''La morte accarezza a mezzanotte'' (''Death Walks at Midnight''Luther-Smith, Adrian (1999). Blood and Black Lace: The Definitive Guide to Italian Sex and Horror Movies. Stray Cat Publishing Ltd.) is a 1972 ''

giallo In Italian cinema, ''Giallo'' (; plural ''gialli'', from ''giallo'', Italian for yellow) is a genre of mystery fiction and thrillers that often contains slasher, crime fiction, psychological thriller, psychological horror, sexploitation, and, ...

'' film directed by

Luciano Ercoli Luciano Ercoli (October 19, 1929 – March 15, 2015) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, producer and unit production manager. Ercoli's career spanned approximately two decades before his retirement in the late 1970s, and saw him direct ...

. The film was written by

Ernesto Gastaldi Ernesto Gastaldi (born 10 September 1934) is an Italian screenwriter. Film historian and critic Tim Lucas described Gastaldi as the first Italian screenwriter to specialize in horror and thriller films. Gastaldi worked within several popular ge ...

, Guido Leoni, Mahnahén Velasco and Mannuel Velasco. It starred Susan Scott, Simón Andreu,

Peter Martell Pietro Martellanza (30 September 1938 – 1 February 2010), best known as Peter Martell, was an Italian film actor who had numerous bigger roles in Spaghetti westerns. Sometimes he was credited as Pete Martell or Peter Martel. Born in Bolzano, h ...

Claudie Lange Claudie Lange is a Belgian actress and model, mainly active in Italian cinema. Lange entered the film industry at 21, when she met Federico Fellini during a vacation in Rome; Fellini gave her a minor part in ''Juliet of the Spirits'' (1965), and ...

and Carlo Gentili.

Plot

Fashion model Valentina ( Susan Scott) agrees to help her journalist boyfriend Giò Baldi (

Simón Andreu Simón Andreu Trobat (born 1 January 1941) is a Spanish actor. He has appeared in more than 180 films and television shows since 1961. In 2013 he was awarded with the Nosferatu Award at the Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalu ...

) research the effects of LSD. While under the influence of the drug, Valentina sees a man bludgeon a woman to death with a spiked gauntlet. Baldi publishes a report of her hallucinations; however, Valentina believes what she has seen is real. She begins to realise that the killer is stalking her, although neither Baldi nor the police will believe what she tells them.

Production

''La morte accarezza a mezzanotte'' marks the third collaboration between director

and screenwriter

, who had previously worked together on 1971's ''

La morte cammina con i tacchi alti ''La morte cammina con i tacchi alti'' (International title: ''Death Walks on High Heels'') is a 1971 giallo film directed and co-produced by Luciano Ercoli. It starred Frank Wolff and Susan Scott, co-written by Ernesto Gastaldi, with music by St ...

'' and 1970's '' Le foto proibite di una signora per bene''. Ercoli's wife Nieves Navarro, credited here as Susan Scott, featured in several of his other films, often in similar roles as "tough, independent" women. The director's preference for this type of character has been noted as being inspired by ''fumetti'', a form of Italian

photonovel Photo comics are a form of sequential storytelling that uses photographs rather than illustrations for the images, along with the usual comics conventions of narrative text and word balloons containing dialogue. They are sometimes referred to ...

often featuring such roles.

Release

''La morte accarezza a mezzanotte'' was released in Italy on 17 November 1972. It was released under that title in English by

NoShame Films NoShame, or NoShame Films, was an Italian-American company specializing in releasing authoritative editions of cult Italian movies on DVD. History NoShame Films started its office in Italy and opened an office in Los Angeles, California the foll ...

as part of a box set with ''

'', titled ''Luciano Ercoli's Death Box Set''. It has also been distributed under the title ''Muerte acaricia a medianoche'', and ''Cry Out in Terror''.

Reception

Writing for Allmovie, Robert Firsching gave the film one star out of five, calling it "laughably camp fun". Writing for

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

, Stuart Galbraith described the film as having "an exciting knock-down, drag-out climax". Reviewing the film alongside ''La morte cammina i tachi alti'', Galbraith felt that ''La morte accarezza a mezzanotte'' had "a stronger, less-predictable screenplay nda bit more visual flair" than its companion film; he ultimately rated both films together three-and-a-half stars out of five. A retrospective of Gastaldi's films by the Italian magazine '' Nocturno'' described it as "flow ngsmoothly and with some good jolts", highlighting Scott's screen presence as the film's main strength.

Notes

Footnotes

References

* *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morte Accarezza A Mezzanotte Giallo films 1972 films 1970s thriller films 1970s Italian-language films Films directed by Luciano Ercoli Spanish thriller films Films with screenplays by Ernesto Gastaldi Films scored by Gianni Ferrio Films set in Milan Films set in Lombardy 1970s Italian films