Cold Eyes of Fear

source: Cold Eyes of Fear

Maybe more of a crime thriller than true Giallo. I am really not sure how this got into my queue unless I was looking for Ennio Morricone's music. At least it had a flashy intro that puts Elvira to shame. If nothing else, the movie starts with a great nightclub show featuring Karin Schubert. Almost worth the price of admission itself. After the show, Peter (Gianni Garko) snatches Anna (Giovanna Ralli) from her date and takes her home where an intruder (Julián Mateos) is determined to spoil his evening. It's all about Arthur Welt (Frank Wolff) and his search for evidence that will exonerate him. There is little action and a whole lot of talking.

The 1971 Italian/Spanish coproduction "Cold Eyes of Fear" is hardly a giallo (at least in the sense that I understand the term) and not even a horror movie; rather, it is a fairly tense hostage thriller with the bare minimum of nudity and bloodshed. In it, an ex-con named Arthur Welt (well named, as he sure is good at inflicting welts on others!), along with a Cockney goon named Quill, breaks into judge Fernando Rey's swank London mansion, holding the judge's solicitor nephew and his luscious Italian * of the evening prisoners whilst they carry on their agenda. What ensues is an increasingly suspenseful and violent battle of wits and brawn between the four, leading to some surprises for the viewer as Welt's intentions become clear. In the role of Welt, Frank Wolff, who many may recall as the horny paterfamilias from the previous year's "Lickerish Quartet," is excellent, by turns urbane and a frothing madman. Julian Mateos as Quill is convincingly menacing, Giovanni Ralli as the feisty hooker is very fine, Gianni Garko as the young nephew is spot on, and Fernando Rey...well, he literally phones his role in. The picture has been terribly dubbed and features numerous scenes of unconvincing fisticuffs. The initial 20 minutes are pretty slow going, and will likely leave most viewers wondering just where this darn thing is going. Fortunately, the film does pick up nicely once the brutish Quill makes his initial appearance, and a discordant jazz score by the maestro, Ennio Morricone, helps us get over some of the duller patches. Director Enzo G. Castellari's work is pretty flashy here, and the film has been shot and edited for a fair amount of disorientation...including a few trippy fantasy sequences. In all, a reasonably gripping entertainment, and nicely presented on this Image DVD.

By no means the best giallo I've seen, this Enzo Castellari tale of ___ drags horribly and maintains little suspense. Set in Swinging London (but filmed primarily in Rome), the movie finds young lawyer Gianni Garko about to seduce prostitute Giovanna Ralli at his swank house. They stumble upon the butler's dead body, undoubtedly a victim of temperate ruffian Julián Mateos, who then terrorizes the couple with his gun and leather suit. Judge Fernando Rey, who keep a cat on his desk, calls nephew Garko to ask for legal assistance and sends constable Frank Wolff over with a missive. The sleazy couple assumes the cop to be a deus ex machine, but he proves to be in on the racket. After sending Rey a secret plea for help (in Latin no less), our hopeful gets haughty and gives the sneering tough guy a good pounding. While Ralli fails to seduce Mateos with a shower, Rey puzzles out the message and sends some genuine although ineffectual police. Some may wonder what will happen to the unlovable couple besieged by this complicated plot; others may not. Castellari fills Cold Eyes with similarly absurd post-nouvelle vague editing, and I suspect this was a strictly commissioned affair for the veteran writer, producer and actor who can claim over 40 films to his credit. His failure as director really displays itself in the overdone, montage-heavy finale. Despite its lack of flesh and gore, Cold Eyes is shockingly exploitative. Wolff murders a policeman in flashback during a gratuitously cruel story diversion, only to illustrate his already obviously violent side. The violence throughout comes off as unnecessarily brutal, as well as distinctly European in flavor. None of the male characters treat the unimpressive prostitute much like a human, her unsurprised response perhaps suggesting they're correct to do so. Easily the best part of the movie is Ennio Morricone's amazing score, would fit better in a well-paced environment. If you want to see a decent film with Rey, who doesn't actually appear in shot with any of the main cast and probably only showed up for a day's worth of filming, check out the same year's French Connection.

