FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Leofwine_draca Here's a weird one - an Italian comedy/giallo crossbreed, filmed in Britain with a mainly Italian cast. However, the gambit pays off, and despite the predictable reading-of-the-will-followed-by-rash-of-murders premise, the film remains fresh and engaging up until the final unmasking. Surprisingly, the comic aspects of the script are in fact more entertaining than the more typical gloved killer antics, and in particular Gastone Moschin's portrayal of the bumbling but not altogether dense bobby Sergeant Thorpe is a delight. Moschin's cache of puzzled expressions, bizarre mannerisms, and awkward words is a delight, and his role is a pivotal one. Moschin never fails to be funny and his performance alone makes the film worthwhile.The rest of the Italian cast are all fine in their respective roles, and there's time for appearances from Beryl Cunningham - a hot black Euro-starlet at the time - and the British Lance Percival, who also excels as Scotland Yard's Superintendent Grey, and frequently gets to engage in amusing banter with Moschin. The characters are varied and interesting, with a fair assortment of weirdos (especially "Georgie", with his mother fixation) and icy Italian beauties - namely Ida Galli. The script mixes in red herrings and practical jokes involving staged murders with the real deaths to further muddy the plot, and while the film is neither gory nor violent - and, let's face it, there's not a lot of action either - it doesn't need to be. The comedy, for a change, is what helps the film stay watchable.The film is as stylish as usual for an Italian giallo, with lots of neat directorial flourishes, and you don't get much more classy than the opening discover of a murder when a hand is unearthed in a golf course much to the assembled's consternation. However, I could have done without the occasional moments that director Michele Lupo decides to use his camera like a trombone and make the audience feel giddy into the bargain! My favourite scene comes when the seemingly incompetent Thorpe displays his genius by explaining a particularly elaborate suicide set-up involving a gunshot recording, a dumb waiter, and resin from a silencer. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and often hilarious experience, although to give fair warning those expecting anything like a "serious" Italian genre film will be severely disappointed - the film-makers here know their premise is clichéd, so have all the fun they can at the story's expense.

lazarillo Agatha Christie mysteries and Italian gialli may have some things in common, but they're also very different. First off, gialli are really "mass-murder mysteries", whereas only a few Agatha Christie mysteries really fit that description(the most famous being her seminal "Ten Little Indians"). Moreover, Agatha Christie mysteries are very mannered and British while Italian gialli are very over-the-top and usually chock-full of lurid sex and violence. This movie is impressive, therefore, because it manages to successfully combine the two styles (much like Mario Bava's "Five Dolls for an August Moon"). It has a typical Agatha Christie set-up with various grasping relatives gathered at a remote country estate to hear a will, but like a giallo, it's also full of ridiculously shifty characters, sexual perversity, OTT crash-zooms, and overly dramatic music.Perhaps, even more impressive, it's one of the few gialli to successfully incorporate (completely intentional) black comedy. It really plays with the conventions of the mystery genre--the first person killed is the butler (so he didn't do it), and the Scotland Yard detective (Lance Percival) turns out to be an inept bumbler while the thick-looking local bobby (Gaston Moschin) turns out to be quite clever. Being a giallo though, it also has certain stock "giallo-esque" characters like an impotent, virginal mama's boy (Chris Chittel) who likes fake bloody suicides and a black woman(Beryl Cunningham)who is married to one of the family members and (naturally) is the most sexually predatory of the characters--with the possible exception of the saucy maid (Orchidea DeSantis).This has a great cast including Eveline Stewart, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, and American Peter Baldwin who were in any number of 60's and 70's Italian films. Gaston Moschin (who is GREAT here) was usually in Italian crime thrillers, but also had an important part in the "The Godfather 2". The sexy Beryl Cunningham was in "Crimes of the Black Cat", and the even sexier Orchidea DeSantis played all kinds of sexy roles in all kinds of sexy Italian movies. Even the English actors are familiar--Lance Percival was a big comedy actor in Britain at the time and Christopher Chittel was in another movie very much like this called "Erotic Inferno", except that it was a softcore porn movie with Mary Millington! (VERY few actors have ever appeared in both Italian giallo thrillers AND Mary Millington sex comedies). This has just received a superior release by Code Red. I would definitely check it out.

The_Void Weekend Murders is one of the more hard to find Giallo films, and I find that rather surprising as the English countryside setting as well as the mystery plot that spoofs Agatha Christie stories means that it's actually one of the more accessible films of the genre. Despite the fact that Weekend Murders is an Italian production, director Michele Lupo has done a great job of creating a distinctly British atmosphere, and this could easily have been a British film were it not for the poor dubbing. Michele Lupo has a great sense of humour and he succeeds several times in lampooning the tradition that the film is spoofing, and Weekend Murders is a very funny film throughout. We open on a golf course where a leisurely game is interrupted by the discovery of a hand sticking out of a sandpit. It soon becomes obvious that the butler didn't do it because, contrary to the norm, he is the first to go! We soon move on to the first real plot building scene, which takes form in a will reading to the members of a wealthy estate. Aside from getting a few laughs, we are also given the knowledge that the owner of the estate's favourite daughter is to inherit everything, much to the dismay of the rest of the house.Most of the humour in the film comes from the seemingly inept local policeman played by Gastone Moschin. His character soon hooks up with the self proclaimed ace Scotland Yard Superintendent Grey (Lance Percival), and their double act forms the backbone of the movie. The two pair up well actually, and their exchanges work because the two characters are so different. Unfortunately, the rest of the support cast isn't so memorable; and while none of them put in particularly bad performances - there isn't a real standout either. The film also has a few plot problems, as the focus isn't always on the mystery and the exchanges between the members of the house are often redundant and not relevant to the central theme. The mystery itself is rather bare, and although clever at the conclusion - the plot is not the labyrinth that I have come to expect from Giallo's. After spoofing just about every mystery cliché in existence, it is fitting that the common revealing scene at the end is also lampooned by Lupo, and while the identity of the murderer is actually rather obvious; at least the reasons behind it make some sort of sense. Worth tracking down!

freemanist If anyone out there has this on DVD give it a close look from the start. Why? Well, my Dad is in it!!!!! The stately home scenes were part shot at Somerleyton Hall, not far from where we live. Anyway, when my Dad and his brother, simply riding by and puzzled by a crowd, stopped the car to see what all the commotion was about, a back-combed sycophant suddenly appeared, carrying a clipboard and asked if they could spare a few moments to fill a couple of subsidiary roles.Hey presto, the old man became the young dark haired stretcher bearing ambulance man and his brother became a taxi driver (although his scene was cut). They were given exceptional 24 hour equity memberships (the actors union) and were dismissively paid about £10 each for their trouble - not bad for 1970!!! They were also told that the working title of the film was "Weekend Murders" but it might have some kind of Italian title upon release.Their abiding memory was of Lance Percival (English comedian & actor on the fringe of the "carry on" team, popular 1960's/1970's) being locked in the portable toilet by one of the sound crew.There you go - a bit of movie trivia for you.