I am not kidding, I had this movie for almost two decades and I began watching it at least five times but the first 20 minutes or so never really caught my interest enough to keep watching for some reason. Now, finally I watched it to the end and can conclude that if you get past the opening 25-30 minutes you are in for a quite entertaining and good looking little giallo with quite some eerie atmosphere. Corrado Gaipa is the most memorable in the role of the inspector, along with Isabelle Marchall as the young countess. The opening and ending theme, which I believe is by Piero Piccioni (he is the credited composer here) is an incredibly atmospheric piece, but the rest of the soundtrack is a mystery to me. I hear themes from at least two other earlier giallo movies not scored by Piccioni. It would be nice to see these themes accurately credited.
13 Reviews
Jeepers creepers, where'd ya get those peepers?
BA_Harrison27 February 2021
Countess Ileana De Chablais (Isabelle Marchall) invites her swinging pals to her father's castle to get tipsy on expensive champagne and play sexy charades. When one of the young women, Elsa (Patrizia Gori), turns up stabbed to death and minus her eyeballs, a police inspector (Corrado Gaipa) tries to unravel the mystery and identify the killer, the many suspects including scoundrel Pier-Luigi (in trouble with the local mafia), Ileana's insane secret half-brother Leandro (a dab hand at taxidermy), a creepy uncle, and stern housekeeper Berta (Annie Carol Edel).
Part gothic horror and part giallo, Crazy Desires of a Murderer fails thanks to a muddled, meandering plot and a set of characters that it's difficult to care about. The film also includes subplots about heroin smuggling and the theft of a valuable emerald necklace, but it's all so confusing that trying to keep track of what's going on isn't worth the headache. Director Filippo Walter Ratti tries to compensate with a couple of bloody deaths and a fair amount of nudity from some attractive young women (with Berta actually proving to be quite the hottie), but the whole thing is so slapdash that it is hard to remain invested for the duration. By the time the identity of the killer is revealed, you'll have long given up caring.
N.B. Pier-Luigi moulding a candle into a phallus while gorgeous brunette Gretel (Adler Gray) lies naked on a bed suggests that there might have been a 'sexier' version available at some point.
Part gothic horror and part giallo, Crazy Desires of a Murderer fails thanks to a muddled, meandering plot and a set of characters that it's difficult to care about. The film also includes subplots about heroin smuggling and the theft of a valuable emerald necklace, but it's all so confusing that trying to keep track of what's going on isn't worth the headache. Director Filippo Walter Ratti tries to compensate with a couple of bloody deaths and a fair amount of nudity from some attractive young women (with Berta actually proving to be quite the hottie), but the whole thing is so slapdash that it is hard to remain invested for the duration. By the time the identity of the killer is revealed, you'll have long given up caring.
N.B. Pier-Luigi moulding a candle into a phallus while gorgeous brunette Gretel (Adler Gray) lies naked on a bed suggests that there might have been a 'sexier' version available at some point.
What's for supper? Italian Giallo-stew ... with eyeballs!
Coventry13 September 2022
This may seem like a very bizarre and silly statement, but bear with me. If the Giallo sub-genre is one big and joyful family, then "Crazy Desires of a Murderer" would be the weird and creepy uncle! He's unreliable and always involved in some sort of trouble, but his stories and lifestyle are utterly fascinating. Nobody openly appreciates his perverted remarks or his twisted sense of humor, but secretly everybody loves him just a little bit. And, finally, the family party or reunion simply isn't complete without him.
What I basically mean with the above gibberish is that "Crazy Desires of a Murderer" is a very atypical and experimental Giallo, but nevertheless one that keeps you intrigued and amused even though the overall sentiment at the end is disappointment. Arriving quite late at the party (the giallo's heyday ended around 1974-1975; while this was released in 1977), the script incorporates various other non-giallo styles, genres, and story elements.
The rudimentary plot of a spoiled rich girl and her eccentric friends being stalked by a sadist killer is pure and unhinged Giallo, obviously, but the setting at the remote old family castle with its mandatorily sinister inhabitants (a crippled patriarch, a spooky amateur-taxidermist son, a cold-blooded housemaid...) also makes the film an authentic gothic-horror effort. There's also a crime/thriller angle, since one of the guests at the castle is up to his neck into drug-smuggling and plans the theft of a valuable family jewel. As soon as the police inspector enters the scene, played by the eminent Corrado Gaipa, "Crazy Desires..." even almost turns into an Agatha Christie novel, since he's a sort of Poirot who draws all the attention to him and sets traps for the potential culprits. Last but not least, the film also shares the contemporary Italian fetish for eyeball-violence. There's a regrettably low number of kills in this film, especially considering the expanded cast, but the poor girl who gets it first suffers tremendously as her eyes are literally spooned out of the sockets and put in a bag.
