The Man with Icy Eyes

Another well made, but snail paced film from Alberto De Martino, a quasi-giallo set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which lends a surreal Breaking Bad vibe to the proceedings.

A senator is gunned down outside of his house and a man who claims he was tricked into being there is arrested and charged with his murder. Antonio Sabato is the hot shot reporter who thinks that something down quite sound right about the whole deal, and sets out to prove the man innocent, only to end up getting the guy sent down and marked for execution! Whoops! Better try harder, Antonio! Hindering or helping Antonio is his boss Keenan Wynn, a friend of the senator, and Barbara Bouchet, who claims to have witnessed a man with icy eyes talking to the accused. Antonio thinks she's full of crap, but then he starts to receive contact from the guy with the icy eyes, things get very serious.

Indeed, so serious that director De Martino must have thought that things weren't stupid enough (I'm sure he was happy things were dull enough though), so he added in the semi-supernatural plot twist of the astrologer who predicts Antonio will die just before midnight on the same day that guy in jail will get gassed. Then this guy proceeds to be everywhere Antonio is, just to remind him over and over and over again! Then there's the insurance salesman who is oblivious to the car chases and threats to Antonio while continually trying to sell him life insurance. Oh, and the bit where Antonio thinks he's survived to midnight until someone reminds him that it's Daylight Savings Time and the clocks have gone back one hour! That last hour where Antonio drives around trying to solve the case it most hilarious of all, because he zips around about forty locations, has a fight, slaps Barbara Bouchet around, drives all around town and makes it outside of the prison for the end of the film, all within one hour. Amazing.

This is yet another boring film with just the odd bit of interest from De Martino. Somehow this guy went on to work with a lot of A-list American actors. Go figure.

"The Man with the Icy Eyes" continuously balances back and forth between being a giallo and a poliziotesschi, but in fact it's neither. Sure, there's a mysterious killer wandering around, but he/she doesn't target hot fashion models, uses sharp razor blades or wear black gloves. Actually, he/she doesn't even do much killing in general. So, definitely not a traditional giallo. And sure, there's one person (although a journalist instead of a police commissioner) investigating a corrupt and treacherous conspiracy, but there aren't any virulent car chases, violent shootouts or Maurizio Merlis with moustaches. So, not exactly a poliziotesschi.

Even though I'm a pretty big fan of director Alberto De Martino ("Strange Shadows in an Empty Room", "Holocaust 2000", ...), "The Man with the Icy Eyes" is admittedly a rather boring thriller. The plot is fairly original, though, but there simply isn't enough action, intrigue or surprise. When a congressman is killed in front of his house, the police quickly arrests a suspect, also due to the private investigations of an enthusiast journalist and the testimony of a stripper. The journalist (Antonio Sabato) begins to doubt the story of the ravishing stripper (Barbara Bouchet) and seeks to uncover the real truth, but the wrongfully accused man is already being prepared for the electric chair.

The film is extremely slow-paced and low on action, but then something peculiar happens. Our journalist is also stalked by a sort of clairvoyant medium who keep telling him that he's about to die by midnight, along with two others. When he realizes there's only an hour left, suddenly A LOT happens. In supposedly sixty minutes, there are accidents, murders, deceit and a massive amount of driving up and down the city. Seriously, it's impossible to fit all these activities in one hour. The best thing about "The Man with the Icy Eyes", for me at least, is the presence of the wondrously underrated Victor Buono... And the nakedness of Barbara Bouchet, of course.

From the way this film started and from its title, I felt maybe we were in giallo territory but as this develops it becomes a much more routine thriller. Albeit and interesting, involving and largely successful one complete with suspenseful ending (just a little over done as we count the minutes to midnight!) and gas chamber scene. Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, we see various real locations so this may have been real too, it certainly looked it. Adriano Bolzoni is not very convincing as the harried reporter running round trying to sort things out but I guess he looks good. As, of course does the majestic Barbara Bouchet, who acts her socks off (and everything else) and makes the very most of a modest part. I suppose the storyline is a bit weak and there aren't too many thrills and spills but it kept me happy. Partly, I think, because the supporting cast are good and varied, there is some humour, the thing keeps moving forward, it is well shot and it is also much helped by a jaunty soundtrack.

Albuquerque 40 years before BREAKING BAD: GOLDEN GLOBE nominee Antonio Sabato as an investigative journalist

This unusual mixture of action thriller and giallo was released in Italian cinemas on April 10, 1971. Directed by Alberto De Martino, the film was shot on location in New Mexico.

