Il coltello di ghiaccio

Plot synopsis:
A famous singer, Jenny Ascot (Evelyn Stewart), visits her cousin Martha Caldwell (Carroll Baker) at her home in the Pyrenees. Caldwell has long been rendered mute after witnessing both her parents being killed in a train crash. While Ascot and Caldwell are travelling to Caldwell's home, they notice a strange man who seems to be following them. That night, at Caldwell's villa, Ascot hears noises coming from the garage, and when she investigates, is killed by an unseen figure.
The police believe the killing is connected to the murder of a teenage girl hours before, and their prime suspect is a local hippy they are convinced is a drug-addicted Satanist. However, two more murders occur while this suspect is in custody. Several other locals are placed under suspicion, including a doctor (Franco Fantasia), a chauffeur (Eduardo Fajardo) and an occultist (George Rigaud). Eventually the man who Caldwell and Ascot saw following them is arrested, and the police discover that his girlfriend had been found murdered several days earlier.
However, after this man is taken into custody, Caldwell's friend Christina (Rosa María Rodríguez) is also murdered, prompting police to reopen the investigation. After they find that their suspect's girlfriend had died of a drug overdose, rather than being murdered, it eventually comes to light that the killer is Caldwell herself. She had killed Ascot out of jealousy of her singing voice, which piqued her interest in murder, and resurfaced to kill Christina when the girl had discovered evidence linking Caldwell to the crimes.

Tags: cult, horror, murder

Review:
Acceptable Italian-Spanish Giallo filled with thrills , chills , suspense , twists and turns.
¨Il Coltello di Ghiaccio" also titled "Knife of Ice" or "Silent Horror¨ deals with a thirteen year old named Martha Caldwell who witnessed the death of her parents in a deadly railway crash .
Now an adult, the still dumb Martha (Carrol Baker) lives with her uncle Ralph (George Rigaud) at a mansion in Spanish countryside .
In the little town live various usual characters : the doctor (Alan Scott) , the priest (Jose Marco) , the judge (Angel Menendez) , the pharmacist , the local junkie (Mario Pardo) and the chauffeur (Eduardo Fajardo) , all of them seem to be suspicious people .
The already traumatized Martha seems likely to be the next victim when take place strange events .This is a right Giallo where the intrigue, tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room , corridors and luxurious interior and exterior .
The movie belongs to Italian Giallo genre that was invented by Mario Bava (Mask of demon ,The Evil Eye, A bay of blood) along with Riccardo Freda (Secret of Dr. Hitchcock, The ghost , I Vampiri) , they are the fundamental creators .
These Giallo movies are characterized by overblown use of color with shining red blood, usual zooms, originally staged crimes , use of images-shock and a lot of plot twists .
Umberto Lenzi's so-so direction is well crafted, here he's less cynical and more inclined toward violence and lots of killings .
It's a co-production Italian- Spanish for that reason appears Italian actors such as Ida Galli , Franco Fantasia , as Spanish actors such as Lorenzo Robledo , Mario Pardo , Jorge Rigaud , Angel Menendez and Eduardo Fajardo ; most of them usually played in Spaghetti/Paella sub-genre.
Thrilling and suspenseful score by Marcello Giombini.The picture was well directed by the prolific filmmaker Umbert Lenzi .
Talented and versatile writer/director Umbert Lenzi has made a vast array of often solid and entertaining films in all kind of genres as horror, comedy, Western, and science fiction in a career that spans over 40 years .Umbert Lenzi used the pseudonym Hank Milestone and Humphrey Logan .
After directing a war film and two "spaghetti westerns," Lenzi turned to the Giallo genre with ¨Orgasmo¨ (1969).
During the 1970s, Lenz filmed a number of Giallo and thrillers , among them : ¨So Sweet, So Perverse¨, ¨Seven Blood-Stained Orchids¨ and ¨Eyeball¨ .
Prior to the Polizieschi, Lenzi directed ¨Man from Deep River¨ , which was the start of the Italian cannibal sub-genre .
This early 70's giallo by Umberto Lenzi is certainly among the best in his filmography and also in the whole genre.
Personally I think Lenzi's best films are the funny cartoon-turned-film Kriminal, the stylish giallo Seven Blood-Stained Orchids, the explosive Napoli violenta and this.
Knife of Ice came when the giallo boom was at its hottest and the result is convincing.Technically the film is superb, containing great cinematography in the beginning when we learn about the main character's trauma towards trains.
