My Dear Killer

Insurance adjuster Paradisi is murdered when he fails to notice a very loud mechanical crane is being lowered close to his head. It decapitates him. The suspect in his murder is discovered shortly thereafter at an abandoned warehouse hanged in way to suggest suicide by the clumsy killer. Seemingly the entire cast is filled with creeps anyone of whom could be a homicidal maniac.

Dapper police inspector Perretti (Hilton) investigates diving in head-first with his typical work ethic and sound deductive reasoning uncovering a complicated child abduction caper tied in with the murders. But his credibility begins to appear questionable as more corpses pile up and all he has for a lead is a child's book of drawings.

Giallos were a genre shaped by the Hitchcockian tradition, and the Agatha Christie type whodunit but also the film noir genre. They co-opted aspects of each. In Giallos you quite frequently saw a convoluted criminal scheme plot point - a staple of film noir. The whodunit aspects seen here are readily apparent within the collection of stock characters. As for the Hitchcockian side you have the stark visual imagery, jarring plot-twists and deeply psychological motives of the characters.

Another staple of these Giallo's was the subjective camera/point of view shot of the killer just before a grisly murder. Logic could get discarded in scenes like this and the one here offers us the interior of a victim's home where she just happens to have left power tools laying around. The bloody kill which leaves some particularly artistic blood spatters of course leaves no explanation how the power tool was still operational are its cord became out of reach of its outlet.

Director Tonino Valerii is best known for his great Westerns , such as "I Giorni Dell'Ira" (aka. "Day Of Anger" 1967), "Il Prezzo Dell Potere" (aka. "The Price Of Power", 1969) and the comical "Il mio nome è Nessuno" (1973). Films like these make Valerii the Italian Western's most memorable director besides the three Sergios (Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, and Sergio Sollima). But Valerii, who also served as assistant director to Sergio Leone for "A Fistful Of Dollars" and "For A Few Dollars More", is not only a great Western director. "Mio Caro Assassino" aka. "My Dear Killer" of 1972 is an excellent and highly intriguing Giallo and the ideal proof that Valerii is also a master of Thriller/Horror cinema. This is arguably THE Giallo with the most complex plot ever, and the constant twists make this film a tantalizing and absolutely unpredictable experience that no lover of Italian Horror can afford to miss. "My Dear Killer" does not deliver casual entertainment however - This film's exceptional complexity requires the viewer to concentrate on the plot. I can assure however, that no Giallo fan will regret concentrating on this film, which is stunning throughout and excellent in all regards.

Ispector Luca Peretti (George Hilton) is investigating a murder series that is somehow connected with the kidnapping of a little girl that occurred a year earlier... As my fellow Giallo fans should appreciate, the death toll rises constantly, and the twists and number of suspects make it almost impossible to guess who the killer is. This excellently photographed film has the typical atmosphere of good Gialli from the early 70s, and the many twists are highly elaborate. Regular Giallo leading man George Hilton is great in his role as the investigating inspector. The cast furthermore includes such great regulars of Italian genre-cinema as Piero Lulli and William Berger, and all other performances are also very good. This is may not be quite as blood-soaked as some other great Gialli, such as Sergio Martino's "Torso" or most of Dario Argento's films, but the exotic choices of murder weapons should also make this interesting enough for the gorehounds out there. The film's main focus is the complex plot, but the killings are depicted in a violent and very stylish manner. None other than maestro Ennio Morricone delivers the great score, the highlight of which is an exceptionally eerie lullaby theme song. From the great beginning to the ingenious end - "Mio Caro Assassino" is a complex and tantalizing must-see for all Giallo-fans, and also highly recommended to all other lovers of suspense and great cinema in general!

"My Dear Killer" is another fun and decent entry in the Italian Giallo thrillers genre and begins interestingly enough with a man standing at a eerie lake and then meets his end with a gloriously twisted tractor accident/murder, and straight away lets the viewer know what's in store for the rest of the movie.

The plot is very interesting for starters as we get the main character a detective trying to solve this crime, which then leads him to a kidnapping case from before where the child and father were both murdered. Then along the way of course everybody who was involved meets some sort of sticky end, which was another aspect that excited and interested me, especially the girl who gets attacked with a buzzsaw, which was both terrifying and well done.

Okay there are some bad points, like for starters the pacing was rather slow at times and some of the characters didn't quite stand out, I couldn't tell some of them apart and there weren't enough colourful characters to fully ingage in. But what saves things are the delightful twists and turns round every corner, and especially loved the scene at the end where the detective gathers round the last remaining suspects in a Agatha Christie kinda way, about the reveal the identity of the killer, which was delightful, especially when the lights go out and then someone screams.

All in all a fairly entertaining addition to the Giallo genre, but not one of the best ones though, but still decent enough.

Anyone who ever saw "My Dear Killer" is most likely to agree when I claim that it's nearly impossible to find another horror film with a more convoluted plot! I never thought I'd say this, but this movie almost exaggerates with the constant adding of new twists and complexity! "My Dear Killer", which is a giallo in the purest definition of the term, features nearly a dozen murder victims and an equal amount of suspects. Paying close attention to the development of the plot is difficult enough already, so guessing along for the killer's identity is pretty much out of the question. And yet, it's another wondrous example of Italy's finest horror sub genre, with brutal slaughters, controversial themes and great music! Giallo-regular George Hilton ("All the Colors of the Dark", "Case of the Bloody Iris") plays Peretti, a police detective charged with investigating the eerie murder of an insurance inspector. He was obviously getting too close to someone's dark secrets and, in order to solve the case; Peretti has carry on with the decapitated victim's research. All traces lead to the unsolved kidnapping and eventual murder of a young girl in the area. The killer clearly doesn't know how he is to getting caught, as he precautionary starts to eliminate everyone close to the case. Be advised that the above is a very vague description of the plot, as a more detailed summary would cover several pages. Apart from a few minor holes in the plot and a handful of illogicalness, "My Dear Killer" is a hugely compelling and intense murder-mystery. Especially the violence will appeal to hardcore horror fans, as the killer even uses circular saws and construction machinery! Tonino Valerii is not a very eminent Italian horror filmmaker (or at least not as eminent as, say, Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci or Sergio Martino), but his directing is truly stylish and he obviously read the "big book of giallo-guidelines" carefully before he started making this movie. Highly recommended!

A man is decapitated with a steam shovel.It's not an accident,though because steam shovel operator is later found hanged and apparently murdered.When the other bodies begin to pile up Inspector Luca Peretti connects this case with the kidnapping and murder of a little girl and her father."My Dear Killer" by Tonino Valerii is a tightly woven giallo full of surprising twists and turns.There are some interesting flashbacks and very memorable soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.Giallo regular George Hilton shines in his excellent performance as Inspector Luca Peretti.The storyline is extremely complex and demands full attention of potential viewer.If you like Italian gialli you can't miss this classic.8 ransoms out of 10.A brief shot of a young naked girl is quite shocking and unexpected.