Assassination in Rome AKA El secreto de Bill North (The Secret of Bill North) was directed and co-written by Silvio Amadio, who also made Amuck! And Smile Before Death. It was co-written by Giovanni Simonelli, who also wrote Jungle Raiders, Seven Deaths In the Cat's Eye and Django Shoots First.
Dick Sherman (Hugh O'Brien) is an American reporter who has settled in Rome, covering scandalous celebrity stories. A dead body is found at the Trevi Fountain - already famous from La Dolce Vita and Three Coins in the Fountain to movie watchers - which sets this whole mystery off. There's also American Shelley North (Cyd Charisse), on vacation in Italy with new husband Bill (Alberto Dalbés) when he goes missing. Decades ago, she and Dick had an affair and she calls to him for help, which doesn't work all that well with Dick's current love interest Erika (Eleonora Rossi Drago, Camille 2000).
There's also a MacGuffin that everyone needs to find that keeps getting stolen, lots of gorgeous parties and even a trip to Cinecittà studios where a peplum is being filmed. Known in Italy as Il segreto del vestito rosso, which is more of an Edgar Wallace-style title, this is an early giallo before the genre had been fully formed, arriving just a few years after The Girl Who Knew Too Much. It has some style and huge society parties, plus Dick's office bar is bigger than the one in my house and everyone smokes inside, making me love everything about this movie, even if by the end Dick doesn't seem all that moved by all the death that surrounds him.
Also: The poster and U. S. title for this looks like a Eurospy film. If it had come out a few years later, it would have had an animal name and had a poster with Cyd Charisse's $5 million dollar legs in full view.
Dick Sherman (Hugh O'Brien) is an American reporter who has settled in Rome, covering scandalous celebrity stories. A dead body is found at the Trevi Fountain - already famous from La Dolce Vita and Three Coins in the Fountain to movie watchers - which sets this whole mystery off. There's also American Shelley North (Cyd Charisse), on vacation in Italy with new husband Bill (Alberto Dalbés) when he goes missing. Decades ago, she and Dick had an affair and she calls to him for help, which doesn't work all that well with Dick's current love interest Erika (Eleonora Rossi Drago, Camille 2000).
There's also a MacGuffin that everyone needs to find that keeps getting stolen, lots of gorgeous parties and even a trip to Cinecittà studios where a peplum is being filmed. Known in Italy as Il segreto del vestito rosso, which is more of an Edgar Wallace-style title, this is an early giallo before the genre had been fully formed, arriving just a few years after The Girl Who Knew Too Much. It has some style and huge society parties, plus Dick's office bar is bigger than the one in my house and everyone smokes inside, making me love everything about this movie, even if by the end Dick doesn't seem all that moved by all the death that surrounds him.
Also: The poster and U. S. title for this looks like a Eurospy film. If it had come out a few years later, it would have had an animal name and had a poster with Cyd Charisse's $5 million dollar legs in full view.