GIALLO 'N GOODBYE!.......BQ SEARCHES FOR LIFE IN "THE DEAD ARE ALIVE"

The Dead Are Alive (1972)     Been a while since BQ dove in to one of my favorite genres........the creepy, gory, sexy "Giallo" murder mysteries.........Italian films where a black-hatted, black-gloved, black trenchcoated killer goes about his (or her) business........using a switchblade to slice 'n dice up naked women into bright crimson ribbons........

                This one, however, takes liberties with the usual carved-in-granite formula.........no black-outfitted perp here........this psycho prefers to pound on hot-to-trot young couples with a blunt instrument, mashin' 'em up to a pulp and sticking costume high heels on the dead babes........

                But the other conventions of the genre are duly observed........in that all the characters, including the leads (Alex Cord, Samantha Eggar) are a self-centered, obnoxious bunch of alcoholics, egomaniacs, nymphos and psychotics.........

                So it really doesn't matter whom the Designated Mad Killer chooses to massage with a metallic pipe.........as Clint Eastwood so ably put it in "Unforgiven"......"we all got it comin', kid....."

                This movie dotes on Archaeology, briefly toying with the idea that the killer's a revived Etruscan demon, fresh out of the tomb that Cord is unearthing.........but we know better, don't we?

                Cord's got the full-boil hots for Eggar, who's married to a raging, loudmouth symphony conductor played by that specialist in raging loudmouths, John Marley.  In true Giallo fashion, Cord tries to pull a full Harvey Weinstein grope-a-thon on Eggar, while Marley engages in enough apoplectic fits to deserve waking up with another 'Godfather' horse's head on his pillow....

                 The film's last third sweats and strains to point the finger at Cord as the killer (after all, he is a drunk, angry bastard)....... but once again, we know better, don't we?

                Not bad, as Giallos go, and the cast sure works hard to keep it lively........but I'm a traditionalist when it comes to these things........and much prefer that comforting, swtichblade wielding black hat character.........sorry, but I don't care for having the Psycho-Du-Jour run around swinging some big-ass club.....like a demented refugee from 'One Million Years B.C.'.........

                 2 stars (**).......and we promise to deal with more promising Giallos than this in the weeks ahead..........with plenty of black leather trenchcoats, hats and gloves.......