Of the two films, Death Walks on High Heels came first and is generally considered the better of the two by giallo connoisseurs. Actually, the film feels much closer to an Agatha Christie-like mystery with its labyrinth plot twists and secretly deceptive characters. It's also the least predictable of the two films, featuring the violent demise of a main character at the movie's midpoint, not unlike Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). The narrative is often schizophrenic and splinters off into several subplots; one involves the murder of a jewel thief and the disappearance of a priceless necklace; another follows Paris nightclub singer Nicole Rochard (Susan Scott) who is threatened with death by a hooded assassin (we can only see the piercing blue eyes) and flees to her new lover's seaside cottage. At this point, Death Walks on High Heels briefly becomes a romantic melodrama with Nicole becoming involved with married man Dr. Robert Matthews (Frank Wolff). Then, a murder occurs, the police are brought in to investigate and the missing jewels become the link to the continuing mayhem.
The main problem with Death Walks on High Heels is that it isn't particularly suspenseful or frightening, despite a few disturbing scenes of real and threatened violence. There may be a sadistic killer on the prowl but the movie is more focused on the jet set personalities on display and their various infidelities and blackmail schemes. Yet, there are things to enjoy here such as Nicole's dual night club act - at one, she does a naughty striptease in "blackface"; at the other, she does a go-go dancer routine covered in gold glitter and wearing a gold streamers wig. In fact, you'll see Ms. Scott changing her wigs more often than her clothes in both of these Ercoli features.
In comparison, Death Walks at Midnight is a much more conventional giallo with a few ultra-violent touches that are so over the top they become ludicrous and unintentionally funny. The zigzag storyline has Valentina (Susan Scott), a top fashion model, being coerced into taking a LSD-like drug for an investigative medical research article by Gio (Simon Andreu), her sometime boyfriend and hustling tabloid reporter. Under the influence, Valentina sees a gory murder take place in the deserted apartment across the way - a man in dark sunglasses stalks and kills a woman with a metal spiked glove. When her drug experience becomes a front page story the next day, Valentina is publicly humiliated and angrily confronts Gio who had promised her anonymity in the article. But she has a worse problem. The story has attracted the attention of the murderer who is still at large and is convinced that Valentina can expose him to the police. The strangest aspect of the entire case is that the murder Valentina witnessed took place six months previously so how did she see it? Did the drug trigger her unknown psychic powers? If you expect an explanation for this odd plot detail, Death Walks at Midnight is not the sort of movie that will provide it.
Death Walks at Midnight is packed with flash clues and a back-story that is more complicated than it is interesting. In addition, there is a subplot played for laughs involving the inept police investigation of the case (nobody seems to believe the increasingly paranoid Valentina) and a pair of psychotic thugs (Luciano Rossi is the giggling, blonde nutcase) whose reasons for stalking the heroine aren't clear until the clumsy climax which culminates with a rooftop chase. At times, Death Walks at Midnight threatens to go off the rails with its gore effects - a woman's face being gouged and mutilated as bright red blood splashes across the camera lens and drips down the killer's sunglasses, a fall off a tall building where the victim's skull is cracked open revealing a bit of brain, a man's face buried in a pile of cocaine causing his eyes to bleed. On the plus side, it has to be said that Susan Scott makes a sexy and high-spirited woman-in-distress (she bears a striking resemblance to Sharon Tate) and the opening credit sequence which surveys Valentina's mod apartment complete with circular bed and wall size art of herself is amusing. The music score by Stelvio Cipriani also gives the film some character as it alters the mood from lush romanticism (courtesy of singer Mina's breathy vocals) to discordant freak-out.
On the basis of the two thrillers showcased here, it's hard to make a case for Luciano Ercoli as one of the unsung directors of the giallo. There's obviously a reason why his name isn't that familiar here and it's because he's never delivered a first rate genre effort unless I'm unaware of some gem in his filmography. Ercoli has been much more successful as a producer, with such distinctive entries in the spaghetti western genre as A Pistol for Ringo (1965, also starring Susan Scott) and The Ruthless Four (1968) to his credit. Yet, despite the varying quality of Death Walks on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight, what makes the Luciano Ercoli Death Box Set: The Sound of Love and Death appealing to giallo fans is the inclusion of a third disc which is dedicated to the film music of Stelvio Cipriani. This 18-cut audio disc composed of various music cues and soundtrack selections includes such irresistible nuggets as "Papaya" from La Polizia Ha Le Mani Legate (1974), the disco-like "Masquerade" from Incuba Sulla Citta Contaminata (1980, Umberto Lenzi's City of the Walking Dead) and the spaghetti western influenced "St. Michel" from Dedicato a una Stella (1976). This alone is reason enough for some Italian film fanatics to pick up this 3 disc set. The only other extras are poster and still galleries, trailers, two collectible postcards, a handsomely designed booklet on the films and, in the case of Death Walks at Midnight, an alternate TV version of the film which begs the question, why?
For more information about Luciano Ercoli Death Box Set, visit NoShame Films. To order The Luciano Ercoli Death Box Set, go to TCM Shopping.
by Jeff Stafford
