Directed and written by Giovanna Lenzi (who also appears in this movie as Julie Garrett) and Sergio Pastore (married to Lenzi at the time; he also directed Crimes of the Black Cat), Delitti arrives after the Giallos of the 70s and even the revival in the 80s, as erotic thrillers were just putting a different name on the same genre. 

The weapon for the killer in this case is the uric acid in coffee with sugar, which creates hydrogen cyanide and transforms into a poison capable of murder. This is Giallo BS Science at its finest; uric acid is “a natural byproduct of purine metabolism in the body, and while it can lead to conditions like gout when levels become too high, coffee does not appear to increase uric acid levels or create hydrogen cyanide.”

It certainly can’t turn your face into a death mask, like in this movie. Even if it also contains snake venom.

Anyways… at least this has music by Guido and Maurizio de Angelis, or as we know them, Oliver Onions. So it has that going for it.

This has an inspector trying to learn who is using this poison to kill people and a killer who likes to dance. I get it. I feel the call of the dance as well, but I’m not stalking women and forcing them to see my gyrations. There’s a ton of dance in this, as one couple literally frugs before they, well, fuck. Or they would, if the dude hadn’t pulled a knife and made the detective walk right in. And it turns into a karate fight? And has dialogue like this? “Enough of your polite evasiveness, inspector. Let’s just say it like it is: that my brother was gay and liked to dress in women’s clothes was already generally known, wasn’t it?”

Oh, Delitti, you crazy.

Also: There’s a strange fight with choking between two lingerie-wearing women who then take a shower together.

Also also: A dwarf who likes to make snuff films.

As for the cast, we have Michela Miti as Betty. She was also in Gialloparma and Andrea Bianchi’s The Seduction of Angela. As you can imagine, for the star of a Bianchi film, she’s naked for much of this movie. Saverio Vallone is Bob; he was also in Antropophagus. Sascha Darwin was in plenty of Fulci’s late movies, such as Touch of Death and Voices from Beyond, as well as two of the Fulci Presents movies, The Murder Secret (there’s Bianchi again) and Bloody Psycho. Solvi Stubing is also on hand, making her first movie in five years and long after her heyday of making movies like Strip Nude for Your Killer (yes, I see you, Bianchi). And is that Gianni Dei I observe, Patrick from Patrick Still Lives?

Grotty sex scenes, music taken from A Blade In the Dark, lots of synth, so much dancing and a closing line that says, “Be careful who you hang with girls. Make sure that he is not a snake lover…”

They say this is the worst giallo ever made — also the only one directed by a woman, until Knife + Heart — but it’s so relentlessly weird that I enjoyed myself.

Sadly, during the premiere of this movie, Pastore suffered a fatal stroke. That’s one way to avoid the critics.

You can watch this on YouTube.