A Black Veil for Lisa [La morte non ha sesso] *** (1968, John Mills, Luciana Paluzzi, Robert Hoffmann) – Classic Movie Review 9705

Director Massimo Dallamano’s interesting, engaging and above routine 1969 international Euro mystery thriller A Black Veil for Lisa [La Morte Non Ha Sesso] finds an unexpected star in John Mills, who manfully leads this dark caper as Franz Bulon, a Hamburg police inspector chasing drug runners and investigating the killers of police informers, while tracking the movements of his beautiful young wife whom he suspects is cheating on him. This leads him to hire a hitman to kill her.

The busy, involved twisty plot is satisfying and handled with sufficient enthusiasm, even if the need to please different audiences worldwide damps the film’s atmosphere (particularly in the dubbed English version), though the late-Sixties Hamburg setting and score greatly add to it.

Oddly, Mills is the only famous name, apart from Luciana Paluzzi as Lisa and Robert Hoffmann as charismatic killer Max Lindt. All three are well cast and effective.

Also in the cast are Renate Kasché, Enzo Fiermonte, Tullio Altamura, Carlo Hinterman, Loris Bazzocchi, Robert van Daalen, Giuseppe Terravona, Carlo Spadoni and Vanna Polverosi.

A Black Veil for Lisa [La Morte Non Ha Sesso] [Das Geheimnis der jungen Witwe] is directed by Massimo Dallamano, runs 95 minutes, is made by PAN Film, Top-Film, Filmes Cinematografica and Diplo, is released by Titanus (1968) (Italy) and Commonwealth United Entertainment (1969) (US) (dubbed), is written by Massimo Dallamano (screenplay), Giuseppe Belli (story and screenplay), Vittoriano Petrilli (screenplay and dialogue), Audrey Nohra (screenplay) and Peter Kintzel (dialogue), is shot by Angelo Lotti, is produced by Giancarlo Marchetti and is scored by Giovanni Fusco and Gianfranco Reverberi or Richard Markowitz (English version).

Massimo Dallamano is also the director of What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) and What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974).

Italian American actress Luciana Paluzzi (born on 10 June 1937 in Rome) enjoyed a 25-year film career, retiring in 1978. She is best known for playing S.P.E.C.T.R.E. assassin Fiona Volpe in the fourth James Bond film, Thunderball (1965). She also appeared in the first The Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie To Trap a Spy (1964). In both she plays a villain’s associate who tries to seduce the hero, but dies when he pushes her into the line of fire.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9705

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