E tanta paura

This is how you make a film stand out in a crowded market, as we get a giallo with all the usual ingredients (black-gloved killer, loads of suspects/red herrings, nakes ladies, beautiful photography) mixed with tons of quirkiness, seventies technology, irony, social commentary and even animation.

The film starts of memorably enough with a kimono clad man waiting in anticipation in his floral, purple themed room (purple an recurring colour in this film). A lady hooker friend arrives and it seems our fella likes to get slapped about and get his hair pulled, but isn't into being strangled and murdered for some reason. A page from a child story book is left by the prostitute, with a different card being left at a murder that happens on a bus shortly afterwards.

This is where Inspector Lomenzo steps in. He sees that there's a killer on the loose, but can't quite figure out the connection between the two people, much to the annoyance of his boss, Tom Skerrit. At the same time, he's caught the eye of the young lady that lives up the stairs from his apartment that he shares with his hippy girlfriend. Further complicating the plot is Eli Wallach as the private investigator who uses modern technology to spy on his clients, his staff, and just about everybody else he encounters. A businessman approaches Eli and say that the police don't have a clue that the two victims were part of some Wildlife Friends Club, and that the murders have something to do with a party that happened at the 'Hoffman House'. Eli gives Lomenzo these little clues, but does he have a sinister motive?

This film seems to head in many directions at once as Lomenzo tries to juggle his love life with the murders (and the two become entwined). The murderer works his way through the cast, including burning to death the prostitute that killed the kinky guy at the start of the film, shooting a guy on live TV, and running over another guy. This is all standard giallo stuff but then you have the businessman's house secured with a futuristic alarm system, his mother's nurse having a chug in the toilets for no reason, and the Wildlife Friends Club watching an completely off-the-wall cartoon porno before taking part in some sort of 'blowjob roulette'. This strangeness runs throughout the entire film and keeps you on your toes.

Although Tom Skerrit appears, he doesn't do much and Eli Wallach only comes in to play mainly in the final part of the film. Neither of them dub there own voice. It's Michele Placido as Inspector Lomenzo who is the main focus of the film, running around trying to figure out what's going while his girlfriend runs off with another man, not that he's bothered it gives him a chance to get to know the young lady from upstairs. Gets to know her all night long.

Plenty of twists in the plot too. John Steiner redeems himself for his diabolical performance in Deported Women of the SS Special Section by being more subdued here, but no less sleazy.

While the usual fashion models are present all of the main characters are men, which is unusual for giallos despite their somewhat misguided stereotype of misogyny. E tanta paura has a creative and twisty plot but it never quite pulled me in or dazzled me. It's a decent little Italian 70s mystery, but not one I'd go out of my way to watch again.

The brightest spot for me was Eli Wallach who just a year later played a similarly cynical "bad cop" in American cult horror The Sentinel. I absolutely had to watch this film in Italian because the English dubbed version is too obviously NOT Wallach's long familiar voice.

Finally, a so-called "giallo" that's working vs. the formula. Corinne Cléry makes it quite clear when the Commissario (Michele Placido) asks her for a dance: "Recite an Apollinaire poem for me." De facto, the shadow of the famous French proto-surrealist is lurking everywhere in Paolo Cavara's tongue-in-cheek, poptastic homage to Heinrich Hoffmann's gruesome cautionary tales, published as "Struwwelpeter" in 1845. At first sight the usual psycho killer rubbish, E Tanta Paura is brimming with bizarre surprises, as in the orgy flashback sequence in the Fauna Lovers Group Sex Club (including a porn cartoon by Italian animatore Gibba) or the acidly humorous slaughterhouse scene, and you won't get much better dialogue for your money ("She cheated on me with a white guy." "But you're white as well." "I'm Neapolitan, that's different"). The denouement might be a bit underwhelming, but Cavara's elegant direction, Franco di Giacomo's skillful cinematography, Daniele Patucchi's versatile soundtrack and the splendid cast – special jury prize for the sardonic John Steiner – add up to an intertextual fun(house) ride breaking it down light-handedly that "giallo" can be a whole lot more than those bland Argento bummers: in this case, a vitriolic grotesque bowing its serpent's head in reverence to the origins of the Grand Guignol.

Paolo Cavara had already directed an earlier giallo by the time he made Plot of Fear. His previous effort - The Black Belly of the Tarantula - was pretty much a textbook example of the genre. By 1976 the sub-genre had ran its course and that may be why Plot of Fear tries to bring in a few different angles into the giallo template. For this reason it's a relatively distinctive effort. For my money it isn't as good as the classic-style Tarantula. It lacks the thrills of that one. Nevertheless, it remains a worthy effort.

Rather than a completely new take on the genre, it might be truer to say that Plot of Fear mixes typical giallo aspects with atypical ones. We have traditional giallo elements like a group of unsympathetic rich people being violently murdered one by one, a secret sex club, dark secrets from the past informing the present and each murder being signatured with a page from a sinister sounding children's story book (in this case a book called 'Shock-Headed Peter). As you could also gather the plot-line is typically convoluted too. Where things deviate from the norm is the inclusion of paranoid thriller material, no doubt influenced by the Watergate fallout that shaped many other films of the time. This is in reference to the whole wire-tapping/tapes thread and the morality of the private investigators whose services can be bought. The film overall does seem to have at least some social and political conscious, which is very far removed from most gialli. Its mystery is also wrapped up in a somewhat unorthodox manner that is significantly different to others in the genre.

The casting is a little unusual too for a giallo. While John Steiner was a regular at playing shady characters in these types of movies, the same cannot be said for the American actors Eli Wallach or Tom Skerrit. The latter has a very minor role indeed, almost irrelevant; you almost wonder why they didn't just hire one of their stock bit player actors for his role. As a film, this is a pretty decent effort. It isn't as formulaic as most in the genre. While it's central mystery is intriguing enough and builds up interest by way use of some interesting flashbacks. One of which shows the rich and decadent clique relaxing while watching a pornographic cartoon. I really would like to know what it is, as it looked like a bit of a riot. Answers on a postcard for that one.

Overall, Plot of Fear isn't among the best in the giallo genre. But it is probably among that grouping of titles that straddle other genres and are somewhat less predictable. Not essential stuff by any means but fans of Italian genre pictures will surely find something to enjoy in it.

'E Tanta Paura' provides a fairly good Italian crime plot, located in the mid-19-Seventies. Carrying all characteristics of its era, a slice of sleaze included.

Nevertheless, to boost up sales, the cover of my DVD adds that Corinne Clery features in this film. And yes, here we have a name that those around at the time may remember: the naked female lead from 'Histoire d'O' (= French for 'the story of O'). It must be said that Clery contributes well to 'E Tanta Paura'; clothed (90%) as well as naked (10%).

'E Tanta Paura' still reasonably entertains without being great. And shows a little dented by the passage of time.