TWO FACES OF FEAR, THE

aka I due volti della paura (I), Coartada en disco rojo (Es), Alibi nella luce rossa (Original production title), Los dos caras del terror (Mx)
1971
Spain/Italy
Tecisa Film (Madrid), B.R.C. Produzioni (Rome)
Director: Tulio Demicheli
Story: Pedro Maria Herrero
Screenplay: Mario Di Nardo, P.M. Herrero
Music: Franco Micalizzi
Cinematography: Manuel Rojas {Eastmancolor - Technocrome}
Editor: Angel Serrano
Set design: Gastone Carsetti, Francisco Canet
Cameraman: Angelo Lannutti
Filmed:
Release information: Registered 27.01.72. Italy (09.03.72, 84 mins), Spain (18.09.72, Madrid), UK (1973, 88 mins)
Spanish takings: €81.001,29
Cast: George Hilton (Miguel Azzini), Fernando Rey (Commissioner Nardi), Luciana Paluzzi (Elena), Eduardo Fajardo (Luisi), Anita Strindberg (Paula Lombardo), Manuel Zarzo, Luis Davila (Michaeli), Antonio Del Real, Carla Mancina, Teresa Guajada Gonzales, Nora Ayala, Dino Portela

STORY

Surgeon Roberto (Hilton) is married to Elena (Luciana Paluzzi), the owner of the clinic at which he works. The principal surgeon there, Michaeli (Luis Davila), is thinking of leaving - a prospect that is exacerbating her heart problem no end. One of the reasons for his departure is the fact that his girlfriend Paola (Anita Strindberg) is still in love with Roberto, with whom she had an affair some years previously. Given this torrid state of emotional affairs and that this is, after all, a giallo, it is of no surprise when he manages to get himself shot.

Enter Fernando Rey, a detective who seems more interested in resisting the temptation of the cigarettes that he has just given up than actually carrying out any investigations. His colleagues find a home movie in which all the principal characters prance around holding pistols, while chintzy Franco Micalizzi music plays.

Elena, meanwhile, is growing suspicious of her husband. This is only fair, because he is growing suspicious of her. Fernando takes a different tack. He grows suspicious of the previously irrelevant clinic administrator Luisi (Eduardo Fajardo). Then again, his goofy sidekick thinks that the solution to the mystery lies with a mute parrot. When Paola receives a large insurance cheque absolutely everyone grows suspicious of her…

CRITIQUE

Two Faces is a reasonable thriller that never really manages to become effective. There are some good set pieces, most notably the first murder and a scene in which Elena is pursued through the city. Perhaps it is most memorable for using protracted open heart surgery footage in a sequence that goes on way too long for comfort.