Death Steps in the Dark

Luciano is a press photographer travelling to a photo shoot on the Istanbul-Athens express with his girlfriend. While passing through a tunnel, his girlfriend is stabbed to death with Luciano's dagger. He is naturally the prime suspect for the murder, but he believes he can solve the case himself and so goes on the run to clear his name. On the face of it a classic giallo theme, but what we have here is a film that is an odd mix of authentic Giallo, black comedy and at times, outrageously bawdy comedy, in the vein of Airplane movies, the killer leaving his fingerprints in $hit might give you an idea of its level. Still though, some of the humour is spot on and never reaches the level of being tiresome, there are also enough gruesome murders and suspense to keep real Giallo enthusiasts intrigued.

Maurizio Pradeauxs second Giallo has not only got a similar title (the first one is "Passi di Danza su una Lama di Rasoio"), but it also recycles many elements of his first one. As in his other genre outing, the killer murders his/her victims with a razor. The killings are quite nasty, but the special effects are unable to convince completely. The most interesting aspect of this film is its setting: The story takes place in the Greek capital Athens.

Sadly, Pradeaux makes a big mistake: While his first Giallo focuses on suspense, this one boosts stupid gags and one-liners to "relax" tension and suspense. Even worse, the gags are often shamelessly sexist, leading to the impression that all female characters are at least slightly dumb. And it's mainly this fact that makes the whole movie a letdown.

So, if one has to watch one of Pradeauxs two Gialli, "Passi di Danza su una Lama di Rasoio" is a better choice than "Passi di Morte Perduti nel Buio".

Another giallo, but this time we get a delightful mix of murder, great visuals, nudity, and comedy! It's not a comedy per se, but it really does have its tongue in its cheek. If films had tongues. No you shut up.

On a train from Istanbul to Greece, a compartment contains one victim and five suspects. The victim is a young French girl about to be stabbed in the chest with a letter belonging to our first suspect, photographer Leonard Mann. The other suspects are a suspicious looking man, an angry looking woman, a priest, and a dopey Swedish model who is Leonard's girlfriend and who also will be delivering some of the broader humour of the film. There are also two people out in the corridor important to the plot - a young fella and his girlfriend, both of which witness the killer going to the toilet to cut the electricity (please don't think about that or anything else that occurs in the film because you'll get a nose bleed). The killer also drops a pair of gloves, quickly snatched by this duo in order to do some blackmailing later.

The cops think Leonard did it and when there's a strange coincidence involving two separate illegal $10,000, he has to go underground, living in a fishing shack next to a railway line. This is after he dresses in drag for a bit, which may give you an indication of where this film is in tone. The killer gets blackmailed and kills the blackmailer with a straight razor to the neck, but what he/she didn't reckon on was that the blackmailer's girlfriend was having an affair with half the population of Athens, which complicates things greatly.

Character wise, you have a heart-burn suffering cop and his daft sidekick, Leonard and his really daft Swedish sidekick, the remaining suspects (the priest isn't a priest and the angry woman is going through a divorce), the local crime family also being daft as brushes and owning a Minah bird who calls everyone an asshole. The suspicious guy follows everyone around and is basically the red herring and the kidnapper's girlfriend has rather a lot of nude scenes. This weird mix of nudity, gore, great visuals and slapstick really works. We even get a song in the middle of the film and the cinematography is amazing. The stupidity lasts right up until the last second and I'm still not sure if the method used to catch the killer was genius or borderline racist. Who knows? This is a really outstanding entry into the giallo genre. For those who have a sense of humour.

Quite ludicrous but bright and breezy enough to be likable this is, wait for it - a comic giallo. I know, obviously, we are on dangerous territory straight away because, what with all the twists and turns and often daft denouements, gialli, are sometimes laughable enough. Yet here we have a particularly complicated one, albeit with simple enough start, Agatha Christie style with six people in a railway carriage, light goes out, one dies, who dunnit? But this is complicated by the fact that one gets involved in blackmail and then maybe another and there are characters chasing characters, we are struggling to keep up only for the characters to start making jokes (sometimes amusing, sometimes not). On the positive side, it looks tremendous, great costumes and furnishings with the girls not afraid to slip off their clothes, the killings are fairly gory and the score keeps things bobbing along as the cast seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves. Just wish I had as much fun watching.

Many people have trashed this film on account of it being a strange mixture of thriller and comedy. "Passi di morte perduti nel buio" (Death steps in the dark) has all the ingredients of a good giallo and I think that the comic moments don't spoil the suspenseful ones.

"Death steps in the dark" starts as an homage to Agatha Christie. In a compartment of the Istanbul-Athens express train, a girl is fumbling nervously with her necklace. The train passes under a tunnel. When it emerges from the tunnel this girl has a letter opener sticking in her chest. The letter opener belongs to Luciano Morelli (Leonard Mann), a fashion photographer. He'll be one of the main suspects of the police. Luciano along with his naive girlfriend Ingrid (Vera Krouska) will investigate on his own the murder(s) and try to find out the killer - this is the only way to clear himself. Luciano (and Ingrid) will live many adventures and so will the killer (someone - maybe more than one person - is trying to blackmail him/her!). But beware! The film has many surprises in store.

"Death steps in the dark" was shot in Athens - It's very colourful and it has, as it's usual in many gialli, pretty girls (and some nice lesbian touches), stylish camera work and editing, very well-staged killing scenes and a wonderful soundtrack. It also features a very beautiful romantic scene. All in all, "Death steps in the dark" is full of "joie de vivre" - the actors are very natural and seem to be enjoying themselves.

The comic moments are provided mostly by Luciano and his naive and beautiful girlfriend Ingrid, and also by the Detective Inspector in charge of the case (Robert Webber), with his eternal stomach problems.

If you don't take the film too seriously you might enjoy it like I did.

I've seen the film twice already.