When you watch as many Italian exploitation movies as I do, you’re bound to watch something get hopelessly lost in translation sooner or later. Take for instance the hero in Giallo in Venice (or “Gore in Venice” as it is listed on Tubi). We’ve seen hardboiled detectives in thrillers for decades, but this might be the first detective who eats hardboiled eggs in nearly every scene. Whether he’s investigating a crime scene, talking on the phone in his office, or questioning witnesses and suspects, he’s either cracking, peeling, or eating a hardboiled egg. Heck, in one scene he produces a salt shaker from his pocket and salts his egg before shoving it in his mouth. I’d hate to see this guy’s cholesterol levels.
Anyway, our detective hero (played by Jeff Blynn who looks like Richard Harrison dressed up like George Harrison) is trying to solve the brutal murder of a pair of horndog exhibitionists. Flashbacks reveal the husband’s sexual proclivities (he can’t even eat a plate of mussels without making it look dirty), and how he often had to goad his prudish wife into increasingly risky and kinky games in public. Pretty soon, more people wind up dead, and it’s up to our egg-eating hero to find the murderer.
While Blynn is fun to watch in the lead, it’s guest star Mariangela Giordana who steals the show. She was unforgettable as the hot mom in Burial Ground, and she’s super sexy here playing a potential victim who receives threatening phone calls. Leonora Fani is also quite smoking as the wife who grudgingly gives into her husband’s kinky desires.
Despite the alternate title, this isn’t really all that gory. Despite the onscreen title, there aren’t many sustained sequences of suspense that are hallmarks of the giallo genre. (The killer is pretty weak too and he wears a pair of cheesy sunglasses instead of the usually accustomed black gloves.) Despite being neither fish nor fowl, it's still pretty entertaining thanks to the goofy hero and a bevy of hot babes. (EDIT: According to several sources, the recent Blu-ray version clocks in at 99 minutes. The version I saw on Tubi is 74. There’s a good chance there WAS a lot of gore here. Even without the gore, I kind of liked it. If I wind up seeing the unrated cut somewhere down the road, I may watch it again, and if my thoughts change, I may re-review it then. That’s my only real complaint with Tubi is that they often show cut versions. There’s no reason in this day and age to show movies that have been edited for content, especially on a streaming service.)
AKA: Gore in Venice. AKA: Mystery in Venice. Thriller in Venice.
No comments:
Post a Comment