Crime of
   Passion

Slasher Trash with Panache?

Review:JA Kerswell

CRIME OF PASSION benefits from its atypical setting in a chilly Sofia and its use of mournful Bulgarian folk music on its soundtrack. However, this doesn’t cover up the fact that the movie is not especially thrilling and features a mystery whose solution makes little sense and certainly doesn’t justify its title. Perhaps part of the problem is that the film only features two murders, and both of those are done with a gun—which, for some reason, never quite seems to work in a Giallo. The film also merely plays lip service to the erotica so prevalent in the genre during this time period. It features a sweaty coupling at its start, and it is no surprise that Serena Grandi disrobes at one point to show off her famous breasts. However, director Flavio Mogherini perhaps seems to be trolling those expecting more titillation as the majority of the nudity in the film is of old men’s asses in a couple of sauna scenes and, in one WTF moment, a full frontal shot of a pre-pubescent boy. Quite what the raincoat brigade would have made of it all is anyone’s guess.
 
Ania’s age is never mentioned (although press articles suggest she is meant to be 15 years old); she has a priest teacher who calls her “child”, which makes it even more strange when Ivan begins a tentative romance with her—which I’m sure breaks all sorts of police conduct code. Whilst it is good to see the likes of Testi and Bolkan here, who both paid their dues in a number of classic era early 70s Gialli, neither are especially well utilised. Testi, who was known for his lithe bravura as the action-man heartthrob of Italian genre cinema in the 70s, essays a far more maudlin character here. Bolkan, as the bitchy and cynical older actress, shines in a small role but simply isn’t given enough to do.
 
Although it is very clichéd, the teasing but friendly work relationship between the older and younger policemen is at least fun. The film continues the well-worn trope of giving its main investigator quirks—here, he drinks copious amounts of milk and plays the saxophone whilst looking at a photo of the schoolgirl Ania. Another fun touch is a nosy, neck brace-wearing maid. Depending on your opinion, the film is either boosted or weakened by a campy English dub that even manages to feature a Cockney Bulgarian police officer! It also has a wonderfully ridiculous moment showing a flashback to Ania’s accident that left her crippled—where we’re shown the car she’s in slowly rolling about five feet down a shallow embankment into a lake before rather improbably overturning. Additionally, the killer’s thoroughly unconvincing performance sinks any possibility of taking the film seriously but at least raises a few chuckles at its close.
 
Although top-billed, Serena Grandi’s role is really more of a supporting one. She was appearing in the gossip pages at the time of the film’s release due to her separation from her husband Beppe Ercole. She told the Italian newspaper La Stampa: "Look, I even dread going to the newsstand to buy newspapers for fear that there will be a stolen photo, an article that will harm me. I can't take it anymore." However, she said she was happy to be working with old friend Fabio Testi on the movie (and their brief love-making scene was featured, if somewhat misleadingly, in the film’s poster and extensively in other promotional material). Grandi had previously appeared in Lamberto Bava’s much more rousing Giallo DELIRIUM (1987). On the subject of CRIME OF PASSION she said, “One cannot and should not tell a detective story. However, I was intrigued by the personality of this beautiful, ambiguous woman.” Although just like with Testi, Mogherini seemed intent on casting against type, and Grandi said she was a much warmer personality in real life than the cold character she portrays in the film. Her performance here is also somewhat hamstrung by the staccato English dub job, giving her such howlers as, “I … attended … the same … acting school.”
 
It appears the film was made in 1993 on location in Bulgaria, the year before the death of its director, who died in April 1994. Mogherini had helmed another foreign-set and atypical Giallo, the Australia-lensed THE PYJAMA CASE GIRL (1978). CRIME OF PASSION is handsomely shot, and the director certainly has an eye for capturing the quirks and beauty of the Bulgarian capital, which isn’t a surprise given that Mogherini was a celebrated art director who worked on such films as Mario Bava’s pop art classic DANGER: DIABOLK (1968). One sour note, though, when attempting to evoke local colour was the inclusion of a ‘dancing bear’ in one sequence, a barbaric practice that was thankfully banned in Bulgaria a few years after this was shot.
 
The promotional blurb for the film said that it was based on an infamous case that happened in Eastern Europe 20 years previously (although that may just have been ballyhoo). It was released to Italian screens in the summer of 1994 but would have been tame stuff indeed compared to the likes of BASIC INSTINCT (1992) or many of the erotic Gialli that peppered screens in the early-mid 90s. 
 
Although it has enough eccentricities for hardcore fans of the Giallo to take a look, more casual viewers may find little to get too excited by with this ultimately somewhat lacklustre example of the genre. 

BODY COUNT 3: 
Female 2 / Male 1

1. Female is shot
2. Female is shot
3. Male falls to his death

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