Death Walks at Midnight, Fashion Model Beset by Psycho

Ah, the ravishing Nieves Navarro. Because of her proclivity to jiggle in the right places, she lights up Giallo. Sadly, her fate in "Death Walks on High Heels" was death by drowning. Two years later, with much of the same cast and husband director Luciano Ercoli, we have 1972's "Death Walks at Midnight." Instead of an exotic dancer, Ms. Navarro plays a super-model in much peril. Beacause she is so stunning, we are pulling for this Euro-babe to survive a most brutal killer...and some misguided relationships.

In a major league judgment error, super-model Valentina (Navarro) agrees to be injected with HDS (think LSD). Gio (Simon Andreau), a pulp reporter has paid the beauty $300 to capture the event for an exclusive news story. The vixen is injected and trips out. Uh oh, Valentina doesn't see bright colors jumping around...no, she sees a murder. Her vision is of a weird looking man with a spiked glove pummeling the face of a beautiful woman, leaving more holes in it every time he throws a punch. When she comes back down to earth, she is assured her visions were merely drug induced. Double uh oh, Valentina begins seeing the killer in her visions stalking and pursuing her. Still, no one believes her.

Enter the equally ravishing, but not entirely sane Verushka (Claudie Lange). She abducts Valentina and tells her about a murder which occurred six months ago that matches her hallucination. She brings Valentina to an asylum where the killer is incarcerated, but this is not the man in her visions. When Verushka ends up with a knife through her sternum, the Police Inspector Serino (Carlo Gentili) suspects our desperate beauty of the carnage.  As Gio seems to be Valentina's only friend, she struggles to get even him to believe her.  As bodies pile up, and more babes meet tortuous fates, the menace closes in on Valentina. Wearing a spiked glove, the monster has very nefarious plans for our super-model's face.

Was Valentina's drugged out vision a psychic experience? Are Valentina's boyfriends, including Gio, psychos? I know...aren't they all. Is the answer to this mystery at that insane asylum that may have triggered Verushka's demise? Ms. Navarro is excellent as a beautiful damsel in much peril. Knowing her fate in "High Heels" makes us all really pull for this Euro-beauty. After all, in Giallo, no one is too beautiful to die. For some neat horror and mystery thrills, see "Death Walks at Midnight."