My Dear Killer (1972)

My Dear Killer (Mio caro assassino) is a 1972 giallo directed by Tonino Valerii. It’s his only entry in this genre and as always with movies described as giallos there’s the question as to whether it really belongs in that genre.

It certainly opens with a scene that will appeal to giallo fans who tend to like spectacular murders. In this case it’s an ingenious decapitation. The most likely suspect is soon murdered as well. This killing was made to look like a suicide but it fools Inspector Luca Peretti (George Hilton) for about thirty seconds.

The man who was decapitated was an insurance adjustor named Paradisi. A year earlier he had investigated the Moroni case, the kidnapping of a little girl which ended with two murders.

Inspector Peretti follows up some obvious leads, which involves talking to some obvious witnesses, but makes the mistake of not realising that those leads and the identities of those witnesses would be just as obvious to the killer. And this is a ruthless killer who might well decide to try to eliminate those witnesses.

The body count mounts quickly.

The Moroni kidnapping case seems to be the key. The mother of the kidnapped girl cannot offer any useful information. She has retreated into a world of madness and fantasy. The Moroni household had included not just the girl and her parents but a brother-in-law and a sister-in-law, a somewhat eccentric artist and three servants. It seems that the atmosphere in he Moroni household had been rather tense even before the kidnapping.

A child’s drawing provides a vital clue.

Inspector Peretti is under stress. His relationship with his girlfriend Dr Anna Borghese (Marilù Tolo) is rocky and he blames himself for making mistakes in the investigation.

It becomes apparent that this really is going to be a full-blown giallo. There’s a black-gloved killer, there are extravagant killings, there’s a convoluted plot, there are sexual tensions and hints of perversity. And there’s some effective suspense as the killer stalks his victims. And there are lots of good suspense sequences.

There’s a particularly chilling murder sequence shot entirely from the killer’s point of view.

The plot works quite well. I was pretty sure I knew the identity of the killer, but I was wrong.

The plot makes use of a trope that was quite popular back in the golden age of detective fiction but I won’t tell you what it is for fear of giving away a spoiler. The device is executed fairly well.

George Hilton gives a low-key performance but it’s effective. Inspector Peretti deals with stress by turning it inward on himself and Hilton conveys this successfully. The other cast members are all fine.

As a cinematic stylist Tonino Valerii is not in the Argento league but he’s more than competent and there are some quite good visual set-pieces.

Any doubts about whether this is a real giallo are soon laid to rest. It has a giallo plot and it has most of the necessary giallo ingredients. It has plenty of atmosphere. There are some sexual overtones to the plot but they’re handled subtly and we’re never sure if the killer’s motivations are sexual or not.

Amusingly the movie ends with a scene that would have warmed Hercule Poirot’s heart - Inspector Peretti gathers all the suspects in the library and then takes his own sweet time about naming the murderer.

There’s only a moderate amount of gore but there is some (there is after all a decapitation murder). There’s brief female topless nudity.

The Shameless Region 2 DVD offers the English dubbed version. The transfer is vey good.

My Dear Killer might not be in the very top rank of giallos but it’s likely to please most giallo fans. It’s rather a pity that this was Tonino Valerii’s only movie in the genre. Highly recommended.