Sam Panico Minou (Dagmar Lassander, The House by the Cemetery) loves her husband, Peter. But Peter is cold and only really seems to care about work. All she does all day is pine for her husband and take care of a turtle. Yep. You just read that correctly.One night, a mysterious stranger attacks her, cuts open her clothes and then warns her: her husband is a killer.The mysterious man is proven correct when a man who owed Peter money shows up dead. He demands that she come to his home, where he blackmails her into sleeping with him. Seeing as how he has recorded their tryst, he now has more material on her.Even her friend Dominique (Nieves Navarro, All the Colors of the Dark, who was married to the director, Luciano Ercoli) can't be trusted, as Minou finds photos of the blackmailer in provocative poses in her possession. When she finally gets the police to investigate, the man's home is empty and Dominique tells the police he never even existed. Oh yeah. Dominique was once Peter's woman before Minou. So there's that.Minou has a nervous breakdown and overdoses on tranquilizers before sobering up and learning that it's all been a plot against her from the beginning. But come on - if you've watched any giallo, you knew that going in.Despite its lurid title, Forbidden Photos of a Woman Above Suspicion isn't filled with sex or even all that much violence. It's more about alcoholism and how women were taught that they had to have the skills to land a man, but not what to do with their lives to make them fulfilled beyond just a relationship.Director Luciano Ercoli has some gorgeous shots in here that really take advantage of the space age 1960's aesthetic. And a bossa nova score by Ennio Morricone keeps this film bouncing. It wouldn't be the first giallo I'd recommend, but it's not the last, either.

radiobirdma "The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion" has undoubtedly its assets: the remarkable camera work by cinematographer Alejandro Ulloa, quite meticulously chosen, très chic décors, exquisite sixties fashion, an expertly done soundtrack by Ennio M., and above all the ravishing beauty of Andalusian actress Nieves Navarro who would later marry director Luciano Ercoli. Alas, after a more or less promising first half - sadistic erotomaniac is stalking innocent Italian hausfrau (Dagmar Lassander) -, the script by hackmeister Ernesto Gastaldi is going downhill, and fast - including a "surprise" ending even more devastatingly silly than other Gastaldi baloney à la "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" or "The Case of the Scorpion's Tail". In the DVD extra feature, round-faced and highly likable Gastaldi grins knowingly: he sure sold a lot of merda.

Woodyanders Beautiful, but sexually repressed young housewife Minou (a marvelously luminous performance by luscious redhead stunner Dagmar Lassander) gets assaulted on the beach by a cunning blackmailer (a compelling portrayal by Simon Andreu) who tells Minou that her struggling businessman husband Peter (smoothly played by the handsome Pier Paolo Copponi) is a fraud and a killer. Minou's world becomes topsy-turvy as the blackmailer plots to seduce her and she gives in to her previously neglected carnal desires. Director Luciano Ercoli, working from a sharp script by Ernesto Gastaldi and May Velasco, relates the engrossing story at a snappy pace and does an expert job of creating and sustaining a captivating sensuous and mysterious atmosphere. Although the sexuality featured in this film is pretty hot and kinky, it's nonetheless handled with surprising taste and restraint; the sex never becomes too graphic or sleazy, which in turn actually heightens rather than diminishes the overall deliriously erotic tone. Moreover, there's also an infectiously sly and bouncy sense of playful humor evident throughout which further enhances the movie's considerable entertainment value. The acting is uniformly sound, with a delightfully sassy turn by the lovely Nieves Navarro as Minou's racy and uninhibited best gal pal Dominique rating as a particular stand-out. Alejandro Ulloa's crisp, sparkling cinematography gives the picture an attractive glossy look. Ennio Morricone's lush, bubbly, harmonic score likewise hits the saucy spot, with Edda Dell'Orso's exquisite soaring soprano singing dreamy wordless vocals like some kind of naughty fallen angel. The nice surprise ending neatly wraps things up in a solid and satisfying way. Good, crafty and spicy fun.

ferbs54 My old buddy Rob, who knows more about psychotronic movies than anybody I know, was the one who turned me on to one of my favorite film experiences of 2006, "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" (1970), so when he recently raved about another giallo thriller from 1970 that he'd just seen, "The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion," I made a mental note to check it out as quickly as possible. And boy, am I glad I did! In "Forbidden Photos," Dagmar Lassander plays the part of Minou, a woman who is being sexually blackmailed by a man who has incriminating evidence of a murder her hunky businessman husband supposedly committed. Lassander looks a bit like a redheaded Debra Messing here, and her character is indeed quite the mess even when we first meet her, smoking and drinking too much and popping tranquilizers the way I'd pop Pretzel Nuggets. Needless to say, the events she must go through in this sexy, stylized thriller push her ever closer to the cracking point. Anyway, while gorehounds may be a tad disappointed by the lack of extreme violence in this picture, there are abundant joys to be found. Luciano Ercoli's direction is impeccable; the script by Ernesto Gastaldi (who seems to have written every other giallo that I see!) is one made to keep you guessing (although, plotwise, the film is much more straightforward than many other gialli); and Susan Scott, playing Minou's best friend, is remarkably sexy. But the single best element of this picture, for me, is yet another superb score by the maestro, Ennio Morricone. Isn't it remarkable how many hundreds of outstanding film scores this man is responsible for? I'm just in awe of this friggin' dude! I promise that you'll have this film's catchy theme song bouncing around in your head for days...and won't be forgetting this little giallo picture too quickly, either. Thanks, Blue Underground, and thanks again, Rob!