Knife Under the Throat

A Giallo from a non-expert country (France) and released during an era when the subgenre was long dead & buried already, is that even worth watching? Short answer: God, yes! If only for the presence - and frequent nude sequences - of two stunningly gorgeous women. Blond Brigitte Lahaie is definitely in my personal top five of most beautiful women ever, and brunette Florence Guérin is probably not far behind. With these two parading around, and a couple of other beauties like Natasha Delange and the nameless woman who gets brutally strangled at the beginning of the film, I tend to be a lot milder for weaknesses in the script or lack of tension. Yeah, I'm that shallow.

Still, even in terms of plotting, suspense, and grisly murders, "Le Couteau Sous La Gorge" isn't too bad at all! Admittedly, the whole thing is incoherent and everything that is happening feels random and like it was improvised on the spot. If, at the end of the film, the killer must explain the why and how he/she accomplished all the murders, there's something wrong. It didn't bother me, though.

The opening fifteen minutes are powerful. Florence Guérin runs half-naked (the lower half) and in panic through the city streets and into a police station. She claims to have been gang-raped but none of the cops takes her seriously, which initially comes across as quite shocking. It turns out the young woman - Catherine - is a mythomaniac who regularly makes up stories like this. She's also a successful nude model, and together with her roommate Florence and tough businesswoman Valerie (Brigitte Lahaie) she does an eccentric photoshoot in a cemetery at midnight. The caretaker of the cemetery can't cope with the scandal, goes berserk, and violently strangles an innocent young woman. One month later, after a trip abroad, Catherine receives obscene phone calls from an actual stalker, but given her condition, nobody believes her.

In good old Giallo tradition, there are sadist kills and plenty of potential culprits. Catherine has a drug-addicted ex-boyfriend, their regular photographer (who's named J. B. after the whiskey he's drinking) is an aggressive sexist, the girls' weird landlady always walks around with hedge clippers, or the cemetery caretaker might not be dead after all. Take your pick!

Lahaie and Guérin also both starred in "Faceless", which is director Jess Franco's third best film out of a total of two hundred.

French attempt at a giallo, directed by Claude Mulot (his final film - he drowned whilst swimming four months after the film's release, aged just 44).

The IMDb plot summary simply reads 'Erotic models are stalked by a maniac.' The fact that that just about sums it up says how thin the plot is. To try to flesh it out a bit... Jean Rollin regular Brigitte Lahaie's modelling agency boss slips a night watchman a few bob to let her photographer take some saucy snaps in a local cemetery. As the night watchman watches the photoshoot from his hut he becomes increasingly angry (presumably he hadn't realised what kind of photoshoot it would be) - to the point where the next day he murders an innocent woman who bears a passing resemblance to one of the models. Immediately afterwards, in a fit of guilt, he throws himself under the wheels of an HGV. From then on various people involved in the photoshoot start getting bumped-off by an unidentified, black glove-wearing assailant armed with a knife.

With such a flimsy story, the runtime is understandably short (just 81 mins). Lahaie was the best-known name in the cast at the time, and is easily the name still most familiar to Eurosleaze fans; but the lead of the film is the eye-wateringly beautiful Florence Guérin as Catherine, one of the models. She was just 20 yrs old but had been acting for six years, and - according to Lahaie in a recent interview - had decided she was destined to be a megastar, treating everyone else accordingly. Guérin is still working but never achieved that stardom - perhaps the diva attitude is part of the reason. Shame.

It suffers from things many gialli suffer from; the people don't talk - or react - like real people, some of the plot contrivances are implausible (to say the least), and when the reveal comes it is genuinely laughably ridiculous! But also in true giallo fashion, there are plenty of red herrings, a lot of full nudity - and, perhaps most importantly, the blood looks like bright red paint!

This French attempt is not a bad stab (forgive the pun), and there are certainly Italian gialli I'd rate lower. 6/10.

