Apart from good photography in nice locations this is rather dull. It has the usual giallo touches but halfway through it was easy to work who was the killer. Having the leading player not able to speak because of a childhood trauma does get wearing after a while though that's no fault of Carroll Baker, looking gorgeous as usual. The murders are tame and the music score by Marcello Giombini is forgettable.Near the climax there is a bit where a Donald Duck toy is kicked down some stairs. It is a toy that moves on its own and it tumbles down the stairs, lands upright and carries on moving and I thought, I wonder how many takes that took to get it right? So basically the film wasn't engaging one in the right way even so near the denouement. Umberto Lenzi directed all kinds of films, some good, some bad, some indifferent, some striking. This one's passable.

Umberto Lenzi was a more than prolific giallo director during the late sixties/early seventies and he undoubtedly delivered great contributions to this wondrous sub-genre, with legendary titles like "Paranoia", "Orgasmo", "So Sweet, So Perverse", "Oasis of Fear", "Eyeball" and "Spasmo". His finest giallo accomplishment – in my humble opinion, at least – was "Seven Blood-stained Orchids" in 1972, and in that same glorious year he also made the lesser known but definitely worthwhile "Knife of Ice". This film describes itself pretty much as a textbook giallo, meaning it features a typical heroine in distress (Lenzi regular Caroll Baker), a few vicious knife murders (although less than usual), several conspicuous male suspects, misleading clues and red herrings all around and a far- fetched twist ending that is simultaneously preposterous and ingenious. When she was only a young teenager, Martha Caldwell lost both her parents in a disastrous train accident and witnessing this tragedy caused her to be mute ever since. She's now a gorgeous woman in her mid-twenties living with her uncle Ralph and awaiting the arrival of her successful niece Jenny, who coming over to visit her. On her first night already, though, Jenny is murdered in the garage. The police discover the lair of a satanic cult in the area, so maybe the killer is a devil worshiper, but also Martha's creepy chauffeur Marcos behaves increasingly suspicious. When the housemaid Annie also gets murdered in the area, it becomes clear that the killer is targeting Martha as the next victim. "Knife of Ice", which is – by the way – a fairly irrelevant title taken from a quote by Edgar Allen Poe, benefices from a steady pacing and a solidly written screenplay with a few bright ideas. The lead actress being mute isn't exactly new, but it provides an additional dimension for suspense, since she can't scream for help or testify to the police. The satanic cult aspect is relatively new for a giallo-thriller, which to me proves all the more that Lenzi is one of the principal founders of the sub genre. The low body count and the quasi gore- free depiction of the murders are rather disappointing, especially since we all know that Lenzi made several of the goriest Italian horror films in history. The most gruesome and shocking footage is actually during the opening credits, which is set in Spanish bull- fighting arena. Animal rights activists should probably fast-forward the opening credits, since the fate of the poor bull is illustrated quite graphically and mercilessly.

