I due volti della paura

"The Two Faces of Fear" (I still can't quite figure out how the title is relevant, by the way) is an obscure Giallo that is mixing up my thoughts and opinions! It's a slow-paced, uneventful, and often borderline tedious whodunit, but at the same time it kept me intrigued and curiously guessing until the final plot-twist. It's admirable for a Giallo with so few characters (and thus suspects) to remain tense and challenging until the end.

The set-up is typically Italian and even more typically early 70s. All the protagonists are beautiful, rich, and decadent surgeons working in the private clinic owned by a lady who inherited it from her father. They're all married or engaged, but secretly desire for someone else's partner. When one of them hesitates to accept an offer from another clinic, he gets murdered and it's up to the skeptical homicide detective Nardi to break through their solid alibis. "The Two Faces of Fear" is remarkable for featuring a stellar contemporary cast. Fernando Rey, George Hilton, Luciana Paluzzi, Anita Strindberg, and Eduardo Fajardo were all prolific names at the time, and their acting is flawless. There's hardly any blood or gore in this Giallo, apart from extended (and real) footage of an open-heart surgery, but that doesn't count in my book. Instead, the film thrives on performances, mystery, and also some effective bits of subtle humor; - like the detective's assistant trying to interrogate a parrot or the detective himself being grumpy because everybody smokes while he was forced to quit on doctor's orders.

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.

All star cast with Fernando Rey (from The French Connection) who is a police inspector investigating a murder where the suspects are Anita Strindberg, George Hilton, and Luciana Paluzzi (from Thunderball). The acting is great across the board.

The mystery and writing is fairly well done. The directing was serviceable. The score was quite good.

This is a low body count whodunit. There is very little gore/special effects with the exception of an open heart surgery which was very well done.

At the end of the day, this one was all about the acting, the relationships, and figuring out the mystery.

Doctor Carli (George Hilton) is a heart surgeon at a clinic owned by his wife Elena (Luciana Paluzzi). Now imagine: if she should die an untimely death, her husband would inherit the clinic and become very rich. Inspector Nardi (Fernando Rey), while initially investigating a different case, realizes that Mrs Carli may be in great danger and starts to watch over her.

The movie boasts with footage from an actual heart surgery (not that I ever wanted to see that so closely), but doesn't manage to provide as many surprising twists and turns as other classic giallo movies. Thus it becomes only an average contribution to the genre, although with a great cast also including Eduardo Fajardo and Anita Strindberg.

Dr. Michele Azzini (Luis Dávila) is engaged to a beautiful coworker, Dr. Paola Lombardi (Anita Strindberg), and has just been offered an even better job at a cardiology clinic in Madrid. This angers his boss, Elena Carli (Luciana Paluzzi), who owns her current workplace with her husband, Dr. Roberto Carli (George Hilton). Even though she offered him a stake in the business, Azzini still plans to leave until the ordinary fatality occurs. Shortly after, he is found dead, in dark circumstances. Inspector Nardi (Fernando Rey) and his assistant (Manuel Zarzo) are on the case, trying to find out who killed the doctor. And at the same time, Elena's heart is failing and she has to undergo surgery that occupies the final moments of the film.

Directed by Tulio Demicheli (Ricco) and written by Pedro Mario Herrero and Mario di Nardo who carry out this ¨Two faces of fear¨, it is a film that never really gets going, but at least it has a great cast including Fernando Rey (Tristana, That Dark Object of Desire), Anita Strindberg (The Scorpion's Tail, Forbidden Vices), Luciana Paluzzi (Thunderball, The Green Slime, The Klansman) and George Hilton (Sartana and several giallo films), in addition to these notorious actors of the time, includes a realistic surgery scene. Starring George Hilton playing a surgeon who is married to Luciana Paluzzi (to this day the only one in the casting who is still alive) and she owns the clinic where he works and while she suffers from a weak heart. Luis Davíla wants to marry Anita Strindberg, but first he is shot dead while Fernando Rey steals the show as an ironic and bossy police inspector who has to solve the case, even though he has just quit smoking. And since this is a Spanish-Italian film, what we can see is a real open heart surgery, directed by Dr. Martínez Bordiu, none other than the son-in-law of the dictator Francisco Franco, who is thanked for his work in the credits. The actual open heart surgery incorporated into this film is quite the opposite, it's pretty unappetizing. In any case, Fernando Rey provides comic relief here with his talent, while at the same time appearing deadly serious in the most absurd situations; his assistant is also played somewhat comically by the Spanish Manuel Zarzo who tries to undermine some clues to a cockatoo supposedly witness to the events. Some critics suspect that a 'pulp' crime story was written around this authentic material, and the story is not particularly original, also only offering two short murder scenes staged in an extravagant Italian style.

It was filmed in Rome between July and September 1971 as a Spanish-Italian co-production and 50 years later impresses above all with its excellent cast and one of the best scores of its time, but otherwise it remains very low in blood and tension. Even a slightly overlong scene in the operating room, in which we follow open heart surgery, turns out to be unremarkable, and was marketed at the time as a small sensation or great visual spectacle value, but it really does a disservice to the film as a whole. But at the end of the day, the viewer is rewarded with exuberantly beautiful images of the beautiful women, two Eurotrash goddesses : Luciana Paluzzi and Anita Strindberg. And adding Fernando Rey, who managed to shape a career spanning six decades and television roles, here giving us some comic relief as a quirky cop. There are two short and quite energetically staged murder scenes that do honor to the giallo. However, this is not a very bloody Giallo, being more of a police thriller, and was not released until March 9, 1972, not sweeping audiences in the co-producing countries Italy, Spain or other European nations at that time. But the illustrious cast and rarity value make it a notable contribution to the genre.

But at the very least, the attractive colors from cameraman Manuel Rojas , the ensemble cast as a whole, and Franco Micalizzi's great score are simply lovely. The film was usually directed by Tulio Demicheli, although it has some touches of distinction, which is why you forgive the unoriginal story with the uneven resolution. Veteran director Demicheli offers us a colorful aesthetic that extends beautifully crafted into wide images with many close-ups and detail shots of eyes, fingertips, cigarettes, oversized glasses and ladies in exquisite lingerie. Spanish-nationalized Argentine writer and filmmaker Tulio Demicheli so consistently mixed the good with the mediocre that it was almost impossible to know what to expect from him next. Demicheli had a long and prolific career, working since the 40s, he directed all types of genres such as drama like ¨La herida luminosa¨, Thriller like ¨Ricco¨, adventures like ¨Son of Captain Blood¨, ¨First Adventure¨, Spies subgenre like ¨Il Nostro Agente a Casablanca¨, ¨Dirty Play in Panama¨, ¨Lisbon Mission¨; Giallo as ¨Coartada en disco rojo or Two Faces or Fear¨, Terror as ¨Monstruos De Terror or Assignment Terror" and he also directed Paella/Spaghetti Westerns as ¨Tequila¨, ¨Arriba Sabata¨, ¨Un Hombre, un Colt¨ and ¨ Gunmen of Río Bravo¨. His best film was ¨Carmen de Ronda¨ with Sara Montiel. Rating: 5.5/10. Passable and acceptable.