As said, a very strange flick full of gratuitous sex and shocks, but also one that is ultimately unsatisfying. Director Filipo Walter Ratti has enough material here to fill at least two full-length movies, but stuffing everything into one script made it hectic and unnatural.
What I basically mean with the above gibberish is that "Crazy Desires of a Murderer" is a very atypical and experimental Giallo, but nevertheless one that keeps you intrigued and amused even though the overall sentiment at the end is disappointment. Arriving quite late at the party (the giallo's heyday ended around 1974-1975; while this was released in 1977), the script incorporates various other non-giallo styles, genres, and story elements.
The rudimentary plot of a spoiled rich girl and her eccentric friends being stalked by a sadist killer is pure and unhinged Giallo, obviously, but the setting at the remote old family castle with its mandatorily sinister inhabitants (a crippled patriarch, a spooky amateur-taxidermist son, a cold-blooded housemaid...) also makes the film an authentic gothic-horror effort. There's also a crime/thriller angle, since one of the guests at the castle is up to his neck into drug-smuggling and plans the theft of a valuable family jewel. As soon as the police inspector enters the scene, played by the eminent Corrado Gaipa, "Crazy Desires..." even almost turns into an Agatha Christie novel, since he's a sort of Poirot who draws all the attention to him and sets traps for the potential culprits. Last but not least, the film also shares the contemporary Italian fetish for eyeball-violence. There's a regrettably low number of kills in this film, especially considering the expanded cast, but the poor girl who gets it first suffers tremendously as her eyes are literally spooned out of the sockets and put in a bag.
As said, a very strange flick full of gratuitous sex and shocks, but also one that is ultimately unsatisfying. Director Filipo Walter Ratti has enough material here to fill at least two full-length movies, but stuffing everything into one script made it hectic and unnatural.
Decent late 70's giallo with style to burn
lazarillo16 December 2008
A group of hip friends gather at a Gothic castle owned by a wheelchair- bound older relative of one of the girls (Isabella Marchall). One couple in the group, unbeknownst to the others, is smuggling heroin in some Chinese artifacts the protagonist has brought back from the Orient to give to her elderly relative. Meanwhile the deranged uncle of the protagonist, who supposedly killed the protagonist's mother (his own sister)and cut out her eyes, is wandering the catacombs spying on everyone. When one of the guests (Patrizia Gorzi) is murdered and her eyes subsequently disappear, suspicion naturally falls on the mad uncle. But is he being set up?
The plot here is actually pretty lame. There's also a real lack of recognizable acting talent compared to other gialli. (Patrizia Gorzi had been in "Emanuelle's Revenge" and "Possessor", but she only has a small part and the rest of the cast are virtual unknowns). The eyeball murders are gory but pretty low-tech and nothing to write home about frankly. This movie has style to burn though, and that's where it really succeeds. The old castle makes for an interesting setting. The visual are top-notch (with very good cinematography and editing) and the music is very memorable. In some ways it's kind of an old-fashioned Gothic horror movie (like "Tomb of Torture" or "The Virgin of Nuremberg"), but definitely with a late 70's sensibility as far as sex and gore go.
Gialli were really never known for their great plotting, but for their visual style and music. And if you compare this movie to "Sister of Ursula" the next year and "Play Motel" the year after that, it's clear that the genre faded not so much because the stories got dumber (or because they basically turned into softcore porn flicks), but because their unique style slowly drained away over the years. As far as a late 70's gialli goes this is actually pretty good. I'd recommend to giallo fans at least if no one else.
The plot here is actually pretty lame. There's also a real lack of recognizable acting talent compared to other gialli. (Patrizia Gorzi had been in "Emanuelle's Revenge" and "Possessor", but she only has a small part and the rest of the cast are virtual unknowns). The eyeball murders are gory but pretty low-tech and nothing to write home about frankly. This movie has style to burn though, and that's where it really succeeds. The old castle makes for an interesting setting. The visual are top-notch (with very good cinematography and editing) and the music is very memorable. In some ways it's kind of an old-fashioned Gothic horror movie (like "Tomb of Torture" or "The Virgin of Nuremberg"), but definitely with a late 70's sensibility as far as sex and gore go.
Gialli were really never known for their great plotting, but for their visual style and music. And if you compare this movie to "Sister of Ursula" the next year and "Play Motel" the year after that, it's clear that the genre faded not so much because the stories got dumber (or because they basically turned into softcore porn flicks), but because their unique style slowly drained away over the years. As far as a late 70's gialli goes this is actually pretty good. I'd recommend to giallo fans at least if no one else.
Paint By Numbers Giallo Hokum
Steve_Nyland18 February 2008
Warning: Spoilers
The thing that makes really good murder mystery movie work is the inclusion of the unexpected: The least likely person you would suspect is actually slaughtering young women, removing their body parts, and the local big gutted cop is the last person in the world who can put two & two together before it's too late. With the best of them we actually never find out who the killer is, or their identity is questionable at best and arrived at for the convenience of the dim witted cast members who want their ordeal to be over rather than actually solving the mystery. Think Bob Clark's original 1974 classic "Black Christmas" and you'll see what I mean: He admitted even he never knew who the killer really was, and he wrote the damn movie.
MORBID HABITS OF THE GOVERNESS is not a very good Giallo movie, but then neither is painting by numbers a good representation of art. It services the need by taking up space on the wall and looking pretty, but in the end all you're left with is 11x14 inches of wall covered up. Which is my metaphor for this movie -- It absorbs 85 minutes of time for Giallo fans and manages to look like a Giallo movie, has the plot of a Giallo movie, the expected body count and perversity that Giallo fans demand, even if it isn't executed in a very imaginative way. We get the usual motley collection of Italian hipsters sequestered at a secluded Italian villa (they call it a castle, I say its a villa) that is the property of a young baroness who's mother was killed by her brother. He chopped out her eyes and embalmed them to remember her by, is a taxidermist by hobby who is mute, and the family keeps him in check by keeping him strung out on heroin. The motley collection of hipsters are at the castle to steal the heroin to pay off some gangsters, and after another improbably debauched Italian party the various couples pair off for sex, including the inventive use of a phallic candle that is sadly relegated to an off-screen tease.
During the night someone brutally slaughters one of the young women guests and carves out her eyeballs -- so you KNOW the killer cannot possibly be the young taxidermist who carves the eyeballs out of the bodies of dead women. That would be too easy, so instead the movie sets up a labyrinth of deceit and debauchery that really isn't as deceitful and debauched as it thinks it is, and that's even giving the movie credit for being 30 years old. Point being that if you have seen more than three or four of these things you know that the film is going out of it's way to set up the young doped up taxidermist as the villain, and that the real killer will be the last person in the world you'd think of -- which in this case is the first person in the world you would think of, unless you are a total newb. Only the movie thinks the taxidermist guy is guilty, the audience knows better, the heavy-gutted cop knows better, the victims know better, and even the young taxidermist guy knows better. Too bad he couldn't tell anybody about it, or was too stoned to just write it down.
Put quite simply, this film and it's so-called mystery is a complete waste of time ... unless you really get a vibe off Giallo thrillers involving semi-deviant sex, gruesome murders, cloistered atmosphere of dread, and a smirking, know it all big gutted cop who's two steps ahead of the killer to the point where he sets himself up as a victim just to snare the guilty party. And wouldn't you know it if it turns out he was right all along. The result isn't very satisfying unless you relish this kind of stuff, and even then most real Giallo fans will be stone bored between the murders & sexual bouts, which serve merely as waypoints for viewers to navigate the film's 85 minutes or so of length. They are checkpoints for your flight list that you can X off as the film progresses, knowing that you pretty much touched all the requisite bases. It's a formula, like painting by numbers, and if you need a certain patch of wall covered there you go. The movie serves the same role for Giallo fans who feel they have been allotted 85 minutes more of life then they can really make use of on their own.
I'm one to talk though, I worship Spaghetti Westerns, which were also made by the Italians and downright formulaic to the point of being predictable ... There's always some guy who's being sprung from prison after 15 years to avenge the killing of his brother or father or father & brother -- it never fails, and I almost never cease to be entertained by the things. Thats why I love Italian genre cinema: They always end up giving you the goods in the end, or at least whatever it was you went looking for in the movie. If you go looking for a Giallo mystery in MORBID HABITS OF THE GOVERNESS you will be pleasantly surprised to find that's exactly what you'll get. Anyone else, however, will likely be bored to tears after the inventive scene with the candlestick phallus, which was about the only thing in this movie I didn't see coming.
