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Director: Emilio P. Miraglia
Screenplay: Fabio Pittorru and Emilio
P. Miraglia
Cast: Barbara Bouchet (as Ketty
Wildenbrück); Ugo Pagliai (as Martin Hoffmann); Marina Malfatti (as Franziska
Wildenbrück); Marino Masé (as Inspector Toller); Pia Giancaro (as Rose Mary
Müller)
A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #43
After The Night Evelyn Came Out of
the Grave (1971), director Emilio P.
Miraglia made one other giallo, one that is dressed in a gothic gown, a red
cape in this case, but is far more explicitly a giallo in terms of a narrative.
The prologue sets up a tale of dwelling sisters - Kitty and Evelyn -
representations of the Black Queen and the Red Queen respectively, the later
said to haunt people after her death by the Black Queen, returning to kill
seven people from the grave every hundred years. Cut to modern 1972 and Evelyn
is inexplicably missing and another sister Franziska (Marina Malfatti) exists to comfort Kitty (played by Barbara Bouchet). This begins the very knotted
and convoluted plot of Red Queen; if
Evelyn was closer to gothic horror,
in how its plot of a man being driven mad by his late wife coming out of the
grave fits that genre's many plots, this has a similar type of plot but
structures it closer around the conventional structure of a giallo as a body
count starts and a figure dressed in a red cloak is responsible, causing Kitty
anxiety as a potential romantic interest Martin (Ugo Pagliai) is being incriminated for the crimes.
The complicated nature of Red Queen's narrative is the one
potential issue depending on each viewer's reaction to it, very much whether
you can accept how far it goes or find it overburdening and difficult to
follow. Giallo can cheat and be incredibly convoluted - Evelyn glibly changes the board its game was being played on
constantly to keep the viewer on their toes - but Red Queen is a lot more complicated than most giallo for how little
breathing space there is at points, the inclusion of Franziska when
it transitions to the main modern day narrative a great example you have to
adjust to quicker than with other moments. It also has a lot of plot strands to
keep in mind, all adding a lot to love in the film but keep things very dense
at points. The entire nature of what's happened to Evelyn, Kitty's guilt over
this fact, married businessman Martin having to profess his innocence as a
suspect, Franziska's existence alongside other women like Lulu (Sybil Danning) and Rosemary (Pia Giancaro), a fashion company Martin
becomes head of when the original boss is killed by the Red Queen, the inheritance
left by Kitty's late father stalled for a year, not to mention Evelyn's creepy
drug addicted former boyfriend who just wants the inheritance...a lot to deal
with, many red herrings that are whittled down as the deaths take place, very
much a story that has to be relished for its elaborate plot points or it would
become overwhelming. The result is a giallo churning some many plot points of
the genre into one dense narrative, erotic and stylish at the same time.
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The style is a lot of why Red Queen is actually able to succeed
with this condensed plot. Particularly with its production design by Lorenzo
Baraldi, who also contributed greatly to Evelyn's
advantage, it has a great sense of mood that connects everything together, the
conflict between modernism and the gothic the central issue in this plot, a
tale from Kitty's family haunting her amongst the modern settings as well as
the historical ones. The titular Red Queen is certainly one of the most
evocative figures from giallo I've seen, a woman with raven black hair and a
Little Red Riding Hood cloak, manically laughing after each murder she commits
before disappearing round a corner, evoking European fantastique literature
rather than straightforward mystery stories. The gothic lashings - the inheritance,
the gothic home of Kitty's family - nestle perfectly with the then-modernist
decor, like with The Night Evelyn Came
Out of the Grave, because the type of story as a giallo suits the vibe of gothic
too, of backstabbing and people chasing figures around darkened corridors. Red Queen is also open in its more
lurid content, Kitty's family home having an underground dungeon and the climax
involving a room that fills up with canal water straight out of the Lou Chaney Phantom of the Opera (1925), and because giallo could be both
artistic and openly absurd with such content, this fits the world perfectly
without question.
The emphasis on art is important
as, whilst they could be trashy and sleazy, the best giallo which Red Queen joins at least technically
were very artistically minded in how colourful and how carefully made they
were, a sense of pride felt in its aesthetic which was put together with
thought despite how quickly these films were made in their boom period between
1970-2. Even if there's kitsch, the fashion and a large part of the story about
the fashion industry a time capsule to that period, there's an incredible
glamour to Red Queen that's undeniable.
Of beautiful people in beautiful locations which makes it moments of bloody red
paint gore more stylish, all score by Bruno
Nicolai creating another great score after Evelyn, and cinematographer Alberto
Spagnoli shooting everything, especially the colour red, in full vibrancy. Even
if the plot gets ludicrous at points in its shifts, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is still incredibly watchable.
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