(1971)
Dir - Osvaldo Civirani
Overall: MEH
Osvaldo Civirani's The Devil Has Seven Faces, (Il diavolo a sette facce, Bloody Marry, Nights of Terror), ends up being a bog-standard crime-caper instead of a sensationalized giallo as both the title and Carroll Baker's involvement would otherwise suggest. The gimmick here is that Baker plays a set of identical twin sisters, at least on paper as neither are shown together and it all ends up being a masquerade anyway, involving diamond theft and a series of thugs chasing her around. Most of the plot twists are easy to divulge from miles away and despite the fact that she is in the lead, Baker does not get to do much besides wear a couple of wigs and act frightened once or twice, (including an early psyche-out scene where an Asian man scares her with a gorilla mask on for no decipherable reason). Other genre regulars George Hilton and Luciano Pigozzi are present as well, plus the movie has a zippy musical score from Stelvio Cipriani featuring the common motif of a female vocalist scatting over breezy jazz. Light on the murder and void of nudity, it serves better as a sleeping pill than as an engaging bit of Euro-thriller mayhem.
Dir - Silvio Amadio
Overall: MEH
Director Silvio Amadio churned out two giallos in 1972 with Rosalba Neri, both similarly silly and focused on a small number of characters who mostly hold up in a single location. Stylishly decorated though lacking in flashy cinematic tricks, Smile Before Death, (Il sorriso della iena, Smile of the Hyena), presents a convoluted love triangle if ever there was one. A man in an open, bitter relationship with his wealthy wife has her killed by his mistress, only for his stepdaughter to show up and seduce both him, (eeewww), and said mistress, only for another murdering scheme and then a blackmailing one to each fall through due to double-crosses upon double-crosses as well as some good ole karmic fate. A ridiculous story to be sure and one that is endlessly enhanced/ruined via more montages than a Rocky movie by the obnoxious song "Iena Sequence" which features giggly scat vocals by Edda Dell'Orso and creates a comedic tone from the offset; a tone that may or may not have been intentional. While Neri amazingly keeps her clothes on throughout almost the entirety, Jenny Tamburi steps in with the heavy birthday suite lifting, so there is still the standard quota of erotic, Italian sleaze to delight genre fans.
(1975)
Dir - Ciccio Ingrassia
Overall: WOOF
The second of only two films that Ciccio Ingrassia of Franco and Ciccio fame directed, The Exorcist: Italian Style, (L'esorciccio, The Exorciccio), is a straight-ahead parody of the William Friedkin movie and is about as groan-worthy in its stupidity as one would expect. Considered one of the worst films of all time in its native Italy, it is not as wretched as such a reputation dictates, yet its dated hijinks and pacing lulls leave much to be desired. Opening with a scene straight out of the original where Ingrassia is at a digging site in Iran where a worker excitingly notifies him about a demonic amulet that looks enough like the mini Pazuzu statue to get the point, this is the only moment in the movie that is not played for juvenile, "people run around in fast motion and/or make wacky faces" nyuck nyucks. The plot hinges upon said amulet that goes from person to person, possessing them in unique ways including making a Mayer dance like Elvis, having his child son gain superhuman strength, turning his teenage daughter into a stripteasing seductress, and allowing for his wife to grow a beard that she cannot shave off. Plenty of Neanderthal-brained mayhem ensues, but it is more obnoxious than funny with Ingrassia and his bumbling sidekick Mimmo Baldi having only the most grating of chemistry together. Too much screen time is also dedicated to Lino Banfi's Mayor chewing the scenery in his plea to not have a public scandal ruin his reputation and all of the set pieces go on for a torturous amount of time.
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