Red-Barracuda Despite being made in 1971, the big year for the classic-style violent murder-mystery gialli, this Spanish giallo is a throwback to the late 60's type which was less concerned with bloody mayhem and more with dangerous love triangles and deadly melodramas. Its story focuses on a woman who heads off to a seaside villa with her new lover who she has left her husband for; while there a series of dangerous incidents occur leading her to believe that someone is trying to kill her.This one opens with a cracking credit sequence full of colour and beautiful drawings. It sure gets you in the mood for another slice of top quality giallo mayhem. Unfortunately, this one doesn't really live up to this promise and pans out as a fairly run-of-the-mill psychological thriller. It's not a bad film or anything, as it has some nice photography, a lush score from Piero Piccioni and benefits from its early 70's vibes. But its story just never engages as much as it needs to and it reveals its hand quite early on so for the last half of the film there isn't even a mystery to propel events. I think the story needed to be stronger as it is pretty minimalistic stuff in terms of characters. There are only really five of any consequence, including a couple of enigmatic individuals in the periphery - a male friend from 'the war' and a female seductress. In terms of suspense, we have a car hurtling down a mountain road with faulty brakes and an incident with a scuba tank with no air. Fairly slim pickings on this front in truth and there is no real violence to speak of either but there is admittedly a fair bit of sex and nudity thrown in to keep things more interesting. I think it may be other less plot-driven details which might be the most memorable though, such as any scenes involving the swan and all the underwater sequences. In summary, this is a nice looking yet slightly underwhelming example of a giallo, still well worth seeking out if you are an enthusiast of the genre though.

Sam Panico Whether you call it In the Eye of the Hurricane, Lusty Lover or Suspicion, this film starts with plenty of style and 70's morality.Ruth and Paul are a new couple, but Ruth is still married to Michael, who thinks their trial separation will get them back on the same page. Ruth obviously has no interest in that — she instantly runs away with Paul to a seductive Mediterranean beach.Their love is shot in crazy colors, upside down kisses, swans in the hot tub being given as gifts, discotheques for two, making pottery together, a stone swan filled with caviar and champagne… yeah, Ruth isn't going back home.This is a film of bad memories, strange moments of a new relationship, not getting introduced to people and it feeling weird, swirling camera shots around a dancing couple ala DePalma's Body Double (but 13 years early), bearskin rugs in front of the fire (it is 1971) and suspicion.Soon, Ruth is involved in a couple of accidents; her brakes fail while driving and her oxygen tank runs out while diving for an octopus (while Paul drinks wine on the boat with his dog and pours wine all over the coral!). Ruth gets paranoid and believes that Paul may be trying to kill her. Or is it his war buddy Roland, who seems to care about Paul a little too much (and the dude has scars from a lion on his chest!)?Oh yeah — Paul even goes underwater to get her some coral, where we reveal Danielle, a redhead who is a rival for Paul's affections. And Michael, Ruth's husband, comes back to visit.Oh hey! There's Paul and Roland, just randomly shooting things in the yard. Nothing strange there! There's a great ending where Michael challenges Paul to show him how good he is. He holds up a magazine as the camera goes from the model's face to his to Ruth's. A shot rings out and it goes right between the model's eyes…and the hole reveals Ruth! What a great shot!Oh wait — Paul, Michael and Danielle are all in it together, as they are working together to kill Ruth, who tearfully listens to their plans. Ruth runs back to the house, debating calling the police, before deciding on grabbing a gun. From there on out, it's all big zooms in on the eyes and ominous music!Ruth writes a note to Paul that says that she knows he is coming back to kill her and she won't stop him. He was the man she was looking for all her life and she put all of her faith, trust and love into him. He represented her whole being, but now, she knows why he approached her. She never imagined anyone could be capable of such hatred and it all makes her exhausted. Now, she feels that she has to pay the price for her mistakes, as she has lost all of her faith and willpower. She sees this act as suicide and begs him to hurry.What follows is a selection of quick cuts — a black gloved hand with a gun, swans, red faces, worried faces and then Paul appears behind her, telling her that he was going to curl up with her. A phone call breaks the silence and the police call to say that Michael has been killed.But wait — does Ruth have a plan of her own? The dog has died and the ice cubes she made earlier are the culprit. Paul moves Danielle into their home and they begin bullying her, trying to make her confess to the fact that she murdered Michael to protect Paul. They even force themselves on her in bed in a scene that's shot more like a horror film than a romance. Ruth just lies here, mouth wide open in terror, trying to fight them off. She finally runs and hides in a corner before her ex-husband and his new love consummate their relationship.Ruth calls the police, who come with the news that Michael was killed with a chemical from Ruth's pottery supplies that she had just asked Paul to get for her. She set everyone else up to survive and walks down the beach with Michael's friend Roland as the film closes.I've read that this film steals a lot from Umberto Lenzi's Orgasmo and A Quiet Place to Kill, which I need to find and watch. That said — there are some moments of interest here and once you get past the slow opening, it all gets rather exciting.

hwg1957-102-265704 Saw this under the title of 'The Fox With A Velvet Tail' which in the context of the film doesn't make any sense. There is a dog and a swan but not a fox. A woman leaves her husband to go frolicking at a seaside villa with her current lover. Then after a while things start to happen of a sinister nature. After a while indeed as the first part is very slow until things start to liven up in the middle promisingly. But the promise is unfulfilled and the last part gets a bit silly until the unsatisfactory ending.It all looks beautiful on the screen and the acting is decent but the script doesn't know where it is going. When one ignores the story and looks at the scenery then one isn't that engaged with the film, which I wasn't a lot of the time. The swan is lovely though.

lazarillo A woman leaves her husband and immediately takes up with another man . But her new beau has a strange friend that he knew from the "war", he and also seems to have some kind of relationship with the beautiful bisexual woman next door. Meanwhile her estranged husband is still lurking around, and someone seems to be trying to kill her.This rather odd giallo came out after Dari Argento had set the template for the genre with "Bird with Crystal Plumage". Strangely though, it seems to be a throw-back to the earlier Umberto Lenzi/Carroll Baker gialli like "Paranoia" or "A Quiet Place to Kill". The beginning is almost unforgivably slow with romantic longueurs of very beautiful idle rich people frolicking on the beautiful Cote de Azure beach while 60's Europop tunes play on the soundtrack (the movie often resembles a more staid French thriller like "La Piscine" than a Spanish/Italian gialli) . The plot, when it finally kicks in, is actually pretty good, but this movie is not as deleriously stylized nor is it anywhere near as violent as your typical giallo of that era. And it's tame even compared to the earlier gialli as far as sex goes--there's a long, ridiculous scene where the lead actress goes topless but the view is always obstructed by something (which resembles a running gag in "Austin Powers" more than anything else). It's hard to believe that three years later this same Spanish director would do the uber-sleazy "Beyond Erotica".Still, tame does not necessarily translate to bad. This film has some good twists to it and is pretty entertaining when it get's going.