As a train passes through a tunnel, a woman is murdered in a seating compartment. There are five other passengers in the compartment, so the police have several suspects. The police seem to be focusing on one man – a photographer named Luciano Morelli (Leonard Mann). It was his letter opener / bookmark used in the murder. To clear his name, he decides to try to unmask the killer. Also, the murderer dropped a pair of gloves on the train and one of the passengers decides to blackmail the killer. Not a wise move. As the gloves change hands, the body count goes up. Let's take Death Steps in the Dark and compare it with a standard giallo checklist: a black gloved killer – yes, straight razor – yes, nudity – yes, copious amounts of blood – yes, violent deaths – yes, someone other than the police doing most of the investigation – yes, close-ups of eyeballs – yes (what's up with all the eyeballs in these films), J&B – yes, European locations – yes, comedy – huh? Death Steps in the Dark is the only purposefully comedic giallo that I can remember seeing. From what I've read around the internet, I know the comedy elements put some people off. Initially, I thought I'd dislike it too, but, it started to grow on me. The scenes with the ditsy model, Ingrid, or the safe-cracking in the finale were very funny. For me, the contrast between the comedy and the brutal murders really made the movie that much more effective. I'm not saying that I want comedy in all my gialli, but it did make for an interesting change of pace. Other than the strange, but interesting, inclusion of comedy, the rest is what you'd expect from an above average giallo. The acting is good. Both Mann and American actor Robert Webber give solid performances. The film has a nice flow to it thanks in large part to director Maurizio Pradeaux. For me, Death Steps in the Dark is a much better, more enjoyable film than Pradeaux's better known Death Carries a Cane. The cinematography is quite nice, with everything from vibrant colors and to well shot night scenes. The deaths are as brutal as any you'll see in a giallo. The blood has that unrealistic bright red tone to it that I always associate with these films. Finally, the locations are gorgeous. Here, we're treated to Greece instead of the usual Italy. My biggest complaint is with the ending. Like a lot of gialli, it's rushed and doesn't really feel well thought out. If you're paying attention, it's not hard to spot the real killer among the five suspects. Hint: Focus on the one you learn the least about.

Quite ludicrous but bright and breezy enough to be likable this is, wait for it - a comic giallo. I know, obviously, we are on dangerous territory straight away because, what with all the twists and turns and often daft denouements, gialli, are sometimes laughable enough. Yet here we have a particularly complicated one, albeit with simple enough start, Agatha Christie style with six people in a railway carriage, light goes out, one dies, who dunnit? But this is complicated by the fact that one gets involved in blackmail and then maybe another and there are characters chasing characters, we are struggling to keep up only for the characters to start making jokes (sometimes amusing, sometimes not). On the positive side, it looks tremendous, great costumes and furnishings with the girls not afraid to slip off their clothes, the killings are fairly gory and the score keeps things bobbing along as the cast seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves. Just wish I had as much fun watching.

