I watched a really good
giallo called
The Red Queen Kills 7 Times made by Emilio Miraglia. It was very entertaining, more on the campy side than the sleazy or the sinister, but with lots of beautiful and effective visuals. It's hard to guess how it's going to end, too, mainly because the way it does end makes no sense. And that's not me using a figure of speech, it really
makes no sense. If I wanted the ruin the film for you by telling you who did it and why, I couldn't. That sort of thing doesn't bother me, though.
I was surprised by how good it was, and, quite frankly, by its quality. I mean that's obviously qualified by the fact that this is an early '70s hokey Gothic
giallo, totally ludicrous and trashy...but, I have seen enough dull duds in this vein over the last couple of years to be thrilled by the real deal again. (
In the Folds of the Flesh? Don't even bother going there.)
It's pacey, jumping from scene to scene with vim and colour. Lots of colour - I got the Eyecatcher DVD, which is one of those cleaned-up but still a little grainy rescue jobs from the '00s when they always used to saturate the fuck out of the picture, which generally make these films look as lurid and sexy as they should. This is my favorite sort of look; it's amazing how depressing the glummer
gialli like Aldo Lado's can be when they miss this vibrancy.
All of this is helped along by a vintage Bruno Nicolai score, as gorgeous as it needs to be without putting too much effort in.
There's a surpise recurrence of this flat from
The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh:
There's Barbara Bouchet in peachy form, eyes as big as saucers, and Pia Giancaro wearing an amazing pair of hexagonal spectacles. Part of the action is set in a fashion house which is really helpful, because it means that all the women (including the Red Queen who kills seven times!) spend most of the film prancing around in fanastic '70s
haute courture concoctions, when they aren't naked.
There's loads of great things going on in this picture, I could go on about it for ages. I think there's even a message there somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.
Keeping this one.