[yasr_overall_rating]
A famed jewel thief named Rochard is slashed to death on a train while his daughter Nicole, a famous nightclub performer in Paris, is questioned by the police about some missing diamonds which she claims to know nothing about this. Nicole is then terrorized by a masked man with piercing blue eyes who demands to know where her father has hidden the stolen diamonds.
There are three “Death Walks” films of which I have now seen three. I expected to like “Death Walks on High Heels” less than I liked “Death Walks at Midnight,” which I did not like very much at all. I based this opinion off the fact that the Giallo Score site ranked “Death Walks on High Heels” lower than “Death Walks at Midnight.” Both films featured the combination of screenwriter, Ernesto Gastaldi, with Luciano Ercoli. Whereas “Death Walks at Midnight” got lost in a series of twists and turns, the only real criticism that I can make of “Death Walks on High Heels,” is that one of the victims who is supposed to be murdered looks a suspicious amount like one of the characters that stays alive throughout the course of the film. While it may not be as note by note perfect definition a giallo as “Death Walks at Midnight,” “Death Walks on High Heels” is full of twists, turns, and a few other things. Here’s what you can expect from “Death Walks on High Heels”:
- 2 throats slit open
- 1 woman felt up with her shirt still on
- 1 stripper dance
- 3 women stripped down to bra and undies
- 1 woman smothered to death with a pillow
- 1 boot fetishist
- 1 creepy one handed man in drag
- 1 man blinded by a blow torch
- 1 vomiting drunk, and
- 1 gruesome eye surgery
“Death Walks on High Heels” opens with an eye-patched man who has his throat slit open by an unseen stranger. (Why this guy has an eye patch is never explained. There is a paper that one could write about eyes and eye motifs in this film, but I’m neither interested nor do I come to these types of films for these sorts of things. The truth is often just simply that the director became enamored with images featuring eyes. Don’t look any further. Please).
We soon learn that the deceased one-eyed man’s daughter, Nicole Rochard (Nieves Navarro billed as Susan Scott), is a stripper. Michel Aumont (Simon Anreu) is soon introduced as Nicole’s French, often drunk boyfriend. Nicole begins receiving messages from an unidentified caller that someone is out to kill her. Before we know it, Nicole is attacked by a masked man with a razor blade who rips off her clothing and demands to know where the diamonds are. She says she doesn’t know.
Without much explanation or character development, Nicole leaves Michel for Dr. Matthews (Frank Woff), who looks like he is many years older than her. Dr. Matthews, enamored by Nicole, takes her to a seaside cottage. At the seaside town, we are introduced to Captain Lenny (George Rigaud), who seems to exist mainly to remind us that misogyny is very much alive.
There is a scene in the film where Dr. Matthews performs mainly to remind us that this is a horror film and thus, gratuitous shots of the human anatomy being exposed are permissible.
In a plot reversal fit for a Hitchcock movie, Nicole turns up dead halfway through the film. From this point forward, we know that the rest of the film will be dedicated to discovering exactly who killed her (As I have already noted, because Dr. Matthew’s wife looks an awful lot like Nicole, it took me several minutes before I realized that Nicole was in fact very much dead).
The authorities hassle Nicole’s boyfriend, Michel, who we are duped into believing is the one who murdered Nicole. He goes out on a quest to prove he is innocent and ends up being caught by the authorities choking Mrs. Matthews (Claudie Lange), the disgruntled wife of Mr. Matthews. But then, someone tries to kill Mrs. Matthews and leaves contact lenses, which is an almost identical recreation of Nicole’s murder (This, in retrospect, is maybe not the wisest of ideas).
We are also led to believe that one of Dr. Matthews’ patients, a blind man, is responsible for killing Nicole. The blind man turns out to have been an accomplice of the jewelry heist with Nicole’s father. The blind man, however, is also not the culprit.
Through a nonchalant comment made to Dr. Matthews about ice blocks, Dr. Matthews is discovered to be the one who murdered Nicole. In a twist that bears as many steps but not as much confusion as “Death Walks at Midnight,” the film reveals its backstory: Nicole’s father was also partners with Dr. Matthews and the blind man, Dr. Matthews stole diamonds from the blind man, Nicole was murdered by Dr. Matthews for the diamonds, Nicole was tied to blocks of ice and buried out at sea.
Although the film feels overly long and there don’t seem to be nearly enough shocks or jumps from what I have come to expect from good giallo, “Death Walks on High Heels” is not without its merits. I suppose the largest compliment that I can pay the movie is that the film does not make me feel as alienated as “Death Walks at Midnight” did. While that film felt very European and indicative of a world in which I have not spent very much time, “Death Walks on High Heels” feels American in tone and in excess.
Available now on Blu-ray