The great Umberto Lenzi is undeniably one of the most versatile and multi-talented Italian genre directors, having contributed to almost all (sub-)genres of Italian cult-cinema.
For my money, Lenzi's greatest films are his Poliziotteschi, above all the gritty and brutal masterpiece MILANO ODIA - LA POLIZIA NON PUÒ SPARARE (ALMOST HUMAN, 1974), followed by his Gialli, most notably the great and incredibly elegant SETTE ORCHIDEE MACCHIATE DI ROSSO (SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS, 1972).
While Lenzi's films have the just reputation of being among the grittiest and most uncompromisingly violent ones in Italian cult-cinema, this is not necessarily true for his Gialli.
KNIFE OF ICE (1972) is a convoluted and plot-based Giallo which is practically sleaze-less and rather low on brutality.Caroll Baker, the star of Lenzi's early Gialli ORGASMO (1969) and PARANOIA (1970) plays Martha, a woman who was traumatized and left mute after witnessing the death of her parents at age thirteen.
She lives with her uncle in a mansion in the Spanish countryside when her cousin is stabbed to death by a maniacal killer.
What first appears to be the deed of a sex-maniac turns out to become a series of attacks with everybody involved being a possible suspect/victim...1972 was probably THE golden year for the Giallo-genre with several of the greatest genre-masterpieces being released (e.g. Sergio Martino's IL TUO VIZIO È UNA STANZA CHIUSA E SOLO IO NÈ HO LA CHIAVE, Lucio Fulci's NON SI SEVIZIA UN PAPERINO, Massimo Dallamano's COSA AVETE FATTO A SOLANGE?, Emilio Miraglia's LA DAMA ROSSA UCCIDE SETTE VOLTE, etc).
While KNIFE OF ICE is not one of the absolute highlights of this great year of the Giallo, it is a good and very suspenseful one.
Overall, this isn't one of my favorite films from Lenzi, but it is a more than decent Giallo that my fellow fans of the Genre shouldn't miss..
I agree that "Knife of Ice" is one of director Umberto Lenzi's classier movies, but I didn't find it one of his more interesting ones (it's certainly one of his least sexy).
The mystery is well conceived, the editing well done, and Carroll Baker turns in a good performance, no doubt aided by the fact that since her character is a mute she's spared the stilted post dubbing suffered by the other actors.
Personally, I found other Lenzi-Baker thrillers like "Paranoia" (a.k.a.
Still, for fans of the genre, "Knife of Ice" is worth a look..
KNIFE OF ICE (Umberto Lenzi, 1972) **1/2.
The third Lenzi giallo I've watched after having attended screenings of ORGASMO (1969; incidentally another of his collaborations with star Carroll Baker) and SPASMO (1974) during the Italian B-movie retrospective at the 2004 Venice Film Festival; they're not the best examples of the genre by far, but neither are they among the worst.I recall ORGASMO being pretty complex, while SPASMO was weird without being especially compelling (though I did watch it as part of an all-night marathon that ended at 8:00 and where the screening of Lenzi's film was interrupted a couple of times because of trouble with the print!).
The narrative also takes in drug addiction and devil worship, but these emerge as mere red herrings.Still, for a giallo, it's pretty bloodless and, to be honest, its attempt at psychology - demonstrated by frequent abrupt cutting in which Baker has flashes from her past, as well as the various victims at their moment of death, and the possible perpetrator - is not only unconvincing but becomes a repetitive device with little purpose (given the final revelation)!
Besides, the score is undistinguished and the casting merely okay: Georges Rigaud (as Baker's ageing uncle, who has a heart condition which he ultimately uses to his own advantage!), Eduardo Fajardo (as a sinister-looking chauffeur), Evelyn Stewart, etc..
It involves Ida Galli returning to the family home to meet her family, including a mute Carroll Baker (nice turn from her in this film).
Everyone's happy to see her, but this also seems to trigger a series of killings which may or may not have something to do with a local Satanic cult.Knife of Ice looks great and sounds great, but it's also kind of tame and treading the same ground at the same time.
Italian director Umberto Lenzi dispatches with his usual decadence and debauchery for an Agatha Christie-styled whodunit set in the Spanish countryside.
Carroll Baker (in her fourth teaming with Lenzi) plays a terrified woman--rendered mute since childhood after witnessing the death of her parents--who may be the next target of a sex maniac/devil worshiper stalking the area.
