GL84 Following the death of her father, a woman finds herself continually assaulted by a masked killer looking for the stolen jewels he took and the chance to escape the lifestyle brings the killer back into her life with a stronger vengeance than before and forces her to stop him.This was a decent enough Giallo with some incredibly enjoyable elements to it. Among the bright parts here is the fact that this one really plays up the erotic and sleazy thrills into the kind of traditional genre format. The film's basic setup about the search for the missing jewels spawning the killing spree and the innocents getting caught up in the seedy underground manages to give this a thrilling start to base off of, and the initial stalking scenes featuring this kind of fun allows for the stellar opening ambush in the train-car, the encounter in her flat where the killer ties her up and torments her in a rather seductive yet still tense manner and the rather eerie series of scenes showing them being spied on in the remote villa. These are brought about by the rather nice fact that the scenes of them being spied on are usually accompanied by scenes of her being nude at the time, and there's a great sense of erotic tension to be found within the one scene of her being tied up and tormented. Likewise, the fact that there's a lot of great fun to be had when this one featuring plenty of dance scenes showing her going about her stripteases gyrating in the nude, and it makes for a rather enjoyable time here. The final half of this one does manage to bring this one about even further as there's some fun to be had with the stalking in the hotel that comes off with a strong shocking ambush, the really frantic scene at the remote cabin where the investigation brings them into contact with the loner who offers the full-on retelling of the events that transpired the fateful night with all the true events played out and the different backstories for the characters getting revealed all make this one quite enjoyable. With a strong final revelation and the nice twist that comes off as a nice shock, there's plenty to like overall here even with a few minor flaws to be had here. The film's biggest issue here is the fact that there's just not a whole lot of action overall here as it turns out rather bland at times with the utterly incessant travelogue footage showing them going around the village and generally just being there with featuring any kind of big stalking activity. The low body count doesn't do this one many favors without the chance to offer up that kind of action, and the plodding pace ambles around without direction for a large portion of the time here not giving this one much help, and with the low-key action not coming along until the finale this one does tend to stumble around for a while. Otherwise, this one does have some solid points for it.Rated Unrated/R: Full Nudity, Graphic Violence and Language.

morrison-dylan-fan After winning Death Walks at Midnight on eBay I started searching for the other film in the series,but was unable to find and DVD in sight.Talking to a fellow IMDber on the Film Noir board,I was thrilled to learn that Arrow has put out DVD/Blu-Ray boxset on the films,which led to me buying death some heels.The plot:After her diamond thief dad is murdered on a train, Nicole Rochard is asked by police if she know who could do that to her dad,and also if he told her where he put his last batch of stolen diamonds. Keeping family secrets closely guarded,Rochard tells the cops that she does not know anything. Whilst the police appear to accept her answer,a masked stranger wearing black gloves with blue eyes makes sure that Rochard is well aware that they believe she knows where the diamonds are.Whilst trying to figure out who the stranger could be, Rochard goes to the sink of her boyfriends house,and finds two piecing blue eyes contact lens.View on the film:For the first offering in the box Arrow hit a bullseye with their marvellous transfer,via the picture and various audio options being as sharp as a razor blade,and the set being packed with extensive,detailed extras.Cutting to the chase with a stranger getting killed on a train within the first minute (!) director Luciano Ercoli & cinematographer Fernando Arribas dice the movie with a visceral stylisation, Glistening against Stelvio Cipriani's dreamy score, Ercoli is surprisingly forward with the Giallo sex and violence,with restrained camera moves offering a vague glimpse of the murderer to the viewer,and Ercoli showing his wife at her most beautiful,with swaying tracking shots circling the glamorous clothes and primary coloured drenched locations that surround Rochard.Placing the black gloves on in Italy and the UK, Ercoli stabs the sensual naked flesh and elegant violence with a ruby red Giallo Film Noir atmosphere.Going outdoors in the UK, Ercoli gives the movie a frosty appearance,as the police dig deep into the mist to find the black gloves.Keeping the tension heated indoors, Ercoli masterfully uses ultra-stylish close- ups to capture death walking on high heels across Rochard's face. Deeply contrasting the psychedelic shades of the second flick in the series,the screenplay by Ernesto Gastaldi/Mahnahén Velasco and Dino Verde superbly keep the central mystery rooted as enticing, drastically different threads are slung round the Giallo heels. Tasting all of Rochard's decadence,the writers give the first half a jet-set chic Thriller,as everyone Rochard's meets looks at her with baby blue eyes. Taking a daring risk in killing off some of the main stars,the writers wrap the gloves with a brittle Film Noir Giallo mystery which tears away at the crisp high-life image Rochard has made.Looking beautiful in incredibly distinctive clothes,the beautiful Nieves Navarro graces her husband's film with a sparkling performance as Rochard. Erotically charging the Giallo with her wide eyes of fear, Navarro gives Rochard femme fatal spikes with a glowing force to stop the killer walking at midnight.

