''Il coltello di ghiaccio'' (
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
: ''Knife of Ice'') 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
Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi (6 August 1931 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist.
A fan of film since young age, Lenzi studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and made his first film in 1958 which went unr ...
and starring
Carroll Baker
Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) is an American former actress. After studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in 1954. From there, she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead in t ...
,
Evelyn Stewart, and
. Both Baker and Stewart featured in several other films helmed by Lenzi. The film follows a
mute
Muteness is a speech disorder in which a person lacks the ability to speak.
Mute or the Mute may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Mute'' (2005 film), a short film by Melissa Joan Hart
* ''Mute'' (2018 film), a scien ...
woman who finds herself in danger when a
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
begins stalking the Spanish countryside. The title takes its name from a quote attributed to
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
, in which he refers to fear as a "knife of ice which penetrates the senses down to the depth of conscience"; the quote, however, was a fabrication by the filmmakers.
The film marked the fourth and final collaboration between actress Baker and director Lenzi, after she had starred in three of his previous films: ''
So Sweet... So Perverse'', ''
Orgasmo'', and ''
A Quiet Place to Kill
''A Quiet Place to Kill'' ( it, Paranoia) is a 1970 ''giallo'' film directed by Umberto Lenzi.
Plot
Helen, a racecar driver whose personal and professional life is rapidly declining, is invited by her ex-husband Maurice's new wife Constance to ...
''.
Elements of the film's script and direction have been cited as being reminiscent of works by fellow Italian
Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci (; 17 June 1927 – 13 March 1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Although he worked in a wide array of genres through a career spanning nearly five decades, including comedies and Spaghetti Westerns, he garn ...
. ''
AllMovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
''s Robert Firsching has noted that ''Il coltello di ghiaccio'' "should prove fascinating to genre devotees."
Plot
A famous singer, Jenny Ascot, visits her artist cousin Martha Caldwell at her home in the town of
Martinet
The martinet ( OED ''s.v.'' ''martinet'', ''n.''2, "'' N.E.D.'' (1905) gives the pronunciation as (mā·ɹtinėt) /ˈmɑːtɪnɪt/ .") is a punitive device traditionally used in France and other parts of Europe. The word also has other usages, de ...
, located in the Spanish
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...
. Martha has long been rendered mute after witnessing both her parents being killed in a train crash when she was a child, her father saving her life by throwing out of a window before the train's worst wreckage. She communicates by hand gestures and tapping on the telephone receiver. Martha deliberately meets Jenny at the station to confront her fears. They see a violent
bullfighting
Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations.
There are several variations, including some forms wh ...
event together, but Martha is too distressed to watch and leaves. While Jenny and Martha are travelling to Martha's home, they notice a strange man with pearly eyes who seems to be following them.
That night, following a dinner party at Martha's villa, Jenny hears noises in the house and finds a broken vase. When she investigates, she is stabbed to death by an unseen figure. The following morning, Martha finds Jenny's corpse under the car in the garage. The police believe the killing is connected to the death of a teenage girl found in a ditch before, assuming a homicidal sex maniac is at large. Martha sees the strange man stalking her at the cemetery during Jenny's funeral, and when fleeing, he drops his pendant of a goat, revealing him as a
Satanist. His hideout is soon found to be an abandoned building littered with morphine, but he's nowhere to be found. Martha continuously flashes back to pieces of imagery in her mind which come from her trauma and seem to relate to the murders. She later sees a cat with their throat slashed and lying in their own blood, the same cat Christina, the adolescent daughter of a family friend, was given as a present. Martha finds some comfort and companionship in her, even accepting a
Snoopy
Snoopy is an anthropomorphic beagle in the comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles M. Schulz. He can also be found in all of the ''Peanuts'' films and television specials. Since his debut on October 4, 1950, Snoopy has become one of the most recog ...
necklace from her and giving her in return a
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
wind-up toy.
