Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll (1974)

Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll: Directed by Carlos Aured. With Paul Naschy, Diana Lorys, Eduardo Calvo, Eva León. An ex-convict, troubled by dreams that he strangles women, is hired as the caretaker on an estate owned by three very strange sisters. Soon after his arrival, a serial killer begins slaughtering blonde, blue-eyed women – and leaving their eyeballs in a bowl of water.

“This is the most famous of the Spanish gialli, and not surprising the stout and hirsute one, Paul Naschy, was heavily involved in it. He plays a criminal who comes to a provincial Spanish town and finds work as a handyman for three sisters, one of whom is in a wheelchair and another of whom is a nymphomaniac. He begins to have dreams of murdering women. The three sisters also act suspiciously and seem to be harboring a dark secret about the tragic death of their parents. Then someone begins murdering blue-eyed girls (which there seems to be an abnormal amount of for rural Spain)and taking their eyes, thus the Spainish title which translates roughly to u0026quot;Blue Eyes of a Broken Dollu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis movie drags a little frankly, but the ending is great. Naschy makes a very unusual choice regarding his character. The identity of the killer is pretty predictable–itu0026#39;s almost always the least likely character in these movies–but the movie has a great double-twist at the end. I donu0026#39;t want to say too much, but imagine the character who sums every thing up for the viewer at the end of movies like u0026quot;Psychou0026quot; himself being a u0026quot;Dr. Caligariu0026quot; figure. And the motive of the killer is sublimely ridiculous. It was probably inspired by u0026quot;Eyes Without a Faceu0026quot;, but it more closely resembles the preposterous resolution of u0026quot;The New York Ripperu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eUnfortunately, I saw the American cut of this movie, u0026quot;House of Psychotic Womenu0026quot; which strangely seems to have left in all of the very graphic violence, but cut out all the sex (I canu0026#39;t believe a Naschy movie directed by sleazemeister Carlos Aured and featuring a nymphomaniac would have NO gratuitous nudity and sex in it). Usually, unedited cuts of Naschy movies arenu0026#39;t any better, just longer, but u0026quot;Houseu0026quot; (the version I saw anyway) actually seems to be missing whole scenes. At one point, for instance, three female hitch-hikers in short-shorts show up at the town bar. One of them even bends way over the bar to give all the sleazebags in the bar (and all us sleazebags in the audience) a long look at her lower glutes. Delectable little involuntary eye donors, you would think. But then the three girls are never seen again in the movie. They were either meant to be brown-eyed, red-herring victims, or thereu0026#39;s something missing in the American version. Who knows? This movie didnu0026#39;t leave enough of an impression on ME to look for the uncut European version, but if you have a choice in the matter you should probably go with that one.”