Date for a Homicide

Omicidio Per Un Appuntamento

Date For a Homicide

Italy 1966

D: Mino Guerrini

P: Liliana Biancini for Discobolo Film (Rome) & Parnass Film (Madrid)//St & Sc: Fernando Di Leo & Mino Guerrini//DP: Franco delli Colli//E: Franco Fraticelli//M: Ivan Vandor//Costume: Giorgio desideri//Makeup: Giuseppina Bovino.

Cast: Giorgio Ardisson, Ella Karin, Gunther Stoll, Hans Von Borsody, Mario Brega, Cesare Miceli Picardi, Luciano Rossi, Bettina Bousch, Peter Martell (Pietro Martellanza).

Irving, a private eye from America is hired to find Lydia, a millionaire's daughter. Soon after he's knocked unconscious and made to look like he was involved in a fatal car crash. He survives and hunts down his assailants to find out who wants him dead. Turns out the millionaire himself is behind the plot to get rid of his only heir in an effort to give his money to his lover instead (who is much younger than he is). Irving successfully saves the girl and puts an end to the millionaire's life.

Mino Guerrini can certainly make a fine horror film when the script requires it (see Il Terzio Occhio), however here he mixes too many elements from the spy genre (including lead actor Giorgio Ardisson) making for a very unsatisfactory thriller. there's definitely tongue in cheek action, such as the millionaire's hot rod/wheelchair that would have been more at home in a James Bond parody. There are a few plusses including an atmospheric shootout at a slaughterhouse and a very spooky sequence involving a killer with his face wrapped in bandages, but overall it's a film that just doesn't make it as a Giallo. Notable mainly for actors in small roles who would go on to larger parts such as Luciano Rossi ( an Italian Klaus Kinski lookalike who starred in Death Smiles at Murder) and Mario Brega who beats Clint Eastwood half to death in A Fistful of Dollars).