AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Red-Barracuda The Fifth Cord is a giallo from director Luigi Bazzoni, who was also responsible for another entry in the genre, the excellent Footprints on the Moon. This film is a lot more conventional than Footprints. In it, an alcoholic journalist becomes entangled in a series of murders that seem to be connected somehow. This plot-line is pretty unremarkable and typical. But three things make this one stand out. Firstly it has the charismatic Franco Nero in the central role, secondly it's got another impressive Ennio Morricone soundtrack and thirdly, and most importantly, it has exquisite photography from the great Vittorio Storaro who previously shot The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and later did Apocalypse Now. The cinematography really is fantastic here. Geometric spaces are shot with consummate skill and every frame seems to have been considered in detail. Aesthetically, The Fifth Cord is an unarguable triumph.It's not particularly violent for a giallo. The murders are not very graphic at all. Although it does have some impressive suspenseful moments such as the sequence where a disabled woman - played by the always interesting Rossella Falk – is terrorised in the dark by an unseen assailant. Otherwise it does have the usual combination of crazy components that are typical to the genre, such as sex parties, astrology and blackmail. Although I guess the story holds together more solidly than most other gialli. Bazzoni hasn't made a classic of the genre to be fair but he has directed a very stylish one. It comes from the slightly more restrained side of the genre but it should definitely interest seasoned fans of this type of thing.

Scarecrow-88 Exceptional giallo thriller from director Luigi Bazzoni starring Franco Nero as a boozing news journalist, Andrea Bild, who is assigned a story regarding various individuals who are murdered on Tuesdays representing a specific horoscopic point of birth by a killer whose chilling voice diabolically whispers on a recorded machine his plans of executing chosen prey with anticipation. The selection of the killer all tie into an inner circle of wealth, as the film introduces us to an important doctor, Richard Bini(Renato Romano), his crippled, wheel-chair bound wife, Sophia(Rossella Falk), a French businessman, Edouard Vermont(Edmund Purdom)who doesn't realize that his up-coming marriage to Isabel Lancia(Ira von Fürstenberg)is what is ultimately fueling the the unusual murder spree, and Andrea's ex-lover Helene(Silvia Monti). What Andrea soon realizes is that he has ties to all those who are chosen for annihilation, and, despite being so wasted he couldn't hardly stand, doesn't have an air-tight alibi during the time each individual was killed. He's soon removed from covering the story, approaching his editor angrily, threatening to kill him for being taken off..and, in doing so becomes an even greater suspect when his editor is found dead, dying of a heart attack as someone chased after him with a knife in the bushes near the newspaper office. To truly clear his name, and motivated and driven to bring the real killer to justice, Andrea will not stop until the madness is over. And, as each body is found, a glove with an extra finger is missing at the crime scene of every subsequent victim who is discovered, with the final chosen perhaps being Helene's own son! What Andrea discovers is quite a perverse side to those involved with the victims killed, Edouard and Richard's extra curricular activities regarding their enjoyment in watching a couple, a race car driver and underage prostitute whose father likes to watch in hiding, making out in a secret establishment. In a sub-plot, Andrea has a on-again/off-again sexual relationship with a lovely fashion model who is the sister to the race car driver and he still carries feelings for Helene. Very important is the attack of a certain character, Lubbock(Maurizio Bonuglia) in a tunnel and how he communicates with Andrea regarding supposed threats from an unknown person harassing him with phone calls and letters. But, Lubbock is a key character in this film for, unlike the other victims killed on Tuesday, he was attacked on Monday. An image that means everything in the grand scheme of things is Lubbock's reaction to Edouard and Isabel's loving embrace at a fancy restaurant.The creepy voice delightfully explaining how he/she couldn't wait to strangle and kill accompanying a fish-eye lens into the restaurant at the very opening of this movie sure sets the tone for this well crafted giallo which definitely benefits from the talents and artistic eye of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro(..who turned down working with director Michaelangelo Antonioni as a favor to his pal, Bazzoni)who was red-hot and on his way to great success(..but, he had already achieved this with Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece "The Conformist"). The exquisite camera set-ups, the masterful way he shoots characters from long distances in stunning locations exploiting beautifully empty spaces(..a massive flight of steps, a long tunnel, desolate ruins of skeletal warehouses), how the lens at times looks like a spying mechanism, a type of eye that's looking at the world from a different point of view all give this a thumb up over Bazzoni's contemporaries. But, to limit the film's execution to just Storaro is taking away from what everyone accomplishes, from the editing on down. I will say that while the twist wasn't that surprising, the finale(..from the moment Helene calls her son Tony about locking the doors only to discover that the killer is inside the house, to Andrea's chasing him into the ruins of decaying buildings where they scuffle often throwing each other through glass)is a nail-biter. And Morricone's musical accompaniment only adds to the visual work and tense sequences where danger possibly awaits Andreas. And, finally an actor of the caliber of Franco Nero, called Mr. Bill by almost everyone, in the lead as our troubled and fallible hero searching for the truth while confiding in the very police inspector tailing him, puts the final jewel in the crown of a gem giallo, and it comes highly regarded from yours truly. This is a must for giallo fans. The eerie sequence concerning Sophia, alone in her room up-stairs on the floor crying for help as a killer turns out the lights with only the flaming fireplace guiding her, is definitely a high-light.

