Review - Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key
dir. Sergio Martino
1972

Following The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh and Tail of the Scorpion, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key is the third giallo film by notable Italian director Sergio Martino. Martino's giallo films follow the work previously done by the more famous directors Mario Bava and Dario Argento. For the unaware, a giallo is an Italian film that while usually placed in the horror genre in America often have more in common with thrillers and are very unique in their style. The term giallo itself originally referred to the cheap paperback thrillers and mysteries that many of the first giallo films were adaptations of. While commonly equated with the "slasher" subgenre of horror films, giallo films are different in several important ways: the story usually proceeds in an mystery or whodunit fashion with the identity of the killer unkown, there is often unique and stylish camera work, the music is often very stylized and is unusual in comparison to American horror films, there is often excessive nudity and violence, the killer is often masked and wields a bladed weapon, and the films often focus strongly on the psychological aspects of fear. As time passed gialli began to feature supernatural and more varied stories and became greatly influenced by the burgeoning slasher subgenre in America.

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key is a classic giallo. The plot centers on a middle-aged failed writer named Oliviero Rouvigny and his abused wife Irina. Oliviero lives a decadent life filled with alcohol and sex in his large family villa in the Italian countryside. He supports his habits by selling what remains of the villa's furniture to pay for the expenses. Irina, meanwhile fears for her life and is terrorized by Oliviero's cat Satan, whom belonged to Oliviero's mother. After a drunken night out in which his mistress turns up dead, Oliviero becomes the prime suspect in her murder. More women are attacked and Oliviero's twenty year old sexually uninhibited niece Floriana comes to stay at the villa bearing her own schemes. Fear and paranoia build for the characters as the story spirals to it's conclusion. Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe,The Black Cat, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key is an exceptionally well written and plotted giallo for it's time.

Recognizable character actor Luigi Pistilli, perhaps best known for Mario Bava's giallo Bay of Blood, plays Oliviero and gives him the life that the part calls for. Pistilli manages to bring us into the broken, twisted, decadent world of Oliviero without driving us away. Swedish model Anita Strindberg, who was featured in many gialli and genre films in Italy during the 60s and 70s, plays the hysterical and terrorized Irina quite well and is a departure from her usually more glamorous roles. The standout in the film is Edwige Fenech who is simply stunning in the role of Floriana. Fenech is well known for her Italian comedies and for her looks and she also starred in a number of giallo films before later moving on to Italian television in the 1980s. Usually relegated to the role of 'good girl' or 'victim' here Fenech plays against type as Floriana. Floriana is a sexually ambitious and ambiguous character whose motives are devious and who attempts to manipulate both Oliviero, her uncle, and Irina for her own benefit. While Strindberg and Fenech, along with several other actresses, have extensive nudity in the film, Fenech also has several love scenes with men and women. The acting is all quite good for this type of film although a modern American viewer may have problems with the Italian dialog and the style of acting.

Martino employs a unique and stylized camera work, as is usual in a giallo, and the music too is quite an important player in the film. While the film is light on violence there is a strong build up of tension and suspense as the story plays out and it certainly stands up well against other gialli in terms of style, story, and suspense. Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key is a fine example of giallo films of the 1960s and 1970s, though with the lack of blood and bodies and the queasy moments of incest found within, Bava's Bay of Blood and Argento's Tenebrae are perhaps better starting points for those interested in these films.

Verdict: 4 and 1/2 stars out of 5.