The Weekend Murders (1972)

Here's a weird one - an Italian comedy/giallo crossbreed, filmed in Britain with a mainly Italian cast. However, the gambit pays off, and despite the predictable reading-of-the-will-followed-by-rash-of-murders premise, the film remains fresh and engaging up until the final unmasking. Surprisingly, the comic aspects of the script are in fact more entertaining than the more typical gloved killer antics, and in particular Gastone Moschin's portrayal of the bumbling but not altogether dense bobby Sergeant Thorpe is a delight. Moschin's cache of puzzled expressions, bizarre mannerisms, and awkward words is a delight, and his role is a pivotal one. Moschin never fails to be funny and his performance alone makes the film worthwhile.The rest of the Italian cast are all fine in their respective roles, and there's time for appearances from Beryl Cunningham - a hot black Euro-starlet at the time - and the British Lance Percival, who also excels as Scotland Yard's Superintendent Grey, and frequently gets to engage in amusing banter with Moschin. The characters are varied and interesting, with a fair assortment of weirdos (especially "Georgie", with his mother fixation) and icy Italian beauties - namely Ida Galli. The script mixes in red herrings and practical jokes involving staged murders with the real deaths to further muddy the plot, and while the film is neither gory nor violent - and, let's face it, there's not a lot of action either - it doesn't need to be. The comedy, for a change, is what helps the film stay watchable.The film is as stylish as usual for an Italian giallo, with lots of neat directorial flourishes, and you don't get much more classy than the opening discover of a murder when a hand is unearthed in a golf course much to the assembled's consternation. However, I could have done without the occasional moments that director Michele Lupo decides to use his camera like a trombone and make the audience feel giddy into the bargain! My favourite scene comes when the seemingly incompetent Thorpe displays his genius by explaining a particularly elaborate suicide set-up involving a gunshot recording, a dumb waiter, and resin from a silencer. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and often hilarious experience, although to give fair warning those expecting anything like a "serious" Italian genre film will be severely disappointed - the film-makers here know their premise is clichéd, so have all the fun they can at the story's expense.

"Weekend Murders" perfectly summarizes all the reasons why Italian gialli-movies made between 1970 and 1980 are my absolute favorite type of horror flicks! Surely this little flick steals ideas of several other classics, surely it's incredibly absurd and far- fetched, and surely it isn't that well-made… But, come on, you just have to discover how much fun and exhilaration this crazy little whodunit thriller provides! "Weekend Murders" is basically a spoof of an Agatha Christie story, particularly "Ten Little Indians/And Then There Were None", and thus definitely not your standard type of giallo, however the highly imaginative murder methods and bizarrely eccentric characters are maintained. And then there's something else that usually never features in gialli, namely lots and lots of humor! Director Michele Lupo – mostly known for his numerous Terence Hill & Bud Spencer action/comedy vehicles – marvelously succeeds in narrating the tale of jealousy, family hatred and murder in a very light-headed fashion, with special thanks to a handful of delightfully funny dialogs and a cast full of respectable names with (hidden) comedy talents. Gastone Moschin, for example, whom I only knew from the raw and violent crime thriller "Milano Calibro .9", here demonstrates his comedy skills together with the textbook British Lance Percival. Speaking of textbook British, "Weekend Murders" is probably the only Italian film that successfully manages to look authentically British (aside from the dubbing) with gloomy land houses, stereotypically well-mannered characters and oppressed humor. The film creatively opens somewhere halfway in the plot, in fact. When a lifeless body is discovered in the sandpit of a golf course, local police sergeant Aloisius Thorpe reminds his Scotland Yard colleague that this is already the third vicious murder in three days. So we go back in time and get acquainted with the remaining members of the Carter family and their partners. They have gathered in the old family home for the reading of the will of their deceased patriarch. Like often the case with inheritances and greedy relatives, most of them aren't too happy with the outcome. Soon after the first murder takes place and this indirectly leads to what I personally find the most hilarious part of the movie. For you see, the first victim is Peter butler, so one of the characters makes the incredibly dry and witty remark: "Well, at least this time nobody can say that the butler did it". Anyways, more murders follow, but Sergeant Thorpe certainly isn't as dim-witted as he looks and impressively gets closer and closer to capturing the killer. For my liking, the body count easily could (and should) have been a bit higher, but I was pleasantly surprised by the ingenious unfolding of the mystery and by the revelation of the killer's identity + modus operandi. If all this isn't persuasive enough just yet, "Weekend Murders" also has an awesome score, with a fantastic reworking of the catchy classical music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and stars a few couple of really ravishing actresses (Ida Gallo, Anna Mofo, Beryl Cunningham, Orchidea de Santis). It exists on DVD, what are you waiting for?

Weekend Murders is one of the more hard to find Giallo films, and I find that rather surprising as the English countryside setting as well as the mystery plot that spoofs Agatha Christie stories means that it's actually one of the more accessible films of the genre. Despite the fact that Weekend Murders is an Italian production, director Michele Lupo has done a great job of creating a distinctly British atmosphere, and this could easily have been a British film were it not for the poor dubbing. Michele Lupo has a great sense of humour and he succeeds several times in lampooning the tradition that the film is spoofing, and Weekend Murders is a very funny film throughout. We open on a golf course where a leisurely game is interrupted by the discovery of a hand sticking out of a sandpit. It soon becomes obvious that the butler didn't do it because, contrary to the norm, he is the first to go! We soon move on to the first real plot building scene, which takes form in a will reading to the members of a wealthy estate. Aside from getting a few laughs, we are also given the knowledge that the owner of the estate's favourite daughter is to inherit everything, much to the dismay of the rest of the house.Most of the humour in the film comes from the seemingly inept local policeman played by Gastone Moschin. His character soon hooks up with the self proclaimed ace Scotland Yard Superintendent Grey (Lance Percival), and their double act forms the backbone of the movie. The two pair up well actually, and their exchanges work because the two characters are so different. Unfortunately, the rest of the support cast isn't so memorable; and while none of them put in particularly bad performances - there isn't a real standout either. The film also has a few plot problems, as the focus isn't always on the mystery and the exchanges between the members of the house are often redundant and not relevant to the central theme. The mystery itself is rather bare, and although clever at the conclusion - the plot is not the labyrinth that I have come to expect from Giallo's. After spoofing just about every mystery cliché in existence, it is fitting that the common revealing scene at the end is also lampooned by Lupo, and while the identity of the murderer is actually rather obvious; at least the reasons behind it make some sort of sense. Worth tracking down!

This is a take off of the agatha christie type films done in the italian style and set in a statley home in britian.It is great fun and should be seen.Great use of classical music,zoom shots,red herrings and a little bit of the naughty..i mean a little bit,it was early 70s. great apperance by ballard barclay,the major in fawlty towers.It will not set the world on fire but you could do worse. Out of ten,say seven