What's in a Giallo Name? Everything. . .

Excerpt:

A word that can best describes the giallo genre in general is excess. Excessive plot. Excessive gore. Excessive violence. Excessive fashion. Excessive style. Excessive lunacy. Excessive gratuity. Excessive excessiveness. Like a Caligulan orgy, the giallo has very little sense of what is humanly bearable when it comes to sensory overload. So, it should be of little surprise that when it comes to titles, few genres can beat the opulence of a giallo title. In fact, the giallo title is to Italian Cinema what B-Movie film posters of the '50s were to American Cinema: promises of phenomenon that extended beyond mere mortal experience. The titles, just like most of those American film posters, are not lying. They're mostly metaphorical, of course, but they're also expressing ideas meant for a much more imaginative execution in a viewer's mind than the inevitable reality of budget restraints or, well, reality. I would have loved to have been a kid in the '60s and '70s and seen a marquee with one of the below titles on it, oblivious to the genre and not knowing anything about the specific movie. My mind would have been all over it.

So, without further ado, here is a top 36 (yeah, I know, 36, so what?) list of some of my favorite Italian and Spanish giallo titles, with number 1 being my favorite title (not movie, title). Titles, which, yes, like most giallo titles, have a love affair with insects, blades, the number seven, animals, asininity, and, of course, death.

36.Eroticofollia
Perhaps it's fitting to begin with a title that with one absurd, made up, pseudo-scientific-sounding word encapsulates the genre's constant attempt at forcing psycho-analysis, eroticism, and, in this case, the occult into its plot. A.k.a.s for this one include the Mexican title, Mas alla del Exorcismo (trans: Beyond Exorcism) and its American title, Evil Eye.

35. In the Folds of the Flesh
Get your dirty mind outta the gutter, you filthy perv! The title is referring to the folds of the brain. . . It does feature Freudian psychology and Nazi flashbacks, however. Oh, my. . .

34. Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye
This title has everything: the number seven, death, and an animal. Oh, and an organ to boot!

33. All the Colors of the Dark
Think this one should be higher up, huh? It is an iconic title, I grant you, even going as far as being the name of a now famous Mario Bava biography/filmography despite the fact that it's not a Bava film. I do like the title, but I like so many others better.

32. The Red Queen Kills Seven Times

31. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

30. Blazing Magnums
If ever there was a title that kicked ass, it is this one. Die Hard has nothing on the title of this giallo. Oh, but not a giallo, you say? Well, its giallo roots are betrayed by its other title, Shadows in an Empty Room (territory unknown).

29. Seven Notes in Black, a.k.a Murder to the Tune of Seven Black Notes
Either of those titles is much cooler than its pedestrian American title, The Psychic. "The Psychic"?? Really? Is that the best we can come up with?

28. Death Smiled on Murder, a.k.a. Death Smiled on a Murderer, a.k.a. Asylum Erotica

27. The House with Laughing Windows

26. Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll

25. A Dragonfly for Each Corpse

24. Dance Steps on a Razor's Edge (roughly translated from its Spanish title, Pasos de danza sobre el filo de una navaja), but best known with the equally as creative (if stupefying) title, Death Carries a Cane. Ooh, I'm shaking. . .

23. Kill the Poker Player
The legend goes that Francois Truffaut was so moved, so taken by this Spaghetti-Western giallo that he not only lifted its narrative for his own movie, but also mimicked its title by calling his film Shoot the Piano Player. . .
. . .Nah, just messing with you. This movie was made years after Piano Player. Its Spanish a.k.a., however, is La muerte llega arrastrándose, trans: Death Comes Dragging Itself, which, again, how is this scary?

22. Spasmo!
WTF does this mean and why is the movie named this?! I own this movie and have no idea. Brilliant.

21. Death on a Four Poster
Again, WTF? And if this title weren't dopey enough, the better known alternate title is Sexy Party. But the much cooler Italian a.k.a., Crime in the Mirror, saves it. Those Italians are so cool!

20. Next!
The name says it all with this one! Ok, in all fairness, this giallo is better known as The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, which gets points just for being very specific. But I like the certainty of the shorter title.