One night in Albuquerque, a former senator is murdered in front of his home. Thanks to the testimony of a beautiful stripper (as always, charming: Barbara Bouchet), the police are able to quickly arrest a suspect (Giovanni Petrucci) from Mexico. Also the aspiring journalist Eddie Mills (Antonio Sabato) and his editor (Victor Buono, as a murdering butcher alongside Brad Harris in "Il strangolatore di Vienna / The Strangler Comes Quietly" and alongside the athletic Dallas star Patrick Duffy in the television series "The Man from Atlantis", 1978-79) are convinced of the defendant's guilt. He will soon be sentenced to death for murder. Meanwhile, Eddie has noticed some inconsistencies that make him seriously doubt Valdez's guilt. After all sorts of complications, there is a nerve-wracking showdown in which the lively Eddie not only has to prevent the execution of the accused, but also save his own life against all odds.

Other roles include Faith Domergue as the defendant's wife and Keenan Wynn, who was supposed to play the father of Pamela Barnes Ewing (Victoria Principal) and thus also the father-in-law of Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) in the successful television series "Dallas". The wonderful stuntman Nello Pazzafini (1934-1996), whose face appeared in countless Italian films, is also there as a man in the elevator. What remains unforgettable is how, in the opening scene of the beating movie "Vier Fäuste - Hart wie Diamanten / Four Fists - Hard as Diamonds" (1976), he is beaten so wonderfully and mercilessly as a prison escapee by Simone/Butch (Bud Spencer imitator Paul L. Smith), who is disguised as a priest.

This excitingly staged film, which also features some Giallo elements, enables a reunion with the legendary city of Albuquerque, which was to be hugely popular in the globally successful series "Breaking Bad". Nude skin is occasionally provided by the wonderful Barbara Bouchet. The actress, who was born in 1943 in what was then Reichenberg (today: Liberec/Czech Republic), played in many Italian films such as "Milano Caliber 9" (1972) with the great EUROPEAN FILM AWARD nominee Mario Adorf or in "Höllenhunde bellen zum Gebet / Hell Dogs Bark to Prayer" (1976). In her new home USA she was also seen in the musical "Sweet Charity" (1969) and in "Gangs Of New York" (2002) by Martin Scorsese.

Antonio Sabato (1943-2021), who recently died of Covid19, was a reliable leading actor in many Italian films for over 20 years since his breakthrough in "Grand Prix" (1966), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. He shone in historical dramas (The Lady of Monza), western comedies (Fünf Klumpen Gold / Five Lumps of Gold), police films (Poliziotti violenti / Blutiger Schweiß / Bloody Sweat) and, alongside Brad Harris, was also cast as a fist-wielding muscleman (Zwei Schlitzohren in der gelben Hölle / Two Rascals in the Yellow Hell), who cheekily and cheerfully beat his opponents.

A very worthwhile mixture of serious crime film and giallo-like sexiness that should definitely be discovered in German-speaking countries!

Eddie (Antonio Sabato, Sette Orchidee macchiate di rosso) is an Italo-American reporter working in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He leads the investigation upon the murder of the wealthy senator Robertson, who has been shot in front of his house. A suspect, Carlos Valdez (Giovanni Petrucci, Estratto dagli archivi segreti della polizia), who happens to be a radical opponent, has been arrested on the crime scene, but informers talk about another guy involved, "a man with icy eyes". Eddie should now find the mysterious killer, but he seems not to be very perspicacious nor persistent, and is continuously to be pushed further by his chief Hammond (Victor Buono, Lo Strangolatore di Vienna), while the editor of their newspaper Davis (Keenan Wynn, C'era una volta il West) does not want him to go too far.

Fortunately Eddie finds a witness who saw Valdez with the icy-eyed man the night of the murder: the stripper Ann (Barbara Bouchet, La Tarentola dal ventre nero). Her witnessing is to send Valdez to the gas chamber, to the despair of his wife (his sister in the English version: Faith Domergue, Una sull'Altra). But hasn't Eddie too easily accepted a rather convenient solution? He is warned by Robertson's astral consultant Isaac (Corrado Gaipa, Giornata nera per l'Ariete) that his doom shall come through this issue. And as he tries to find the unknown so-called icy man, witnesses are killed or silenced. This small giallo set in the USA, taking benefice of its well appreciated actors in the genre, lacks however of nerves or tension, and the director has pain to put its pieces together; but it should take the spectator until the end without displeasure. (Viewed in an English 1h31 version.)