Shadows in an Empty Room

Now this is more like it! An Italian/Canadian 'joint' that isn't dubbed, starts with the feel of a seventies TV movie but then veers madly in tone as the film goes on, and has the distinction of being on of the few De Martino films that doesn't drag. At all!

On the campus of a Montreal college, a young man watches as his ex-girlfriend has a very public argument with her lecturer and possible lover, Martin Landau. Scheming with her, the young man and the girl later play a prank on Landau when the girl (Carol, her name is Carol) fakes being ill during a party. When she non-prankingly dies after being administered medicine by Landau, he becomes suspect number one. Unluckily for him Carol's brother is hard-ass actor Stuart Whitman, and he's a cop to boot, with John Saxon as his icy-eyed partner.

De Martino scores a winner here because he's been clever enough to have a giallo (murder, many suspects, photograph clue etc) with all the elements of a Euro-crime film thrown in for good measure. For example, when we first meet Whitman, he's too busy blowing away bad guys to answer an important call from Carol, and when he approaches the transvestite community to merely ask them if they knew any transgender mates that have been missing, it turns into a huge, random, over the top battle where people are punched through glass windows, Whitman himself nearly falls off a building, and a transvestite gets a pair of straighteners up the arse for his/her trouble!

Not content with that, De Martino also throws in a random car chase that lasts for ages too, and this time he only wanted to show a guy a photo! These two scenes make the film a lot more fun than it would have been as a straight giallo, some I'm grateful they're there.

Tisa Farrow, who would go on to some real Italian exploitation highs in a few years after this film (Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Last Hunter and Anthropophagus), gets the best scenes as the blind piano tutor who is unlucky enough to have quite a bit of the film's action take place in her apartment. This might actually be my favourite De Martino film. Well done mate!

If you as a 1970s filmmaker wanted to spike your latest release, you'd add a wild street chase with all the trimmings, all of which have since become cliches - extras jumping out of the way, close calls with baby buggies, speeding through alleys, ramming stacks of boxes, weaving around stopped buses, becoming airborne on downgrades - but 25 years ago, this was high melodrama, and including such a sequence was sure to sell tickets. And I too sat spellbound through the "Bullitt" and "The French Connection" street-action scenes. But this much-lesser-known film ranks right up there in masterful car-crash choreography. The chase scenes are absolutely stunning.....though the rest of the whodunit plot is rather ordinary, almost like a made-for-television film. (An unforgettable title, though!) If you dig the action genre, seek out "Strange Shadows in an Empty Room".

When this briefly played in the U.S. in 76-7, American International marketed it more in the line of a horror thriller than the shoot-em-up it leaned toward. Six capable perfomers, most of whom were accustomed to making the most out of low-budget material, appeared to varying degrees of success. DeMartino was a workmanlike director who, like most of his Italian contemporaries of the era, made his way around all of the heavily produced genres from western and superhero to crime and horror.

Unlike a lot of the low budget fare made around the mid to late '70s, it still holds up pretty well to repeated viewings. This isn't a fantastic movie, but it is at least watchable and features a cast that can actually act. The inimitable John Saxon, star of many a western Stuart Whitman, and even Martin Landau (Post 'Space 1999' I think) make their appearences, supported by the likes of Tisa Farrow (Mia's sister) and TV queen Gail Hunnicut (Where is she these days?). One great element of this film is the execellent music composed by Armando Trovajoli. At times, he has included themes which are a combination of classical music, along with synthesizer riffs. And the heavy bass line help to hieghten tension during the scary scenes. As someone has mentioned before, this is a mix of genres from the Italian giallo, to the usual US cop thriller. But it all seems to work well.

Methinks the over-rated Dario Argento could learn a lot from a film such as this!

With a great cast featuring Stuart Whitman, John Saxon, Martin Landau, AND Tisa Farrow this film glides with the greatest of ease. STRANGE SHADOWS IN AN EMPTY ROOM is sort of a cross between the Italian crime/police potboiler and your average giallo thriller. An interesting and fun blend it is. I'd rather not give too much of the film away since it's better going into it knowing next to nothing. Let's just say there's murder, mystery, car chases, blood, funky 70s music, karate-kicking drag queens, and of course your all-star cast! Have fun.