The Man with Icy Eyes

An Arizona State Senator named Neil Robertson is murdered in front of his house, and the local police arrest a male suspect who has icy eyes. Then an Italian journalist, who is obliged to use somehow Americanised name, Eddie Mills, finds a strip-teaser named Anne, who seems to be a witness of the murder. And, partly because Anne testifies against the accused, the man with icy eyes is found guilty. But soon Eddie realised something wrong with the whole case... First of all, I want to say this film is not particularly bad. Indeed, this one is much better than the director's 1972 Giallo titled SCENES FROM A MURDER. However, this film doesn't seem to be a masterpiece mainly because its latter half is almost exclusively concerned with HOW TO STOP THE WRONG EXECUTION. Consequently, in proportion as the story develops, apparently most important question, namely, WHO IS THE ACTUAL KILLER?, becomes less and less important. Indeed, this film as a whole doesn't seem to be serious about the question. Furthermore, the last sequence of this film is much less suspenseful than that of Robert Wise's 1958 film, I WANT TO LIVE!, though these are concerned essentially with the same. And I think this being-less-suspenseful in the most important sequence is due to the director's almost characteristically paced direction rather than to the story-and-screenplay themselves. And, instead of the cinematic tension I WANT TO LIVE! has, this film has the rather (unnaturally) theatrical, like the scene in which Eddie and his partner, Hammond, are attacked by some robber just 20 minutes before the execution. Here, it seems to be natural to add this film more or less resembles Clint Eastwood's 1999 film, TRUE CRIME. However, this 1971 Giallo is much better than the 1999 junk. Indeed, as mentioned above, I don't think this film per se is not particularly bad one mainly because it has a unique element, namely, astrology. The film has a astrologer named Isaac Thetham, and he prophesies there will be two unidentified dead persons by midnight. (The execution is planed to be done at the very midnight.) The leading character, Eddie Mills, doesn't believe such a story, but soon he realises the astrologer's words become to be truthful. And this film almost surprisingly succeeds in using astrology effectively. Incidentally, for good or bad, Barbara Bouchet is rather manor in this film, even though she is the second person in the cast section of the credits of the very film. Her character, Anne, sometimes seems to be important, but ultimately she is nothing but decorative. So it can be said this is not a right film at least for the serious Bouchet fans.

After the death of a senator, a reporter helps to break a case that sends a suspect to Death Row, only to get hints that the man is innocent and the suspect remains at large, forcing him to try searching for the actual culprit in the crimes with help from his underground friends before that happens.

Overall, this was a massively underwhelming and generally problematic giallo. Among the best aspects here is the fine setup that provides a rather intriguing mystery at the core of the film. The initial murder and the trial bring about the kind of fine starting point to look into the incident after the discovery of the stripper eyewitness who starts to help clue him in on the fact that the trial might've been a sham, and the real killer is still at large. There's some fun to be had with the concurrent series of meetings that come about involving the figures looking to help the case. These are brought together rather well in the final half as the build-up before then is made quite a bit more intensive, as the series of attempts on the life of the reporter and the stripper in his care makes for a fine series of encounters and chases that inject some action into things. These manage to provide some enjoyable factors here as there are a series of issues with this one holding it back. The main issue with this one is the fact that there's just not a whole lot of anything interesting happening throughout here to keep the excitement level going. The central story here invites plenty of action with the race to stop the execution from happening as he gets help from a series of underground figures trying to help him out on his quest to save him, yet here, nothing happens. The endless meetings and discussions he has with them trying to make sense of how he got framed for the murder and what the various clues mean, which sends him off to meet someone else and it never once comes off like there's any kind of urgency or hurry, as the body count is so dangerously low due to there not being any traditional stalking scenes. That leads into the film's other big factor, where it's just way too unconcerned with trying to solve the identity of the killer and trying to save the condemned man from the executioner's chair. This is a rather bizarre choice where the group seems to be quite well aware that there's a real killer out there, as the bombshell about the condemned man being the wrong victim is already out, so it should be about looking into who actually did it that should be the way this one operates. Rather, the killer gets revealed as a last-second mark that comes about so quickly it's hard to register who actually did it or what the plan actually was about, causing this one to have a few major drawbacks throughout.

Rated Unrated/R: Language, Violence, and Brief Nudity.

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.)

The Man With Icy Eyes is one of the rarest Giallo's out there, and to be honest I'm not really surprised that it hasn't cemented itself a more profound place in Giallo history. The film is undoubtedly very well made and features a strong plot; but unfortunately Alberto De Martino's film is not particularly exciting at any point and the lack of gory murders that made other genre films such highlights makes the film's chances of becoming a genre favourite slimmer still. I would say that the film is something of a cross-over between the Giallo and Polizi genres, with a lot of the focus being on an investigation carried out by the lead character. The film begins with the assassination of an Arizona state senator. Ambitious journalist Eddie Mills (an Italian immigrant) is assigned to report on the case and he promptly begins investigating the crime. His investigation leads him to a stripper who seems to know more than she is letting on. The police later arrest a man they describe as having 'icy eyes', but Eddie believes he may not be the real killer.

The film is fairly well placed; although it does have a tendency to get confusing, and this is at least partly caused by the lack of excitement which can make concentrating on the film difficult. The mystery itself is not particularly interesting either, and I found myself not particularly caring who the murderer is on more than one occasion. I have to admit that the copy I saw was not of the best quality, so I couldn't fully appreciate the director's capturing of the locations; but most of it looked pretty desolate and the film doesn't feature the captivating colour scheme shown in many of the best Giallo's. Antonio Sabato takes the lead role and it decent in it, and he gets good support from the sexy Barbara Bouchet; whose role was too small for my liking. There's not a great deal of distraction from the central plot; only a 'supernatural' side plot that doesn't go anywhere. Overall, I have to admit that I found this film to be rather dull. There's nothing outstanding about it, and I'd only recommend it to real hardcore collectors.

"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.