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Review of 'The Devil with Seven Faces' (1971) - Osvaldo Cipriani.

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  • Review of 'The Devil with Seven Faces' (1971) - Osvaldo Cipriani.

    Osvaldo Cipriani's 'The Devil with Seven Faces' (1971) is a minor, though not entirely uninteresting early 70s Giallo/crime thriller hybrid that colourfully introduces us to the plight of vexed vivacious blonde Julie Harrison (Carroll Baker) who disturbingly finds herself being inexplicably harassed by a aggressive pair of mysterious, ill-tempered villains for shadowy motives wholly obscure to her. Understandably distressed, Julie turns to her lawyer friend Dave Barton (Stephen Boyd)for aid. Not entirely convinced, Barton blithely dismisses her, but not long after leaving his office Julie becomes the unwelcome victim of an attempted kidnapping!

    While Barton and his friend Tony Shane (Hilton) heroically come to her aid, sadly, Julie's problems are only just beginning! After receiving troublesome phone-calls from her estranged twin sister Mary, it soon transpires that her sinister sister Mary may have been directly involved in a major diamond heist, and by riskily double-crossing
    her criminal cohorts, and deserting her husband, Mary's life becomes forfeit! To compound sister Julie's woes ever further, these vengeful, increasingly ruthless criminals erroneously believe that Mary is Julie, and will stop at nothing to reclaim their twice-stolen booty! Meanwhile, Barton appears to have vested interests of his own, Tony becomes romantically entangled with Julie, thereby jeopardising his own safety. Not always perfectly executed, Osvaldo's lukewarm, convoluted, frequently sluggish thriller is buoyed by its capable cast and a surprisingly dramatic confrontation within a picturesque Dutch Windmill! 'The Devil with Seven Faces' is a curates egg, its modest appeal, perhaps, being to those more forgiving, obsessively-minded Euro-cult completists. The blazingly beautiful Giallo goddess Carroll Baker makes for a distractingly nubile protagonist, and the gaudy, loungier-than-usual Stelvio Cipriani soundtrack bouncily elevates the film's more prosaic elements!

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  • #2
    The Stelvio Cipriani score is really the only memorable thing about this film. It's one of his best, and that is saying something.
    I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.

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