Death Walks at Midnight - DVD

The second film in Luciano Ercoli's Death Walks series (and his third directorial effort to feature his wife Nieves Navarro, aka Susan Scott), Death Walks at Midnight is arguably the director's masterpiece - aided in no small part by the screenwriting talents of giallo master Ernesto Gastaldi (Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, Torso). Navarro stars as Valentina - a model who, in the midst of a drug-fuelled photoshoot, witnesses a brutal murder in the apartment opposite hers. But when the authorities refuse to believe that a crime has been committed, Valentina is forced to assume the role of amateur sleuth in order to unravel the mystery. Although Ercoli only made a small number of giallo films during his time as director, Death Walks at Midnight (with it's ultra-stylized set-pieces and grisly murder sequences) would serve to forever cement his reputation within the genre.

Lawrence Tierney, Melanie Verlin. Nancy just can't seem to catch a break! First leaves her home after her stepfather makes advances on her and while on her way to California she meets two young men who seem nice. However, nice is a relative term as she later comes face to face with a night of terror that may take her life. 1982/color/91 min/R.

Although less celebrated than some of his better known giallo peers such as Dario Argento, Mario Bava and Sergio Martino, late producer-turned-director Luciano Ercoli contributed three hugely entertaining and memorable entries to the genre - including this, his 1971 sophomore effort, Death Walks on High Heels. Spanish-born model and actress Nieves Navarro stars as Nicole, an exotic dancer who finds herself terrorized by a black-clad assailant determined on procuring her murdered father's stolen gems. Fleeing Paris in hopes of evading her knife-wielding pursuer, Nicole arrives in England only to discover that death stalks her at every corner. With the scene-stealing Navarro at it's center, Death Walks on High Heels manages to subvert the conventions of the giallo film by having a ballsy, well-rounded female protagonist to root for - representing a welcome departure from the neurotic stereotypes found elsewhere within the genre.