The Devil with Seven Faces (1971)

Julie and Mary are twins (both Carroll Baker!). Julie gets a phone call from Mary claiming she is in trouble. Julie fears for her life as she is threatened by burglars. She has some friends watch over her, but they are not there all the time. Half way through the film we discover they are looking for jewels.The restoration was fair. Note the Bic lighter used as a "flashlight" before the age of cell phones. Also Julie must stay at her home because she awaits a call from Mary. Time hasn't been kind to the production. The writing and acting are no longer entertaining.Guide: No swearing. Brief rear nudity. Implied sex. Woman gets blouse ripped open. On 50 DVD multi-packs.

A lousy Italian made thriller starring Carroll Baker & Stephen Boyd. Baker is a neurotic career girl (it's never clear what it is that she does for a living) being stalked by a bunch of hoods looking for a diamond her twin sister may or may not have stolen. Boyd is her lawyer. George Hilton is Baker's lover who becomes her pursuer. A hopelessly confusing and very long 90 minute crime film from director Osvaldo Civirani. Shot in Italy & Holland, the film has no sense of any place at all. There are exactly zero thrills. This still-born dreck was just one of many films Baker made in Italy during the late '60/early '70s. The meaning of the title remains a mystery.

Though I viewed a terrible DVD transfer from Eastwest Video, it is hard to believe the most sumptuous "Criterion" edition treatment of this film would raise its ranking to more than 3 or 4 out of 10. Sure, the Eastwest "pan and scan" person probably was asleep when this cropping atrocity was perpetrated, but that doesn't explain the poor dubbing, poor acting, poor plotting, silly exploration of the landlady's attic by first a cigarette lighter and then a struck match (what DID happen to Julie's landlady, and, more importantly, WHY?), cheap sexual teasing (there is NO scene in this movie that resembles the DVD cover used here at IMDb), and silly denouement confirming the movie-watcher's suspicions that the whole heist caper was all a bunch of misguided hooey from the get-go. Dave Barton (Stephen Boyd) must be the dimmest lawyer in the history of the profession, and the bimbo who bamboozles him (Carroll Baker as "Julie") is only a watt or two brighter. Fortunately for them, the other eight bad guys crossing their path have intellectual capacities which do not even register on the IQ scale. If you want to spend 90 minutes to see a few moments of punch-pulled action atop a windmill, go ahead and take a chance on this cheap flick.

As has been stated by others, this does not have quite the style or blood of your average giallo but does have other of the elements appreciated by fans of the genre. Carol Baker, for one, and George Hilton, a nice jingly score and probably the most pairs of hot-pants seen in one film. Not much of a plot line and yet it is still made to seem complicated and the main police guy seems to think he is in a comedy film, talking nonsense and prancing about with a magnifying glass. However, it's all done with that gialloesque, fun spirit, with lots of planes and airport scenes, car chases and lots of female (Carol Baker) screaming. Nothing special, but pleasant enough.