The giallo has since the genre began employed humour, from at least the time of Bava's The Girl Who Knew Too Much spots of comedy have leavened the intrigue and stylised violence. Not a bad thing either in my book, gialli operate in a realm outside of normal human experience and to pursue their concerns with deathly seriousness is not always the best approach. Still, there aren't many substantially comic gialli, perhaps because the earthy nature of a lot of Euro exploitation comedy of the time was ill fitting with the rarefied nature of the giallo. Death Steps In The Dark is an example of a substantially humorous giallo and it actually works out pretty nicely, while never especially funny the film carries its humour with an unforced daftness that is a little charming, and only grating in a short sequence of the hero in drag. Then again I've never been a fan of drag humour and others may think more of it. The general plotting is serious stuff and fairly convoluted, whilst travelling through a tunnel the lights go out in a train and a nun is murdered, suspicion falls on fashion photographer Luciano and he must prove is innocence, murder and intrigue continuing all the while. Maurizio Pradeaux of the similarly lesser seen Death Carries A Cane directs here, bringing style and colour, the pace is quick and there are some memorable moments including a use of defiantly unerotic ultra close up during a sex scene that could pass for one of Jesus Franco's craziest dalliances and a particularly fine murder with nice bloodshed. The suspense scenes are for the most part taken seriously with good use of killer POV shooting, and while never especially gory the kills get a bit of the red stuff flowing, satisfying enough in a film like this where the tone is lighter and the emphasis not so much on shocks. Acting is generally decent, Leonard Mann sympathetic as the confused and somewhat frazzled hero, Vera Krouska a delight as his dim witted girlfriend and Robert Webber suitably dry as a police inspector just trying to get the job done, despite plot convolutions, idiots around him and heartburn. The Riz Ortolani score is solid too, has a smooth and romantic feel to it that works with the surroundings and general style. There are a couple of drawbacks here, one easy to point out and one less so, but they conspire to bring the film down a few notches. Though often amusing the humour is pretty basic and tends towards sexism, it may all be in good fun but the lack of sophistication is pretty glaring. And the explanation for events is based on information that doesn't appear anywhere in the prior proceedings, the film lays clues as to its killer, but the ultimate explanation is pretty left-field and its a bit of a downer that it wasn't hinted at earlier, it feels a bit of a cheat. Still for the most part this is fun stuff and giallo completists could do worse than check it out.

Personally I don't think horror fanatics are people without a sense of humor. We're merely just finicky about our humor and particularly skeptical when it comes to horror movies that simultaneously attempt to be comical. Horror-comedies customarily suck, and the Italian Giallo most certainly isn't a sub genre that lends itself for humorous situations, because basically these movies handle about vile and sadistic murders committed by perverted individuals with preposterous motives. The only directors that dared to insert jokes and goofy situational humor into their Gialli were acclaimed and experienced veterans, namely Dario Argento ("Four Flies on Grey Velvet") and Sergio Martino ("Suspected Death of a Minor"). Maurizio Pradeaux is fairly unknown in the Giallo industry and yet "Death Steps in the Dark"; his second Giallo effort after "Death Carries a Cane" (which I haven't seen yet), shamelessly blends the accustomed ingredients of the sub genre with downright absurd stereotypes and even sheer slapstick. By no means is this a terrible film, but it certainly ain't easy to convince people there actually is a compelling and thrilling whodunit premise hidden between all the ridicule dialogs and dumb blond jokes.As said, the plot is rudimentary Giallo material. Six people sit together in one compartment on the Istanbul-Athens express, seemingly minding their own business, yet when the train comes out of a dark tunnel suddenly only five of them are still breathing. A young nervous woman has been murdered and a young photographer promptly becomes the main suspect because the victim got stabbed with his letter opener. Another train passenger witnessed something peculiar but, instead of alarming the police, he and his girlfriend prefer to blackmail the killer resulting in – thank God – a much higher body count. The police investigation moves too slow, and in order to clear his name Luciano flees and starts his own private search for the culprit, along with his extremely dim-witted Swedish girlfriend and a female amateur safe-cracker. Pradeaux clearly opted for exaggeratedly foolish comedy instead of tension-building and an atmosphere of disturbance. Perhaps because the Giallo was already old news in 1977 and he single-handedly wanted to introduce something different? Or maybe because he thinks laughter and thrills form a better combination than just thrills and more thrills? Fact remains that a lot (and I do mean a LOT) of potentially great suspense sequences are prematurely interrupted with dumb remarks and lame gags. Luckily our oddly ambitious director left the gory and bloodshed intact. "Death Steps in the Dark" contains quite a likable amount of vicious murders committed with a razor, so you can imagine the mess that makes.As for the climax and revelation of the killer's identity: (warning! Here be major spoilers) nice try but you definitely don't need to be a Giallo-expert in order to predict the outcome. It's just a matter of basic elimination. There are five suspects with an equal chance of being the culprit. The script subsequently draws portraits and gives background information on four of them, yet one of them remains a mystery… As if the writer is afraid to accidentally reveal too much about him/her. It's too simple, really. Some characters are just too dumb to commit murders, others behave so exaggeratedly suspicious they can't possibly be the killer and one constantly remains on the background. Then who's the killer?