Double Face

The premise of 'A Doppia Faccia' ('Double Face') is very good, actually. A wealthy woman dies in a car accident and the husband inherits a fortune, but soon after, clues lead him to believe she's still alive. What's going on?

It's an old-school, late-sixties giallo, not a lot of sex and violence, more of a psychological thriller in the Hitchcock vein. While there are some interesting twists and turns, and the direction and acting are pretty good, it just misses the mark due to several issues.

First and foremost, Kinski just isn't right as 'the good guy'. He's a very good actor, but he's well-known for playing creepy characters, especially in the Edgar Wallace krimi films, the predecessors to the gialli. This character needed us to find him likeable and to care, but Kinski's strength isn't his charm and empathy, it's his intensity and anger.

In terms of craft, the photography is quite good, except that silly scene in the snow, which really should have been cut. Sometimes effects don't work. The acting and directing were competent.

The script is another weak point. They should have spent more time making us believe the relationship was authentic and they loved each other, so we'd believe his obsession with finding out if she was still alive. There are quite a few nothing conversations that could have added to the character development. The police investigation and red herrings could have been more fleshed out.

Really, they did a pretty good job overall, considering how quickly and cheaply they pumped these films out. But a bit more time on the script and a different casting choice would have made this one really sing.

If we did not know when this film came out we could easily tell with a potential error of no more than +/- 12 months. The psychedelic elements put it in a 1967-1970 interval and the lesbian love scenes rule out the early part of that interval.

Klaus Kinski being cast against type is certainly quite memorable, but when I think of this film I mostly recall the special effects for the train crash. Or rather the lack of them! Although the moment is brief it is blatantly obvious that we have a crash of a model train, and even more clearly a burning model train. This is the special effects school of early Japanese Godzilla movies!

I fell in love with this movie from its first frame. Or, at any rate, the first BOOM-BANG-CRASH-WALLOP of its fabulously over-the-top piano soundtrack - as if Liberace were stationed just off camera, with blazing gold candelabra and rhinestone-studded Steinway grand. Its visuals are, if possible, lusher than its score. Crystal vases weep rose petals over the photo of a murdered woman. Venetian glass mirrors reflect the elegantly chiselled face of Klaus Kinski - glowering at us seductively over a polka-dotted silk cravat.

If you are used to Kinski hamming it up in a Herzog epic, his role here is a revelation. As a London millionaire who may or may not have murdered his lesbian wife, he is so subtle and ambiguous, so - dare I say it? - restrained that he keeps us guessing right up until the last few seconds. Seeing her 'come back to life' in a porno film (shot after her death) Kinski's face takes on a haunted look that outdoes all his raving, eye-rolling and tooth-gnashing in more famous roles.

Proof, if proof were needed, that director Riccardo Freda was not just a great unsung visual stylist, but a maestro of mood and suspense. Imagine a Chabrol or Hitchcock with the eye of a Renaissance painter, and you come close to the splendours of this film. So exquisite in its visual detail that its minor flaws - i.e. blatantly fake model car wrecks; continuity howlers such as Kinski walking bareheaded through Soho, then sitting in a nightclub with his hat on - simply evaporate before our eyes.

Oh, and I even like the tacky Italian pop ballad that keeps recurring as a 'clue' - to oddly chilling effect. So perhaps I'm just a sucker for this type of film.

David Melville

There are some cigarettes smoked in this film. In fact, the amount featured might have blown the budget, as some of the special effects are more than a little rough. Not to worry, we have top-billed Klaus Kinski playing a man apparently being driven mad, so we're in for some enjoyably extreme theatrics, surely?

Well actually, no. Kinski is at the most restrained I've ever seen him. That powerhouse of rolling eyes and bared teeth is subdued and on his best behaviour - or as much as you can be given the circumstances. It's strange seeing Kinski in the Edwidge Fenech/Dagmar Lassandra role (Nora Orland's incidental score has definite echoes of his subsequent work on 'The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh', starring Fenech in the titular role).

A fairly standard giallo, which has moments of great interest - usually involving Kinski.

It has to be said that Riccardo Freda wasn't the greatest Italian director to ever live and, as such, his films don't tend to rank among the best of the genres he's worked in. Double Face is not one of the best Giallo's ever made, though it's a hell of a lot better than Freda's later The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire, and it's a pretty decent genre entry in its own right. As is the case with most Giallo films; the central focus of the plot is on murder, but rather than following a string of murders as many of these films do; this time the focus is on just one murder and the investigation into said crime. The plot centres on John Alexander, a successful business man whose wife just happens to be a lesbian. She is, unfortunately, killed in a car crash towards the start of the film and John then encounters Christine; a sexy and uninhibited blonde seductress who seems to have a keen interest in him. One thing leads to another, and John ends up seeing a blue movie starring Christine and, apparently, his wife! The mystery then builds as John comes to believe that his wife is still alive.

The stand out star of the film is definitely Klaus Kinski. It's quite odd seeing him in this role as I'm so used to seeing him play the bad/insane antagonist, whereas here he finds himself in the hapless victim role. Kinski keeps it together well and while this performance isn't as great as the ones where he gets to go over the top; it has to be said that he gives a solid performance in the lead role. He is joined by fellow German Christiane Krüger, who takes up the role of sexy leading lady well and the central cast is rounded off by Margaret Lee, who appeared in a handful of Giallo's, including Slaughter Hotel and The Killers Are Our Guests. The film is never overly exciting and sometimes it seems too content to just wallow in the plot; but there are some interesting scenes to help fill out the running time. The film is set in London, although it wasn't shot on location and that fact clearly shows. The final ten minutes are the best of the film as the plot finally reveals itself and mostly makes sense. Overall, I cant say that Double Face is one of the best Giallo's ever made; but it's good enough and certainly worth seeing.