THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

(A.k.a. THE EVIL EYE; L'INCUBO; LA RAGEZZA CHE SAPEVA TROPPO)

Pretty blonde American Nora (Leticia Roman) ventures by plane to see her elderly aunt Ethel (Chana Coubert). A male narration explains from the start that she loves nothing more than to immerse herself in a good murder mystery book. In fact, she's reading one when we first see her. But "it will be her last", the voiceover ominously states.

As she lands in Rome, Nora is alarmed when the kindly gentleman she's been sat next to during her flight is arrested for smuggling. Things are only going to get more alarming for her.

Upon her arrival at Ethel's house, she startled to find the old dear gravely ill. Young doctor Marcello (John Saxon) assures her he lives nearby and leaves his number in case she needs help. He wants to bed her, basically.

That night, Ethel passes away and a panic-stricken Nora flees into the street. It's there that she's mugged and then, seconds before slipping into unconsciousness, she witnesses the stabbing of a woman mere feet away from her.

Or does she? When she next wakes, in a hospital bed, her ramblings are dismissed by police and medics alike. Luckily Marcello likes her enough to entertain her tales of stab victims and moustachioed murderers fleeing into the misty night.

The plot thickens when, at Ethel's funeral, Nora is overheard discussing her night of terror with the vicar. Laura (Valentina Cortese), there tending to her sister's grave, is quick to introduce herself as living near where the supposed murder took place, and invites Nora back to her place.

An unlikely twist of fate means that Laura has to go away on business and therefore asks Nora, who by now is determined to stick around and prove the killing really took place, to look after her house. Nora obliges and, while alone there, starts to realise the house has connections to the infamous "ABC murders" that plagued the area 10 years earlier. Seeing as though the murderer - who killed women in alphabetical surname order - only ever got as far as the letter "C" back then, and Nora's surname begins with the letter "D", she soon accepts that her own life is in danger...

Rarely mentioned when people speak of the highpoints of Mario Bava's career, THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH actually endures as one of his most stylish and consistently gripping propositions. Widely regarded as the first official 'giallo' thriller, many of the genre's motifs are here: the stranger in a strange land who witnesses a murder; a lack of co-operation from police which leads to amateur sleuthing; shady figures lurking in the shadows, in long coats and hats; a plethora of suspects. The film makes excellent use of its monochrome photography to conjure scenes of stunning atmosphere - especially in its latter half when Nora is terrorised while home alone.

Roman is gorgeous and likeable, her wide-eyed fear effortlessly reeling the viewer in as events progress. A young Saxon impresses with restraint here: not exactly renowned as a great thespian, he handles the role of stoic beau admirably here.

Clearly influenced by Hitchcock - the title is a giveaway - and Agatha Christie (her 'The ABC Murders' is an obvious reference point), this film's influence can easily be witnessed in the likes of THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE: the latter pulls a similar twist to the one observed here.

Sexy, stylish and tense, THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH also feels incredibly contemporary considering its 51 years old. Wow.

Following their Stateside box office success with BLACK SUNDAY, American International Pictures co-produced this follow-up film. As a result, they asked Bava to deliver two versions of the film. The Italian cut is the main attraction here, but we also get the US cut - EVIL EYE.

It's lighter in tone, some of the comedy (a portrait of Bava on Laura's wall changing expression as Nora walks past it) not working very well. It also adds several minutes of travelogue-type footage, as if in an attempt to lure American audiences to Rome for their jollies. Also, the plane-set opening has different voice-over - and the epilogue differs too.

Another significant change on the American release is that Roberto Nicolosi's atmospheric, if at times dated, score was replaced by a funkier Les Baxter proposition. In truth, it's still a good film - just different.

Arrow Films Video continue their sterling treatment of Bava's work with this dual-format release.

Sourced from Alfredo Leone and conducted by Arrow themselves, the 2K transfer from original 35mm elements is exemplary. Retaining the film's original 1.66:1 aspect ratio on the Italian version and presented as a generously sized MPEG4-AVC file in full 1080p HD, the clarity is somewhat breath-taking at times. The opening credits are admittedly a tad soft, and the largely immaculate print does exhibits only occasional signs of wear - vertical lines around the 46-minute mark, for example - but otherwise the film looks flabbergastingly good. Blacks are strong, shadows and shade are expertly rendered with no noise whatsoever, and the amount of detail in close-up shots (the pores in characters' faces etc) is remarkable. A fine layer of natural grain complements the lush imagery and greatly enhanced definition. The closest I can think of as a comparison is Criterion's superlative blu-ray transfer of Roman Polanski's REPULSION.

Italian LPCM mono audio is very consistent and clean throughout, as the optional English subtitles provided. The latter are white with a thin black borderline, ensuring they're readable against any background.

EVIL EYE is framed at 1.78:1, which is fine, and if anything looks even better. Its English mono track is equally impressive.

The disc opens to a stylised monochrome animated main menu page.

From there, you get the option of watching either version of the film. Both versions come with pop-up scene selection menus allowing access via 12 chapters apiece.

Extras include an optional 3-minute introduction from Alan Jones. In-between rough standard definition clips which serve to really demonstrate how classy the HD transfer is, he points out Hitchcock references, speaks of the film's influence on gialli and even points out George Clooney's uncle among the cast...

Tim Lucas is present for another fact-filled, academic audio commentary track. It's been scripted, clearly, but it's still very illuminating.

"All About the Girl" is an excellent 22-minute documentary in which Luigi Cozzi, Richard Stanley, Alan Jones and sometime SGM scribe Mikel Koven show their appreciation for the film while elaborating on how it fashioned the giallo cinema that was to follow.

You may have seen Anchor Bay's 9-minute interview with Saxon before, but are you really going to moan about it resurfacing here?

The film's international and American trailers are equally entertaining in their own ways.

This package is rounded off by yet another fine collectors' booklet. Arrow do these well, and this 28-page offering is no exception. Along with some beautiful illustrations, stills and full film credits, we get a great 2010 article on the film from Kier-La Janisse - dissecting the differences between the two versions of the film, pondering over its feminist elements, affording it overdue merit within the Bava canon and debating its worth as a giallo. It makes for a very good read.

Highly recommended.

Review by Stuart Willis