Who’s Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key? YOUR Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key! Also known to some as Gently Before She Dies, while others may know it as Eye of the Black Cat, and still others will recognise it under the title Excite Me!, Sergio Martino’s giallo is an original and untypical affair that lifts elements from Edgar Allan Poe’s story The Black Cat, but also has a unique angle of its own. A Cat Called Satan would be an accurate title, since a moggy with that name has a pivotal role here.
Genre favourites Edwige Fenech and Luigi Pistilli star; he’s Oliviero, an author who hasn’t written a word for years and makes money by selling off the antique furniture in his country pile with his wife Irina (Anita Strindberg) who he likes to humiliate at their regular orgies. After one of his students is murdered, and then his maid follows in short order, Oliviero becomes an obvious suspect, but is he gas-lighting his wife or vice versa?
His niece Floriana (Fenech) picks an odd time for a social visit, and it proves the catalyst for all manner of sexual and violent behaviour, with Satan included in the domino effect of killings, mutilations and seductions. Cream seems to be a theme, and choice cream-related dialogue includes ‘Hey, hot potato, got any cream in your tricycle?’ and ‘Satan’s favourite meal is snake-eyes and cream!’
This is a wonderfully lurid, pervy and overheated melodrama. Part of the fun of streaming is that films like this used to be incredibly hard to find and see, often in poor condition and hugely expensive. That a 2021 audience can see such a wonderfully obscure, outre film, at the cost of a subscription, promises that such outré fare might just make an impact again, for the first time since it was made. Viewed on the Arrow Video Channel.
Definitely worth a look. Martino followed this with classic giallo Torso so maybe this was him warming up. Enough barminess to float anybody’s boat and a great introduction to the fairly offbeat fare racing out of Italy in the early 1970s. Fenech abandons her usual sex comedy environs to stir this up nicely.
I like sour cream on hot potatoes, along with shredded cheese and chives.
But your use of the words lurid and pervy definitely made sure I won’t be trying this movie, no matter how much like a hot potato it is.
You should try adding some chilli con carne to that potato Booky, a perfect combo!
It could be nice in a seafood medley with some lemon juice.
I like the idea but am not sure if I can handle chili. It has to be the most non-spiciest ever. My stomach simply can’t handle spicy any more.
Well I watched the trailer and found myself laughing a lot, so looks like a mad comedy to me. One for the boys then.
It’s a good title to drop into conversations, like when someone asks you what you watched last night…
I’ll stick with Peaky Blinders thanks.
Were the translators nodding off with the tricycle line, or does it actually make sense?
It’s a line that makes sense in my world, I say it regularly and often. Don’t you?
I use sour cream.
In your tricycle?
Where else would you use it? It doesn’t have that many applications.
Burritos, Fajitas, Tacos. quesadillos…… all good with sour cream and salsa.
In your coffee?
that’s wrong.
It’s wrong to put cream in coffee?
Stopp being obtuse, cream in coffee is nice, sour cream is not.
How about a hot potato? I’ve never tried it, but I’ve heard it works.
You’ve heard that a hot potato works in coffee?
This is your second obtuse warning, it’ll be a red card next.
Bring it on. My blog, My rules.
You being obtuse is a rule??
I rule I do my best to keep to, yes. Is it my fault that Alex has no spice rack?
That’s random.
Not just by itself, I think a dollop of chilli con carne on the potatoes with a topping of sour cream would be nice though.
You were offered hot mulled cider and turned it down. Nothing I can do to help you.
You can’t mean me! I’d always have mulled cider!
That was a response to the complaint about my not having a spice rack, not to the hot potato advice.
Is it any wonder I get confused dot com!
Thanks so much for clearing this up.
Just the usual chaos in the comment threads here. Dix really should upgrade. I will make sure some cider is ready when you come over.
Goody! We should have WP4 Mulled Stuff party, celebrate the defeat of Bookshevism!
Let’s do it! WP4-eva!