The Fifth Cord (1971) Directed by Luigi Bazzoni, an excessively complicated murder thriller. Contains many of the classic motifs of the "giallo" (literally "yellow" - meaning lurid as in yellow journalism) genre - gloved murderer describing his intentions into a tape recorder, whispered threats by telephone, an excess of clues and suspects, etc. Always-handsome Franco Nero is a gloomy hard-drinking newspaper reporter who is caught up in the complex tale as one of the suspects. The major appeal of this is the settings and photography, which is what I expected. Many repeating motifs such as spiral staircases, stark geometric architecture surrounding bleak plazas, vertical or horizontal bars such as venetian blinds and balcony railings in scene after scene. Interesting to watch for those reasons but an overly elaborate scheme wrapped up with a lot of quick explanation at the end make it less than fully satisfactory - again what I expected. The biggest mystery is what the English title has to do with anything in the movie. 6/10
Miss Pinkerton (1932) Excessively complicated murder thriller. Joan Blondell is a hospital nurse fed up with routine - "Why doesn't someone do something to break the monotony?" she exclaims, then yanks her dress off over her head. "Yeah, LIKE THAT!" I responded. She soon gets more than she bargained for when assigned as private nurse in a murder mansion where every person acts extremely suspiciously. George Brent is the young detective who gets everything wrong and almost gets to kiss her when suddenly the phone rings. There was a bit of imaginative staging and camerawork occasionally. Pretty ridiculous overall, but I haven't seen a 1930s movie yet that Blondell can't make watchable for me. (A single test radio episode of
Miss Pinkerton Inc. was made, starring Blondell and Dick Powell, but it bears little similarity to this.) 6/10
This pretty much explains the whole movie.