Spanish, Italian co-production, set in London and already we are wondering if all will be well. We certainly get some strange accents and if this is giallo influenced, it is not drenched in the genre. What we don't get is lots of gore and nudity. On the plus side there is some Morricone soundtrack, great night shots of late 60's London and some unusually serious discussion of bribery and corruption in high places. Actually these suggestions of a totally corrupt judiciary might be references to Italy rather than England but hey.. There are some nice twists and if the piece is a little wordy it never stops being interesting as the characters change their stance and help to keep us on our toes. Meanwhile Fernando Rey spends the film sitting at his desk waiting for a bomb to go off, which it does and it doesn't!

As far as I know this is Enzo Castellari's only venture into the giallo genre, and I'd also heard it wasn't that good. That's not true, and it's barely even a giallo, so maybe I should check my sources or just watch the film. Chocks away! Sporting incredible sideburns, Gianni Garko is a posh solicitor who quite wisely spends his free time with strippers and hookers who on this occasion takes home an Italian lady. When I say home, I mean his rich uncle's home in a rich part of London. You know, the kind that has a butler in it and a driveway. The Italian lady is playing hard to get even though she's a hooker, and the discovery of the dead butler is a bad enough dampner on the proceedings, so sex totally goes out the window when a gun-toting cockney emerges from the gloom. He's a kind of 'Alright Guvnor, knees ap Maaver Bhraaan' cockney type but his motivations are not quite clear. Adding to Gianni's woes is his uncle (Fernando Rey), who is a judge and keeps calling to harass him about case files. Fernando sends a policeman over to the house with some files, and while he's trying to whisper that he's being held hostage, the policeman punches him square in the face. Uh-oh! Looks like there's a doings-a-transpiring! Turns out the copper is the head bad guy which isn't much of a surprise seeing as he's played by Frank Wolff. Frank's motivations aren't quite clear but he does mention quite early on that he's wired Fernando Rey's office to blow up the moment he opens his door, so now the game is on for Gianni to free himself and the hooker, get rid of Frank and his partner, and save Fernando in the nick of time. Either that or he can just have a lot of punch ups while the hooker plays mind games with the two of them. As this is one of those films that could almost be a stage play in terms of limited set and characters, Enzo's usual hyperactivity makes sure that things don't get boring, so he throws in loads of jarring editing techniques, unusual camera angles (like filming Gianni through the bottom of a jug of icy water he's having his head forced into, or through those finger holes you used to get on telephones), loads of twists (even the cockney becomes unsure of Frank's motives), and an overly violent ending just to cap things off. Although Fernando Rey shouts down the phone a lot and doesn't do much else, Frank and Gianni do well in their roles, with Frank constantly mocking Gianni's Eton and 'playing rugger', with Gianni alternating between snivelling wimp and stiff upper lip radge mentalness. I've never seen an Enzo film I didn't like, so you might want to knock the praise in this review down a bit. Ennio Morricone's freeform jazz soundtrack is a winner too.

