Death Steps in the Dark

This is another little-known but well-above-average giallo, in its case a latter-day entry; again, we have here an American actor – Robert Webber as an Inspector having to contend not just with a series of murders but a constantly upset stomach! – sparring with the protagonist, Leonard Mann (Italian despite the English-sounding name). Atypically, the film intercuts the genre's trademark intensity with a good deal of humor (including the hero fleeing detection in drag!); while it may feel uneasy at the start, the mix soon becomes acceptable and, in fact, proves considerably entertaining. In this respect, Mann's dumb girlfriend proves a bit much – having said that, there is one other kooky female character, a young safecracker who aids them in unmasking the villain of the piece! As usual, the film concludes with a rushed, muddled and rather banal explanation of the killer's motives (incidentally, the original murder cleverly occurs in a train compartment just as the vehicle enters a tunnel!) – which, however, is atoned for by one last delightful joke involving the inexperienced petty criminal. Like I said, its light mood notwithstanding, DEATH STEPS IN THE DARK (nicely shot in Greece, by the way) certainly does not hold back on blood-letting – since this had become pretty much the norm following Dario Argento's vicious face-lifting of the genre with DEEP RED (1975); still, there is one additional incongruous (and, in hindsight, unnecessary) element in the few – albeit surprisingly explicit – sex scenes (notably a lesbian coupling seen in extreme close-up!)...

This is the second of only two giallos directed by Maurizio Pradeaux. And this is the better of the two in my opinion. It's mostly better due to the script and the acting. Comic scenarios and sometimes witty, and sometimes stupid, dialogue abound here. The actors have a lot of fun with it! The pace is breezy and bubbly. Leonard Mann (protagonist) and Robert Webber (inspector) come across as the strongest of the group.

There is quite a bit of misogyny here with every female character being written as either an idiot or a criminal.

The gore/special effects are pretty average. The killer has very little creativity and basically kills every victim the same way.

The mystery never completely makes sense to me. But since the movie doesn't take itself too seriously, I cut it some slack. It really does breeze by with all the humor.

The giallo has since the genre began employed humour, from at least the time of Bava's The Girl Who Knew Too Much spots of comedy have leavened the intrigue and stylised violence. Not a bad thing either in my book, gialli operate in a realm outside of normal human experience and to pursue their concerns with deathly seriousness is not always the best approach. Still, there aren't many substantially comic gialli, perhaps because the earthy nature of a lot of Euro exploitation comedy of the time was ill fitting with the rarefied nature of the giallo. Death Steps In The Dark is an example of a substantially humorous giallo and it actually works out pretty nicely, while never especially funny the film carries its humour with an unforced daftness that is a little charming, and only grating in a short sequence of the hero in drag. Then again I've never been a fan of drag humour and others may think more of it. The general plotting is serious stuff and fairly convoluted, whilst travelling through a tunnel the lights go out in a train and a nun is murdered, suspicion falls on fashion photographer Luciano and he must prove is innocence, murder and intrigue continuing all the while. Maurizio Pradeaux of the similarly lesser seen Death Carries A Cane directs here, bringing style and colour, the pace is quick and there are some memorable moments including a use of defiantly unerotic ultra close up during a sex scene that could pass for one of Jesus Franco's craziest dalliances and a particularly fine murder with nice bloodshed. The suspense scenes are for the most part taken seriously with good use of killer POV shooting, and while never especially gory the kills get a bit of the red stuff flowing, satisfying enough in a film like this where the tone is lighter and the emphasis not so much on shocks. Acting is generally decent, Leonard Mann sympathetic as the confused and somewhat frazzled hero, Vera Krouska a delight as his dim witted girlfriend and Robert Webber suitably dry as a police inspector just trying to get the job done, despite plot convolutions, idiots around him and heartburn. The Riz Ortolani score is solid too, has a smooth and romantic feel to it that works with the surroundings and general style. There are a couple of drawbacks here, one easy to point out and one less so, but they conspire to bring the film down a few notches. Though often amusing the humour is pretty basic and tends towards sexism, it may all be in good fun but the lack of sophistication is pretty glaring. And the explanation for events is based on information that doesn't appear anywhere in the prior proceedings, the film lays clues as to its killer, but the ultimate explanation is pretty left-field and its a bit of a downer that it wasn't hinted at earlier, it feels a bit of a cheat. Still for the most part this is fun stuff and giallo completists could do worse than check it out.

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.

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.