''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, (; : ; from , ) is a genre that often contains Slasher film, slasher, thriller (genre), thriller, psychological horror, psychological thriller, Sexploitation film, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural, supernat ...

'' film directed by

Luciano Ercoli Luciano Ercoli (19 October 1929 – 15 March 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 se ...

and 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 stars 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. Career Born in B ...

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 agrees to help her journalist boyfriend Gio Baldi research the effects of a new hallucinogen similar to 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.

Cast

* Susan Scott as Valentina *

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 the Nosferatu Award at the Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya f ...

as Gio Baldi *

as Stefano * Carlo Gentili as Inspector Serino *

Ivano Staccioli Ivano Staccioli (3 January 1927 – 15 July 1995) was an Italian film actor. Staccioli made 70 appearances between 1960 and 1991, mostly in film. He is best known for his appearances in historical adventures and action or western films in the 1 ...

as Professor Otto Wuttenberg * Claudio Pellegrini as Henri Velaq * Fabrizio Moresco as Pepito * Alessandro Perrella as Van Driver * Elio Veller as Pino *

Luciano Rossi Luciano Rossi (28 November 1934 – 29 May 2005) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 67 films between 1966 and 1987. Born in Rome, Rossi became first known as a spaghetti western character actor, being sometimes credited Lou Kamante ...

as Hans Krutzer * Raúl Aparici as Juan Hernandez * Giuliana Rivera as Vanessa * Anna Recchimuzzi as Nun * Manuel Muñiz as The Porter (as Pajarito) * Guido Spadea as Policeman * Franco Moraldi as L'ispettore Capo Toscano * Giorgio White (as Giorgio Penna) * Giacomo Pergola as il Pazzo Ballerino * Roberta Cifarelli as Dolores Jachia * Danilo Bellucci *

as Verushka Wuttenberg

Production

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

and screenwriter

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

Death Walks on High Heels ''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 Stelvio Cipriani. It was also released as ''Death Stalks in ...

'' and 1970's ''

Le foto proibite di una signora per bene ''Le foto proibite di una signora per bene'', also known as ''Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion'', is a 1970 giallo film directed by Luciano Ercoli. Written by Ernesto Gastaldi and Mahnahén Velasco, the film stars Pier Paolo Capponi, Si ...

''. Ercoli's wife

Nieves Navarro Nieves Navarro García (born 11 November 1938) is a retired Spanish actress and fashion model. She worked extensively in Italian cinema appearing alongside actors such as Totò and Lino Banfi in the 1960's and 1970's. She later adopted the Anglic ...

, 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 art, sequential storytelling using photographs rather than illustrations for the images, along with the usual comics conventions of narrative text and word balloons containing dialogue. They are sometimes ...

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 AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

, 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 con 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

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

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