Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is one of the most visually stunning films of all time. Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, The Conformist) and Luigi Bazzoni (Footprints on the Moon) had a great understanding between them, and it shows on the screen. The contrasts between light and dark, the way characters are rendered black silhouettes reminds me of my favorite shot from Ingmar Bergman's The Passion of Anna (lensed by the great Sven Nykvist). Regrettably the script isn't quite up to that level, being about as generic as a giallo comes. Bazzoni also lacks the ability of a director like Argento or Bava to build suspense and stage a murder. Thankfully the astounding visuals and Franco Nero's appealing performance (dubbed by himself, thankfully!) make this stand out from most films of its ilk. It's just too bad that the ending is so bland - you almost feel like the filmmakers just didn't give a crap. This could have been a minor classic with a better script. Shortly before this I watched Bazzoni's other "giallo" (most consider it one, but I don't) Footprints on the Moon, and while it was far more interesting it didn't seem nearly as well done despite the presence of Vittorio Storaro. Maybe if they had tried one more time they might have gotten the balance right.

Technically, this film is superb with brilliant direction by Luigi Bazzoni, music by Ennio Morricone (Bugsy, The Untouchables, Once Upon a Time in America), and superb photography by Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, Reds, The Last Emperor). The only technical flaw was that it was dubbed.The lights go out and the cat leaves the room; soon we see Sophia Bini (Rossella Falk) crawling across the floor to get to her wheelchair and the phone. Latex-covered hands stop her progress, and the first kill is done. Was it Dr. Richard Bini (Renato Romano)? After all, he was just there, and wouldn't a doctor have latex gloves? We take a break as the hard-drinking, girlfriend beating, journalist Andrea Bild (Franco Nero) plays games with his girlfriend Lu (the lovely Pamela Tiffin).After the second murder, Bild rises to the top of the suspect list.Bini must be on the top of Bild's list as he follows him to the countryside, where he and others are watching a live sex show.Things are getting tenser as a third victim, tied to Bild is discovered.Bild gets ultra macho as he slaps Lu's brother (Luciano Bartoli) around like a rag doll. But he does say something that gets him on track.Excellent mystery with very little blood, and scant nudity. Nero is great.

"The Fifth Cord" (1971) is a rock-solid if meaninglessly titled giallo ("The Fifth Finger" might have made more sense) that, despite the low-cc count bloodwise, should manage to satisfy most viewers. In it, Franco Nero plays a very handsome but hard-drinking reporter (so hard-drinking that he swills J&B from the bottle while driving!) who investigates after a serial killer begins to slay his quickly diminishing circle of friends. Though fans of these gialli should recognize any number of Euro stars in this film, the real stars of the show, in this case, are surely behind the camera. Luigi Bazzoni's direction is stylish and fluid as can be, maestro Ennio Morricone's score is by turns atmospheric and unsettling, and, most importantly, cinematographer Vittorio Storaro's lensing here is truly a work of art. Indeed, this is one of the best-looking gialli that I have ever seen. As far as the plot goes, yes, it does hold together, the murderer does not appear out of far left field at the end, and there are several quite suspenseful sequences. I especially appreciated two near the end, with the killer stalking a young boy, and with Nero chasing and duking it out with the crazed wacko in a deserted building. Despite the presence of seemingly unavoidable red herrings, I was able to look back at this film's story afterward and realize that it did indeed cohere logically. And how nice to see American actress Pamela Tiffin, after her '60s ingenue roles, playing such a sultry sexpot here. Meow! Actually, the only thing that bothered me about "The Fifth Cord" was its time frame. The picture seems to transpire over the course of a mere week or two, and yet by the stated dates of the homicides at the film's end, one realizes that over 4 1/2 months have elapsed! I guess time truly does fly when the viewer is having fun....

Giornata nera per l'ariete does not mean The Black Days of the Ram. It means "A Black (sombre) Day for the Aries". Aries like in the horoscope or star signs, you know? Did you sleep through your Italian and Latin classes? And I consider this to be an above average giallo. Here's some more rams for you:Notable persons born under the Sign of Aries (Tropical Zodiac) include: Harry Houdini, Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Haydn, Paul Verlaine, Joan Crawford, Francisco Goya, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, William Shatner, Quentin Tarantino, Charlie Chaplin, Charles Baudelaire, Vincent Van Gogh, Charlemagne, Marlon Brando, Steve McQueen, Henry Mancini, Muddy Waters, Butch Cassidy, Diana Ross, DJ Premier, Redman, Gloria Swanson, Bette Davis, Eric Clapton, Steven Tyler, Thomas Jefferson, René Descartes, Booker T. Washington, Elton John, Eddie Murphy, Method Man, Marcel Marceau, Hayley Mills, Gerard Way, Francis Ford Coppola, Casanova, and Leonardo Da Vinci.