Director: Massimo Dallamano
Year: 1968
Country: Italy/West Germany
Alternate Titles: La morte non ha sesso; Death Has No Sex
Genre: Giallo
Plot:
Trying to work on a strange case, a detective in the middle of a troubled case finds himself more concerned with the possible extramarital affairs of his wife than the case, but when he finds the chance to get both problems solved, he tries to utilize both factors to his whims.
Review:
This was a generally fantastic giallo with a lot to like. One of the better elements within this one is the exceptionally strong and impressive storyline that provides an immensely gripping mystery on several fronts. Starting with the main thread of the police officer trying to keep an eye on his seemingly unfaithful wife while she constantly provides plenty of motivation for him to think she’s being untrustworthy, while not doing much to dissuade him from thinking so, as she seems to get a rise out of tormenting him about his inefficiencies. That kind of antagonistic relationship is only enhanced by the constant back-and-forth arguments and generally shady behavior that comes about after they both decide to keep their true intentions to themselves and start playing games with each other.
This setup is matched incredibly well by the frantic race to catch the killer on the outskirts of the story that he’s trying to solve. With the first few murders providing only scant clues to catch the suspect and leading them on a chase to a shady underworld figure who is seen looking around the city, the case comes across rather well at building up the kind of intrigue and mystery that the best murder mysteries evoke. As it becomes more difficult to solve when clues are dead ends or leads are killed off, there’s a great parallel in play here where this makes the strained relationship with the shady wife take on a completely different emotional level as the frustrations over not catching him play with the fractured relationship, rather believably.
While these two parts manage to play together quite well and give this a lot to like, it does stumble slightly in some small factors. The decision to employ the main suspect in the killings as a foil in his relationship to test her fidelity seems to be quite illogical and not well presented here. The whole thing is presented as a way to solve the two congruent mysteries in his life, but the way he comes to conclude using this criminal suspect at the head of such a confounding investigation as the person to see how far his wife is willing to go to test their relationship is way too much pulled out of nowhere to be realistic. There’s little reason why this would be accepted in the state it is, since it’s brought up out of nowhere and just feels underwhelming with how well the rest of the film has been.
Overview: ****/5
One of the finer gialli of the era, this one comes together incredibly well and has a lot to like about it, while only being let down by some slight issues present. Those with an appreciation for this era of the genre, who are curious about it, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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