Todesengel

la Vittima Designata

Murder Secret

italy 1971

Directed by:     Maurizio Lucidi

Starring:     Tomas Milian

Ottavio Alessi

Marisa Bartoli

Bruno Boschetti

Sandra Cardini

Luigi Casellato

Katia Christine

Pierre Clementi

Carla Mancini

Enzo Tarascio

German, English or Italian language

widescreen 2.35

pal / 2

special buchbox ltd ed.

Genre:    Crime

Thriller

Synopsis: A wealthy, decadent count convinces a disillusioned playboy that they shall murder one another's relatives, to get away with the perfect crime. The count murders the playboy's unpleasant wife. Now the playboy finds he cannot keep his end of the bargain, while the police finger him for the murder.

"La vittima designata" is a remake of Hitchcock's "Strangers on a train" and, call me blasphemous if you want, it is almost better. Here we have a rich, baroque photography, great atmosphere, and wonderful acting performances: Milian and Clementi interact perfectly adding to the whole story a soft sense of ambiguity that enriches it and could have lead to paths unknown to Hitchcock's movie. Venice and the palace of the nobleman Matteo Tiepolo stand perfectly as a metaphor of moral decadence and if you have seen 'La morte a Venezia' by Luchino Visconti (filmed that same year, 1971) you know what I'm talking about. Great soundtrack, too: the Gothic lullaby "My Shadow In The Dark" with its fatalistic refrain "to die, to sleep, maybe to dream" is sung by Milian himself. I don't think this is an easy title to find these days, but if you can, start the quest. To me this is one of the best Italian movies of the seventies.