Note also how much more skin and overt sexuality (the emphasis on the silk stockings, on her exposed thighs e.g.) show up in Bava's version. Rewatching it to pull the caps also reminded me of how much more violent the murders are in B&BL (what's shown onscreen at least, as opposed to being only narrated or implied; in MONSTER the coroner discusses violent details like how the murdered women were "gutted" from throat to torso a la Jack the Ripper, but we of course don't see any of that violence onscreen).
Also, both killers share more than a few visual similarities (black coat, black hat, light-colored nylon mask worn to obscure their face, similar silhouette, etc.). As it's a look that came to be synonymous with the Bava/Argento brand of Gialli, I find it interesting that it shows up in a Krimi at about the same time.
(Apologies for the poor-quality caps; the DVDs I have of each film at the moment are truly awful.)
Monster of London City has now shot to the top of my "to see" list. Alas, Netflix has the disc on "very long wait."
ReplyDeleteMONSTER OF LONDON CITY has some really well-done sequences. Often, the visual appearance of the killer (his silhouette esp.) reminds me of later slashers.
ReplyDeleteIf I could get my hands on a good DVD/Blu-ray, with better soundtrack options, I think I'd appreciate it even more. I've got some notes on it, and need to get a proper review posted soon.
The caveat, which you already are prepared for, is the comic relief. Here it's a husband/wife detective team who go undercover to catch the killer. The male half of the duo is painted as particularly buffoonish.
Having just watched Monster of London City last night, I can confirm that all of the sequences where the killer stalks and dispatches his victims are extremely stylish indeed. I particularly liked the use of music to indicate which scenes are the ones where the killer is actually afoot (as opposed to when it's literally play-acting.)
ReplyDeleteAside from the one shot you isolate where the killer's face is obscured by a nylon mask, though, that doesn't appear to be an actual feature of his get-up in the same way that his hat, cloak, boots and gloves are. Note the scene where he pops up in the back seat of the actress's car. You can clearly see his open mouth as he grabs hold of her throat to strangle her.
I'm not sure I noticed the difference in music cues, so I'll have to pay attention to that next time.
ReplyDeleteRe: the nylon mask: I wonder if they only included it in the above scene because the staging would have revealed his face to the viewer otherwise? And it probably is just a coincidence, in terms of any possible relation to B&BL, but I did find myself thinking of the two films in relation to each other from that murder on.