The Police Are Blundering In The Dark

The Police are Blundering in the Dark (La Polizia Brancola Nel Buio)(1975)

Runtime: 87 minutes

Directed by: Helia Colombo

Starring: Joseph Arkim, Francisco Cortez, Richard Fielding, Alberto Gasparri, Gabriella Giorgelli

From: O.I.S. Cinematografica

This was indeed as peculiar a giallo as I had heard. It was released by Vinegar Syndrome as part of their Forgotten Giallo, Vol. One set. While I did not love this oddity, that doesn't mean I was against them discovering the movie and it getting a home release for the first time. It was not watched on disc, though; instead it was Tubi. What a surprise then that when I tried watching the movie on the TV via the app the subtitles did not work; instead viewing was done via computer—I know, a first world problem.

The movie is bookended by bloody kills, although they weren't that graphic. In between is a lot of unpleasant characters arguing with each other or otherwise acting like dicks. Several models are being murdered by a black-gloved killer (one after you spend a LOT of time w/ her in a room eating a ham sandwich while topless. To say the movie saunters about rather aimlessly is describing the pacing rather generously) and the beau of a model attempts to find her. What he finds instead is a villa full of off-putting people and he hangs out w/ them for a long while. Despite the title-not the one it was filmed under-you only see the police in the finale.

Note that when you first see the people in the villa, you have no idea how many people live there or how everyone knows everyone else; only later are some of those questions answered. Oh, and the person who owns the villa is an odd gentleman who somehow invented a device that can RECORD A PERSON'S THOUGHTS. I'd love to hear an explanation as to how this could even be possible—we don't get one. In fact, that out of left field detail only is useful in the finale where the killer is revealed. The movie is not awful as the score is fine and I can't complain about the directon from first and only time director Helia Colombo; that said, some moments that entertained me, the general weirdness and a LOT of topless nudity (for those that enjoy that sort of thing) weren't enough to make me say that this was even good or fine.