200th post

It took a while to get here but this is the 200th post on Giallo locandine, so I thought I’d post something special to celebrate. You’ll get not one, not two, not three, but four posters this time.

During the last 12 months or so I’ve finally managed to a few of most wanted alternate posters so I thought I'd share a few with you today.  

The first one up is the alternate poster for Paolo Cavara’s giallo classic La Tarantola dal ventre nero. Beautiful artwork from an unknown artist where the two Barbaras (Bouchet and Bach) and Giancarlo Giannini are featured more prominently than on the poster most people know (since it used for the Blue Underground DVD Cover).  

The next two posters are alternate posters to Lamberto Bava’s 1992 giallo, Misteria (or Body Puzzle). I find the film slightly underrated and actually think it’s one of the best 90‘s gialli by far. The artwork in itself is not that inspiring, but that’s seldom the case with a 90’s film.

The last locandina is the alternate artwork to Luciano Ercoli’s La morte cammina con i tacchi alti. I’ve been searching for this ever since a narrowly missed out on a bidding war on ebay a five years ago or so. Great artwork by the mighty Sandro Symeoni. 

7, Hyden Park: la casa maledetta (Formula for a Murder)

To me, Alberto De Martino 80's gialli (this and Blood Link) are far better than the ones he directed in the 70's (The Man with Icy Eyes & The Killer Is on the Phone). 7, Hyden Park: la casa maledetta suffers a bit from the very 80's look and one of the worst synth scores ever (composed by the normally reliable Francesco De Masi), but apart from that it's a decent thriller with some interesting plot twists. The airbrushed artwork by Symeoni is a dead give-away to its 80's origins.

Omicidio per vocazione (Deadly Inheritance)

The poster for Vittorio Sindoni's Omicidio per vocazione. It also known as L'Assassino ha le mani pulite and there's a alternate locandina with that title available (haven't been able to get my hands on it yet). The film itself is a fairly poor giallo that not even Femi Benussi can save from mediocrity. Poster art by Symeoni.

Extrasensorial (Blood Link)

I love Symeoni's beautiful artwork for Alberto De Martino's Extrasensorial. It will no doubt be be very familiar to the owners of Adrian Luther Smith's Blood & Black Lace (and I reckon that'll be quite a few of this blogs readers). While one doesn't necessarily expect too much from 1982 genre entry from Alberto De Martino, Blood Link is actually a very good film with an excellent performance by Michael Moriarty as the psychically linked twins Keith and Craig.

La Morte cammina con i tacchi alti (Death Walks on High Heels)

Spoilers in this post, so tread carefully if you haven't seen the film!

Although Luciano Ercoli's La Morte cammina con i tacchi alti is an above average giallo with a great cast (Ercoli regulars Susan Scott and Simon Andreu are joined by the ever dependable Frank Wolff) and a great soundtrack by Stelvio Cipriani, it's probably my least favourite of his thrillers. Part of the reason is the demise of one of the main characters about halfway. Gastaldi pulled a similar trick in one of his other scripts to much better effect, but the loss of this particular character really hurts the film. The poster by Symeoni is great though.

L'Altra casa ai margini del bosco (The Corruption of Chris Miller)

I'm generally not a big fan on Spanish thrillers since most of them seem that lack the sense of style that make their Italian counterparts so great. Considering Juan Antoni Bardem's L'Altra casa ai margini del bosco starts off with a killer dressed up like Charlie Chaplin, it's easy to dismiss it straight away, but it's actually one of the better Spanish thrillers. If it would have been made in Italy it would have been directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Carroll Baker. High-praise indeed. Locandina artwork by Symeoni.

Nude...si muore (Naked You Die)

Like Freda, Antonio Margheriti work in the giallo genre was fairly unremarkable. Nude...si muore is the first of the two gialli directed by him. The script is co-written by Mario Bava and it certainly would have been interesting how it would have turned out if directed by Bava instead of Margheriti. Poster art by the great Symeoni.

La morte accarezza a mezzanotte (Death Walks at Midnight)

Another great Luciano Ercoli giallo starring the delectable Susan Scott. This one features a fantastic soundtrack by Gianni Ferrio, who with the great scores for Una Farfalla Con Le Ali Insanguinate, La Morte Risale A Ieri Sera, L'Uomo Senza Memoria and this rate as one of my favourite giallo composers.

There is a second locandina available for this that I unfortunately haven't been able to get my hands on yet, but hopefully I'll be able to post it here sometime in the future.

La Notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba (The Night Evelyn Came of the Grave)

Even though I currently own three dvds of La Notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba, it's has never really been a favourite one of mine. The poster art by Symeoni is beautiful though.

L'Occhio nel labirinto (Eye in the Labyrinth)

Julia (Rosemary Dexter) dreams that her psychiatrist boyfriend Lucas is stabbed to death. The next day he is nowhere to be found. All traces lead to the small Mediterranean village Maracudi, where Gerda Hoffman (Alida Valli) lives with a variety of eccentrics, musicians and artists. Gerda claims never to have heard of Lucas but Julia soon finds evidence that he might have been at the villa after all…
Enjoyable giallo mostly set in and around a seaside villa (similar to that in La Settima Donna), but director Mario Caiano keep things moving at a brisk pace. Rosemary Dexter is a beautiful leading lady and Valli and Adolfo Celi provide great suppporting cast. Poster art by Symeoni.

Cosa avete fatto a Solange? (What Have You Done to Solange?)

I've been lazy the last couple of days, so I thought I'd make up for it by posting the two alternate posters for Massimo Dallamano's Cosa avete fatto a Solange?. Made in 1972, Solange is the first film in the loosely held together "schoolgirls-in-peril" trilogy that was written by Dallamano. A firm favourite of mine, this is an excellent giallo set in London featuring a great cast and a beautiful soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. Dallamano went on to direct La Polizia chiede aiuto (What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) in 1974, but unfortunately he passed away in a car accident in 1976 before he could conclude the triolgy, so the last film Engima Rosso (Rings of Fear) was directed by Alberto Negrin.
There's no signature on the locandina posted above, but the one below is made by the great Sandro Simeoni aka Symeoni.