Heißkaltes Blut

The subject of this film is passion; unfortunately, it is a film remarkably devoid of passion, despite its scenario that offers illicit love, jealousy and murder, and its location, set and filmed upon Cyprus, utilizing a cast that includes Greek Cypriots as supporting players and extras, and as well that splendid quality of light for which the island is noted, showcased here by cinematographer Marcello Gatti. Richard Johnson portrays Orestes, returning to his village following an absence of 15 years, to receive a bequest from his recently deceased father, and where he promptly begins an amour with the wife, Elena (Raquel Welch), of a long-time friend, she being very bored with an unrewarding existence, but their affair is suspected, leading to a grotesquely senseless climax for a film marked throughout with stylistic excesses. Actors generally relish taking on roles that appear atypical for them, but in this work some of the casting is simply too quaint, a suspension of disbelief beggared by attempts to accept Johnson as a turbulent Greek, poorly made up Flora Robson as Cypriot materfamilias, and especially Jack Hawkins as Eastern Orthodox priest, while ever decorative Welch plays herself, and the direction of Yorgo Pan Cosmatos checks a potential perception of believability in a viewer dealing with an overly episodic storyline.