AKA: La Dama Rossa Uccide Sette Volte; Blood Feast; Feast of Flesh; The Corpse Which Didn’t Want to Die
Country and Year: Italy (1972)
Director: Emilio Miraglia
Starring: Barbara Bouchet, Sybil Danning, Marina Malfatti, Maria Pia Giancaro, Marino Mase, Ugo Pagliai

Review By: David Austin
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars (good)

In honor of what is (shockingly) our inaugural giallo review, I decided to give some thought to what it might be like to live in the world of a giallo. I think an average day might go something like this: 11 am - wake up, put on my turtleneck and natty, checked sport jacket; 1 pm – tool around the scenic streets of Milan in my Fiat; 3 pm – make love to Edwige Fenech, or possibly Barbara Bouchet; 7 pm – early cocktails; cheat on Edwige Fenech or Barbara Bouchet with Erika Blanc, or possibly Marina Malfatti; 10 pm – late cocktails; 11:30 pm – receive anonymous letter containing a clue to the mysterious murders which have been plaguing the fashion magazine where I work; 11:40 pm – investigate strange noise in the hallway; 11:45 – get stabbed in the neck by a black-gloved killer hiding in the art deco elevator of my swank apartment complex. All in all, a pretty good day (except for that last bit).

If that gives you the idea that gialli are pretty formulaic, well, you’d be right. The funny thing about the formula, though, is that it grows on you. After you watch enough gialli, the little things that were so annoying in the beginning – the predictable storylines, the ludicrously unpredictable killers, the vapid characters, the bodycounts, the seemingly arbitrary double-crosses – become oddly charming through familiarity (much like avenge-your-master plotlines in kung fu films, or long-lost siblings in Bollywood films), and you can start to focus on the incidentals. The incidentals in a giallo being, of course, the ‘70s atmosphere, the clothes, the girls, the set-piece slayings, and the music. For all of these, you’d be hard pressed to find better than what’s on display in The Red Queen Kills Seven Times.

Red Queen never strays far from standard giallo territory. The film opens with a fairytale within a fairytale. Young Kitty and Evelyn, sisters, fight over a doll and then run to their grandfather Tobias (Rudolf Schundler). He tells them about the myth of the Red Queen and the Black Queen. There is a tradition within the Wildenbruck family that every 100 years there will be sisters who hate each other. One will be the Black Queen, and one will be the Red Queen. The Black Queen will kill the Red Queen and then, a year later, the Red Queen will return and kill seven people – the final victim will be the Black Queen herself.

Flash forward – the girls are all grown up. Kitty (Barbara Bouchet) is a fashion photographer, and Evelyn now lives in America where no one has heard from her in some time. Kitty’s cousin Franziska (Marina Malfatti) and her boorish, crippled husband Herbert take care of Grandpa Tobias. All seems well until the spectre of the Red Queen appears and literally frightens Tobias to death. When his heirs Kitty and Franziska gather to hear the will, they learn that the inheritance will not be revealed for one year.

It is not long before the Red Queen perpetrates a series of brutal murders at the fashion house where Kitty works. Naturally, the employees of the fashion house are like the Usual Suspects. There’s Lulu Palm (Sybil Danning), the voluptuous and sleazy lead model; Lenore, the cute designer; Hans, the perverted manager; and Rosemary (Maria Pia Giancaro), Hans’s assistant. Last but not least, there’s Kitty’s lover Martin (Ugo Pagliai), the vice-manager and number one suspect of Inspector Toller (Marino Mase), and Martin’s asylum-bound wife. Finally, Evelyn’s junkie boyfriend Peter is also sniffing around the inheritance. As the body count mounts, and all the evidence increasingly points toward Evelyn, Martin pleads with Kitty to tell the police about her sister. There’s just one problem – Kitty killed Evelyn a year ago.

As I said, Red Queen adheres to the giallo template pretty closely. What makes the film such great fun are the incidentals. After the success of The Night Evelyn Came From the Grave, Miraglia was given a larger budget, and it shows. Red Queen is set in and around an absolutely breathtaking old castle in Warzburg, Germany. Miraglia recognized what he had, and the opening scenes in particular take full advantage of the structure and the grounds. Red Queen is also a brighter, more candy-colored affair than the typical giallo. The fashion house setting gave Miraglia and his production designer Lorenzo Baraldi an excuse to go wild with eye-catching, outrageous clothing (supplied by fashion designer Mila Schon), and to populate the film with one stunning woman after another.

