The girl who knew too much – Mario Bava, 1963

The girl who knew too much (“La ragazza che sapeva troppo”)

Italy, 1963

Director: Mario Bava

Script: Mario Bava, Ennio de Concini, Enzo Corbucci, Eliana De Sabata, Mino Guerrini


Cast: John Saxon (Dr. Marcello Bassi), Leticia Román (Nora), Valentina Cortese (Laura Craven-Torrani), Titti Tomaino (Inspector)


Music: Roberto Nicolosi

Story

The young American Nora Davis, an assiduous reader of detective novels, arrives in Rome to spend her vacations. She goes to the apartment of her hostess, the elderly Ethel, a friend of her family. The old woman suffers from ailments, and the handsome doctor Marcello takes care of her. Soon a mutual attraction will be born between the doctor and the newcomer.

That same night, Ethel suffers a stroke and dies. Nora tries to call Marcello, but when the phone doesn’t work, she goes out to look for him at the hospital where she works. On the way, passing by the steps of Piazza Spagna, someone steals her purse. Next, Nora sees a young woman who has just been stabbed. The tourist hides and sees the silhouette of the murderer appear, who takes the body away. Then Nora loses consciousness. Someone finds her like this at dawn and tries to revive her by giving her some alcohol. But when a guard approaches, the man who was trying to help Nora retreats. The guard believes that Nora is drunk (because of the smell of alcohol) and that his story of a woman being stabbed is nothing more than fantasy and hallucination. There are no traces of blood or any dead woman there. At the hospital, they also think that everything must have been a figment of their imagination.

At Ethel’s funeral, Nora meets Laura Craven-Torrani, who lives right across from Piazza Spagna. As the tourist has lost her hostess, Laura offers her hospitality. So, the North American stays there, where she receives the frequent visits of Marcello, who is willing to show her the city.

Nora remains convinced that she witnessed a real murder. She soon learns that it was there that she was killed ten years earlier, under circumstances identical to those she saw, Laura’s sister. Marcello and another doctor think that Nora may have had a “metapsychic” experience, seeing, in an altered state of consciousness, something that really happened there but much earlier (i.e. she saw an event at the place where it happened but with a temporary dislocation). That crime, occurred in the context of a series of murders that shook Rome ten years ago. The victims were always young women, and the crimes were committed in alphabetical order of last names. The first victim’s surname began with A, the second with B, the third with C (Craven, Laura’s sister)… And while Nora is thinking about it, she receives a mysterious anonymous phone call, reminding her that her own surname is “Davis”, that is, it begins with D… So, the young woman fears that she might be next.

She and Marcello try to investigate, and they come into contact with a former reporter named Landini. He explains to them that ten years ago he and his psychiatrist friend Torrani (Laura’s husband) had a suspect in the crime wave convicted, an unbalanced bum who was sent to a criminal asylum. But now Landini regrets this, considering that the man who helped convict was only a scapegoat. He says he is willing to find out the truth. And he believes that what Nora witnessed on the steps was no hallucination?

Commentary

This feature film is generally considered to be the first official giallo, the film that would lay the narrative and stylistic foundations for the Italian thrillers that would follow. The title is a clear allusion to Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956). In fact, this British director and master of suspense can be considered one of Mario Bava’s main influences. However, Bava wanted to call his film “Incubus” (“Nightmare”), and “The Girl Who Knew Too Much” was the name imposed by production, since it was considered more commercial when establishing the connection with the famous Hitchcock.

In fact, the concept of giallo is explicitly mentioned (by a voice-over narrator), since the main character is a fan of “gialli” (i.e., detective and crime) novels. In Italian “Giallo” means “yellow”, and in this context it refers to the poor quality (yellowish) paper on which those novels used to be printed.

In the narrative there is a curious circular structure, related to smoking, because in the first scene we see Nora’s seatmate on the plane offering her a cigarette and giving her a pack of cigarettes. Upon landing in Rome, this individual is arrested at the airport for drug trafficking. The spectator thinks that all this will have something to do with the development of the plot but it is not so. However, in the final scene the subject of smoking reappears so that that scene of the film’s opening becomes sentimental (although all this only brings some comic relief, and is not relevant to the story itself).

In the script, besides Ennio De Concini (scriptwriter of the first seasons of “La Piovra”) and the director himself, Sergio Corbucci (one of the greatest exponents of the Italo-Western, along with his namesake Leone) participated, Mino Guerrini (who in 1966 would direct the remarkable “The third eye”) and Franco Prosperi (director in 1982 of “Gunan King of the Barbarians” and in 1983 of “The Throne of Fire”, two sword and candle films that emerged from the success of “Conan the Barbarian”).