Gli Occhi Freddi della Paura, or Cold Eyes of Fear as it's more commonly known amongst English speaking audiences, starts on a dark night in 70's London as lawyer Peter Flower (Gianni Garko) picks up a prostitute named Anna (Giovanna Ralli). Peter takes her back to his uncles house who happens to be the prominent & high powered Judge Juez (Fernando Rey). Once there Peter & Anna begin to get down to business but are rudely interrupted by a gunman named Quill (Julian Mateos) whom has already shot Hawkins the servant. Quill holds them both at gunpoint until his accomplice arrives, Arthur Welt (Frank Wolff). The whole situation leads back to Judge Juez but is this as simple a case of revenge as it first appears? Unfortunately it's really not worth watching to find out... This Spanish & Italian co-production was co-written & directed by Enzo G. Castellari & in my humble opinion is a really boring film. The script by Castellari, Tito Carpi & Leo Anchoriz starts off quite well with the initial plot set-up but once Welt makes an appearance it slows down to an absolute snails pace & becomes as dull as dishwater as it's just annoying character's spouting inane badly dubbed dialogue. Anna really got on my nerves, she keeps on facing up to the gunmen & telling them to kill them, excuse me love but these guys are murderers & have guns. I mean squaring up & provoking them really isn't the way to make it out alive, is it? I'd have shot her for just being so irritating. The final 'twist' revelations are far from surprising & in fact are quite obvious. I must admit I found some of the cockney dialogue rather amusing. Am I the only one who thinks Gli Occhi Freddi della Paura resembles The House on the Edge of the Park (1980)? The two are extremely similar in tone except that The House on the Edge of the Park is far more explicit. Director Castellari gives the film a nice visual look throughout & during the scenes in London it really captures the era. Unfortunately the film has zero tension, scares, atmosphere, shocks or surprises. The violence is virtually non existent, there's a fight at the end with some blood but apart from that forget it. Technically the film is well made & has a nice look & feel throughout with detailed production design. The acting wasn't up to much especially the two gunmen who were, in my humble opinion, awful. Gli Occhi Freddi della Paura had potential & starts out pretty good but goes absolutely nowhere. Very tame, very boring & very disappointing Euro sleaze, there are so many better films out there. One more thing, am I alone in thinking that this shouldn't be described as a Giallo? Giallo's are murder mysteries & Gli Occhi Freddi della Paura has neither murder or mystery...

Pretty good little thriller, with many tense situations, an interesting plot, and gimmicky, stylish direction (lots of zooms!) by Enzo Castellari. Probably the main reason that this film isn't so well-received is that it wasn't directed by a "specialist" of the genre like Dario Argento, but if you compare it objectively with, say, the following year's "Four Flies On Grey Velvet", it's far less boring! (**1/2)

This above-average giallo is set in London, and is so 1970's in style, you could spread it on your bloomin' toast. Ice cold and steeped in thick fog, the various travelogues through the capital city are incredibly evocative. Director Enzo G. Castellari clearly has an eye for the period and makes the most of it; only the warmly furnished interiors, filmed in Rome and Madrid, break the illusion, but are no less picturesque. A screeching, twisting soundtrack from Ennio Morricone coats the visuals with a pervading sense of dread. This is an intimate piece, with a small cast and one main location. It works well because of this: I'm a big fan of 'world within a world' stories, and we have a nice - maybe nice is the wrong word - sense of isolated terror beyond the radar of the chilly, decent, outside world.

Dull and truly disappointing early 70's Italian film that can never seem to decide whether it wants to be a typical giallo or an ordinary crime thriller. The opening is very promising, showing a girl assaulted by a man with a knife whose face we do not see, but that quickly turns out to be a totally unrelated theater performance and that REALLY upset me! The actual story of "Cold Eyes of Fear" revolves on the pampered nephew of an eminent judge who is, together with a random prostitute he picked up earlier, held hostage by two criminals in his uncle's giant villa. One of the crooks is out for vengeance against the corrupt judge and the other merely hopes to find money in the house. What follows is a totally uninteresting and overly talkative showdown between the two parties without not even the slightest bit of action or excitement. There's some very stylish and creative giallo-camera-work to admire, but the sub genre's most appealing characteristics (nudity, graphic violence, absurd plot-twists…) are regretfully neglected. Everybody else around here seems to love the jazzy music but I personally found it very annoying and it totally doesn't fit the tone of the film. It's definitely one of Ennio Morricone's worst scores ever. During the pretentious yet hilarious opening sequences, London is portrayed like a swinging city, in the trend of Las Vegas, with colorful billboards, casinos and wild nightclubs. What the hell was that all about? Enzo G. Castellari's directing is rather uninspired and he's no competition for other contemporary Italian filmmakers like Dario Argento, Mario Bava or Sergio Martino. He did return in the 80's with one of my favorite "Jaws" rip-offs, namely "The Last Shark".