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mariocki · 3 years ago

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Il rosso segno della follia (Hatchet for the Honeymoon, 1970)

"My name is John Harrington. I'm thirty years old. I am a paranoiac. Paranoiac... an enchanting word. So civilised and full of possibilities. The fact is, I am completely mad - the realisation of which annoyed me at first, but is now amusing to me. Quite amusing. Nobody suspects that I am a madman; a dangerous murderer."

#Il rosso segno della follia #Hatchet for the Honeymoon #italian cinema #giallo #1970 #mario bava #Santiago Moncada #Stephen Forsyth #dagmar lassander #laura betti #Jesús Puente #femi benussi #Antonia Mas #Luciano Pigozzi #Gérard Tichy #Verónica Llimerá #Ignasi Abadal #Silvia Lienas #Sante Maria Romitelli #not‚ alas‚ one of the maestro's best. Hatchet suffered from a disastrous shoot: Betti inserted herself into the film (with Bava's blessings #to be clear) after the script had been written‚ necessitating drastic rewrites to increase her role and a slightly cruel stripping down #of Lassander's role (she'd been the nominal lead but her role in the finished film is patchy and kind of nonsensical). there was also #difficulty in the location work (the impressive spanish villa at the centre of the film was a former home of Franco and carried with it all #the baggage and security that implies). Not a total failure: there are interesting ideas at play here‚ not least the idea that this is a #kind of inverted giallo (we know the 'who' immediately‚ it's the 'why' we have to wait for). Bava's eye for a stunning visual isn't in full #swing but there are moments: a beautiful aerial shot of a trio conversing as blood drips from a hidden murder victim above (mwah)#and the cast are good despite some weaknesses in script and overall execution. the final twist is insultingly obvious if you have even a #passing familiarity with this kind of film‚ but for all my grumbles this is still Bava and even at his weakest he's impressively original #and deliciously playful with both the medium and his audience (a crucial scene involves protagonist watching a previous Bava film on tv)#plus you just can't beat the man's colour palette

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