This Movie Title is too Long.

I have swum deeper in the interesting and murky waters of Giallo and this week's entry is:

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972), henceforth known here as Locked Room.

This movie with it's cumbersome title is directed by Sergio Martino, who can safely be said, was a big shot in the Giallo genre. Not as big as Mario Bava and Dario Argento, but nevertheless a name to be reckoned with.

Some spoilers ahead.

Oliviero Rouvigny (Luigi Pistilli, Bay of Blood), is a previously successful author suffering from writers block. He treats his depression with copious amounts of alcohol and takes out his frustrations on his long suffering wife Irina (Anita Strindberg, Who Saw Her Die). They live in a crumbling mansion in northern Italy with their maid Brenda. One day, a young woman is murdered and Oliviero is a suspect since the police knows he had a secret rendezvous with her. Irina backs up his false alibi but soon another woman is killed. Then, Oliviero's niece Floriana (Edwige Fenech) arrives for a visit and things really spiral out of control.

Locked Room is a hard movie to watch. Beyond the murders which are quite tame for a Giallo, Oliviero really is rough on Irina. He assaults her both physically and sexually on more then one occasion and it is nasty. That said, Locked Room presents a very different kind of mystery. Is Oliviero the unwitting killer, so deep in his whiskey bottle that he himself doesn't even know it? What is Floriana out to get as she plays every angle at once? There are other mysterious elements as well, that makes Locked Room a worthwhile movie despite its unpleasant domestic abuse.

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key is solidly shot. Not perhaps a masterpiece of cinema but sturdy and without any major flaws. I can't comment on the soundtrack as I never noticed it. It might be good, but despite my best attempts, I can't recollect it.

What really sells this movie though are the actors. Luigi Pistilli is in good form as he goes from drunken sullenness to furious rage. Anita Strindberg does an amazing job showing her fear and fury at the way she is treated and Edwige Fenech is a perfect Femme Fatale. I saw a documentary on Giallo yesterday called All the Colors of Giallo and apparently Edwige Fenech is one of the Queens of the Giallo genre together with Barbara Bouchet that has appeared a lot on this blog. I look forward to seeing more of Fenech's work.

The biggest critique I have against Locked Room is that the middle of the movie is a bit weak. Not catastrophically weak, it just looses a bit of momentum. Also, if you are familiar with the works of Edgar Allan Poe, you will see the ending coming a mile away. But, seeing as the filmmakers acknowledge this, I can't really fault them for it. A homage is a homage after all.

So do I recommend Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key? To Giallo fans, yes, absolutely. Non Giallo fans will likely wonder what they are watching. Horror fans will probably be a bit bored, but general thriller fans might like it. I think it says something that despite the grimy abuse, this is still a good Giallo and worth it in my opinion.

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