Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

This movie may seem funny and naive nowdays but just because we've seen too much since 1964.
This is a perfect example of giallo genre, more to it - this film was made on the dawn of giallo genre. There are many things that would be imitated later on in many other popular movies, not only in Italy but all over the world. The story is rather simple as in all giallo films and I would say even plain. Acting is a little hyperbolic as it was usually 40 years ago - theater-like. But the first impression you get after watching is that it reminds of early Hitchcock works. I think we can easily call Mario Bava an "Italian Hitchcock".
If you're looking for a thrill or a scare - you won't find it here 'cos I repeat the movie is rather naive. I think it looked good in 1964 but for our times it's too unsophisticated. But if you like old giallo pieces, if you like Mario Bava - don't hesitate and grab it. You'll get a lot of pleasure watching it. I did. 3 stars only because it's a little out of date.

Italian director Mario Bava (1914-1980) made many types of films, "Four Times That Night" and "Hercules in the Haunted World" come to mind, but he made his most lasting imprint on the horror film genre. His pictures, no matter what the plot, always promised great style, lush cinematography, and beautiful scenery. Bava's big break came with his 1960 black and white nightmare classic "Black Sunday," a movie influenced by classic horror films and one that introduced horror fans to Barbara Steele. This was only the beginning, as Bava churned out a series of gruesome shockers over the next seventeen years. Perhaps his biggest contribution to the horror field was the influential 1972 picture "Twitch of the Death Nerve," sometimes called "Bay of Blood." Why? Because Sean Cunningham cribbed shamelessly from this film when he put "Friday the 13th" on celluloid. The director's inventiveness went far beyond hacking up a few unfortunate souls, however, as "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" shows. This is a relatively bloodless movie that falls squarely into the wonderful category of the Italian giallo. Mario Bava is no longer with us, regretfully, but the Bava legacy continues through his son Lamberto, one of the guiding lights behind the gory cult classics "Demons" and "Macabro."

"The Girl Who Knew Too Much" tells the story of American Nora Davis (Leticia Roman), a woman heading to Rome in order to take care of an ailing family friend. Problems emerge before the plane lands, as a nice young man offers Nora a package of cigarettes. Unfortunately, the police pick up this chap at the airport for smuggling marijuana. Davis, troubled by the fact that she smoked one of these tainted cigarettes, heads over to the house of Ethel Widnall to assume her nursing duties. Despite the assurances of Doctor Marcello Brassi (John Saxon) that Ethel is in acceptable shape as long as she takes her heart medication, Davis witnesses the elderly woman perish that very night. She also sees something else outside, a woman with a knife protruding from her back and a mysterious looking man dragging the body away, before passing out on the wet cobblestones. The next day Nora insists on investigating the weird incident in spite of Brassi's insistence that nothing strange happened. In the process of reenacting what she saw to Brassi, Nora runs into a woman named Laura Torrani (Valentina Cortese). This woman, quite sympathetic to Davis's situation concerning Ethel, promises to let the young American live in her home while she leaves town to meet her businessman husband. That the home sits near the scene of the crime, along with a glimpse of a photograph sitting on the piano of Laura's husband, convinces us Davis is stepping right into the center of the mystery.

Davis stays at the house but continues to ask questions about the murder she saw. She is soon convinced that someone is following her, and may in fact have entered the house while she was out. She also finds a box full of newspaper clippings about a string of murders that took place in the area ten years before. According to these reports, the press dubbed the slayings the alphabet murders since the three victims' last names began with an 'a', a 'b', and a 'c' respectively. As Nora soon discovers from the reporter involved in the case, Andrea Landini (Dante DiPaolo), the crimes stopped after Laura's husband led the journalist to a likely suspect. After the conviction of this poor bloke, the crimes stopped and life returned to normal. But Landini couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong about the whole thing, and when he pressed to reopen the case Laura's husband turned on him. The reporter has since spent the passing years trying to establish the identity of the real culprit. A few frightening incidents involving the killer and Nora convince Brassi and Landini that the nightmare of a decade ago has reemerged. And guess what? Our heroine's last name begins with a 'd'. Oh dear.

I am not able to find a single flaw with "The Girl Who Knew Too Much." The movie as a whole is so good that even the lack of gore didn't bother me in the least. The performances, especially a young John Saxon as the accident prone doctor, are quite good (Was Saxon ever this young? Apparently so.). Bava injects the proceedings with a significant element of humor, which acts as a perfect counterbalance to the scares. But it's the masterful use of the black and white medium that really makes this giallo something special. No one can argue that Mario Bava doesn't have an amazing knowledge of how cinematography works; his use of shadow and light are breathtaking to behold. Check out those wet cobblestones, or the interior shots that shoot beams of light across the characters' faces. This is brilliant, brilliant camera and lighting work, arguably as good as if not better than "The Third Man." It looks like Bava carefully crafted each and every frame of this film for maximum emotional impact, and it works magnificently. I amazed myself by figuring out the mystery well in advance of the denouement, probably because I've seen so many gialli at this point, but that didn't diminish the film in any way.

Extras on the DVD include a Bava biography and filmography, a John Saxon filmography, poster and film stills, and a trailer for the film. I've seen a few films in the Mario Bava Collection DVD series that absolutely reek in terms of picture quality ("Hatchet for the Honeymoon") and audio ("Twitch of the Death Nerve"), but "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" looks nice despite noticeable scratches in a few places. If you're interested in exploring the wonderful world of Mario Bava, I suggest you start here. This film will get you excited about watching more of his pictures.