It's a matter of personal taste, of course, but I think Euro-Cult goddess Edwige Fenech (The Case of the Bloody Iris) was one of the sexiest, most alluring women to ever grace the silver screen. Born in 1948, the French-Algerian beauty appeared in a slew of European suspense thrillers, horror flicks and sex comedies beginning at age 19, and was still hot enough to appear nude in Italian Playboy in her late forties. (She has since become a television/film producer, heading her own production company.) As Jane Harrison, a mentally troubled young woman who may or may not be the target of a stalking killer, Edwige is center stage in Sergio Martino's stylish 1972 giallo All the Colors of the Dark, just released on Region 1 DVD by Shriek Show. Fenech fanatics — like your humble correspondent — should have a field day with this new disc.

Poor Jane suffers from some really freakadelic nightmares... In them she sees her mother, who was murdered by an unknown assailant when Jane was a little girl, stabbed to death by a man with piercing blue eyes (Eaten Alive's Ivan Rassimov). The bad dreams are taking a serious toll not only on Jane's psyche but also her relationship with love-in lover Richard (giallo veteran George Hilton). He believes the nightmares stem from the miscarriage Jane had after a car accident the year before; she hasn't told him of their true nature. Although increasingly frustrated by her frigidity — how would you like to share a bed with Edwige Fenech and not get to do her? — Richard insists that psychiatric therapy is pure bunk and quackery. Providing the exact opposite advice is Jane's older sister Barbara (Nieves Navarro, as "Susan Scott"), who works for an esteemed psychiatrist. She councils that therapy is the only way Jane can restore her mental health. Then Jane begins seeing the blue-eyed man of her nightmares, armed with a stiletto, during waking hours. And he's stalking her. Fearful for her sanity, she not only agrees to see the shrink recommended by Barbara but also opts for less conventional treatment. Befriended by a mysterious new tenant in her apartment building named Mary (Marina Malfatti), Jane is convinced to meet with some people who the woman says helped her under similar circumstances. Only when it's too late does she learn, to her horror, that Mary is a member of a satanic cult! At a secluded mansion Jane is forced to drink dog's blood and have sex with the cult's creepy high priest (Julian Ugarte). But was the Black Mass just a hallucination, as she believes is the case with the recent appearances of Stiletto Man? Or could it all be real? She can't confide in Richard — to whom she's told none of this — and is frequently left alone in their flat while he, a salesman for a pharmaceutical firm, is away on business. As Jane edges closer to total mental breakdown she starts having visions of events that shortly thereafter come true...

Some of the stereotypical elements associated with the Italian giallo are tossed overboard in All the Colors of the Dark. There's no faceless, black-gloved murderer, since we see Rassimov from the get-go as the knife-wielding stalker. (Rather than present us with a whodunit, the central mystery here is whether or not Stiletto Man is even real — and if he isn't a creation of Jane's troubled mind, why is he threatening her?) The body count is relatively low and the deaths never really gory; putting aside the 'dream-murder' of Jane's mother there aren't any killings at all until the film's third act. The potentially supernatural aspect of the satanic cult and our heroine's premonitions of future events add an occult flavor not typically found in the genre. The kink/sleaze factor is also comparatively subdued, so there aren't any cross-dressing lesbian midget incest victims turned B&D-obsessed serial killers or the like... Ms. Fenech has some tasteful yet sexy nude scenes, however, just not nearly as many as I'd prefer!

The techniques employed by director Martino to transition from reality to fantasy and back again are simple yet effective, always in service to the plot and never used just to grandstand or show off. In fact, that last phrase would be an apt description of Martino's approach to this film as a whole. He takes excellent advantage of the wide frame; his camera is very rarely still, almost always in motion (even if only subtly), preventing routine dialog scenes from becoming static or bland. Apart from the audaciously bizarre opening dream sequence the film is quite stylish in a deliberately low-key manner. He also builds and maintains suspense quite well, the essential component of any successful thriller. (The clichéd 'car won't start' bit gets a freshening makeover with the camera blurrily whipsawing between Jane, frantic behind the wheel, and the doorway from which she expects Stiletto Man to emerge at any second.) Aided by composer Bruno Nicolai's evocative score and a script that neatly ties up the loose ends (while still retaining a trace of ambiguity at the end), All the Colors of the Dark is one of the most satisfying gialli I've seen in some time. I wasn't particularly impressed with Martino's most famous giallo, 1973's Torso, but after this one I may have to revisit it for a thorough reevaluation.

Информация о фильме:
Название: Все оттенки мрака
Оригинальное название: Tutti i colori del buio
Год выхода: 1972
Жанр: ужасы, мистика, триллер, giallo
Режиссер / Director: Серджио Мартино / Sergio Martino
Сценарий / Writers: Lewis E. Ciannelli (English version), Ernesto Gastaldi (screenplay)
Оператор / Cinematography by: Miguel Fernández Mila (as Miguel F. Mila), Giancarlo Ferrando
Original Music by: Bruno Nicolai

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