Nutty Frog wrote this description of the movie on IMDb and man, it’s so all over the place that I had to share it: “At the Grand Hotel in Miami, Carla falls into the arms of her husband, the eminent Dr. Warren, and confesses to having seen Nick, the man he killed in New York, at the airport – Carla was a nightclub dancer. New York and Nick’s lover. Later, Warren accidentally discovered the real reason why Carla agreed to marry him: a combination of Nick, who plotted his death and the enjoyment of his inheritance. The pain arouses Warren’s thirst for blood, and strange events appear that will force Detective Andrew to intervene.”

Carla (Libertad Leblanc) has killed her pimp Nick (Carlos Piñar), and her husband and therapist, Dr. Warren (Riccardo Garrone), helps her get rid of the body. But this is a giallo, so she keeps seeing Nick, and it’s driving her insane. Or she is still sleeping with Nick, who is still alive, and they want to take Dr. Warren’s money. Or maybe he was abusing her, and that sent her over the edge. It’s never clear, but isn’t that why we watch giallo? Somehow, the giallo police — Andrew (Tony Kendall) — are so bad at solving this case that they disappear until right before the movie ends.

Shot in Miami by an Italian and Spanish team of filmmakers, this was directed and co-written by Luis Marquina. The best part is the sitcom romance Andrew has with Marta (Loredana Giustini), who, in one wacky scene, accidentally takes LSD.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Based on the 1965 novel A Fragment of Fear by John Bingham, this concerns Tim Brett (David Hemings), a former drug addict who has turned his life around and written a book detailing his experiences. He visits his aunt, who has helped criminals go straight her entire life. Sadly, one of them strangles her later, which leaves Tim alone on an island.

While he finds love with Juliet Bristow (Gayle Hunnicutt), he starts to think that everyone is against him. A woman on a train warns him to stop asking questions about his aunt’s death. A cop calls him, and when he files a report, Tim learns that no such policeman works at the station. Soon, a secret group contacts him, telling him that the Stepping Stones, a charity started by his aunt to help criminals become good citizens, has begun blackmailing those who succeed.

Soon, he starts to worry that Juliet will be killed at his wedding, which pushes him into a spiral that he never recovers from.

I was wondering, “Is this a gialli?” 

That’s when Adolfo Celi appeared.

There are a lot of complaints about the ending, in which Tim finally loses his mind, and then the idea that everything that happened was either a fantasy or a drug trip. Yet how does Tim get along with Juliet, who found the body of his aunt, and how did they fall in love so fast? 

This was directed by Richard C. Sarafian and written by Paul Dehn, who wrote the Apes sequels. If you’d like to see Hemmings in a real giallo, well…Deep Red, right?

Also known as Qui? and Who Are You?, this Léonard Keigel-directed movie has Romy Schneider (Death Watch) as Marina, who starts the movie fighting with her man, Claude (Gabriele Tinti, husband of Laura Gemser), who beats her up and tries to drive his convertible off a cliff and into the sea. He dies — maybe — and she falls in love with his brother Serge (Maurice Ronet), but feels watched all the time. Hence: Giallo.

The cops and Serge want to know where Claude’s body is and who killed him. Then, once he gets with Marina, she starts to panic about everything. She’s not exactly the heroine; she couldn’t care less that Claude died, but you know, if someone was routinely abusing me, I wouldn’t be all that verklempt either when they drove into the ocean. It’s also wild that she’s able to jump out of a moving car with hardly a scratch, but as much as Serge wants answers, well, look, it’s Romy Schneider with those Eurocult eyelashes and heavy makeup, and if his brother really is dead, certainly he should sleep with his contentious lover.

This is also like 70 minutes long, which is just perfect. There’s also a rock soundtrack by Claude Bolling that features two songs, “Who Are You” and “Strange Magic,” playing over and over.

Three stories, three directors, one Shaw Brothers film.

Griffin Yueh Feng directed the first section, ‘The Iron Bow,” which has Master Shi (Tin Ching) fall in love with Ying Ying (Shih Szu), who wants nothing to do with him. She says that only the man who can shoot her father’s sacred bow will be her love.

