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Stelvio Massi might have been responsible for some great poliziesci (including the enjoyable Mark trilogy), but Arabella l'angelo nero really is a very poor giallo. Without a decent script and unable to create any kind of suspense, Massi goes all with the sleaze instead and any female character sheds her clothes within seconds of appearing on screen. Well, everybody apart from Evelyn Stewart. I always feel a bit sorry for her when I watch this. She'd been in films by Fellini and Visconti and she starred in handful of classic gialli titles, but by 1989 she was reduced to starring in this kind of shabby fare. No wonder this was one of her last films.
L'Assassino è ancora tra noi is loosely based on the still unsolved murders by the Mostro di Firenze in the early 80's and is mostly known for the very brutal killings that bookends the film. With no English language version available, a lack of any greater set-pieces or suspense through the greater part of the film and shot in a dull looking tv-style, it's easy to understand why this hasn't received any praise by giallo fans. I'd only seen the Italian language print until recently when I had the chance to see the excellent fan dvd made by Oli at Profondo Blogger. It's still not a great giallo by any means, but the subtitles certainly increased my appreciation of the film.
And people complain about The Iguana with the Tounge of Fire??!! I recently revisited Riccardo Freda's final giallo Follia Omicidia from 1981 and it's a very, very poor effort, even by 80's giallo standard. Overlong, convoluted and short of suspense, this film is a mess. Add a godawful synth soundtrack and some of the worst special effects you're likely to see and you're got yourself a film you're unlikely to want to revisit on a regular basis.
It's time for another 80's week and what better way to start it off than with Fulci's Murder Rock. Made four years after the original Fame film and with the tv-series still running, the setting of this 1984 giallo must have seemed like a great idea at the time. Cue plenty of dance scenes, leotards, leg warmers, a very 80’s score by Keith Emerson and some cracking alternate titles that almost sound too good to be true: Slashdance and Giallo a Disco.
There’s some gut-wrenchingly bad Fame-inspired dialogue, hilarious dancing in skimpy outfits and apart from Cosimo Cinieri, the acting really isn’t all that great but I find Murderock strangely entertaining in spite of all this.
The prospect of Barbara Bouchet and Rosalba Neri togheter is enough to have most eurocult fans foaming at the mouth, but Silvio Amadio's Alla ricerca del piacere has more on offer than just the lovely leading ladies. Unfortunately this entertaining thriller is only available on DVD in a badly cropped full screen version, but hopefully a restored version will surface one day. The very gialloesque artwork is by Renato Casaro.
Gianfranco Baldanello's Yellow: le cugine is one of the titles that is always mentioned when rare gialli are discussed. It something of a holy grail to most giallo fans and I don't think I've ever come across anybody that claims to have seen it. This poster is probably about as close as I'm ever going to get to it.
Trauma is one of the few Argento films I've had the pleasure of seeing on the the big screen. I remember being bitterly dissapointed when I first saw it at the Stockholm film festival back in the early 90's. I recently revisited it through the R2 Optimum disc and while it's still not one of Argento's better films, it wasn't quite as bad as I remembered it. No info on who is behind the very poor looking locandina.
We'll start the week off with Ezio Taruntelli's great artwork for Umberto Lenzi's Spasmo. Very different from Lenzi's collaborations with Carroll Baker and the more Argento influenced Seven Blood-Stained Orchids, Spasmo is a slightly confusing but nevertheless entertaining entry in Lenzi's giallo canon. The film features a great soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. The main theme Bambole is a dreamy, romantic composition with beautiful floaty vocals from I Cantori Moderni, that fares well against the rest of Morricone superior early 70's output. The other themes, Spasmo and Stress Infinito, stand in stark contrast to the main theme. Spasmo is a dark, melancholic orchestral piece and Stress Infinito is a jarring, atonal track slightly reminiscent of themes from The Bird With the Crystal Plumage and A Lizard in a Woman's Skin. 
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