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Death Occurred Last Night

Original title: La morte risale a ieri sera
  • 1970
  • TV-14
  • 1h 38m
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
851
YOUR RATING
Death Occurred Last Night (1970)
CrimeDramaThriller

A compassionate police captain searches for a mentally challenged 25 year old daughter of a widower, who's been kidnapped and forced into prostitution.A compassionate police captain searches for a mentally challenged 25 year old daughter of a widower, who's been kidnapped and forced into prostitution.A compassionate police captain searches for a mentally challenged 25 year old daughter of a widower, who's been kidnapped and forced into prostitution.

  • Director
    • Duccio Tessari
  • Writers
    • Biagio Proietti
    • Duccio Tessari
    • Giorgio Scerbanenco
  • Stars
    • Raf Vallone
    • Frank Wolff
    • Gabriele Tinti
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.5/10
    851
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Duccio Tessari
    • Writers
      • Biagio Proietti
      • Duccio Tessari
      • Giorgio Scerbanenco
    • Stars
      • Raf Vallone
      • Frank Wolff
      • Gabriele Tinti
    • 18User reviews
    • 29Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos105

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    Top cast22

    Edit
    Raf Vallone
    Raf Vallone
    • Amanzio Berzaghi
    Frank Wolff
    Frank Wolff
    • Commissario Duca Lamberti
    Gabriele Tinti
    Gabriele Tinti
    • Mascaranti
    Gillian Bray
    • Donatella Berzaghi
    • (as Gill Bray)
    Eva Renzi
    Eva Renzi
    • Lamberti's wife
    Gigi Rizzi
    • Salvatore
    Beryl Cunningham
    Beryl Cunningham
    • Herrero
    Checco Rissone
    Checco Rissone
    • Ing. Salvarsanti
    Wilma Casagrande
    • Concetta Giarzone
    Marco Mariani
    • Franco Baronia
    Nicky Zuccolà
    Helga Marlo
      Riccardo De Stefanis
      • Mario
      Maria Grazia Bettini
      • Hildegard
      Elsa Boni
      • Erica
      Marisa Cassetta
      • Giselle
      Giorgio Dolfin
      Jack La Cayenne
      • Franco Baronia - l'altro
      • (as Jack La Cayen)
      • Director
        • Duccio Tessari
      • Writers
        • Biagio Proietti
        • Duccio Tessari
        • Giorgio Scerbanenco
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

      User reviews18

      6.5851
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      Featured reviews

      7Chase_Witherspoon

      Vigilante vengeance

      Widower (Vallone) searches for his missing daughter with the aid of committed inspector (Wolff) leading to a complex web of exploitation and deceit.

      Probably more a polizioteschi than strictly giallo fare, the pacing sometimes suffers and the plot twists more than it needs to, but despite some issues with momentum, the overall result is still satisfying.

      Aside from the two leads who are both excellent, German leading lady Eva Renzi lends support as Wolff's highly invested wife, Beryl Cunningham has a sizeable supporting role as a reluctant informer of sorts, whilst Gabriele Tinti shows his disdain for criminals as Wolff's highly-strung detective partner.

      It's a rather bleak tale which Director Tessari handles with care and compassion, another interesting contrast to the usual giallo in which victims are typically discarded with a casual contempt. Better than average, but don't expect razor blades, black gloves and blood-splatter - this is a complex mystery which takes its time to strike.
      5BA_Harrison

      Not a giallo.

      25 year old Donatella Berzaghi (Gillian Bray) is a total babe and a nymphomaniac to boot, but also has the mind of a three year old. Of course, there are some people who see her disability as a bonus and are willing to pay to do bad things to her, which is why she is abducted and put to work in a brothel.

      When distraught widower Amanzio Berzaghi (Raf Vallone) realises that his precious daughter is missing, he goes to the police, who begin a city-wide search for the young woman. After the girl turns up dead, having been burnt alive, Amanzio begins his own investigation, determined to make those responsible pay for what they have done.

      Although labelled as a giallo by some, probably because of its typically giallo-esque title, Death Occurred Last Night is more of a poliziotteschi, with the focus on the detective work carried out by cops Duca Lamberti (Frank Wolff) and Mascaranti (Gabriele Tinti). There's a lot of dialogue and little in the way of action, meaning that the film does tend to drag a lot of the time. Director Duccio Tessari sees fit to include some gratuitous female nudity to spice things up a little, and the climax is satisfyingly brutal, but on the whole this is a fairly mundane feature, with not a leather-gloved maniac brandishing an open razor to be found.

