L'assassino è costretto ad uccidere ancora

Giorgio Mainardi is a man at odds with his wife. When his wife threatens to cut him off from her back account he searches for a way to get back. While sitting in his car contemplating things Giorgio sees a man pull his red VW up to the river and push it in (along with the body of a woman). Mainardi hatches a scheme while in cahoots with the killer to rip himself of his wife and grab all her cash. All, as you may guess goes horribly wrong.

The overall storyline is quite compelling. There were several instances where I thought to myself that I had not seen that particular wrinkle before. But sadly there was not enough action for my taste. The cinematography and acting were very good but the "road" scenes just weighed the movement down. "Killer" is an average giallo who scores for some interesting "wrinkles".

Luigi Cozzi was assistant director on Dario Argento's Four Flies on Grey Velvet, so he had a bit of experience working on a thriller. The Killer Must Kill Again is the first time he got a chance to direct one for himself.

The story begins with a man witnessing a mysterious killer disposing of a body by a river. Instead of reporting him to the police, he blackmails him into murdering his wife so that he can cash in the insurance. All goes to plan until a couple of joy riders steal the car where the wife's body is stashed. The killer then pursues these unfortunate delinquents who know nothing of the hidden body.

This one benefits from a good cast. Giallo regular George Hilton plays the husband and he is once again convincing as a very shady character. Alessio Orano (Lisa and the Devil) impresses as one of the joy riders. But best of all is Antoine Saint-John as 'the killer'. He is very intense and is impressively creepy in this role. The very fact that, unlike regular gialli, the killer's identity is known from the start is an active advantage here as Saint-John's sinister look could not have been exploited if the murderer was a mystery presence. In fairness, the very fact that there is no mystery in this film at all makes me question if it truly is a giallo in the first place. My feeling is that it isn't, although it shares many of the conventions of the genre such as a cast of unsympathetic characters, brutal violence - including a somewhat unpleasant rape scene - and a stylish look - check out Hilton's yellow pad.

Because of the lack of a mystery this one has to depend on other things to keep it interesting. It isn't always successful though and the story does lack a bit of excitement at times. There is a decent set up developed at the beginning and there is some effective tension towards the end but it does meander a bit in the middle. Still, it's well made and acted and is certainly a solid film overall.

Though it is considered a giallo, I think of "The Killer Must Kill Again" as being more like an exploitation version of "Les Diaboliques". There's no masked and black gloved killer stalking high society types, and nor is there any mystery as to the killer's identity: we know him as soon as we see him.

The movie does, however, feature bloodless rich people, or in this case, a bloodless rich person. Giorgio is an adulterer who has a fight with his wife and goes out for a drive, where he witnesses a serial killer dispose of a body. He blackmails the killer into taking out his wife as well, but then the killer's car is stolen by a thrill seeking young couple who don't realise there's a corpse in the trunk.

Along the way, the young man is seduced by a bubble-brained sex kitten played by the scrumptious Femi Benussi, who has her hair dyed blonde in this role, I suppose to hammer home her idiocy.

The film actually has some quite suspenseful moments involving whether or not the body will be found, and whether or not the killer, indeed, "must kill again" - and when he will end up doing so. The killer's likeness is unforgettable. There must have been no doubt in the filmmakers' minds that they had found the man for the job as soon as they laid eyes on him, with his tall, gaunt figure, bony reptilian face, and deep set eyes.

Unfortunately, the movie does stall a bit towards the end, and it seems the Femi Benussi role may have been added just to up the sex and violence factor. Aside from that, the movie is more in line with French thrillers, leading me to conclude it is less giallo than jaune.

Mr. Mainardi (Euro fave, George Hilton) accidentally witnesses a man (Michel Antoine) dumping a body. Rather than report the crime to the police, Mainardi blackmails him into murdering his wealthy wife, Norma. Things go smoothly, but before the killer can dispose of Norma's body, a delinquent couple steals the car which has the corpse stashed in the trunk. The maniac begins tracking them down as the two are completely oblivious to what they've gotten themselves into.

