L'Assassino ha riservato nove Paltrone (The Killer Reserved Nine Seats / El Asesino ha reservada nueve butacas, 1974)

Spanish Vértice Cine DVD edition




I had never heard about this very obscure B-Giallo but i loved it. It's basically about a bunch of annoying and unlikeable rich people who
wander around in a big abandoned theatre house and get killed for their efforts. Yes, it's strictly B, but this supernatural giallo thriller
have a slightly Bavaesque odd gothic atmosphere to it, a nice setting with the old theatre house, a nice soundtrack (as almost always in
old gialli films) by Carlo Savina, our own Janet Ågren and very fine Rosanna Schiaffino among the actors.
This DVD has an english audio BUT about 4 minutes are in italian and Without english subtitles

10 people visits an old abandoned theatre house, 5 men and 5 women. The women all wear furs with different colors, Paola Senatore's
Lynn a silver one (genre cult actress and later pornstar), Rosanna Schiaffino's Vivian a blue, Janet Ågren's Kim a green, Eva Czemery's
Rebecca a white and Lucretia Love's Doris a brown one. I have no idea if this has any significance at all, but probably not, or maybe?

The men are: Patrick (Chris Avram) the rich guy who owns the theatre, the father of Lynn, older brother of Rebecca and the fiancé to Kim
and he has invited a bunch of his friends to see his old closed theatre, a property belonging to his family since many hundreds of years
back. He's the old rich guy and many of his "friends" may not be that friendly, and it doesn't take very long before someone tries to kill him.
Russell (Howard Ross, seen in lots of gialli) is Kim's ex-boyfriend and secret lover, Duncan (Gaetano Russo) is Lynn's boyfriend, Albert
(Andrea Scotti) is Vivian's husband and the mysterious man in blue (seen on the stairs above) no-one know who he is

.

Janet Ågren and Lucretia Love

Most of these "friends" are bitchy and unlikeable and .... this is a giallo .... scheming. Patrick is too old and too rich and someone seems to
want him dead. People soon start wandering off in different directions and explore the ancient theatre on their own
. Very unwise as they
start to die and a killer is on the loose. One after the other they turn up dead, to - strangely enough - only the mild worries of the others.
It's like they're hypnotized by some evil force and has entered a supernatural gothic domain.
The lovely Janet Ågren's Kim is the first to sign off stabbed to death and after showing only some very brief nudity, 8 to go. Why 8 ?
Someone must be the killer, right ? But maybe not. Whatever.

The killer wears a black cape, an ugly face mask and black gloves but still people continue walking around happily on their own

Well, they do try to leave the nasty theatre "let's get out of here, we can get help in the village" but quickly find out that all the doors, all
the exits are mysteriously locked. Patrick tells them that a century ago a bunch of party-goers came to see the theatre (just like them), and
they were locked in too and killed. What's the mystery of the Theatre of Death and will someone survive?

My favourite in the film is beautiful italian actress Rosanna Schiaffino (1939-2009) and cinematographer Giuseppe Aquari does it OK.
The english audio track have approx. 4 minutes of italian language without english subs (only spanish subs).

This is a B-Giallo gem and could've been a great Mario Bava body count movie, but minus the visual fireworks and the brilliance then.
The Spanish DVD is presented in an anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 with an english audio 2.0 except the 4 minutes of italian without subs.

I haven't seen this yet on a US or UK DVD or Blu-ray, but i've seen it in a very expensive blu-ray release from Austria or Germany

Back to Giallo & Eurocrime Page 1