A Diary of a Murderess

The plot of "Diary of an Erotic Murderess" is quite simple:an attractive woman(Marisa Mell)accepts a job watching a wealthy man's mentally retarded and violent son.She plans to murder the patriarch and marry the son to inherit his mansion."Diary of an Erotic Murderess" by Manuel Mur Oti plays like Spanish giallo/mystery.Unfortunately the version distributed by Something Weird Video is heavily cut.Apparently nearly 10 minutes of sex and sleaze were completely removed.There are some mildly surprising plot twists and the conclusion is quite disturbing.Marisa Mell is very sexy in the main role.Still the lack of exploitative moments was disappointing.7 cuts out of 10.

This seems to have a kind of cult following due to Marisa Mell being in it, but to me the whole thing was kind of a drag that we've all seen before. I did read on the IMDB that it's missing a lot of nudity and such like, so that would have held my attention a bit better if that was included.

You have Richard Conte as the old millionaire who shares a huge manor with his crazy son, who has turned mute ever since finding his mother's body following her suicide. This kid had a rather unhealthy fixation on his mother, which riled Conte, as he can only see people as objects to be bought and owned. The son, Mark, is a bit of a handful for his carers and after the last one quits, mysterious strange Marisa Mell volunteers to help, while giving Conte the glad eye.

Of course, all is not what it seems as Marisa is a gold digging thief with designs on all that groovy jewellery that Conte has collected over the years (including one that he's nicked from a local nunnery that looks like the holy grail and comes with a Raiders of The Lost Ark-type crescendo on the soundtrack - what's happening?). Marisa also has a husband (Anthony Steffen) who is even more twisted and crooked than her. Can Marisa play everyone off each other and get the goodies? Once she finds Conte's dead wife's diary, she starts to formulate a plan...

Maybe it would have worked better with the sleaze added in, although it's bad enough watching sixty-five year old Conte snog Mell, so I'm not speculating on what I'm missing. I don't know, I just didn't engage with it all, at least until the last fifteen minutes where a few twists finally enter the plot. I'll give it one thing - the ending was appropriately sick.

Despite its seen-it-a-million-times plot concerning a sexy con artist (Marisa Mell) who inveigles herself into a wealthy old man's morbid household, this Euro psycho-thriller is just creepy enough to be absorbing for most of its running time. The old guy (played by the moribund Richard Conte, whose huge earlobes dominate his scenes) has a mute son prone to violent fits whenever reminded of his deceased mama (whom the crook, naturally, resembles). To complicate matters, there's a bastard son and an ex-husband looking for a piece of the action. Most outrageous, though, is that fact that the mansion's most valuable asset is the Holy Grail itself -- a point which is stated so matter-of-factly that one wonders about the accuracy of the translation. The plot features a few neat twists, including a final sting in its tail that will revive you if you've given up on the picture. Of course, the main reason for watching is the dissolute but utterly luscious Mell (best known for her role in Bava's Diabolik), who dominates proceedings with her intelligent grace, knockout looks and subtle ruthlessness. Unfortunately, several nude scenes have obviously been shown from the American print with equal ruthlessness.

A young female thief (played by Euro-beauty Marisa Mell) trying to escape from her former life and her thuggish, pimp-like ex-boyfriend takes a job as a nurse for the mute, disturbed son of a cold-hearted industrialist. Both the father and son quickly fall in love with her, not surprising since she looks exactly like the father's first dead wife who he hated but his son adored. Then she finds the deceased women's diary and gets an idea how she can turn the situation to her advantage through murder. But things go very awry when the man's other illegitimate son and her old boyfriend show up. . .

Only the Americans or the British would take a Spanish-Italian co-production innocuously title "La Ecadenada" and change the title to "Diary of Erotic Murderess" while at the same time cutting all the sex and nudity out! (To be fair though, the snipping could have been done by the old Franco regime who were even more prudish than the Brits and Yanks combined). What is left is not quite a giallo. It's one of Italian co-productions like "Top Sensation" or "So Young, So Lovely, So Vicious" that has suspense elements but lacks the combination of heady stylization, lurid content, and over-the-top hysteria to really make it as a giallo. The beginning is unforgivably slow--the "erotic" is non-existent, the "murders" don't occur until an hour in, so what you have left is a lot of shots of Mell reading from the "diary" in voice-over, which naturally does not good cinema make. The second half of the movie is much better and it ends with a pleasantly nasty surprise (which also, however, makes the English title a cheat in more ways than one).

Marisa Mell is very good in supporting roles in movies like "Diabolik" and "One on Top of the Other", but she's a little at sea here in a role that requires her to be alternatively evil and sympathetic. Mell just LOOKS too much like a voracious maneater to play sympathetic (you might as well ask the shark in "Jaws" to be sympathetic). She handles evil a lot better, but I couldn't help but wonder what a stronger actress like Rosalba Neri or Erika Blanc could have done with this role. Still it is not a BAD movie. Maybe if it ever appears on DVD unedited and in better condition, it will be appreciated more.

A millionaire named Alexander (Richard Conte) hires a psychiatrist named Gina (Marisa Mell) to help his mentally ill son, Mark (Juan Ribo). Gina sets out almost immediately to "reach" Mark in her own special way. Let's just say that her methods push the ethical boundaries of psychiatry!

When Gina discovers the diary of Alexander's late wife, she finds out all about him, and his wife's true feelings toward her husband. She also learns of the wife's plan to take care of things, once and for all.

Will Gina finish what the wife couldn't?

A DIARY OF A MURDERESS is a wicked thriller filled with lust, manipulation, betrayal, and murder. Ms. Mell is tremendous, playing one of the most memorable characters in any giallo. There are several twists throughout the film, all leading up to a -truly- grand finale.

Highly recommended for fans of the genre...