The Fourth Victim (1971)

Arthur Anderson, a wealthy English gentleman, has a problem: his wives keep dying. After the demise-by-drowning of spouse numéro three, the company against whom he keeps insuring their lives (who probably should have just refused his custom) initiate legal action against Arthur, which leads to a murder trial. An exhumation of the deceased's body shows vast quantities of barbiturates, which had been purchased by Arthur, but he is found not guilty after his housekeeper perjures herself on the witness stand. The very night Arthur arrives back in his countryside mansion, a bubbly American lady takes an impromptu midnight dip in his pool and proceeds to flirt outrageously with him when he politely asks her to leave. The lady, Julie Spencer, who might as well have 'honeytrap' tattooed on her forehead, gets married to Arthur, who might as well have 'easy mark' tattooed on his forehead, within a month. And so we settle in to see who will crack first - the potential ladykiller or the potential entrapmenter. There's also a mysterious blonde lady knocking about the place (presumably literally, as she wears sunglasses even in the dead of night). Who'll kill whom first? Why are the police chracaters so broadly comic? And who is a sister of whom (you don't get three dead ladies and two mysterious alive ladies in a giallo without some familial ties, after all)? All will be revealed...

It's difficult to know where to begin with this review, and not because we're spoilt for choice when it comes to discussion points. The film is fun, and well-made - it opens with a well-executed dialogue-free sequence which depicts the death and burial of wife hashtagnumberthree, and the setting is neatly established through some classic travelogue footage of London (shot of the Houses of Parliament from across the Thames? Check!). The courtroom scene is lengthy enough, but still very watchable, even if the decision of the judge to allow a witness to introduce an off-the-cuff statement doesn't seem like something that would happen IRL.

Michael Craig as Arthur Armstrong does well with a fairly tough role-he's a stiff upper lipped (albeit an upper lip which is prone to unstiffening into a curled sneer) Englishman who may or may not be a murderer, so he can't exactly go around taking bites from the scenery. He does manage to exude some charm, though, whilst looking like a quite sexy badger, so you can see why a woman might find him desirable (the moolah would help as well - he lives in a massive house, with his income being nicely topped up by regular insurance payouts, so he's definitely extremely liquid). Carroll Baker channels classic bubbly Carroll Baker as Julie, and Marina Malfatti puts her slightly ethereal looks to good use as the mysterious sunglasses-sporting floater. Inspector Dunphy, played by José Luis López Vázquez, looks exactly as unconvincing as you'd imagine he would, based on the first part of this sentence. López tries gamely to inject some comedy into proceedings, which was clearly a considered directorial choice, as the other policemen are also comedically rendered, as full-on buffoons. The contrast between the bumbling police, the bubblying Julie and the bristling (best I could do) Arthur makes for an uneven, but mostly-interesting ride.

And that's what this film is, essentially - a mostly-interesting ride. It plays things safe giallo-wise, never coming remotely close to pushing the boundaries of the then-ascendant filone. The vast majority of the running time involves the two main characters falling warily in love as we wait to see whose nefarious intentions will out. The tone is inconsistent and there are barely any twists. certainly none that will shock a seasoned giallo-watcher. At the same time, said seasoned giallo watchers will probably get the most out of this film, as it represents an extremely safe, comfy example of the genre. And sometimes that's what you want - something nice. And that's what this film is: it's nice. Not great, not terrible, not terribly exciting. But it's nice. And sometimes it's nice to be nice.

Nice!