El juego del adulterio

Carlos, a business exec with a bum ticker, arrives home unexpectedly to find his heiress wife Alice (Erica Blanc) in bed with her lover Andrés (High Voltage's Juan Luis Galiardo) and nearly has a heart attack. When Alice, who owns the company, tells him she's leaving for good, Carlos slaps her senseless and entombs her in their rat-infested cellar. He suffers another attack a few days later when he goes down to the basement and finds Alice all chewed up by rats but still alive. That's when she rips off her mask and turns the tables on Carlos by burying him alive with the help of Andrés...

This is only the beginning of the nuttiness in yet another "bloodless" giallo that owes a huge debt to DIABOLIQUE. Ever-popular Eurobabe Erica Blanc is joined in the pulchritude department by platinum blonde Ágata Lys as Andrés vengeful ex-girlfriend. A couple of years later, Lys, a minor pop star, would make LA NUEVA MARILYN and get a lot of mileage in men's magazines posing as Monroe. Too plot-laden to have time for sex, THE DEADLY TRIANGLE lacks the erotic aspects generally present in any good giallo (save a coy "nude scene" for Erica) but that doesn't stop it from being enjoyable anyway, if only for the over-the-top antics.

Although it was made relatively late in the giallo cycle, this mostly Spanish production is kind of an old-fashioned throwback to the late 60's giallos starring Carrol Baker, especially "So Sweet, So Perverse" which co-starred the female lead of this one, Erica Blanc. Like several early Italian gialli this is kind of a variation on the French classic "Diabolique" with a wealthy women, her industrialist husband, and her lover all crossing and double crossing each other. It has many twists in it (some not entirely believable) but it is nevertheless pretty staid and sober compared some of the delirious over-the-top giallo of that era like "Deleria Caldo", "Case of the Bloody Irises" or "Torso".

It's also pretty tame. It takes awhile for a "real" murder to occur, and the anticipated image of a dead body being thrown in a cellar and devoured by rats is not really ever delivered on (whereas it happens in the pre-credit sequence in "Seven Deaths in a Cat's Eye" made the same year). The ever-gorgeous Blanc has her usual gratuitous nude scenes (which itself might be worth the price of admission for some), but the sex and nudity is nowhere near as graphic or perverse as in most contemporary gialli. I suspect this movie probably even played uncut in Spain during the late Franco era. Which doesn't necessarily make it bad, depending on what you're looking for

Surprisingly strong thriller with giallo tendencies from Spaniard, Joaquin Luis Romero Marchent, who was more used to making westerns, both pre and post spaghetti. Just a little uneven but this could have just been the dubbing or due to the seeming total lack of chemistry between the two leads. Not to take anything away from Erica Blanc, though, a great performance and whilst many of the beauties like her made a number of super films in their heyday, Ms Blanc is still working today. And no wonder, she has to carry most of this film and while the guys are okay, she really does dominate the screen when she is on.

This is really creepy and even scary at times, thanks in no small part to a sensationally well set up cellar scenario. Never quite sure where this is going till the end, this is a really solid unseen gem.

Dec 2021

Deadly Triangle is a Spanish giallo and a very good one at that.

Erika Blanc is probably the only face most people would know outside of Spain, although Agata Lys is another i am familiar with.

Remains hard to get, but is a real find.

9 out of 10.