(1970)
Overall: MEH
Director Umberto Lenzi and star Carroll Baker's first collaboration of the 1970s immediately follows their previous two and is melodramatic fluff for the most part, despite one or two suspenseful moments. A Quiet Place to Kill, (Paranoia, Una droga llamada Hele), finds Baker playing a race car driver who goes to hang out with her dashing, womanizing ex husband Jean Sorel, (who she previously tried to kill), at he and his new wife's luxurious estate. What follows is a hilarious string of manipulation via murder where almost every character on screen is revealed to be duping the other in a cockamamie murder scheme. Why so many people play nice while secretly teaming up with someone else in order to get yet another person out of the way is poorly explained from a logical perspective, which is nothing new to such Italian-style, sensationalized silliness. It does not make for the most compelling watch though as Lenzi and cinematographer Guglie Imo Mancori have nothing to offer stylistically besides a copious amount of camera zooms as well as the usual jazzy musical accompaniment. One moment where everyone reviews some film footage of what could expose the murderers is done in an intentionally gripping manner, plus Baker gets to drive around like a maniac on winding mountain roads after already suffering from a serious racing insistent, all of which cues the audience in no subtle way to the fact that her character is a wild one who is not to be trusted.
(1971)
Overall: MEH
When a movie's director allegedly states that "If I could burn that film, I'd do it!", then the viewer can logically assume that said filmmaker is not talking about a well-crafted pieces of celluloid. While Umberto Lenzi's Oasis of Fear, (Un posto ideale per uccidere, An Ideal Place to Kill), is not as bad as all that, it is also not one of the more memorable Italian hippy thrillers that the early 1970s produced. Lenzi apparently came up with the concept on the fly as to fulfill a contract obligation to producer Carlo Ponti, only to settle on actors that he felt uncomfortable working with. In any event, the story finds two young, hedonistic trouble-makers on the run from the law after getting busted for selling pornographic pictures of themselves, eventually ending up at a wealthy, middle-aged woman's home who has recently murdered her husband and decides to pin it on her attractive, horny guests. That scheme actually goes better than one would expect from such movies that were routinely full of double-cross after double-cross, but it all plays out in too simplistic and droll of a manner. Lead actor Ray Lovelock's upbeat rock song "How Can You Live Your Life?" shows up in various incarnations and is as overused and annoying as any from Italian genre cinema of the day, but besides some naked people and mild debauchery, said piece of music is also the only close-to memorable thing going on here.
(1972)
Overall: MEH
Overall: MEH
The fourth and final collaboration between director Umberto Lenzi and actor Carroll Baker was Knife for Ice, (Il coltello di ghiaccio, Vertigine, Detrás del Silencio, The Ice Pick); a giallo that takes its title from an Edgar Allan Poe quote and was inspired premise-wise by the 1946 film The Spiral Staircase. Baker plays a young woman who was rendered mute after witnessing the traumatic death of her parents, with a series of murders taking place at her villa that point to everything from an assumed sex maniac, to a suspicious hippy with glassy contact lenses for eyes, to a Satanic cult. The ultimate reveal is one of several for film's in the sub-genre that ends up being accidentally predictable due to it also being the last culprit that the audience suspects; an audience who was already well-trained enough by 1972 to guess the least likely person involved. Void of both nudity and violence, with the infrequent kills scenes mostly happening off-screen, it is not the most exploitative giallo there is. The gimmick of having its top-billed, American star have no dialog carries the film to a point, but its red herrings are far more interesting than what is actually proven to be happening, plus the tame presentation could use some more outlandish style to kick it into a higher gear.
No comments:
Post a Comment