The Man with Icy Eyes (1971)

Why so much hype?

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

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Another well made, but snail paced film from Alberto De Martino, a quasi-giallo set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which lends a surreal Breaking Bad vibe to the proceedings.A senator is gunned down outside of his house and a man who claims he was tricked into being there is arrested and charged with his murder. Antonio Sabato is the hot shot reporter who thinks that something down quite sound right about the whole deal, and sets out to prove the man innocent, only to end up getting the guy sent down and marked for execution! Whoops! Better try harder, Antonio! Hindering or helping Antonio is his boss Keenan Wynn, a friend of the senator, and Barbara Bouchet, who claims to have witnessed a man with icy eyes talking to the accused. Antonio thinks she's full of crap, but then he starts to receive contact from the guy with the icy eyes, things get very serious.Indeed, so serious that director De Martino must have thought that things weren't stupid enough (I'm sure he was happy things were dull enough though), so he added in the semi-supernatural plot twist of the astrologer who predicts Antonio will die just before midnight on the same day that guy in jail will get gassed. Then this guy proceeds to be everywhere Antonio is, just to remind him over and over and over again! Then there's the insurance salesman who is oblivious to the car chases and threats to Antonio while continually trying to sell him life insurance. Oh, and the bit where Antonio thinks he's survived to midnight until someone reminds him that it's Daylight Savings Time and the clocks have gone back one hour! That last hour where Antonio drives around trying to solve the case it most hilarious of all, because he zips around about forty locations, has a fight, slaps Barbara Bouchet around, drives all around town and makes it outside of the prison for the end of the film, all within one hour. Amazing.This is yet another boring film with just the odd bit of interest from De Martino. Somehow this guy went on to work with a lot of A-list American actors. Go figure.

From the way this film started and from its title, I felt maybe we were in giallo territory but as this develops it becomes a much more routine thriller. Albeit and interesting, involving and largely successful one complete with suspenseful ending (just a little over done as we count the minutes to midnight!) and gas chamber scene. Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, we see various real locations so this may have been real too, it certainly looked it. Adriano Bolzoni is not very convincing as the harried reporter running round trying to sort things out but I guess he looks good. As, of course does the majestic Barbara Bouchet, who acts her socks off (and everything else) and makes the very most of a modest part. I suppose the storyline is a bit weak and there aren't too many thrills and spills but it kept me happy. Partly, I think, because the supporting cast are good and varied, there is some humour, the thing keeps moving forward, it is well shot and it is also much helped by a jaunty soundtrack.

The Man With Icy Eyes is one of the rarest Giallo's out there, and to be honest I'm not really surprised that it hasn't cemented itself a more profound place in Giallo history. The film is undoubtedly very well made and features a strong plot; but unfortunately Alberto De Martino's film is not particularly exciting at any point and the lack of gory murders that made other genre films such highlights makes the film's chances of becoming a genre favourite slimmer still. I would say that the film is something of a cross-over between the Giallo and Polizi genres, with a lot of the focus being on an investigation carried out by the lead character. The film begins with the assassination of an Arizona state senator. Ambitious journalist Eddie Mills (an Italian immigrant) is assigned to report on the case and he promptly begins investigating the crime. His investigation leads him to a stripper who seems to know more than she is letting on. The police later arrest a man they describe as having 'icy eyes', but Eddie believes he may not be the real killer.The film is fairly well placed; although it does have a tendency to get confusing, and this is at least partly caused by the lack of excitement which can make concentrating on the film difficult. The mystery itself is not particularly interesting either, and I found myself not particularly caring who the murderer is on more than one occasion. I have to admit that the copy I saw was not of the best quality, so I couldn't fully appreciate the director's capturing of the locations; but most of it looked pretty desolate and the film doesn't feature the captivating colour scheme shown in many of the best Giallo's. Antonio Sabato takes the lead role and it decent in it, and he gets good support from the sexy Barbara Bouchet; whose role was too small for my liking. There's not a great deal of distraction from the central plot; only a 'supernatural' side plot that doesn't go anywhere. Overall, I have to admit that I found this film to be rather dull. There's nothing outstanding about it, and I'd only recommend it to real hardcore collectors.

An Arizona State Senator named Neil Robertson is murdered in front of his house, and the local police arrest a male suspect who has icy eyes. Then an Italian journalist, who is obliged to use somehow Americanised name, Eddie Mills, finds a strip-teaser named Anne, who seems to be a witness of the murder. And, partly because Anne testifies against the accused, the man with icy eyes is found guilty. But soon Eddie realised something wrong with the whole case... First of all, I want to say this film is not particularly bad. Indeed, this one is much better than the director's 1972 Giallo titled SCENES FROM A MURDER. However, this film doesn't seem to be a masterpiece mainly because its latter half is almost exclusively concerned with HOW TO STOP THE WRONG EXECUTION. Consequently, in proportion as the story develops, apparently most important question, namely, WHO IS THE ACTUAL KILLER?, becomes less and less important. Indeed, this film as a whole doesn't seem to be serious about the question. Furthermore, the last sequence of this film is much less suspenseful than that of Robert Wise's 1958 film, I WANT TO LIVE!, though these are concerned essentially with the same. And I think this being-less-suspenseful in the most important sequence is due to the director's almost characteristically paced direction rather than to the story-and-screenplay themselves. And, instead of the cinematic tension I WANT TO LIVE! has, this film has the rather (unnaturally) theatrical, like the scene in which Eddie and his partner, Hammond, are attacked by some robber just 20 minutes before the execution. Here, it seems to be natural to add this film more or less resembles Clint Eastwood's 1999 film, TRUE CRIME. However, this 1971 Giallo is much better than the 1999 junk. Indeed, as mentioned above, I don't think this film per se is not particularly bad one mainly because it has a unique element, namely, astrology. The film has a astrologer named Isaac Thetham, and he prophesies there will be two unidentified dead persons by midnight. (The execution is planed to be done at the very midnight.) The leading character, Eddie Mills, doesn't believe such a story, but soon he realises the astrologer's words become to be truthful. And this film almost surprisingly succeeds in using astrology effectively. Incidentally, for good or bad, Barbara Bouchet is rather manor in this film, even though she is the second person in the cast section of the credits of the very film. Her character, Anne, sometimes seems to be important, but ultimately she is nothing but decorative. So it can be said this is not a right film at least for the serious Bouchet fans.