Two Faces of Fear

I Due Volte Della Paura

Two Faces of Fear

1971

Italy-Spain

D: Tulio De Micheli

P: Anacleto Amadio & Faustino Ocaña for BRC Produzione Film (Rome) & Tecisa (Madrid)//St & SC: Pedro Maro Herrero & Mario Di Nardo//DP: Manuel Rojas//E: Angel Serrano//M: Franco Micalizzi//Art D: Gastone & Francisco Canet//Color

Cast: Fernando Rey, Luciana Paluzzi, Eduardo Fajardo, Manuel Zarzo, Luis Davila, Antonio Del Real, Carla Mancini, Teresa Guaydá Gonzales, Dinorah Ayala, Emilio Portela, and Anita Strindberg.

Dr. Michele Azzini, a famous surgeon at the Carli Clinic, is planning on quitting and taking a new post at a hospital in Milano. This is causing Elena Carli a large amount of stress as Azzini is clearly the main reason for the success of her business. When Azzini is found shot to death, it appears everyone working at the clinic had a motive for knocking him off. There's Elena, who didn't want him to leave; Michael, Elena's husband who's having an affair with Azzini's girlfriend Paola, and she is also a suspect since it's her name that is listed as the beneficiary of Azzini's will. Inspector Nardi (who suffers many extreme measures in an attempt to quit smoking) is assigned to ferret out the killer. Further plot complications ensue, such as Elena having open heart surgery, performed by her suspicious husband, to save her life before Nardi can solve the case.

This medical thriller is a rather bloodless affair, except for the graphic real-life open heart surgery footage inserted during Paluzzi's character's operation, it depends on plot complications and character motivation to see it through to completion. I'm afraid neither the script or actors involved elevate this beyond the merely tedious. Fernando Rey as Nardi certainly succeeds with his character in keeping the audience entertained, but the soap opera situations degenerate the film's atmosphere to that of a boring, made-for-TV affair. Director De Micheli hasn't done much in his career to cause most people to give his films a second (or even first) look. The goofy Paul Naschy monsterfest, ASSIGNMENT TERROR, is the only film made by De Micheli worth seeing. The cast looks good on paper, but are hampered by the film's sterile, hospital setting and the fact that there are no stylistic flourishes in the two murder sequences, all but sink the film. Franco Micalizzi's score certainly owes a lot to the style of Bruno Nicolai (much like Ennio Morricone's acknowledged influence on the music of Spaghetti Westerns, Nicolai is the king when it comes to setting the musical mood of the Giallo), but does little more than try to make the narrative more exciting than it really is. A waste of talent in front of and behind the camera.