The Fifth Cord

Franco Nero as a drunken journalist. Let me think, it sounds so familiar. Anyway, this is an excellent attempt at imitating Dario Argento without copying. If that makes sense. It revolves around a series of strange murders, obviously, and in the midst of these murders we found investigating reporter Andrea Bild (Nero). At first it looks like a plain robbery, as the first victim survives, but for every dead body turning up Bild is more and more convinced that someone is trying to incriminate him by killing people around him. Worse still, there seem to be no motive.

Nero is his usual fiery self, of course, but he uses it as only he can. Walking around confused about what happens while his friends drop dead around him. One of the great things with Franco Nero is that he can sometimes seem very stupid, with the sullen accent and all that. Not exactly dumb, but enough to make him the ideal hero for the audience to relate to. But the whole cast does very well here. Silvia Monti is especially good and even a boring old face such as Guido Alberto manages to be, well, special at least. But ultimately, the one thing that, for me at least, sets this film apart is the careful presentation of the story itself. I've seen too many of these films done with minimum of dedication and effort, where the story's only purpose is to link a couple of sex and fright scenes together. So it's a relief that this film tries to be something else than just the expected potboiling cash-in. Not necessarily trying to reach above the giallo genre, but at least trying to do something lasting within it. Something not only remembered for having cult-fave Agostina Belli naked. Director Bazzoni moves his camera refreshingly slow, sometimes not at all (or so it feels), and all the characters are given slightly more life and substance than usual. There's a lot of insight into troubled relationships with ex-wifes, secret mistresses, bossy workmates etc. Talky perhaps, but well-needed and all with the pleasant result that, near the end, we have absolutely no clue about who the killer could be. There's no obvious suspect. When someone is killed it only serves to erase the unfortunate from the list of suspects.

So aren't there something bad to say about it? Well, not much. The slow tempo might be the main drawback for some, but it's only really in some clumsily staged (shaky-cam) and edited (by chainsaw) killing-scenes that the film reveal the limitations of director Bazzoni; he isn't any slasher director. He isn't Dario Argento after all. However, storywise The Fifth Cord has more substance and more bottom than most contemporary movies in this genre. And how can you fail when you have the bonus of cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now etc) and music composer Ennio Morricone? You just don't.

© The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.