With renewed interest among
horror fans in the work of Dario Argento, particularly his giallo offerings The Cat o’ Nine Tails and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage as
well as Arrow Video’s own resurrection of long forgotten or previously
unavailable giallo fare including Death
Walks at Midnight and The
Bloodstained Butterfly, it was only a matter of time before equally
prolific if not sleazier director Sergio Martino’s gialli would start
resurfacing. After having directed five
giallo films between 1971 and 1973, including but not limited to the notorious Torso and his riff on The Black Cat entitled Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have
the Key, Martino would bring his contributions to an end with the sixth and
final giallo offering known as The
Suspicious Death of a Minor.
Part undercover cop/witness protection
thriller, part sex-trafficking expose (and sexploitation to some degree), The Suspicious Death of a Minor stands
out among typical giallo fare for not only mixing a stylish concoction of
suspense and the hard-boiled detective noir, but for bearing an unusually sharp
if not looney sense of humor about itself.
Starring Claudio Cassinelli as undercover cop Paolo Germi in the midst
of a sting operation intended to expose a Milanese drug and underage prostitution
ring tied to a wealthy banker, the film is at once a classic detective story
and a traditional giallo involving damsels in distress fleeing or dying at the
hands of an incognito assailant. What I
wasn’t expecting, however, was the film’s frequently sharp sense of humor
including a car chase sequence that veers so far into Buster Keaton screwball
comedy it feels like a detour only Ken Russell could have dreamed up.
Visually this is some
stunning fare, exploiting the Italian cityscape of skyscrapers amid sleazy back
alleyways often shot with wide-angled lenses in 2.35:1 panoramic
widescreen. Much like the affiliated
giallo fare coming out in droves at the time, Martino and his cinematographer
Giancarlo Ferrando make frequent use of extreme close-ups and carefully
composed shots of the actors’ faces and/or eyes on opposite ends of the
frame. There’s also a wealth of handheld
sequences which ratchet up the tension during a chase sequence or, in one
startling moment, a roller coaster shootout between cop vs. assassin. Written by the aforementioned Death Walks at Midnight screenwriter
Ernesto Gastaldi, The Suspicious Death of
a Minor fulfills all the expectations fans of the genre have while clearly
having some fun with the proceedings along the way.
Aiding the film’s shifty
tone skirting between suspense thriller and goofball comedy is the original
score provided by Luciano Michelini, offering up the usual progressive rock
instrumentation akin to giallo before shifting to a cheerful piano tune during
one of the film’s many intentionally silly detours. In an aforementioned car chase sequence, the
film dives head over heels into slapstick as passerby narrowly miss the
speeding vehicles including one pedestrian who hilariously twirls on the
pavement on his head like a top spinner as cars sideswipe him. Much like the introduction of ED-209 in Robocop at an executive board meeting
which goes absurdly awry or the ape escape detour in Altered States, moments like these put the viewer off guard and one
of the film’s wonders is the ability to skirt freely back and forth between
comedy and thriller.
Having seen an increasing
amount of 70s giallo fare with many being restored and re-released after
decades of obscurity and/or unavailability altogether, The Suspicious Death of a Minor was a splendid and often delightful
surprise for the keen balance between subgenres you wouldn’t ordinarily stick
together. Far smarter and more
self-aware (one murder attempt takes place in a theater happening to play a
giallo film) than what you usually get from the typical giallo, The Suspicious Death of a Minor is an
excellent entry into one of Italy’s most celebrated and frequently overlooked
brands of the genre thriller currently available! While some die-hards may consider this final
giallo from Martino to be lesser than his previous gialli, this one was really
a lot of fun which is more than one can usually say about the Italian thriller
subgenre!
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki