My Dear Killer by Shriek Show

While it’s a critical acclaimed Giallo movie (As reviewed in “So deadly, so perverse volume one”) if you don’t pay attention to all the names of the people “thrown around” in this movie once it gets towards the end (especially) you’re not going to know what the hell is going on....is the predicament I found my self in.

A five-year-old girl named Stefania is kidnapped and left to starve to death. However, this very talented, intelligent child is able to leave a clue as to the killer's identity. Though it is not a letter, it might as well have been one that began with "My Dear Killer." Giallo regular, George Hilton, does an excellent job of portraying inspector Luca Peretti who is searching for this clue. Meanwhile, everyone who may have found the clue, without knowing what it was, is murdered in gruesome ways. The most gruesome one, which made audiences cringe, involves Stefania's school teacher who is slashed to death with a Black and Decker hand saw. Another one, which is in the opening scene, is when the insurance agent is decapitated by a steam shovel. The machine resembled a prehistoric dinosaur that reaches down and grabs its victim by the head. Peretti reminded me of Detective Columbo, played by Peter Falk. Columbo operated in the same manner as Peretti does in "My Dear Killer." At the end of an episode, Colombo always gathered the suspect(s) together and explain how the killer committed the crime. Then he would identify the killer. Both Columbo and Peretti were clever in their deductions. I never had a clue as to the true identity of the killer. There were several suspects, most of them family members and hired servants, and numerous red herrings. Ennio Morricone provided a great score as he did with so many other Italian gialli. "My Dear Killer" is an old-fashioned whodunit with a black-gloved killer committing gruesome murders. (I enjoyed it much better than the other gialli involving the murder of a child such as Aldo Lado's perverted "Who Saw Her Die?" or Lucio Fulci's anti-Catholic "Don't Torture a Duckling.") It is a must have for anyone's giallo collection.

Anyone who used to follow my movie reviews knows how much I love a good giallo. Mario Bava and Dario Argento are the ultimate masters of this intriguing film genre that dominated the Italian box office back in the 1970s, but plenty of other directors stepped up to the plate and took a swing at the genre, too. Before moving on to a review of Tonino Valerii's "My Dear Killer," let's look at the defining elements of a giallo thriller. "Giallo" means "yellow" in Italian, and the term comes from the color of the cover of certain cheap pulp paperback mysteries that were popular in Italy several decades ago. The defining elements of a giallo (plural: gialli) film include but are not limited to: a crazed black-gloved killer, lots of bloody killings carried out in unusual ways, a convoluted plot loaded down with red herrings so as to confuse the viewer about the identity of the murderer, and lots of very beautiful Eurobabes. Sometimes we also see flashbacks within the film that hold clues about the motivation of the killer. We almost always see inept police officers bumbling around trying to solve the case. I could list more elements, but you get the general idea.So, what we have here is Valerii's entry in the giallo genre. "My Dear Killer" stars Italian film staple George Hilton as Inspector Luca Peretti, a good cop about to embark on the strangest case of his career. It all starts at the beginning of the film, when we see a man attempting to dredge a body of water out in the sticks. He directs a crane operator to start the work only to discover far too late that said operator wants him dead. The workman accomplishes this feat by using the crane to separate the man's head from his body. Ouch! Enter Inspector Peretti, whose job it is to investigate this gruesome crime. The cop soon discovers the identity of the dead man, along with another find that leads him to the body of the crane operator. It appears he hanged himself, but Peretti points out to the other cops in elaborate detail that suicide is out of the question. Now we have two murders and no solution in sight. Not to worry, however, as Peretti is not your typical giallo detective. He's good, and he smells something extremely sinister in the air, something that runs far deeper than a couple of random murders.It turns out the dead man was an insurance investigator working on the case of a murdered girl, and Peretti learns from the man's wife that the object he found in the investigator's pocket, a key, opens a mailbox down at the post office. The wife perishes at the hand of a black-gloved killer while retrieving the box's contents. Our hero finds a child's drawing in the woman's hand, and he's able to track down the school where the picture came from. Aha! Now we know that the girl who drew the picture is the same one whose death the investigator was working on. Interesting. Peretti begins investigating the girl's family and friends in an effort to track down the killer. Or something like that. I'm not sure since "My Dear Killer" contains one of the most byzantine plots I've ever seen in a giallo. And that's saying something, my friends. Anyway, our hero discovers that almost anyone could be guilty of the crime, a lot of money was involved, and that the black-gloved killer continues to strike people down with frightening, and extremely graphic, regularity. To solve this case Peretti must discover the location of a specific clue that will blow the thing wide open.To say "My Dear Killer" ranks as one of the most confusing giallo films I've ever seen is an understatement. It's terribly confusing, to the point where I was pretty much lost during the last thirty minutes. I'm glad I took notes on the film while I watched it. Without those, I'd have had a better chance of memorizing the New York City phonebook than I would describing the plot of Valerii's giallo. In fact, it's less a plot than an all-out attack on logic and reason. Red herrings abound, and there are so many suspects in the crime that the mind simply boggles at the possibilities. Who killed the little girl? The question ought to read: who didn't kill the little girl? That one has an easy answer: Peretti. Everyone else is fair game. I was so busy trying to figure out where this movie was going that I almost didn't notice how Marilu Tolo is totally wasted in the role of Anna Borghese, Peretti's voluptuous girlfriend. Almost. It's a shame when such a fine example of womanhood takes a backseat to the proceedings. More face time from Tolo and a clearer plot would have greatly enhanced the viewing experience.Enough with the complaining. "My Dear Killer" does offer up some good stuff on occasion. Tolo, of course, but also Hilton doing what he does best. Too, the carnage stands out. The crane tearing off the cranium bit stays with you, as does a bludgeoning involving a statue. The absolute capper, immortalized on the cover of the DVD case, involves the black-gloved kook going after a girl with a circular saw! Oh yeah! It's bloody and convincing all at the same time. Extras included on the DVD include several trailers for other gems, including "What Have You Done to Solange," "Spasmo," and "Hitcher in the Dark." Interviews with Valerii and Hilton also grace the disc. The best part of these interviews comes when Valerii explains how they pulled off the circular saw murder. With these extras, a nice picture transfer, decent audio, and another haunting Ennio Morricone score, you can't go wrong with "My Dear Killer". Just pay real close attention to the plot as you go along!

A weak "giallo" thriller (from the early 1970s) as a detective finds himself constantly one step behind a killer covering his/her tracks after a kidnapping gone wrong. There are a couple semi-gruesome murders here, but there isn't much true suspense since our hero never seems to be in any danger, and, though perhaps I missed something, it seemed the killer could have been anyone among the groups of suspects.I don't know the movie's history, but here it is presented in dubbed English. The anamorphic video is good considering the age of the title. Included on the disc are some trailers and interviews.

Excellent.

This film has a good story but somehow is filmed in a boring way so I give it 3 stars. The film also suffers for not having strong music which the best italian giallos have. George Hilton plays the investigating cop and is decent enough, but hardly his most charismatic performance. I would recommend checking out better Shameless giallos before this, such as the Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh. The end also left me a bit confused, it was like the director knew it was underwhelming and so quickly brushed over the conclusion which left me unsatisfied in a way which the best murder mystery movies don't. Worth a watch but don't expect a very fine example of the genre.

ok