03/21/2006 12:20 AM
Posted by VeggieSteph

The Giallo Collection

Ever since I discovered Dario Argento, I have enjoyed a style of Italian movies called Giallo. Giallo are violent suspense thrillers, usually involving ultra-hip people, at least one English-speaking star, topless women, and overly gory death scenes with bright red blood (think tomato red paint). Recently NetFlix sent me three different Giallos: Short Night of Glass Dolls, The Case of the Bloody Iris, and Who Saw Her Die?.



Short Night of Glass Dolls

Short Night of Glass Dolls is the story of Gregory Moore, a journalist who wakes up in the morgue and everyone thinks he is dead. He is unable to communicate or move (think zombie like in Serpent and the Rainbow), and over the course of the film, he remembers why he has ended up in the morgue. Barbara Bach plays his girlfriend, whose disappearance sparks the whole situation. (To be honest, I’m not sure what the glass dolls are, but it makes an interesting title.)

The Case of the Bloody Iris

In The Case of the Bloody Iris, Edwige French is Jennifer, a model that finds out her apartment was the scene of a recent murder. She decides to investigate, and there are plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing as to whom the killer is. Is it her new boyfriend? Or how about the lesbian that won’t leave her a lone? Or how about the crazed, hippie ex-husband, who insists they are still married?

Who Saw Her Die?

Who Saw Her Die? is an excellent Giallo, and it even stars George Lazenby, the one-off James Bond. Lazenby plays a sculptor whose daughter is murdered. He doesn’t trust that the police can solve the murder, so he investigates on his own with his grief-stricken wife. The more they find out about the murder and the murderer, the more people die. This is very similar to Don’t Look Now, a movie from 1973 starring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland (which is also worth checking out).

All three of these Giallos are worth watching if you like 70’s style horror and thriller movies with a cosmopolitan edge, and if you don’t mind the discrepancies between dubbed dialogue and spoken Italian. They are all very stylized, and all perfect representations of the genre. If you like Mario Brava or Dario Argento, you’d probably like these. If you aren’t a horror freak like me, you might want to skip these and find something a little less out there and trippy. If you like these, I’d also recommend you check out Deep Red, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat o Nine Tails, and Tenebre by Dario Argento.