Released in 1972 at the tail end of the giallo craze, it could be expected that this would be an entry in the sub-genre that emphasised the sex and violence like most other entries from that year.
When you also consider that its director is Umberto Lenzi who was responsible for several highly exploitative movies and who is to subtlety what Mr T is to Shakespearean acting, you would be forgiven for thinking Knife of Ice would be a classic style bloody and sleazy murder mystery.
The only bit of outrage is the opening credit sequence which shows a fairly graphic bull fight, so Umberto did at least incorporate one of his more notorious traits – animal slaughter - into this one at least.The film seems to be a reworking of the 1946 chiller The Spiral Staircase.
Caroll Baker (So Sweet, So Perverse) stars as the mute, while Evelyn Stewart (The Case of the Scorpion's Tail) appears too in a role that sadly has little screen-time.
It's certainly a professional enough effort with some suspenseful moments but on the whole it is a little too restrained for its own good and it pales in comparison with other gialli released around the same time..
An overall decent Giallo from Umberto Lenzi.
Umberto Lenzi's Giallo's weren't his strongest point, but the handful that he made was mostly decent.
Knife of Ice kind of bridges a gap between the director's best Giallo's - Seven Blood Stained Orchids and Oasis of Fear and his choppier, trashy stuff with films like Spasmo and Eyeball.
This film looks nice and seems like it's a high quality production, but somehow it doesn't quite wash as a completely classy thriller.
A big weakness here is the plot, as while there is certainly a basis for a good thriller on show; Lenzi doesn't always handle it very well, and it comes off as overly convoluted and the wrong elements are often the ones given the most emphasis.
However, the guest soon turns up dead in the garage, and the police are quick to suspect a local hippy as the murderer as it happened at around the same time as another murder in the town.
However, as the murders continue it becomes obvious that the killer isn't the hippy at all...This film is pretty typical of Lenzi's early Giallo work, as it features the lovely Miss Carroll Baker in the lead role, as well as a plot revolving around sound; as seen in the earlier Orgasmo.
However, Baker's character in this film isn't entirely likable; more irritating, in fact, and the convoluted Giallo plot doesn't work as well as it does in other Giallo films as it never really feels like there's a great deal going on.
Further nuisances include the fact that all of the murders happen off screen - and that's unlikely to please fans of these usually blood-soaked thrillers.
The film boils down to the usual unlikely ending, but at least Lenzi has taken the time to explain everything so we're not left wondering.
Overall, Knife of Ice isn't a brilliant Giallo - but it's decent enough and just about worth seeing in spite of its flaws..
Now an adult, the still mute Martha lives with her uncle Ralph in the Spanish countryside.
It appears that a sex maniac is roaming the countryside; killing pretty young girls.
The already traumatized Martha seems likely to be the next victim but the case turns out to be far more complicated than it would first seem..
One of Lenzi's Best Films.....
Umberto Lenzi was a prolific director making more than some 70 films throughout his career.
I guess he could be described as part of the B-grade Italian tradition where they would make numerous films in many different genres (Western, Horror, Giallo, Crime and even Cannibal films) with low budgets and heavy time constraints.
Basically, Carroll Baker place a mute women who suffered an horrific trauma in the past (the death of her parents).
The film is also helped by an unusual but effective score and some beautiful cinematography as well as a fine central performance by Baker.Those who are familiar with the 'giallo' genre should be warned that this film doesn't contain some of the more lurid trappings of the genre (nudity and violence) that other films like 'Torso' for example have.
For all my viewing of horror and giallo films, I have become somewhat immune to the shrieking and howling of human stock, but animals - especially when real footage is concerned as in the bullfighting scenes in the opening credits - is genuinely upsetting.Carroll Baker plays Martha Caldwell, struck dumb as a child as a result of witnessing the death of her parents.
An appealing character, she becomes an ongoing victim in an unsettling string of murders, seemingly at the hands of a man with strangely piercing eyes (a recurring theme films of this genre).
Umberto Lenzi directed all kinds of films, some good, some bad, some indifferent, some striking.
Carroll Baker continues her long streak of Euro exploitation/horror flicks with this typically convoluted Spanish/Italian giallo from director Umberto Lenzi, who had previously directed the actress in three films in the same genre - ORGASMO/PARANOIA (1968), A QUIET PLACE TO KILL (1969) and SO SWEET...
There's no gore (all of the murders are off-screen), no sex, no nudity, no notable kill scenes and almost no suspense to speak of.
