Witchfinder General 666 "Le Foto Proibite Di Una Signora Per Bene" aka. "The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion" (1970) is the first of three Gialli by Luciano Ercoli, the others being the fantastic "La Morte Cammina Con I Tacchi Alti" ("Death Walks With High Heels", 1971) and the decent "La Morte Accarezza a Mezzanotte" ("Death Walks At Midnight", 1972). This is actually a highly unusual Giallo as it lacks the usual violent and stylish murders almost entirely; however, it makes up for the lack of bloodshed with a hugely compelling plot that will tantalize the viewer from start to finish.When walking alone at night Minou (Dagmar Lassander) is attacked by an assailant (Simón Andreu). He does not rape her, but blackmails her with supposed proof of her husband Peter's (Pier Paolo Capponi) role in a murder. And it isn't money that the blackmailer is keen on.... Scripted by the great Ernesto Gastaldi, whose impressive filmography as a screenwriter includes Ercoli's other two Gialli and numerous others as well as several of the works of master directors like Mario Bava, Antonio Margheriti and Sergio Martino, "Forbidden Photos..." has a fascinating and constantly tense plot full of intrigue, red herrings and sexual perversions. The film is often referred to as a very 'sexy' Giallo; while the film has a plot filled with sex, it isn't explicit though, and actually quite tame for Giallo standards (there is no explicit filmed nudity, just some nude photos of sexy Nieves Navarro are shown). The film is almost blood-less and doubtlessly one of the least goriest Gialli ever made.The cast is entirely great. All three of Ercoli's Gialli star Spanish actress Nieves Navarro and her countryman Simón Andreu. Andreu is great in the role of the sex-crazed blackmailer and the ravishing Miss Navarro is once again fantastic in her role of Minou's nymphomaniac friend. Dagmar Lassander ("Hatchet for the Honeymoon") fits perfectly in the leading role of the victim, she seems incredibly vulnerable and innocent. Pier Paolo Capponi ("Il Boss", "Cat O'Nine Tails", "Seven Blood-Stained Orchids") is once again great in his role. The film has a wonderfully elegant, typical early 70s look and the cinematography is fantastic, even by high Giallo Standards. The score was composed by none other than Ennio Morricone, needless to say that it is brilliant and perfectly increases the tension and atmosphere. In spite of a very low violence-level, "Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion" manages to be an incredibly suspenseful Giallo-experience from start to finish. My personal favorite film by Ercoli is still "Death Walks with High Heels", but this one comes very close and is an undeniable must-see for any Giallo fan. Highly Recommended! My rating: 8.5/10

Coventry This is another sublime Italian giallo with a fascinating plot that you surely haven't seen or heard about before in any other movie. Whilst waiting for her husband to come home from another business trip, lovely Minou (Dagmar Lassander) has a frightening encounter with an assaulter on the beach. Instead of raping her, however, he tells her that her beloved husband Peter relentlessly killed a major creditor and made it look like suicide. Minou begins to notice Peter's increasingly suspicious business methods but does everything she can to avoid that the mysterious blackmailer tells his story to the police...and that includes sleeping with him. Is her husband really a murderer? Is he just messing with her mind? Is her oh-so-helpful friend Dominique, who reputed to be a nymphomaniac, really as honest as she claims? Good luck guessing for the answers to all these questions and more, as the mystery in "Forbidden Photos of a Lady above Suspicion" is subtly and elegantly built up, leading to a tense finale that actually makes sense for a change. Without ever resorting to graphic violence or pure sleaze, director Luciano Ercoli tells a story that is full of perversion, blackmail and sexual decadence. Quite an achievement if you bear in mind that nearly every other Italian director requires at least a handful of bloody murders to illustrate the exact same topics. "Forbidden Photos..." uses great dialogues, atmospheric music and adequate acting performances instead. Fans of the gialli milestones directed by Sergio Martino or Dario Argento will probably regret the lack of explicit bloodshed, but surely everyone will appreciate a tightly woven plot of intrigues like this? Wonderful giallo, highly recommended to the more experienced fans of Italian crime cinema.

hae13400 In one evening, a beautiful married woman, Minou, is attacked by a strange man who informs her husband, Peter, is a murderer. Although Minou can't and doesn't want to believe the apparently crazy story, her best friend, Dominique, meaningfully suggests that a man named Jean Dubois, who was found to be drowned, might be somehow murdered. So, even in the troublesome circumstance that people around her including the police Commissioner can't conform the stranger really exists, it is natural that an unpleasant idea that Peter killed Jean Dubois crosses Minou's mind... Ostensibly the story of this film is a little too old-fashioned to be that of a 1970 Giallo. But, in the last sequence, it takes an desirably satisfactory (if not new) turn which not only is manifestly influenced by Mario Bava's THE TELEPHONE (which is the first and most Giallish segment of his 1964 BLACK SABBATH) but also has rather an usual Giallish element of bisexuality which conforms the Freudian thesis that sadism and masochism must be assessed in the framework of the bisexual organisation. Speaking of the Freudian psychoanalysis, the two leading characters, namely, Minou as a masochist and the black-mailer as a sadist, are almost innocently conformable to the Freudian definitions of masochism and sadism, which are accountable for the different roles of the female and the male. Especially, Minou is a very typically Freudian woman who is, paradoxically enough, so dependent upon her husband that she can sleep with the black-mailer to protect her husband. In this sense, though Dagmar Lassander adequately plays Minou whose actions and reactions, spoken and unspoken utterances, tones of voice, facial expressions and gestures are Freudian and/or psychoanalytically explainable, this film per se isn't and can't be the one in which Lassander is at her best because her character lives in and only in the strangely self-limited world. (Incidentally, I think the 1970s' film in which Lassander is at much better is nothing but SO YOUNG, SO LOVELY, SO VICIOUS...in which she plays much more humanly ambivalent person named Irena. Unfortunately this 1975 film per se is a little to melodramatic to be an average Giallo.) And regarding the Ennio Morricone's music, though it per se doesn't seem to be particularly bad, its strangely independent cheerfulness is not adequate for the appropriately essential seriousness of the film at all. Indeed this music is an unnaturally added sense of the-reality-IN-the-film, and confuses and/or disturbs the-reality-OF-the-film. In conclusion, though I can say this film as a whole is an average Giallo, I have to say the director's similar Giallo film, DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS, which has more serious and twisted detectiveness, is better than this.

Superwonderscope Ever after giallo writer Ernesto Gastaldi teams up with producer-director Luciano Ercoli for this Forbidden Photos... Set in 1970, this early giallo is nicely shot in Techniscope. No murders, just plain old blackmail story and some shy eroticism. Sultry Dagmar Lassander is at her best and Susan Scott is also fab as the devious friend.The plot is totally implausible but the suspense works til the end...It's always surprising to see in these 70's gialli how the women look incredibly sexy and how the men are all ugly...projections of the writers/directors fantasies, maybe? Anyhoo... not boring at all, funny at some point -check out the dresses and the hats, it's a blast!-, not necessary but worth a look.