The actress who plays the main character, Leticia Román, is not Spanish as you might think from her name, but Italian (her name is actually Letizia Novarese).

The American John Saxon (who was also of Italian origin, real name Carmine Orrico) plays Marcello. This actor developed a great part of his career in the country of his ancestors, participating among many other films in “Tenebre” (Dario Argento, 1982), in the film about the Mafia “Baciamo le mani” (Vittorio Schiraldi, 1973), and in several of Umberto Lenzi’s polizzieschi. He is also one of the main actors in “Operation Dragon” (Robert Clouse, 1973), starring Bruce Lee.

The soundtrack, by Roberto Nicolosi in the Italian version and Les Baxter in the English version, includes a song by the well-known Adriano Celentano.

The English version of the film (or rather the American one), is called “Evil eye” and has an alternative montage that has cut scenes and added others, giving a more comical approach to the film.

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Cinema, Giallo, Italy

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Santo vs. Evil Brain – Joselito Rodríguez, 1958

Santo contra el cerebro del mal (Santo vs. the Evil Brain)

Mexico/Cuba, 1958

Director: Joselito Rodríguez

Script: Fernando Osés, Enrique Zambrano

Main actors: Joaquín Cordero (Dr. Campos), Norma Suárez (Elisa), Enrique Zambrano (Teniente Zambrano), El Santo (El Enmascarado), Fernando Osés (El Incógnito)

Music: Salvador Espinosa

Genre: Crime, science fiction

Story

Several bandits chase a masked man until they surround him in an alley and knock him out. Unconscious, they take him to the laboratory of Dr. Campos, who injects him with a serum to appropriate his will. From that moment on, the mysterious individual who covers his face (and who is none other than Santo) will blindly carry out Campos’ orders. He leads a double life, because while he presents himself to society as a respectable and prestigious scientist, he is really a dangerous megalomaniac with aspirations of world domination.

Dr. Campos has an assistant, Gerardo, and a secretary, Elisa, who are not aware of his perfidious plans and ignore that the professor leads a gang of thugs. In the city, famous scientists are disappearing, and the police put agents to escort Dr. Campos – fearing that he too will be kidnapped. What Lieutenant Zambrano’s men don’t know is that it is Campos himself who has ordered the kidnappings of his professional colleagues; for two reasons: He sees them as competitors and at the same time he intends to take advantage of their discoveries.

The masked man, with his mind nullified and manipulated by Campos, has become an automaton at his service; and he acts as one of the most effective thugs of the gang in the kidnapping of scientists and other important personalities. The escorts that Zambrano had placed to protect the wise men are defeated by the Saint. When the lieutenant finds out, he is astonished, for the masked man is one of his best agents. To find out if he has really gone over to the enemy or is being used, Zambrano sends another fighter with his face covered by a mask, known as “Incógnito”.

For his part, Dr. Campos has a banker kidnapped and subjected to his control by brainwashing him with injections and serums, using the same procedure as with the Masked Man. Under the influence of Campos, the bank manager strips the safe from one of his branches, to bring him the money. Elisa witnesses the banker’s strange behavior and begins to be suspicious. To keep the girl from talking about it, Dr. Campos orders her abduction. Elisa is held in a warehouse, while Gerardo tries to do his best to locate her.

The Masked Man, to whom Campos has assigned the role of “watchdog” of his laboratory, will have to deal with the Incognito; who enters the scientist’s premises to investigate. The Incognito manages to reduce his opponent and give him a counter-measure so that he recovers his normal state. Now the Masked One is again on the side of justice, but he will dissimulate, staying within the band as an infiltrator.

At the same time, the evil scientist is preparing to sell confidential documents to a foreign power; as well as “the formula for the disintegration of cells”…

Commentary

It is a known fact that in Batista’s Cuba organized crime was at large: The Mafia casinos, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky… This film also shows us that there was another class of criminals wreaking havoc on the Caribbean island: The mad scientists.

It can be said that Dr. Campos has a double identity, since most people perceive him as a scholar who works for the good of society, while he secretly devotes himself and his gang to planning ambitious and delirious plans for world domination. A double identity is also held by the masked ones who are willing to stop him: Two super agents of the secret police with their naked torso and covered faces – one with a silver mask and the other with a black one. The first is Santo, the famous Mexican vigilante fighter, and this was his debut on the big screen.

Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, such was his name in real life, was already known in his home country as a wrestling athlete. His role in “Santo contra cerebro del mal” was his first appearance in a movie. In the following decades, around fifty more films would follow.

The film we are dealing with here is linked to “Santo vs. the Infernal Men ” by several factors. Both are by the same director, and were shot in parallel in the same locations in Havana at the end of 1958 (shortly before the triumph of Castro’s revolution). In addition to the Saint, several other actors in the cast are the same: Among them Joaquín Cordero, who in this “Evil Brain” embodies the mad scientist while in “Infernal Men” plays the hero. Enrique Zambrano, on the other hand, plays a similar role in both films: He is the police lieutenant (his character in “Cerebro del mal” has the same last name).

There are identical scenes and shots in both films: The agent of the foreign power who goes to meet Campos’ men leaves the Colina Hotel (which still exists, by the way) and goes to a remote area where some individuals give him “instructions” and others try to assault him… Exactly the same scene also appears in “Infernal Men” in a different context. We also see the same performance of some singers (“Trío Servando Diaz”) in a beach bar and the final scene at the airport is the same for both films – only in “Evil Brain” the lieutenant refers to two masked men (his companion asks him: “Why do they cover their faces, what nationality are they?” and the lieutenant answers: “They are citizens of the world, their duty has no borders. They cover their identity behind masks to do good for humanity.” In the epilogue of “Infernal Men” we have identical dialogue but in the singular, since the only masked one that appears is El Santo).

The screenwriters of both films were Enrique Zambrano himself (the actor who plays the police lieutenant on both occasions) and Fernando Osés (the fighter who gives life to “Incognito”)

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Cinema, Mexico, Santo

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The tale of Zatoichi – Kenji Misumi, 1962

The tale of Zatoichi (Zatôichi monogatari)

Japan, 1962

Director: Kenji Misumi

Scriptwriter: Minoru Inuzuka (based on Kan Shimozawa’s story)

Main actors: Shintaro Katsu (Zatoichi), Masayo Banri (Tane), Ryuzo Shimada (Shigezo)

Soundtrack: Akira Ifukube

Story

The blind masseur Ichi, who travels the roads of nineteenth-century Japan towards the end of the Edo period, arrives at a village where two yakuza clans are about to start a gang war.

Although he lacks the faculty of vision, Ichi (who has the other senses overdeveloped) is an excellent dice player and a master in the art of fencing. So much that his skill with the sword is capable of defeating in combat the majority of those who can see.

Once in the village, the itinerant blind swordsman wants to ask one of the local chiefs of the Yakuza, Sukegoro, for work. They know each other already. When his men inform him of Sukegoro´s absence, Ichi asks for permission to participate in their dice game. To the gangsters’ great surprise, the blind man wins, after which he prepares to retire following a brief verbal confrontation with the yakuza, who accuse him of cheating.

Two of the bandits follow Zatoichi with the intention of murdering him, but then boss Sukegoro appears, inviting Ichi to stay, and telling his men to welcome him as a guest.

Sukegoro knows the masterful qualities that the blind vagabond has as a warrior, and tries to get Ichi to perform sword tricks in front of him and another visitor. But Ichi, who is having a relaxing massage, says that his mastery of weapons “is not to be exhibited” (or in other words, that his faculties are not “to entertain” others; he is not willing to be a buffoon). Sukegoro is annoyed because he is not used to receiving refusals from those he considers “his inferiors”.

At the same time, in the pension of the Iioka clan where Ichi is housed, there is also the yakuza Tatekichi (or Tate), one of Sukegoro’s men, and his beautiful sister Tane. There is a conflict between the two, involving third parties, as Tane admonishes his brother for abandoning his girlfriend Saki after getting her pregnant, while Tate in turn urges his sister to return with her ex-boyfriend Seisuke (another yakuza friend of Tate).

Sukegoro lets Ichi know about the upcoming clash, which will take place against the rival clan, the Sasagawa. The boss wants to hire the blind man, and he accepts after cleverly getting Sukegoro to raise the payout from 3 to 8 mon.

