Night of Violence (1965) User Reviews

Violent Roman Nights!

[andrabem-1 · 7/10 · 26 July 2009]

Roman nights – a masked killer is stalking and killing all the women he meets. The main victims are, of course, prostitutes.

"Le notti della violenza" may not be a groundbreaking giallo but it's atmospheric, it features, as it's to be expected, lots of pretty women (among them Marilu Tolo, Lisa Gastoni, Helene Chanel etc..) and the cameras are sensitive to feminine beauty (but as we are in 1965 not much can be shown). In short, "Le notti della violenza", in spite of being an early giallo, displays all the characteristics of the giallo genre – women being pursued, killed, slapped around, asking for protection and crying like broken dolls when mistreated. But it's not really a misogynistic film – it shows, it relishes and (in a way) it denounces (!).

"Le notti della violenza" is what one could call, a spontaneous giallo, this means, gialli that were made with few resources, but got the most out of them.

"Le notti della violenza" can't be put in the same league with, for instance, Mario Bava's classic "Blood and Black Lace" (1963) or Bazzoni's psychological giallo "La donna del lago" (1965), but it's still interesting if you like films for entertainment: As I said before, it's atmospheric (the silhouette of a woman seen through a window in the night, a lonely meadow, bushes, pines trees, someone stalking..) and it's also a perfect time capsule – the women, their hairdos, the music, the parties etc..

The plot mixes a deranged killer, a prostitution and drug ring and there are even hints about the atomic age! But no need to be afraid! In spite of all, the story is simple enough. The main drawback (for those that don't understand Italian) is that the copies available are in Italian without subtitles.

Elegant mix of giallo and film noir.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 7/10 · 19 January 2015]

A masked killer in long dark coat stalks and strangles to death beautiful prostitutes.Comissario Ferretii wants to find the elusive killer..."La Notti Della Violenza" is an unjustly forgotten giallo with elegant mood of noir cinema.The script is entertaining and offers some unusual ideas.Plenty of red herrings and a bizarre unexpected twist at the end.The scenes of stalking and violent attacks on women are quite tame,though.It seems that the version I saw which lasted 77 minutes seems to be missing about 14 minutes.If you are a fan of 60's gialli you can't go wrong with Roberto Mauri's unreal "La Notti Della Violenza".7 white masks out of 10.

Green Waters.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 26 October 2013]

Taking a look at a pile of "must watch" DVD titles of the Giallo sub- genre that are currently placed in the corner of my bedroom,a few days ago,I suddenly realised that I had somehow never got round to previously taking a look at one of the first ever items that I won on Ebay,which led to me excitingly getting ready for a night of wild,ultra-violence.

The plot:

Waving goodbye to her final client of the day,call girl Carla Pratesi starts to get prepared for her dad's (who is an ambassador) birthday party.As she puts the finishing touches to her clothes,Carla receives a phone call from the head of the agency:Linda,who requests that Pratesi changes her plans,due to Linda having received a call from a business man who is willing to spend every penny for a night with Carla.Initially refusing the offer,Carla begins to change her mind,when Linda tells Pratesi that she could make more money from this one customer than she could in an entire week,and is also told by Linda that if she turns this offer down,then maybe Carla's father might want to know what his little girl has been up to.

With a heavy heart,Carla rings up her father and tells him that she will be unable to attend the party,due to needing an "emergency operation".Heading to her final "appointment",Pratesti finds herself in the middle of nowhere,when one of the cars tyres suddenly gets a huge hole.Getting out of the car to replace the tyre,Carla is greeted by a strange man wearing a long dark coat,who kindly offers to help Pratesi replace the tyre.Accepting the strangers kind offer,Pratesti and the stranger begin replacing the tyre,which ends up getting no where near the car,when the stranger suddenly grabs Carla by the neck and strangles her to death.

The next day:

Arriving to the murder scene,Commisario Ferretti quickly begins to suspect that Pratesi's murder may have something to do either with her father's role,or the job that she was secretly doing behind her families back,which leads to Ferretti taking a close look at Carla's former "agent" Linda,who Ferretti soon discovers is doing much more then just sending the ladies of the night into the sunset…

View on the film:

Despite the movie having a blood thirsty title,co-writer (along with Edoardo Mulargia)/director Roberto Mauri unexpectedly takes this Giallo into a surprisingly elegant direction.Closely working with cinematography Vitaliano Natalucci to limit the violence to short,sharp shots,so that the movie can instead be given an extremely strong Film Noir atmosphere, Mauri and Natalucci give the film a deep smoky appearance,which along with showing the dark world that Carla has found herself trapped in,also allows Mauri to create a strong sense that the killer could be lurking behind any darkened corner of the screen.

