Fraulein Devil

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Warning SPOILERS!!! Many people consider this a minor film in the giallo genre and I must agree, although it has a certain style all its own. The mystery element is not quite up to snuff although the film as a whole is quite entertaining, even if it is for all the wrong reasons. Granted, it's no DEEP RED (1976) or TORSO (1973), but what is? Rome: Professional photographer Kitty (Susan Scott; THE SLASHER...IS THE SEX MANIAC! - 1972) is looking for her performance artist boyfriend Alberto (Robert Hoffmann; SPASMO - 1974) through a coin-operated telescope and spots a man in a large black hat and black gloves killing a woman in her apartment. Just as she is about to see his face, the telescope goes black, needing another coin. She misses seeing his face, but gets the address of the apartment by the building's number (57) and notices a chestnut vendor and a customer near the murder scene. Susan and Alberto go to the police and talk to Inspector Merughi (George Martin; THREE SUPERMEN IN THE JUNGLE - 1970), but he has a problem believing her since she cannot identify the killer and all she has is a building number and not an actual address. Alberto, who performs an art show where he stabs mannequins (!), shows some photos that Kitty took of his show to TV and film scorer Marco (Simón Andreu; NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS - 1973) in hopes that he will use them ion a TV dance show he is scoring (Alberto says about Kitty's photos: "It's the only thing she does well, besides making love." !). Kitty calls her friend, newspaper reporter Lidia (Anuska Borova), in hope of finding out who was killed, but Lidia tells her that no body has been found yet (The first time we see Lidia, she is naked and trying to make love to Marco, but he is not able to "rise" to the occasion. When Kitty asks if she has heard the news, she says, "Dear Marco is impotent, how about that?" !!!) The Inspector pays Kitty and Alberto a visit in their apartment, telling them that the have found the body of a female dancer, so Kitty retells him the story and says that the killer wore a black hat, just like the one Alberto owns (Why does Alberto look and act guilty all the time?). We then see the killer, who walks with a cane, pick out his favorite straight razor and knock on the door of Rocco, the chestnut vendor (Gualtiero Rispoli). When he answers the door, no one is there. He hears something outside his window, so he opens it and the killer grabs him around the neck with the curved handle of the cane and then slashes his throat with the razor. Lidia arrives at the murder scene and tells the Inspector that this may be the work of a sex maniac (WTF?!?). The forensics team find cane imprints in the soil outside the vendor's window, the same cane prints that were at the scenes of two other murders, including the dancer's (The Inspector turns to his assistant Lolli [Rodolfo Lolli] and says, "Give me the files on all deviants and sex offenders with leg disabilities." Double WTF?!?!?!?). We then see someone sneaking into Kitty's bedroom, pulling the covers off her sleeping naked body and taking photos of her. It is then revealed to be Alberto, who is in the habit of taking naked photos of his girlfriend without her permission. The inspector suspects Alberto is the killer because, the last time he saw him, he was walking with a limp. Alberto tells him that he sprained his ankle, but his reason is very suspicious, especially when the Inspector shows Alberto a photo of him with the dead dancer at a performance art show he enacted a couple of months earlier. Alberto explains that he always gets drunk at his shows and doesn't remember everyone he meets, before he storms out of the Inspector's office. Alberto becomes front page news as the major suspect in the string of murders. As we well know, in giallo films, the person we suspect the most of being the killer usually isn't. Alberto gets a phone call from Marta (Nerina Montagnani), an old lady who tells him that for $2,000 she will tell him who the killer is. Before Alberto can get her the money, Marta is savagely killed by the razor-wielding killer (she grabs the razor with her hand before he slices her throat, leaving a deep gash in her hand). Alberto goes to the Inspector with a recording of Marta's phone message and asks if the Inspector is going to pick her up. The Inspector replies, "Yeah, in a meat wagon!" Alberto couldn't look more guilty if he tried. We then see Marco playing piano as a dancer, with the smallest breasts I have ever seen on a grown woman, prances around him and Lidia. Lidia then gets a phone call from her twin sister Sylvia (also played by Anuska Borova) because she has