Which leads us to the girls. The best reason to watch Red Queen is that it may have the single most gorgeous female cast ever gathered in a giallo, or possibly in any Italian film outside of Fellini (sadly for female viewers, George Hilton and the other pretty boys of Italian cinema stayed home – Ugo Pagliai is, to put it kindly, as attractive as his name would indicate). To start with, Barbara Bouchet (Milan Caliber 9) is simply gorgeous. She can carry a film on her looks alone. Marina Malfatti (All the Colors of the Dark, The Night Evelyn Came from the Grave) brings her sharp features, plunging décolletages and tennis-ball boobs to bear, and Sybil Danning, well, Sybil Danning is a sex bomb, plain and simple. Honorable mention to the beautiful Maria Pia Giancaro who played Rosemary – I haven’t seen her before but I certainly hope to see her again. Moreover, the fashion milieu provides an excuse for an above-average selection of extras.

Red Queen is far from perfect. First of all, it’s a giallo, and if you don’t like gialli, this probably won’t be the film that changes your mind. Red Queen does suffer less from the typical giallo problems than many of its contemporaries though – the main characters are not uniformly unpleasant, and the plot makes more sense than usual. I do have two specific bones to pick with the film though. First, there is a nasty sexual assault scene that has absolutely no bearing on the plot whatsoever. There are many more pleasant and less contrived ways to get Barbara Bouchet naked. It’s entirely extraneous to the storyline, never referred to again, and completely inexcusable. Second, the exciting and atypical ending is marred by an excess of exposition and by clumsy editing. Also, for once, the villain is pretty easy to spot. Still, these minor flaws aside, Red Queen delivers where it counts.

Recommended? Yes, giallo fans won’t want to miss this one, and it’s a good entry point for those not familiar with the genre. Look for the terrific “Death by Volkswagen Bug” scene.

If you like this, you might like: Blood and Black Lace, Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Bay of Blood, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, All the Colors of the Dark, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave

DVD DETAILS

DVD Production Company: NoShame (noshamefilms.com)
Release Date: April 25, 2006
Run Time: 103 Mins
Extras: Where do I start?

This is the best treatment that any giallo has received on DVD to date. NoShame has included Red Queen in The Emilio Miraglia Killer Queen Box Set, with a more extras than you can shake a blood-encrusted knife at. The attractive box contains, in addition to the DVD, a scale Red Queen figure on a base, and lobby cards for both Red Queen and Evelyn (in the interest of full disclosure, Cinema Strikes Back’s own Blake provided the lobby cards used by NoShame in this set).

The set contains both of Emilio Miraglia’s gialli, Red Queen and The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave. Evelyn is a fun film in its own right, though I prefer Red Queen. Evelyn is the story of Lord Cunningham (Anthony Steffen), an aristocrat on the edge of sanity since the death of his wife Evelyn (both films feature characters named Evelyn who may or may not be dead). Steffen whiles away the days torturing red-headed prostitutes and strippers to death, until he meets the beguiling Gladys (Marina Malfatti). However, it seems that Evelyn is no longer content to stay quietly underground. The film also co-stars Giacomo Rossi Stuart, father of Kim Rossi Stuart, the star of Uno Bianca. Borrowing a little from Rebecca, and a little from Diabolique, and throwing in a massive overdose of sex and violence, Evelyn is a nasty little treat, an example of the gothic strain of gialli.

Both films come to Region 1 DVD in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen print, with excellent picture quality. As always, NoShame gives us the choice of Italian or English dubs. Having suffered through the English dub of Evelyn in the past, I can truly say it’s a whole new experience seeing it in the Italian.

NoShame has packed the discs with interesting extras. First, there is a thorough booklet with liner notes by Chris D. of American Cinematheque, and profiles of Emilio Miraglia, Lorenzo Baraldi, Barbara Bouchet, Sybil Danning, Erika Blanc, Marino Mase, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, and Anthony Steffen by Chris D. and Richard Harland Smith of Video Watchdog. There are also stills and posters, and an alternative opening for Red Queen (which is none too exciting).

Red Queen also includes an introduction by Lorenzo Baraldi, and Evelyn includes an introduction by Erika Blanc. Baraldi is interviewed about both films in two separate featurettes, and talks about the logistics of getting the castle and equipment, and working with Miraglia. There is also a fantastic interview with Erika Blanc where the actress discusses her famous strip tease in Evelyn, her present career, and working with Miraglia. She’s marvelously catty and a hoot to watch. There is some very short footage of Bouchet interviewed at an award ceremony, and a segment in which many of the actors and crew talk about Miraglia. Finally, Marino Mase (The Leopard, Les Carabiniers), in a charming and straight-forward interview, talks about the jobs he took for money, and the rivalry between Danning and Bouchet.

© David Austin