I usually have a lot of time for cheesy mid-1970's Euro-thrillers, but this one was a very poor effort. It involves a string of murders and the usual red herrings and sleaze, but the presentation is amateurish and without any atmosphere at all.
The film begins with a suicide leap from the Eiffel Tower. We cannot see who jumps, but it's only 2-3 minutes into the film and we already have Terrible Special Effect Number One: the suicide leap is depicted by means of a cartoon black silhouette of a man superimposed over a still image of the tower...my jaw dropped. The plot switches to a brothel where the madam (a rather hefty looking Anita Ekberg with a massive hairdo) and her girls are entertaining some rich clients. A less rich and more troublesome customer called Antoine gatecrashes the party and asks for his favourite girl. After some sexy embracing during which time he lavishes stolen jewelry on her, the atmosphere turns sour when she tries to leave the bedroom. Some slapping follows, and Antoine overacts wildly, while attempting to keep his todger covered at all times (failing at least one, which is quite amusing). He eventually flees the brothel, and when the staff come to investigate they find the girl has been murdered.
Things go into a decline from here on as some dull police inspectors investigate the murder, and chase after Antoine. Watch out for Terrible Special Effect Number Two as Antoine is shown escaping on a motorbike. In close ups of his face its obvious that he's not even moving and is being filmed in front of plain white and plain black (?) backgrounds instead of the supposed leafy countryside. And wait for a real laugh-out-loud moment with Terrible Special Effect Number Three: a truly lame decapitation.
The film plods on, trying to spin a web of mystery and shock. There are more murders. They aren't interesting in the slightest and they are certainly not "sex murders" as suggested by the film's title. At one point a doctor is shown dissecting a human eye. This is depicted by terrible Special Effect Number Four: the use of a bloodied-up sheep's eye which is mauled apart by some amateur stage hand with what seems to be a very blunt scalpel, resulting in bits of goo and gristle getting squished all over the plate it is resting on...some fine medical handiwork there! The acting is uniformly bad, and of course the dubbing is terrible...truly awful. Try this sample English dialogue from a scene in which Antoine is captured: "No I didn't kill her. Are you mad? I'm not guilty! You'll find out I'm not guilty! No I'm not the murderer! You won't believe I didn't commit it!" It's like listening to a rabid Yoda! Especially when he snarls: "From the grave I'll come back!" Was this really the best they could do? Most pointless of all is that the police investigation is presided over by a Humphrey Bogart look-alike, complete with slicked back hair, long raincoats, the lot. There's no explanation for why he's dressed up as a clone of Bogart and it makes no contribution to any part of the film's plot. I sat through the whole thing waiting for it to get better, but it never did. Of course there's a big revelation at the end but it's not much of a pay off for the preceding 90 minutes. The only diversions from the tedium are the very 1970's feel (everybody smokes!), and some groovy music and lots of attractive actresses, but very little else. Do yourself a favour and avoid this one.
The film begins with a suicide leap from the Eiffel Tower. We cannot see who jumps, but it's only 2-3 minutes into the film and we already have Terrible Special Effect Number One: the suicide leap is depicted by means of a cartoon black silhouette of a man superimposed over a still image of the tower...my jaw dropped. The plot switches to a brothel where the madam (a rather hefty looking Anita Ekberg with a massive hairdo) and her girls are entertaining some rich clients. A less rich and more troublesome customer called Antoine gatecrashes the party and asks for his favourite girl. After some sexy embracing during which time he lavishes stolen jewelry on her, the atmosphere turns sour when she tries to leave the bedroom. Some slapping follows, and Antoine overacts wildly, while attempting to keep his todger covered at all times (failing at least one, which is quite amusing). He eventually flees the brothel, and when the staff come to investigate they find the girl has been murdered.
Things go into a decline from here on as some dull police inspectors investigate the murder, and chase after Antoine. Watch out for Terrible Special Effect Number Two as Antoine is shown escaping on a motorbike. In close ups of his face its obvious that he's not even moving and is being filmed in front of plain white and plain black (?) backgrounds instead of the supposed leafy countryside. And wait for a real laugh-out-loud moment with Terrible Special Effect Number Three: a truly lame decapitation.
The film plods on, trying to spin a web of mystery and shock. There are more murders. They aren't interesting in the slightest and they are certainly not "sex murders" as suggested by the film's title. At one point a doctor is shown dissecting a human eye. This is depicted by terrible Special Effect Number Four: the use of a bloodied-up sheep's eye which is mauled apart by some amateur stage hand with what seems to be a very blunt scalpel, resulting in bits of goo and gristle getting squished all over the plate it is resting on...some fine medical handiwork there! The acting is uniformly bad, and of course the dubbing is terrible...truly awful. Try this sample English dialogue from a scene in which Antoine is captured: "No I didn't kill her. Are you mad? I'm not guilty! You'll find out I'm not guilty! No I'm not the murderer! You won't believe I didn't commit it!" It's like listening to a rabid Yoda! Especially when he snarls: "From the grave I'll come back!" Was this really the best they could do? Most pointless of all is that the police investigation is presided over by a Humphrey Bogart look-alike, complete with slicked back hair, long raincoats, the lot. There's no explanation for why he's dressed up as a clone of Bogart and it makes no contribution to any part of the film's plot. I sat through the whole thing waiting for it to get better, but it never did. Of course there's a big revelation at the end but it's not much of a pay off for the preceding 90 minutes. The only diversions from the tedium are the very 1970's feel (everybody smokes!), and some groovy music and lots of attractive actresses, but very little else. Do yourself a favour and avoid this one.