melvelvit-1 Pre-dating FATAL ATTRACTION by decades, this proto-giallo depicts the nightmare Vance Pierson free-falls into when he breaks off his extramarital affair with sizzling (and mentally unbalanced) Laura Blanco. Before he leaves for good, Laura asks him one fatal question: If you weren't committed, would you stay with me? He answers yes and all hell breaks loose...Barry Sullivan and Martha Hyer were durable contract players in Hollywood for well over a decade before filming FUEGO (aka PYRO) and their considerable talents add immeasurably to the tale. Vance and Laura are Americans living in Spain and find themselves immediately drawn to each other. Vance is an engineer, transferred to Galacia to build a dam, while Laura, her life at a dead-end, is ready to cut her losses and move on. Vance knows he's wrong to pursue a sexual affair with her, not only because it would devastate his wife (nicely played for sympathy by Sherry Moreland), but because he also knows exactly what she is. When she tells him she's never loved anyone, he sardonically asks "Have you ever tried?" She lets that slide because she thinks she's finally found "the one". Laura has the same sensuous sex appeal Hyer gave to her role of prostitute Jennie Denton in THE CARPETBAGGERS the previous year. All fire and ice, her Laura is a scorching pyromaniac, undulating in platinum hair, skin-tight black leather pants and hot-pink top. Vance first sees her this way when he catches her trying to torch her house for the insurance money and falls for her, right then and there, completely forgetting he's married with children. There's also an excellent supporting cast including a very young Soledad Miranda (as Liz) as a small-time carnival cookie who temporarily tempts Vance away from his macabre dance of death with Laura. Fernando Hilbeck plays Julio, a friend and co-worker of Vance's who tries to warn him about how dangerous Laura is. Julio ought to know because he was involved with her before Vance became ensnared in her web.PYRO is also very Eurotrashy ...the way most gialli are. There's lots of nasty little touches put in for apparently no good reason. When Vance admires a picture of her daughter, Laura turns away, saying "Her father was my father." Later, when she catches her daughter igniting matches in a field, her daughter cries out "I'm not doing anything wrong, mommy!" What are we to make of this? That Laura's special brand of insanity is genetic? This film has all the ingredients of a great giallo. There's a gloved killer (more than one actually) and obsessive love and vengeance as motive. When Vance, horribly scarred and near death from the burns he received from trying (and failing) to save his family from the fire Laura purposely set (in an especially chilling scene), he whispers to her from his hospital bed: "Run! Hide!! Take your family and HIDE!!!" An eye for an eye.... The convoluted voice-over in the beginning by Julio is an existential bit of mumbo-jumbo about fate and the ferris wheel. Vance has a special affinity for ferris wheels and gets, fittingly, a job with a traveling carnival once he escapes from the hospital to avenge himself on Laura. The film begins and ends atop one and the dam Vance and Julio are working on is built on it's revolving principals. There's even a little toy ferris wheel on the nightclub table when Vance breaks if off with Laura. It's not hard to get the symbolism: What goes around, comes around...With a little more care and effort, this film could have been amazing. If the (second) killer's identity had been hidden from the audience awhile longer and a few more grisly murders of Laura's friends and family had been added, director Julio Coll would have been in competition with Mario Bava (who just filmed BLOOD AND BLACK LACE) as to who really made the first giallo. As it stands, PYRO is atmospheric, involving, creepy and sick. Guaranteed to induce nightmares in the impressionable and well worth checking out. You'll flip for red-hot Martha Hyer. Just don't get too close...what a smokin' way to BURN!

bensonmum2 A married man has a torrid affair with the previous owner of the house he has bought for his family. He tries to end the affair, but the woman will have none of that. She sets the house on fire killing his wife and child. Burned beyond recognition, the man vows revenge against his former lover.Overall, Pyro is a nice little horror/thriller. The plot, although predictable, is generally well paced and only gets bogged down by the love story on one or two brief occasions. It's the predictability that keeps me from rating Pyro much higher. There are a few chills to be had like the scene where the woman runs in fear down a deserted street at night, afraid that her disfigured lover is about the catch-up with her. The acting is a notch or two above what I have seen in other early Spanish horror films. Both Barry Sullivan and Martha Hyer give excellent performances in the lead roles. Hyer, in particular, is wonderful as the scheming, murderous ex-lover. Finally, the burn make-up is effectively creepy. It's the stuff of nightmares.A couple bits of trivia – first, apparently Pyro was the first horror/thriller movie to be filmed in Spain. Whether it's true or not, I don't know. I just thought it was interesting. Second, cult fans may be interested in catching Pyro to see a young, pre-Franco Soledad Miranda in a small role. She doesn't do much, but she has a presence about her that's unmistakable.

