La proie des vierges

Pros: Good characters and acting. Nice small town setting. The story feels unique with a male priest being the primary victim that starts off the body count.

However, if you've seem a number of giallo, you'll be able to figure out the culprit pretty easily.

Music is good here - especially the closing theme.

Cons: The pacing is quite slow at times. It takes like a half hour to get to the first murder. It has a low body count as these films go. There are a bunch of red herrings that are clearly added just to try and distract you, and they were too obvious to the point that it felt like they were just filling space.

At the end of the day, this is a unique giallo that's worth a watch.

The Weapon, the Hour & the Motive, originally titled L'arma, l'ora, il movente, is a giallo from the early seventies that mixes thriller elements with inspirations from the drama genre and a few mild softcore pornography sections. While this Italian movie isn't creative, gripping and surprising enough to have stood the test of time, it's still a very decent film that entertains from start to finish and impresses five decades later with its charming nostalgic vibe.

The story revolves around charming young priest Don Giorgio who has two secret romantic and sexual relationships. Upon celebrating his fortieth birthday, Don Giorgio has a change of heart and decides to break off his two relationships to dedicate his entire life to serving God. One gloomy night just after the witching hour, the young priest is murdered while atoning for his sins. Proactive Inspector Boito and his clumsy assistant Moriconi start very difficult investigations as they face denial, silence and superstition. The only potential eyewitness is an orphaned boy who has been traumatized by the brutal events. Things take an even more complicated turn when the dynamic inspector slowly falls in love with one of the two suspects and risks compromising his own investigation.

This giallo convinces on several levels. First of all, the locations in and around the nunnery have been chosen with care and ooze with gloomy atmosphere. Up next, the camera and light techniques increase the mystery and tension of this very good film. The characters have sufficient depth such as the tormented eye witness, the emotional investigator and the friendly but clueless assistant. The acting performances are also very decent and involve an experienced cast with great chemistry.

However, there are specific reasons why this movie has been overlooked and forgotten for such a long period of time. The idea to introduce sins such as sexual intercourse, murder and blackmail into a secluded, religious and conservative setting has been used time and again. A significant mistake is that one of the two suspects dies halfway through the movie, making it obvious who the person behind these crimes must be. The film's ending feels pulled out of thin air and asks for a complete suspension of disbelief regarding certain irrational decisions.

Despite its obvious flaws, this movie still oozes with atmosphere and is entertaining from start to finish. Anyone who likes both thrillers and the vibes of early seventies should certainly appreciate this film a great deal. Giallo fans will be pleasantly surprised by the recent releases by Arrow Films that might be rather expensive but that have been crafted with great care and attention to detail.

No pun intended - priests are people too. And nuns of course ... are not just nuns. Especially when they are .. covered in exploitation movies - and I am not talking about clothes covering them - so many puns, so little time/space. And maybe you won't care for them. I hope you do and that's the reason you are here.

That said and really putting out there, that I wouldn't call myself a particular big fan of the Giallo genre, this was quite interesting. There is a moral tone, some themes that it touches (get your mind out of the gutter - although there is quite a lot of nudity, so maybe leave it there) ... the movie is interesting is what I am trying to say. Be aware of what this is and if your sensibilites are going to be touched upon - ok I'll stop here ...

According Salvatore Puntillo the director Francesco Mazzei also was a producer, cutting any extra cost whenever it could boost the pre-arranged low budge, as we can state through the low-profile casting which didn't have any major star, in other hand the story is very exciting, where a trendy Priest (Maurizio Bonuglia) has been a sinful behavior on two heretic affairs with two different women, a married Orchidea Durantini (Bedi Moratti) and the fortune-teller Giulia Pisani (Eva Czemerys) ends up murdered inside the church witnessed by an orphaned boy.

Soon a Police Commissioner Franco Boito (Renzo Montagnani) starts investigate the weirdo case together with his sidekick Moriconi (Salvatore Puntillo) after several inquires at crime scene and all nuns hosted there, meanwhile Giulia appears dead with slashed throat, she was one of suspect, after an exhaustive work Commissioner Franco finally figures out that Orchidea's jealous husband ought be the main suspect, later he is found dead at your house apparently committed suicide, then closing the case, not so fast as usually a final twist comes.

The movie touches in a neuralgic matter about an unholy hidden affairs on church, exposing many auto-flagellation upon a whip, such scourge was routinely used to by Priest and Nuns to purge wicked throughs, many nudity scenes were scattered along the picture as well, fine Giallo with a modest casting, nevertheless not devoid of interest.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.

It must be deliberate this the colour scheme in this film is so muted - everything's beige, brown or grey. Strange.

The story involves the murder of a Hip Priest. In fact, he's so hip he has not one but two lovers on the side. He's having a bit of a crisis about that though, judging by the way he self-flagellates in his church, of an evening. This is made even more disturbing by the unseen presence of a little kid whom the nuns have adopted.

The priest reckons that God might look down on him having it off with two ladies, so he breaks up with one of them (with the strange name of Orchidea) and tries to break it off with the other. I can't remember if he was successful because he ended up in the sack with her, before shortly getting stabbed to death by a mystery assailant. There's also a cute nun kicking about (the actress playing her is called Claudia Gravy - great second name! Looks like she's in Nun and the Devil too!)

Some rough looking copper turns up with a bumbling sidekick and they start obviously digging around to looks for clues. The copper also starts spending a lot time making goo-goo eyes at Orchidea, so quite a bit of the plot is devoted to that too. The most off-putting thing about this is that the actress who plays Orchidea is a dead-ringer for Italian actor Franco Rassell (only with hair), which makes all her upcoming nude scenes a bit disturbing.

Not quite so quirky as other Gialli, this one concentrates on the police investigation (before turning into a family drama near the end!), and if you're out for sleaze you do get to see the nuns taking a shower AND the whole bunch of them stripping to the waist and whipping themselves in honour of the dead priest.

It another well made film but will kind of get lost in the avalanche of more gory, pervier gialli released in 1972. I did have a good laugh at the punch up the copper had in a dark room, only for him to find out it was his sidekick, whom he then tells to feck off!