Door Into Darkness: The Tram (1973)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
The second of four films in the Italian series "Door Into Darkness" has Dario Argento sitting in the director's chair. The film tells the story of a young woman who is mysteriously murdered on a tram and the detective (Enzo Cerusico) who tries to figure out the killer. The detective decides to bring everyone together who was on the tram in hopes that they can recreate the events and bring the killer out. This is a pretty good little giallo even though it doesn't look too much like an Argento movie. This was produced for TV so the director doesn't get to use his normal 2.35:1 ratio to really bring his style in so fans will want to keep that in mind. The entire visual flair is pretty tame here as is the violence but this isn't the type of giallo that needs gory violence. The story itself is a pretty good one, although I must admit that I figured out who the killer was early on. I enjoyed the fact that the screenplay offered up quite a bit of black humor with the best sequence in the film being the one where a man walks into the police station and confesses to the crime, although he can't get any of the facts correct. This scene plays out for quite a few laughs as does a couple other scenes where Cerusico begins to question everyone on the tram. Cerusico delivers a fine performance as he manages to bring both laughs and believability to the role. The one negative thing, outside the lack of any visual style, is the final ten minutes, which don't contain any suspense. This entire sequence also seems to drag on, which was a shame considering everything leading up to it was pretty good. If you've never seen a giallo then I wouldn't recommend you starting here but fans of Argento will certainly want to check this out.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
The second of four films in the Italian series "Door Into Darkness" has Dario Argento sitting in the director's chair. The film tells the story of a young woman who is mysteriously murdered on a tram and the detective (Enzo Cerusico) who tries to figure out the killer. The detective decides to bring everyone together who was on the tram in hopes that they can recreate the events and bring the killer out. This is a pretty good little giallo even though it doesn't look too much like an Argento movie. This was produced for TV so the director doesn't get to use his normal 2.35:1 ratio to really bring his style in so fans will want to keep that in mind. The entire visual flair is pretty tame here as is the violence but this isn't the type of giallo that needs gory violence. The story itself is a pretty good one, although I must admit that I figured out who the killer was early on. I enjoyed the fact that the screenplay offered up quite a bit of black humor with the best sequence in the film being the one where a man walks into the police station and confesses to the crime, although he can't get any of the facts correct. This scene plays out for quite a few laughs as does a couple other scenes where Cerusico begins to question everyone on the tram. Cerusico delivers a fine performance as he manages to bring both laughs and believability to the role. The one negative thing, outside the lack of any visual style, is the final ten minutes, which don't contain any suspense. This entire sequence also seems to drag on, which was a shame considering everything leading up to it was pretty good. If you've never seen a giallo then I wouldn't recommend you starting here but fans of Argento will certainly want to check this out.