Theres Always Room for Giallo

Welcome to part two of my gialli celebration of Women in Horror Month.

It would be easy to peg Spanish actress Cristina Galbó as mere bait for the maniacs in the boarding school slashers she is known for. Galbó starred in two gialli during her Euro-horror career and it was the classic What Have they Done to Solange that became her stand out role in the genre. Galbó effortlessly delivers a performance as the innocent with big girl dreams always yearning for more. Her lively and believable character is instantly likable and easily draws the audience in further, making her demise deeply felt.

Paolo Cavara is best remembered for working alongside Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi in 1962's seminal exploitation shock-doc Mondo Cane. The film went on to spawn an entire genre without Cavara and even drew a number of titles latching on to the Mondo name for sensationalistic purposes, despite unrelated subject matter. It was Cavara's 1971 giallo Black Belly of the Tarantula (La tarantola dal ventre nero) that put him on the map as a serious director. Boasting an interesting cast with as many redheads as red herrings, Marcello Danon's story leads us into a world of blackmail conspiracy, drug trafficking and a black-clad revenge murderer.

The film opens with a languid and sensual Maria (Barbara Bouchet) receiving a nude massage to the tune of a feminine sigh (Edda Dell'Orso) interspersed with sumptuous horn arrangements; simply voluptuous and courtesy of Italian maestro Ennio Morricone. Afterward, we are witness to a fight with Maria's estranged husband (Silvano Tranquilli) who has been sent some illicit photographs of his wife in flagrante delicto. Soon after the quarrel she is attacked by an unidentified assailant who pierces her with a wicked needle and slices her belly open--two phalluses for the life of one. Inspector Tellini, played by the forever brooding Giancarlo Giannini, is called to investigate the murder but the evidence doesn't add up and before he can determine why, another woman is murdered the same way.

Massimo Dallamano's 1975 giallo, What Have They Done to Solange, takes its influence from the German crime genre known as krimi. German film producers had been adapting the novels of British author Edgar Wallace since the 20's but it was the Danish company, Rialto Film, who acquired exclusive rights to most of Wallace's novels in the early 60's. The original krimis were black and white but Rialto introduced color to the genre and and opted for stylish over substantial reimaginings of the Wallace novels. Rialto ignored the actual narrative of his stories and decided to hone in on the motives behind the murder mysteries. This explains the reason why Dallamano's film doesn't quite connect with Wallace's novel, The Secret of the Green Pin, also known as The Clue of the New Pin or Das Geheimnis der grünen Stecknadel. Solange was released under this title as well in the US and West Germany but the book and film have little in common aside from a few details, most notably the mention of a green stick pin. As the quality of the Rialto films took a nose dive in the late 60's, the company reached out to Italian producers to form four co-production companies to keep their costs low. Thus began one of the initial influences for giallo, aside from the yellow paperbacks where the genre gets its name. Similarly, the krimi films were also an influence on the Italian tough-cop genre know as polizotteschi. Shared traits between the three include uber violence, corruption and the investigation/investigator as a main focal point.

The film takes place in Communist era Prague where American journalist Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel) wakes, only to find himself in a catatonic state. He's unable to move or speak but starts to recall the bizarre occurrences which led to his current demise. Through these memories, we are introduced to his Czech girlfriend Mira Svoboda (Barbara Bach) who has disappeared after he tried to help her leave the country. Moore launches into an investigation that takes him to a private club (Klub 99), which appears to be a music club but is revealed to be a front for something unimaginable. Meanwhile, Moore's body shows no signs of rigor mortis but Doctors have presumed him dead and schedule him for an autopsy. Can he remember everything before it's too late?

Mario Bava is credited as the first director to breathe life into the giallo genre with his 1963 work, The Girl Who Knew Too Much. Ironically however, Bava is best known for being one of the most underrated auteurs of Italian horror. Often cited as the Italian Hitchcock, Mario Bava's beginnings as a painter and special effects assistant for his father were a small taste of what was to come. Early in his career, he worked with many of the pioneers of Italian horror including Riccardo Freda, before going solo and gaining popularity for his strong visual style. Though his filmography was plagued by a limited budget, Bava was resourceful and his style has been imitated by many, inspiring generations of filmmakers. His 1971 film Bay of Blood is considered one of the earliest slasher films and a direct influence on the original Friday the 13th.

The same year as Bava's giallo masterpiece, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, he released the horror anthology I Tre volti della paura otherwise known as Black Sabbath. The Italian title translates to The Three Faces of Fear, which is exactly what Bava delivers in three richly atmospheric Gothic tales. The film features horror icon Boris Karloff as the host, who also stars in the story, The Wurdalak. When American International Pictures distributed Black Sabbath in the U.S. they altered the film substantially. They rearranged the order of the stories which changed the climactic point and cut portions of episodes to make them more suitable for younger viewers. The film has since been restored to the original Italian version, which excludes Karloff's segments between stories but does contain his introduction and humorous epilogue. Sadly, they have dubbed his distinctive voice with that of an Italian actor. Also restored is Roberto Nicolosi's minimal ambient score which is a more effective contribution to the haunting storylines. Lastly, the AIP version indicates in the DVD liner notes that Bava's stories were adapted from the works of Chekhov, Tolstoy and Maupassant. It's more likely that the studio was following the same successful model used with Roger Corman and his Edgar Allan Poe adaptations and used the authors as a way to stir up interest.

I can't really think of an occasion where it isn't appropriate to play Goblin and I finally found someone who agrees with me.

Check out one person's video project after the jump, which is titled 'Take a Bath...Giallo Style.' The video features the music from Dario Argento's Tenebre, which was composed by Goblin. The Italian prog rock band has contributed to some of the finest soundtracks in Italian horror and well . . .horror, period. Though the video description claims it's unfinished, it's still cleverly done and gialloriffic with all the appropriate elements. I know exactly what music I'll be playing when I get sudsy later on tonight. Also of note is another video from the same person that is a party, shot giallo style, featuring the awesome, non-giallo sounds of The Magnetic Fields.

Now, where's my Ennio Morricone, spaghetti dinner video?

The golden age of Italian horror was in the 70's but directors like Dario Argento (Giallo), Lamberto Bava (Demons), Michele Soavi (Cemetery Man) and Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust) carry on the tradition of this ever-shifting genre today. Its influence can be felt in many American slasher films of the 80's--a time when giallo had a renaissance. John Carpenter has often cited Argento's early work as an influence on Halloween. This influence can also be felt by many contemporary Asian horror directors like Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

The roots of Italian horror go back to 1929 when the Mondadori publishing house introduced a series of books in yellow covers. These novels were created to promote detective stories that were influenced by British and American mystery fiction. The paperbacks were synonymous with their distinctive color and became known as giallo novels--giallo meaning 'yellow' in Italian.

From the 1940's to the early 1950's, Italian cinema was deeply rooted in a neorealist style, reflecting life post-World War II. At the dawn of giallo cinema in the 1960's, the fantastical elements associated with American film were foreign to Italian audiences. But soon the giallo genre developed a distinct Italian style like its literary counterpart. The films were associated with intense color, fashionable style and theatrical visual elements. Italian cinema became more experimental in the 60's leading into the 70's. Though the mystery component was maintained, eventually giallo focused more on Gothic horror and psychological thrills, steeped in healthy doses of eroticism and graphic violence. Themes like exoticism, alienation and identity emerged and became the earmark of the genre, made famous by favorites like Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and Mario Bava.