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The Joy of giallo

Our podcast about Naschy’s BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL got me thinking about gialli again and thinking specifically about how I got interested in them. It started, I guess, because I'm a huge fan of mystery thrillers in both book and film form. As a young lad my love of Hitchcock's movies fueled my interest in mysteries and every few years something comes along that re-ignites my love. Often it's a newly discovered writer (James Lee Burke, Max Allan Collins, Michael Connolly, Christina Faust, Pete Hamill, etc.) but lately it's become strange niches in film history. My love of Charlie Chan books and films flowered in 1998 when AMC showed many of the old movies in long marathons that I taped. Until the Chan movies began to be released in great DVD sets I would return to those tapes about once a year for the pure pleasure of Warner Oland unraveling a tangled black & white web. Now I explore the DVDs and the copious extras with a big grin on my face. Well, about 16 years ago (just before the Chan obsession kicked in) I discovered the giallo genre of film. For the uninformed, giallo is the Italian word for 'yellow' and because it was the practice in Italy to publish mystery novels with loud yellow covers the color came to be a slang description of the genre. So when Italian filmmakers started turning out lurid murder mysteries in the late 60's they too became known as giallo or (the plural) gialli. I love these movies not just because they are mysteries but because they are so often completely over the top in their desire to keep ahead of the audience. Bizarre clues, nearly forgotten images, half-heard words, childhood drawings and style over substance were often (always?) the rule of the giallo. And if they occasionally flew out of control there was pleasure to be had in that as well. Often bloody and exploitative, the entire genre is often dismissed because of its violent murder set pieces but there's nothing in them that Hitchcock wouldn't have given his left arm to put on screen in the 50’s or 60's. Indeed, the gloriously inventive scenes of murder are the gialli calling card and without at least one crazed scene of this type fans will question its stature in the genre or even its ability to be named part of the genre. The best know are the works of Dario Argento (TENEBRA, BIRD WITH CRYSTAL PLUMMAGE, OPERA, etc.) but dozens of them were made in the 70's and 80's by a slew of directors.


I started hunting down bootlegs of these amazing films years ago spending way more than I ever should have. One of my great joys was stumbling across one unexpectedly and even if the overpriced 3rd generation tape looked like you were seeing the image through oatmeal, it didn't matter. The thrill was there-- usually with a freaking fantastic soundtrack! Needless to say the advent of DVD's has made a lot of the best gialli available in near perfect video form often for much less than I paid for the damned bootlegs. If you’ve never delved into this mad cinema world let me recommend you give them a try. I learned the other day that one of my favorites of the genre is about to be released on Blu-Ray here in the states and I couldn’t be happier. DEEP RED is always the one film I use to demonstrate the best that a giallo can offer and with Blue Underground’s late April release of it in 1080p sharpness I think it might gain even more fans. I’ve mentioned a few others above and I’ll provide links below as well for the curious film nut. Happy hunting!

NaschyCast #13 - FURY OF THE WOLFMAN (1970)

Rarely have we been as confused, flabbergasted and frustrated as we were by FURY OF THE WOLFMAN even though we went into this one with our eyes wide open, knowing full well that Naschy himself hated the film and decried what was done to his script. We weren’t completely surprised but it is still a kick in the head to watch the film ramble itself apart. Trying to figure out what might have been intended is kind of fascinating which probably explains why we babbled for over two hours about what has to be labeled the weakest of the Waldemar Daninksy films. We attempt to understand what the hell is happening as ideas are brought up and dropped, characters slip in and out of the film randomly and crypt orgies are popped indiscriminately throughout the second half. Plant monsters, werewolf sex, Nazi scientists and the question of crazy love possibly being ‘true love’ are all topics that we discuss as we navigate this muddled misadventure. You'll hear the film start to take its toll on us near the end as our stated goal of mentioning the good things in the movie begins to wear us down. But there is a female werewolf! Strap in and join us if you dare! The email address is naschycast@gmail.com.


Naschycast #13 LINK

Tarzan Poster art

Each of these advertises a Tarzan film I have not yet seen. I feel a jungle prowl coming on in the Bloody Pit!

What I Watched In January

I really packed them in last month. I also kept up my apparent plan to watch films in as many genres as possible too. Whew! Westerns, noirs, science fiction, pirate tales, a Tarzan movie, 1950's horror films, krimis, 1970's TV movies, a Korean mystery and even a musical were all in the DVD player in January. Fun, fun!

The Coen's new version of TRUE GRIT was the best thing I saw theatrically with the fantastic giallo-like BLACK SWAN being pretty damned impressive as well. In the classic film category I finally caught up with THE HEIRESS with the magnificent Olivia de Havilland. This is a great, harsh film that refuses to give you an easy villain to dislike. It shows its stage origins but is so masterfully done that it becomes perfectly cinematic on emotional terms alone. THE PUBLIC ENEMY proves that I have been depriving myself of Cagney's gangster films for far too long. Raw and shocking it's an amazing movie that begs for rewatches at regular intervals. I need to see much more Cagney and soon.

