Crime Perfeito

Many people say this film disappointed them, but for me it's a great film, and i gave it 8 stars. I think it's a very interesting giallo/crime story with a classical chlice (mysterious black gloved killer). Film has a cast of great actors and actresses (Sweet little Gloria Guida, Leonard Mann, Citizen Kane's Joseph Cotten, Thunderball's Adolfo Celi, gorgeous Janet Agren and good old Alida Valli).

People say it has predictable ending, but it doesn't. It has good mystery and it really has a perfect plot, since the killer isn't caught at the end (because he has an accomplice). It's interesting, fun little classic with suspense and you're not sure who the killer is at the end at some point. I also like this film because the characters are British noblemen, and it has a lot of old fashion, fancy clothes. Better said, this is a very fancy giallo. The motive is just old fashioned money, nothing else. I would add three more candidates (2 chairman's friends and his wife). But still it's good even if it lacks in gore, nudity and J&B. Unfortunately, it's very underrated by many people. However it's a solid giallo for a classical giallo fan, and i recommend it to giallo fans but i think this isn't a good film for giallo starters (but it's still good).

Here the upper classes of England get in on the giallo act. When the CEO of 'the company' is killed in an aircraft explosion, three people are up for the job: grumpy old Joseph Cotton, grumpy old Adolfo Celi, and young arrogant Leonard Mann (a rich play boy who is also a race car driver). They all want the job and all three will stop at nothing to get it. Let's look at the details.

Cotton is getting it on with a young lady called Polly (played by Gloria Guida) who is also getting it on with Adolfo, so Cotton wants Gloria to kill Adolfo with a poisoned needle. Cotton has a pacemaker that he imagines is causing him problems and someone seems to be stalking his estate with that in mind. Adolfo also has his wife Janet Agren to attend to - she's the one with the money and she's been getting it on with Leonard, and many other people to put. Last of all, Leonard takes a header off a cliff while driving his car and his cousin is the policeman brought in to investigate the accident. The drama!

If, unlike me, you hadn't had the twists ruined for you by the IMDB description of this film, you'll still pretty much be able to figure it all out anyway. It's nice to see another giallo set in England, but the very society that director Rosati focuses on is so reserved that everything is very repressed. There's not much gore either, save for one nasty bit that comes out of nowhere. Actually, the film might be worth watching for that bit alone.

You can't go wrong with a bit of Adolfo Celi either when I think about it. This isn't a bad giallo but you'd expect, this late in the game, for it to be a lot less predictable. Gloria Guida sure is pretty though.

I found this very disappointing. Seemingly set in London this proceeds rather woodenly like some minor Agatha Christie. But it is not London and apart from some travelogue footage to suggest so, most was shot in Italian studios. This I think added to the film's problems as there seems to be a lack of belief in the material and also necessitating so many sequences to be shot in the dark so as not to give things away. I had a false belief that if all else failed there would always be Gloria Guida to look at but she is all but wasted here. Joseph Cotton does his best as does a rather stuck up seeming, Janet Agren and we get unintentional or not humour from the butler and his English accent. As for the tale of various directors competing for the number one job, it all gets a bit silly and we are left wondering why the Agren character puts up with her ancient and yet philandering husband if she has all the money.

I can't say this is exactly a good movie, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it either. It is an Italian-produced, faux-British movie like "The Killer Wore Gloves" that has some British locations, but was obviously mostly filmed in Rome's Cinecitta.

The basic plot involves a bunch of English business types fighting over the control of a company after the chairman is killed in a (obviously model) airplane explosion. Although all the characters are supposed to be British, the actors are either washed-up American stars (Joseph Cotten), seasoned European character actors (Adolf Celi)or alluring Eurobabes (Janet Agren, Gloria Guida). Nevertheless, Cotten is adequate, and Celi and Agren are actually pretty good as a bickering couple. Celi, a James Bond villain in "Thunderball" and a regular in these kind of films, gets to bed Gloria Guida, who was young enough to be his granddaughter. (In an earlier film I saw of his he also gets to bed Erica Blanc--I wonder if he even asked to be paid for these type of roles?). Guida has a rather ridiculous part as the Celi character's mistress who he is using to give Cotten's character a heart attack by injecting him with a poison (if you've ever seen Guida naked, you know she doesn't need poison to give a guy a heart attack). The end is even more ridiculous, but it is certainly a surprise.

The movie has the absurdity but little of the visual style of an Italian giallo. It also kind of tries to be a staid English murder mystery along the lines of Agatha Christie, but it's too illogical and ridiculous (and Italian)to make it as that either. It kind of falls into a gap between genres, but that doesn't mean there is no fun to be had here.

I confess I was surprised by the ending. It is a good movie in which nothing is taken for granted and the culprit turns out to be decidedly unsuspected. A chain of crimes unfolds in front of the spectators for the vile money and no one seems to be safe from it.