One morning, Martha's housekeeper Annie Britton goes to run errands in town, taking her bicycle. En route back to Martha's house along a wooded road, Annie finds a strange occult symbol rendered in red paint on a tree, the same symbol police found in the ruined building where they suspect the Satanist performed
Black Masses. Annie never returns from her errand, and Martha alerts her Uncle Ralph. Late that night, Martha's friend and therapist, Dr. Laurent, visits the villa, and finds Martha in a worried state. Martha notices a spot of blood on his pants, which Dr. Laurent attributes to a patient he treated earlier. Moments later, police phone the house, and Dr. Laurent answers: They inform him that Annie's corpse has been discovered in the woods, her throat slashed. A search reveals nothing, except the goat symbol painted into the tree.
During a rainstorm, police catch the man, British
hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
Woody Mason, breaking into a local doctor's office and stealing
morphine
Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...
, but are unable to stop him when he flees. Meanwhile, Martha cares for her Uncle Ralph, who is weakened by a heart ailment. Martha is assaulted in the home by an unseen figure when the power goes out, found with an electrical cord tied around her neck. But when police arrive to perform a wellness check shortly after, they find no one present. Police subsequently find Woody in a nearby cemetery and apprehend him, but he denies any involvement in Annie's murder, nor that of the teenage girl, whom he was dating. When questioned herself, Martha admits that she cannot positively identify Woody as her attacker. Uncle Ralph worries about Martha's mental state, having observed that she has been depressed. At Martha's villa, Christina goes missing while playing a sort of hide-and-seek with Martha involving a blindfold. She is shortly after discovered dead near the house, and it is determined she was strangled to death. Christina's murder prompts police to reopen their investigation, and Woody is ultimately acquitted of his charges when an autopsy proves that his girlfriend, the girl in a ditch, died of a
heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...
overdose. Uncle Ralph soon after succumbs to a heart attack and presumably dies, only to be revealed as alive later without Martha's knowledge.
Martha is left alone at the villa one night, and finds herself again presumably being stalked by an assailant. She flees to the nearby cemetery and finds a pistol to use inside a crypt, only to find her
chauffeur
A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine.
Originally, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to speciali ...
Marcos was following her. She is confronted by police officers, Dr. Laurent, and Uncle Ralph. Laurent informs Martha he filled her gun with blanks, and that Martha has been committing the murders all along in a
dissociated state: Martha killed Jenny out of jealousy of her singing voice, then subsequently killed Annie in the woods to divert suspicion from her. She then strangled Christina to death when the girl had discovered evidence linking Martha to the crimes: the Snoopy necklace was found in the woods, and Uncle Ralph read Christina's diaries that said she found it covered in blood without knowing how it related to the murders. As Martha is escorted away, she regains her speech for the first time since childhood, and begins reciting the
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...
poem "
The Mouse's Tale
"The Mouse's Tale" is a shaped poem by Lewis Carroll which appears in his 1865 novel ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. Though no formal title for the poem is given in the text, the chapter title refers to "A Long Tale" and the Mouse introduces ...
", which she once performed for her schoolmates as a child and listened to in tapes throughout the film.
Cast
Production
Development
Baker and director
Umberto Lenzi
Umberto Lenzi (6 August 1931 – 19 October 2017) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist.
A fan of film since young age, Lenzi studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and made his first film in 1958 which went unr ...
had already collaborated in several films, including 1969's ''
Così dolce... così perversa'' and ''
Orgasmo'', and 1970's ''
Paranoia
Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concer ...
''.
After being approached by producers to direct a fourth feature starring Baker, Lenzi sought to write a screenplay featuring a notably different narrative, as the three previous films had largely centered around themes of greed and sexuality.
Lenzi initially considered directing Baker in a remake of the 1946 American horror film ''
The Spiral Staircase''—which also follows a mute woman stalked by a killer in a rural country house—but instead chose to write an original screenplay utilizing a similar plot device, but subverting it with a twist ending in which the villain is revealed to be the main character all along.
[ Thematically, Lenzi stated: "It was a movie in which I attempted to blend all the elements of psychological distortion of my previous films with a little bit of horror." The character of Woody Mason, a deranged hippie Satanist who serves as a ]red herring
A red herring is a figurative expression referring to a logical fallacy in which a clue or piece of information is or is intended to be misleading, or distracting from the actual question.
