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7 Murders For Scotland Yard
AKA Jack El Destipador De Londres
Directed By José Luis Madrid
Released: 1971
Starring: Paul Naschy, Patricia Loran, Renzo Marignano, and Andrés Resino
Running Time: 87 minutes
Region: 0 NTSC
DVD Released By Televista
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After an injury ruins his circus career, acrobat
Peter Dockerman (played by Paul Naschy) spends his days drinking and
getting into bar brawls. When his wife is murdered, Peter becomes the
chief suspect in a series of Jack The Ripper style killings. With the cops
on his trail, Peter gets his act together and attempts to solve the case
himself.
I can't help but be shocked by the cheapness of this production. While not
as terrible as garbage like
The
Bloodsucker Leads The Dance, this film feels very
halfhearted and rushed in order to latch onto the giallo genre (already
reaching its peak in 1971). In my opinion, Spain's awesome genre cinema
never needed to mimic the Italian giallo films, but that's just me.
Surprisingly, there are some accidentally inspired
moments that almost rescue this troubled feature. Camerawork is shaky but
acceptable and the moody lighting is very nearly perfect in most of the
scenes. It’s the clumsy direction, bland performers, piss poor gore
effects, and laughable mistakes that hurt this film the most. The
soundtrack by Piero Piccioni (If You
Meet Sartana Pray For Your Death) is
about the only thing that isn’t flawed here.
All of the actors seem confused or bored with the exception of Paul Naschy
who, while not exactly stellar, is passable as Peter, our troubled hero.
His worst (and unintentionally funniest) scene comes when Peter injures
himself at the circus but I think this has more to do with limp direction.
This “career destroying” injury looks about as serious as a stubbed toe.
Naschy is even robbed of decent fight scenes in this mess of a film.
Though it is loaded with some sweet 70s Eurotrash awesomeness and is
filmed decently enough, I have to say that this is one of the worst
giallos I’ve ever seen.
7 Murders
picks up in the last 10 minutes but getting through
the first 80 or so may prove to be too much for most viewers. Some of its
dumb charm may warrant a second viewing but I doubt it. For a much, much
better Spanish giallo, check out Carlos Aured’s
Blue Eyes Of A Broken Doll
(also starring Paul Naschy).
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DVD Stuff:
Looking and sounding as good as a decent bootleg
isn’t really a good thing. Televista has released an unfortunate little
number here. While the Eurocult world waits (are they waiting?) for a
definitive edition of 7 Murders For
Scotland Yard, this one will have to
do. The widescreen print (non-anamorphic by the way) is scratchy and
occasionally varies in its color depth but it is definitely watchable.
Though clear, the audio levels are bonkers with quiet dialogue and
blasting music.
Uh oh, this is the “clothed” version of
7 Murders. In
order to comply with their strict censors, Spanish filmmakers often made
two versions of their films: one with nudity for export to the rest of
Europe and another with alternate “clothed” scenes for Spain. Whatever
they’re reasoning may be, Televista does not provide any access to the
obviously censored nude scenes. This is still a decent release for folks
who are desperate to see the film but depending on how important nude
scenes are to you, you might just want to hold out until somebody like BCI
picks up this title.
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Links:
Get this DVD from
Xploited Cinema.
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Quotes:
“I thought only women used their intuition, not the police.”
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