Knife of Ice (1972)

Despite the fact that KNIFE OF ICE was very tame in the sex and sleaze departments (virtually no bloodshed and no nudity whatsoever...) I found this one to be a decent enough entry in the genre. Martha is a mute who became that way after a train accident killed her parents 15 years earlier. Her cousin comes to stay with her and her father, and ends up murdered. This of course leads to all the typical giallo-style investigations and 'red herrings' that most fans crave...I will say that I was disappointed in the lack of gore and nudity in this entry (especially coming from Lenzi who helmed such sleaze 'classics' as CANNIBAL FEROX and EATEN ALIVE) -but of the several giallo-films that I've seen lately-I was thankful that the pace was relatively quick, and the storyline pretty straight-forward. I tend to like gialli overall, but I find that many get caught up in such convoluted plots that they tend to weigh the film down. I will say that for me at least, I guessed the killer pretty much right off the bat- but that's not to say that the film is exactly 'predictable'. Overall a decent entry that I'd recommend to fans of the genre. 7/10

Carroll Baker continues her long streak of Euro exploitation/horror flicks with this typically convoluted Spanish/Italian giallo from director Umberto Lenzi, who had previously directed the actress in three films in the same genre - ORGASMO/PARANOIA (1968), A QUIET PLACE TO KILL (1969) and SO SWEET... SO PERVERSE (1969). Unfortunately, the film isn't particularly stylish, much of the dialogue is downright atrocious, the played-out plot line offers next to nothing of interest and the pacing is lethargic. It tries to function as a murder- mystery and even throws in some sloppy and confusing flashbacks (that ultimately are pointless), but gives absolutely no clue as to who the killer actually is when it's revealed; just another "let's pull this out of a hat" type of revelation that personally irritates me. This is also sorely lacking in exploitation elements that could have helped make it more watchable. There's no gore (all of the murders are off-screen), no sex, no nudity, no notable kill scenes and almost no suspense to speak of. Combine that with a lousy screenplay and anonymous direction and you have a film that isn't going to appeal to anyone other than the most dedicated of giallo fans. And that's really too bad, as it's a handsomely photographed production set in some beautiful looking, foggy Spanish village. Now I do appreciate the picturesque outdoor Spanish locales sometimes used in this film, but when it fails at basically everything else, it's hard to recommend it for a few scenic shots of a place you'd like to take a vacation.Baker stars as Martha Caldwell, a woman who saw her parents die in a train wreck when she was a teen and has been mute every since that traumatic event fifteen years ago. She has to overcome her fears to meet her attractive professional singer cousin Jenny Ascot ("Evelyn Stewart"/Ida Galli), who's just arrived in town for a visit, at a train station. The two go back to the country manor that Martha shares with her uncle Ralph (George Rigaud), who has an interest in demonology and the occult. Later, they throw a birthday party for a young girl in the village. Jenny is stabbed to death in the garage and her body is hidden under a car later that night. Martha discovers it the next day and the police are soon doing their usual investigation. Turns out another young woman had been murdered not too long ago and her body was tossed in a ditch. The police think there may be a sex killer on the loose, but they also realize that whoever murdered Jenny had to be one of the party guests because a security system would have prevented it. Well, unless someone else happened to sneak in... You know, such as a homeless, long-haired, trench-coat-wearing, morphine-addicted devil-worshipping hippie who apparently borrowed the same contact lenses worn by Ivan Rassimov in ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK and seems to pop up out of nowhere at all the right incriminating moments. Since he's obviously filling the too-obvious red herring position, let's get back to the real suspects in this case...So who was at the party that could have killed Jenny? Let's see... Aside from Martha, her uncle and the little girl, there's Martha's doctor (oh-so-bland Alan Scott), an exotic looking female acquaintance (Silvia Monelli), a sinister chauffeur (Eduardo Fajarado), a maid (Olga Gherardi) and a priest (José Marco). Which one is responsible? There's also a heavy concentration on things having to do with Satanism. The Uncle is obsessed with it (and seems to have chosen his house because it's located next to an old cemetery), one of the flashbacks is of Jenny buying an occult book, the hippie wears a goat head necklace and is a Satanist and there's a goat head painted on a tree in blood at one of the murder scenes... And all that really has nothing to do with the storyline whatsoever, doesn't play into any motive and seems to have been added almost as an afterthought. There's also a bullfighting scene repeated endlessly, a dead kitten, some truly inept police procedural (only some of which can be explained by the finale), a Snoopy necklace and a cool Donald Duck electronic toy. That last thing was probably my favorite bit in the entire movie.Baker's performance is decent. Rest of the cast (also including horror and giallo regular Franco Fantasia as the detective on the case) is so-so. The music score is fair, but not memorable in the least. Kind of like the rest of this film. The version I saw was under the title KNIFE OF ICE and is a good-looking, dubbed, widescreen print.

Nowhere near good enough.This is well enough shot and has some good use of the widescreen and suspenseful moments. There is at one point an interesting storyline developing but gradually the poor dialogue forces you to accept that this is going nowhere.For all the twists and turns with the blank expressions from everybody at each death (bloodless I might say!) this becomes all too tiresome. If I could be bothered to work it back I would probably discover that this is so silly because the stupidity of the denouement has to be allowed for.

This early 70's giallo by Umberto Lenzi is certainly among the best in his filmography and also in the whole genre. Personally I think Lenzi's best films are the funny cartoon-turned-film Kriminal, the stylish giallo Seven Blood-Stained Orchids, the explosive Napoli violenta and this. In the eighties he did plenty of film trash in form of Eaten Alive, Hitcher in the Dark or Black Demons, all of which are ripping something off and/or very dull and slow moving. Knife of Ice came when the giallo boom was at its hottest and the result is convincing.Technically the film is superb, containing great cinematography in the beginning when we learn about the main character's trauma towards trains. From this point on, Lenzi shows us his ability to benefit the widescreen and, for example, the bicycle ride near the forest is genuinely beautiful! This scene also shows Lenzi's ability to build suspense, very slowly but meaningfully. After all, there aren't so many murders in the whole film, only the suspense circulating around the murderer's identity.One suspect is a devil worshipper which brings new aspects to the mystery. Since the final scene takes place in a church, one can wonder if Lenzi wanted to comment on something, maybe the hypocritical morale of church and superstition. The main character (Carrol Baker) is mute which demands a lot from her face and eyes. The actress works very well, giving us a believable performance circulating around the emotions of fear and mental pain. The other actors are good, too. The finally, however, may not give too positive a sight about female sex since they all are expressed rather negatively in the film, one way or another. Still this is easily among the most noteworthy in the genre, not as bloody as the Argento films, for example, but equally suspenseful and visually also interesting.