Rating: **
Review Date: 10/30/23
Director: Emilio Miraglia
Cast: Anthony Steffen, Marina Malfatti, Erika Blanc,
Maria Teresa Toffano
"You're more exciting when you wear boots."
Driven insane by the death of his cheating wife, Lord Alan Cunningham (Anthony Steffen) takes comfort in torturing and murdering red-haired prostitutes. Not a very likable fellow, but rich people seldom are. What's perhaps even more unsettling is that his doctor and brother-in-law are fully aware of his murderous ways, and yet do nothing about it. A stern warning, like a parent scolding a child, is about all he gets. "Now Alan, if you don't stop killing young women, I'm going to have to send you back to the asylum!" But Alan is also a pawn and a victim in a larger game of manipulation and murder. After marrying a blonde woman that he slept with at a party (I guess that's how things worked in the 70's), the ghost of Evelyn starts haunting Alan's house and his family members start dying in horrible ways. Will the murders stop before Alan completely loses his mind?
A beautifully filmed, but awful gothic murder mystery that's unpleasant, uninteresting, difficult to follow, and full of logic holes. The protagonist is a repulsive and unendearing person, and it's hard to relate to anyone or anything in the film. The director tries to spice things up with S&M and nudity, but that only succeeds in further alienating the audience and making Alan even more unlikable. The first hour is a tedious slog, and things don't get interesting until the last twenty minutes, when Evelyn does indeed come out of the grave. Unfortunately, the ending is spoiled by too many loose ends, unanswered questions, and unexplained weirdness. And Alan's crimes go unpunished.
The film features some delightfully creepy imagery along with some unnecessary gore. Most people tend to point out Erika Blanc as the highlight of the film, but she didn't do much for me. I found Maria Teresa Toffano's doomed prostitute to be much more attractive, alluring, and engaging. Marina Malfatti is also very pretty and gives a solid performance as Alan's duplicitous and mysteriously eager new wife. I didn't enjoy the film and can't recommend it to anyone other than diehard giallo fans who have a taste for sadism. Emilio Miraglia's next film, "The Red Queen Kills Seven Times" (1972), is much better.