bensonmum2 Much of The Fifth Cord is what I would call average for a Giallo. The death scenes aren't that original, the murder investigation is often muddled and confusing, and, other than Franco Nero, I've seen far better acting in other Gialli. As for the mystery elements, The Fifth Cord doesn't really play fair. It seems all but impossible for the average viewer to figure out "who done it" based on the clues presented. Finally, the score is one of the more non-memorable pieces from Ennio Morricone I've heard recently.But it's not all bad. In fact, when The Fifth Cord is good, it's very good. First, there's the look of the film. Director Luigi Bazzoni and Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro have successful made one of the best looking Gialli I've seen. Through a combination of brilliant framing, lighting, and location choices, almost every frame is like a work of art. There are some remarkable uses of light and shadows that are simply stunning. Second, the final scenes are as tense as any of the better known Gialli I've seen. It's real "on the edge of your seat" kind of stuff. Third, Franco Nero is a real professional and does a lot to bring life and realism to his role. I always enjoy his performances.Overall, The Fifth Cord may not be the best Giallo in the world, but for fans of the genre, there's enough here to enjoy to make the film worthwhile. Also, today's filmmakers could learn a thing or two about making a film really standout visually from watching what Bazzoni and Storaro did in The Fifth Cord.

Michael Middling giallo which is done no favours by losing much in the English translation and leaving us with no-one to identify with except a womanising alcoholic journalist (a profession worthy of no higher status than underneath a rock in the pecking order of Italian thrillers) amidst its phantasmagoria of inadequately characterised characters.The film is nevertheless interesting as an example of the way the inspirational dynamic of the genre-director relationship can be periodically inversed by genuine mastery, as enigmatic writer/director Bazzoni acknowledges his debt to Dario Argento and his epochal 'Bird Of Crystal Plumage' with, firstly; in the film's native Italian; one of those silly 'animal' titles ("The Black Days Of The Ram") that proliferated in this vein until the mid 70s, and under which the mystery is far more meaningful and less frustratingly convoluted.Secondly, the proliferation throughout the film of occasionally effective set-pieces and attention-grabbing individual shots realised through Bazzoni's technically adroit grip on the manipulation of geometric and geographical spaces to alternate agoraphobia and claustrophobia where, disconcertingly, the opposites of each should ordinarily occur. Some characters have extraordinarily spacious open-plan apartments in which crucial bits of suspense take place; and elsewhere tunnels and other similarly threatening confined spaces are presented anamorphically and are not re-'squeezed' for printing, with the result that suspense and tension is heightened.The usual incidental decorative pleasures apply; ie that of the production designer having ordered the entire contents of one of those late 60's continental Vogue/Cosmo-esquire coffee table-crushing fashion journals to be arbitrarily strewn across the sets.The original limited British cinema release (1972), under both this title and the vulgarised "Evil Fingers", seems to be the equivalent of the Salvation video release, although censored by 2(!) seconds. Some sources suggest that the original Italian print clocks in at 100 minutes, but it's hard to imagine a prospective 8 minutes of further footage having any profound overall impact.