Customer Reviews

Knife Of Ice

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Knife of Ice" (aka Il coltello di ghiaccio)is a very good rare Italian giallo film from great director, Umberto Lenzi. Lenzi has done several great gialli films, including: Eyeball(his best giallo), Spasmo, Orgasmo, Seven Blood-Stained Orchids, So Sweet So Perverse, Oasis of Fear, and other horror/thriller greats. "Knife of Ice" also stars Carroll Baker, an actress he's worked with a few times in his giallo films. Not heavy on the gore at all, but a stylish and classic mystery thriller!!!!!! Lets hope more Lenzi gialli films get a proper dvd release!!!

In the late sixties, American actress Carroll Baker made some excellent thriller and exploitation films in Europe. This Giallo thriller 'KNIFE OF ICE' aka 'IL COLTELLO DI GHIACCIO' was the third film Baker made with Italian Director Umberto Lenzi who was in the midst of unleashing a series of Giallo and Horror films in the early seventies. With the onset of such thrillers as 'WAIT UNTIL DARK' with Audrey Hepburn and the British 'SEE NO EVIL' with Mia Farrow where a major actress is cast as a handicapped damsel in distress , this film is a breath of fresh air with an intelligent script by Lenzi, catchy progressive music by Marcello Giombini and crisp photography by Jose F. Aquayo Hijo making it way ahead of its time in its construction. The cast has great red herrings such as the great Eduardo Fajardo and Evelyn Stewart who both graced many Spaghetti Westerns but Carroll Baker shines as our handicapped heroine holding her own up to the surprising climax. Recommended for fans of Euro Horror and just great refined thrillers which delivers the goods straight forwardly. One of Lenzi's best, it deserves a better reputation and Wham USA has delivered a beautiful 2.35 widescreen transfer just for that purpose.

Umberto Lenzi made some fantastic movies in his career , his earlier ones were all decent genre types until the late sixties when he made "orgasmo", "kriminal", and "a quiet place to kill" two of those featured carrol baker and they were excellent thrillers. This was a decent thriller and is not as good as many of those awesome movies. But it is a good movie by any standard and while not as great as the two other Baker movies this one is good entertainment and Lenzi makes a solid movie here that does feature a insane murderer. It's not a violent movie though like the classic "eyeball" (probably one of the best giallos ever) but then this is a good murder mystery movie and finally it's available in the U.S.
I bought a 50.00 japanese import version to get this movie and you can have it for far less. If only Umberto would come out of retirement to give us a solid giallo again. This print seems to be the same one as the import version and it looks pretty good. Now if only they will get out the other Baker-Lenzi films out and someone needs to get "Eyeball" out in the u.s. as well.

[KNIFE OF ICE - Directed by Umberto Lenzi - Widescreen Presentation] Umberto Lenzi has had a spotted career; on one hand, he produced, wrote and/or directed several great gialli at the end of the 60's, and was the first to direct a cannibal flick way back in 1972, at least five years prior to the genre's actual start date. On the other hand, he was profit-motivated, making some extremely mediocre horror, thrillers, crime dramas and gailli during the 70's and early 80's. And I personally feel that this film falls flatly into the latter category. But, because he was capable of both, the only way to determine this is to check 'em out, right? (Or read a dozen reviews at the IMDB, but that's cheating where I come from).

Carroll Baker stars as Martha, a mute woman returning home after being abroad for some time, and soon afterwards, people close to her start dying in mysterious ways. Unfortunately, one of them is the luscious Ida Galli (AKA Evelyn Stewart)as Jenny, Marthas longstanding friend and one of the main interests here for yours truly. She's knocked off almost immediately, and it's all downhill from here. Alan Scott is her rich uncle attending to her every need, but soon servants drop like snowflakes, and this is too much for the old man's heart. The police are portrayed as stumbling buffoons typical in most gialli, and the red herring is obviously not behind these murders as we're constantly force-fed to believe, and there are precious few who could be the killer, except possibly, no - it couldn't be...

The story here is weak, Lenzi's lackluster direction painfully apparent, and the acting is questionable - remember, there's a reason Carroll Baker went to Italy to do films - she couldn't get any significant work stateside. She's adequate here, but if she's the mute lead, you know perfectly well she's going to speak at the end of the film, no? So where's the surprise? There's no depth or dimension here, just fumetti characters racing about both confounded and almost comically confused. Adding to the mediocrity, there is no nudity at all to smooth over the rough spots, another standard feature in almost all giallo films. Here's my thing - if you're gonna bore me with a half-assed flick, at least have the indecency to throw a few underclad Eurobabes my way, would ya?

But what made this reviewer criticize the proceedings to this extent (and my apologies to fellow reviewer William Amazzini, whose views I usually concur with) is the lousy English dubbing - it's horribly done, making everyone sound like cartoon characters. To make matters worse, it's poorly synched with the mouths moving onscreen, so it irritated me more and more as the film went forward. Seeing the ending from a block away coupled with the bad voiceovers made this almost impossible to sit through. The other reviewers had no such issues as I did, but I felt I had to play devil's advocate and inform the rest of you that it's not all chocolates and roses. I own around 150 gailli and have seen at least 50 more I sold, traded or gave away, so I think I know a bit about gaillo films, but you may feel free to disagree with me, just don't say you weren't warned.