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In "The Weapon,the Hour and the Motive" the murder victim is a priest.Father Giorgio is stabbed to death in his congregation church.Two police detectives Franco Boito and Moriconi investigate his murder.The main suspects are Giorgio's two lovers Giulia and Orchidea as he wanted to break up with both.There is also an orphaned boy who saw too much from his attic hideout and he will resolve the mystery.Overlooked Italian giallo stylishly made by Francesco Mazzei.There are some silly comedic moments and some effective shocks.The throat slashing scene is fairly graphic and there is a bit of nudity and sexual perversion.Mazzei is capable of building suspense pretty well too."The Weapon,the Hour and the Motive" deserves more recognition.7 out of 10.

A young clergyman, Don, has had two loves, and now he chooses one of them, Julia, as his only one lover. But soon Don is found dead in the chapel. And there is a witness, Felcio, who tells almost nothing about the murder to the police. But the murderer continues to take people's lives, and finally Felcio decides to inform of the very secret of the first murder... This is a typical Giallo film with good music by Francesco De Masi. The problem is that he does better jobs in other films. Indeed almost everything about this film seems to have average quality and therefore I have almost nothing say about it. Still it can be said that the story itself, which is nether complex nor confused, has at least one interesting side. Person like the first and leading victim, Don, is immoral. And killing the immoral person is much more immoral. But not revealing those immoralities is immoral? Or is there clear distinction between killing and letting-die? Although this film as a whole is not a moralistic one its religious and/or philosophical side, which seems to support the classic claim that there can be a deductive proof that the God does not exist based upon the existence of the evil, is rather unique and therefore can be interesting.

According Salvatore Puntillo the director Francesco Mazzei also was a producer, cutting any extra cost whenever it could boost the pre-arranged low budge, as we can state through the low-profile casting which didn't have any major star, in other hand the story is very exciting, where a trendy Priest (Maurizio Bonuglia) has been a sinful behavior on two heretic affairs with two different women, a married Orchidea Durantini (Bedi Moratti) and the fortune-teller Giulia Pisani (Eva Czemerys) ends up murdered inside the church witnessed by an orphaned boy.

Soon a Police Commissioner Franco Boito (Renzo Montagnani) starts investigate the weirdo case together with his sidekick Moriconi (Salvatore Puntillo) after several inquires at crime scene and all nuns hosted there, meanwhile Giulia appears dead with slashed throat, she was one of suspect, after an exhaustive work Commissioner Franco finally figures out that Orchidea's jealous husband ought be the main suspect, later he is found dead at your house apparently committed suicide, then closing the case, not so fast as usually a final twist comes.

The movie touches in a neuralgic matter about an unholy hidden affairs on church, exposing many auto-flagellation upon a whip, such scourge was routinely used to by Priest and Nuns to purge wicked throughs, many nudity scenes were scattered along the picture as well, fine Giallo with a modest casting, nevertheless not devoid of interest.

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First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.

Trying to keep his affair a secret, a priest romantically involved with two women against the Church is brutally murdered which brings an inspector onto the case, but when he develops a relationship with one of the potential suspects is forced to put his feelings aside to stop the killer.

This was a fairly fun and generally enjoyable giallo. One of the better features with this one comes from the solid and highly likable setup that manages to bring together the fun mystery with a series of solid storylines. The main setup involving the life of the priest and his relationship with the two women, which means he's breaking the cardinal sin of priests by engaging in forbidden romances of the flesh, gives this a solidly sleazy air long before the murder occurs, which signals the start of the turn into genre proper. This manages to bring about a solid series of suspects and different players into the mix when we see the different figures in and around the convent who come forward to expose the affair after his death, from the nuns who teach at the orphanage, the numerous red herrings that emerge from the investigation once the body has been discovered, and the implications that arise when one of the eyewitnesses is brought forth. All of this comes together with a solid touch to the Catholic Church's conventions and orders that are in play due to the nature of the initial murder, and this all comes into a solid overall setup. That makes for a fun enough setup for the film to indulge in a nice bit of exploitation goodness that fits into the storyline provided here. With the whole affair taking place due to a priest's scandalous relationship with multiple women against the approval of the Church, this makes for a generally solid approach to the sleazy air he dwelled in due to the use of showing his various romantic trysts with multiple women, so that it can focus on the romantic couplings. This continues into the other fun sequences involving the different groups of nuns at the local orphanage, as there's not just the expected shower sequence where we watch them bathe and soap themselves up, but also deliver an extended topless flogging session that mixes the sadism with the erotic quite nicely. The more traditional stalk and slash elements aren't that well-developed due to a smaller-than-expected body count, but it does have some decent stabbing ambushes and a viciously cruel murder with a straight razor that at least provides a bit more bloodshed in the proceedings, all of which come together to give this a solid series of positives. There are some big issues within this one. The main drawback to be had with the film is the overlong running time that comes together at the expense of the main storyline, as this is held up by some sluggish setpieces that don't quite come together. The most egregious of these is the wholly unlikable romantic relationship that arises between the inspector and one of the women the murder victim was involved with, creating an immensely unlikely scenario that doesn't really impress all that much. The fact that such a by-the-book inspector that we've seen from the rest of the investigation would be so willing as to start a relationship with that particular figure at that point in the story is so unlikely that it comes off as quite contrived and overly dramatic by trying to force this kind of setup along. It also has the unfortunate benefit of being far more of a priority in the storyline, so the body count and stalking scenes are quite low and don't have much in the way of bloodshed for this kind of film. Overall, these factors all come together to hold this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Full Nudity, Violence, Language, and violence-against-children.

Pros: Good characters and acting. Nice small town setting. The story feels unique with a male priest being the primary victim that starts off the body count.

However, if you've seem a number of giallo, you'll be able to figure out the culprit pretty easily.

Music is good here - especially the closing theme.

Cons: The pacing is quite slow at times. It takes like a half hour to get to the first murder. It has a low body count as these films go. There are a bunch of red herrings that are clearly added just to try and distract you, and they were too obvious to the point that it felt like they were just filling space.

At the end of the day, this is a unique giallo that's worth a watch.