Death Walks at Midnight (1972)

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

For so many this is pure cult and now that the Blu ray release is on it's way it was time to go pick it up. I must admit that I'm not a big fan of the Giallo genre. Some are stupid and are clocking in at two hours, way too long. And the script itself is sometimes hilarious as I mean, the conversations. Let this on be a perfect example of it. The conversations were so dull that I lost track of the story and laughed it out sometimes. There isn't that much going on, oh yes, the glove is there, and the killings are all linked and you will be fooled and you do see the killer in the first minute you think but overall this is the Giallo I don't like. I'm more fan of the sleazy Giallo's but most of them aren't released and are still OOP. If you want an example, Giallo A Venezia (1979). But Dario Argento I can dig too. Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 0,5/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

During an experiment with a hallucinogenic drug, model Valentina (Nieves Navarro aka Susan Scott) sees a woman being brutally murdered by a man wearing a spiked iron glove. But when no body is found, she can't seem to get anyone to believe her story. She begins to see the killer everywhere she goes. She's sure her life is in danger and is unable to convince her friends or the police that she's being stalked by a vicious murderer.I had high hopes for Death Walks at Midnight having just seen and enjoyed Death Walks on High Heels. The two movies have so much in common that it seemed like a sure thing. While not being a sequel, the two movies share a director, a number of actors, and a convoluted plot. But while I found the twists and turns in Death Walks on High Heels a joy to watch unfold, Death Walks at Midnight is a little too convoluted for its own good. Story lines are introduced and almost dropped immediately with no resolution. These story tangents have nothing to do with the plot other than muddying the waters. Characters are introduced with no background information and almost immediately forgotten about. Too many of the characters never seem "real" or fleshed-out and are not effective red herrings. And, I almost get the feeling that much of the movie is weird for the sake of being weird. There's no real purpose for many of the unusual events, people, places, etc. in Death Walks at Midnight other than adding some bizarreness to the proceedings. For example, why even have the asylum scene? It adds nothing to the film. The problems with the plot are really disappointing because not only did I enjoy the first movie, but Death Walks at Midnight's screenplay was written by Sergio Corbucci. Corbucci directed some of my favorite Spaghetti Westerns. But here, he's written what I'll describe as a spastic script that tries too hard to be different.That's not to say the movie was a total waste of time. There are a number of things I really enjoyed about Death Walks at Midnight. First would have to be Nieves Navarro. As I said when writing about Death Walk on High Heels, Navarro is excellent in this kind of film. She's a natural playing the "Woman in Distress". Navarro has a real, undeniable screen presence. Second would have to be the spiked glove. It's as nasty a murder weapon as you'll see. Finally, I like the overall look of the film. Ercoli had a real eye for some interesting visuals.In the end, I can't wholeheartedly recommend Death Walks at Midnight to anyone other than a die hard Giallo fan. There are far better, more entertaining examples of the genre that might appeal more to the casual fan.

Rather disappointing and overly ambitious giallo that never is as compelling or exhilarating as it looks. Director Luciano Ercoli ("Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion") has several great ideas and a talented eye for cinematographic elegance, but his complex film never really succeeds in delivering genuine frights or commitment with the characters. I, as well as my fellow reviewers on this site, refer to "Death Walks at Midnight" as being a giallo, but I'm not totally sure if that's what it is, in fact. The terrific opening sequences (in which heroine Valentina visions a brutal murder whilst under the influence of a new drug) definitely are giallo-material! Mysterious and violent images of murder, committed with an unusual weapon (in this case, a vile looking spiked glove) and an unfortunate beauty whose life is in danger because she saw too much. Judging by this fantastic intro, it feel like you're about to see a giallo that can easily compete with the best efforts in this superior Italian horror sub genre, like for example the earlier work of Dario Argento (Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat O'Nine Tales), Sergio Martino (Torso, All the Colors of the Dark) and even Mario Bava (The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Blood and Black Lace). But, as the plot evolves further, the film seems to change into a textbook example of yet another typically Italian exploitation sub genre, namely the "Krimi", which is the European equivalent of complex crime/detective stories. As the plot develops more, Valentina finds herself caught in a web of drug-traffic, smuggling and double-crossing and all of a sudden the search for the malevolent killer's identity is put to the background. Bloody murders change into shoot-outs and horror settings like an asylum or a cemetery suddenly become hectic macho-fights on rooftops and overlong chases. The inevitable final result is a semi-giallo without morbidity and/or a semi-krimi without rawness.That being said, I would like to stress that "Death Walks at Midnight" still is worth watching, especially for people who appreciate a more complex and demanding substance. Although it contains too many unnecessary story lines and underdeveloped character-drawings, this film is often beautiful to look at and the camera-work is handled with flair and style. Susan Scott is a rather good actress and capable of carrying an entirely complex structure that revolves around her. She receives good feedback from the congested supportive cast. Many little gimmicks and details featuring in this story are so ingenious that it could easily be split over two – or maybe three – separate movies.

Yesterday I watched a couple of giallos by Luciano Ercoli and starring Nieves Navarro (billed as Susan Scott) and Simon Andreu (of THE BLOOD-SPATTERED BRIDE [1972]) - DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS (1971) and DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT (1972). I was pleasantly surprised by the former but hugely disappointed by the latter; anyway, here's my take on both films.The meaninglessly-titled follow-up, DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT, was pretty silly and tedious by comparison making use of dreary plot mechanics and wasting its two leads - Navarro (Scott) and Andreu.The film's most intriguing elements – violent images from the past materializing as drug-induced hallucinations, and the murder method itself (the spiked glove) – are thrown away as red herrings in an attempt to liven up a pretty tired formula crime-thriller, i.e. it's more than just a giallo but, unfortunately in this case, the whole emerges to be a good deal less than the sum of its parts!Unlike DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS, the supporting characters of this one are often sleazeballs and therefore we are never involved in their actions and the motive behind them. A subplot involving a couple of oriental kids is, once again, irrelevant – padding the story for no reason at all – and the almost farcical fight sequence at the climax is not merely out of place but also rather badly staged! The music score (this time around composed by Gianni Ferrio) is OK under the circumstances but still nothing special, in my opinion.I don't think having watched the film panned-and-scanned (as opposed to DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS' original Technsicope format) had anything to do with my low estimation of DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT; actually I'm surprised that Mondo Macabro decided to release this on DVD (albeit in a compromised version, as it is both dubbed in English and cropped!) over its vastly superior – if still basically unremarkable – predecessor which, in view of its plentiful nudity (of which this has none!) and a far more engaging plot, I think would have made for a more popular title!In any case, I'm interested in catching up with more obscure giallos now and, as such, I especially regret having missed out on Sergio Pastore's SETTE SCIALLI DI SETA GIALLA aka CRIMES OF THE BLACK CAT (1972) just a couple of days ago! I also look forward to Blue Underground's 'Giallo Collection Vol. 2' Box Set which, incidentally, should include Luciano Ercoli's FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY UNDER SUSPICION (1970).