|
|
Cold Eyes Of Fear
AKA Desperate Moments
Directed By Enzo G. Castellari
Released: 1971
Starring: Giovanna Ralli, Gianni Garko, Frank Wolff, and Fernando Rey
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Released By Image Entertainment/Redemption 1998
----------------------------------------------------------
One night, Peter Flower (played by Gianni Garko)
brings his date, Anna (Giovanna Ralli), home to his uncle’s house for some
fun. His uncle is Judge Juez Flower (Fernando Rey) who is busy at the
office and won’t be home until late. Peter’s plans are soon spoiled by the
gun-toting Quill (Julián Mateos) who takes he and Anna hostage. They think
they are saved when a cop shows up he is actually Arthur Welt (Frank
Wolff), a criminal who Peter’s uncle sent to jail many years ago. Welt
plans to kill Judge Flower with a well-placed explosive device but first
he must find an incriminating file hidden somewhere in the house.
I suspected I was in trouble when Redemption DVD’s silicone-infused faux
goth intro kicked in. Seriously, this is probably the worst DVD
presentation since Lloyd Kaufman took it upon himself to introduce Troma’s
The Stendhal Syndrome
DVD. But enough about the disastrous beginning of my
Cold Eyes Of Fear
experience, now onto the real disaster: the film itself.
Why did this film need three screenwriters? I doubt that the dubbing of
this film is the cause of the horrid script and idiotic plot. My heart
goes out to the poor cast who are trying to pull this garbage off with
straight faces. At first, their characters are simple and clearly defined
then suddenly their motivations go topsy-turvy. A couple of characters
basically trade places for a while behaving in complete opposition to how
they were established. The pacing is abominable and most of the film fails
at creating any suspense.
So why bother? Why am I here writing about this terrible film? Well, part
of it is to prove that I don’t love every trashy Italian thriller and
quasi-Giallo that
comes along. And the rest is the fact that somehow
Cold Eyes Of Fear
actually gets its shit together in a few scenes. Things get especially
tense in a finale that is very well staged. If this film had even a
halfway decent story, I would probably love it.
Visually, Cold Eyes Of Fear
is a winner thanks in no small part to Spanish cinematographer Antonio L.
Ballesteros (The Vampires’ Night Orgy).
Another surprise is that the talented Vincenzo Tomassi does the editing
here. His work may look familiar to Italian horror fans since Tomassi
worked on most of Lucio Fulci’s horror films as well as doing some editing
for both Umberto Lenzi and Ruggero Deodato. And dig that score by Ennio
Morricone! The greatest Italian film composer of all time adds a touch of
class to this hapless production.
So what about our cast? The gorgeous and sassy Giovanna Ralli (What
Have They Done To Your Daughters?)
really spits some fire as the sassy Anna. Yugoslavian born Gianni Garko (Seven
Notes In Black) does the most he can with his often
detestable and wimpy (yet suddenly heroic!) character. The wildly prolific
and talented Fernando Rey (Autopsy)
is totally wasted here. Judge Flower is the most uninteresting character
in the history of film. Saddest of all is that this is one of Frank
Wolff’s last film roles before he took his own life. This is truly a
talented group of people that all should have turned this job down.
To the average person I say “Cold Eyes
Of Fear? More like
Suck Eyes Of Suck!”
Okay, I wouldn’t ever say that but yeah, folks, I'm having a hard time not
absolutely leveling this film which barely, and I mean barely, fits into the Giallo genre. For those Italian trash cinema obsessives out there like
myself, my advice is to put this on the absolute bottom of your queue. If
nothing else, watch Cold Eyes Of Fear
just to see someone get beaten with a J&B bottle. And you gotta love that
Giallo fakeout in the beginning of the movie. Once the lights go out, this
film really kicks into high gear but oh, you’re gonna suffer for it.
----------------------------------------------------------
Links:
Get Cold Eyes Of Fear
on DVD from
Xploited Cinema.
|
