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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bava At His Best!, October 30, 2000
This review is from: The Girl Who Knew Too Much (DVD)
One of the better mystery/suspense entries in the Mario Bava filmography from the early 60's. Very atmospheric piece about an American (Leticia Roman--who also starred with Elvis in G.I. Blues) who travels to Rome to visit an ailing aunt and becomes involved in a web of mysterious/brutal killings. The film also stars American actor John Saxon. The black and white, widescreen picture is very nice and clean and the audio is adequate, as well. If you appreciate great cinematography (Bava's roots), in addition to a good murder mystery, you can't go wrong here. This is the unrated, international version in Italian with English subtitles. Enjoy!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant giallo, October 3, 2004
This review is from: The Girl Who Knew Too Much (DVD)
Italian director Mario Bava (1914-1980) made many types of films, "Four Times That Night" and "Hercules in the Haunted World" come to mind, but he made his most lasting imprint on the horror film genre. His pictures, no matter what the plot, always promised great style, lush cinematography, and beautiful scenery. Bava's big break came with his 1960 black and white nightmare classic "Black Sunday," a movie influenced by classic horror films and one that introduced horror fans to Barbara Steele. This was only the beginning, as Bava churned out a series of gruesome shockers over the next seventeen years. Perhaps his biggest contribution to the horror field was the influential 1972 picture "Twitch of the Death Nerve," sometimes called "Bay of Blood." Why? Because Sean Cunningham cribbed shamelessly from this film when he put "Friday the 13th" on celluloid. The director's inventiveness went far beyond hacking up a few unfortunate souls, however, as "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" shows. This is a relatively bloodless movie that falls squarely into the wonderful category of the Italian giallo. Mario Bava is no longer with us, regretfully, but the Bava legacy continues through his son Lamberto, one of the guiding lights behind the gory cult classics "Demons" and "Macabro."
"The Girl Who Knew Too Much" tells the story of American Nora Davis (Leticia Roman), a woman heading to Rome in order to take care of an ailing family friend. Problems emerge before the plane lands, as a nice young man offers Nora a package of cigarettes. Unfortunately, the police pick up this chap at the airport for smuggling marijuana. Davis, troubled by the fact that she smoked one of these tainted cigarettes, heads over to the house of Ethel Widnall to assume her nursing duties. Despite the assurances of Doctor Marcello Brassi (John Saxon) that Ethel is in acceptable shape as long as she takes her heart medication, Davis witnesses the elderly woman perish that very night. She also sees something else outside, a woman with a knife protruding from her back and a mysterious looking man dragging the body away, before passing out on the wet cobblestones. The next day Nora insists on investigating the weird incident in spite of Brassi's insistence that nothing strange happened. In the process of reenacting what she saw to Brassi, Nora runs into a woman named Laura Torrani (Valentina Cortese). This woman, quite sympathetic to Davis's situation concerning Ethel, promises to let the young American live in her home while she leaves town to meet her businessman husband. That the home sits near the scene of the crime, along with a glimpse of a photograph sitting on the piano of Laura's husband, convinces us Davis is stepping right into the center of the mystery.
Davis stays at the house but continues to ask questions about the murder she saw. She is soon convinced that someone is following her, and may in fact have entered the house while she was out. She also finds a box full of newspaper clippings about a string of murders that took place in the area ten years before. According to these reports, the press dubbed the slayings the alphabet murders since the three victims' last names began with an 'a', a 'b', and a 'c' respectively. As Nora soon discovers from the reporter involved in the case, Andrea Landini (Dante DiPaolo), the crimes stopped after Laura's husband led the journalist to a likely suspect. After the conviction of this poor bloke, the crimes stopped and life returned to normal. But Landini couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong about the whole thing, and when he pressed to reopen the case Laura's husband turned on him. The reporter has since spent the passing years trying to establish the identity of the real culprit. A few frightening incidents involving the killer and Nora convince Brassi and Landini that the nightmare of a decade ago has reemerged. And guess what? Our heroine's last name begins with a 'd'. Oh dear.
I am not able to find a single flaw with "The Girl Who Knew Too Much." The movie as a whole is so good that even the lack of gore didn't bother me in the least. The performances, especially a young John Saxon as the accident prone doctor, are quite good (Was Saxon ever this young? Apparently so.). Bava injects the proceedings with a significant element of humor, which acts as a perfect counterbalance to the scares. But it's the masterful use of the black and white medium that really makes this giallo something special. No one can argue that Mario Bava doesn't have an amazing knowledge of how cinematography works; his use of shadow and light are breathtaking to behold. Check out those wet cobblestones, or the interior shots that shoot beams of light across the characters' faces. This is brilliant, brilliant camera and lighting work, arguably as good as if not better than "The Third Man." It looks like Bava carefully crafted each and every frame of this film for maximum emotional impact, and it works magnificently. I amazed myself by figuring out the mystery well in advance of the denouement, probably because I've seen so many gialli at this point, but that didn't diminish the film in any way.
Extras on the DVD include a Bava biography and filmography, a John Saxon filmography, poster and film stills, and a trailer for the film. I've seen a few films in the Mario Bava Collection DVD series that absolutely reek in terms of picture quality ("Hatchet for the Honeymoon") and audio ("Twitch of the Death Nerve"), but "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" looks nice despite noticeable scratches in a few places. If you're interested in exploring the wonderful world of Mario Bava, I suggest you start here. This film will get you excited about watching more of his pictures.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aha, The Source of "Inspiration" for Coen Bros. etc. ..?, June 15, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The Girl Who Knew Too Much (DVD)
Another entry in the marvelous Mario Bava collection from Image Entertainment, with Tim Lucas' informative liner notes. I agree with everything the other reviewers noted. I have a few observations in addition: 1) Despite Mr. Lucas' claim that Bava threw out funny stuff and made the film dark, I and my wife found this film very humourous! It is one of those rare thrillers with actual wit and charm, without overtly comedic elements, from droll narration, to an impeccably timed comic performance by the much underrated John Saxon. I even found the drug-laced cigarette bit an extremely witty and clever framing device. 2) While not as incredible as BLACK SUNDAY, the cinematography and editing of this film are still light-years ahead of many contemporary movies, which goes without saying in a Mario Bava production. The "hospital wakeup" scene with nun's habits arranged like shifting flower petals, and the blurred, out-of-focus visuals in the flashbacks of the journalist-suspect are only two of the numerous examples. 3) It could be my suspicious nature but A LOT of FAMOUS filmmakers seem to have RIPPED OFF this movie. The sequence in which Nora lays out a trap for the murderer is strongly reminiscent of Wes Craven's NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST. (Also with Saxon, cast because Craven remembered how good he was in THE GIRL?) The entire final sequence as well as plot points involving the identity of the murderer are almost exactly reproduced in the much better-known Dario Argento's BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE. And those who remember and admire the "beams-of-light-through-bullet-holes" scene in Coen Brothers' BLOOD SIMPLE may be startled to find that Bava has already done it in THE GIRL 25 years ago! And... the list can go on. But the POINT is, MARIO BAVA HAS DONE IT FIRST! HE is the true original. Oh well, Bava and screenwriters have also "borrowed" the "alphabet murder" trick from Agatha Christie's ABC MURDERS, although they do acknowledge their debt to Christie in the narration. At any rate, I highly recommend this film to not only fans of a Hitchcockian murder mystery, but also to (despite Mr. Lucas' liner notes)those who are looking for a cleverly constructed romantic thriller, with a good sense of humour. (Okay, Leticia Roman is no Audrey Hepburn, but who cares?)
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