jadavix "Eyeball" is one of the more tedious giallo flicks I have seen. It's funny: you'd think the film's unique setting in Barcelona, and its premise of a group of American tourists dealing with murder in Spain, would be enough to set it apart somehow. It's even got an interracial lesbian couple. Yet, none of this works. I think the problem is the director is just not comfortable making gialli. Umberto Lenzi is a name infamous among all fans of cult, exploitation and shock cinema. Yet he was never really renowned in giallo circles. He is famous, or infamous, for films like "Cannibal Ferox", a movie some consider to be even more appalling than its obvious inspiration, "Cannibal Holocaust". Aside from that, he seems to have been most prolific in the Eurocrime genre, with classics like "Almost Human" - arguably the best poliziotteschi of them all, and a bunch of others like "Syndicate Sadists" and "The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist".I feel the urge to describe the plot, but I've pretty much done so already. The movie has a set-up but no execution - no pun intended. American tourists are on a sight-seeing trip in Barcelona. Among them is a rich man with his mistress whom he intends to leave his wife for, and a lesbian couple featuring a sexy woman-of-colour. Someone dies. Actually, make that a bunch of people. They all turn up dead with one eyeball plucked out. The killer is gradually revealed to be a masked figure with a red raincoat.There is a completely ineffectual police investigation, some random bare breasts and some more murders or attacks which, considering the violence against eyeballs, are surprisingly non-violent.None of the characters really make any impression whatsoever. The guy playing the cheating hubby is like every other such character in every other giallo ever made. There's always a rich guy screwing around. Giallo exists to show rich people behaving badly.The only person onscreen who brings out any sympathy in the viewer is the black lesbian. She is sexy and easy to root for. She should have been the main character! Forget the others. I wonder if people of colour just weren't generally protagonists in European films in the '70s - which is a shame, considering blaxploitation was kicking ass across the Atlantic at this time, so obviously there was a market for it among exploitation fans.The killer was, I guess, a surprise. I didn't guess it, but then I didn't care enough to. The direction is just so pedestrian; it's one of those movies where it feels like a tour of the city in which it's filmed. The locations overwhelm and dwarf the actors. The direction is so dull it can't focus your attention on them for long.

Bezenby Imagine how good reality TV show Coach Trip would be if instead of voting out the least popular couple, they murdered them instead? I can only imagine the sarcastic remarks host Brendan Sheerin would come away with. Umerto Lenzi finally gets with the programme and gives us a glimpse of eighties Italian cinema by giving us a film that delivers on gore, trash, nudity, things not making any sense and eyeball removal, while removing the scheming couples and huge villas that have permeated his other gialli up to this point. Why have all the victims stuck in one place when you can have them enjoying Flamenco dancing, swimming and sightseeing in between being stabbed to death and having their eyeballs pulled out?Yes, someone on the coach full of tourists is a killer, and in true trash form, every single person acts suspiciously. There's John Bartha, travelling with his daughter and seemingly fascinated by a razor while shaving, then there's George Riguad the priest who lost his daughter to death, there's a lesbian couple (well, not really suspicious) and a lady called Pauline who is thinking about having an affair with her boss who has also arrived on the scene, played by John Richardson, and he's looking over his shoulder because his wife is having some sort of breakdown and hasn't gone to the hospital like she was supposed to.While it's not hard to guess the killer, a lot of fun can be had with this film. One thing that's intact from his earlier films is the cheesy soundtrack, which is similar to the one Lenzi used in The Man From Deep River. He also retains his good eye for composition while introducing a new element of women having their boobs pop out when being attacked, something he would use to great effect in the jaw-dropping Nightmare City. Apart from everyone going to ridiculous lengths to appear guilty, you also have the killer becoming really crap at attacking people three-quarters of the way through the film, and an almost touching relationship between the old, nearly retired cop in charge of the case and his young apprentice. Nice one Lenzi! Oh, and the killer sports a nice red plastic outfit instead of the standard black glove/hat combo.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Italian slasher film that takes place in Barcelona Spain involving this hooded, with a red plastic raincoat, psycho killer who after murdering his victims pokes their baby blue left eyes out in some kind of bazaar blood ritual. A number of foreign tourists are targeted by this maniac that has the local police headed by the soon to be retired, in just three days, Inspector Tudela, Andres Mejuto, desperate to catch him. That before the story hits the front pages and decimated the city's tourist business that's it major source of income.Were given a number of clues to who the killer is but they seem so confusing that they in fact give him cover from to police instead of having him tracked down and arrested by them. One of the clues that's revealed with such shock and fan-fear is in him being seen a photo with the mulatto fashion model Naiba Campball, Ines Pellegrini. The confusing photo doesn't really show anything except to Neiba, who has brown eyes instead of blue ones the ones the killer is really after,that doesn't make any rhyme or reason at all to his identity! And leaves you, or those of us watching the movie,totally confused to who he is! ***SPOILERS*** It in fact was the plucky Neiba who's lesbian lover Lisa Sanders, Mirta Miller,was one of the killers victims who figured out who the killer was by seeing the photo that was kept from the audience. And after her tracking him down almost lost her life as well as left eye in doing it. This murder and eye popping spree was finally put to and end by the frustrated, in trying to solve the case, and soon to retire Inspector Tudela who finally got a chance to draw and fire his revolver, that he never did in his entire 30 year career in the Barcelona Police Depertment, and mercifully put an end to the killer as well as the movie.

Witchfinder General 666 Umberto Lenzi doubtlessly is one of the greatest and most multi-talented Italian Cult directors, who has contributed gems to pretty much any genre and sub-genre Italian genre-cinema has brought forth, be it rough Poliziotteschi like "Milano Oida... La Polizia Non Può Sparare" ("Almost Human", 1974), "Roma A Mano Armata" ("Rome Armed To The Teeth", 1976) and "Napoli Violenta" ("Violent Naples", 1976), stylish Gialli like "Sette Orchidee Macchiate Di Rosso" ("Seven Blood-Stained Orchids", 1972) or "Spasmo" (1974), Gruesome Cannibal Films Like "Il Paese Del Sesso Selvaggio" ("Deep River Savages", 1972), "Mangiati Vivi" ("Eaten Alive By The Cannibals", 1980) or "Cannibal Ferox" (1981), and even Westerns, Spy Flicks, Sandal Films and Sword and Sorcery - there's hardly been a genre Lenzi was not part of, and he delivered fantastic films in any of them.While "Gatti Rossi in Un Labirinto Di Vetro" aka. "Eyeball" (1975) isn't Lenzi's best Giallo ("Seven Blood-Stained Orchids" is, without a doubt), it is still a highly entertaining film to watch. On a tour to Spain, a bunch of American tourists, among them several hot women, are targeted by a knife-wielding, red-caped Maniac, who kills his victims by stabbing them in the eye... This murder method alone is capable of making a film worthwhile, and since this one is by Umberto Lenzi, there is, of course, more. This one's plot line may be less complicated and ingenious than the typical 70s Giallo, but Lenzi nonetheless delivers tons of entertainment. The film is sleazy and violent, the murders are gory and the female cast-members all seem to have exhibitionist tendencies. The mystery and suspense level are not particularly high, but Lenzi's skillful directing still does ensure tension. Score and Cinematography are genre-typically cool, but not particularly memorable. Overall, "Eyeball" is doubtlessly one of Lenzi's lesser films, but still a noteworthy and very entertaining little flick that is recommendable to all my fellow fans of this great Italian master.