‘I have never read anything as filthy as that.’
A photographer working in Paris is shot dead by a mysterious assailant. A journalist investigating the killing finds another corpse, and his girlfriend seems to be missing…
Obscure Spanish-French Giallo thriller starring Euro-horror star Paul Naschy. Director Ramón Barco also co-wrote with Juan José Porto from a story by Naschy and Juan José Daza.
Photographer Daniel Brindo (Mario Pardo) is working on a Paris newspaper when he is shot dead in his darkroom one night and some of his work stolen. Best friend journalist Gerard Roland (Naschy) vows to expose the killer, butting heads immediately with police comisario Alain Darsi (Máximo Valverde). Naschy’s first step is to talk to colleagues who worked with Pardo, but the woman reporter who was his last partner is also killed, and it’s Naschy who finds the body. The two victims had collaborated on a story about a construction fraud perpetrated by architect Bichaud (Renë D’Grie), who has just been released from custody on a technicality.
At the same time, Naschy discovers that his girlfriend Elvire (Rosa Valenty) is missing. She’s been absent from her job at a trendy boutique, and roommate Genevieve (Victoria Hernández) hasn’t seen her. He becomes convinced that her disappearance is linked to the murders, and his investigation leads him to the gymnasium run by ex-boxer Nino ‘The Hammer’ Lara (Goyo Peralta). The fighter and some friends beat Naschy up, but he connects them with high-flying businessman Montan (José María Prada). Attempts to confront the industrialist are frustrated by his wife (María Mahor), but Naschy is determined to force a confrontation and find out what has happened to his girlfriend.
There’s not an awful lot of the Giallo in this collaboration between director Barco and star Naschy. Sure, a black-clad killer is doing the rounds and working their way through much of the supporting cast, but elsewhere, this enterprise bears more of a resemblance to a conspiracy thriller. It’s also significant that the assassin uses a pistol with a silencer, which is not a Giallo killer’s usual weapon of choice. The result of that, of course, is that the murders resemble nothing more than action from an American TV cop show.
In these circumstances, the plot takes on much of the heavy lifting, but it’s sad to report that there’s not much going on. Barco manages to conceal this quite effectively for the first half of the film, but by the time Hernández reveals yet more secrets to Naschy about Valency’s life that she’s kept from him (again!), it’s clear that the story has been treading water for quite a long time. It also transpires that the killer is part of some kind of shadowy criminal organisation, but we never find out what it is or what it does, and it turns out to be tangential to the murders anyway. The final reveal is not hard to guess, either, although events do go further than expected, which is a kind of twist, I suppose.
Unfortunately, Naschy makes for a somewhat dull hero, too. His speciality as an actor was intense, humourless, even gloomy characters and he shows so little humanity here that his quest for personal justice is unconvincing. Sleeping with his missing girlfriend’s roommate isn’t likely to provoke audience sympathy either. His investigative process is also suspect as he thrashes about like a bull in a china shop, making a lot of noise but finding out very little. Also, if you want to talk to an ex-boxer about his possible link to a chain of murders, it’s probably not a great idea to accept that he hasn’t got time to talk right now and arrange to meet him at his gym after hours.
Inspector Valverde’s home life provides one brief ray of sunshine, specifically his frisky wife, played by Mirta Miller. The banter with her tired and jaded husband lights up the screen, but it’s only briefly, and she’s a marginal character at best. Perhaps the most unusual aspect is one of Valverde’s investigative team, played by Ramón Centenero. It’s not that anything is interesting about the character or that he gets anything notable to do. It’s his name: Inspector Closseau. No, he doesn’t wear a raincoat, trip over things or have a silly moustache, but his name is pronounced like the famous Peter Sellers character. Why did the filmmakers choose to do this? I have absolutely no idea.
As you may have gathered from the screenshots, I was only able to source a very inferior print of this film, so it is hard to comment on the film’s technical aspects. It’s professionally made, but there’s no individual signature to the work or displays of invention or creativity. There is some location filming, but many scenes take place in small rooms, which appear to be actual living spaces as opposed to purpose-built sets, so resources were likely limited.
Barco was born in 1948 in Cuba, and his first screen credit was on 8-minute short ‘Espectro siete (7 objetos luminosos y 5 complementarios)’ (1969). He wrote the music for it and co-wrote the script with director Javier Aguirre, who went on to a very long and prolific film career. On the other hand, Barco’s subsequent filmography is very sparse indeed. He debuted as a writer-director with psychological drama ‘Mecanismo interior’ (1971), which starred Mahor as a middle-aged woman struggling to cope with her relationships. It took four years to realise his project with Naschy, but only another year until his last film, ‘El avispero’ (1975), hit theatres. This is another obscure entry, but it did feature Ángel Aranda, who appeared in Mario Bava’s ‘Planet of the Vampires/Terrore nello spazio’ (1965), quite a few Spaghetti Westerns and had a 25-year screen career. There’s almost no biographical information on Barco, but one of the few references to him online does suggest that he may have passed away at quite a young age.
It’s a very minor entry that isn’t terrible, but it’s only worth seeking out if you’re a die-hard Giallo fan.