The Devil Has Seven Faces (1971)

- Il diavolo a sette facce
A Mixed Bag, 11 February 2008

It's tough to pigeonhole a movie like The Devil Has 7 Faces. While I'm going to call it a Giallo, I do so with reservations. The Devil Has 7 Faces may not include the normal black-gloved, knife-welding mania, or even a body count usually associated with this kind of movie, but it does have enough of the Giallo feel to it in my mind to be called a Giallo. And when you mix in a smarmy George Hilton, Carroll Baker (who I'm not particularly a fan of), a super "loungey" score from Stelvio Cipriani, and a convoluted plot, the result is a film that most any Giallo/Euro-Crime fan can find something to enjoy.

The plot involves a woman named Julie Harrison (Baker) who is being terrorized by a gang of jewel thieves. It soon comes out that her twin sister, Mary, was involved in major diamond heist, but double-crossed her husband/partner. Have the jewel thieves confused Julie and Mary?

Unfortunately, the movie is not without its problems. Chief among them is the mediocre direction of Osvaldo Civirani. He seems incapable of creating suspense or tension even in the most obvious of moments. He also handles many of the key plot twists with all the finesse of a gorilla. Much of the movie's outcome is painfully obvious long before it should be. Finally, there are a couple of "What the . . . " type moments in The Devil Has 7 Faces. I don't want to give anything away, but there are some things that happen in the movie that just left me scratching my head.

5/10