“The Tigress” is from Cheng Kang. Sex worker Shih Chung Yu (Lily Ho Li-Li) is pursued by many men, but her heart belongs to General Wang (Chung Wa). When he disobeys an order, his superiors want to execute him. She begs for him to be saved, and he is, as long as the two of them hunt down a dangerous criminal.

“White Water Strand” is by Chang Cheh and tells of a swordsman who saves a rebel and his friends. They may be on the wrong side of the law, but he senses something good within them. His own sword brothers are corrupt, however, and the rebels repay him by saving him.

Each part gets just half an hour, so if you’re looking for an epic, this is several smaller stories instead.

This Eureka release has a commentary track by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. You can get it from MVD.

The wandering swordsman Yu Hsieh Erh (David Chiang) robs bandits and gives their stolen money to the poor. Then he meets a robber named Foolproof Kung, who convinces him he was wrong about the bad guys, so he helps them with a robbery. Bad idea. They’re the bad guys, Wandering Swordsman!

This being a Chang Cheh movie, we have a hero who survives being stabbed right through the middle of his body and keeps fighting for a long time. It’s also light-hearted in parts and has tons of wire and trampoline stuntwork. Then, you know, it turns into a Chang Cheh bloody ending, so if you love any of the players, there’s a good chance your heart will be broken when they’re killed.

The good news? This is the first movie of Bolo Yeung, who is one of the thieves.

This Eureka release has a commentary track by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. You can get it from MVD.

September Drive-In Super Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre, September 19 and 20, 2025. Two big nights with four feature films each night include:

• Friday, September 19: Mark of the Devil, The Sentinel, The Devil’s Rain and Devil Times Five
• September 20: The Omega Man, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Grindhouse Releasing 4K restoration drive-in premiere of S.F. Brownrigg’s Scum of the Earth and Eaten Alive

Admission is $15 per person each night (children 12 and under – accompanied by an adult guardian – are admitted free). Overnight camping is available (breakfast included) for an additional $20 a person per night. Advance online tickets (highly recommended) for both movies and camping here: https://www.riversidedrivein.com/shop/

Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält (Witches Tortured Till They Bleed) got the maniacs at Hallmark Releasing all hot and bothered. The ad campaign — “Positively the most horrifying film ever made” and “Rated V for Violence”, plus giving out free barf bags — is evidence of the fact that this got so much of their creativity. Director Michael Armstrong’s first film, the Frankie Avalon-starring The Haunted House of Horror, in no way prepared audiences for this movie, which goes wild in showing the tortures it promises.

Count Christian von Meruh (Udo Keir) is a well-meaning young witchhunter — this comes in the wake of Witchfinder General — who comes to a small town to prepare the way for his boss Lord Cumberland (Herbert Lom) and to investigate the insanity of another local witch hunter, Albino (Reggie Nalder), who uses the threat of witchcraft to have sex with anyone he wants; he now wants Vanessa Benedikt (Olivera Katarina), a barmaid who catches Christian’s eye.

But really, so much of this is the chance to see gorgeous women like Deidre von Bergenstein (Gaby Fuchs) get tortured. It condemns these actions while simultaneously bragging about and reveling in them; such is exploitation. Soon, Christian learns that even his master, Cumberland, is corrupt; even if some people must die wrongfully, they will be martyrs who get into heaven. Mostly, everyone’s goal is money in this world, so who cares if an innocent family is murdered because of a puppet show?

Victoria is the one who gets the villagers to throw off the chains of oppression, and even though this good work happens, it costs her true love, as he’s thrown into a witch catcher and killed, seen as part of the same machine she has rallied them against.

It seems like making this movie was a war, as producer Adrian Hoven had his own ideas and script; he worked with cinematographer Ernst W. Kalinke to film some of his own footage. It’s difficult to determine who made what at this point, but you’ll probably be so confronted by nails used to find the Devil’s spot, tongues being torn out, whippings, beatings, nun assault, and outright killing that you’ll not worry who made what, you know?

Hoven made Mark of the Devil Part II, the official sequel, while in the VHS era, Alucarda was released as Mark of the Devil – Part III; two of the Blind Dead films were repackaged with new Michelle Bauer covers as Mark of the Devil – Part IV and Mark of the Devil – Part V; there are also two American sequels, Mark of the Devil 666: The Moralist and Mark of the Devil 777: The Moralist, Part 2.

You can watch this on Tubi.