dwr246 Love is a passion that burns like a fire. So it has been said for centuries. This cautionary tale takes a rather literal view of that assertion, and brings us a surprisingly good thriller.Vance Pierson (Barry Sullivan) is an engineer who moves to Spain for work related reasons. Accompanying him are his wife Verna (Sherry Moreland), and daughter Sally (oddly, this small part doesn't appear to be credited to the actress who played her). They are a happy family, crammed into a tiny apartment. So Vance decides to buy a house. He goes to look at a rather impressive one, and arrives just in time to stop the owner, Laura (Martha Hyer), from burning it down so she can collect the insurance money. While Vance convinces her that she'll do better with the proceeds from a sale of the house, sparks of a different kind fly between the two of them, and soon they are involved in a passionate affair. However, when first a co-worker, and then Verna learn of the affair, Vance decides it's time to end it. As he is breaking things off with Laura, he makes the mistake of telling her that if it weren't for Verna and Sally, he would be with her. Laura decides that perhaps the best thing to do is to get rid of Verna and Sally, and since she has already mapped out a strategy for burning down the house, she simply waits until Vance has gone out for the evening and Verna and Sally are asleep upstairs, and then she sets fire to it. Vance returns unexpectedly, and runs into the burning house to try to save his wife and daughter. Unfortunately, all he succeeds in doing is getting badly burned himself while Verna and Sally die in the fire. Laura goes to visit Vance in the hospital, and when she confirms Vance's suspicions that she set the fire, he orders her out of his room, telling her that if he ever comes across her again, he'll kill her. Horrified, Laura leaves. The action shifts forward a few years, and Vance, now horribly disfigured, and wearing a mask all the time, is a roustabout with a carnival. For some strange reason, the owner's daughter, Liz (Soledad Miranda) is smitten with him, but given Vance's past, he is understandably unwilling to get involved with her. And then one day the carnival arrives in the town where Laura lives...Given the setup, this could have been a really cheesy movie, but the writing is surprisingly good, giving the story twists and turns that keep it from becoming predictable, and a few nasty shocks that definitely grab the viewers' attention. Vance's ultimate revenge on Laura is presented in a way that is not satisfying, helping to point out that perhaps revenge was not the right solution to his problems. All in all, a more thoughtful script than one would expect from this kind of movie.From a production standpoint, the best part of the film was watching Laura set up the fire by splashing gasoline throughout the house, taking the added step up hooking the plumbing up to a gas can, and then setting a fuse to give herself time to get away. When the fire spreads through the house, it is an exciting, if frightening scene. Contrasted with that, the scene where Vance renders Laura unconscious, and sets her apartment on fire is much tamer, helping to make his revenge on her unsatisfying. And the makeup used to show Vance's face when he reveals his disfigurement was also impressive.The acting is a bit stylized, as was typical of the time period, but overall it is good. Sullivan gives an excellent portrayal of a complex man, delving into the dark corners of the mind of a man who first succumbs to lust, and then is driven by guilt and anger. Hyer's performance sizzles. Her beauty bewitches, and while her actions are deplorable, her regret at the outcome of what she has caused gives you a small amount of sympathy for her. Moreland's betrayed wife is well done, and the uncredited actress who plays Sally turns in a good, if occasionally cloying performance. The only real puzzle is Miranda, who gives us no clue as to what her character's attraction to Vance is all about, thus while her actions speak of good intentions, they make little sense, since we have no context in which to put them.A dark, cautionary tale, surprisingly well done. A curiosity piece, but one well worth seeing.

inkybrown Engineer Vance Pierson moves to Spain, where he will oversee the construction of his invention: a generator shaped like a ferris wheel. He meets a desperate young woman, Laura, who is trying to burn down her home for the insurance money she so badly needs. He stops the woman and they become passionate lovers. But soon Vance wants to end the affair he's having with Laura and go back to his wife and daughter. The jilted mistress flares up into a jealous rage and gets revenge on Vance...and he makes it his mission in life to get his own revenge on her. Barry Sullivan and Martha Hyer are excellent as the leads. Cult star Soledad Miranda appears as Liz, the daughter of a carnival worker, who falls for a mysterious older man. This was the first movie to have a $50 million set (Spain's Belesar Dam). Additionally, it was the first horror suspense movie filmed in Spain. It also was the first movie ever to be filmed in the province of Galicia, which is in northern Spain.