La mort caresse à minuit

The third of Luciano Ercoli's trilogy of early 70's gialli is the oddest of the three. It tells the story of a fashion model who takes a hallucinogenic drug for a photo shoot. While tripping she witnesses a murder in the apartment across the street. She then finds herself stalked by the killer and drawn into a complex web of shady goings on, including drug trafficking and murder.

This movie is quite disappointing when compared to its predecessor, the effective Death Walks on High Heels. However, it starts extremely well. The trip murder sequence is well handled. Its both visceral and dreamlike, with a memorably creepy looking killer. Unfortunately, this excellent opening is the highlight of the movie. There are a number of other effective set-pieces but the movie gets bogged down a bit with excessively convoluted plot lines. There is a large cast of characters and it becomes difficult keeping track of who did what where. Everything is wrapped up when most of the remaining cast members get involved in a ridiculous, but fun, fight on a rooftop.

This is not a great giallo, however, it is certainly likable. Susan Scott is, as ever, great value in the lead role. She carries the film through the less interesting phases, ensuring that things never really get boring. Simón Andreu also is reliable. Ercoli shoots the film well and the decor is impressive. Overall, this is a beautiful looking, well acted but somewhat silly giallo. Its not one of the best from the genre but it is fun in a camp sort of way.

During an experiment with a hallucinogenic drug, model Valentina (Nieves Navarro aka Susan Scott) sees a woman being brutally murdered by a man wearing a spiked iron glove. But when no body is found, she can't seem to get anyone to believe her story. She begins to see the killer everywhere she goes. She's sure her life is in danger and is unable to convince her friends or the police that she's being stalked by a vicious murderer.

I had high hopes for Death Walks at Midnight having just seen and enjoyed Death Walks on High Heels. The two movies have so much in common that it seemed like a sure thing. While not being a sequel, the two movies share a director, a number of actors, and a convoluted plot. But while I found the twists and turns in Death Walks on High Heels a joy to watch unfold, Death Walks at Midnight is a little too convoluted for its own good. Story lines are introduced and almost dropped immediately with no resolution. These story tangents have nothing to do with the plot other than muddying the waters. Characters are introduced with no background information and almost immediately forgotten about. Too many of the characters never seem "real" or fleshed-out and are not effective red herrings. And, I almost get the feeling that much of the movie is weird for the sake of being weird. There's no real purpose for many of the unusual events, people, places, etc. in Death Walks at Midnight other than adding some bizarreness to the proceedings. For example, why even have the asylum scene? It adds nothing to the film. The problems with the plot are really disappointing because not only did I enjoy the first movie, but Death Walks at Midnight's screenplay was written by Sergio Corbucci. Corbucci directed some of my favorite Spaghetti Westerns. But here, he's written what I'll describe as a spastic script that tries too hard to be different.

That's not to say the movie was a total waste of time. There are a number of things I really enjoyed about Death Walks at Midnight. First would have to be Nieves Navarro. As I said when writing about Death Walk on High Heels, Navarro is excellent in this kind of film. She's a natural playing the "Woman in Distress". Navarro has a real, undeniable screen presence. Second would have to be the spiked glove. It's as nasty a murder weapon as you'll see. Finally, I like the overall look of the film. Ercoli had a real eye for some interesting visuals.

In the end, I can't wholeheartedly recommend Death Walks at Midnight to anyone other than a die hard Giallo fan. There are far better, more entertaining examples of the genre that might appeal more to the casual fan.

This rare Giallo was Luciano Ercoli's follow-up to the rather tame but nonetheless enjoyable "Le Foto Proibite di una Signora Perbene" (Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion in English; Frauen bis zum Wahnsinn gequält in German, which means "Women tortured to insanity"!!!).

There are some similarities in the storyline, but overall, "La Morte Accarezza a Mezzanotte" is obviously superior. After a powerful start, when Susan Scott as Valentina has a murder vision during a drug trip she suffers for her journalist colleague (who makes a photo session out of the "experiment" to publish it in the junk paper he's working for - that she initially does NOT know!), the film becomes a little bit slow moving as Valentina is suddenly stalked by numerous strange persons. But the second half of the film delivers more than many other thrillers together - suddenly, the bodies are piling up and there's also enough time for action and fist fights that could easily find place in Your average police drama of its decade.

The uncovering of the fiend is really surprising, more so if one considers that one thinks to know the face of the real killer after seeing the above mentioned drug trip sequence (to make things more clear here would give away too much).

Last but not least, there is also an exceptional musical score by Gianni Ferrio, a typical yet unique Giallo score including, of course, a lush main theme song.

To wrap it all up: This film is one of the many fine Italian thrillers of the 1970s that deserve to be rediscovered by an interested audience.

If you have a daughter make sure she's not dumb enough to end up with a partner like this. Valentina is a fashion model (this is a giallo, after all) whose journalist boyfriend manages to talk her into taking an experimental LSD-like drug for the sake of a magazine article. He assures her she'll be wearing a mask and a doctor will administer the drug, but once she's high as a kite he takes the mask off and starts taking pictures of her. While she's ripped to the nines and well muntered, larging it the 'nth' degree and chewing her cheeks, she also has some sort of vision where she sees a man punching a woman in the face over and over again with a spiked glove.

Thinking it was all part of the trip, the next day she gets sacked from her job and finds her face plastered all over her boyfriend's magazine. She also finds out the 'doctor' was a doorman, goes mental, and throws a brick through her boyfriend's window. Then she starts seeing that killer around the place, and it seems that not only did she not hallucinate a murder, but the drug might have triggered a repressed memory of murder she may have witnessed six months before – and it gets even more complicated than that!

We know the killer right from the start, but we have no idea who he is, what he's up to, or why someone is in a loony bin for a murder he seemingly committed! Many other characters turn up to badger Valentino, and two very shifty gentlemen, including a knife throwing, giggling Luciano Rossi, roll into town for some reason too. The police are pretty much useless in this one, so can she turn to one of her two boyfriends for help? That's right, two, and one of them is a sculptor looking after two Japanese kids, for good measure.

Just like Ercoli's previous film Death Walks on High Heels, this one is a bit too long, but the pay-off is well worth it! Just about every character that makes it to the end of the film ends up on the roof of an apartment block for a final fight/punch up/stabbing/gun fight, and this is where Ercoli finally unleashes the nastiness. One character even ends up splattered across the pavement with his brains lying next to his head and his cigarette holder poking through his face. Kinds of wakes you up a bit when that happens in a film.

So then, another good, solid, beautiful looking giallo from Ercoli. I can't wait to watch the next one: Open the Door, Get on the Floor, Death Walks the Dinosaur!

"Death Walks at Midnight" stars Nieves Navarro as fashion model Valentina,who experiments with a new hallucinogenic drug to help newspaper writer Gio with a story.Immediately,Valentina is overcome by a vision of a generously coiffed killer in dark glasses plunging a spiked metal glove into the face of a woman in the vacant apartment across the street.After coming to her senses,she demands to know if whole thing was simply imagined,or if the drug somehow set a repressed memory free.When Gio publishes his story,Valentina finds out that the murder did occur,and she must solve the killer's identity herself."Death Walks at Midnight" is fairly conventional giallo co-written by Sergio Corbucci of "Django" fame.It's not as sleazy as some of its contemporaries,but there are some stylish and sadistic flashback murder scenes.Give this tense thriller a look.7 out of 10.