Although commonly referred to as a giallo, Alberto De Martino’s The Man with Icy Eyes would have to be
a rather atypical example of the genre, if not an ostensible one. It is set and
filmed in a southwestern desert city called Albuquerque, NM (where I’m from,
but we’ll get to that later). It doesn’t follow the violent murder mystery plot
set forth by Mario Bava and
popularized by Dario Argento, nor
does it have any of the attractive gothic horror crossovers with ultramodern
psychedelic fashions or drug-induced delirium. If anything, the film is more of
a rustic detective story with a smattering of the crime thriller and a climax
not entirely unlike that of Lucio Fulci’s One On Top of the Other (1969). Given the
film’s mystery element, tense soundtrack, and early ‘70s era, and considering the
presence of key players like Antonio
Sabato (Seven Blood Stained Orchids
1972) and Barbara Bouchet (Don’t Torture a Duckling 1972), I can
still dig the giallo tag. It also flirts with the supernatural, just a little,
and there’s a colorful nude photography scene with Bouchet to give the film a minimally erotic edge.
You might not know it from looking at the playful erotic
movie posters and DVD covers, but Simona
is no sex comedy. Though still playful and sexy in certain parts, Patrick Longchamps’ Fellini-inspired adaptation of the French novella Story of the Eye (1928) is a dark
oddity of avant-garde filmmaking, with a heavy undercurrent of social
alienation.
At the time the film was released its lead actress Laura
Antonelli had recently
achieved overnight fame from her award winning role in Salvatore Samperi’s sexy, controversial
dark-comedy Malizia (1973). She had
made such an impact that moviegoers flocked to see Antonelli in Simona,
which was actually shot about a year before Malizia (Simona was
shelved for a while before being released).
Simona was unfortunately confiscated in Italy for its explicit
content. One-time Belgian filmmaker Longchamps had a friend with connections in the
Vatican who organized a private screening of the banned film for four priests,
and after finally being approved by the church, Simona was released in Italy, where it made a lot of
money (the film was never released in its native country of Belgium). Eventually
the original film negatives were acquired by "distributors of ill-repute," and as it currently
stands, a properly restored version of Simona, as far as I know,
remains unrealized.
