Marco Castellini
•A girl recently arrived from America witnesses a murder on the Spanish Steps in Rome. The next morning she discovers that the murder she saw actually happened ten years earlier and begins to investigate some old murders, the so-called "Alphabet Murders", helped in her investigations by a young doctor. Excellent "Hitchcockian" thriller (Bava already draws inspiration from the title of the "master of suspense," echoing that of the beautiful "The Man Who Knew Too Much"), with a magnificent black-and-white photography and a solid direction. Although one may initially have the impression of witnessing a story with supernatural tones, the film then unfolds as a classic thriller until the final twist. Among the actors, there is a very young John Saxon and the beautiful Valentina Cortese, in the role of the young American protagonist. There are no sequences of "explicit violence" or particularly "bloody" ones like in the subsequent "Blood and Black Lace" but Bava's skill and the good screenplay still manage to maintain high suspense.
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