In the Eye of the Hurricane

Saw this under the title of 'The Fox With A Velvet Tail' which in the context of the film doesn't make any sense. There is a dog and a swan but not a fox. A woman leaves her husband to go frolicking at a seaside villa with her current lover. Then after a while things start to happen of a sinister nature. After a while indeed as the first part is very slow until things start to liven up in the middle promisingly. But the promise is unfulfilled and the last part gets a bit silly until the unsatisfactory ending. It all looks beautiful on the screen and the acting is decent but the script doesn't know where it is going. When one ignores the story and looks at the scenery then one isn't that engaged with the film, which I wasn't a lot of the time. The swan is lovely though.

April 2021 Unusally for me, i hadnt seen this giallo until a couple of years ago, i have already seen my favourite giallos 30 or 40 times, but i was just watching this for the 3rd time the other day. 1st time, i wasn't really sure i thought much of it, then with the 2nd viewing it was definitely a keeper and the 3rd viewing suddenly this is a really good giallo. I think the only disappointment is the lead actress is not really an established gaillo actress, such as Edwige Fenech or Barbara Bouchet or Anita Strindberg, so i could just care about her a little bit more. Still its a very good giallo 9 out of 10.

A woman leaves her husband and immediately takes up with another man . But her new beau has a strange friend that he knew from the "war", he and also seems to have some kind of relationship with the beautiful bisexual woman next door. Meanwhile her estranged husband is still lurking around, and someone seems to be trying to kill her. This rather odd giallo came out after Dari Argento had set the template for the genre with "Bird with Crystal Plumage". Strangely though, it seems to be a throw-back to the earlier Umberto Lenzi/Carroll Baker gialli like "Paranoia" or "A Quiet Place to Kill". The beginning is almost unforgivably slow with romantic longueurs of very beautiful idle rich people frolicking on the beautiful Cote de Azure beach while 60's Europop tunes play on the soundtrack (the movie often resembles a more staid French thriller like "La Piscine" than a Spanish/Italian gialli) . The plot, when it finally kicks in, is actually pretty good, but this movie is not as deleriously stylized nor is it anywhere near as violent as your typical giallo of that era. And it's tame even compared to the earlier gialli as far as sex goes--there's a long, ridiculous scene where the lead actress goes topless but the view is always obstructed by something (which resembles a running gag in "Austin Powers" more than anything else). It's hard to believe that three years later this same Spanish director would do the uber-sleazy "Beyond Erotica". Still, tame does not necessarily translate to bad. This film has some good twists to it and is pretty entertaining when it get's going.

I was surprised but delighted to discover that although I had a copy of a copy of this somewhere, I have never actually ever seen it before. Doubly delighted to discover that this Blu-ray print is so wonderful and with a rather catchy song too, this is rather a fun film to watch. Nothing terribly violent or bloody and even the infamous skin shots are rather carefully shot but this certainly has a certain something and is a joy to watch. Jean Sorel is fine, much as he always is but the two girls are very effective and such is the storyline that we are genuinely surprised on more than one occasion. Very entertaining, made me gasp and smile.

Despite being made in 1971, the big year for the classic-style violent murder-mystery gialli, this Spanish giallo is a throwback to the late 60's type which was less concerned with bloody mayhem and more with dangerous love triangles and deadly melodramas. Its story focuses on a woman who heads off to a seaside villa with her new lover who she has left her husband for; while there a series of dangerous incidents occur leading her to believe that someone is trying to kill her. This one opens with a cracking credit sequence full of colour and beautiful drawings. It sure gets you in the mood for another slice of top quality giallo mayhem. Unfortunately, this one doesn't really live up to this promise and pans out as a fairly run-of-the-mill psychological thriller. It's not a bad film or anything, as it has some nice photography, a lush score from Piero Piccioni and benefits from its early 70's vibes. But its story just never engages as much as it needs to and it reveals its hand quite early on so for the last half of the film there isn't even a mystery to propel events. I think the story needed to be stronger as it is pretty minimalistic stuff in terms of characters. There are only really five of any consequence, including a couple of enigmatic individuals in the periphery - a male friend from 'the war' and a female seductress. In terms of suspense, we have a car hurtling down a mountain road with faulty brakes and an incident with a scuba tank with no air. Fairly slim pickings on this front in truth and there is no real violence to speak of either but there is admittedly a fair bit of sex and nudity thrown in to keep things more interesting. I think it may be other less plot-driven details which might be the most memorable though, such as any scenes involving the swan and all the underwater sequences. In summary, this is a nice looking yet slightly underwhelming example of a giallo, still well worth seeking out if you are an enthusiast of the genre though.

