Exorcismo Num Fio de Navalha

The seemingly ill-fated Susan Scott (Nieves Navarro), once again, is the sole witness to a gruesome, shadow-slaked slaying, and the prototypically black-hatted hate monger's motivations prove more oblique than usual! I have always found the vivacious Susan Scott to be one of the most sympathetic protagonists, and, quite frequently, hoped that the said black-gloved lunatic would just leave her be! This crepuscular, enjoyably grungy Giallo features juicy jugular jackanapes, a great number of pleasingly familiar Gialli faces, with handsome Robert Hoffman's innate ambivalence being put to handsome use! Death Carries a Cane is considerably livelier than its moniker may suggest, while the formula text lacks the invention of Gastaldi, this gritty Italian/Spanish co-production is a sexified, murky, mean-spirited mayhem machine! Highlights include the moody score, slinky Susan Scott's crackerjack Scream Queening, and the satisfyingly meaty throat gorings!!!!!

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.

Ordinary Italian murder/horror/mystery fair. I found it to be visually spectacular with swaying camera work common to Argento and others.

The movie delivers the goods with naked drop dead gorgeous women and fairly graphic killings. The plot is too complex, but these type of movies really are more about style.

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.

One of the better Italian slasher flicks of it's time.

Interesting use of color and editing. The story is rather typical but it moves about quickly enough. If you enjoy the earlier Argento flicks, Bava or even Fulci's "Don't torture a ducking" you should enjoy this.