This is a remarkably silly giallo that begins with Susan Scott messing with a coin operated telescope in Rome and randomly witnessing a woman being stabbed to death in a house. At first she tries to get help from a policeman passing by with his family, but he refuses, pointing out he's actually a fireman, and that he can't help anyway as his wife will get him into trouble. This daftness will continue!

Susan remembers that the murderer had a limp and was dressed in black, and it looked like several people witnesses him leave. Susan's boyfriend also has a limp, plus he's an artist who uses fabric dummies to stab to death as some sort of crappy art project. These dummies are made by Susan, and according to him "It's the only thing she does well...apart from making love." This he tells to policeman George Martin, who doesn't believe she witnessed anything...until they actually find the corpse, to which Susan exclaims happily "Hey! They found my corpse!"

Susan is also friends with journalist Kitty, who is going out with a composer who can't get it up. Indeed, it's the first thing Kitty tells Susan when she calls! Now it took me a while to figure it out but Kitty also has a sister played by the same actress who is going out with Luciano Rossi, and the sister also has a limp and needs a cane to get around. Seeing Luciano, who always plays weirdos or perverts, actually having a normal relationship was the biggest shock of the film. You'd think he'd be shagging a crocodile while dressed as Ghandi. With a chair stuck up his arse.

Of course the killer has a few witness to stab and the cops start finding cane marks everywhere, which makes them suspect Susan's boyfriend. This leads the remaining characters on a journey to the truth, broken only by Susan having to stop the action to go for a pee - twice! For no reason! Plus, they have Luciano Rossi stare into a shop window full of razors, just to confirm that he's definitely the film's red herring, and Sal Borghese as the designer of a bag held by a witness who wants to link his fashion house to the murders for publicity.

Not only is the film daft as hell, but director Pradeuax packs it with wall to wall nudity as well, including a lesbian flashback bit that someone else flashes back to later in the film. There was so much nudity that my mind started drifting to be honest, but still, I love films that are as mad as this.

"Passi Di Danza Su Una Lama Di Rasoio" (aka. "Death Carries a Cane") of 1973 certainly isn't one of the many essential Italian Gialli from the time. However, Maurizio Pradeaux' film is still a creepy and stylish little film that my fellow Giallo/Italian Horror fans should enjoy. The Italian Giallo has brought forth many masterpieces; and while this film isn't one of them, it is nonetheless very enjoyable. This is not least due to the ravishing and wonderfully charismatic genre-beauty Nieves Navarro, who blessed quite a bunch of notable Gialli with her presence.

Overall, "Passi Di Danza...", which shares some features with Luciano Ercoli's "La Morte Accarezza a Mezzanotte" ("Death Walks at Midnight", 1972) is rather routine stuff. The when beautiful Kitty (Nieves Navarro) is looking through coin operated binoculars at a tourist observation point, she becomes witness to the brutal knifing murder of a girl. At first, the cops laugh her report off; when they actually discover the murder victim, they suspect Kitty's boyfriend Alberto (Robert Hoffmann). Bodies pile up as whoever could give hints for solving the crime ends up murdered...

As mentioned above, "Passi Di Danza..." is rather routine stuff, which, in case of a Giallo, isn't a bad thing. The murders are stylish and brutal (though not too spectacular by brutal Giallo-standards), the music is eerie and hypnotic (though nothing special by the high Giallo-standards), and the camera work and settings are stylish and elegant (though, again, nothing spectacular by Giallo-standards). Nieves Navarro (who is credited as Susan Scott) is, once again, great. The ravishing Miss Navarro is once again given several opportunities to take her clothes off, and makes a protagonist that is both very sexy and likable. The blonde Anuska Borova, who seems never to have appeared in any other films, is almost equally sexy in her double role. Robert Hoffmann is good enough in the male lead. The rest of the cast includes regular leading man Simòn Andreu, who appeared alongside Nieves Navarro on several other occasions including Luciano Ercoli's three Gialli ("Forbidden Fotos of a Lady Above Suspicion", "Death Walks With High Heels" and "Death Walks at Midnight") and regular creepy-man Luciano Rossi, who appeared as a super-creep in all sub-genres of Italian Cult-cinema.

Overall, "Passi Di Danza..." may not be offering anything new or particularly overwhelming, but it's a formula Giallo that offers style, suspense, sleaze and brutality, and that my fellow fans of the genre should enjoy.I recommend tracking down the Italian version, since the English dubbing is abysmal. My rating: 6.5/10

After witnessing a violent murder, a photographer tries to convince her boyfriend of the incident but gets nowhere until the killer starts killing off a series of regular interlopers in the case and forces the two to try to figure out the killer's identity before he targets them.

This was a decent enough if flawed genre effort. What really tends to push this one along is the actual murder mystery that plays out which is a rather intriguing and engaging storyline. Initially appearing to be centered around the incidental tourist, the gradual reveal of the killers' vendetta against the ballerina company through the use of the mannequins being supplied by the boyfriend that ties everything together and brings them their involvement into the rampage. The build-up to this isn't that bad, from the discovery of the bodies and the revelation of the handicap that spurs the interest in the two and provides this with some decent red herrings. That also leads this one into some enjoyable stalking moments that have a lot to like, from the opening sequence involving the murderer striking which is seen through a telescope lens that runs out of time before the face can be seen, the stalking of a witness through a darkened hallway where the killer again strikes out of nowhere and the tense chase on city streets to get away from a location containing clues to their identity as they race to find a phone from which to call and report on their findings. The finale in the house where the killer appears is exceptionally fun as well with the blackout and misidentification of the killer and the resultant chase through the grounds out to the backyard which has a shockingly tense confrontation in the greenhouse to finally resolve matters. Alongside the nicely frequent nudity present here from the capable performers, these here are enough to hold it up over the problems present. The main issue at hand here is the fact that this one never really manages to offer any kind of enjoyable twist on the formulaic story presented. Once again this presents a film in which someone commits a murder seen only by the main character who has nobody else believe their story which is a rather flimsy pretext to start it off but it just dives into numerous cliches after that point. Rather than just dismiss the outrageous story as the ramblings of a deranged woman, erring on the side of caution with someone reporting such an incident would've generated a far more interesting story here due to plainly going around the familiar plotline that comes along. The other big problem is that this leaves the film rather bland during the investigation here without too many bodies to knock off which is what leaves the film to feel dragged-out in points that don't really need it. These here are what really hold this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, Language and several sex scenes.