Carroll Baker continues her long streak of Euro exploitation/horror flicks with this typically convoluted Spanish/Italian giallo from director Umberto Lenzi, who had previously directed the actress in three films in the same genre - ORGASMO/PARANOIA (1968), A QUIET PLACE TO KILL (1969) and SO SWEET... SO PERVERSE (1969). Unfortunately, the film isn't particularly stylish, much of the dialogue is downright atrocious, the played-out plot line offers next to nothing of interest and the pacing is lethargic. It tries to function as a murder- mystery and even throws in some sloppy and confusing flashbacks (that ultimately are pointless), but gives absolutely no clue as to who the killer actually is when it's revealed; just another "let's pull this out of a hat" type of revelation that personally irritates me. This is also sorely lacking in exploitation elements that could have helped make it more watchable. There's no gore (all of the murders are off-screen), no sex, no nudity, no notable kill scenes and almost no suspense to speak of. Combine that with a lousy screenplay and anonymous direction and you have a film that isn't going to appeal to anyone other than the most dedicated of giallo fans. And that's really too bad, as it's a handsomely photographed production set in some beautiful looking, foggy Spanish village. Now I do appreciate the picturesque outdoor Spanish locales sometimes used in this film, but when it fails at basically everything else, it's hard to recommend it for a few scenic shots of a place you'd like to take a vacation.Baker stars as Martha Caldwell, a woman who saw her parents die in a train wreck when she was a teen and has been mute every since that traumatic event fifteen years ago. She has to overcome her fears to meet her attractive professional singer cousin Jenny Ascot ("Evelyn Stewart"/Ida Galli), who's just arrived in town for a visit, at a train station. The two go back to the country manor that Martha shares with her uncle Ralph (George Rigaud), who has an interest in demonology and the occult. Later, they throw a birthday party for a young girl in the village. Jenny is stabbed to death in the garage and her body is hidden under a car later that night. Martha discovers it the next day and the police are soon doing their usual investigation. Turns out another young woman had been murdered not too long ago and her body was tossed in a ditch. The police think there may be a sex killer on the loose, but they also realize that whoever murdered Jenny had to be one of the party guests because a security system would have prevented it. Well, unless someone else happened to sneak in... You know, such as a homeless, long-haired, trench-coat-wearing, morphine-addicted devil-worshipping hippie who apparently borrowed the same contact lenses worn by Ivan Rassimov in ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK and seems to pop up out of nowhere at all the right incriminating moments. Since he's obviously filling the too-obvious red herring position, let's get back to the real suspects in this case...So who was at the party that could have killed Jenny? Let's see... Aside from Martha, her uncle and the little girl, there's Martha's doctor (oh-so-bland Alan Scott), an exotic looking female acquaintance (Silvia Monelli), a sinister chauffeur (Eduardo Fajarado), a maid (Olga Gherardi) and a priest (José Marco). Which one is responsible? There's also a heavy concentration on things having to do with Satanism. The Uncle is obsessed with it (and seems to have chosen his house because it's located next to an old cemetery), one of the flashbacks is of Jenny buying an occult book, the hippie wears a goat head necklace and is a Satanist and there's a goat head painted on a tree in blood at one of the murder scenes... And all that really has nothing to do with the storyline whatsoever, doesn't play into any motive and seems to have been added almost as an afterthought. There's also a bullfighting scene repeated endlessly, a dead kitten, some truly inept police procedural (only some of which can be explained by the finale), a Snoopy necklace and a cool Donald Duck electronic toy. That last thing was probably my favorite bit in the entire movie.Baker's performance is decent. Rest of the cast (also including horror and giallo regular Franco Fantasia as the detective on the case) is so-so. The music score is fair, but not memorable in the least. Kind of like the rest of this film. The version I saw was under the title KNIFE OF ICE and is a good-looking, dubbed, widescreen print.

This early 70's giallo by Umberto Lenzi is certainly among the best in his filmography and also in the whole genre. Personally I think Lenzi's best films are the funny cartoon-turned-film Kriminal, the stylish giallo Seven Blood-Stained Orchids, the explosive Napoli violenta and this. In the eighties he did plenty of film trash in form of Eaten Alive, Hitcher in the Dark or Black Demons, all of which are ripping something off and/or very dull and slow moving. Knife of Ice came when the giallo boom was at its hottest and the result is convincing.Technically the film is superb, containing great cinematography in the beginning when we learn about the main character's trauma towards trains. From this point on, Lenzi shows us his ability to benefit the widescreen and, for example, the bicycle ride near the forest is genuinely beautiful! This scene also shows Lenzi's ability to build suspense, very slowly but meaningfully. After all, there aren't so many murders in the whole film, only the suspense circulating around the murderer's identity.One suspect is a devil worshipper which brings new aspects to the mystery. Since the final scene takes place in a church, one can wonder if Lenzi wanted to comment on something, maybe the hypocritical morale of church and superstition. The main character (Carrol Baker) is mute which demands a lot from her face and eyes. The actress works very well, giving us a believable performance circulating around the emotions of fear and mental pain. The other actors are good, too. The finally, however, may not give too positive a sight about female sex since they all are expressed rather negatively in the film, one way or another. Still this is easily among the most noteworthy in the genre, not as bloody as the Argento films, for example, but equally suspenseful and visually also interesting.