Just discovered these couple of lines that I penned a good few years ago. I don't think I had published them anywhere before so decided I might as well pop them up here on this blog given the connection to Bryan Edgar Wallace. I definitely need to rewatch this film some time soon again as I can't remember much from it at this time.
The history of Bryan Edgar Wallace movies still had a little epitaph in the form of The Etruscan Kills Again aka The Dead Are Alive, an Italian Giallo allegedly based on one of his novels but really a standalone project that just availed of his name to drum up a little publicity.
Directed by Armando Crispino and featuring a range of excellent and familiar but not too familiar (and therefore affordable) actors such as Samantha Eggar, Alex Cord, John Marley, Horst Frank and Nadja Tiller this film is beautifully set in the uniquely scenic Italian countryside among ancient Etruscan ruins. When an ancient graveside gets unearthed a series of often quite graphic murders shocks the archaeological community but could the old Etruscans really have come back to life or is the solution a bit more mundane?
This is a lesser known and often maligned entry into the giallo genre but the truth is that it is if not necessarily good but then at least a very entertaining production with decent production values that lives through its assortment of dubious and often disturbed characters: psychotic alcoholics with black outs, camp choreographers, violent bigamist conductors the image of Herbert von Karajan, cheating wives and mysterious ex-wives with their own secrets all make up part of this fun ensemble.
Riz Ortolani with help from Giuseppe Verdi provides the memorable score that underlines the grisly killings.
The solution won’t come as a major surprise to anyone who’s ever seen a giallo but as usual it is a case of style over substance in these type of films and this flick sure deserves to be better known amongst cognoscenti of this sub-genre.
