This was my first time watching this giallo and I quite enjoyed it! Nieves Navarro plays a photographer who witnesses a killing through a tower viewer (i love it) and finds herself ass deep in murder and mayhem. Any giallo with Nieves is a winner in my book, but you know what’s even better? Her never ending collection of wigs that span multiple movies! In this one, she dons a giant permed Afroesque number to go undercover as a hooker and it was even more awesome than the greenhouse finale. 

In between those two epic scenes, this sometimes gets a little slow and it probably could have done with a couple less sex scenes because it felt like there were 100 of them. Still, the kill scenes are very well done and I’ll take every bit of that fierce wig-wearing Nieves that I can possibly get.

Death Carries a Cane is a solid giallo—well made, enjoyable, boasts decent performances and crosses off all the popular tropes within the genre, confidentially standing on its own two legs but lacking any steps towards genre originality that it’s superiors languish in for accolades. 

A recommend for genre fans who don’t give a shit about any of what I just mentioned about pushing genre boundaries and just want to see a j&b sleazefest with a fedora wearing, gloved maniac in black out for the blood of a Nieves Navarro after she witnesses said killer’s handiwork through a telescope.

Nieves Navarro gifts a half star to any movie that she’s in <3

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

7.5/10
Right i know its from a different director and its has a very different tone to the other two but I’m putting this in a trilogy of ‘Death’
I’m naming it the ‘Death walks in high heels at midnight while carrying a cane’ trilogy..so there..its a trilogy lol.

I watched the three of them one after another so my heads abit muddled at the moment..different plot points are all racing though my head and thats when you know you’ve watched a decent Giallo,when by the end your just scratching your head,,thinking..ugh 🤔

And Neives Navarro is back..did i need anymore temptation to watch this..simple answer...NO.

 Highly recommend all three ‘Death’ Giallos.

Il Mostro di Norimberga: Film #8

Die Nacht der rollenden Köpfe
(Ein böser Film)

You know you're watching a quality film when the title card has an animated rolling head and a disclaimer that the movie is "evil" or "naughty".

The bumbling detective spends most of the time sharpening pencils with a razor blade and manages to accidentally catch the police chief trying to solicit a prostitute. Sal Borghese has a funny scene as a weirdo purse manufacturer.

The German title for this is Die Nacht der Rollenden Koepfe, which I believe is "The Night of the Rolling Heads." Gialli have the best titles.

It's a decent mystery/thriller with some solidly made murder sequences. There's a nice soundtrack and a few twists and turns. I don't ask for much more out of giallo films.

October count: 39/31.

Today in implausible Giallo moments, a breathless phone call between a terrified prostitute and the police, where she wangs on endlessly about how scared she is of the killer but NEVER MENTIONS THEIR NAME 

Other than that, it's pretty nifty

Nieves Navarro at her breathiest and bounciest! I could really watch her all the time in all of her films. This one had a unusual amount of soft core sex scenes, and one surreal dance number featuting a woman with glitter smeared all over her breasts!

At a certain point, I couldn’t help wondering if the circle of Giallo actors took turns being the killer in each of these films - I am obsessed with going back and watching some of these from the beginning to see if there are clues to the murderer’s identity - often there aren’t any at all

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Not the greatest giallo, but is still a decent watch and has the great Nieves Navarro, who is always great in these films. The set pieces are not up to the levels of Dario Argento, but are still effective and entertaining. It also has some decent comedic moments, though admittedly some it are probably unintentional.

Paint by numbers Giallo.
On the plus side there are one or two good set pieces, and a beautiful Nieves Navarro to look at; but on the negative side the action is clunky and the denouement is idiotic.

Gialli January #33:

A waste of a perfectly good Nieves Navarro.

Oddly never boring, but insipid and uninspired. Ugly and cheap-looking and poorly lit. Hastily edited, with incongruent patched-in softcore-y sex scenes and atrocious dubbing. Both factors lead me to believe I saw a German-distributed version.

Has the one of saving grace of giving the cliched killer (whose identity you see coming in the first 20 minutes) a walking cane in his arsenal to snare victims before slicing 'em with a razor.

Otherwise, (blows raspberry).

“Death Carries a Cane” could easily be titled “Giallo Movie” since there is nothing to particularly distinguish it. There are some fine set pieces, a razor murder every fifteen minutes or so, leather gloves, a fedora, psycho-sexual motivations, red herrings galore, and copious nudity. It’s a serviceable, if not earth-shattering giallo.

There are worse ways to spend your time than 90 minutes in the company of Nieves Navarro.

www.yllr.net/filmarchiv/movie/id%2C567/Die-Nacht-der-rollenden-Koepfe.html

Schundig, aber nicht so sehr wie das DVD-Cover vermuten lässt. Kurzweilig, starke Momente, sogar komisch, toller Auftakt, bissl viel unnötige Nacktheit

Passi di danza su una lama di rasoio (Dance Steps on the Edge of a Razor)
Die Nacht der rollenden Köpfe (The Night of the Rolling Heads)

A relatively straightforward little giallo with a typically feisty lead performance from Nieves Navarro. They lay the red herrings on a little too heavy in the first half, but as usual once the killer was revealed I was baffled by their supposed motivation.

Nothing too outstanding in the writing, direction or score, but competent and enjoyable.

And just like that, my final Giallo starring Nieves Navarro (Susan Scott) is ticked off the list. While Death Carries a Cane won't be winning any awards for originality it's a serviceable enough slice of Italian murder for anyone with a passing interest in the genre.

Its such a shame the narrative jumps from the Hitchcockian set-up where a girl witnesses a murder, to another couple who take it upon themselves to solve the crime. By narrowing the focus on Navarro's character this would've been a much less convoluted movie. Sadly, if you watch a whole bunch of Giallo, there's just nothing in Death Carries a Cane that sets it apart from the pack.

As someone who really enjoyed Maurizio Pradeaux's Death Steps in the Dark, I had high hopes for this movie, and while there are some great wigs, costumes and red herrings, I'll have forgotten about the whole thing by Wednesday.

Catastrophically inept and brain-shrinkingly tedious. Right at the bottom of the giallo barrel. One star for Nieves Navarro, who always brings a slightly manic, quirky character to these roles.