Devoted fan of sleazy and violent obscurities that I am I sorely wish I could get behind this one more. The tale of a frayed and fragile erotic model plagued by nasty phone calls and a killer targeting her co workers, Knife Under The Throat packs sleazy nudity and a bit of fun violence, but never really comes together in a satisfactory fashion, despite some nice moments and a fairly solid finale. A good deal of the problem with it comes down to the too dark cinematography, during night scenes or simply darker ones this is difficult to make out, I assume that the version I saw was culled from an old French VHS and given fan subtitles but unless a remastered copy comes out or a better quality version is discovered for me to re-evaluate I have to say that the version around that fans are likely to come across isn't of terribly good quality. It's nice just to be able to see such a rare French sleaze film but still, this is completists only stuff. And the problem isn't just in the darker scenes, overall this suffers from being a good deal too short. The IMDb lists the runtime as 84 minutes, what I saw had the credits rolling at 75, with two and a half minutes of end credits and I can't see any scenes which appeared to be noticeably trimmed, editing seemed fairly coherent and judging on one or two of the seedier scenes (shots of female pubic hair during a rape for instance) I'd be surprised if other stuff was removed, especially since I'm not sure this one ever had a wider release that might have been cut in the first place (plus format speed issues and IMDb's occasional inaccuracies may well be in play). So worries about censorship aside, the upshot of the short run-time is that neither the characters, the plot or the erotic photography milieu are ever explored to an effective degree and suspense is a little sparse. On the plus side, this one never gets dull and the game performances keep it moving nicely. Florence Guerin is an affecting heroine, beautiful and sympathetic as a character unusually abused and undeservedly misunderstood, while Jean-Pierre Maurin ably chews the scenery as a slimeball photographer. Alexandre Sterling provides a measure of light as a helpful neighbour, while French erotic legend and Jean Rollin regular Brigitte Lahaie has a callous yet ultimately understandable and business like side role as the manager of the films photography business. There are also a couple of gnarly kills and modestly twisted sleaze for genre fans to chew on, so those that simply have to watch this won't be at a complete loss, though it isn't good enough to recommend hunting down unless you come across a version longer than mine. Watch it if you simply must see every available sexy thriller/horror out there, or if you happen to be a big fan of director Claude Mulot (this is his last film), best known for Pussy Talk but otherwise one to pass on I'd say.

"Fear turns you on, right? Then you're gonna be happy. Very Happy." Young brunette model Catherine (Florence Guerin) is being stalked and hounded, people around her start being killed by an unknown assassin. The country most associated with the genre of movies known as Giallo is Italy but this is a late stab (pardon the pun) at one from France. By 1986 the glory days of the Giallo were long gone. I like French movies, especially their horror ones, and with a sleazy title coupled with artwork showing a woman lying in a bath with blood everywhere I simply could not resist buying a copy on Blu-ray. I had hoped for better, don't get me wrong, it's an alright watch but when the end credits rolled I did feel slightly disappointed. There is plenty of full frontal female nudity and several instances of sexual violence but in terms of the all important kills and gore I found it to be a let down. The killer wears the traditional black leather gloves but is holding what looks more like a penknife than a formidable blade. The music is almost non-stop, a good score can do wonders for a film but overkill is one of my pet hates. As per usual in a Giallo movies there are several suspects, the killer's motive is pretty good and they (not going to give away their gender) kindly spends some time explaining their reasons just before the end. One of the things that appealed to me was having the gorgeous Brigitte Lahale in the cast, she does drop her clothes though nowhere near as much as in previous movies. As an extra the Blu-ray has a 20 minute interview with her, she makes it clear that she wasn't terribly fond of this movie and I can understand why. Film is in French with English subs so if you don't speak the language fluently and don't like reading subtitles then steer clear. I dare say that I will watch it again one day, hopefully I will enjoy it more with a repeat viewing.

Very violent, very sleazy, not very good but is very watchable. Another reviewer mentioned the running time and I concur this is nearer 75 minutes than the 85 given on IMDb. No problem for me there though, always happy when a film doesn't outstay its welcome and this could have not gone on much longer. As it is we get imagined scenes of sexual violence, real ones and then the real ones retold plus recurring nightmares, so there is plenty going on but it is not involving us too deeply.My DVD quality is fine including subtitles so there is a decent copy going the rounds. Brigitte Lahaie is a bit subdued, although she does, of course, get naked. She's overshadowed here by Florence Guerin, twenty here and not only very good looking but out performs most of the cast. I see she appeared the following year in Jess Franco's, Faceless, again with Lahaie and is still working today. Bit distasteful at times but a very decent watch, or should that be indecent?