something important to tell her concerning Marco, but she blows her sister off (Why can't people tell important news over the phone?). We the see the black-gloved killer slicing the neck of a dancer named Magda Hopkins (Cristina Tamborra) while she is sleeping in her bed. Marco plays piano while looking at the article on Magda's killing. Lidia strips naked in front of him and they make love. The Inspector tells Alberto that he wants to use Kitty as bait to lure the killer. Kitty agrees to do it because Magda was her friend. We then see Kitty dressed as a prostitute, walking the streets of Rome's dirtier district (When she asks for $100 from a creep who tries to pick her up, he says, "For a hundred bucks I could get the greatest lay in the world, you stupid whore!" and then he drives away). The Inspector and Alberto are watching her from an unmarked car, but so is the killer, who is watching her from the shadows of night. When Kitty thinks she is getting into the killer's car (She holds up his cane), the Inspector and some police cars block his way, only it turns out to be the Chief of Police (Orlando Baralla) and the Inspector ends up with egg on his face (Everyone seems to have a cane!). Lidia thinks she has the story of her career when she locates Nina Ferretti (Rosita Torosh), the woman who was the chestnut vendor's customer during the original murder, but when Nina arrives at the dance academy to talk to Lidia, she sees a framed photo on a desk, screams and runs away. She drives to a phone booth and calls the police, telling the Inspector that she know who the killer is (But she doesn't tell him who it is over the damn phone!). Before Nina can make it to the Police Department, the killer is waiting for her in the backseat of her car, strangling her and then slicing her throat (The film's most inventive scene, as the wiper blades are cleaning away the rain that is falling outside, but they can't wipe away the blood that sprays on the inside of the windshield). Alberto thinks he has it all figured out, since all the murdered women were dancers. Alberto sets up a trap with the help of Kitty and the dance academy secretary (Anna Liberati), who was Magda's lesbian lover (!), but first they must stop while Kitty takes a bathroom break (She says, "It must be the emotion. I've gotta go pee-pee!"), twice! Just who is the killer? I'll never tell, but it doesn't take a genius to figure it out because there are so few red herrings here. Besides some highly risible dialogue (the dubbers were having loads of fun here) and Kitty unable to control her bladder during the finale, this is a fairly entertaining giallo flick. Shot under the title PASSI DI DANZA SU UNA LAMA DI RASOIO ("Dance Steps On The Edge Of A Razor") and also known as DEATH CARRIES A CANE (a much better title than the review title, since there isn't much tormenting going on), this film concludes with a tense finale in a greenhouse, where the Inspector shoots the killer just as he is about to murder Kitty and then we hear a long-winded explanation from Lidia on what the killers' motivation was (it's quite unbelievable, but adheres to giallo conventions). This Italy/Spain co-production, directed by Maurizio Pradeaux (DEATH STEPS IN THE DARK - 1977), is nothing special, but it is good for a laugh. The screenplay, by Pradeaux, Alfonso Balcázar (SCHOOL OF DEATH - 1975), Arpad DeRiso (CROSS CURRENT - 1971) and co-star George Martin is nothing special, but I was not bored in the least. I know that is faint praise, but I have seen more than my share of uninteresting giallo films that offered nothing but boredom. Susan Scott (real name: Nieves Navarro) and Simón Andreu also appeared together in DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS (1971) and DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT (1972), two other giallo films, both directed by Luciano Ercoli and unrelated to this film. Originally released on fullscreen VHS by Wizard Video in the mid-'80s with a fullscreen DVD from Full Moon to follow in 2013 as part of their "Full Moon's Grindhouse Collection". Unfortunately, that is all there is available legally in the States (at the time of this review) and my review is based on this DVD. The print is soft-looking, but watchable. There are lots of close-ups of eyeballs. Oh, well, beggars can't be choosers. I just hope that Raro Video releases a widescreen version of this film in the future. They have given lesser giallo films their chance to shine, so I hope they do the same for this one. Also starring Serafino Profumo, Carlo Carli, Elisa Mainardi, Salvatore Borgese and Giovanni Pulone as the fireman Kitty runs to when she spies the original murder, but he says he can't report it because he is cheating on his wife! Rated R.

