Leofwine_draca
DEATH OCCURED LAST NIGHT is a low-key Italian mix of crime thriller and giallo, although, sad to say, it fails as a film in both genres. The story is about a woman with the mind of a child who is abducted and forced to work in a brothel before something even more horrendous befalls her. Her father notes her disappearance and goes on a hunt to find her, becoming increasingly unhinged as he does so. Meanwhile, the stolid police team mechnically conduct the slowest investigation ever. And slow is the word here; although the film is well shot by Duccio Tessari, the amount of incident it contains is very low and there are only one or two shocking moments. It picks up in the last ten minutes but before then it's all so cold, lifeless, and, well, a little bit boring. It's a pity, as the photography is fine and Frank Wolff makes for a decent cop protagonist; this is one of those films that needed a lot more 'oomph' for it to work.
ernesti
This is relatively forgotten giallo and not very widely distributed. I was amazed by the image quality and high quality of production and the beginning certainly promises a bit too much. The long sequence in the moving bus is very clever and shows the early seventies city traffic. They used to film starting sequences like these in the 70's and 80's in Italy. The music's also very good.It's all downhill from there as the film just declines to an ordinary mainstream film pancake. The film also doesn't have twists and surprises as everything is told and explained which makes quite tiring movie experience. The plot is very linear and easy and also the dialogue is very tiring to follow as it's not very well written and translated and there's plenty of it and on top of that it's all dubbed. By far it's not the worst dubbing that i've seen but certainly having lots of dubbed dialogue in a crime drama certainly hinders any film.Also the group of the bad guys were very unbelievable and the final confrontation with them is really disappointing and beyond generic. Throwing a pile of dirty laundry on a villain who then suffocates and another one's head being pushed on a washing machine door who also suffocates. Looks too easy and stupid for the high production value this film has.Acting's actually good if compared with other giallos but it can't save this dreadful film. How can such a wonderful starting sequence end up in a such a disappointing film. It's amazing.
mogweezer101
SPOILER WARNING - There is information in this post which may upset you if you have not seen the movie. If this troubles you = Please do not read on.. SPOILERS AHEAD...I couldn't agree more with the user aboves comments. This is a first rate giallo directed with clinical precision by Duccio Tessari. Raf Vallone's performance as the troubled father is incredibly moving. The plot isn't really typical of a giallo; A retired parent (Vallone) investigates the disappearance of his retarded daughter, last seen at home. As he searches for clues, so do the police, headed by the police commissioner (excellently played by American actor Frank Wolff, in one of his last roles). Both parties follow their own different lines of investigation meeting up in the final reel for the inevitable bloody conclusion.Aside from innumerable Italo-Westerns, Tessari only directed one other pure giallo 'Una Farfalla con Le Ali Insanguinate' (The Bloodstained Butterfly). Also a fine example of the genre and his talents, but it's nowhere near as well executed as 'La Morte...'. Whilst 'Butterfly' looks great and really does deliver the giallo goods the performances always seemed quite lacking to me. In 'La Morte..' it's the performances that hold it all together, rather than the other way around.If anyone has the chance to re-release this film (The Death Occurred Last Night) Please do! It was available in Italy on the CHV label during the 80's and 90's, sadly, now it is almost impossible to find in any format. 'The Bloodstained Butterfly' is readily available (in Italian language only) on DVD.
Wheatpenny
Part giallo and part drama, this movie's been overlooked by both the "mainstream" critics and the Italian-horror fans alike, and that's a shame, because it's one of Italy's more serious genre efforts of the 70's. The distraught father's race to find his kidnapped daughter before the police do, is both tense and poignant. It's free of the exploitative elements most genre films have, and along with Tessari's other thriller (Bloodstained Butterfly), one of the most mature Italian thillers of the decade. The ending is painful without being gratuitous, and well above something Hollywood could handle: compare the father's obsession to find the girl in this to Cage's in 8MM and be amazed at how crassly the latter is constructed. See this one!
AD
