Violent Midnight

For those of you unfamiliar with the term "Giallo", it refers to a genre of movies that are usually Italian and that focus on an unknown killer who brutally murders young women (and the occasional man if he gets in the way) before being unmasked and then dying in some singularly unpleasant fashion. Originally it referred to the cover of cheap Italian paperback pulp fiction that had yellow covers (giallo is yellow in Italian).

The first true giallo was Mario Bava's BLOOD & BLACK LACE in 1964 but this little known 1963 American black & white offering from producer Del Tenney could be considered a forerunner. VIOLENT MIDNIGHT aka PSYCHOMANIA (to cash in on Hitchcock's PSYCHO) takes place in a girl's college and features a trench coat wearing, booted killer who uses an Army combat knife to murder women who get too close to a Korean War veteran known for violent episodes but who now paints for a living. The movie opens with a shocking murder from the past that inspires the killer in the present.

Shot on location in and around Stamford, Connecticut, VIOLENT MIDNIGHT is definitely a low budget affair (it cost $42,000) that has a surprisingly strong cast including Sylvia Miles, James Farentino, and Dick Van Patten who were just starting out in their careers. It also has some moody cinematography, a touch of exploitation, and a surprise ending that really comes out of left field. Meant to be shown in drive-ins, it was successful enough to allow producer Tenney to turn director and create the infamous double bill (THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH and CURSE OF THE LIVING CORPSE) which was released the following year.

Dark Sky Films has released this title as a single or, if you think you can stand it, all 3 Del Tenney classics are available on a specially priced 3 DVD set. 255 minutes of your life that you will never get back but if you're into sleaze and cheese than it's worth it. All 3 movies look great and sound as good as movies with their budgetary limitations can (which is pretty good). Of the 3, VIOLENT MIDNIGHT is easily the most creative and interesting so it's the one to go for especially at its current single digit price...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

I wondered all the time what I exactly watched, a thriller or a horror film. I felt very strange. It is not bad but...I don't know, something is missing, or is wrong, something that has not its place...Maybe the characters symphony. But it brings suspense, no problem, it is tense, not boring. Unfortunately the cheesy ending is totally out of any logic, if you compare with the rest of the topic. I don't know the director nor the actors. No, I won't remind this however interesting film. I expected something far more disturbing. It is full of suspense but certainly not disturbing. I would have prefered.

While I wouldn't call "Violent Midnight" a porno film, I was VERY surprised when I tried to watch this with my family. After all, the DVD was unrated and from the early 1960s. But my wife and daughters were a bit surprised as was I when ample nudity appeared on the screen. Again and again, ladies appeared in their underwear or naked for little apparent reason. So, because of this you might want to think twice about seeing this one. It's not a bad film--but an early merging of murder and naked women--a rather disturbing combination if you think about it.

If you do see this film, you'll see James Farentino before he was a star and Dick Van Patten in his first film. It also stars Lee Philips--an actor you may recognize but definitely an actor who is relatively unknown today.

When Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO opened the door, many other films followed, and the early 1960s saw a glut of low-budget, black and white thrillers that held scantily clad women at the point of a knife. Released in 1964, VIOLENT MIDNIGHT (also known as PSYCHOMANIA or BLACK AUTUMN) is fairly typical of the genre but better than most.

When Delores is found stabbed to death in her rooms there are two very obvious suspects: Elliot, the reclusive artist who has employed her as a model, and Charlie, her tough-guy boyfriend. After all, the two men had a bar room knife fight over her the night before! Fortunately Elliot has his half-sister, who has just arrived to attend a local all-girl college, for support. But before too long the student body becomes precisely that, and both Elliot and Charlie come under renewed suspicion.

The cast is unexpectedly solid. Leading man Lee Philips (in the role of artist Elliot Freeman) and supporting actor Shepperd Strudwick (as his attorney) both had long and respectable careers both before and after VIOLENT MIDNIGHT; James Farentino, Sylvia Miles, and Dick Van Patten would go on to notable careers of their own. Even so, there's nothing subtle about the script, which crams everything from biker chicks to college sirens into the mix, and most viewers will probably identify the killer in the first twenty minutes of the film.

Even so, and in spite of a budget that was clearly just this side of zero, VIOLENT MIDNIGHT isn't a bad little flick, and it easily holds its own with the likes of the better-known DEMENTIA 13. It will probably lack appeal for the casual viewer, but fans of 1960s B-movies will have a good time.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

A film probably better known by its alternate, later title of "Psychomania," "Violent Midnight" (1963) proved a very pleasant surprise for me indeed. The film centers around Elliott Freeman, a young, reclusive painter who won't be a free man much longer if the local police have their way. One of Freeman's pretty young models has just been found knifed to death (the picture's debt to Hitchcock's "Psycho" is fairly evident during her suggested, shadowy slaying), and before long, one of his sister's co-ed friends follows suit.... An independent production more than ably helmed by Del Tenney, this film offers any number of unexpected treats. It features beautiful and artfully composed B&W photography; nice visuals of the Stamford, CT countryside; an intriguing, jazzy score; some surprising and titillating near nudity by a good number of comely lasses; and interesting performances by its largely no-name cast. The only performers I was at all familiar with here were Silvia (sic) Miles as a blond bar floozy; TV favorite Dick van Patten as a hard-boiled cop (!); and, in his first film role, James Farentino as a randy thug who can't seem to help getting in trouble. The actress Lorraine Rogers is also very fine as a blond, aggressively lustful student. The picture concludes quite suspensefully, with the knife-wielding killer stalking a very pretty gal during a thunderstorm. The killer's identity comes waaaaaay out of left field, I must say; don't even try to guess, unless you're infinitely better at these things than I am! This film also features one of the most deliciously morbid folksingers you'll ever want to hear; a perfect accompaniment to the chilly goings-on in "Violent Midnight." And oh...a great-looking print on this DVD, from the good folks at Dark Sky.