Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

GL84 Following the death of her father, a woman finds herself continually assaulted by a masked killer looking for the stolen jewels he took and the chance to escape the lifestyle brings the killer back into her life with a stronger vengeance than before and forces her to stop him.This was a decent enough Giallo with some incredibly enjoyable elements to it. Among the bright parts here is the fact that this one really plays up the erotic and sleazy thrills into the kind of traditional genre format. The film's basic setup about the search for the missing jewels spawning the killing spree and the innocents getting caught up in the seedy underground manages to give this a thrilling start to base off of, and the initial stalking scenes featuring this kind of fun allows for the stellar opening ambush in the train-car, the encounter in her flat where the killer ties her up and torments her in a rather seductive yet still tense manner and the rather eerie series of scenes showing them being spied on in the remote villa. These are brought about by the rather nice fact that the scenes of them being spied on are usually accompanied by scenes of her being nude at the time, and there's a great sense of erotic tension to be found within the one scene of her being tied up and tormented. Likewise, the fact that there's a lot of great fun to be had when this one featuring plenty of dance scenes showing her going about her stripteases gyrating in the nude, and it makes for a rather enjoyable time here. The final half of this one does manage to bring this one about even further as there's some fun to be had with the stalking in the hotel that comes off with a strong shocking ambush, the really frantic scene at the remote cabin where the investigation brings them into contact with the loner who offers the full-on retelling of the events that transpired the fateful night with all the true events played out and the different backstories for the characters getting revealed all make this one quite enjoyable. With a strong final revelation and the nice twist that comes off as a nice shock, there's plenty to like overall here even with a few minor flaws to be had here. The film's biggest issue here is the fact that there's just not a whole lot of action overall here as it turns out rather bland at times with the utterly incessant travelogue footage showing them going around the village and generally just being there with featuring any kind of big stalking activity. The low body count doesn't do this one many favors without the chance to offer up that kind of action, and the plodding pace ambles around without direction for a large portion of the time here not giving this one much help, and with the low-key action not coming along until the finale this one does tend to stumble around for a while. Otherwise, this one does have some solid points for it.Rated Unrated/R: Full Nudity, Graphic Violence and Language.

adriangr "Death Walks on High Heels" is a giallo style thriller that features Susan Scott as a stripper named Nicole who gets caught up in a murder mystery. The complicated plot involves a missing hoard of stolen diamonds that is being sought after by various greedy people. Nicole is the daughter of one of the original criminals responsible for the theft, so she soon finds herself threatened over the phone and then again in person by a masked attacker, who is sure that she can lead him to the jewels, even though she says she knows nothing. She flees Paris and makes her way to England with a rich admirer who promises to protect her - even her French boyfriend is one of the suspects in this mystery where no-one can be trusted. From here on, the plot becomes even more tangled and you'll need your wits about you to make it to the end knowing exactly what's going on. It's a credit to the writers that they are able to carry on pulling new surprises out of thin air right up to the very last moments of the story, and Ercoli is able to keep you hooked due to the marvellous cinematography, and of course the beautiful women who populate the film, namely Susan Scott and Claudie Lange. Scott is able to carry the film effortlessly, especially in a couple of pretty loopy striptease numbers, as well as the many changes of costume and wigs she sports throughout. And it makes a great change to see a strong female lead as although often in peril, Nicole is a character tough enough to take what's thrown at her with panache.While the film is fairly low on action and long on conversations, it does dish up one particularly vicious murder in which the female victim is repeatedly sliced with a switchblade knife (This idea was taken to a far more nauseating extreme much later by Lucio Fulci in "The New York Ripper"). Ercoli also stages another spectacular punch up towards the end, in a similar vein to the roof top climax in "Death Walks at Midnight" ...when Ercoli films a fist- fight, his men hit HARD!Speaking of those conversations, I watched the film in English, and the dubbing probably does the atmosphere a real dis-service, as none of the English script seems to adequately match the emotions the actors are trying to portray. Luckily both this and the other "Death Walks..." movie are out as a double bill by No Shame, and on this release the discs allow you to choose the Italian soundtrack with subtitles and I have a feeling that the translation might be quite a lot better in the subtitles than in the English dub, which probably robs the films of some of the subtler script nuances, and also makes the twists and turns harder to keep up with.Giallo fans will be happy with the sleek violence on display, and retro fans will revel in the lurid fashions of the era and the sumptuous lounge/kitsch musical soundtracks of both films. Susan Scott is a statuesque beauty who throws herself into the proceedings with vigour, and I enjoyed the film on account of her performance, without which it would probably be only half as entertaining.

Red-Barracuda Luciano Ercoli's Death Walks on High Heels is a sexy and suspenseful thriller. The convoluted plot revolves around the whereabouts of some stolen jewels and the involvement of a strip tease girl.Susan Scott (aka Nieves Navarro) plays the stripper who is central to the story. And, quite frankly, she's a revelation. Oozing sex appeal and stealing every scene she appears in, Miss Scott was one of the queens of giallo cinema. She was highly impressive in Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion but she is given a more central role here. And she delivers one of the most erotic performances in the giallo sub-genre.Other than the obvious appeal of the delicious leading lady, Ercoli's movie works as a suspenseful thriller, with some genuinely unsettling scenes. Chief amongst them being the somewhat haunting appearance of the 'high heels' killer in the opticians, whose approach is seen through through frosted glass and, also of note is an extremely brutal murder scene in the latter half of the movie, the savagery of it is definitely shocking. This murder stands out all the more as this is not exactly a body-count movie. The violence is kept to a minimum but is strong when it rears it's head.Like in Forbidden Photos, Ercoli uses another actress who looks strikingly similar to Susan Scott, in this case Claudie Lange. Simón Andreu, another Ercoli regular, puts in another sleazy performance as the chief suspect. And there is a host of other shady characters prowling about. In fact there are so many red herrings that we even have a dodgy character selling fish! In order for early 70's gialli to sell themselves to an international market they were often expected to do two things. Firstly cast leading ladies who look more Anglo-Saxon than Italian (which the Spanish but strawberry haired Miss Scott fulfilled) and secondly to incorporate locations outwith Italy (this being achieved by the French and British settings).Death Walks on High Heels is one of the most erotically charged gialli I've seen. Recommended for fans of both Italian thrillers and, of course, Susan Scott.

lazarillo A jewel thief is killed on a train by a man with piercing blue eyes. His daughter, a Paris stripper, believes the killer is after her, and after finding blue contact lenses in the medicine cabinet of her thuggish pimp-boyfriend, she flees France with a rich admirer she hardly knows to his villa a remote Scottish fishing village (where it isn't just the water that's full of red herrings).This is a great giallo with a very convoluted but highly enjoyable plot and plenty of style to burn. The setting is pretty unique and the movie makes the unusual but interesting decision of killing off an important character halfway through. It does run out of gas a little at the end, but it's still pretty damn satisfying. The leads are all good, especially the sexy Nieves Navarro, director Luciano Ercoli's real-life wife. Navarro turned in really good performances in her husband's other movies ("Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion" and "Death Walks at Midnight")and was scrumptious bit of tail in everybody else's ("The Slasher is a Sex Maniac", "Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals"). Here she is really good AND a scrumptious bit of tail. She was probably the hottest Spanish actress of the era with the exception of Soledad Miranda (who was a good ten years younger). But I digress. The new DVD version of this looks great and includes "Death Walks at Midnight", an interesting booklet, and a groovy soundtrack CD. Highly recommended