(1962)
Dir - Eugenio Martín
Overall: MEH
An early effort from director Eugenio Martín, Hypnosis, (Ipnosi, Nur Tote Zeugen Schweigen, Dummy of Death), is a European co-production between West German, Spain, Italy, and France that adheres to the formulaic trappings of Edgar Wallace krimi films. Though a ventriloquist dummy is introduced in the opening scene and is even more garishly unsettling looking than most, this proves to be a misleading motif as the story instead concerns Jean Sorel trying to cover his tracks while making things much worse after a hypnotist is murdered in his dressing room. The plotting is cumbersome and mostly hinders around Heinz Drache's police inspector interviewing and tailing to the same woman several times, all in an attempt to catch up to the suspect who doubles as someone that the audience knows is innocent. This is because we are aware of who the murder is from the get go, rendering this as a police procedural without a mystery. Martín hardly has the production backing to make anything stylistically noteworthy, but ghostly wailings of a dummy's cackle are inherently creepy and though we are fully aware that no otherworldly or even psychological trick is being played on us, there are still a few shadowy and suspensefully curious moments to break up the monotony.
(1965)
Dir - Vicente Aranda
Overall: MEH
An incoherent art film with a murder mystery disguised underneath it, Fata Morgana, (Left-Handed Fate), was the second effort from Spanish director Vincente Aranda. Model-turned-actor Teresa Gimpera runs around a deserted Barcelona as everyone that she meets becomes different levels of infatuated with her, all while her death seems to be preordained and a police detective, (who is the only frustrated one in the movie), tries to find her before it is too late. Or something along those lines. Antonio Pérez Olea's up-temp jazz score occasionally breaks the long moments of silence, a woman kills two guys with a fish knife, one character keeps taking off disguises, sometimes people talk directly into the camera, hoodlums cut out and steal a billboard with Gimpera's photo on it, and the whole film has meta references to further confuse things. Our main heroine all but disappears for the final act as we switch to the detective before things end in a frustratingly abrupt manner, which all things considered, is in keeping with the nebulous giallo by way of Alain Robbe-Grillet/Jean-Luc Godard approach that Aranda takes here.
(1969)
Dir - Javier Setó
Overall: WOOF
The penultimate film Macabre, (Shadow of Death, Viaje al vacío), from Spanish director Javier Setó is unfortunately a lifeless, giallo-adjacent snooze-fest. A co-production between Spain and Italy as many identically structured cheapies were, familiar genre faces Larry Ward, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, and Teresa Gimpera are all present, with Ward playing a set of identical twin brothers convincingly enough. The ole "let's kill him by making him go crazy and take all of his money" scheme is utilized here, as well as a blackmail one involving Stuart who takes on the appearance of a typical, black trench coat and gloves giallo killer even if he does not play one. Setó's presentation of the already stock material is lifeless, with hardly any murders taking place and any sleazy elements left alone. Granted, the plot line revolves around a woman's infidelity with her husband's brother which is seedy enough on paper, but with hardly any set pieces besides Ward boringly getting treated for epileptic seizures, a woman getting killed so boringly that you hardly notice, and then Stuart getting thrown off out of a train, (also boringly), there is nothing here to captivate trash enthusiasts who expect a lot more, (or for that matter ANY), silliness, Euro-style, or camped-up melodrama.
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