Along with showing a superb skill in gradually unravelling Carla's mysterious private life,Mulargia and Mauri also give the firm Giallo centre mystery of the movie some surprisingly blunt social/political commentary. Along with giving the killer an off-beat reasoning for the murder, this also allows Mauri and Mulargia to connect this movie to the post-war Film Noir period,which along with great performances from the beautiful Helene Chanel as Carla,and the quick witted Alberto Lupo as Ferretti,make this Giallo Film Noir one whose night of violence is very much worth witnessing at first sight.

"Knock knock" "Who's There?" "Gial" "Gialwhoo?" "What?"

[Bezenby · 6/10 · 17 April 2017]

Hey girls! When undressing in your room, it's a good idea to make sure the light source is between you and the window, and not the other way round. That way you may not attract so many stalkers and potential murderers.

Carla does not heed this warning, and get herself strangle one night while heading to her job as a hooker. Turns out her dad is some political big wig and her pimp lady was into all sorts of rackets, which means things get complicated really quickly.

What also complicates matters more is that Carla's killer strikes a few more times (but doesn't get to murder anyone) and every time he's described by a witness as a different famous actor! This confuses the police greatly, and they vent their anger by arresting the massive drugs ring connected to Carla's organisation, and having a few punch ups along the way.

Like all good giallo, this one has a masked killer, and like all good giallo, it strays away from the giallo template by throwing in a few twists towards the end, and blending it in with some Euro-crime business too. I never guessed the ending, especially as my suspect was kidnapped by the killer! It's maybe tame in terms of Gialli (with one murder), but ticks along nicely. I can't believe the same guy that made this also made the crap fest King of Kong Island!

Nascent giallo

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 13 January 2021]

Roberto Mauri started as an actor before directing became his main calling card. You may have seen some of his Italian Westerns, like Sartana in the Valley of Death and He Was Called Holy Ghost or his oddball jungle film King of Kong Island or Slaughter of the Vampires. Oh yeah - he also wrote the giallo Clap, You're Dead and came back in 1980 to make The Porno Killers.

Prefiguring the giallo craze that would happen in around five years, thanks to Argento, this movie has a masked killer who preys only on prostitutes, hence its alt title Call Girls 66.

When a prostitute is killed and several others are nearly snuffed out, that girl's sister decides to investigate on her own, learning that not just one, but several famous actors seem to be behind the killers.

This movie has such a great payoff that I'm shocked that more giallo didn't steal it. The killer is a man whose features were destroyed in the Hiroshima bomb blast and no woman will go near him, much less have sex with him. So he makes masks of famous actors and uses them to get close to the women, who he soon kills. Crazy, right?

Rather poor and troubled early giallo entry

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 4/10 · 12 November 2017]

During a series of vicious attacks, the city's police commissioner finds that the different descriptions of the culprit have led him down the wrong path with the killer using disguises to carry out his spree and forces him to race to stop the killings and save the next victims.

This one turned out to be quite the distressing and flawed effort. The main problem on display here is the fact that this one just doesn't generate anywhere near the required genre thrills to be that interesting. Since the main guise of the film should be the series of attacks on the different street-workers in the area, that this one spends so much time instead on extraneous efforts is such a detriment that it brings out several problems as a result. The lack of time on the stalking, in general, is a big problem since it never allows us to get to know the killer or the victims either so it just seems quite bland during these few scattered scenes throughout here. Likewise, since this one becomes a procedural effort much more so than actually focusing on the stalking and slashing that it never becomes all that enjoyable as a result since these scenes are just criminally boring with the needless going over of facts repeatedly or going on with the friends of the victims in their lives as the spree continues around them which manages to make for a truly bland and utterly uninteresting time since precious little of it sets up the actual mystery around the killer. It has no time for such pointless and unnecessary interludes as the killer being shown stalking a group holding a party near a crime-scene and not take out anyone during that sequence, and the inclusion of the drug ring as a whole just makes no sense to be featured which just comes out of nowhere and has nothing at all to do with the rest of the story involving the killer striking his victims. The other big flaw here is the generally lifeless air about the main stalking scenes just makes this all the more paltry. What should be rather frenetic and exciting scenes end up being just dull in combination with the horrid lighting that makes everything so dark it's hard to tell what's going on beyond a flurry of arms being thrown about to the sounds of a beating that should've been seen on screen. Since so many of the attacks fail to actually kill the victim and left the killer escape just really undermines what's going on as the potential for some excitement to occur here in the attacks might've made this one a little more exciting. These here really bring this one down although it does have a few minor points of interest. The main thing here is the fact that the concept of the strikes where the maniac stalks couples and attacks them makes this one seemingly enjoyable enough to work with a normal storyline, and there's some potential in some of the attacks here which give this a minor boost. The only other effort that works here is the finale which has some action and a rather nice set=up about it that really does work for this one. Otherwise, there's not much that works here.

Today's Rating/PG: Violence.