The Killer on the Telephone

L'Assassino... È Al Telefono

Sales Title:The Final Curtain

US Home Video Title: Scenes From A Murder

Italy 1972

D: Alberto De Martino

P: Guy Longo, Vittorio Barattolo & Aldo Scavarda for Difnei Cinematografica//St & Sc: Vincenzo Mannino, Adriano Bolzoni, Renato Izzo, & Alberto De Martino//DP: Aristide Massaccesi//E: Otello Colangeli//M: Stelvio Cipriani//Art D: Antonio Visone//Costumes: Enrico Sabbatini//Makeup: Amato Garbini

Cast: Anne Heywood, Telly Savalas, Giorgio Piazza, Osvaldo Ruggeri, Antonio Guidi, Rossella Falk, Roger Van Hool, Leonardo Scavino, Ada Pometti, Alessandro Perrella.

Eleanor (Anne Heywood), a famous actress is currently under great stress as she tries to recover from the death of her lover Peter. She sees Ranko (Telly Savalas) whom she knows killed Peter and faints dead away. After awakening she finds all the details of her life in disarray. The balance of the film is spent with her trying to convince everyone of Ranko's guilt. It all ends in an abandoned theater where she outwits and kills Ranko. Too late she discovers someone close to her may have been involved.

Alberto De Martino can usually be counted on to deliver the exploitable goods, however here, he is saddled with a very emaciated lead actress who, though willing to do the required nude scenes, really has no business trying to pass herself off as young and sexy. Heywood does succeed in playing a rather tragic figure as a woman who is forced to live in the past because her present and future offer her so little solace. Telly Savalas steals the film as a hit man of few words. When he does talk it's usually in quips worthy of Freddy Krueger. Cameraman Aristide Massaccesi frames every scene tight, concentrating on the actor's faces which helps to create the atmosphere of the theater. Stelvio Cipriani's score is among his very best as there are many long sequences involving no dialogue, allowing him to build atmosphere and tension through his music. The film also has that staple of the thriller genre, a murder takes place before our eyes that appears to kill off the main character only to be revealed as belonging to a scene being shot for a movie within a movie (or in this case a play). That has become as big a cliche as the bad guy returning from the dead in horror movies of the eighties. Finally, as is usual with the Italian brand of thriller, lesbianism is behind the killer's motivation. Something US made films of the nineties feel is radical, but fans of Gialli consider old hat.    

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