Cold Eyes of Fear

Cold Eyes of Fear
Italian film poster for Cold Eyes of Fear
Directed by	Enzo G. Castellari
Produced by	José Frade
Screenplay by	Tito Carpi Enzo G. Castellari
Story by	Tito Carpi Enzo G. Castellari
Starring	Giovanna Ralli Frank Wolff Fernando Rey Gianni Garko
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Cinematography	Antonio Lopez Ballesteros
Edited by	Vincenzo Tomassi
Production companies	Cinemar Atlántida Films
Distributed by	Cineraid
Release dates	April 6, 1971 (1971-04-06) (Italy) May 21, 1972 (1972-05-21) (Madrid)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	Italy Spain
Box office	₤197 million

Cold Eyes of Fear (Italian: Gli occhi freddi della pauracode: it is deprecated ) is a 1971 Italian-Spanish thriller film directed by Enzo G. Castellari.

Cast

• Giovanna Ralli: Anna
• Frank Wolff: Arthur Welt
• Fernando Rey: Juez Flower
• Gianni Garko: Peter Flower
• Julián Mateos: Quill
• Karin Schubert: Nightclub Actress

Production

The film was written by Enzo G. Castellari and Tito Carpi. Although Leo Anchóriz of Spain is credited as a co-writer, he didn't have anything to do with the script. His name appears solely for co-production laws that were required to establish the film as a dual-nationality production. Capri and Castellari wrote a film based on the idea of the entire film being set in an apartment, an idea influenced by the film Wait Until Dark. Casterllari was also influenced by William Friedkin's The Boys in the Band (1970) and borrowed plot elements from William Wyler's The Desperate Hours (1955). The film was originally intended for foreign audiences so Castellari and Carpi had their script translated into English by actor Frank Wolff's wife Alice.

The film was shot at Cinecittà in Rome and on location in London. Castellari shot the film in sequence. During filming, Alice left Wolff. Wolff committed suicide a few months after production in December 1971 in his hotel room in Rome.

Release

Cold Eyes of Fear was released in Italy on April 6, 1971 where it was distributed by Cineraid. It grossed a total of 197,089,000 lira domestically. It was released in Madrid Spain on May 21, 1972.

Reception

AllMovie described the film as a "cleverly crafted giallo-thriller", noting that the film appropriates "some of the form's penchant for cool production design and bizarre cinematography (one scene is shot through ice cubes in a glass)" and that a "kinky S&M stage show which, despite occurring at the start of the film, remains its most memorable sequence." The review concluded that "The rest of this loopy Italian-Spanish co-production isn't bad, however, crisply edited by Vincenzo Tomassi (who went on to edit many of Lucio Fulci's most popular horror films) and well scored by Ennio Morricone" Danny Shipka, author of Perverse Titilation a book about European exploitation films stated that the film appeared to be "designed to be a thriller that incorporated some giallo constructs when the subgenre became lucrative." The review concluded that audiences of either thrillers or gialli were probably disappointed with Cold Eyes of Fear and that "there are plenty of action-packed, gore-soaked gialli to watch, but this is not one of them."

See also

• List of Italian films of 1971
• List of Spanish films of 1971

External links

• Cold Eyes of Fear at IMDb