4/10
MORBID HABITS OF THE GOVERNESS is not a very good Giallo movie, but then neither is painting by numbers a good representation of art. It services the need by taking up space on the wall and looking pretty, but in the end all you're left with is 11x14 inches of wall covered up. Which is my metaphor for this movie -- It absorbs 85 minutes of time for Giallo fans and manages to look like a Giallo movie, has the plot of a Giallo movie, the expected body count and perversity that Giallo fans demand, even if it isn't executed in a very imaginative way. We get the usual motley collection of Italian hipsters sequestered at a secluded Italian villa (they call it a castle, I say its a villa) that is the property of a young baroness who's mother was killed by her brother. He chopped out her eyes and embalmed them to remember her by, is a taxidermist by hobby who is mute, and the family keeps him in check by keeping him strung out on heroin. The motley collection of hipsters are at the castle to steal the heroin to pay off some gangsters, and after another improbably debauched Italian party the various couples pair off for sex, including the inventive use of a phallic candle that is sadly relegated to an off-screen tease.
During the night someone brutally slaughters one of the young women guests and carves out her eyeballs -- so you KNOW the killer cannot possibly be the young taxidermist who carves the eyeballs out of the bodies of dead women. That would be too easy, so instead the movie sets up a labyrinth of deceit and debauchery that really isn't as deceitful and debauched as it thinks it is, and that's even giving the movie credit for being 30 years old. Point being that if you have seen more than three or four of these things you know that the film is going out of it's way to set up the young doped up taxidermist as the villain, and that the real killer will be the last person in the world you'd think of -- which in this case is the first person in the world you would think of, unless you are a total newb. Only the movie thinks the taxidermist guy is guilty, the audience knows better, the heavy-gutted cop knows better, the victims know better, and even the young taxidermist guy knows better. Too bad he couldn't tell anybody about it, or was too stoned to just write it down.
Put quite simply, this film and it's so-called mystery is a complete waste of time ... unless you really get a vibe off Giallo thrillers involving semi-deviant sex, gruesome murders, cloistered atmosphere of dread, and a smirking, know it all big gutted cop who's two steps ahead of the killer to the point where he sets himself up as a victim just to snare the guilty party. And wouldn't you know it if it turns out he was right all along. The result isn't very satisfying unless you relish this kind of stuff, and even then most real Giallo fans will be stone bored between the murders & sexual bouts, which serve merely as waypoints for viewers to navigate the film's 85 minutes or so of length. They are checkpoints for your flight list that you can X off as the film progresses, knowing that you pretty much touched all the requisite bases. It's a formula, like painting by numbers, and if you need a certain patch of wall covered there you go. The movie serves the same role for Giallo fans who feel they have been allotted 85 minutes more of life then they can really make use of on their own.
I'm one to talk though, I worship Spaghetti Westerns, which were also made by the Italians and downright formulaic to the point of being predictable ... There's always some guy who's being sprung from prison after 15 years to avenge the killing of his brother or father or father & brother -- it never fails, and I almost never cease to be entertained by the things. Thats why I love Italian genre cinema: They always end up giving you the goods in the end, or at least whatever it was you went looking for in the movie. If you go looking for a Giallo mystery in MORBID HABITS OF THE GOVERNESS you will be pleasantly surprised to find that's exactly what you'll get. Anyone else, however, will likely be bored to tears after the inventive scene with the candlestick phallus, which was about the only thing in this movie I didn't see coming.
4/10
Deservedly obscure Italian mystery
sabata2 June 2000
Pretty boring Italian mystery. Lots of things happen that seem to have little relevance to the plot. When people are killed, their eyes are removed (the bad effects are shown graphically). Not much to reccommend here, even for fans of Italian mysteries ("giallos").
Gothic murder
BandSAboutMovies7 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Sure, that's a pretty lurid title - the Italian title I vizi morbosi di una governante translates as Morbid Vices of a Housekeeper - and trust me, this lives up to it, what with an older woman using a mentally challenged man and a teenager sexually - not at the same time! - and then a game of charades which is mostly people yelling out the names of films while everyone else gropes one another.
There are more than a lot of camera zooms in here, as well as bad sartorial choices and even worse life ones. When Ileana and her bunch of hip friends - their words not mine - gather at a gothic castle owned by a wheelchair-bound older relative of one of the girls, things get pervy, weird and murdery, just as you'd expect.
