Closed Circuit (TV Movie 1978)

Closed Circuit (TV Movie 1978). 1h 28m

“This one of a handful of Italian gialli that began life as a TV movie (the other two being u0026quot;Secret of Seagull Islandu0026quot; and u0026quot;Scorpion with Two Tailsu0026quot;). Like those, it lacks a lot of the sex, violence,and cinematic flourishes of other gialli, but itu0026#39;s a lot tighter (it wasnu0026#39;t condensed down from a mini-series like the other two), and it has a great plot: A large group of people are gathered in a cinema watching a spaghetti Western when one of them is found dead, killed by what by all accounts appears to be a u0026quot;stray bulletu0026quot;. The police have to hold the increasingly restive crowd in the theater while they look into the victimu0026#39;s past to find out who may have killed him and why. . .u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis movie has no really famous actors, but it does have an interesting cast. Flavio Buccio played a thug in both u0026quot;The Night Train Murdersu0026quot; and Dario Argentou0026#39;s u0026quot;Suspiriau0026quot;. He really plays against type here as a weird psychologist. Both William Berger and Guliano Gemma appear in the Western movie-within-a-movie. Berger was a pretty famous actor in the 60u0026#39;s and he is the father of both Debra (u0026quot;Inglorious Bastardsu0026quot;) Berger and Katya (u0026quot;Absurdu0026quot;) Berger (but to my knowledge no relation to Helmut Berger). The teenage girl who first discovers the dead body is Elizabetta Virgili, later semi-famous in Italy as a nude centerfold and showgirl (she was in the erotic drama u0026quot;Family Scandalu0026quot; a few years later where she obviously showed a lot more than she does here). Although I donu0026#39;t know her name and I never saw her in anything else, my favorite though was the actress who played the old lady who becomes indignant that the police donu0026#39;t consider her a suspect and want to interrogate her.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eObviously, this is a pretty low-watt giallo, but it is an entertaining one.”