Dario Argento's popularity was sealed in Italy when he was tapped to create a series for Italian television. The four episode series which mimicked "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" had Dario himself introduced each episode. The second episode "Il Tram" or "The Train" stars Enzo Cerusico (The Five Days of Milan) as a recently promoted detective on his first big murder case. When a 27-year-old woman is murdered on the tram and stuffed under a set as she returns from work in the dead of night. After recreating the incident using witnesses he believes he found his killer. Or had he?
Dario Argento directs (taking over for his former assistant director, scheduled to direct} "The Tram". Since this is made for Italian TV there is none of his trademark gore or violence but that doesn't stop him from turning in an interesting murder-mystery. A lot of his trademark moves are on display here and he even managed to put together a solid stalking sequence toward the end. Cerusico does a nice job with making his character an interesting one. Little nuances like his devil-may-care attitude toward a nut claiming the murder for his own and the snapping of his fingers make for an interesting character. The re-staging scene was quite nicely put together and the whole piece had a kind of dark humor through it. I was however non-plussed by the music score. It did nothing for the atmosphere or the action on screen. "The Tram" is a pretty decent giallo.