19. Murder Rock, a.k.a. Slashdance, a.k.a. Dancing Death, a.k.a. Giallo-a-Disco, a.k.a. Staying Alive (okay, I'm kidding about that last a.k.a! But only the last one. . .).

18. Love and Death at the Edge of a Razor
Not to be confused with its ants-in-the-pants brethren, number 24 above.

17. The Killer is on the Phone
You'd think they'd hang up, right?

16. The Killer with a Thousand Eyes

15. Gently Before She Dies
"Gently" what before she dies? On the other hand, its better-known American title, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, gets points for being a paragraph instead of a title, and like number 20's a.k.a., for giving us too much information.

14. Hot Lips of the Killer
Not to be confused with "Hot Lips" of M.A.S.H fame. . .

13. Death Walks in High Heels
I don't know about you, but when death comes knocking at my door, I want it to be wearing high heels. . .

12. The Washing Machine
Yup, exactly what you think. . .

11. Iguana with the Tongue on Fire

10. Vice Wears Black Hoses
Very stylish, death. For further proof, see also number 13 above. . .

9. Perfume of a Lady in Black

8. Four Flies on Grey Velvet
This one is literal. . .

7. Death Laid an Egg
A few ways you can read this title. I think I'll go into them when I review it. But for now, I prefer the literal interpretation. Just try to visualize it. . .

6. Five Dolls for an August Moon
Just a classy title. You know, as far as gialli are concerned. . .

5. Twitch of the Death Nerve
Every giallo should be given this title. The whole genre in a nutshell. . .

4. Trumpets of the Apocalypse

3. Eyes Behind the Stars
No celestial stars in this one, but you like that Cancer Man from the X-Files, do you? Not an original idea. Nope. Here first. . .

2. Footprints on the Moon
The moon does make an appearance in this one (as well do astronauts). And you can see footprints on it. . .

1. Murder in a Blue World (UK title), a.k.a. Una Gota de Sangre Para Morir Amando (which roughly translates into A Drop of Blood to Die Loving). Best known in the U.S as Clockwork Terror (obvious nod to Kubrick & Burgess both in title and plot), this title also boasts the best a.k.a.s in general, which also includes To Love, Perhaps to Die (territory unknown).

Special mention: Death Whistles the Blues
Ok, ok, so this title isn't technically a giallo or even a Spanish giallo, for that matter, despite the fact that it's directed by cracked Spaniard Jess Franco (there goes that name again!). But you have to admit, it's a cool giallo-esque title.

Agree or disagree with my selection? Feel I left any one title out? Let me know now since it might just end up on the final list in the book. . .

2009. All works published by Marvin Miranda are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Please make me aware of any such use. . .

Curious to see what else I'm writing about? Visit: http://www.examiner.com/x-4240-LA-Alternative-Film-Examiner

Let's follow each other on twitter: http://twitter.com/MEMiranda

The Giallo That Did So Much. . .

Excerpt:

Much has been written regarding the influence that Mario Bava's THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1963) has on the giallo's narrative structure. Indeed, it is credited as being the first movie to typify the giallo genre. In his treatise, La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film (2006), Mikel J. Koven generalizes the movie's influential narrative structure, thereby summarizing the plot of the murder mystery giallo in general:

"An innocent person, often a tourist, witnesses a brutal murder that appears to be the work of a serial killer. He or she takes on the role of amateur detective in order to hunt down this killer, and often succeeds where the police fail." (2006: 3-4).

THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH is to the giallo what DR. NO is to the James Bond franchise. It establishes the basic structure of the genre, a structure that is generic yet refreshing in the sense that a pre-existing template is being used while being reinvented and filtered by a strong vision. It wouldn't be until the following year that the genre's idiosyncratic style and imagery would emerge--from Bava again--with BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964), in which all the elements come together to create a familiar paradigm. The GOLDFINGER of the giallo genre, if you will.

The titular girl of Bava's movie happens to be both a tourist and an American woman, setting into place a very important and common characteristic that will surface in subsequent gialli throughout the next four decades: In a lot of the gialli, the protagonist is typically a very independent and professional woman. She's not a student, not the male hero's girlfriend or wife. And unlike the heroines of the North American slasher genre, virginity isn't a requirement to make it to the very end of the thriller either. Unlike Nora Davis in GIRL, a typical giallo heroine is not necessarily identified as being American, despite the fact that most gialli were dubbed in English to attract a wider audience. . . .

