O Carrasco da Mão Negra

A man is decapitated with a steam shovel.It's not an accident,though because steam shovel operator is later found hanged and apparently murdered.When the other bodies begin to pile up Inspector Luca Peretti connects this case with the kidnapping and murder of a little girl and her father."My Dear Killer" by Tonino Valerii is a tightly woven giallo full of surprising twists and turns.There are some interesting flashbacks and very memorable soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.Giallo regular George Hilton shines in his excellent performance as Inspector Luca Peretti.The storyline is extremely complex and demands full attention of potential viewer.If you like Italian gialli you can't miss this classic.8 ransoms out of 10.A brief shot of a young naked girl is quite shocking and unexpected.

Unlike many other gialli, "Mio Caro Assassino" is not merely a succession of nasty murder scenes; it is bloody yet classy. It boasts an intricate, puzzlelike plot, some very good POV camerawork, a few stunning women (Patty Shepard, Mónica Randall, Helga Line, Marilu Tolo, etc.), a dependable lead in George Hilton (who has cited this film as one of the most noteworthy of his long career), another chilling la-la-la-la-la theme by Ennio Morricone, and a nifty Poirot-like climax, where Hilton gathers all the suspects in the same room and summarizes the case. A superior example of the genre. *** out of 4.

An insurance investigator, Police Inspector Peretti (George Hilton)helped by a Brigadier (Manuel Zarzo) are assigned by his chief ((Saldo Randone) the investigation of a killing via mechanical digger . As there happens several murders with bloody and gruesome executions. Some drawings seem to implicate about anybody are dieing . Meanwhile the series killer goes on a real massacre on various unfortunate victims as a man supposedly commits suicide, a women is strangled, another attacked in her apartment. Slowly more people are found dead and the inspector investigates the strange killings with numerous suspects (Monica Randall, Alfredo Mayo , William Berger).

Tonino Valeri 's great success is compelling directed with startling visual content.This frightening movie is plenty of thrills, chills, body-count and glimmer color in lurid pastel with phenomenal results. This is a classic slasher where the intrigue,tension, suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room, corridors and luxurious interior and exterior.This genuinely mysterious story is well photographed by Manuel Rojas with magenta shades of ochre ,translucently pale turquoises and deep orange-red .

The movie belongs to Italian Giallo genre that was invented by Mario Bava along with Riccardo Freda(Secret of Dr. Hitchcock) , they are the fundamental creators . These Giallo movies are characterized by overblown use of color with shining red blood, usual zooms, and utilization of images-shock . Later appears Dario Argento(Deep red, Suspira,Inferno), another essential creator of classic Latin terror films. Tonino Valeri's so-so direction is well crafted, here he's less cynical and humorous and more inclined toward violence and lots of killings . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Manuel Rojas . Very good musical score by the classic Ennio Morricone. The picture is well directed by Tonio Valeri , an expert on Western as proved in ¨The hired gun ¨ , ¨My name is nobody ¨ with Fonda and Terence Hill , ¨The price of power ¨ with Giuliano Gemma and Van Heflin , ¨The day of anger ¨with Lee van Cleef and ¨ Taste of Killing¨ with Craig Hill and George Martin . Rating: Good, this is one more imaginative slasher pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style throughout a story with magnificent visual skills.

From the opening strains of its eerie, baby-lullaby theme song to its haunting final shot of a child's drawing, "My Dear Killer" (1972) is a giallo pervaded with a sense of tragedy. A year before the action depicted in the film, a young child had been kidnapped from her wealthy parents' country villa and left to die, and now a wave of homicides, seemingly connected to this tragedy, opens the case anew. Giallo regular George Hilton plays Inspector Peretti here, a character who surely deserves a medal or promotion of some sort for getting to the bottom of this case; indeed, "My Dear Killer" is one of the most complicated gialli that I have ever seen. It is the type of film that you watch by the skin of your teeth, just barely comprehending the plot as things unspool; a repeat viewing--in my case, anyway--reveals that this seemingly unfathomable plot does make perfect sense. Anyway, Hilton (mustachioed here, for a change) is excellent, as usual, director Tonino Valerii keeps things nice and suspenseful, and the maestro, Ennio Morricone, provides a score that, if not his most memorable, is appropriately nerve jangling (and eerie, as I mentioned up top). While not a particularly violent giallo, a pair of set pieces should make this film of interest to all the gorehounds out there: one decapitation murder using an enormous dredging machine, and, most horribly, the death of a gorgeous schoolteacher with a circular power saw. (Don't all women have this tool lying around their apartment?) This latter scene, although not overly graphic, still proved kind of hard for me to watch. As far as the killer's identity is concerned, I suppose it IS possible to figure this one out, but my advice would be to just relax and enjoy the fun. The DVD that I just watched, by the way, from the fine folks at Shriek Show, looks just fine, but includes no subtitling option...not even with the interview extras, which are all in Italian! A pity...I would have enjoyed Hilton's comments on this very entertaining giallo, all these years later....

"My Dear Killer" is another fun and decent entry in the Italian Giallo thrillers genre and begins interestingly enough with a man standing at a eerie lake and then meets his end with a gloriously twisted tractor accident/murder, and straight away lets the viewer know what's in store for the rest of the movie.

The plot is very interesting for starters as we get the main character a detective trying to solve this crime, which then leads him to a kidnapping case from before where the child and father were both murdered. Then along the way of course everybody who was involved meets some sort of sticky end, which was another aspect that excited and interested me, especially the girl who gets attacked with a buzzsaw, which was both terrifying and well done.

Okay there are some bad points, like for starters the pacing was rather slow at times and some of the characters didn't quite stand out, I couldn't tell some of them apart and there weren't enough colourful characters to fully ingage in. But what saves things are the delightful twists and turns round every corner, and especially loved the scene at the end where the detective gathers round the last remaining suspects in a Agatha Christie kinda way, about the reveal the identity of the killer, which was delightful, especially when the lights go out and then someone screams.

All in all a fairly entertaining addition to the Giallo genre, but not one of the best ones though, but still decent enough.