Death Walks on High Heels

Quite a while ago, I talked about The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970) by Luciano Ercoli. That was the first movie he directed, today we're looking at his second movie;

Death Walks on High Heels (1971).

The movie starts with a murder on a train. We then meet the daughter of the murdered man, Nicole (Nieves Navarro), a stripper who lives in Paris with her ne'er-do-well lover Michel (Simon Andreu). It seems her father stole a load of diamonds and everyone wants them. The common belief is that she has them, despite her protestations to the contrary. The killer calls and threatens her before attacking her in her home. Terrified, paranoid and desperate to get away, Nicole leaves town with an ardent admirer from the club where she dances, Dr. Matthews (Frank Wolff). The good doctor is a respected medical man from England and she gratefully jumps the country with him. He spoils her shamelessly and sets her up in a love nest by a lake. Unfortunately, he is already married although unhappily. To make it worse, it's his wife Vanessa that owns all the money, including his clinic. Then things get worse, much worse, until we reach a dramatic finale.

Death Walks on High Heels is solid in all matters from acting, to locations, props and music. No problems at all. The dialogue, at least the English dub, was a bit subpar, but long term Giallo fans are used to that. My biggest complaint is that the movie tries to pack too much into a time frame that is almost too short to handle it. The run time is 1 hour 48 minutes, which is already long, but this story, which is very good, would do better as a short mini series. There is just so much to unpack.

Much like The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire, it is almost impossible to solve the central mystery. Not because everyone looks guilty as all hell, but because no one really looks all that guilty in the first place. To solve the riddle that is Death Walks on High Heels, you need a great deal of information, and the movie doesn't give you that until the very end. Instead it drowns you in clues, some relevant, some red herrings and some that you don't know the relevance of yet.

I won't go so far as to accuse Death Walks on High Heels of cheating, but it is close. By the end all the threads are sewed up, and everything makes sense, but up until then I was very confused. The movie also has an interesting tendency of slamming on the brakes and doing a 180, only to do it again moments later. A dangerous technique in film making, but it really works. Ercoli pulled it off, which is impressive considering it was his second time directing.

At times I wondered what I was watching, especially in the early middle of the film where the pace dies a bit, but once the end rolls around I was impressed. As mentioned above, the story is really good, one of the better in all the Gialli I have watched. Often the story isn't that important, it's in how it is told that Giallo shines. Death Walks on High Heels almost does the opposite.

I have a couple of very minor nitpicks I want to share. At one point, Nicole and Dr Matthews is eating fish. The scene is clearly meant to be intimate and erotic, but seeing them plop bits of greasy fish in their mouths was way too gross to be sexy. I also noticed that the junior Scotland Yard officer wears white socks... I very much doubt that would have been allowed. Finally I want to mention the unevenness of the murders. One is very bloody while another is incredibly lame and one even happens off camera. Odd, but no deal breaker.

So, do I recommend this movie? Absolutely! Death Walks on High Heels maybe a bit slow at times, but it is an excellent thriller and a damn fine Giallo.

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