Morte sospetta di una minorenne (1975)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.7/10   

Director:

Sergio Martino

Escritores:

Ernesto Gastaldi (screenplay)
Ernesto Gastaldi (story)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

12 agosto 1975 (Italy)

Género:

Suspenso

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Giallo

Comentarios de los usuarios:

SUSPECTED DEATH OF A MINOR (Sergio Martino, 1975) ***

Reparto

Claudio Cassinelli	...	Paolo Germi
Mel Ferrer	...	Police superintendent
Lia Tanzi	...	Carmela
Gianfranco Barra	...	Teti
Patrizia Castaldi	...	Marisa
Adolfo Caruso	...	Giannino
Jenny Tamburi	...	Gloria
Massimo Girotti	...	Gaudenzio Pesce
Carlo Alighiero	...	Chief S.M.C.D. office
Franco Alpestre	...	Il Menga
Fiammetta Baralla	...	Landlady
Barbara Magnolfi	...	Floriana
Gino Pernice	...	Killer in the lunapark
Aldo Massasso	...	Listri
Roberto Posse	...	Killer with sunglasses

También conocida como:

The Suspicious Death of a Minor (USA)
La sospechosa muerte de una menor (Spain) [es]

Duración:

100 min

País:

Italy

Idioma:

Italiano

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Relación de Aspecto:

2.35 : 1

Sonido:

Mono

Clasificación:

Spain:18

Compañía:

Dania Film

Conexiones de Película:

References Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave (1972)

SUSPECTED DEATH OF A MINOR (Sergio Martino, 1975) ***

I had never heard of this before its Sazuma "Special Edition" DVD came along (though I actually acquired it recently from ulterior sources); consequently, I took the film to be a very minor Martino effort – so that I went into it without much expectations. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable it all turned out to be – more so, in fact, than some of the director's more popular titles…though I can see how anyone hoping for a typical giallo will be confused and disappointed by its overriding poliziottesco elements, and even more so the sometimes daft comedy touches (on which I'll elaborate later on). Thematically, SUSPECTED DEATH OF A MINOR is an unofficial companion to the Massimo Dallamano trilogy of gialli revolving around teenage prostitution rackets – WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? (1972), WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? (1974) and RINGS OF FEAR (1978; completed by Alberto Negrin after the film-maker's tragic demise in a road accident); in that regard, it's hardly original, but Martino (whose last genre outing this proved to be) lends it his customary flair – aided a great deal by a splendid Goblinesque score courtesy of the obscure Luciano Michelini. Casting is another asset, led by Claudio Cassinelli – who would himself suffer an untimely death 10 years later in a helicopter crash while filming another Martino film! – as the unconventional hero (forever breaking his spectacles, he starts off as mystery-man and rogue but is eventually revealed to be a special undercover cop), Mel Ferrer as his long-suffering superior, and Massimo Girotti as the obligatory would-be respectable but all-powerful businessman pulling the strings. While there are obviously a number of female figures here (though, uncharacteristically, little nudity), none really emerges to take center-stage – including late starlet Jenny Tamburi who, despite a severely underwritten role, is still given an unwarranted cruel fate! The film comes to life principally in a handful of well-staged set-pieces, which take the form of chases rather than murders – an assassination attempt aboard a roller-coaster ride, a cliff-hanging sequence involving the opening roof of a cinema (which, according to an online review, is showing Martino's own YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY [1972]!), and the climactic across-the-water showdown between Cassinelli and Girotti. However, the most memorable (because it is so unexpected) certainly emerges the comical one in which the hero and his petty-thief pal take the Police on a wild ride – driving a rickety machine whose doors are constantly getting dislodged, Cassinelli asks his companion to throw them at their pursuers…but there's also a bit where a man riding a bike is left with a mere tricycle following a brush with the speeding vehicles and another which, hilariously, has a hit-and-run victim literally land and roll (repeatedly) on his head!