Death Carries a Cane

While waiting for the arrival of her boyfriend at an observation point, Kitty (Susan Scott) a keen photographer peers through a tourist telescope and manages to catch sight of the brutal murder of a woman through the window of a nearby house. She is unable to get a good view of the killer's face though and when her boyfriend Alberto Morosini(Robert Hoffman) arrives out of breath and limping, she tells Alberto of her ordeal. Alberto drives her to the police, who tell her they have no news of any killings locally. In the following days even the newspapers have no account of any murder, the police don't seem to have interest until they finally discover the body of the victim and then when some of the witnesses who seen the killer flee, are brutally slain, the police devoid of any leads and led by Inspector Merughi call in the limping Alberto as they believe the killer is a cripple with a cane, Alberto's name is released to the press and soon even Kitty begins to suspect Alberto.

It has to be said that Death Carries a Cane is low on thrills, but it does contain some violent murders and a nice gimmick for the killer, in that he uses his cane to hold down his victim before slashing their throats with a razor blade and in grand Giallo tradition the killer is replete with Black Hat/Gloves/Coat, the killers motive however is not revealed until the finale and we the viewer are not given much of a clue as who his identity and we only ever seen his hand or his frame in silhouette. The film itself lacks any kind of visual style, the colourless film stock is grainy which gives the impression of drabness, the locations for the most part are uninspired. There's also a back story of impotent composer Marco(Simon Andreu)and his ambitious reporter girlfriend and the seeming connection to the murderer of a girls ballet school, but even Giallo regulars Scott, Hoffman and Andreu fail to liven it up and Scott's obligatory nude scene seems like the fulfilment of a contractual obligation and less to do with the plot. Roberto Pregadio's score is generic and fails to liven up even the few moments of suspense, having said that it still held my interest and contained some nice kills but nothing spectacular. For Giallo completists only.

One of the better Italian slasher flicks of it's time.

Interesting use of color and editing. The story is rather typical but it moves about quickly enough. If you enjoy the earlier Argento flicks, Bava or even Fulci's "Don't torture a ducking" you should enjoy this.

The name Maurizio Pradeaux probably won't ever be written in the annals of cinematic history, but he will at least be remembered by the true lovers of Italian gialli for his two contributions "Death Steps in the Dark" and "Death Carries a Cane". The former was released in 1977, already after the heyday of the gialli, and tries to be successful through mixing the whodunit-mystery plot with slapstick elements. The latter is from the absolute peak-year 1973 and is an exemplary giallo from every possible viewpoint! The plot, the disguise and modus operandi of the killer, the red herrings, the gratuitous nudity … it's all prototypic and by-the-numbers giallo material. But personally I couldn't care less. Quite the contrary, in fact, I tremendously enjoyed "Death Carries a Cane" although – admittedly – the plot twists are slightly too transparent and I would have preferred an even higher body count. Whilst waiting for her lover, photographer Kitty looks through a tourist telescope and witnesses the brutal murder of a pretty girl by a maniac dressed in black. Nobody believes her, of course, and it takes quite a while before the police find the body. It even takes so long that the killer also has the time to eliminate two other witnesses, namely a chestnut vendor (no, it's not Tom Savini) and a greedy cleaning lady. Eventually another pretty ballerina gets killed and the police are on the lookout for a crippled killer, because they found the print of a cane in the blood. Kitty's lover Alberto is the prime suspect, because he's an artist who stabs mannequin dolls for pleasure and he just happened to hurt his ankle. It's actually rather easy to guess who the killer is, and I don't quite know if this is because I've seen far too many gialli, or because the plot is really predictable. I suppose option number two… Still, you have to watch this film for it's hilarious politically incorrect dialogs ("Take a look at my girlfriend's pictures, it's the only thing she does well aside from making love…"), the bloody razor blade massacres and the nudity provided by one-hit-wonder Anuska Borova!

"Death Carries a Cane" does a pretty good job in misleading and misdirecting you. So you never know who the killer is until the ending. But the motive given for the killer doesn't make any sense. With much more effort that could have made this movie into a classic. Also some scenes did not make sense at all. Like there were scenes cut out that have to give a logical explanation for what they are doing in the scene. This giallo might be a tad sleazy for some but in a healthy way. Because the women in this move are pretty attractive. Especially Nieves Navarro (or Susan Scott). There is something about this woman that screams sophistication. All the more hilarious later on when she is being made fun of towards the end. Overall not the most impressive giallo still a good one for a rainy Sunday.

Ordinary Italian murder/horror/mystery fair. I found it to be visually spectacular with swaying camera work common to Argento and others.

The movie delivers the goods with naked drop dead gorgeous women and fairly graphic killings. The plot is too complex, but these type of movies really are more about style.