The Third Eye – Mino Guerrini, 1966

But the old countess, possessive and tyrannical towards her son, is against Mino getting married; and in general against him having a girlfriend and seeing girls – because she wants him to take care of her exclusively. The jealous Marta is not too fond of Mino’s girlfriend either. Laura senses the constant hostility of both of them. One afternoon she comes to see Mino before leaving for a few days; she is going to meet her sister, who has just returned from Switzerland.

The old countess is bitter about her son’s engagement. “Before, he and I were so close… Everything has changed since he met that girl…” she complains to Martha. “Of course, the wedding might not take place… she might have an accident…” adds the old lady with a mischievous evil smile. Marta understands what the lady of the house is referring to, and goes to Mino’s fiancée’s car, while she is taking a bath, with the perfidious intention of sabotaging some mechanism in the vehicle. Marta has grown up in that mansion, her father was an associate of Count Alberti, Mino’s father. The two died together accidentally during a hunt in the woods. Since then the countess and her son “were like one person”….

Mino is a great fan of taxidermy. In his “laboratory” he dedicates himself to embalming small animals, especially birds. He is busy with that task when Marta comes in to tell him that dinner is ready. Mino asks about his girlfriend, but the maid replies that Laura has already left. He is surprised that she hasn’t said goodbye… The mother and the maid told the girl that he had “gone to the city”.

The young count immediately gets behind the wheel of his car to try to catch up with his beloved. The road is dangerous and full of curves. When Laura sees Mino approaching, she prepares to brake… but it is impossible. The brakes do not respond, and her car (with her inside) goes off the road and plunges into a ravine. Mino has witnessed the accident, rushes down to the river where the ravine ends, and finds to his horror that his girlfriend has died…

Meanwhile, at the Alberti mansion, the old countess is scolding the maid Marta as usual. The latter, for the first time, displays a rebellious attitude, and among other things accuses the old woman of treating her son as if he were a baby. The enraged old woman exclaims: “This is the payment for having treated you like a daughter for all these years…” “Like a daughter? Like a slave!” replies Martha. The two fight, and Marta ends up pushing the old lady down the stairs. When the lady tries to get up, she is beaten to death.

Mino returns home grieving after the tragic death of his fiancée. But fate has a new catastrophe in store for him… Entering the mansion, he finds police and doctors watching him with gloomy faces. Marta cries disconsolately (with a false and cynical sorrow) “She was like a mother to me…”. Mino understands what has happened, and falls into a deep depression over the next few weeks. Nightmares and hallucinations torture him day and night.

But Marta, the only person left by his side, will take advantage of the situation. She had always been secretly in love with him, and for years she had accumulated a great resentment for having been treated as a mere servant despite being the daughter of an important associate of the deceased count.

To try to disconnect from her anguished inner turmoil, Mino goes to a jazz club where an attractive young woman dances and performs striptease. When she has finished her number, Mino invites her to his home. Maria is a bit intimidated by the gloomy appearance of the mansion. When they go to lie together in a large double bed, the young dancer screams in terror when she sees what is on the other side of the bed: the corpse of a woman. It is Laura’s embalmed body, for Mino recovered his dead beloved from the wreckage of the car before it sank into the waters of the river, and then mummified her.

Mino then feels an irrepressible urge to strangle the dancer. When he has killed her, he weeps with remorse. But Marta arrives to console him. She assures him that she will help him get rid of the corpse, using acid. Maria is only the first of a series of victims of the growing madness of the troubled Mino… soon also a prostitute he picks up from the street has the same end.

Marta is aware that the young count is becoming increasingly dependent on her. The maid tells Mino that she will only stay with him if he agrees to take her as his wife, and the count agrees. “I will be an understanding woman, united with you in good… and above all in evil.” After the death of the old countess, it is now she who will try to manipulate Mino as she pleases.

But events take an unforeseen turn when one day Daniela, Laura’s twin sister, arrives at the villa…