Osvaldo Civirani's The Devil Has Seven Faces (1971) Review

Love is a funny thing. How do we love certain films and not others? I guess that is a personal thing. Take for example The Devil Has Seven Faces, not a giallo, not really a poliziotto film either, not even is it somewhere in between the two as such, though it does have the feel of both at times.



A diamond has been stolen and Julie Harrison played by a glamourous Caroll Baker is the main suspect, although she does what any honest soul in her position would do and deflect attention from this by doing the decent thing and blaming someone else altogether. In this case in a total lack of family solidarity is exhibited by Julie blaming her twin sister Mary, as though anyone really ever falls for that old chestnut. Anyhow that pretty much it for set up of the film except to add that naturally everyone wants to get their hands on the diamond and one or two want to get their hand on Julie too including a gang of diamond theives and her hired protection and occasional racing driver Tony Shane played by the totally professional George Hilton.



The film was not top quality as such, with the qualtiy of camerawork throughout the film especially inconsistent but the performances themselves I loved as they were largely understated as was the twee 70s euro kitsch, oozing nostalgia sountrack with occasional bongos and lots of la la las,






Its hard to say why I precisely I love this film. It is certainly not for everyone and I will not recommend it as such because it may just be something personal to me. If Saint Etienne were to make films this is how I would expect them to look. There is not a lot to say about this film really, the plot isn't especially complex and its a bit of a caper, with lots of dialogue, romance, a car chase and that sort of thing. Look, if you come across an inexpensive copy and you have a few coins to spare why not just take a chance and see for yourself if you find it as enchanting as I did. If you don't get it however, remember, love is a very personal thing.

DVD: Alpha Video
Running Time: 90 mins
Extras: None really