Eye in the Labyrinth

I was in the mood for Italian mystery cinema and randomly picked:

Eye in the Labyrinth (1972).

Directed by Mario Caiano and starring Rosemary Dexter, Adolfo Celi, Horst Frank and Sybil Danning. Adolfo Celi is perhaps best remembered from his role as the main villain, Largo, in the James Bond movie Thunderball.

The movie opens with a creepy scene where an injured man is fleeing for his life from some unknown enemy or enemies through a labyrinthine place. We soon discover that it was all a bad dream his girlfriend, Julie (Rosemary Dexter), was having. Someone soon after calls her and asks where he, Luca (Horst Frank), is but she doesn't know. The following day she goes to the psychiatric hospital where he works as a psychiatrist, but his colleagues don't know his whereabouts either. A patient screams that Luca is connected to Maracudi.

Julie gathers some more clues and soon finds herself in the small town of Maracudi. Asking around after Luca, she eventually meets the kind old gentleman Frank (Adolfo Celi) who suggests that she heads off to a villa owned by his acquaintance Gerda.

Gerda's luxurious villa is a kind of artists enclave with amongst others a composer who only works with natural sound, a photographer obsessed with closeups of body parts etc. They welcome Julie at first, but together with Frank, she soon starts to uncover strange secrets, unsettling facts and several attempts on her life that culminates in a smart finale.

Eye in the Labyrinth is honestly a strange movie. For the most part it is brilliantly filmed with some very interesting angles and dramatic shot composition. But at the same time, it is for the most part pretty pedestrian. Many scenes sort of plod along and I got the feeling more than once that small scenes are missing. The worst one is when Julie wants to cool off by going skinny dipping on a lonely stretch of beach. However a trio of hoodlums find her clothes and grab them while laughing at her. Rather than going back to the beach naked, she swims further out and in the next breath, Gerda wraps a towel around her and welcomes Julie to the villa. We had no inkling that she was that close to the house, and we never find out when or how her car arrives there. In a movie that functions on several levels, these inconsistencies are a bit of a problem.

Despite these problems I found myself genuinely intrigued to see the end and have the mystery solved, since I didn't manage to figure it out. The actors are a cut above the norm but like The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, the music is again a problematic jazz score that only fits some of the scenes. Still not a deal breaker, but worth noting.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, absolutely. Fans of Giallo or just mysteries in general should enjoy it. Sure it is a bit of a slog to get though at times, but it is worth it as the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. There is a bit of gore and nudity but not so much that more sensitive viewers should have a problem. You should of course exercise your own judgment. All in all, I found Eye in the Labyrinth an entertaining watch.

That is that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!