I must admit
I don't know what to make of this Italian film. I see that some viewers call
it a Giallo but it most certainly isn't that (even though the Italian title
is La Raggaza del Pigiama giallo); others a Poliziotteschi, but if so one
with no urgency or suspense nor action. Perhaps if Michelangelo Antonioni
had attempted to make a film in one of these genres after taking a Quaalude,
it would look something like this. Listless, arty and intentionally confusing.
Chances are though he would not have hired Ray Milland as the leading man.
Not a young Milland, but one well past his glory days and appearing in films
like The Thing with Two Heads. He looks like an over ripe apple left out
in the sun. It is at its heart simply a murder mystery based on a true one
that took place in the 1930s but updated to the 70's. A woman was found dead
on the beach with her head bashed in and her face unrecognizable and grotesque.
That is how the film begins. A young girl
is playing on the beach with a pretty pop tune playing on the soundtrack
from Amanda Lear when the girl leans up against a car and an arm falls down
and her body adorned in canary yellow pajamas is viewed right to her skull
with one eye popping out. It is a shocking moment. The juxtaposition
of the body on the pristine beach and the innocent girl is the best moment
in the film. The police get on the case. The Australian police, though I
admit it took me a while to realize that the location was in Australia since
everyone was speaking Italian and are Italian immigrants living there. The
Sydney Opera House tipped me off. The cops are all gung-ho using the newest
technology - first they have to identify the victim and then catch her killer.
They go for the obvious suspect.
Milland plays a policeman who decides to
come out of retirement to help though no one wants the old man around. He
lives in a ramshackle room and has to go to a neighbor next door to use the
phone. He is old style. A few grains of rice and a laundry tag are all the
clues he needs to walk around and ask questions like where would I find rice
like this? Chinese restaurants? Ok. At one point the police inject the dead
body with a chemical to stop it from decaying and put it on display - naked
with its horrific face showing - for the public to view in hopes of recognizing
her. A lovely outing for the whole family and the line is out the door. But
Milland has his grains of rice.
Another thread begins side by side with
the investigation that explores the life of a young beautiful woman Gloria
(Dalila Di Lazzaro) and the men in her life. She has ongoing affairs with
two Italian men (who are friends but don't realize she is sleeping with both)
and an older wealthy Australian man played by Mel Ferrer who showed up in
a few Italian films in the 1970s. Gloria also has a lovely woman slip into
bed with her. This thread starts taking up more and more of the film and
the viewer has no clue why till near the end. A number of people rate
this film directed by Flavio Mogherini fairly highly. I had to use my super
powers to get to the end. There are narrative leaps of logic that made no
sense and scenes that seem pointless and meandering. The investigation has
no pop to it and the love life of the woman seems like mainly an excuse to
be exploitive - especially a creepy foursome that was so out of place.