      4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for the hilariously bad likeness of a suspect drawn by an interviewee at the police station, which the police sketch artist uses to create a portrait that is almost as bad.
      7Red-Barracuda

      An involving mystery/thriller

      A mentally backward 25 year old woman mysteriously vanishes and consequently turns up dead. The investigation then tries to find out who was responsible for the brutal murder. This poliziotteschi/giallo hybrid delves into the dark underbelly of Milan, where it turns out many shady individuals reside. Tonally, this is more on the poliziotteschi side of the fence than the giallo, consequently its a bit darker and nihilistic, with a more cynical view of life overall. Its still an involving mystery/thriller whatever its categorisation though and keeps you guessing. It also benefits from the great Frank Wolff on hand as the police inspector on the case.
      Wheatpenny

      Clever, literate script makes for very good film

      Part giallo and part drama, this movie's been overlooked by both the "mainstream" critics and the Italian-horror fans alike, and that's a shame, because it's one of Italy's more serious genre efforts of the 70's. The distraught father's race to find his kidnapped daughter before the police do, is both tense and poignant. It's free of the exploitative elements most genre films have, and along with Tessari's other thriller (Bloodstained Butterfly), one of the most mature Italian thillers of the decade. The ending is painful without being gratuitous, and well above something Hollywood could handle: compare the father's obsession to find the girl in this to Cage's in 8MM and be amazed at how crassly the latter is constructed. See this one!
      7claudio_carvalho

      A Good Thriller

      In Lombardia, the widower Amanzio Berzaghi (Raf Vallone) goes to the police station and reports to Police Captain Duca Lamberti (Frank Wolff) and his assistant Mascaranti (Gabriele Tinti) that his daughter Donatella Berzaghi (Gill Bray) was kidnapped for sex trafficking. Then he explains that she is twenty-five-year-old, but intellectually disabled with mentality of a three-year-old child and nymphomaniac. Lambert and Mascaranti meet the former pimp Salvatore (Gigi Rizzi) to get information about the brothels in Milan and go deep in the underworld of sex to discover where Donatella is. Meanwhile her father continues his personal investigation about the fate of his daughter.

      "La morte risale a ieri sera", a.k.a. "Death Occurred Last Night" is a good thriller made in Italy. The plot has flaws, as usual, but the story is consistent and "Hardcore" (1979) has a similar storyline. Raf Vallone has great performance and this unknown film is worthwhile watching. My vote is seven.

      Title (Brazil): "Os Assassinos Só Matam aos Sábados" ("The Killers only Kill on Saturdays")

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      Related interests

      James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in The Sopranos (1999)
      Crime
      Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
      Drama
      Cho Yeo-jeong in Parasite (2019)
      Thriller

      Storyline

      Edit

      Did you know

      Edit
      • Trivia
        This film marked pretty much the end of Eva Renzi's international career. She was known to be rather unpleasant on-set and had therefore left bad impressions on movie sets in England, Hollywood, West-Berlin, France, and Italy. After this film, she found it hard to find any work outside Germany at all.
      • Goofs
        A good cop wouldn't wait till they get to the morgue to tell the obviously distraught father of a murdered child that he needn't have come to ID the body since it was burned beyond recognition, as Lamberti does to Berghazi.
      • Quotes

        Madame: Here, gentlemen, first an aperitif. It stimulates your fantasies. Please! Cheers.

        Commissario Duca Lamberti: Cheers. Here are tickets for the "Show."

        Madame: The "Show" begins promptly, with the most exceptional girls to be found in Milan at the moment: Giselle, French, full of depraved and morbid fantasies. Erica: Her parents were a typical SS couple in charge of a concentration camp. And this is Hildegarde, as bright and dark as the moment she was conceived, as tall as the Carpathians mountains where she grew up.

        Commissario Duca Lamberti: Well, I've always had a thing for tall women.

      • Connections
        Featured in Italian Gangsters (2015)
      • Soundtracks
        I giorni che ci appartengono
        Written by Duccio Tessari and Gianni Ferrio

        Performed by Mina

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      FAQ15

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      Details

      Edit
      • Release date
        • September 5, 1970 (Italy)
      • Countries of origin
        • Italy
        • West Germany
      • Language
        • Italian
      • Also known as
        • Smrt se desila sinoc
      • Filming locations
        • San Siro Stadium, Milan, Lombardy, Italy(detectives scope crowd for perps)
      • Production companies
        • Lombard Films
        • Slogan Film
        • CCC-Filmkunst
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Tech specs

      Edit
      • Runtime
        • 1h 38m(98 min)
      • Sound mix
        • Mono
      • Aspect ratio
        • 1.66 : 1

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