Another gorgeous looking film with plenty of ridiculous scenes, laugh out loud stuff that no one would get away with these days, a few bare bums and a complex plot. Not much in way of violence mind you. And it's long – damn long!We start off with a guy on a train getting his throated slashed by a balaclava wearing killer with blue eyes, then cut to the guy's daughter. Her name is Nicole and she's a stripper in Paris who is not averse to blacking up and donning a tight afro wig for the delectation of her audience (one of many 'huh?' scenes throughout the film). Seems like her father was involved in some diamond heist and the killer seems to think she might have them (he tells her this via one of those electronic voice box things while threatening her with a scalpel. Nicole needs to get away from it all so it's lucky that English businessman Frank Wolff offers to take her away to England (Spain, really).Once in England (Spain) Frank takes her to his love nest on the coast in a town that isn't far removed from Royston Vasey (not a stretch as Mark Gatiss is a fan of the giallo). People keep staring at her, especially Mallory, played by weirdo-for-hire Luciano Rossi, only this time he has a wooden hand for no reason! There's also some guy spying on Nicole and Frank while they are at it (you really should close the curtains) – Frank must really be turned on by women messily eating grilled fish! That fish of course bought from another weirdo who may hold the key to the killings! "I'll have a couple of red herrings today mate."What killings, however? Well, after making everyone involved look like a suspect, someone bursts in on Frank while he's doing eye surgery and shoots him, but then shortly afterward Nicole ends up dead in the sea. Frank turns out okay, but who's shooting him and why does his wife look so much like Nicole that I thought she'd faked her own death and how did Nicole's boyfriend get over to England (Spain)? And what's with the blue contact lenses?Plenty of twists in this one and there's a particularly hilarious scene later in the film involving Luciano Rossi, but the film is almost two hours long! Followed by two other 'Death' films by the same director: Death Walks At Midnight and Death Walks Like An Egyptian.

On the set of The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Beyond Suspicion (1969), redheaded Andalusian b-goddess Nieves Navarro had easily stolen the show from leading lady Dagmar Lassander – and the heart of first-time director Luciano Ercoli. Two years later, he made her the star of Death Walks on High Heels, the first half hour an extended (and highly exploitative) declaration of love to the stunning beauty and her ravishing assets; see Navarro with her thighs wide open in the taxi scene right at the beginning, the gorgeous strip sequence soon after, and certainly Miss Temptation 1972 doing her toenails – a ball for foot fetishists for sure, the superb soundtrack by Stelvio Cipriani serving as the sonic seducer. Sadly, the movie also has a script, penned by the Man with the Steal Claw, Ernesto Gastaldi, as usual an insipid whodunit proving once again that the often reveled "giallo" was nothing but the spaghetti variation of the reeking German Edgar Wallace "Krimis", the bratwurst smell suppressed with some squirts of rosso sauce. As a devout Catholic, Ercoli very well knew that the profane could only be dispelled by the sacred, and that's why Navarro made the difference: A work of unadulterated worship, High Heels leads directly to the inner sanctum of the Holy Church of Nieves.

(This review is of the box set of two Luciano Ercoli films, DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS and DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT) This box set from Arrow Film combines two films by director Luciano Ercoli, an Italian director with little output in that role and only double that as a producer. While his output wasn't significant the quality of these two films shows much potential and the fact that had he chosen to do more he would have left a larger legacy behind for others to follow. As it is, both films offer well-made giallo films that fans of the genre will want to add to their collections.The first of the two is DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS and is the better of the two films. The film stars the director's wife Nieves Navarro as Nicole Rochard, a well-known and much sought after striptease artists in France. Nicole's father was a renowned jewel thief and when he's killed someone calls her asking if she has his last score, something she knows nothing about.A fan of Nicole's, Dr. Robert Matthews, attends nearly every performance she has no matter where she's working. After Nicole has an argument with her boyfriend over his drinking due being jealous of her success, she finds friendship and love in the arms of Matthews. After a quick romance heads home to England and she accompanies him. He sets her up in a house in the country, a place his wife knows nothing about. With promises of leaving her to set up his own practice, things begin to happen.Murders of various side characters occur with startling frequency. An attack on Matthews happens, his wife the main suspect. Nicole's boyfriend shows in England trying to find her. And a twist near the middle of the film comes completely out of nowhere and sends the film off in a new direction. While this may seem like a brief synopsis to reveal any more would be to spoil the surprises the film has in store.The movie works best as a mystery with clues being presented for the viewer to decipher but all doesn't become clear until the end of the film. What makes it work is that they all make sense and were there for the most part to be seen throughout the film. What makes it even better is the fact that even the most jaded mystery fan might have a difficult time knowing who did what to whom, something few mysteries can accomplish these days.The second film, DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT, once again stars Navarro this time as super model Valentina. Valentina tries an experimental drug in the presence of a reporter friend and while on the drug sees images of a murder taking place. The fact she took the drug ends up in his article and she loses work because of it. It also discusses her visions and suddenly she begins seeing the murderer tracking her. When he makes an attempt on her life, only she has seen him. Is there someone out to kill her or is she simply hallucinating it all? Characters appear for no reason with no background only to take center stage at various parts of the film. As viewers even we aren't sure of Valentina's mental state at first. While the film starts with a decent premise it becomes a "are you kidding me" film as stupid decisions are made from start to finish. An example is, after having been attacked by someone she doesn't see, Valentina is asked to get in the car of a woman she has never met to talk and go for a drive. Not the smartest thing to do. When the woman abandons her in a mental institution where the convicted killer of the victim she saw in her drugged state is at (who is also supposed to be the sister of this woman), Valentina leaves only to go with the same woman to another location later on. With enough moments like this the movie became frustrating for me as a viewer.But good or bad the main thing here is that two movies that may have been lost to the world have been rediscovered and brought out in the best possible transfer possible. Arrow once again goes above and beyond to deliver a package that fans will clamor to and others may want to see to get a taste of what giallo is all about, if for no other reason than the first film. Both display great cinematography that I've not come to expect in Italian made films from the time. Another plus.Keeping in mind that this is an Arrow Films release you know there will be plenty of extras on hand for those that enjoy them. Included in the box set is a limited edition 60 page booklet with writings from authors Danny Shipka, Troy Howarth and Leonard Jacobs, all non-fiction writers about the giallo genre, that includes stills and posters for both films. For the first film you'll find extras like an introduction by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, an archive interview with Ercoli and Navarro, an interview with Gastaldi, an interview with composer Stelvio Cipriani, the original Italian trailer and an English trailer. On the second film you'll find another introduction by Gastaldi, an audio commentary track by film critic Tim Lucas, and extended TV version, an interview with Gastaldi and a visual essay by Michael Mackenzie discussing the collaborations between Ercoli and Navarro.Fans of giallo will find this a must have. The same for collectors of Italian cinema of that time period. Fortunately for both, Arrow Film has done a marvelous job on this one, making it one worth owning as well as worth watching for those new to the genre.

