE Nieves Navaro gialli have been released in the last six months). OK, not great.