My Dear Killer

The movie starts with a unique decapitation (via mechanical digger) and raised my hopes but then it got very slow.

After a while i felt so irritated that i stopped caring who's killing who n why.

Saw this for the first time recently after reading some very glowing reviews. Found it be dull. It has some good kills, noteworthy music from the legend, lil nudity n an unpredictable twist but somehow i got a bit detached while viewing. Mayb lack of sleep or like Coventry pointed in his review that the movie needed some attention.

The film has a Agatha Christie denouement- where our lead detective assembles all the surviving suspects in a drawing room, where, when he does his grand unmasking.....

Hilton with his typical 70s moustache somehow didnt convince me as a detective.

No doubt that he was one of the best Spaghetti western icon.

In this film he tried his best to look more like a Bond hero with his suits, boots n pistol aiming but alas.

Mayb he got obsessed that the makers of Bond films may hire him.

(He even played 007 in a comedy spoof of the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, entitled Two Mafiosi Against Goldginger).

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!

Director Tonino Valerii is best known in the USA for the spaghetti western "My Name is Nobody," but "My Dear Killer" is no less an excellent example of the giallo genre than "Nobody" was to its own. The plot revolves around a series of murders committed by an unknown assailant intent on keeping the deaths of a small child and her father unsolved. As is the case with most gialli, there's a detective one step behind the murderer, a lush and creepy music score (this time by Morricone), a houseful of suspects, creative and illogical murders, and a downbeat and melancholy plot. What elevates this one above all the others made in that banner year for the genre (1971), though, is the detail given to the script and production. The characters are all fully formed and functional to the story, which itself is well thought-out and clever. The resolution is well-handled, and even if the killer's identity is impossible to guess beforehand, the means in which he (or she) is finally discovered will make you smile. Add to this one of the saddest musical-score main themes in movie history, featuring a woman's voice singing a haunting child's melody, and you have a giallo that fans of the genre should definitely not miss.

An insurance investigator, Police Inspector Peretti (George Hilton)helped by a Brigadier (Manuel Zarzo) are assigned by his chief ((Saldo Randone) the investigation of a killing via mechanical digger . As there happens several murders with bloody and gruesome executions. Some drawings seem to implicate about anybody are dieing . Meanwhile the series killer goes on a real massacre on various unfortunate victims as a man supposedly commits suicide, a women is strangled, another attacked in her apartment. Slowly more people are found dead and the inspector investigates the strange killings with numerous suspects (Monica Randall, Alfredo Mayo , William Berger).

Tonino Valeri 's great success is compelling directed with startling visual content.This frightening movie is plenty of thrills, chills, body-count and glimmer color in lurid pastel with phenomenal results. This is a classic slasher where the intrigue,tension, suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room, corridors and luxurious interior and exterior.This genuinely mysterious story is well photographed by Manuel Rojas with magenta shades of ochre ,translucently pale turquoises and deep orange-red .

The movie belongs to Italian Giallo genre that was invented by Mario Bava along with Riccardo Freda(Secret of Dr. Hitchcock) , they are the fundamental creators . These Giallo movies are characterized by overblown use of color with shining red blood, usual zooms, and utilization of images-shock . Later appears Dario Argento(Deep red, Suspira,Inferno), another essential creator of classic Latin terror films. Tonino Valeri's so-so direction is well crafted, here he's less cynical and humorous and more inclined toward violence and lots of killings . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Manuel Rojas . Very good musical score by the classic Ennio Morricone. The picture is well directed by Tonio Valeri , an expert on Western as proved in ¨The hired gun ¨ , ¨My name is nobody ¨ with Fonda and Terence Hill , ¨The price of power ¨ with Giuliano Gemma and Van Heflin , ¨The day of anger ¨with Lee van Cleef and ¨ Taste of Killing¨ with Craig Hill and George Martin . Rating: Good, this is one more imaginative slasher pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style throughout a story with magnificent visual skills.

"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.