Deux mâles pour Alexa

What is the price they have to pay, those who cheat in love, the adulterers? They deserve death? One thing is certain, for those who are cheated, life is not life anymore, it becomes unbearable, it becomes a slow death. I saw Curd Jürgens in many movies and I do not consider myself a fan of. But here I liked it how he lived Ronald Marvelling's character. Rosalba Neri, which usually shows her charms (neither here no exception), shows that she can also play well, she's not brilliant, but convincing. Juan Luis Galiardo is OK in the role of Pietro too. Emma Cohen is also credible in the role of Catherine. Piero Piccioni's music is not amazing, just functional. In conclusion, a good movie, except the end, which is disappointing.

This movie is about a young woman who marries the wealthy father of a university friend, but quickly falls in love with a younger man. The jilted husband hatches an unusual plan for revenge by framing the adulterous couple with his own murder and sealing them in a room in his isolated villa with his dead body. Since most of this movie takes place in a single location,the movie quickly becomes paranoid and claustrophobic as the young couple fall apart debating about what has happened and what to do about it.

This Italian-Spanish co-production to some extent resembles the then popular Italian gialli, but it lacks a lot of the more garish and delirious elements of that genre. It stars Rosalba Neri as the unfaithful wife (who was perhaps a little long in the tooth to be playing a university student). Unfortunately, the dubbed Spanish-language copy I saw edited out all of her no doubt copious nude scenes as Spanish censors at that time was wont to do (Damn Generalisismo Franco! First, he kills hundreds of thousands of people, then he sets up a 40 year fascist dictatorship, and now this!).

This was obviously a very low-budget movie and it's very limited in its sets, but at least it doesn't last long enough for anyone to get too bored. The version I saw (on Mexican television) looked pretty decent at least, but I would have preferred an unedited version (and with some English subtitles). Worth a look though I guess.

Addendum: I recently saw the French version, which does have some brief nudity from Neri (but still might be cut). Unfortunately, this probably doesn't justify the crappy looking, full-screen presentation, but if you find the English-subtitled version the previous reviewer mentioned, well, maybe. . .

The eternal return of the love triangle. Here, modern times oblige, king Mark is an old wealthy industrial, Ronald (Curd Jürgens, Et Dieu créa la femme). During the wedding in Paris of his daughter Catherine (Emma Cohen, Les Pétroleuses) with Marcel (Mario Della Vigna, Cross Current), Ronald meets one of her friends, Alexa (Rosalba Neri, Top Sensation). Despite of their age difference, he falls in love and asks her to marry him. Alexa, a poor student, sees the occasion of social success and accepts, ditching her boyfriend Philippe (Manolo Otero, Two Undercover Angels). But at a dancing she meets the young and handsome bohemian drawer Pietro (Juan Luis Galiardo, Alta Tension) and falls in love.

Pietro likewise drops his own girlfriend (Christine Laurent, Adieu Poulet) and decides to flirt with the spouse of the rich husband, and they become lovers. They spin the perfect love at Ronald's villa on the Normandy coast, but Ronald has planned a merciless revenge... This well acted thriller suffers from an extreme slowness and from digressions preventing tension to properly develop in this forced and noxious closed circuit. (Viewed in Spanish Neri-clothed 1h26 version.)

Entertaining Mystery/Giallo, from Spainish director Juan Logar - of Autopsy infamy - which features a very decent cast of Curd Jurgens, Rosalba Neri, Emma Cohen and Juan Luis Galiardo - lead in Logar's Autopsy. Story line is a little different from the standard Giallo, though in truth it isn't really a 'true' Giallo in any case. No mysterious or gloved killer, no dramatic twists as such and no red herrings, but plenty of drama, mostly seen in flashback. The direction is certainly different, odd at times, but never dull, and there is little about this film that is mainstream. Music is nice enough, Piero Piccioni scoring a solid soundtrack, that's no classic, but is far from lifeless or tedious. Acting is generally OK throughout, though Jurgens never streches himself too much. The stunningly beautiful Neri is her usual reliable, strong and incredibly sexy self. All in all a film that is definitely recommended, though not an easy one to get hold of, particularly in English. There are a couple of nice blu-ray release from Germany, with English subs - both of which also feature the 'clothed' Spanish variant - but currently no UK or US versions available on any format. Hopefully that will change !

Not only is Two Masks For Alexa an unsatisfactory title for what I have as Two Men For Alexa, or this site has as, Fieras Sin Jaula but somewhere along the line the numeral 2 has become inserted on another site and made this title almost impossible to find. Mind you the film is difficult to find as well. I digress. Marginally a giallo but completely surreal, this really is an undiscovered gem. The beginning strikes as either incredibly bad or intoxicatingly good depending how you react to what seem like totally unconnected sequences crashed together without a thought and completely different colour stock seemingly being used. Then gradually as we become used to the human triangle within the story and the many, many flashbacks, some crazy sort of logic establishes itself before, way before halfway, there is a real surprise and the film appears to be at an end. But no. Everybody is great, including the lovely, Rosalba Neri and Curt Jurgens, the music is fine and the direction...let us say, unusual. If you have any interest in Italian movies of the early 70s, seek this out. Did I mention Ms Neri and her wonderful and numerous costumes!