Director: Dino Tavella
Writers: Antonio Walter, Dino Tavella, Paolo Lombardo, Gian Battista Mussetto
Producers: Guido Nart (Christian Marvel), Walter Manley (uncredited)
Cast: Luigi Martocci (as Gin Mart), Maureen Ligard Brown, Luciano Gasper, Anita Todesco, Francesco Bagarin, Maria Rosa Vizzina, Paola Vaccari, Alcide Gazzotto, Alba Brotto, Pietro Walter, Vicky Del Castillo, Elmo Caruso, Jti Janne
In Venice, Italy, beautiful women are being abducted by a madman who embalms them in his underground lair to preserve their beauty in his private collection of corpses. Newspaper reporter Andrea (Gin Mart) is investigating the case. He is trying to convince the authorities that the missing girls last seen along the Venetian canals are not just undiscovered drowning victims.
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Despite those intriguing bits of business, the film remains a mostly dull affair. The characters are without any interest, the villain has no background and no reason given for his obsession, we are given almost no way to even guess the killer‘s identity, and it is impossible that the fiend would know just when the beauties he targets will happen to be available to snatch from along the Venetian canals to drag them underwater to his hideout. The events are all staged and presented with the disjointed and unimaginative finesse of a tourist’s sightseeing home movies. This may seem appropriate as the newspaper reporter hero spends plenty of time showing a group of young college girls the sights of Venice. That is only a bit less thrilling than the rest of this flick.
Many bad genre films still have many exploitation gimmicks, eccentricities, and absurdities to ponder and enjoy. The Embalmer lacks even those dubious merits. It is barely competent without any tension or complexity. Its English dubbing does not do it any favors, either.
I keep thinking about what could have been done to fix this movie. It is missed-opportunity flicks like this one that make you appreciate what makes a genre film satisfying. If there were characters that had any interesting interactions and quirks, if the villain was anyone we even had a chance to know, if there was any attempt to explain the motivations of the killer, and if there were actually motivations for any other characters in this story, then even the most routine presentation of the events and action might seem like it mattered.
Once the hero and heroine locate the embalmer’s hideout, things become a bit more energetic. The only surprise is a rather downbeat conclusion.
The Embalmer is so simplistic and stilted that it barely qualifies as an early example of the giallo film genre. With its Venice setting, bizarre murderer, and a creepy underground location for a madman’s corpse collection, this flick should have been an inspiration for the many Italian horrors to follow. As it is, The Embalmer is a real stiff.
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