If you had to rate the Gialli in terms of curry strength then this one would be a chicken korma. It has all the right ingredients, but lacks the additional spice that would elevate it to the level of a more 'spicier' giallo, like Red Queen Kills Seven Times. That would be a madras. With a peshwari naan. And fried rice. And a pint of Lal Toofan.
Now let me try and get this one straight, as I knew it was mild and tried to watch it while two kids rolled about the house screaming about Harvest Moon and Star Wars Battlefront 2. There's a clinic in Rome run by several surgeons. One of them has a heart condition, and she's married to renowned surgeon George Hilton, who may or may not be having an affair with surgeon Anita Strinberg, who is engaged to marry Dr First Victim, who is planning to move to Milan and set up his own practise.There's also another guy who is in love with Anita Stringberg. We first see someone break into Dr First Victim's office and steal something, and shortly afterwards Dr Victim is gunned down in his office, and the only witness is a parrot.
Cop Fernando Rey appears and his main problem is that he can't smoke and everyone else in the film can! This irritable cop knows that one of the other doctors killed this guy, but then he finds a scrap book that features every suspect holding the gun used in the crime. Not only that, he also finds a film that features the cast using the same gun. Plus, forensics tell him the killer had talc on their hands but guess what - they are all surgeons, and they all have talc on their hands. Fernando shortly makes his comedy sidekick assistant (who he forces to interrogate the parrot) to drive through Rome at full speed, which I thought was the stupidest part of the film, until I got to the end and realised that the stupidest part of the film was me.
This is a mild Giallo with a full body count of two, but then if you get a chicken korma, sure it is mild, but then if it is cooked well it stills pleases, and this film does. You can't go wrong with a bit of George Hilton, as well as a bit of Fernando Rey (who makes a comment about the chain smoking doctors hypocritical ways). There's plenty of daftness to go with this one, including a heavy breasted window washer, Rey's constant battle with smokers, and his assistant's drooling over Hilton's home movies. You've got a film here that really doesn't come close to ticking all your giallo boxes, but is still worth watching because the mystery elements are all in place. I liked all the bits about Star Wars Battlefront 2. And of course I forgot to mention all the open heart surgery footage. That wasn't so good.
I really thought I'd have watched more films by this point in my holidays.
