Director: Damiani, Damiano
Cast: Pierre Brice (Gino Luciani), Giorgia Moll (Lorella Severano), Pietro Germi (Commissario Fioresi), Bella Darvi (Nora, madre di Silvana), Laura Vivaldi (Silvana De Carli), Ivano Staccioli (Dott. Mauri), Nino Marchetti (Agente di polizia), Renato Mambor (Vincenzo, il garzone), Lia Angeleri (Una prostituta), Florella Fiorentino, Stefania Re [Ré], Edy Nogara, Armando Guarneri [Guarnieri], Bruna Cealti
Uncredited [according to IMDB]: Erna Schürer (Cinzia Severano), Sara Simoni(Margherita)
Release date: 26/03/1960
International release information: France – Jeux précoces (14.03.62); Germany – Unschuld im Kreuzverhör (16.09.60 – 93′); UK – Red Lips (1961 – 95′); Spain – El rossetto (El lapiz de labios) (Madrid, 06.03.61); Usa – Lipstick (1965 – 89′) Italy A Europa Cinematografica / Explorer Film ’58 & C.F.P.C., Paris (Francia) release
Story & screenplay: Damiano Damiani, Cesare Zavattini
Cinematography: Pier Ludovico Pavoni
Music: Giovanni Fusco
Editor: Fernando Cerchio
Art director: Sergio Baldacchini
Plot: In this mystery, a 13-year old girl gets a crush on her good looking neighbor and soon finds herself entangled in a murder case when a prostitute is found dead in their apartment building. To create an alibi for himself, the handsome neighbor begins encouraging the girl’s infatuation with him. In the end, the girl changes her mind about the neighbor and tells all to the police. Unfortunately, they, thinking she is acting out of spite, disbelieve her. A kindly inspector suggests that the girl’s mother send her to a convent for protection. He then changes his mind and decides to look into the case; he soon discovers that the girl told the truth. The neighbor is arrested just before he marries an heiress. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
I haven’t seen this one, but it sounds a bit like Elio Petri’s The Ladykiller and Bertolucci’s La commare secca, giallo-crime-new wave cross-overs that deserve a mention without being entirely part of the italian crime genre. It has a good pedigree: Damiani would become probably the key filmmaker for the ‘quality’ end of the genre & writer Cesare Zavattini was much feted for his oscar-nominated collaborations with Vittorio De Sica. It was pretty warmly received, winning the Premio Fipresci at the San Sebastian festival.
A couple of interesting pieces of trivia:
Fernando Cerchio did the editing (uncredited), despite already being an established director in his own right. Pietro Germi played almost the exact same character in Un maledetto imbroglio (59)