The Two Faces of Fear

Fernando Rey, George Hilton and Anita Strinberg- that trio alone gives you an eight star base with two stars added on just because it's a pretty good movie. The year 1972 certainly doesn't hurt as that was an outstanding year for movies in my opinion.... Great scenery just don't know what cities they were in it's not mentioned IMDB... saw it three times....

Surgeon Roberto(George Hilton)is married to Elena(Luciana Paluzzi),the owner of the clinic at which he works.Another surgeon named Michaeli is thinking of leaving because his girlfriend Paola(Anita Strindberg)is still in love with Roberto with whom she had an affair some years previously.So Michaeli ends up shot to death with Remington pistol and a detective Fernardo Rey begins to investigate.Obscure hospital giallo with all-star giallo cast:George Hilton,Fernando Rey,Luciana Paluzzi and Anita Strindberg.The film is relatively bloodless apart from long open heart surgery sequence which combines real footage and footage with the actors.6 mute parrots out of 10.

Murderous clinics are definitely a high place for giallo, after La Lama nel corpo, La Bestia uccide a sangue freddo, and of course Una sull'Altra. In this excellent giallo, with a more descriptive Spanish title and an Italian one inspired by Bava, the Argentinian director Demicheli brightly passes his giallist degree, with a classical plot very well handled.

Elena (Luciana Paluzzi, Femmine insaziabili) is the owner of a renowned private clinic inherited from her father, but she suffers from a heart disease due to congenital subaortic stenosis. She is married to Roberto (George Hilton, Tutti il colori del buio), a brilliant surgeon, and the clinic is directed by Luis (Eduardo Fajardo, Il Coltello di ghiaccio), a competent manager. The doctor Michele (Luis Davila, Paranoia), the main expert within the clinic, is engaged to his colleague Paola (Anita Strindberg, La Coda dello scorpione), a former friend of Roberto, but both want to leave the clinic to take a new situation in Milan, to Elena's despair. But Michele is soon murdered by the expected mysterious faceless killer.

The traditional whodunit takes place within this medical quartet of amateur shooters, where love, hate and jealousy stream from one to another. Will the commissioner Nardi (Fernando Rey, L'Occhio dietro la parete), helped by his funny assistant Felix (Manuel Zarzo, Mio caro assassino), be more efficient than usual to unmask the culprit? Who should be the next victim of the stealthy killer? Between mad high speed car race, deadly pursuit in spiral staircase, and thrilling operation on a palpitating heart, the track for the assassin shall wait for the very last minutes to reveal the final key of this bright enigma. (Viewed in Italian 1h24 version.)

It's exactly the kind of movie you forget as soon as you've seen it, it's so "memorable". Being a writer and filmmaker myself, I know how difficult it is to produce a valuable script, a masterpiece. This film is far from that, it is just a boring string of dialogues between the same characters, four in number, minus one who is eliminated at the beginning, plus a policeman who appears after the elimination. The policeman is none other than the legendary Fernando Rey, my main reason for wanting to see this movie. Very prolific and brilliant in Luis Buñuel's films, "Viridiana", "Tristana", "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" Original title: Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie, "That Obscure Object of Desire" Original title: Cet obscur objet du désir, plus the excellent "The French Connection", Fernando Rey, having a beautiful wife, Mabel Karr, actress and not very well paid, and having to eat as well as support two children with the actress, he agreed to play in many 14th-rate films, for money, as the case of this "The Two Faces of Fear" Original title: Coartada en disco rojo, and many others. He is also the best actor in the film, the others trying hard to seem believable and convincing in an embarrassing story.

If you had to rate the Gialli in terms of curry strength then this one would be a chicken korma. It has all the right ingredients, but lacks the additional spice that would elevate it to the level of a more 'spicier' giallo, like Red Queen Kills Seven Times. That would be a madras. With a peshwari naan. And fried rice. And a pint of Lal Toofan.

Now let me try and get this one straight, as I knew it was mild and tried to watch it while two kids rolled about the house screaming about Harvest Moon and Star Wars Battlefront 2. There's a clinic in Rome run by several surgeons. One of them has a heart condition, and she's married to renowned surgeon George Hilton, who may or may not be having an affair with surgeon Anita Strinberg, who is engaged to marry Dr First Victim, who is planning to move to Milan and set up his own practise.There's also another guy who is in love with Anita Stringberg. We first see someone break into Dr First Victim's office and steal something, and shortly afterwards Dr Victim is gunned down in his office, and the only witness is a parrot.

Cop Fernando Rey appears and his main problem is that he can't smoke and everyone else in the film can! This irritable cop knows that one of the other doctors killed this guy, but then he finds a scrap book that features every suspect holding the gun used in the crime. Not only that, he also finds a film that features the cast using the same gun. Plus, forensics tell him the killer had talc on their hands but guess what - they are all surgeons, and they all have talc on their hands. Fernando shortly makes his comedy sidekick assistant (who he forces to interrogate the parrot) to drive through Rome at full speed, which I thought was the stupidest part of the film, until I got to the end and realised that the stupidest part of the film was me.

This is a mild Giallo with a full body count of two, but then if you get a chicken korma, sure it is mild, but then if it is cooked well it stills pleases, and this film does. You can't go wrong with a bit of George Hilton, as well as a bit of Fernando Rey (who makes a comment about the chain smoking doctors hypocritical ways). There's plenty of daftness to go with this one, including a heavy breasted window washer, Rey's constant battle with smokers, and his assistant's drooling over Hilton's home movies. You've got a film here that really doesn't come close to ticking all your giallo boxes, but is still worth watching because the mystery elements are all in place. I liked all the bits about Star Wars Battlefront 2. And of course I forgot to mention all the open heart surgery footage. That wasn't so good.

I really thought I'd have watched more films by this point in my holidays.