2009. All works published by Marvin Miranda are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Please make me aware of any such use. . .

Curious to see what else I'm writing about? Visit: http://www.examiner.com/x-4240-LA-Alternative-Film-Examiner

Let's follow each other on twitter: http://twitter.com/MEMiranda

I Am Curious (Giallo): Everything You Always Wanted to Know About "Sex 'n' Slash" But Were Afraid to Ask. . .

Excerpt:

Of all the colors of the dark, yellow is the most degenerate. Degenerate in the purest sense of the word: to be or grow worse than one's kind, or than one was originally; hence, to be inferior; to grow poorer, meaner, or more vicious; to decline in good qualities (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1996, by way of dictionary.com). Such is the unfortunate lot given to that most piss-colored, maligned, and misunderstood of all Italian subgenres, the giallo. Yes, it can be ridiculous and over the top, as excessive as a Caligulan orgy on crack, particularly in its fetishistic portrayal of fake blood, guts, and gore. But to this writer and lover of all things giallo, rarely is it ever dull or poorly executed. To quote the oft-quoted Greek filmmaker and French film critic, Adonis Kyrou, "I urge you: learn to look at 'bad' films, they are so often sublime." Let's take look at this "bad,"--no, "terrible"--subgenre.

Giallo (rhymes with hallow, plural gialli) is, if you haven't already guessed, simply Italian for the word yellow. "Yellow" was the term of endearment given to these films in the '60s and '70s since they were mostly influenced by paperback novels of the same nickname. These whodunits published in Italy with yellow covers and printed in the trademark yellowish pulp paper were penned by such popular English writers as Agatha Christie, Edgar Wallace, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The giallo is not a proper film subgenre per se, but rather, falls within the categories of suspense thriller, murder mystery, and that most ostensible of '80s horror film subgenres, the slasher flick. The slasher would not exist at all if it weren't for the giallo's general template: an unknown (usually "sex") maniac going around creatively, if not necessarily constructively, slashing and hacking his or (gasp!) her victims. But that is where the similarities end. Throw in the fact that most gialli occur in the "adult world," i.e., a more "realistic" reality in which it is adults who are the ones involved with the more nefarious aspects of life and not college co-eds who are in real life typically, well, going to college. Add a Miss Marple-type of amateur sleuth or a Hercule Poirot-type of police inspector trying to get to the bottom of the killer's identity, subtract a bunch of idiots sitting around like, well, sitting ducks, waiting to get picked off one by one, and you have the essential ingredients of this Italian subgenre.

Most giallo academics (and by "most," I mean the two or three out there) tend to credit Mario Bava's homage to Hitchcock, THE GIRL WHO KNEW TO MUCH (1963), as the first giallo. In his giallo textbook, La Dolce Morte, Mikel J. Koven suggests that the first giallo is really Visconti's neorealist classic, OSSESSIONE (1943), starring DEEP RED's Clara Calamai--a suggestion that would have made my Italian cinema professor cough up his cannoli. OSSESSIONE is based on James M. Cain's crime novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice, making for a compelling suggestion since the giallo borrows heavily from the visual aesthetics and themes of the film noir, e.g., Dutch angles, stark light/dark contrasts, moral ambiguity, sexual motivation, etc. In his Bava textbook, The Haunted World of Mario Bava, Troy Howarth, however, suggests the Hawksian CORTOCIRCUITO (1943) as the giallo forerunner. This suggestion isn't too off the mark either, since CORTOCIRCUITO's "life imitates art" plot pops up in later gialli such as Argento's TENEBRE (1982) and Bruno Mattei's EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1994), not to be mistaken as a remake of Franju's masterpiece of the same name, incidentally. You can blame Jess Franco for such a remake. . . .

2009. All works published by Marvin Miranda are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Please make me aware of any such use. . .

Curious to see what else I'm writing about? Visit: http://www.examiner.com/x-4240-LA-Alternative-Film-Examiner

Let's follow each other on twitter: http://twitter.com/MEMiranda