Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (Il Tuo Vizio E Una Stanza Chiusa E Solo Io Ne Ho La Chiave (1972)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Sergio Martino

Starring: Luigi Pistillo, Anita Strindberg, Edwige Fenech, Ivan Rassimov, Franco Nebbia

From: Lea Film

This was a fun way to close out 2018... Happy New Year, everyone: 

In some ways, the black cat in this film being named Satan is appropriate.

As I mentioned in my last review (over a week ago) I was on vacation in Kansas to see part of my immediate family, which has become a yearly tradition now. Unlike the past few years, I did not have the time to watch any motion pictures. At random I made this giallo my first one back... OK, maybe not so much at random-I did realize I hadn't seen anything from this genre in a while and for years I've known of the title as one of the best in giallo... and that field has a plethora of unforgettable names.

Oliviero is a successful professor and writer who lives in a fancy mansion, but that building is from his late mother and he definitely has mommy issues-yet those aren't his only problems. He is a real A-hole who says and does some pretty awful things... so, modern day Louis CK, basically. Anyhow, some women who are linked to him suddenly start dying at the hands of a mysterious killer who wears black gloves and his weapon of choice is a sickle. That is all standard stuff for the genre, including wondering who the killer is and if the lead male is the slasher or he is being set up, and of course the bloody kills where people die from deep gashes.

Things become interesting when Edwige Fenech (playing Oliviero's niece) appears; she is billed first yet her first appearance is only in the beginning of the second act. I should mention that the lead also has a wife and naturally his behavior is the worst towards her; well, when wife and niece team up, things change. That includes the tenor of the story, which becomes more Hitchcockian and also something straight out of Poe... speaking of that, this was inspired by his tale The Black Cat, which is why Vice has a black cat present.

Come to think of it, “interesting” is probably stating things lightly; this movie takes quite the turn in the back half and the sleaze that is present throughout becomes even stronger. There are twists and turns that happen and what a delicious, intoxicating ending they came up with-I mean, it put the bow on things. It was nice seeing this film with plenty of genre veterans in front of the camera (Fenech, Luigi Pistilli, Ivan Rassimov, and Anita Stridberg) and behind it (director Sergio Martino, composer Bruno Nicolai); while it is different from the norm and not a pure giallo like Don't Torture a Duckling or What Have You Done to Solange?, if you like those films then you might like this one despite or maybe because of its differences.