The Fourth Victim (1972) Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Fourth Victim is a 1971 giallo movie directed by Eugenio Martin and starring Carroll Baker, Michael Craig and Miranda Campa.

The movie begins with a woman dead in her pool. The housekeeper and her husband pull her out. The doctor arrives and writes a death certificate. She is buried. Superintendent Dunphy(Jose Luis Lopez Vazquez) appears and says that the body will have to be dug up on orders of the magistrate. He talks to her husband Arthur (Craig). He says someone questioned the death. Arthur has been married three times. His previous wives also died. Dunphy is suspicious. Arthur is brought to court for the murder of his wife. He pleads not guilty. It can't be proved that it was murder for certain. The insurance company is suspicious also.The housekeeper (Campa)testifies. She backs up Arthur and he found not guilty.

Dunphy follows Arthur into a travel agent. He tells him that he knows he is guilty. Arthur finds a girl in his pool. It is his neighbour, Julie Spencer (Marina Malfatti). She is squatting in the house next door. She is really there to investigate Arthur. They end up sharing a kiss. A woman is watching Julie. She and Arthur get closer and they end up married. He finds her snooping and he hits her. She runs off and disappears. A strange woman has rented the house next door. Arthur finds Julie's car at the cliffs. He goes to the police who tell him that Julie went insane after killing her husband.  He goes to the clinic where she was kept afterwards to find her. He talks to the doctor who informs him that she was fine and she was released. A friend of Julie's from the clinic tells Arthur not to let Julie near the lake. He is confused.

Julie arrives back. She meets Dunphy. Julie admits what she did in the past to Arthur. She calls someone on the phone and tells them that she can't go through with it. Arthur catches her and she drives off. He follows her. She crashes and he takes her home and gives her a sedative. Dunphy arrives and tells Arthur that his wife is NOT Julie Spencer. The strange lady next door is wandering around. She kills a doctor who comes to see her. She is going to kill Julie for some reason. Dunphy tells Arthur that he is going to meet the real Julie Spencer. Arthur is going too.The real Julie is going to kill the imposter. She locks the doors in the house and says she will help the fake Julie to die. Fake Julie is actually called Lillian. She fights Julie.She ends up knocked out. Dunphy and Arthur are searching the place for Lillian and Julie. They know Lillian is in danger. It turns out Lillian is working for the insurance company. It was a set up. Arthur figures that Julie will take Lillian to the lake and kill her. Julie ends up slipping into the water and drowning.Police arrive and Arthur and Lillian leave together.

There's a lot of twists and turns in this. The story gets a bit confusing at times but it is still an entertaining movie. I like a mystery film and this does the job nicely. The cast are good and the story is fun. I will give it a 5/10.

The Phantom of the Opera(1962) Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Phantom of the Opera is a 1962 horror movie directed by Terence Fisher and starring Herbert Lom, Heather Sears, Edward de Souza and Michael Gough.

The movie begins with a man at the opera. He frightens an opera singer called Maria. She tells the producer Harry(de Souza) about it. He calms her down. The manager is called Lattimer(Thorley Walters) and he and Lord D'Arcy(Gough) sit together. D'Arcy is unhappy that one box is empty because it is supposed to be haunted. Someone has sabotaged the music. Maria is on stage when a dead body falls down near her. She is terrified and refuses to sing again. Harry has to hold auditions for a replacement. The phantom is watching. A woman called Christine Charles(Sears)is hired. D'Arcy likes her. He invites her to dinner with him. She hears a voice speaking to her. It tells her that she will sing only for him and it warns her about D'Arcy.

D'Arcy comes on to her. Christine doesn't like it. She asks Harry to come with her. D'Arcy loses interest. Christine tells Harry about the voice she heard. They go to the theatre to find out more. The voice speaks again. It warns Harry. He warns him to leave before something happens. Christine sees the phantom. Harry finds out about a Professor Petrie(Lom) who burned to death. Harry is interested in this and he finds out that the Professor didn't actually die. He got burned by acid and he has been missing since. Harry goes to the police and asks about the fire. The police tell him that the man went into the river. Christine gets taken by the phantom who is Professor Petrie. He also has a dwarf working for him. He tells her that he will teach her to sing. He tells her that she will be the greatest. She will sing only for him.

Harry looks around the river and he hears Christine's voice singing. He gets into the water and finds a tunnel. The dwarf hears him coming and attacks him. Harry manages to fight him off and finds the Professor and Christine. Petrie tells him that D'Arcy cheated him out of his music and passed it off as his own. Petrie broke into the printers to stop them from printing his music and caused a fire. He got burned badly by acid. He jumped into the river for relief and he was washed into the sewer where he met the dwarf who looked after him. He is now dying and he wants to hear Christine sing his music before he dies. They agree to help him fulfil his dying wish.

Petrie pays a visit to D'Arcy who is horrified by his face. Petrie goes to the theatre and hears his music being performed by Christine. He is happy. He stands in the haunted box. The dwarf is up in the rafters listening to the music when he gets disturbed by someone. He walks over a chandelier and it begins to fall. Christine is about to be hit but Petrie jumps in front of her and saves her life. He dies in the process. This is a good film. It is of course a classic story and this version is very entertaining. The cast are very good and there are some familiar faces. I definitely recommend this one as it is directed by Terence Fisher who directed some horror classics such as The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula(1958). It gets a 6/10.