The Obscure Giallo Thread

[Andrew Monroe]

HEAT OF THE FLAME -- From director Rafael Romero Marchent (best known for his spaghetti westerns), this Spanish giallo is surprisingly engaging. A mountain village in Spain. A young, beautiful wife is very unhappy in her marriage to an older, seemingly respectable man. Meanwhile, a masked killer is preying on young women in the area. Marred only by the worst man in drag disguise ever, this is another little Spanish gem of a thriller. There's another scene I won't spoil but is very un-pc and cringy. Lots of hang-gliding footage, oddly. Written by Santiago Moncada, who wrote the excellent films THE CORRUPTION OF CHRIS MILLER and THE BELL OF HELL.

[Dom D]

I have a bunch of capsule reviews from various boots I've bought over the years. I'll try to post some in the weeks to come.

Please do. I've been been hoping for others to start chiming in with their own reviews. And it's good to see you back!

[Andrew Monroe]

Great thread, Dom. I have a bunch of capsule reviews from various boots I've bought over the years. I'll try to post some in the weeks to come. Off the top of my head, a couple to look for are THE LION'S SHARE and CROSS CURRENT.

[Dom D]

Pshychout For Murder (1969):



A wealthy man's teenage daughter gets photographed in a hotel with her boyfriend. He decides the best way to avoid scandal is to have her consigned to an asylum and write the illicit rendezvous off as mental illness.... I know this was the 60s but was there ever a time where that seemed like a proportionate response to the issue? Seems heavy to me. Anyway when she gets out she is pissed and hell bent on revenge which seems fair to be honest... She sets about trying to seduce her brother in law and ruin her father's political ambitions amid other shenanigans.


This is very watchable and at the same time a bit disappointing. Future Days Of Our Lives star Adrienne La Russa is a suitably coquettish heroine with a fine line of revealing costuming, there's a cool score and the direction is very stylish. Lots of experimental editing. Its surprising loose on the plotting front though. La Russa never seems to have a clear plan of attack other than to be an agent of chaos. Maybe that's intentional but it doesn't make for a cohesive storyline as the deaths stack up and no one seems to be investigating them or be overly bothered by them at all.

The story feels like a first draft while everything thing else in the film seems first class A couple more passes at that screenplay and this could have been very good.

[fatboyslim142]

Looks like it's usually called First Surrender in English. Looks mega obscure, can't find anything about it English. Jealous of your find!

The seller I got this from said it was ultra obscure & that he'd only heard about it very recently.

The seller I got it from does loads of DVD-Rs of, quite often, rare films untill they get an official release or in the case of foreign language ones an English friendly release & then he stops selling DVD-Rs of a title.

I also got these two non-Gialli from the same seller:

Santo vs the Raiders of Terror (1970)
The Cursed House (1987) - An Egyptian Poltergeist.

[Dom D]

It has Javier Bardem's mother in it. The title I wrote is what is on the DVD-R I picked up & anyway the Italiabn title is Dirai: Ho Ucciso Per Legittima Difesa.

Looks like it's usually called First Surrender in English. Looks mega obscure, can't find anything about it English. Jealous of your find!

[fatboyslim142]

I've not seen Bed Of Love And Blood. Sexy Cat is one of those films you want to be great. Mixing Giallo and Fumetti. How can you go wrong? There's a bunch of kills and some fun costuming so if you're a sucker for the genres and the aesthetic of the time (some pop art touches) there's something there for you. It is cheap though and not very well made and it's loosely plotted. I found it hard to stay engaged.

The Giallo is my favourite film genre so I'll practically watch any Gialli.

[fatboyslim142]

EDIT: After writing the above I did a google search for Bed of Love & Blood as I hadn't heard of it. I'm not bringing anything up. Details please!

It has Javier Bardem's mother in it. The title I wrote is what is on the DVD-R I picked up & anyway the Italiabn title is Dirai: Ho Ucciso Per Legittima Difesa.

[Dom D]

I've not seen Bed Of Love And Blood. Sexy Cat is one of those films you want to be great. Mixing Giallo and Fumetti. How can you go wrong? There's a bunch of kills and some fun costuming so if you're a sucker for the genres and the aesthetic of the time (some pop art touches) there's something there for you. It is cheap though and not very well made and it's loosely plotted. I found it hard to stay engaged.

EDIT: After writing the above I did a google search for Bed of Love & Blood as I hadn't heard of it. I'm not bringing anything up. Details please!

[Dom D]

I've not seen Bed Of Love And Blood. Sexy Cat is one of those films you want to be great. Mixing Giallo and Fumetti. How can you go wrong? There's a bunch of kills and some fun costuming so if you're a sucker for the genres and the aesthetic of the time (some pop art touches) there's something there for you. It is cheap though and not very well made and it's loosely plotted. I found it hard to stay engaged.

[fatboyslim142]

Anyone seen the following, which I picked up at a film fair today?

Bed of Love & Blood (1971)
Sexy Cat (1973)

[Dom D]

Interrabang (1969):



This ones been mentioned on the board a few times before as it had an Italian DVD release at some point. Means there's acceptable quality copies of it floating around on the interwebs.

This is one of those sun soaked gialli. A photographer and 3 models go to an island to shoot some glamour shots. Everyones ridiculously good looking, vacuous and waiting to be murdered. There's an issue with the boat so the photographer heads back to the mainland leaving the 3 models on the island by themselves even though there's most likely a deranged killer stalking the island. Eventually the ladies meet the killer but rather than running away and screaming as you'd expect from the genre they make out with him and have endless conversations about the futility of existence. Honestly you never saw women so keen, and deserving, of getting knocked off. It's odd enough that the film gets to feeling quite surreal at times.

It's another film that had me wondering for a long time whether it was actually a giallo. Feels more like an art film that forgot its subtext. Then it hits the last 10 minutes and any doubts you may have had of its provenance get washed away. There's a quadruple cross on the triple cross on the double cross and it all gets nicely demented.

Loved the ending. Takes a long time to get there though... Sure you've got 3 European beauties who are constantly switching their bikinis to while away the time till you get there but is that enough?

[James Reed]

This might be a good time to mention I'm in a Facebook group called Gialloholics. It's a private group. You can find links to movies on YouTube that are unlisted if you are a member. Gialloholics | Facebook

[f.ramses]

Loved A.A.A. Masseuse the first time I saw it and remembered it fondly but all subsequent viewings, even the one long after I had forgotten most of the story so I didn't know the ending, were a bit boring. Despite that I still kind of really want this on BD.

[Spaghetti Monkey]

^ I've always been curious about this one. I find Fidani's ultra low budget Westerns to be oddly entertaining. I would also love a good copy of HYENA IN THE SAFE. My copy is cropped and lousy.