DVD: 1/5Movie: 1/5There is no need for a brilliant review because why would I BOTHER spilling every ounce of my being intellectually explaining why the product and the movie sucks d***s? Trust me, accept the fact this whole aspect is crude and move on. IF you prefer the alternative then go ahead and assimilate the worthless opinions of intellectual film connoisseurs and dingle-berries. I don't care.

Charles Band's Full Moon Features who gave us such franchises as 'PUPPET MASTER' , 'DEMONIC TOYS', 'SUBSPECIES' among others has dipped into the Euro coffers of rare titles and has come up with Director Maurizio Pradeaux's 'TORMENTOR' aka 'PASSI DI DANZA SU UNA LAMA DI RASOIO'-1973, a film obviously inspired by the success of the Gialli's spawned by Directors Dario Argento ('THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMMAGE aka 'L'UCCELLO DALLE PIUME DI CRISTALLO'-1969 and Director Massimo Dallamano's 'WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE?' aka 'COSA AVETE FATTO A SOLANGE?-1972). A maniac is killing a number of female dancers wearing the typical garb (black gloves, black hat, straight razor) and the red herrings abound throughout the films characters (of which there are many) and its 90 minute running time always ahead of the Inspector on the case. It's fun watching the actors going through their motions: Robert Hoffman who appeared in so many of these and would go onto grace Director Umberto Lenzi's 'SPASMO ' the following year; George Martin who was featured in lots of Spaghetti Westerns; and the beautiful Nieves Navarro aka Susan Scott who was the wife of Director Luciano Ercoli made many excellent gialli throughout her career along with appearances in some Black Emanuelle features and is mostly remembered for her role as the black widow in Director Sergio Sollima's 'THE BIG GUNDOWN' aka 'LA RESA DEI CONTI'-1966. The film contains the usual gratuitous nudity that Euro fans come to expect ,in fact, every female actress seems to be in a state of disrobing or full frontal display. The music by Roberto Pregadio is typical Euro Lounge and the film is abetted by Jaime Deu Casas exquisite photography. Now to the bad news, do not be fooled by the Grindhouse label. This is not the quality that you get from Shout Factory. This transfer is from a full(very full)screen English dubbed release although the image is sharp and the colors fluctuate, it is culled from 16mm or a very good VHS release. Sometimes the closeups are unbearable and make the action on the sides of the screen difficult to ascertain. Remember when you watched widescreen films on your old televisions and you watched conversations between two people happening with the image showing the napkins and salt shakers or whatever dead center on the table as the characters were invisible on the sides of the screen? You know what I mean. There seems to be some quick cuts during the killings so it may not be a complete version. It is, however, hard to quibble because the film is so rare and Director Pradeaux utilizes such stylish set pieces( would love to see a widescreen copy some day) which is why I am giving the film 4 stars , on quality alone it gets maybe 2 stars. Trailers to other Full Moon Grindhouse releases and something called a mega mix (film clips put to a techno beat )by Mike Diva are the only extras. Recommended to Giallo fans and Euro cult completists, the price is right for this rare jewel.

ive seen worse

A+++

A PHOTOGRAPHER WITNESSES THE MURDER OF A YOUNG WOMAN AT THE HANDS OF A RAZOR WIELDING MAN. WHEN KATTY AND HER FIANCE ALBERTO GO TO THE POLICE-- ONLY TO LEARN THAT TWO OTHER WITNESSES HAVE BEEN SLASHED TO DEATH. WILL SHE BE NEXT?

This is a VHS rip onto disc quality is very poor. For the money paid £3 it's acceptable but anymore than tht and I would have been very annoyed!