Back in the early seventies, during the absolute most glorious years for the Giallo sub genre, I guess it must have been some sort of intense and obsessive competition between the eminent Italian directors to come up with the most exaggeratedly convoluted plots. These movies distinguish themselves from the other sub genres in horror by continuously misleading the audience when it comes to the revealing the identity of a sadistic and (usually) masked serial killer, who barbarically slaughters gorgeous and preferably naked ladies with sharp & shining weaponry. If the directors really did try to surpass each other with complex plot-structures and far-fetched denouements, then I bet Luciano Ercoli was one of the genuine winners of that game! He only made three Gialli and, even though they're not as famous as the works of Dario Argento or Sergio Martino, his films easily rank among the most twisted and extraordinary genre efforts I've ever seen. Ercoli's movies can be recognized by their awkward and flamboyant titles already. Fans of Italian cult-cinema from the 70's are most likely to be intrigued by titles like "Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion", "Death Walks at Midnight" and – of course – "Death Walks in High Heels". Such appealing titles already hint at eventful crime-stories, and by God does Luciano Ercole ever deliver! "Death Walks in High Heels" is easily my personal favorite of his, as it's a tasteful and well-filled Giallo dish containing all the right ingredients such as graphic murders, beautiful music, suspense and copious amounts of female nudity, demented characters and crazy red herrings. The story opens with the brutal stabbing of a guy with an eye-patch who's fleeing from Paris on the night train. We quickly learn the victim was a notorious criminal who recently stole a valuable loot of diamonds from a bank safe in Paris. When his assailant can't find the diamonds in the luggage, he begins to stalk and threaten the jewel thief's beautiful daughter Nicole, who works as a popular striptease dancer in several Parisian nightclubs. Nicole suspects her drunkard boyfriend to be the culprit and she promptly flees to a little British seaside village with an eye-surgeon she hardly knows. The two enjoy a vivid and highly sexual relationship for a short while, but Nicole's aggressor followed her to England and the death toll rapidly increases. The already fascinating plot of "Death Walks on High Heels" even gets more compelling when a couple of important characters perish and the witty inspectors of Scotland Yard interfere with the investigation.What a thoroughly engaging and exhilarating crime/thriller! The script doesn't always make sense and I counted at least three major holes/errors in the plot (situations that are pretty much impossible given the explanation during the climax), but "Death Walks in High Heels" is a tremendously entertaining film that you won't mind watching several times without ever getting bored. Luciano Ercoli cleverly sustains a fast pacing as well as a high tension-level, mainly by constantly switching locations, introducing new yet fundamental supportive characters and even implementing insightful flashbacks. The film starts in Paris with only three main characters, yet during the climax in the little English village there suddenly is nearly a dozen people involved in the mystery and several others have already died. Granted, this isn't the most violent Giallo available on the market (although one particular killing sequence is effectively nauseating), but the lack in bloodshed is widely compensated by the insane number of red herrings and ingenious little details to improve the mystery. Ernesto Gastaldi, whose pen literally was a nearly inexhaustible source for Italian cult classics, largely scripted "Death Walks in High Heels" and this also partly explains the film's success. The photography is stunning and extremely stylish, Stelvio Cipriani's score is more than enchanting and – last but not least – the acting performances are very pleasing. Susan Scott is an adequate actress and, moreover, a truly ravishing woman! She's probably the only living female creature who can turn you on simply by eating raw pieces of fish. No kidding! The others (male) actors do a fine job too, including Frank Wolff, Simon Andreu and the always suspicious-looking Luciano Rossi. The absolute best role is for Carlo Gentilli, as the cynic Scotland Yard inspector Baxter. Priority-viewing for the rapidly increasing number of Giallo-fans.