Death Will Have Your Eyes / La moglie giovane (1974)

×

Death Will Have Your Eyes / La moglie giovane (1974)

Close

This is a very obscure Italian giallo that I'd previous only heard of via the trailer in "42nd Street Forever" (a trailer that made it look like a police action film as I recall!). This is actually an old-fashioned giallo. Marisa Mell is a young woman who comes to Rome and soon drifts into de facto prostitution in order to survive. She meets a misanthropic doctor and would-be poet(Farley Granger), but soon falls in love with another man. Murder ensues and she soon finds herself being blackmailed, sexually and financially, by her husband's shady driver, who saw something he shouldn't have.

This movie has a rather unusual narrative structure time-wise that jumps back and forth through time (often without much warning), which might confuse some viewers, but for me it made this rather pedestrian story much more interesting. The movie also has a truly tragic tone to it and a social commentary (both the wife and the blackmailing driver bring about their own downfall in an effort to become privileged bourgeosie)not usually found giallo thrillers. The ending is a little weak, but up until then it's a good movie.

Marisa Mell is considered a top-tier Eurobabe today (although she died penniless in the early 80's). And Helga Line, another ubiquitous "sexy" actress of the era, has a supporting role as her best female friend and confidante (and there are nude scenes all around, of course). The English-language title "Death Will Have Your Eyes" (after one of the husband's cheerful efforts at poetry) is actually much better than the Italian title for a change. This is worth checking out.

IMDB Reviewer

×

Death Will Have Your Eyes / La moglie giovane (1974)

Close