Cold Eyes of Fear (1971)

[Mojo]

..Do not operate heavy machinery...

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

And that movie IS heavy going....a disappointment from Castellari to be sure...

[vipco]

Ok I get the drift...You all want it.

I'll send it to Almar and he can offer it as a competition prize.

[herman]

I am going to defend this film sort of

Its not the castellari of say street law or bronx warriors for a start, this is more low key. I confess that yes first time I saw this one I did nod off- though it was early one saturday morning after a friday night on the stout.

Rewatching the film though I did sort of get it. Not really a giallo as we understand as a genre (the films as opposed to the books).

I thought it played more like an Italian Armchair Thriller or Tales of the Unexpected.

Now for all its flaws the movie certainly had its moments- like when the security guard shows up at the house and it seems hopeful but turns out differently.

I think the problem with the film is that even though it is interesting the pacing is a bit wrong. Even though more and more things happen they do not do so in such a way that picks up the pacing. This is a shame because the final scenes show a pretty good idea- the bomb etc Now if the pacing had picked up a bit towards that scene it would have been more a climax. But the direction seemed throughout to be a bit disinterested.

Now I don't know if any of you folks have seen Almost Human but there is a scene where the hoods take over a house and suspend the inhabitants from the light fitting while milian goes full on Pacino Scarface style- now if cold eyes of fear had played out a little more like that or even the sinister clockwork orange style whistling murder in the otherwise banal New Gladiators then the ending would not have fallen so flat..

Its not as though we are supposed to like the bad guys but for a film such as cold eyes of fear to work then we should fear them a little- thats why late night trains worked well or even the psychos in Rabid Dogs. In Cold Eyes of Fear the bad guys were not fearful, they were dull

I think part of the problem was the bad guys were not intimidating enough.

IMDB scores the film as a 5.0/10 and I think that about sums it up- its a neither here nor there score, not bad not good.

I promised I would defend the film a little so here goes - it may not be a good film really, but it is NOT BAD.

And to think- this is the dude who has the delightful Last Shark and New Barbarians on his credits.

[jimcarters2]

I'll swap it for a tea coaster if you like. From what you are saying thats all its good

[cloud]

In what way is this film a giallo? It's nothing of the kind, it's edged more towards a crime/home invasion movie. The only giallo-esque scene is the opening bit.
It does irritate me a bit how people continue to label this film as a giallo, I just don't see how it's anything remotely like one.

As for the film it's self, it's VERY slow, sort of picks up half way through and is OK for the rest of it. Overall I'd say it's pretty naff!

[Paul@TheOverlook]

Not seen this since buying the Redemption USA DVD of the flick back in 1998! Liked it, but it's not really on a par with the best of Castellari's films. The lead seem to come across like a low-rent Tomas Milian.