One day, Ichi is fishing in the river when another fisherman appears with whom he engages in conversation; he turns out to be the ronin Hirate, a “failed” samurai from Edo, very fond of drinking and who has been hired as a mercenary by the Sasagawa. Both Ichi and Hirate become friends despite working for opposing gangs. Hirate is impressed by Ichi’s prodigious sensitive faculties: The blind man immediately perceives when a small fish has taken the bait. During the talk, the blind swordsman asks his interlocutor if he is ill… Hirate, surprised, replies that “he is not ill”, while repressing an incipient cough. Indeed, because of his way of breathing, Ichi has been able to realize that the samurai is seriously affected by some serious pulmonary or bronchial affection (which, as will be seen, makes him vomit blood, and which is surely the cause of his seeking comfort in alcohol…).

Another day the corpse of a young woman appears in the same river. This is Saki, Tate’s former girlfriend, whom he abandoned after making her pregnant. Although it is not clear whether it was suicide or murder (by Tate), the second possibility is more probable. (Shortly after the body was found, Ichi’s olfactory faculties reveal to him that Tate comes from meeting a woman; he emphatically denies it and is very nervous when the blind man mentions it). Tane, even believing that it was a suicide, blames his brother for the young woman’s death. Tate, for his part, seeks to force her to return to Seisuke, but she refuses, and seeks protection in Ichi.

Ichi and Hirate meet again some other time, to fish in the river and drink sake. Hirate, despite his illness and his dependence on alcohol, is (like the blind man) a great swordsman. Both are far superior to most men, and each of them is by far the most skilled warrior of the respective yakuza clan that has hired them. As the disgraced samurai says, gang warfare “already seems inevitable” and when it breaks out, “each of us will be on the opposite side”.

Shortly afterwards, Hirate collapses in the middle of a blood vomit and becomes unfit for the fight. The Iioka clan, upon learning this, decide that the time has come to launch the attack, as the Sasagawa are deprived of their best man.

The Sasagawa, for their part, are preparing for the confrontation, and let the sick Hirate know that they will use a shotgun against “the blind”, whose skill with the sword they are aware of. The shotgun will be “your substitute” says chief Shigezo to Hirate. Upon hearing this, the ronin replies that this is playing dirty, that he will not allow it, and begins with great effort to join, saying that he is willing to participate in the fight as long as Shigezo refuses to use the shotgun. The yakuza boss, surprised, agrees to that demand. A little later, Ichi (who was already willing to leave without participating in the confrontation) is informed about all this and decides to stay, going where the fight is about to take place. At that moment Tane arrives, asking him to take her with him, and declaring her love. Ichi, very moved, and in spite of feeling also attracted to her, rejects this; because he is, besides blind, a vagabond, a mercenary and “I could not make you happy…”. In addition, at that moment he is more concerned about the fate of his friend Hirate. While Tane tells him that he will wait for him at the exit of the village, Ichi leaves towards where the combat is taking place.

There, Hirate is already in the middle of a fight, and despite his illness, he is defeating the dozens of swordsmen of the Iioka clan who throw themselves at him. When Ichi arrives, Hirate is happy, and decides that he wants to die having a fight against someone like him, against a warrior of his category. Ichi, who would have preferred not having to fight him, accepts his comrade’s challenge, saying “he won’t make it easy”, and then the blind man takes out the sharp blade of his bamboo cane (which he uses as both a pod and a cane).

Finally, Hirota collapses and dies. Ichi deeply regrets it, but those of the Iioka clan rejoice and, provided with new encouragement, fiercely attack the enemies until the final victory.

The Sasagawa are defeated. Chief Sukegoro thanks Ichi for his intercession and when he prepares to offer him sake, the furious blind man, sombre because of the death of his friend and this pointless gang war, lets the yakuza leader know his anger and leaves the village definitively to continue on his way. He easily makes one of Sukegoro’s henchmen fall into the river, who was crawlingly trying to stab him in the back; and then climbs up a hill so as not to have to go through the exit road from the village, in order to avoid Tane, who was waiting for him there as he had announced.

Comment

This is the first in the series of films about the character, the original Zatoichi, on the basis of whose success the following sequels would later be made. Very good chambara with the great Shintaro Katsu in the main role. The film highlights the importance of friendship, loyalty and honor, as well as the conflict of the main character and his strong desire to overcome: Ichi is marginalized from society because of his blindness; this marginalization has pushed him to vagrancy and delinquency, but also to develop surprising skills, which have turned him into a great masseur, an expert in games of chance… and, thanks to hard training and great concentration, also in a master of fencing. So Ichi decided that he should compensate his blindness with other faculties.

Very good and very recommendable.

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Cinema, Japan, Zatoichi

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