1972's "The French Sex Murders" was my first experience with a picture produced by old-school impresario Dick Randall, whose filmography is as unique as the man himself, and who was living in Italy at the time to escape tax-evasion charges in the U.S. The film demonstrates that you don't need a huge budget and top-notch production values to create a giallo, as long as you have an incredible cast to help put things over. In the film, small-time Parisian thief Antoine is arrested for the murder of a cathouse prostitute, but after he is decapitated in a freak accident, and the murders continue, police Inspector Pontaine realizes that he must move tres vite before the bodies really start to pile up! The picture, though it looks fine, does betray its limited budget, has been terribly dubbed and reserves most of its requisite nudity and bloodshed for the latter half. That remarkable cast referred to up top includes a quartet of the top Eurobabes of the day: Barbara Bouchet (who I've never seen look more beautiful and who is, sadly, the picture's first victim), Rosalba Neri (playing the ex-wife of the accused killer), Evelyn Kraft (who I'd never encountered before but look forward to seeing again) and Anita Ekberg (a decade or more past her prime but still quite sexy as the bordello's madam). And let's not forget Howard "Dr. Orloff" Vernon, as a scientist who performs some gross-out experiments on the eyeballs of Antoine's severed head (don't ask!), AND Robert Sacchi as the Inspector. This Bogeyphile must admit that it really is remarkable how much Sacchi looks like Humphrey Bogart and is able to ape his mannerisms; his (Bogey's) seeming presence in a sleazy giallo is perhaps the film's greatest asset and claim to uniqueness. In all, a far-from-top-drawer giallo, but still an entertaining 90 minutes, nicely supplemented on this Mondo Macabro DVD by a 1/2-hour documentary on Randall himself and many other interesting extras.
Review of The French Sex Murders
