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.

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.

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.

Any Giallo fan will quickly be able to pin down where the inspiration for this film comes from, as it's essentially an amalgamation of the central plots used in Umberto Lenzi's Giallo's Orgasmo and A Quiet Place to Kill. The film even stars Analía Gadé - who looks and acts a lot like Carroll Baker, the star of the Lenzi films. Personally, I am a fan of Lenzi's A Quiet Place to Kill; but not of Orgasmo, and I'm not a big fan of this movie either as aside from a big rip off of the earlier films, it's also a trifle dull and that's not good considering the only reason I watch Giallo is for the entertainment value. The plot focuses on Ruth. Ruth has split from a husband and taken a man named Paul as her lover. The pair retreats to her villa for a bit of fun, and shortly thereafter; Paul's friend Michel turns up. It's not long before Ruth is unfortunate enough to be involved in a couple of accidents; her brakes fail while driving and her oxygen tank runs out while diving. Ruth starts to become paranoid and believes that Paul may be trying to kill her.In The Eye of the Hurricane benefits from some very good production values and a more than capable cast. Analía Gadé is good in the lead role, and credit must be given to her because the script gives the viewer no reason to get behind her moping character. She stars alongside Jean Sorel, who is suave and just a bit sinister. The film is billed as an erotic thriller, and this really couldn't be further from the truth. Analía Gadé is not particularly sexy anyway, and the plot doesn't allow for much eroticism. Obviously this description was put in place to help sell the film; but it gives the viewer the wrong impression. Director José María Forqué does well with the location shots; the sun baked central setting provides just the right sort of atmosphere for a film like this. The paranoia stemming from the central situation is the film's strongest element and it's fairly well done; the central character's handling of finding out about her lover's plot is interesting and pretty original. Overall, I wouldn't rate this film too highly in the grand scheme of the Giallo genre; it's worth a look for hardcore fans but otherwise it's better to stick to Lenzi's similar and more freely available pair.