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Lisa Baumer's (Ida Galli) husband Kurt was just killed in a plane
crash, and she has to go to Athens, Greece to collect 1 million Dollars in
insurance money, but even back in London someone suspects her of having
actually killed her hubby for the money and tries to blackmail her ... but
a short time later, the blackmailer turns up dead.
In Athens, Lisa meets with Lara (Janine Reynaud) and her lawyer (Luis
Barboo), who try to blackmail her into giving them half of the money, and
when she refuses they try to kill her ... and she is saved only thanks to
Peter Lynch (George Hilton), who introduces himself to her as an insurance
agent, and she almost immediately trusts him.
Later, Lisa collects the insurance money in cash from the bank ... but
she doesn't live long enough to enjoy it, as a masked killer brutally
murders her and steals her money, but not only she is killed but also Lara
and her lawyer. Thing is, Lynch was seen near both crime scenes and for
police inspector Stavros (Luigi Pistilli) and Interpol agent John Stanley
(Alberto de Mendoza), he is now the prime suspect ... which makes him
interesting to reporter Cléo (Anita Strindberg), who smells a story, but
soon enough falls for Lynch and the two become a couple.
Eventually though, Cléo is attacked too by the killer and only saved
thanks to Lynch - which clears Lynch's name. Plus at the scene of the
crime, an important clue is sound, a scorpion-shaped cufflink like the one
Lisa's (allegedly) deceased husband Kurt used to be wearing. So it might
be that Kurt is still alive and has only staged his own death to collect
the insurance money himself. And when airplane steward George whom Kurt
was supposed to know is killed as well, this fits right into the picture
... but somehow, the police has now run out of ideas of how to catch the
killer - when Lynch, now above suspicion, makes a suggestion: How about if
the police still presents him as prime suspect and he pretends to make a
getaway on his yacht together with Cléo ?
Soon enough, Lynch, Stavros, Stanley and Cléo agree on the plan, and
the lovers spend some wonderful days on his yacht far from civilisation
... when Cléo suddenly realizes Lynch seems to be hiding something in an
uncerwater cave ... and when she dives after it, she finds out it's the
million Dollars that belonged to Lisa ... so he is the baddie after all
...
Of coursse, he soon knows that she knows, and soon enough, they play
cat and mouse ... and in the end, she's only saved when the police shows
up and shoots him ...
So what was the whole plan ?
The plan, obviously, was to kill Kurt to collect his insurance money,
and it was thought up by Lynch, George and Lisa.
How come Cléo was attacked by the killer and saved by Lynch if he was
the baddie ?
In fact, while Lynch was the killer, it was George who attacked Cléo
just to distract suspicion from Lynch and leave the clue leading to Kurt.
It was actually essential that Cléo was not killed in the assault.
And why did the police arrive to save Cléo just in time ?
When they questioned steward George's girlfriend, they found her
wearing a scorpion-shaped cufflink just like Kurt's as a brooch, which was
just a little bit too much of a coincidence, so the cops put 2 and 2
together and suddenly every trail led to Lynch again ... and thank God
they knew exactly where to find him ...
Only thing, the insurance money is nowhere to be found ... and Cléo
would be a fool to tell the police where it is, wouldn't she ?
Director Sergio Martino was always best when he made giallos, and this
film aptly proves my point: The film is stylish without being over-ornate,
it's gory without being tasteless, it contains some wonderful setpieces
without losing sight of the story, and it's got its fair share of suspense
without tiredly quoting Hitchcock. Of course that all said, the plot of
this film is very far-fetched, but then again, aren't the plots of all
giallos ?
Definitely worth a look.
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