Combine that with a lousy screenplay and anonymous direction and you have a film that isn't going to appeal to anyone other than the most dedicated of giallo fans.
Now I do appreciate the picturesque outdoor Spanish locales sometimes used in this film, but when it fails at basically everything else, it's hard to recommend it for a few scenic shots of a place you'd like to take a vacation.Baker stars as Martha Caldwell, a woman who saw her parents die in a train wreck when she was a teen and has been mute every since that traumatic event fifteen years ago.
Since he's obviously filling the too-obvious red herring position, let's get back to the real suspects in this case...So who was at the party that could have killed Jenny?
That last thing was probably my favorite bit in the entire movie.Baker's performance is decent.
The version I saw was under the title KNIFE OF ICE and is a good-looking, dubbed, widescreen print..
Decent Giallo From Umberto Lenzi....
Despite the fact that KNIFE OF ICE was very tame in the sex and sleaze departments (virtually no bloodshed and no nudity whatsoever...) I found this one to be a decent enough entry in the genre.
Martha is a mute who became that way after a train accident killed her parents 15 years earlier.
This of course leads to all the typical giallo-style investigations and 'red herrings' that most fans crave...I will say that I was disappointed in the lack of gore and nudity in this entry (especially coming from Lenzi who helmed such sleaze 'classics' as CANNIBAL FEROX and EATEN ALIVE) -but of the several giallo-films that I've seen lately-I was thankful that the pace was relatively quick, and the storyline pretty straight-forward.
I tend to like gialli overall, but I find that many get caught up in such convoluted plots that they tend to weigh the film down.
I will say that for me at least, I guessed the killer pretty much right off the bat- but that's not to say that the film is exactly 'predictable'.
Knife of Ice. Soloist Jenny (Ida Galli) returns home to her sister, mute Martha (Carroll Baker), falling victim to a knife-murderer who could be a Devil worshiper with "crazy eyes".
The number of suspects emerge in Umberto Lenzi's intricately plotted giallo (convoluted as giallo fans come to expect) where a small Italian village is overtaken with fear as not only was Jenny killed but another "fair-haired girl" found not far from the château where Martha and her Uncle Ralph (George Rigaud) reside.
Of course with a lot of Lenzi's giallo thrillers, there's a psychological angle at work: this movie concerns Baker's Martha who often experiences memories which trouble her.
Baker is still lovely, although the movie doesn't exploit her usual willingness to get naked—Baker's period in Italy was coming to a close, KNIFE OF ICE another collaboration between her and Lenzi.
KNIFE OF ICE isn't overly violent or sleazy, more dependent on the plot, not exactly what a majority of the die-hard fanbase looks for, to tell you the truth.
I'm not sure KNIFE OF ICE will be among any giallo enthusiast's top favorites, but we are a curious breed who seek to find even the most obscure, lesser known of the genre, so maybe this film is worth the pursuit if you can find it (unlike other Lenzi gialli in his oeuvre, KNIFE OF ICE has become accessible)..
Umberto Lenzi; respectable giallo-master!.
Umberto Lenzi was a more than prolific giallo director during the late sixties/early seventies and he undoubtedly delivered great contributions to this wondrous sub-genre, with legendary titles like "Paranoia", "Orgasmo", "So Sweet, So Perverse", "Oasis of Fear", "Eyeball" and "Spasmo".
His finest giallo accomplishment – in my humble opinion, at least – was "Seven Blood-stained Orchids" in 1972, and in that same glorious year he also made the lesser known but definitely worthwhile "Knife of Ice".
This film describes itself pretty much as a textbook giallo, meaning it features a typical heroine in distress (Lenzi regular Caroll Baker), a few vicious knife murders (although less than usual), several conspicuous male suspects, misleading clues and red herrings all around and a far- fetched twist ending that is simultaneously preposterous and ingenious.
When she was only a young teenager, Martha Caldwell lost both her parents in a disastrous train accident and witnessing this tragedy caused her to be mute ever since.
The police discover the lair of a satanic cult in the area, so maybe the killer is a devil worshiper, but also Martha's creepy chauffeur Marcos behaves increasingly suspicious.
The satanic cult aspect is relatively new for a giallo-thriller, which to me proves all the more that Lenzi is one of the principal founders of the sub genre.
The low body count and the quasi gore- free depiction of the murders are rather disappointing, especially since we all know that Lenzi made several of the goriest Italian horror films in history.