Before I bought and watched "The Killer Must Kill Again", Luigi Cozzi wasn't a director I had been particularly fond of. Being the sucker for gialli that I am, I decided to take a chance on this one when the DVD hit. While this isn't in the upper tier of Italian horror, it did prove to me that Cozzi is quite capable of doing something above substandard sleaze and cheese.

This is actually a quality film, though I fail to see how it has found itself classified as a giallo. We know who the killer if from the get-go, though he is never named. There is no mystery here unless you wonder what led to his initial murder which Mainardi stumbles upon. I have to say that it reminded me of Hitchcock's classic suspense pictures more than it did any giallo. "Dial M for Murder" definitely came to mind at first, but then it went off in it's own direction. On the other hand, as is usually the case in the giallo sub-genre, virtually none of the characters are totally innocent. The protagonists steal a car and $150, plus they lie constantly. I also thought it was amusing how Luca is romancing this girl, only to help another girl on the side of a road and then do her in the stolen car. Sometimes you just have to get any wherever you can! My main issue with the film is that after the car is stolen, it gets bogged down and doesn't really pick up again until the killer finds the couple. This portion could have been spiced up a bit.

The killer himself is actually a pretty intimidating fellow, what with Michel Antoine's reptilian facial features and large build, but he definitely has a lot of hell in this movie. Things just never seem to go right for him. As the greedy blackmailer, George Hilton is convincingly suave, even with the weird sideburns. These two make for a fine pair of villains.

Cozzi's direction is solid, and there are only a few small doses of the cheese that would dominate many of his later films. He employs some nifty camera tricks that he surely picked up from Argento. I also liked how he had the two very different sex scenes playing out seamlessly at the same time. In fact, that mean-spirited rape is the only real bit of nastiness on display here. Again, not the norm for a giallo, but the lack of it certainly doesn't hurt the film any.

Overall, this is a fine piece of work from a man who I originally had pegged as another Bruno Mattei. Any fan of the gialli sub-genre should be pleased, even if it isn't a giallo in the truest sense of the word. While the pacing goes off the rails at one point and the climax feels a tad anti-climatic, it's not enough to ruin things.

Not only does George Hilton live in the most yellow house ever witnessed within the 'yellow' genre, he's also playing one of the most heartless and snidey characters ever to appear in a giallo. You see, George is married to one of them dames who has a very rich father, and she's ruining George's life by not giving him enough pocket money and complaining about George spending all his cash on mistresses. What's a (kind of) young playboy to do?

Well, it's lucky for George that he spots a cadaver-like serial killer (played by Antoine St John of The Beyond and Fistful of Dynamite) dumping a car containing a woman's corpse into a river. George makes his presence known, takes the killer's monogrammed lighter, and tells him he's got a proposition to make. They both head off to watch some figure skating while they talk business: George wants the killer to bump off his wife and in return, not only will George forget what he's seen, he'll also throw in some cash to sweeten the deal too...

George sets up his alibi while the killer gets down to business, but what neither of them predict is that shortly after the killer throws George's wife's body in the boot of the car, two kids come along and steal the car while he's clearing the house up. Unwisely stealing a car and alerting all the neighbours to his presence, the killer takes up the pursuit while George returns home to find police everywhere. The kids of course have no idea they have a body in the trunk while they drive across the country...

You'll see from the description that Luigi Cozzi's approaching things from a different angle here, which is refreshing. You've got a kind of three way story going as George sweats it out in the presence of the cops, not having a clue what's going on, while the killer tracks the corpse car and tries to clean up the mess the kids leave in their wake, plus Cozzi keeps things interesting with the two youngsters by making Cristina Galbo a frigid virgin who makes her boyfriend jump through hoops to get her pants off, including stealing the car in the first place. For the record Galbo in 1975 was twenty-five years old, but never seems to look any older than eighteen.

There's not a lot of violence in this one mind you, so gore hounds will be let down by lack of splatter and the absence of a high body count, but the whole novel approach of the plot kept me interested, as did Cozzi's visual flair.