Du grisbi au Caire

Obscure thriller, concerning a couple who meet in Egypt under strange circumstances, and end up having to hide a dead body. Not only that, but someone is trying to kill them also. As an extra twist, it seems that during an archaeological expedition, some cases of gold were stolen, and now the thief is attempting to cover up his crime.

Caper of the missing gold.

Not really a giallo. More of a mystery/heist film.

It's convoluted. It doesn't entirely make sense. It's fun. It's best not to overthink. It's worth watching or skipping.

This movie essentially begins with a woman named "Helen Plummer" (Maria Perschy) being followed by an Egyptian police officer and by an insurance investigator named "Tom Curtis" (Tony Russel). As it so happens, Helen's husband supervised the construction of the Bank of Cairo and it was during this time that a great quantity of gold bars were stolen. So everybody suspects that Helen knows where the treasure is hidden are they are hoping she will lead them to it. So the fact that she is accompanying an archaeological expedition on serves to arouse their suspicions even more. However, things become a bit more complicated once people in the expedition begin to die for no apparent reason. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an okay mystery film which contained several twists and turns along the way. Unfortunately, there was very little suspense and as a result it lacked a certain amount of excitement in the process. Even so, I suppose it was good enough for the time spent and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Egypt-based old-school giallo with a jerk hero and many a twist, all delivered with Duccio Tessari usual style. That's the short version.

Long version involves a case of missing gold in Cairo, and a jerk hero from an insurance company trying to track it down by hooking up with the estranged wife of the prime suspect as she comes to Cairo as part of an archaeological dig by pretending to be her husband so they can locate the gold. This involves drugging the actual husband as the jerk hero doesn't want to harm anybody, so imagine his surprise when then wife then pulls out a gun and shoots the guy several times just to make sure! This causes all sorts of problems when they have to hide the body and the local hired hands lose the crate the body was in while sailing down the Nile! Things go from bad to worse when a body is fished out the river…and it's one of the archaeologists, not the husband's body. Someone's blah blah blah killings etc.

Although overlong and dry for a giallo, there are plenty of twists and turns that almost make sense if you don't think about them too much, especially the relationships between people. More action around the Sphinx would have been good though, although Duccio does fit it in near the start. It's okay. It was great. I hated it. I loved it. I had it on in the background while making Polenta. I was glued to the screen the entire time. It bored, excited, massaged, worried, harassed, frightened, repulsed, straddled, neglected and overfed me. The price of admission was free, therefore I can spout the old cliché that the price of admission was worth the price of admission.

If you are a fan of Maria Perschy, you might like this passable time waster. The movie is an uneasy mix of a gold heist film with a touch of a Giallo. There's a twist you most likely will see coming, but in the long run, the movie is forgettable.