Stuart Whitman ("The Mark") plays tough Ottawa police captain Tony Saitta, who receives an urgent message from his kid sister Louise (Carole Laure, "Victory"). Soon she is dead from poisoning, and Tony is determined to find out who did it and why.
"Shadows in an Empty Room" has an interesting pedigree. This very 70s crime film / mystery was not only shot in and *set* in Canada, but it was directed by Italian filmmaker Alberto De Martino ("Scenes from a Murder", "The Antichrist", "Holocaust 2000", etc.). It does have an entertaining, twisty plot, with no shortage of suspects, and some showcase action scenes that are pretty rousing. Violent without being particularly gory, it benefits from an excellent cast of familiar faces (John Saxon ("Enter the Dragon"), Martin Landau ("Ed Wood"), Tisa Farrow ("Zombi 2"), Jean Leclerc ('All My Children'), Gayle Hunnicutt ("The Legend of Hell House"), etc.).
The music score by Armando Trovajoli is inconsistent - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Location work in Ottawa is very good. The pacing is just right, and the story, while not exactly that unpredictable, at least keeps you on your toes and not focused on just one suspect.
All in all, this is decent entertainment, with some memorable elements here and there. In the end, Tony has to face the fact that his beloved sibling was not the innocent he always believed her to be.
Six out of 10.
"Shadows in an Empty Room" has an interesting pedigree. This very 70s crime film / mystery was not only shot in and *set* in Canada, but it was directed by Italian filmmaker Alberto De Martino ("Scenes from a Murder", "The Antichrist", "Holocaust 2000", etc.). It does have an entertaining, twisty plot, with no shortage of suspects, and some showcase action scenes that are pretty rousing. Violent without being particularly gory, it benefits from an excellent cast of familiar faces (John Saxon ("Enter the Dragon"), Martin Landau ("Ed Wood"), Tisa Farrow ("Zombi 2"), Jean Leclerc ('All My Children'), Gayle Hunnicutt ("The Legend of Hell House"), etc.).
The music score by Armando Trovajoli is inconsistent - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Location work in Ottawa is very good. The pacing is just right, and the story, while not exactly that unpredictable, at least keeps you on your toes and not focused on just one suspect.
All in all, this is decent entertainment, with some memorable elements here and there. In the end, Tony has to face the fact that his beloved sibling was not the innocent he always believed her to be.
Six out of 10.