There’s not much left to be said about Dario Argento‘s sunny-side up Giallo. In fact, our pal Vince D’Amato has already reviewed it here at VTSS. Tenebrae shoehorns in a stellar cast of red herrings, gorgeous victims and hysterical screamers. It shows off its camera bravura – diving in and out of windows with stylistic verve. It cranks the volume up on Claudio Simonetti‘s ear thumpingly funky 80s disco soundtrack and makes a mess of the beautiful Plumage inspired interiors by spraying bright red arterial ketchup all over the place. Straight out of Ms. Silvio Berlusconi’s severed arm no less.
With all this going on in the foreground, it’s easy to forget the involvement of our beloved John Saxon. Hell, even he has trouble recollecting his role in the film! A week or two’s worth of work in Italy was nothing new for the grand ole duke of genre and to be fair he doesn’t really do a huge amount in Argento’s movie anyway. What he does do, nonetheless, remains noteworthy and must surely figure in the actor’s greatest hits. Though this review has nothing new to say about the film, Tenebrae is still a highlight in The John Saxon Project thus far…
Saxon, you might recall, plays crazy Tony Franciosa‘s literary agent, Bullmer and cops it in a notable contradiction to the general rule of the moody gialli murder set piece. In broad daylight in a busy piazza, Saxon gets a dagger in the belly, keels over and bites the dust.
belly ache...
Bullmer has been having an affair with his client’s wife but there’s hardly any salaciousness to warrant long lasting intrigue. What our man Saxon has instead is a gimmick. In the case of Tenebrae, the gimmick is a hat – one that he insists on wearing with inexplicable and embarrassing pride. The “hat” thing is Saxon’s big moment in the film and this is at once a real shame and of no real surprise come 1982. The price Saxon paid, it would seem, to appear in a film from the tail end of genre all’Italiana’s golden period, was to wiggle his head about like a loon whilst wearing a trilby before being murdered in a public place in front of dozens of bystanders. Ouch.
Still, Tenebrae is an excellent film. So John (and his bloody hat) can be forgiven this time round…
