Rent The Suspicious Death of a Minor (1975)

Partially successful ... - The Suspicious Death of a Minor review by NP

This Italian giallo film contains a tremendous musical score: that is the first thing I noticed. Luciano Michelini’s funky, jaunty soundtrack permeates throughout, bringing to life scenes of police procedure and making the action sequences even better. There are even moments of comedy in here. Are they successful? Not in the slightest, in my view, although other opinions are equally justified. To me they undermine the atmosphere without adding anything extra that is successful.

Where Sergio Martino’s direction really shines, however, is in the chase and shooting set-pieces, the best being a tremendous shoot-out on a roller-coaster ride. The fusion of calamity and the rattling soundtrack guarantees enjoyment.

A shame that such urgency isn’t injected into more of the 100 minutes, or that some pruning couldn’t have been done. For however energetic certain moments are, the film is a little too long and could have done with perhaps losing 15 minutes.

Is Martino’s mixture of styles a success? Partially, I’d say. But ultimately, I prefer my giallo more consistently dark and without the flights of comedy. It is good, but not great. Whilst it is pleasing to see the director experiment with an established style, his crowning achievement remains 1971’s untouchable ‘Strange Case of Mrs Wardh.’

Mixed - The Suspicious Death of a Minor review by sb

Working my way through Sergio Martino's catalogue but this is a bit of a minor entry.?Cassanelli plays Inspector Germi an undercover cop investigating the sexual trafficing of underage girls in Milan.At the same time some-one is kidnapping the kids of leading industrialists and demanding ransoms but the money can never be traced - can the two cases be linked.....?Its part cop thriller and part Giallo and to add to the confusion its tonally all over the place - there are several nasty murders where major characters get offed then it lurches into slapstick humour - there is even a Keystone Cops car chase that although fun to watch seems to have wondered in from a completly different film.?Cassanelli is very good (with more than a hint of Rutger Hauer about him) but Martino can't seem to make up his mind where he wants the film to go....one knocked off the list but not much more - 3/