#16 - Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972)
(sir. Sergio Martino)
Man I love that title. This is a yet another (loose) adaptation of Poe's The Black Cat, and it is a total coincidence that I watched this one so close to Fulci's version of the same story. This one is also a giallo, full of despicable characters and mysterious murders. Oliviero, an abusive jerk, lives with his wife Irina in an estate near Venice. After his mother dies, he inherits her pet cat, ominously named "Satan". When women who are close to Oliviero start dying in terrible ways, the police suspect him, as does Irina, who constantly lives in fear of her husband. Is Oliviero a murderer, or is something supernatural going on?
This is a pretty great film from the golden age of the giallo. Sergio Martino isn't quite as well known as Argento or Bava, but he is a great director who made several excellent gialli in the 70's (with other fantastic titles like All the Colors of the Dark and The Case of the Scorpion's Tail). This movie isn't quite a visually interesting as many similar films from this time period, but the story is excellent, and the acting is really solid from everyone. It's occasionally a little sleazy, mostly because there are several unnecessary sex scenes, but overall it doesn't feel as exploitative as many films from later in the decade do. It's light on blood and gore, and focuses mostly on the mystery.
I'd say this is a better film than Fulci's, if only because the plot makes way more sense. It probably won't win over anyone who isn't already a fan of 70's giallo films, but I thought it was pretty excellent.
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