[yasr_overall_rating]
Detective Paolo Germi is assigned to investigate the suspicious murder of a very young girl, but every time he gets closer to unravel the mystery, more killings occur. Eventually, throughout his investigation, he uncovers a prostitution ring with ties to very powerful people.
Sergio Martino is a director with whom I was familiar with and didn’t know it. Years ago, I bought a copy of his film “2019: After the Fall of New York“ during the closing of the legendary Towers Record at East 4th Street and Broadway in New York City. It took me another five years or so before I actually watched the film. Martino was a director who had a very good eye for interesting stories. His filmography jumps between Giallo, exploitation, spaghetti westerns, sci-fi, and other genre films.
“The Suspicious Death Of A Minor” has a plot that I’ve considered writing in other forms in my own life. In short, a detective and a mysterious woman meet. The mysterious woman is discovered dead. The detective decides to go after the woman’s killers. As the detective investigates the woman’s death, he enters a world of mystery. It’s not a complicated plot and one would be hard-pressed to say it was a very original story. But there’s something about the film that’s remarkably enticing.
Despite its conventional plot, the film uses several interesting locations. One sequence, in particular, includes a shootout on a rollercoaster. The movie’s climax occurs on a train that is passing through a tunnel on the Italian-Swiss border.
“The Suspicious Death Of A Minor” would be the last Giallo from Martino. Only, in retrospect, the film is much more a poliziotteschi, which is a form of Italian police procedural. In between the heartbreaking moments of sadness and grim despair in the film, Martino lightens the mood with slapstick humor. It reminded me a bit of how legendary folk troubadour Townes Van Zandt would tell heartbreaking jokes to alleviate the tone of the evenings.
If you don’t watch this film expecting great depth or complexity, you’ll like it even more. Arrow Video as it always does, has presented the film in a loving remastered edition. I plan on watching this film a few more times. If you’re a fan of Giallo (even though this isn’t one) or Italian genre films, I really can’t recommend this film highly enough.
Now available on a 2-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray
