What's immediately noticeable to the viewer is that definitely isn't your run-of-the-mill giallo. For a start, the film has little nudity and there's nary a black-gloved killer to be seen. Perhaps most obvious of all is the singular lack of a body count; there are no brutal murders here, no sinister knifings, in fact the film feels quite wholesome. Instead this is a giallo that focuses around a mysterious blackmailer and has one of those "is she mad or isn't she?" plot evolutions in which the heroine is being secretly terrorised only to have nobody, including her husband, believing her.Much of the film centres on Dagmar Lassander's character, a wife forced into sex with a stranger who then realises that she's been tricked. Unfortunately, Lassander is the weakest actor in the film, and she's pretty unconvincing in the emoting scenes. Far better is the sexy, sassy Susan Scott, who unfortunately is relegated to a minor supporting role as the female friend. Swap these two around and the film would have been far better.Director Luciano Ercoli delivers the proceedings from a script by giallo veteran Ernesto Gastaldi; thankfully, the plotting is more convincing than most entries in the genre and the benefit of a decent English dub makes things easier to bear. What the film lacks in action it makes up for in style; this movie shows the height of (dated) fashion, with the women frequently donning blonde wigs and hanging around in local haunts. A swinging, annoyingly catchy score by Ennio Morricone adds to the experience. The rest of the cast is good, with Pier Paolo Capponi as the loving husband, veteran Osvaldo Genazzani as the detective and Simon Andreu as the suitably sleazy villain of the piece. Ladling on the mystery and suspense throughout while also investing proceedings with a typically sexual flavour, Ercoli's first film as a director is a low budget success.

"The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion" has undoubtedly its assets: the remarkable camera work by cinematographer Alejandro Ulloa, quite meticulously chosen, très chic décors, exquisite sixties fashion, an expertly done soundtrack by Ennio M., and above all the ravishing beauty of Andalusian actress Nieves Navarro who would later marry director Luciano Ercoli. Alas, after a more or less promising first half - sadistic erotomaniac is stalking innocent Italian hausfrau (Dagmar Lassander) -, the script by hackmeister Ernesto Gastaldi is going downhill, and fast - including a "surprise" ending even more devastatingly silly than other Gastaldi baloney à la "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" or "The Case of the Scorpion's Tail". In the DVD extra feature, round-faced and highly likable Gastaldi grins knowingly: he sure sold a lot of merda.

The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (let's shorten that to Forbidden Photos for the rest of this write-up) is a stylish Italian thriller full of blackmail and perversity. Forbidden Photos would easily be among the best Gialli I've seen if it weren't for the lack of actual murders and other on-screen mayhem. To be so titillating, Forbidden Photos is in reality restrained, something you don't normally see in this genre. To be so restrained, it's amazing how the story held my attention throughout. And in the end, the convoluted plot and mystery all fit together quite nicely and it all makes sense. The cast is solid with good performances from Dagmar Lassander and Simon Andreu. But, as expected, Susan Scott steals every scene in which she appears. She never looked better or was she more mysterious than in Forbidden Photos. Finally, Forbidden Photos features an interesting score from Ennio Morricone. I went to bed last night with the main theme playing in my head.Other than the minimal extras, Blue Underground's new DVD is very nice. You just don't expect something so obscure (I don't believe that Forbidden Photos was ever released in the U.S. in any form until now) to look this good. From what my untrained eyes could see, the transfer looked flawless. Nice job!

Perhaps the original Italian dialogue is more engaging, but the dubbed English version is pathetically naive and trivial. The story lacks plausibility and the two female leads look so similar to each other that it is difficult to tell them apart. The two male leads are smarmy and remind one of the characters in porn-flick productions of that era, even though this film has essentially no nudity.