If you are a hip friend or have hip friends (at which point that makes you a hip friend), then you should take this warning: do not go to hang out in gothic castles. Nothing, in my movie - not life - experience says that things will go well.
Meanwhile, two of these with it pals are using Chinese treasures to smuggler heroin - as you do - while Elsa the party girl ends up with both of her eyes torn out, just like Ileana's mother had done to her by a relative who has lost his mind and is possibly prowling the catacombs of the castle.
This would be the last film that Filippo Walter Ratti would direct. You may have seen his other movies, including Mondo Erotico, Operation White Shark and Night of the Damned. Screenwriter Ambrogio Molteni also wrote the two Black Emanuelle movies, as well as Yellow Emanuelle, Sister Emanuelle and Violence in a Women's Prison.
Speaking of Emanuelle, you may recognize Annie Carol Edel from Emanuelle and Francoise or perhaps from Almost Human or even The True Story of the Nun of Monza. No? How about Isabelle Marchall from Black Emanuelle? Or Patrizia Gori from Cry of a Prostitute, The Return of the Exorcist or as Francoise in Emanuelle and Francoise?
There are more than a lot of camera zooms in here, as well as bad sartorial choices and even worse life ones. When Ileana and her bunch of hip friends - their words not mine - gather at a gothic castle owned by a wheelchair-bound older relative of one of the girls, things get pervy, weird and murdery, just as you'd expect.
If you are a hip friend or have hip friends (at which point that makes you a hip friend), then you should take this warning: do not go to hang out in gothic castles. Nothing, in my movie - not life - experience says that things will go well.
Meanwhile, two of these with it pals are using Chinese treasures to smuggler heroin - as you do - while Elsa the party girl ends up with both of her eyes torn out, just like Ileana's mother had done to her by a relative who has lost his mind and is possibly prowling the catacombs of the castle.
This would be the last film that Filippo Walter Ratti would direct. You may have seen his other movies, including Mondo Erotico, Operation White Shark and Night of the Damned. Screenwriter Ambrogio Molteni also wrote the two Black Emanuelle movies, as well as Yellow Emanuelle, Sister Emanuelle and Violence in a Women's Prison.
Speaking of Emanuelle, you may recognize Annie Carol Edel from Emanuelle and Francoise or perhaps from Almost Human or even The True Story of the Nun of Monza. No? How about Isabelle Marchall from Black Emanuelle? Or Patrizia Gori from Cry of a Prostitute, The Return of the Exorcist or as Francoise in Emanuelle and Francoise?
Eyeball violence.
HumanoidOfFlesh9 April 2010
"The Morbid Habits of the Governess" is one of the most obscure gialli I have seen.A group of men and their women is invited to a villa and then stalked and murdered by a mysterious killer who collects their eyeballs.Slow-moving and melancholic giallo with several macabre set-pieces and plenty of delicious sleaze.Corrado Gaipa's police inspector is especially memorable as are two sexy ladies Isabelle Marchall and Patrizia Gori.The film was released in 1995 on VHS by Redemption and after selling very poorly faded into complete obscurity.The moody score helps to create some suspenseful moments and the acting is solid.If you are a fan of Eurotrash you can't miss "Crazy Desires of a Murderer".7 out of 10.
low budget mess
dopefishie25 March 2024
Pros: Better than average script for this type of movie. There are some interesting subplots. Some of the locations are nice. I really liked the music - it's simple but effective!
Cons: Poor direction. No style. The shots waste locations. The acting is pretty bad across the board. The inspector comes across as the best of the bunch, but he can't carry the whole movie. There is a bunch of gratuitous bad sex scenes. I've been more turned on watching paint dry. Also, it takes awhile to get to the first murder.
Overall: It's a low budget mess created by a director who can't direct a bunch of actors who can't act.
Cons: Poor direction. No style. The shots waste locations. The acting is pretty bad across the board. The inspector comes across as the best of the bunch, but he can't carry the whole movie. There is a bunch of gratuitous bad sex scenes. I've been more turned on watching paint dry. Also, it takes awhile to get to the first murder.
Overall: It's a low budget mess created by a director who can't direct a bunch of actors who can't act.
Terror! Technicolor! Taxidermy!
thalassafischer25 March 2023
I expected this flick to be a real trash pic based on the average rating here and the incredibly stupid English version of the title (which is absolutely not a literal translation of the Italian) BUT I vizi morbosi di una governante is a stylish, atmospheric thriller that is almost entirely made of fun and splashy color.
