Product Details

• Actors: Edwige Fenech, Anita Strindberg, Luigi Pistilli, Ivan Rassimov, Franco Nebbia
• Directors: Sergio Martino
• Writers: Luciano Martino, Adriano Bolzoni, Edgar Allan Poe, Ernesto Gastaldi, Sauro Scavolini
• Producers: Luciano Martino
• Format: Color, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Noshame
• DVD Release Date: September 27, 2005
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000AQKUPY
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #223,413 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Review

A fine character-driven giallo gets a fine release from NoShame. -- DVD Maniacs.com

Edwige Fenech almost melts the camera with her radiance -- DVD Verdict.com

Fabulous 1972 Italian thriller by Sergio Martino with enough sex and violence for 10 movies. -- Paper Magazine, November 2005

Gorgeous Martino favorite Edwige Fenech stars in this sexy, violent story of murder and madness... -- National Board of Review.com

I would go on record and say that NoShame is the R1 company I have been waiting for. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! -- DVD Talk.com

Intellectually ambitious for a giallo... -- Movie Poop Shoot.com

Martino's direction is stylish, the actors are decent, and overall it's a campy good time for horror fans. -- Home Media Retailing, Aug 28-Sep 3, 2005

cleverly mixes the works of Edgar Allen Poe with the visceral style associated with the giallo genre, highly recommended -- 10,000 Bullets.com

great gothic giallo

NoShame’s work on the DVD is of equal excellence.

Highly recommended. -- Horror DVDs.com

Product Description

Director Sergio Martino and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi are at it again with YOUR VICE IS A CLOSED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY, a gore-soaked psycho-thriller in the severed vein of their classic gialli STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH, THE CASE OF THE SCORIPION’S TALE, TORSO and ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK.

Luigi Pistilli (THE GREAT SILENCE, BAY OF BLOOD) is a burned out novelist haunted by the memory of his dead mother and making life miserable for wife Anita Strindberg (THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL, A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN). When the failed writer’s mistress is found slashed to death, the crime initiates a series of bloody slayings that drive the protagonists to the brink of insanity… and murder.

Edwige Fenech (STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH, SECRETS OF A CALL GIRL) and Ivan Rassimov (DEEP RIVER SAVAGES, EATEN ALIVE) co-star in this atypical country-set giallo, which owes more than a passing debt to Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Black Cat" and anticipates the hyper-stylized madness of Dario Argento’s PROFONDO ROSSO and Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING.

Photographed in lush widescreen by Giancarlo Ferrando and blessed with a trippy score from Ennio Morricone conductor Bruno Nicolai, YOUR VICE IS A CLOSED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY is rife with essential 70s cinema elements: substance abuse, gratuitous sex, infidelity, incest, hippie love communes, dirtbike racing… and homicidal murder, Italian-style.

Throw away those grainy, incomplete bootlegs and substandard import DVDs. NoShame Films presents YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED DOOR AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY uncut in a pristine, widescreen, 16x9 presentation re-mastered from the original negative for the first time in America.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Ah, the cat knows all.... November 25, 2006

By Kenneth M. Pizzi VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Interesting little Italian giallo released in 1972 and expertly restored by the folks at No Shame. Not a really bloody one per se, but a tale filled with the usual assortment of red herrings, unbridled sensuality, deception, deceit, murder, a cat named "Satan".....and motorcross dirt biking! (Well, actually the last one is just a device to move the romantic subplot along...) At any rate, the story borrows heavily from Poe's "The Black Cat", but don't let that turn you off to watching it. Scenes from the film itself will recall the madness of Argento's "Deep Red" and Kubrick's "The Shining" in moments of suspense and terror.

No stranger to this medium, Edwige Fenech is as gorgeous as ever and she looks just as lovely in the interview extra with director Sergio Martino as she did over 30 years ago when the film was produced. Supporting players Anita Strindberg and Luigi Pistilli raise the bar of this giallo over the standard fare typical of this genre. A good solid giallo, but not in the caliber of, say, "The Case of the Scorpion's Tale" (also directed by Martino) or "The Fifth Cord."

In fact, the extras, especially the interview with Martino and Fenech is well-done and most informative; the crew at No Shame have really presented a first-class DVD release re-mastered from the original print and now available in the USA for the first time.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars SERGIO MARTINO'S BEST!!! January 27, 2007

By James Madsen

Format:DVD

I know you Torso and Scorpion's Tail fans will disagree, but this is Martino's best giallo. GREAT location, music, and acting. The murder scenes are wonderfully executed, and Edwidge Fenech is HOT in her first villainous role. And the cries of the black cat! Creepy! Is it alive or dead? Great giallo. Period.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A tale of terror, murder and Satan November 14, 2006

By Dave99

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Life has been difficult lately for Irina (Anita Strindberg). Her husband Oliviero (Luigi Pistilli) abuses and humiliates her at every opportunity; he's been accused of slashing to death a young woman he knew; their housekeeper has just been killed in a similar fashion; and now she thinks he's trying to kill her. Enter Oliviero's niece Floriana (Edwige Fenech) and things begin to get even more interesting.

This film is based on Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Black Cat" and so is different from other gialli that I've seen with it's dark, haunted, gothic atmosphere (with the requisite cellar, of course). It also marked a change in roles played by Edwige Fenech. Looking very sly and seductive with a short bob, this was the first time - as she notes in her interview on the disc - that she played something of a bad girl: she arrives with a notorious reputation ("Is it true that you're a two-bit tart?," Oliviero asks her, to which she replies, "Well, it could be two bits well spent"), she goes to bed with her uncle and she definitely has her eyes on the family jewels.

Luigi Pistilli does a fine job as the threatening, frequently drunken Oliviero and Anita Strindberg really gives off a sense of nervous terror coming from being trapped in this hell of hers, complete with Oliviero's terrifyingly annoying black cat, Satan.

The picture looks very nice with good colors in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, enhanced for widescreen sets and filling the screen. The original Italian audio track is provided along with an English dub and the subtitles are easy to read. Extras on the disc include interviews with Fenech, director Sergio Martino and writer Ernesto Gastaldi; and trailers for other Martino films. No Shame Films also includes a 12 page booklet with background on the film, placing it within the context of Italy's political situation at the times, plus bios and filmographies of Martino, Fenech and Stringberg. There are also some nice color still photos, though the photo on Fenech's bio page is that of another actress in the film!

While I can't say that I enjoyed this Martino film quite as much as his earlier effort with Edwige Fenech, "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" - it's a little slow at times and Edwige is absent from the first half hour - I'd still give it four stars in the giallo category for the performances, the stylish direction and the Poe-like sense of claustrophobia, terror and madness.

(A note for the curious: the title of the film was taken from a threatening letter one character sends to another in "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh.")