BEFORE I HANG (1940)- 6 (good Karloff chiller)
STOLEN FACE (1952)- 6 (early Hammer noir directed by Terence Fisher)
SHANE (1953)- 8 (excellent if slightly overlong western – deserves its rep)
THE AMAZONS (1973)- 6 (full length cut of Terence Young’s fun peplum)
HIGHLANDER 2 (1991)- 3 (rewatch) (insulting and stupid but as fascinating as a slo-mo car crash)
THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (1944)- 7 (rewatch)
ROBERTA (1935)- 7 (wonderful musical)
CENTURION (2010)- 8 (brutal period action film- too much CGI blood)
FORTUNES OF CAPTAIN BLOOD (1950)- 6 (a good variation on the classic Flynn version)
ARCANA (1972)- 7 (supremely strange but fascinating Guilio Questi film)
CREEPERS (1990)- 2 (amazingly bad- from the makers of TROLL 2)
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS (2010)- 2 (crappy attempt at a family comedy)
BEOWULF (2007)- 4 (good start but a crappy second half and it looks like a video game)
THE BLACK SLEEP (1956)- 5 (OK chiller with an interesting cast)
TRUE GRIT (2010)- 10 (excellent)
THE OXFORD MURDERS (2008)- 7 (fun Spanish made mystery)
THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931)- 8 (Cagney is brilliant)
PHARAOH’S CURSE (1957)- 5 (mildly diverting chiller)
BLAST OF SILENCE (1961)- 6 (interesting noir but the voiceover does not work)
TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD (1966)- 7 (Tarzan in Mexico)
EAGLES OVER LONDON (1969)- 6 (decent Italian made WWII film)
BLACK SWAN (2010)- 8 (ballet madness)
THE HEIRESS (1949)- 9 (excellent drama that overcomes its stage origins)
FURY OF THE WOLFMAN (1972)- 4 (a Naschy mess)
COLD PREY (2006)- 7 (very good slasher)
EYEBORGS (2009)- 6 (solid low budget sci-fi action)
THE SPY WHO LOVED FLOWERS (1966)- 7 (fast, serious Umberto Lenzi Euro-Spy film)
FELLOWSHIP OF THE FROG (1959)- 7 (great little krimi)
THE ZOMBIE WALKS (1968)- 6 (fun color krimi)
THE HUMANOID (1979)- 4 (fun, silly, daft Italian Star Wars rip-off)
MOTHER (2009)- 8 (slow, deliberate Korean tale of love & murder)
GENESIS II (1973)- 5 (goofus failed TV pilot from Gene Roddenberry)
EARTH II (1971) – 4 (dull TV movie)
DESERT WARRIOR (1988)- 2 (awful post-apocalyptic Lou Ferrigno mess)
ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957)- 5 (rewatch) (I love this mess of a film)
BLOOD ON HIS SWORD (1961)- 7 (great French costume drama/swashbuckler a.k.a. THE MIRACLE OF THE WOLVES)
I HATE MY BODY (1974)- 6 (rewatch)

Movie list update

A little over a year ago I posted a list of classic movies that I was ashamed to admit that I hadn't seen. I vowed at the time to watch as many of them as possible during 2010 to further deepen my knowledge of film and broaden my palette. Left to my own devices I will wallow in trashy films for weeks on end with only the occasional 1930s thriller or gangster film or serial thrown in to break things up. I love many types of movies but digging deeply into the various forms of Euro-Trash is what I'll always feel the most desire to do. It was not always so for me, but in the last 15 years or so that is the turn my viewing habits have taken - witness this blog! So I set out to tackle about one from my list of shame each month and.... I almost succeeded. Not that I finished the list---

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949)
SHANE (1953)
GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)
42ND STREET (1933)
THE LADY EVE (1941)
NASHVILLE (1975)
SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)
GIANT (1956)
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)
BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945)
LA STRADA (1954)
8 ½ (1963)

...but I was able to knock a few off of it. Unsurprisingly I enjoyed each one even if I didn't find all of them to great movies. GONE WITH THE WIND was an overlong slog through a nasty woman's life redeemed by magnificent Hollywood filmmaking and some excellent performances. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO was likewise too long but its pleasures were fascinating and overall I liked it more than I thought I would. 8 ½ was amazing and just as mesmerizing and amusing as its reputation had lead me to expect. THE LADY EVE is a truly funny and charming movie that I know I'll return to in the future when I need a good laugh. MIGHTY JOE YOUNG was a good, solid film but easily one of the lesser of its type. SHANE was a standout western that really is a classic deserving of the accolades heaped on it over the years.

But of all the films I checked off this list the best was the wonderfully beautiful, bittersweet BRIEF ENCOUNTER. I was not prepared for such a touching story and I'm not too proud to admit that it had me welling up with tears on more than one occasion. A simply brilliant movie I can only encourage anyone interested in good movies to watch and see what good dialog, nuanced acting and sharp direction can create.

So the movies that are left on my list are--

ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)
42ND STREET (1933)
NASHVILLE (1975)
SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)
GIANT (1956)
LA STRADA (1954)

..and to that I want to add THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP, ARMY OF SHADOWS, EL CID and ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS. I don't know how many of them I'll see in 2011 but I promise to try to get to them all.

The United Kingdom Explained

I have to admit that this video has nothing to do with films other than being a film itself. The reason I'm posting it here is that it neatly explains the differences between England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom and I found it be pretty damned fun. To see the entire image double click to enlarge it and it will fill your magic computer screen.