Three young women who look to have a median age of 19 and dress like exotic dancers from the 1990s (or did exotic dancers from the 1990s dress like Italian women from 1977?) return from a trip to Asia with three men who are way too old for them, two of whom quickly show their hand as being stereotypical bad guys teenaged girls would run into at a hostel.
This giallo is a real treat to watch and I wish I could rate it even higher, but I didn't find the mystery especially compelling, though it was extremely well-executed.
Three young women who look to have a median age of 19 and dress like exotic dancers from the 1990s (or did exotic dancers from the 1990s dress like Italian women from 1977?) return from a trip to Asia with three men who are way too old for them, two of whom quickly show their hand as being stereotypical bad guys teenaged girls would run into at a hostel.
This giallo is a real treat to watch and I wish I could rate it even higher, but I didn't find the mystery especially compelling, though it was extremely well-executed.
taking out their eyes
christopher-underwood4 June 2022
It's a rather silly idea but it just about holds together with several lovely girls stripping off while somebody is killing and taking out their eyes. It is a rather nasty and bloody business but doesn't really get what is happening. There are a lot of footsteps and people going down to the cellar although it is the inspector who is trying to find out what is going on and he seems to have an amusing time.
A unique addition to the giallo genre
kevin_robbins17 February 2023
Crazy Desires of a Murderer (1977) is an Italian giallo picture that I recently watched on Prime. The storyline follows a rich young lady who comes home with some friends after a recent trip to Asia. Her home is an extravagant mansion where her dad, brother, family doctor and house keeper also live. When her friends start getting murdered who could be responsible?
This movie is directed by Filippo Walter Ratti (Erika) and stars Isabelle Marchall (Magnificent Dare Devil), Annie Carol Edel (Almost Human), Patrizia Gori (Nathalia: Escape from Hell), Gaetano Russo (Crazy Blood) and Corrado Gaipa (The Godfather).
This was a unique addition to the giallo genre. The settings, background music, gorgeous ladies and nude scenes were classic giallo. There's only one giallo stalking sequence, which was just okay. The kill scenes were better than I anticipated with good stab sequence, a worthwhile throat slash scene and great use of eyeballs. The blond murdered in the bed was by far the best kill scene. I did wish there were more kills. The blood in this was more realistic than the red paint blood in most giallo films. The fights were very average and the killer was a bit predictable, but I still found this worth a viewing. I would score this a 6.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.
This movie is directed by Filippo Walter Ratti (Erika) and stars Isabelle Marchall (Magnificent Dare Devil), Annie Carol Edel (Almost Human), Patrizia Gori (Nathalia: Escape from Hell), Gaetano Russo (Crazy Blood) and Corrado Gaipa (The Godfather).
This was a unique addition to the giallo genre. The settings, background music, gorgeous ladies and nude scenes were classic giallo. There's only one giallo stalking sequence, which was just okay. The kill scenes were better than I anticipated with good stab sequence, a worthwhile throat slash scene and great use of eyeballs. The blond murdered in the bed was by far the best kill scene. I did wish there were more kills. The blood in this was more realistic than the red paint blood in most giallo films. The fights were very average and the killer was a bit predictable, but I still found this worth a viewing. I would score this a 6.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.
Lesser giallo but it has its moments
Red-Barracuda26 February 2024
A bunch of people converge in a large old castle and before long they start getting murdered and have their eyeballs removed! There's a paralyzed, clairvoyant patriarch, a returning countess, her deranged younger brother who is obsessed with taxidermy. There's drug smuggling via antique vases and one member of the party who is being pressurised by gangsters. Who could be guilty of the murders and why! A dogged detective arrives and starts sleuthing.
This is one of the gialli which combined a gothic element into its contemporary story. To that end we have the interiors of the old castle as the backdrop to much of the usual sex and violence recipe. Like most in this sub-genre, it has some nice cinematography and music by Piero Piccioni (with some Ennio Morricone music taken from A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, oddly enough). Unfortunately, the story isn't as interesting as it should be, given the ingredients and it often feels a bit half-hearted. There's just enough giallo craziness to take it over the line though.
This is one of the gialli which combined a gothic element into its contemporary story. To that end we have the interiors of the old castle as the backdrop to much of the usual sex and violence recipe. Like most in this sub-genre, it has some nice cinematography and music by Piero Piccioni (with some Ennio Morricone music taken from A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, oddly enough). Unfortunately, the story isn't as interesting as it should be, given the ingredients and it often feels a bit half-hearted. There's just enough giallo craziness to take it over the line though.
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