Insert Title Here: A Title-First Fic Event

Death Walks at Midnight (1972) dir. Luciano Ercoli

Dateline: Milan, Italy in the early 1970s. Valentina (Nieves Navarro) is a model whose primary job is appearing in fumetti fotoromanzi which are basically comic books done with photographs instead of drawings, a popular medium of the time. As a lark, she agrees to take an LSD-like hallucinogen and describe the experience to her friend Gio Baldi (Simón Andreu), who works for the sleazy news rag Novella 2000. He promises that no names will be used and she can wear an eyeless mask for the photographs. Also, the entire thing will be under the supervision of a doctor and nurse, so completely safe!

As soon as Valentina's high, Gio starts using her real name and slips the mask off so he can get better photos. (Also, the medical professionals are really other people who work at his paper.) So much for journalistic integrity! At first, Valentina is having a ball with the colors and music and such. But then she winds up at the window, looking at the empty apartment across the alley. She hallucinates that she sees a young woman being beaten to death by a man wearing oversized sunglasses and a spiked metal glove. Bad trip, man.

Gio prints the story with her real face and name, costing Valentina her current job due to the mild scandal. She has a big argument with him, which he shrugs off. Who believes anything that appears in his paper? She finally throws a rock through his office window, which gets them both hauled before Inspector Serino (Carlo Gentili) of the Milan police. They manage to talk themselves out of immediate trouble (illegal drugs are after all illegal).

Valentina runs into her ex-boyfriend Stefano (Peter Martell), a sculptor, and they start to rekindle their relationship. But then Valentina starts seeing the man from her vision in various places, or is she having acid flashbacks? And there was a murder very similar to the one she described in that apartment six months ago. Could she have witnessed it at the time but not realized it? And if it's a real memory, why don't the victim or murderer look like the people she saw while high? What's real? Even she's not sure, even though there are hints that something dangerous is going on.

This film is a giallo, a type of Italian crime thriller most prevalent in the late 1960s through the 1970s. The name originally comes from the yellow covers of a popular crime novel publishing line. Various elements common to these include lurid violence (for the time), perspective tricks, and a main character who for various reasons isn't believed about what they've witnessed except by the killer.

Valentina is a fiery young woman, who may be backfooted by her circumstances, but is by no means helpless. (As we see when a random normal creep tries to sexually assault her.) She comes across as very Italian despite the backstory saying she's originally from London.

There's lots of twists and turns, and many minor characters who act as either red herrings or comic relief, including camp gay photographer Pino (Elio Veller). But some of these are actually important, so pay attention!

The scenery is very nice, the director using real settings whenever possible. Despite the title, most of the action is in bright daylight, allowing us to see what's going on, even if some of it may be hallucinatory.

The story perhaps falls apart a bit when the truth is revealed at the climax as there has to be some stupidity involved for the villain to spill the entire plot to our not actually dead yet heroine.

Content note: Murder, sometimes gory, and various other minor violence. Attempted sexual assault. Drug abuse, including a fellow who drinks while driving. Consensual extramarital sex just off-camera. Shirtless man. Dubious depiction of the mentally ill. Camp gay stereotype humor. Late teens on up should be able to handle it.

This is a fun movie of its type, and pretty well done. The Arrow Video DVD release has the Italian version, the English dub, and the TV edit version as well as commentary and a couple of related interviews, so is good value for money. Recommended to thriller fans.