7/10
Kind of pointless but has its moments
8 March 2008
In Venice Franco (George Lazenby!) is visited by his young daughter. She disappears and is found brutally murdered. His estranged wife Elizabeth (Anita Strindberg) comes to comfort him and help find the murderer. But Franco finds out things are complicated and soon the murderer is after him and his friends.

There's a LOT of problems with this. For starters Lazenby looks terrible. He's far too thin (the scenes of him with his shirt off are actually pretty horrifying) and he has long hair and an ugly moustache. The dubbing is lousy--even Lazenby is dubbed! The story ceases to make sense more than once. There are far too many characters to keep track of and the final resolution really doesn't make sense. Also the POV shots of the killer stalking people are cool at first...but then they're happening nonstop and quickly get tiresome. Still this has some things going for it.

Before the plot goes barreling out of control it's actually kind of interesting. All the characters and situations keep your attention. The location shooting in Venice is just great--their are some incredibly beautiful visuals here. It has its share of spooky sequences (one with Elizabeth alone in Franco's apartment actually got to me) and some cool bloody murders. Also Ennio Morricone's score is incredible--kept reminding me of "Deep Red" and "Suspiria".

So, it's not a good film but has its moments. Director Aldo Lsdo did much better with "Short Night of the Glass Dolls". Giallo fans might want to take a look.
2 out of 7 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed