The Forbidden Photos Of A Lady Above Sus — The Forbidden Photos Of A Lady Above Suspicion( Bl
The Forbidden Photos Of A Lady Above Suspicion (aka Days of Anguish) was an Italian produced Giallo filmed on location in & around Barcelona. It’s a sleek, glamorous, at times soapy & vaguely trippy Giallo- that nicely twists & turns its way along. The film was the directorial debut of Luciano Ercoli, who directly after this went onto directed two other giallo’s- 1971’s Death Walks In High Heels, & 1972’s Death Walks At Midnight.
The film's plot focuses in Minou(Dagmar Lassander)- whose married to Peter a debt-strapped businessman who runs a scuba diving company. One night while out walking on her on, Minou is accustomed by a knife cane wielding man- who throws her to the ground, rips her dress, and before leaving informs her that her husband is a killer. As the film progresses the man reappears again & again- first trying to blackmail her- then forcing himself on her. Is the man real or part of her tranquillizer & booze fogged mind? did her husband really kill someone? and does the pair’s kinky photo swapping friend have something to do with what’s going on?
The Forbidden Photos Of A Lady Above Suspicion managers to nicely balance a sense of building tension & mystery, with effective enough twists & turns. Sure at times, it comes across a little chatty & slightly vapid- but the leads changing wardroom, varied settings/ locations, and the euro 70’s campiness of the whole thing, keep you interested when the pace lulls. As mentioned in the opening paragraph the film is mostly bloodless, with little or no body count- but we do get a fleeting glances of female flesh, as well some moments of dark trip-ness here & there. On the whole, it’s a enjoy enough early 1970’s Giallo, featuring a memorable enough Morricone score, a good-to-serviceable cast, and a plot that will keep you nicely guessing until the end.
The new scan looks very nice & well defined- with the films effective & varied colour pallet really nicely showed off in the Blu Ray format. Extras wise we get a good bunch of stuff- first we get a commentary track from Kat Ellinger of Diabolique Magazine, and author of All the Colours of Sergio Martino - this is third or fourth track I’ve heard from Ms Ellinger, and once again it’s very well researched & wide in its scope- moving from discussing the progression of the Giallo from the early female-led takes on the genre, onto the more male-led & gory later films. Onto talking about the films stylistic choices, actors background & other films they were in, and beyond- all in all, it's a really well done & thought out track. Next is Private Pictures- this is a forty-four-minute doc, bringing together newly edited together an interview with director Luciano Ercoli, actress Nieves Navarro, and writer Ernesto Gastaldi. Next we have The Forbidden Soundtrack of the Big Three- this is nearing fifty minutes appreciation of the soundtrack, and those involved in the score by musician and soundtrack collector Lovely Jon- he comes across very down to earth, and passionate about the score & it’s creators- making some great observations, filling in facts about when the soundtrack was recorded, etc- all told, one of the most interesting of all the extras here. Next, we have The Forbidden Lady - forty five minute Q& A session with lead actress Dagmar Lassander- this sees her discussing a wider career, this film & more- and it’s an interesting feature. Lastly, we have original Us & Italian trailers.
It’s great to see Arrow digging deeper into the Giallo genre, and releasing films like The Forbidden Photos Of A Lady Above Suspicion- with this release seeing the labels normal care, love & good selection of extras in place. And it’s certainly made me curios to check out Luciano Ercoli other two Giallo films.