Review for Death Walks Twice - The Films of Luciano Ercoli

Arrow has been turning out some great sets lately and this double-feature set is no exception. Pulling together two of Luciano Ercoli’s early seventies Italian horror classics, the brilliantly named ‘Death Walks on High Heels’ and ‘Death Walks at Midnight’, beautifully restored on Blu-ray; they’ve enhanced the set with loads of great contextual extras as is their way.




Emerging at the peak of the giallo boom of the early ’70s, Luciano Ercoli’s Death Walks films are great examples of the genre. The two films are linked, not only by their titles, but by their shared casting of the stunning Nieves Navarro (billed under her adopted stage name of Susan Scott) as the lead woman in peril.



I thought the order of the films was a little confusing as, if you wanted any continuity between the two, ‘Death Walks at Midnight’ would have made a more logical start-point but maybe that’s just me.



In Death Walks on High Heels (1971), exotic dancer Nicole (Navarro), the daughter of a murdered jewel thief, finds herself terrorised by a black-clad assailant with bright blue eyes, determined to get his leather-clad fists on her father’s stolen gems.


When she discovers a pair of bright-blue contact lenses in the possession of her live-in lover, she assumes him to be the culprit so she flees Paris into the arms of a wealthy admirer who has been a regular at her shows. Moving into to the already married eye-Doctor’s coastal retreat in Kent, it’s not long before the eyes of the village are on her and she’s fearful that her assailant has once again tracked her down.


What follows is a classic crime movie with dozens of twists and turns and red-herrings galore before the real killer is identified.



Set against a cheesy, but groovy seventies score, it contains plenty of shocking moments, both ultra-violent and extremely bloody, as well as several nude scenes to showcase the rounded talents of model actress, Navarro.


The second film, ‘Death Walks at Midnight’ (1972) has little or no nudity, but still has plenty of violence, probably following a more straight-forward giallo style narrative. Here Navarro stars as Valentina , a model who is fooled into a controlled medical experiment with hallucinogenic drugs by a reporter looking for a cheap expose. But during her ‘trip’ she witnesses the brutal murder of a girl by a killer with long hair, sunglasses and a spiked- metal fist which he uses to kill her.
As the only witness to the killer, she is soon the pursued and, as what she describes is very like a previous murder, the police become convinced that all is not what it seems. Failing to get the help she expects, she sets out to solve the mystery herself, aided and abetted by the very reporter who set her up for the ‘trip’ in the first place.


It’s almost impossible to imagine, having watched ‘Dressed to Kill’ again just recently, that Brian De Palma didn’t reference this film whilst pondering his own – so much of its vibe is present here.
I haven’t seen either of these films before but they look in amazingly good shape here; very little sign of wear and tear and with crisp detail, rich colour and deep contrast.


The period scores by and Stelvio Cipriani (Death on High Heels) Gianni Ferrio (Death at Midnight) are really top notch, using female vocals to accentuate their main themes and giving them a breezy, seventies air before twisting into something altogether darker for the murder scenes.


 You can watch the films with their original Italian audio (though some of those are dubbed) or English – either option will bring some non-lip synch dubbing, rendering the films a little wooden from an acting point of view.


Both films used more or less the same cast and crew which, if you’re like me, made it tough to link the narratives. The key is, of course, you shouldn’t. They were different characters and different films.

Arguably both films were little more than star vehicles for Ercoli’s wife, ‘Susan Scott’, but they’re much better than merely that.


First up is a very decent 60-page booklet containing new writing on the films from authors Danny Shipka (Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France), Troy Howarth (So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films) and writer Leonard Jacobs.

Additionally, each of the two Blu-Ray discs is also packed to the gunnels with features. These do contain spoilers so, other than the optional intros to the films these should not be watched until after the films as, in both cases, the reveal at the end of the movie is really very enjoyable to guess at.



 DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS

◦Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas – which is incredibly informative and entertaining◦Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi – who is quite a character, despite being uncomfortably filmed in what looks like a public corridor.

◦From Spain with Love – featurette comprising newly-edited archive footage of director Luciano Ercoli and actress Nieves Navarro, interviewed at their home in Barcelona. Navarro is still plucky and confident whilst Ercoli is certainly showing signs of age now.

◦Master of Giallo – screenwriter Gastaldi on Death Walks on High Heels and how to write a successful giallo

◦Death Walks to the Beat – a career-spanning interview with High Heels composer Stelvio Cipriani

◦Original Italian and English trailers
◦Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx


 DEATH WALKS AT MIDNIGHT

◦Audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas

◦Introduction to the film by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi

◦Extended TV version of the feature

◦Crime Does Pay – screenwriter Gastaldi reflects on his career in the crime film-writing business, including a look at Death Walks at Midnight

◦Desperately Seeking Susan – visual essay by Michael Mackenzie exploring the distinctive giallo collaborations between director Luciano Ercoli and star Nieves Navarro

◦Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx


This is an extremely nice set of a couple of very decent period movies. There is much to enjoy in both films and if they sound like the sort of thing you like, they almost certainly will be. They're not classics by any stretch, but enjoyable enough, nonetheless.