Delitto passionale (1994) User Reviews

Disappointing but not without some merit

[dopefishie · 4/10 · 3 March 2024]

Disappointing but not without some merit.

Cheap looking giallo/thriller with no creativity in the kills/special effects department. The mystery aspect was also lackluster.

However, I did enjoy the soundtrack. And it was a pleasure to see genre regulars Fabio Testi and Florinda Bolkan in a late career giallo - I just wish it was a better one.

Some of the supporting actors are pretty bad. I found the young detective to be particularly difficult to watch.

However, the worst aspect had to be the editing. There were some truly embarrassing blunders in which an unrelated scene would pop in for a moment and pop out again.

At the end of the day, I can't recommend this one unless you're a diehard fan of Fabio Testi or Florinda Bolkan.

Well, at least Florinda Bolkan got paid

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 23 January 2024]

Milena (Anna Maria Petrova) has been shot to death after a night in a hotel with her politician lover. Her husband Peter Doncev (Fabio Testi), who is sleeping with someone else - spoiler its his ex and the director of the show that he was in, Julia Yancheva (Florinda Bolkan) - which leads the police into an investigation. Meanwhile, his sister-in-law Tonia (Serena Grandi, The Adventures of Hercules, Graffiante desiderio) comes to help him with his paraplegic daughter Ania (Anya Pencheva). Inspector Ivan Zanova (Paul Martignetti) takes the case, which somehow ends up - more spoilers - with Ania being the killer, as well as offing her dad, and then thinking that a puppet is now her dad. She's confined to a mental hospital and we walk away.

This was directed by Flavio Mogherini, who also made a much better giallo, The Pyjama Girl Case, and was the art director of Danger: Diabolik. It was shot by Luigi Kuveiller (Deep Red, The New York Ripper), so with those names, I expected so much. But ah, the 90s, when gialli became erotic thrillers and movies were getting made in Bulgaria instead of the Eternal City of Rome. Written by Daniele Stroppa (Delirium, Blue Angel Cafe), this has the elements of what a giallo should be but just goes through the motions. That said, Grandi is gorgeous and could have been a giallo queen two decades before.