The very Italian giallo meets burgeoning blaxsploitation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in the 1972 crime mystery Tropic of Cancer (sometimes also referred to as Death in Haiti or Peacock’s Palace), directed by Giampaolo Lomi and Edoardo Mulargia (both also co-write along with star Anthony Steffen). A couple on the rocks, Fred and Grace Wright (Gabriele Tinti and Anita Strindberg), make their way to the island paradise to seemingly rekindle their relationship... yet the husband also plans on meeting up with long unseen friend Doctor Williams (Anthony Steffen). Unbeknownst to them (or is it), the M.D. and veterinarian by day and scientist by night (this guy can do everything) has discovered a rather desirable aphrodisiacal hallucinogenic drug formula that everyone is out to get – some legitimately, others not so much.
It is hard to believe that the great Christopher Lee, who put his stamp on nearly all things British cinema over his seventy-one year career (featuring a whopping 286 screen credits), only donned the tweed suit, frock-coat, and deerstalker hat once (all whilst smoking a pipe) for the silver screen (though he did also play the titular Sherlock Holmes in two television movies). Released in 1962 under the title Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace, just to make it all a little more confounding, this film was a West German, French, and Italian co-production shot mostly in Berlin (though some location shooting was done in Ireland and England). . . how in the world was Lee never cast in a British made production? The other head scratcher here, and arguably the biggest flaw of the movie, is that the production team failed to use Christopher Lee’s voice in either the German or English tracks (instead dubbed by someone with a voice that pales in comparison), especially strange when you realize that the actor spoke flawless German as well. It is said that Lee was not pleased upon finding out that he had been dubbed. The only other issue is that Lee wore a fake nose for the character – and it stands out a bit too much.
Okay, let’s set the scene: it is the early 1990s, and conflict is afoot in Somalia. The Barre government continues to be in power, but a well armed rebel force is slowly encroaching on the capital city of Mogadishu. It is in this jarring upheaval that both the South and North Korean governments have turned to Somalia for assistance with entry into the United Nations. This is the harrowing subject of the 2021 historical action drama, Escape from Mogadishu. Directed by Ryoo Seung-wan, he expertly paints a vivid picture – stunning locales (mostly Morocco – a striking stand-in that feels wholly alive), politically savvy and inexperienced characters, as well as very real civil unrest litter this narrative. The South Korean embassy is led by ambassador Han Shin-sung (Kim Yoon-seok), while its Northern counterparts follow ambassador Rim Yong-su (Joon-ho Huh).
Set at a luxurious Italian seaside hotel during the much less touristy off season, the location is the stuff a vacation dream is made of... unless you’re in a giallo plot, then things might take a nosedive right off that very cliff-side. This is the setting of the sexy giallo The Sister of Ursula (1978), written and directed by Enzo Milioni. Following a pair of sisters, Dagmar (Stefania D’Amario) and Ursula (Barbara Magnolfi), they are on a mission – as the rather horrid death of their father has led them to search for their runaway mother... who left them when they were very young – after she made it famous as an actress. This search has brought them to the aforementioned resort
A late entry into the realm of the giallo, 1986's The Killer is Still Among Us, directed by then first time film maker Camillo Teti, comes across as rather meta and self-aware... after all, how often do you see a couple go to a giallo in a giallo? Based off of the true story of a serial killer known as “the Monster of Florence”, poor young couples, looking for love in all the wrong places (and by that, I mean in secluded, wooded areas), are being picked off by an unknown assailant... sometimes using a gun, at others, a knife.
Well, this is a first. . . watching an exploitative pandemic themed film during a real life pandemic – talk about making the subject matter much more horrifyingly effective! An aggressively edgy Hong Kong feature that deservedly received the restrictive Category III rating (like the dreaded X found in many other places in the world, it means no one under the age of 18 is allowed into theatres to see it), Herman Yau’s Ebola Syndrome (1996) might make your skin crawl in more ways than one. Not for the faint of heart, the piece is centered upon a psychopathic, sex crazed lowlife criminal, Kai (Anthony Chau-Sang Wong) – who likes nothing better than schtupping his crime boss’s younger wife. Unceremoniously interrupted by the big man himself, instead of taking the harsh punishment, he decides to kill his way through man, wife, as well as bodyguard, promptly fleeing the country while leaving one witness behind – the boss’s young daughter, Lily (played as an adult by Chui Ling).
Titane, Julia Ducournau’s second feature film (and the winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021), is a bit like a cinematic car – with the disfigured metallic body of David Cronenberg’s Crash, the scary powerful engine of John Carpenter’s Christine, and an interior reminiscent of the essence of French cinema itself (with a hint of late Hitchcock experimentation), this vehicle displays quite the unique package. Living in some sort of dreamscape (that often lingers in a more nightmarish realm), Ducournau embodies the piece with a fantastical essence – like a sleep-induced vision, much of the narrative seems rooted in reality, yet with delusory elements that make us question the supposed corporeality of the story.