La mort sonne toujours deux fois

This is an early gialli (pre-"Bird with Crystal Plumage")and is thus neither as violent, sexually graphic, or visually stylish as some of the later ones, but it's worth seeing for fans of the giallo genre.

This movie has a lot going for it. The great Fabio Testi plays a deranged artist who can't seem to resist strangling his female partners during sex. The voluptuous Anita Ekberg (the fountain-bather in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita") is an older, married female art dealer who just can't resist Testi's possibly homicidal charms and becomes the potential victim of an elaborate murder plot. The villainous Adolf Celli plays her oft-cuckolded husband, a scary gangster called "The Professor". Even a young Femi Benussi gets into the act in one of her earliest have-naked-sex-and-get-brutally-murdered-minutes-later cameos.

Unfortunately, the lead, American actor Dean Reed, is about as charisma-free as they come. Part of it his character, a private detective who callously uses his faithful fiancée as bait to snare the dangerous, sex-crazed artist. I was hoping something would happen--that she would cheat on him with Testi at the very least, but she is unaccountably loyal to this idiot. Even stranger, the detective at one point befriends a vicious dog belonging to another character, and the dog later rescues him at a crucial point (what is this--"Lassie"?). What either the dog or the girl see in this guy is beyond me.

DEATH KNOCKS TWICE is an excellent vehicle for both leading man Dean Reed (in this film he reminds me of a cross between James Franciscus, Tab Hunter, and the pre-burnout Jan-Michael Vincent), who plays a detective out to solve a murder and robbery while stumbling across other corrupt activities, and for leading hunk Fabio Testi, who opens the film with a semi-nude outdoor love scene and seems to play half the film without his shirt on. If Joe Dallesandro had begun his European career at this point, he would have been great in this part, but Testi plays a sulking hunk well too, and here he is a spoiled painter who lives in a wonderful beach-front villa and sleeps with various women who meet untimely ends. The film may tend to introduce too many characters too soon, and the mystery does not seem so mysterious in the initial reels, but somehow the whole thing chugs along and becomes more exciting in its second half, which features an excellent high-speed car chase on a wet winding country road and some exciting stunts from Reed. There is a superb all-star Euro-trash cast, including Adolfo Celi, Anita Ekberg, Werner Peters, Leon Askin, Nadia Tiller, and Ricardo Garrone (the film was co-written by his brother, Sergio), and direction is handled by the reliable German director Harald Philipp, whose credits include some of my favorite films such as MANHATTAN NIGHT OF MURDER with George Nader as Jerry Cotton, and RAMPAGE AT APACHE WELLS, an adaptation of Karl May's novel THE OIL PRINCE, starring Stewart Granger as Old Surehand and Pierre Brice as Winnetou. The feel of the film is halfway between some of the later German crime films of the Edgar Wallace cycle, and some of the earlier proto-giallo films of the mid and late 60s. One wonders if Dean Reed viewed this film as a critique of capitalistic decadence (which it certainly is, although that may be unintended) or just a good leading role to give the Italian period of his acting career a shot in the arm. Either way, he handles himself well, looks great, and has charisma to burn. DEATH KNOCKS TWICE (the title will make sense when you see it) is not a must-see film, but I'm glad I watched it again, and the combination of director and stars make it desirable to the fan of European genre-films. Also, Dean Reed was not that prolific of an actor and some of his films have never circulated in English-language versions (to my knowledge), so anything that can be found is worth watching. My copy was taped off a TV station in Aruba back in the 1980's. A letter-boxed, restored version would certainly be welcome!

Fabio Testi plays amateur artist Francesco Villaverde, who wears a cravat and ties his shirt up at the front to reveal his midriff; despite his 'flamboyant' attire, he is actually something of a ladies man, even if he does like to throttle his women after making love. When a rich woman, Mrs Simmons, is found strangled on the beach, her husband (Renato Baldini) hires private detectives Bob Martin (Dean Reed) and Pepe (Leon Askin) to find the man responsible. Naturally, Villaverde is the chief suspect, but is this case that straight-forward?

The answer to that question is 'No'. Death Knocks Twice introduces so many characters and plot-threads in quick succession that it's easy to become lost, and consequently, to lose interest. The plot is all over the place, featuring a missing diamond necklace (stolen from the dead Mrs. Simmons), a gambling boat, a hotel owner named Charly (Werner Peters) who wants to expand his business, a crime boss (played by Adolfo Celi), and a crooked art collector called Locatelli (Riccardo Garrone). Bob's girlfriend Ellen (Ini Assmann **snigger**) is given the job of flirting outrageously with Villaverde, putting her life in danger. To be honest, It wasn't long before I didn't have a clue what was going on, but I stayed the distance in the hope it would all make sense in the end. It didn't.

Fortunately, there are quite a few attractive ladies (a couple of whom get naked) to help make the film easier to bear, my favourite being the drop-dead-gorgeous Hélène Chanel as blonde bartender Angela (who doesn't strip off, but who still steals the show as far as I am concerned).

3/10, plus a bonus point for the lovely Ms. Chanel.

This German Krimi thriller kicks off with the murder of a young woman which leads to a string of further killings and various other shenanigans. Despite a breezy location, a handful of reliable Euro actors and a reasonable general plot idea, this one suffers from poor direction and a fairly incomprehensible story. You'll be forgiven for getting lost in this one after a bit. Like Krimis in general, its fairly stylish while being more restrained than their Italian sister, the giallo. Its not bad but could have been better.

Death Knocks Twice is a somewhat interesting thriller that is often considered a part of the Giallo genre, despite putting much of its focus on other areas of the plot; which shows in a nutshell just how meandering this film is considering that a murder plot makes up the backbone of it. The film was made in 1969; just before the Giallo genre would gain popularity and Italian directors would go into overdrive making them. This one was actually a co-production with West Germany; thus further calling it's credibility with the genre into repute. The plot focuses on Francisco di Villaverde; a talented artist who has a deadly hobby, which involves strangling girls after having sex with them. He strangles a girl on the beach and this is witnessed by a couple of body guards, who just so happen to work for a local gangster who just so happens to want to buy a piece of property owned by Francisco di Villaverde. This story is then fused with a love story between the artist and the gangster's wife as she can't resist his charms in spite of his murderous nature.

The film gets off to a good start as we witness the central character murdering a woman on a beach...but from there it just peters out as we descend further into the plot. It loses focus as it goes on and the film quickly gets boring. In its favour, the film does have three of the best stars of Italian cinema in its cast list. A young Fabio Testi takes the lead role and hints at the kind of performance that the charismatic actor would go on to give. The beautiful Anita Ekberg also appears as does one of the most underrated actors of cult Italian cinema; the excellent Adolfo Celi. The film is directed by Harald Philipp and while he does capture some nice looking locations; his direction in general is nothing fascinating and certainly not a patch on the likes of Dario Argento who would go on to make some of the best films of the genre. It all boils down to a decent conclusion; but by then I couldn't really care what happened to be honest which is a bit of a shame. This is not an easy film to come by and I don't see any reason why that would change as it's not a particularly memorable entry.