gavin6942 A famed jewel thief named Rochard is slashed to death on a train. His daughter Nicole, a famous nightclub performer in Paris, is questioned by the police about some missing diamonds but she claims to know nothing about this. Nicole is then terrorized by a masked man with piercing blue eyes who demands to know where her father has hidden the stolen diamonds.The film is written by no less a figure than Ernesto Gastaldi, who is considered by some to be the father of giallo. The director, Luciano Ercoli, is interestingly perhaps better known as a producer or production designer. He more or less fell into directing as a cost-cutting measure -- one less person to hire. (Tim Lucas compares Ercoli to Brian DePalma... and there is some truth to that.)Who doesn't love composer Stelvio Cipriani, probably among the top composers in Italy (behind perhaps Ennio Morricone and Goblin for genre film). What we get here is rather sparse (many scenes have no music at all) but the man does what he does well. Not surprisingly, his work has been used by Quentin Tarantino, the champion of such films as this.A note on the lead actor, an American. Frank Wolff had bit roles in his first two films, Roger Corman's "I Mobster" and "The Wasp Woman". On Corman's advice, Frank Wolff remained in Europe and became a well-known character actor in over fifty, mostly Italian-made, films of the 1960s, including crime/suspense "gialli" and spaghetti westerns.Director Ercoli obviously does not have the name recognition of Mario Bava or Dario Argento, but he still knows how to make a great giallo (with a dollop of influence from Argento's "Bird With the Crystal Plumage"). A masked and gloved killer, a bit of mirrors, and an unhealthy fascination with eyes -- close-ups of eyes, false eyes, windows that look like eyes. Nobody knows eyes like the Italians!The Arrow Video blu-ray allows the viewer to watch either the Italian or English versions (because sometimes you need a dub, and sometimes you don't). The disc also comes with: Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas, by far the most knowledgeable non-Italian scholar of the Italian genre film. Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi. A featurette comprising newly-edited archive footage of director Luciano Ercoli and actress Nieves Navarro. A career-spanning interview with composer Stelvio Cipriani. Italian genre fans (which includes pretty much all horror fans) will love this disc, part of Arrow's "Death Walks Twice" set.

lazarillo A jewel thief is killed on a train by a man with piercing blue eyes. His daughter, a Paris stripper, believes the killer is after her, and after finding blue contact lenses in the medicine cabinet of her thuggish pimp-boyfriend, she flees France with a rich admirer she hardly knows to his villa a remote Scottish fishing village (where it isn't just the water that's full of red herrings).This is a great giallo with a very convoluted but highly enjoyable plot and plenty of style to burn. The setting is pretty unique and the movie makes the unusual but interesting decision of killing off an important character halfway through. It does run out of gas a little at the end, but it's still pretty damn satisfying. The leads are all good, especially the sexy Nieves Navarro, director Luciano Ercoli's real-life wife. Navarro turned in really good performances in her husband's other movies ("Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion" and "Death Walks at Midnight")and was scrumptious bit of tail in everybody else's ("The Slasher is a Sex Maniac", "Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals"). Here she is really good AND a scrumptious bit of tail. She was probably the hottest Spanish actress of the era with the exception of Soledad Miranda (who was a good ten years younger). But I digress. The new DVD version of this looks great and includes "Death Walks at Midnight", an interesting booklet, and a groovy soundtrack CD. Highly recommended