Shocktober 2018 # 12

Watched on Blu-Ray

I allowed myself this film in a noble mediabook edition to adequately enlarge my Argento collection, previously only existing of a beautiful leatherbook edition of Suspiria which outshines every other DVD or Blu-Ray I own, and to watch it in the intended uncut version for the first time.

In Germany, the film was marketed as an Edgar-Wallace-ish movie. The audience soon had to find out that this movie is a slightly alienated version of the literary template by Frederick Brown, who also wrote the screenplay. It comes up with a far greater dose of horror than other crime thrillers at that time.

Instead of the statue mentioned in the novel (The Screaming Mimi), the film revolves around a painting.

First, the Bond director Terence Young was intended for directing. Fortunately, film debutant Dario Argento was made aware of the screenplay by Bernardo Bertolucci. Also Dario's father, Salvatore Argento, produced the movie. As a result, "Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Handschuhe" (the german title means The Secret of the black gloves) became one of the first Italian Gialli to have that certain something: a big pinch of Dario Argento😁.

Everything that characterizes Argento's handwriting today already appears in this debut. From the violent scenes immersed in rich primary colors over the irritating camera perspectives to the killer dressed in black leather and the oddly overdrawn support characters, which consciously enrapture the situations.

A good example is the painter: he likes to feed on eccentric meat delicacies, as Sam, the protagonist, soon has to find out himself in a painful way, and lives as a hermit in a dilapidated villa on the outskirts (a theme that occurs again and again in Argentos films, as well as his beloved cats).

Tony Musante as Sam may be the only weak point due to his wooden play. He is flanked by the gorgeous ladies duo Suzy Kendall and Eva Renzi as well as the unforgettable character heads Mario Adorf and Reggie Nalder.

Ennio Morricone contributes one of his best thriller scores.

A virtuosically photographed, masterful debut of a masterful director.