La Corruption de Chris Miller

Watched this on Tubu Tv. This film is a great mystery about two women living in a large creepy house in the middle of the country. Meanwhile, someone is going around killing people in the town near to where they live. One night, a handsome young man shows up at their door and the two women slowly start to suspect him of being the killer. Are they correct? This film has a beautiful cast, interesting performances, lesbian undertones, a very creepy killer and is ultimately a fun and unpredictable watch. Enjoy it.

The Corruption of Chris Miller is often labelled as a Giallo; this is not really the case, although the film does feature some of the trademarks of the genre amongst its multilayered plot. I'd say it falls somewhere between a murder thriller and a psychological drama; and the two main plot lines represent both genres. The film reminded me a lot of René Clément's masterpiece Joy House in the way that the relationship between the three central characters works. The film begins with a grisly murder, committed by someone dressed as Charlie Chaplin. From there, we move on to a house inhabited by two women, a mother and a stepdaughter; who is scared of the rain as she was raped in the shower by a bodybuilder when she was a child. The mother later finds a drifter taking a nap in the barn, and after some convincing, agrees to take the stranger on to do odd jobs for them in return for free board. However, it's not long before the man's presence makes tensions rise among the mother and daughter; and the murders in town are continuing.

The film does not make murder its central plot line, and there's not a lot of blood either. The main plot is the relationship between the mother, stepdaughter and the mysterious drifter, and this takes up the majority of the film. The three way relationship is not disinteresting, although it has to be said that it's a bit long winded and spoiled by some less than brilliant performances. Chief among them is Barry Stokes; who is extremely wooden. Jean Seberg and Marisol so-star and are better, though none of the actors particularly impress. Director Juan Antonio Bardem does succeed, however, in creating a foreboding atmosphere; the countryside setting creates a feeling of isolation and this bodes well with the plot line. The film really does pick up in the final third and the ending is strong, as well as wrapping things up nicely. Overall, while this film is not a Giallo; it will certainly be of interest to Giallo fans and is well worth tracking down.

This is one of the few entirely Spanish gialli and probably the only one that doesn't feature Spanish horror icon/werewolf Paul Naschy. It does have the doomed leftist American actress Jean Seaberg (a few years before she was driven to suicide by FBI harassment)and former Spanish child actress Marisol, all grown up here in all the right places. It has a very nasty murder committed by a guy dressed like Charlie Chaplin (I wonder what the late actor's estate thought of that?)and even more unbelievable scene where an entire family is wiped out by a mysterious figure in a rain slicker wielding a scythe. There is also a strange subplot where Chris Miller (the Marisol character) is traumatized by the sound of rain as the result of having been raped in a shower by a weight lifter (which would have made a great cameo for ex-weight lifter Naschy). Her stepmother (the Jean Seaberg character)is taking care of her but is also bent on "corrupting" her to get back at the girl's father for abandoning them (which might explain why she's relocated them to Spain where it seems to rain constantly).

The weak link in the movie is British pretty-boy Barry Stokes (it should have been Ray Lovelock)playing a drifter who insinuates his way into the lives and the beds of the two women and who they begin to suspect might be the mysterious killer. Stokes gives pretty much the same performance as when he portrayed an emotionless alien in "Prey", he is not the least bit menacing or believable as a potential killer, and, to top it all off, he provides the film's only nudity by shoving his bare butt into the camera (oh boy!). On the other hand, the end is pretty satisfying with some nice ironic twists.

This is by no means a perfect movie, but it certainly merits a DVD resurrection (the copy I saw looked like hell and may have been edited). It would probably be best to wait for that, but do check this one out if you like these kind of films.

I guessed the identity and motive of the killer in The Corruption of Chris Miller early on, but this didn't spoil my enjoyment of the movie as a whole, which is a trashy delight thanks to a wonderfully lurid story line, a few bloody set-pieces, and the presence of two very easy on the eye actresses: ex-child star Marisol as tasty temptress Chris (before watching I had assumed that Chris was a man, but how wrong was I?) and Jean Seberg as Ruth, Chris's sexy stepmother (which makes her a SMILF!).

Abandoned by her no good puppeteer husband, Ruth lives with Chris in her secluded country house. When she discovers a charming young drifter, Barney Webster, sheltering in her barn, Ruth initially threatens to call the police, but eventually takes the man into her home for breakfast, and into her bed for desserts soon after. When Barney sees Ruth's ravishing stepdaughter, he goes for the stepmom/stepdaughter combo, actively encouraged by Ruth, who wants to get back at her husband by corrupting his not-so-little girl. This volatile situation is heightened by some latent lesbian urges (Ruth's love for Chris runs a little deeper than she would care to admit), rivalry for Barney's affection, Chris's sudden bursts of stabbiness, and the fact that the ladies' house guest may be the psycho who has been carving up people in the surrounding area.

Opening with the messy murder of a woman by a man dressed as Charlie Chaplin, The Corruption of Chris Miller knows how to grab the viewer's attention, and with the introduction of the film's two lovely leading actresses, it's hard to say no to this sexually charged giallo-esque thriller, no matter how predictable the mystery is. The direction by Juan Antonio Bardem is reasonably stylish, with plenty of atmospheric rainy scenes (which terrify Chris, as we learn that she was raped in the shower when she was younger), and those well-orchestrated murders, which include the slaughter of an entire family by the sickle-wielding sicko, and the death of a major character from multiple stab wounds. Spanish censorship laws of the time prevent there from being too much in the way of nudity, but Marisol in her bikini is still reason enough to watch.

The Corruption of Chris Miller was a hard one to come by for many years, which gave it a mysterious street cred that was impossible to live up to. It's part melodrama and part giallo without really mixing them very well. Besides a splattery opening and a random series of killings right before the final act, it's not much of a traditional giallo or murder mystery and mostly focuses on a woman and her stepdaughter who are charmed by a mysterious drifter who may or may not be a killer who's been going around terrorizing people.

The film is slow as molasses for most of its runtime and you want to tell out "hurry up and get to the good stuff!" I'm normally a person who can enjoy a nice slow burn movie with the rest of them, but there's slow and then there's plotless. Most of the film is just a series of longing glances between the characters or long montages or horseback riding. They seem to be trying to build the tension between stepmother, stepdaughter, and the handsome drifter, but the script never really handles those moments very well. With better dialogue, perhaps those scenes would crackle with sexual tension.

The film is most definitely well shot and the scenes that take place during rainstorms drip with mood, but right as the film starts to get interesting, it ends with no resolution whatsoever. I'm also not a stickler for an ending that's tied up in a neat little bow, but after all that build up, it would have been nice if we were given something a little more interesting.