DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT

(Luciano Ercoli, 1972)

Weird! An engrossing giallo with no nudity and little gore!
Feisty supermodel Valentina (Susan Scott) is mislead by her tabloid journalist friend Giovanni (Simon Andreu) into taking a new drug, HDS, as part of a supposedly scientific experiment. While under the influence, she sees a woman brutally murdered, with a spiked glove, in an empty apartment behind her own.

After being dismissed by the modeling agency over the incident, Valentina finds herself short on cash, though no less popular. An anonymous job offer lures her to the very apartment in which she'd seen the girl murdered, and there she runs into the same creepy, bespectacled killer! She narrowly escapes, and soon learns from the police that a girl had indeed been murdered there with a spiked glove... six months prior.

Initially no one believes her story, but she soon finds herself approached by two strangers who claim to know both the victim and the falsely-arrested murderer. With a little help from Gio and the two strangers, she manages to identify the real killer, only to find out that the man she saw may not actually be the one she should be tracking down!

Death Walks at Midnight relies more on mystery and plot than most gore and sleaze- packed gialli from the same era. It's also refreshing to watch a giallo wherein the female lead neither faints, panics, or disrobes. In fact, Valentina is the real star of the show, and what a feisty character she is! She's tough, especially by giallo standards, and throws a lot of rocks, lamps, and punches. She's not afraid to go for the balls, and she even uses a gun! And all of this with little help from the rather unsympathetic men in her life.

Story aside, Death Walks at Midnight is a lot of fun to watch, has a good dose of action and humor, and moves at a quick pace. The cinematography is quite stylish, the soundtrack appropriately groovy, and the sets just as far-out as the music. The only really bloody bits are, sadly, at the very beginning and end of the film, but are among the highlights. Very much recommended. Buy used copies here.

DEATH CARRIES A CANE

(Maurizio Pradeaux, 1973)

I'm sure my opinions will be from here out dismissed, but I actually enjoyed Death Carries a Cane, despite the fact that it's obviously inspired by the work of Dario Argento and adds nothing new to the genre.

Through a coin-operated telescope, Kitty (Susan Scott) spies a woman being murdered. The timer runs out before she can see the killer's face, and initially her boyfriend Alberto (Robert Hoffman) disbelieves her. The police, however, do find a corpse that matches the description given by Kitty, and an investigation is undertaken. Kitty and Alberto learn that the killer was not only seen by Kitty, but by a number of others whom are bumped off by the cane and razor-wielding assassin before they can be properly questioned.

The story is pretty run-of the mill, but it does feature some nifty lighting and camerawork. The emphasis on voyeurism within this film cannot be missed, as someone is always spying through a telescope or camera. It contains all the trademark giallo elements, including the ol`straight razor `n gloves, plenty of red herrings, nudity, prostitutes, a striptease, etc. The deaths are nice and bloody, and the soundtrack is pretty groovy too. Naturally, it`s all let down by a slightly nonsensical ending, but worth a view. Still not available in North America.