Red herring may also refer to: Animals
* Red herring (fis ...
in the plot, was loosely based on Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...
.[ Lenzi co-wrote the screenplay for ''Il coltello di ghiaccio'' with Antonio Troiso, a young screenwriter who died of ]cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
at age 30, shortly before the shooting of the film began.[
The film's use of Satanists as initial suspects has been compared to ]Lucio Fulci
Lucio Fulci (; 17 June 1927 – 13 March 1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Although he worked in a wide array of genres through a career spanning nearly five decades, including comedies and Spaghetti Westerns, he garn ...
's film ''Don't Torture a Duckling
''Don't Torture a Duckling'' ( it, Non si sevizia un paperino) is a 1972 Italian giallo film directed by Lucio Fulci, starring Florinda Bolkan, Tomas Milian and Barbara Bouchet. The plot follows a detective investigating a series of child murde ...
'', also released in 1972. ''Il coltello di ghiaccio'' features frequent use of close-up shots of characters' eyes, which has also been noted as a "Fulci trademark".
Casting
With Baker secured for the lead role of Martha Caldwell, Lenzi cast fellow American actor Alan Scott—who had worked primarily in bit parts in European films—as Dr. Laurent.[ Lenzi later commented that Scott was "clueless" about acting, and that he struggled directing him, adding: "I had to nsteadfocus on Carroll, who knew how to act, and she was great at it."][ Established Spanish actor Eduardo Fajardo was cast as Martha's chauffeur, Marcos.][ Franco Fantasia, who portrays an investigator in the film, also served as an assistant director to Lenzi.][
]
Filming
Principal photography of ''Il coltello di ghiaccio'' largely took place in Montseny
Montseny is a municipality and village in the Vallès Oriental comarca in Catalonia. As of 2014, the population was 332.
The village is located at the feet of the Montseny Massif
Montseny () is a mountain range west of the coastal hills n ...
in the Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
region of Spain.[ Because of the high altitude and frequent winds, the filming of sequences in the fog-filled streets proved difficult to shoot, as the wind carried away the fog produced by a fog machine.][ Visually, Lenzi was inspired by the shadowy cinematography of ]Jacques Tourneur
Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir ''Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including ''Cat People (1942 film), Cat ...
's '' Cat People'' (1942); however, Lenzi stated he was unable to fully realize the visual elements he sought, as the cinematographer, José F. Aguayo, Jr.—of which ''Il coltello di ghiacco'' was his first feature—often over-lit the sets.[
]
Release
''Il coltello di ghiaccio'' was released in Italy on 24 August 1972.[ It has also been distributed under the titles ''Vertigine'', ''Knife of Ice'', ''Detrás del Silencio'',] and ''The Ice Pick''. By Lenzi's account, the film did not perform as well commercially in Europe as his previous features starring Baker, as it lacked the overt sex and violence of those films.[ However, Lenzi states that the film was better-received in the United States.][
]
Critical response
Writing for AllMovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
, Robert Firsching gave the film a rating of two-and-a-half stars out of five, adding that "despite its inconsistencies, he film
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
should prove fascinating to genre devotees".
Home media
Wham! Media released a DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
of the film in 2009. The film was released on Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
in a box set by Severin Films
Severin Films is an American film production and distribution company known for restoring and releasing cult films on DVD and Blu-ray.
History
The label was created in 2006 in Los Angeles, and other offices were founded in New York City and Lond ...
on 30 June 2020, featuring all four of Lenzi's film collaborations with actress Carroll Baker (including '' So Sweet... So Perverse'', ''A Quiet Place to Kill
''A Quiet Place to Kill'' ( it, Paranoia) is a 1970 ''giallo'' film directed by Umberto Lenzi.
Plot
Helen, a racecar driver whose personal and professional life is rapidly declining, is invited by her ex-husband Maurice's new wife Constance to ...
'', and '' Orgasmo'').
References
Sources
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coltello Di Ghiaccio
1972 films
1970s thriller films
Giallo films
1970s Italian-language films
Films about fictional painters
Films about Satanism
Films directed by Umberto Lenzi
Films set in Spain
Films scored by Marcello Giombini
1970s Italian films