The Two Faces of Fear

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.

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.

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.)

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....

Dr. Michele Azzini (Luis Dávila) is engaged to a beautiful coworker, Dr. Paola Lombardi (Anita Strindberg), and has just been offered an even better job at a cardiology clinic in Madrid. This angers his boss, Elena Carli (Luciana Paluzzi), who owns her current workplace with her husband, Dr. Roberto Carli (George Hilton). Even though she offered him a stake in the business, Azzini still plans to leave until the ordinary fatality occurs. Shortly after, he is found dead, in dark circumstances. Inspector Nardi (Fernando Rey) and his assistant (Manuel Zarzo) are on the case, trying to find out who killed the doctor. And at the same time, Elena's heart is failing and she has to undergo surgery that occupies the final moments of the film.

Directed by Tulio Demicheli (Ricco) and written by Pedro Mario Herrero and Mario di Nardo who carry out this ¨Two faces of fear¨, it is a film that never really gets going, but at least it has a great cast including Fernando Rey (Tristana, That Dark Object of Desire), Anita Strindberg (The Scorpion's Tail, Forbidden Vices), Luciana Paluzzi (Thunderball, The Green Slime, The Klansman) and George Hilton (Sartana and several giallo films), in addition to these notorious actors of the time, includes a realistic surgery scene. Starring George Hilton playing a surgeon who is married to Luciana Paluzzi (to this day the only one in the casting who is still alive) and she owns the clinic where he works and while she suffers from a weak heart. Luis Davíla wants to marry Anita Strindberg, but first he is shot dead while Fernando Rey steals the show as an ironic and bossy police inspector who has to solve the case, even though he has just quit smoking. And since this is a Spanish-Italian film, what we can see is a real open heart surgery, directed by Dr. Martínez Bordiu, none other than the son-in-law of the dictator Francisco Franco, who is thanked for his work in the credits. The actual open heart surgery incorporated into this film is quite the opposite, it's pretty unappetizing. In any case, Fernando Rey provides comic relief here with his talent, while at the same time appearing deadly serious in the most absurd situations; his assistant is also played somewhat comically by the Spanish Manuel Zarzo who tries to undermine some clues to a cockatoo supposedly witness to the events. Some critics suspect that a 'pulp' crime story was written around this authentic material, and the story is not particularly original, also only offering two short murder scenes staged in an extravagant Italian style.

It was filmed in Rome between July and September 1971 as a Spanish-Italian co-production and 50 years later impresses above all with its excellent cast and one of the best scores of its time, but otherwise it remains very low in blood and tension. Even a slightly overlong scene in the operating room, in which we follow open heart surgery, turns out to be unremarkable, and was marketed at the time as a small sensation or great visual spectacle value, but it really does a disservice to the film as a whole. But at the end of the day, the viewer is rewarded with exuberantly beautiful images of the beautiful women, two Eurotrash goddesses : Luciana Paluzzi and Anita Strindberg. And adding Fernando Rey, who managed to shape a career spanning six decades and television roles, here giving us some comic relief as a quirky cop. There are two short and quite energetically staged murder scenes that do honor to the giallo. However, this is not a very bloody Giallo, being more of a police thriller, and was not released until March 9, 1972, not sweeping audiences in the co-producing countries Italy, Spain or other European nations at that time. But the illustrious cast and rarity value make it a notable contribution to the genre.

But at the very least, the attractive colors from cameraman Manuel Rojas , the ensemble cast as a whole, and Franco Micalizzi's great score are simply lovely. The film was usually directed by Tulio Demicheli, although it has some touches of distinction, which is why you forgive the unoriginal story with the uneven resolution. Veteran director Demicheli offers us a colorful aesthetic that extends beautifully crafted into wide images with many close-ups and detail shots of eyes, fingertips, cigarettes, oversized glasses and ladies in exquisite lingerie. Spanish-nationalized Argentine writer and filmmaker Tulio Demicheli so consistently mixed the good with the mediocre that it was almost impossible to know what to expect from him next. Demicheli had a long and prolific career, working since the 40s, he directed all types of genres such as drama like ¨La herida luminosa¨, Thriller like ¨Ricco¨, adventures like ¨Son of Captain Blood¨, ¨First Adventure¨, Spies subgenre like ¨Il Nostro Agente a Casablanca¨, ¨Dirty Play in Panama¨, ¨Lisbon Mission¨; Giallo as ¨Coartada en disco rojo or Two Faces or Fear¨, Terror as ¨Monstruos De Terror or Assignment Terror" and he also directed Paella/Spaghetti Westerns as ¨Tequila¨, ¨Arriba Sabata¨, ¨Un Hombre, un Colt¨ and ¨ Gunmen of Río Bravo¨. His best film was ¨Carmen de Ronda¨ with Sara Montiel. Rating: 5.5/10. Passable and acceptable.