Married Ruth and Miguel separate after Ruth finds a new man, Paul, whom she flaunts in front of her soon-to-be ex with not a care in the world. Thus she embarks on her fling, with which Director José María Forqué is far more interested in than we are. The pairing is smugness personified, and gorgeous looking as they may be, Analía Gadé and Jean Sorel, don't invest the characters with anything much more than self-satisfaction. Although it is difficult to sympathise with Ruth even when mysterious 'accidents' start occurring, there's no doubt that Paul is a first rate twit whom you wouldn't wish on anyone. Yet, when they inevitably make-up once more and we are treated to more overlong, 'tasteful' scenes of lovemaking - mere sex is too commonplace for these two - we realise they are as bad as each other. When Miguel (Tony Kendall) turns up once more, Paul's reverie appears to become fractured and, although things never really take off, events become slightly more interesting. Are Miguel and Paul plotting to kill Ruth? She gets the distinct impression they are. Putting to one side the saturation scenes of the pairing, and some very unconvincing day-for-night shots, this is a very good looking film, quite aside from the gleaming blandness of the leads. The locations and landscapes, not to mention the buildings and décor, are breath-taking. Aside from that, however, we're left primarily with three smug twits (or five if you include the more peripheral Rossana Yanni's Danielle and Roland, played by Mauricio Bonuglia). There are some interesting twists toward the end, when the audience is continually wrong-footed, but this rewarding pay-off doesn't quite justify the tediousness that fills much of the running time .

This is not a giallo. I want to get this out of the way immediately b/c it has effected some reviewers opinions of the film. There are no slashings and no body count here. There is no shadowy killer dressed in black stalking victims. There is no chase sequence. None of that. Now for what this movie is. This is the movie Umberto Lenzi always wanted to make but never quite achieved. It's the wealthy woman in a dangerous world where a lover manipulates her, and you're not sure who to trust, but you're pretty sure everyone is motivated by money. The acting is great all around. But what makes this one stand out is a script that blessedly actually makes sense and a wonderful soundtrack by Piero Piccioni! Go into it knowing this one is a slow burn psychological thriller, and you'll have a much better time :)

After a lovely animated credits sequence, we are plunged into the unhappy married life of Ruth and Miguel. I thought at first that they were unhappy because their mansion on the coast with a private beach, butler and cook wasn't big and expensive enough, or maybe their open top sports car weren't up to date, but I was wrong. Ruth just doesn't love Miguel no more, and she tells him so, also saying "Oh, by the way, my new lover is moving in, he's played by Jean Sorel as well." So Jean moves in and we get a fairly long sequence of these two in love – rolling about the beach, water skiing, painting ceramic dishes, snogging while Jean hangs upside down from a tree. Jean even buys Ruth a pet swan which makes for some ridiculous visuals. It should be noted here that this film is lush looking even by the usual high standards of this genre – Jean takes Ruth to this nightclub and we get dazzled by the garish colour schemes, and an early shot of a disco ball! Around this point Jean's friend Roland also shows up and starts making eyes at Ruth, some lady (whom I initially thought was Miguel in drag, which means I've been watching too many of these films), moves in next door and keeps spying on everyone, and someone starts trying to kill Ruth! First her brakes don't work on her car, then someone drains all the fuel out of her SCUBA diving gear. She's naturally inclined to think that Miguel is responsible for this, and it doesn't help when he turns up shortly after this, but when she accidentally overhears a couple of characters discussing the rest of the plot in great detail, your left wondering what direction the plot is going to take, seeing this happens only forty minutes into the film. Did you get any onya? This film is very much in the style of those late sixties gialli starring Jean Sorel and/or Carroll Baker, but with a total overdose of visual style and weird camera angles. Plus, when have you ever seen Jean Sorel chase a swan around while wearing a daft mask. Please not however there is scarcely a drop of blood in this one but if you're a sleaze fan you might want to hang about to the last fifteen minutes. Didn't need to see a guy harpoon an octopus though.

Saw this under the title of 'The Fox With A Velvet Tail' which in the context of the film doesn't make any sense. There is a dog and a swan but not a fox. A woman leaves her husband to go frolicking at a seaside villa with her current lover. Then after a while things start to happen of a sinister nature. After a while indeed as the first part is very slow until things start to liven up in the middle promisingly. But the promise is unfulfilled and the last part gets a bit silly until the unsatisfactory ending. It all looks beautiful on the screen and the acting is decent but the script doesn't know where it is going. When one ignores the story and looks at the scenery then one isn't that engaged with the film, which I wasn't a lot of the time. The swan is lovely though.

April 2021 Unusally for me, i hadnt seen this giallo until a couple of years ago, i have already seen my favourite giallos 30 or 40 times, but i was just watching this for the 3rd time the other day. 1st time, i wasn't really sure i thought much of it, then with the 2nd viewing it was definitely a keeper and the 3rd viewing suddenly this is a really good giallo. I think the only disappointment is the lead actress is not really an established gaillo actress, such as Edwige Fenech or Barbara Bouchet or Anita Strindberg, so i could just care about her a little bit more. Still its a very good giallo 9 out of 10.