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Film: Door into Darkness: The Tram (La porta sul buio: Il tram)
Year: 1973
Director: Dario Argento
Writer: Dario Argento
Starring: Enzo Cerusico, Paola Tedesco and Pierluigi Aprà
Review:
Now this is an interesting film. It is part of an Italian television show that put out 4 episodes. Each episode has the length to be considered a feature. Since this appears on Letterboxd as a movie, I figured I would watch it. What also makes this intriguing is that each one is a gialli. The show was made with Dario Argento. I watched this one since he wrote and directed. I’m doing this for Italian horror month for a Traverse through the Threes double feature from this master of horror.
Synopsis: a young woman is murdered on a crowded tram without anyone else noticing the crime. Inspector Giordani (Enzo Cerusico) decides to recreate the incident to find out the killer’s identity.
This starts with a door opening and then we get an introduction from Argento. This reminded me of things like The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents. What he says about this story is that the kill happens on a tram while people are riding it. He wants you to pay attention to the people that are there to figure out who the killer is. That’s when we see this tram being cleaned and the woman dead. Her name is Monica Rini.
The mystery is intriguing here. She was stabbed in the chest, but no one saw it. Inspector Giordani oversees the investigation. He first interviews the cleaning guy, the driver and the person who sold the ticket. What is interesting there, the ticket seller rides the bus near the back in a makeshift cage. The case is baffling.
Giordani reaches out for witnesses and gets a few to come forward. There is Robert Magli (Pierluigi Aprà), an older woman and another is Marco Roviti (Emilio Marchesini). He is a person of interest as he worked with the victim. The inspector’s plan is then to simulate the ride, when witnesses got on and got off to try to piece together who killed this woman as well as when.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this is an ambitious gialli. Argento in his intro puts out the scenario so that got me thinking as we jump right into it. This also has a good length. I’m not sure there is much more that you could flesh out here without doing more killings. This is a tight little story about a nearly impossible murder. How could someone do this on a tram with other riders around and get away with it. I love the premise. It is even more interesting that this was originally going to be part of Argento’s film, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, but it was removed and made into this.
Now I do want to shift over to a negative. My problem is that I feel like I missed something. It is a good idea to have all the witnesses that they can find ride the tram together to do a reenactment. I’m not sure they would be allowed to do it, but I’m not going to harp on that. My problem is that I don’t know how Giordani figured it out. We see him interviewing witnesses, he watches everyone and records who gets on as well as off the tram and when. He then sees these hook things that I believe are used to keep your balance if you’re standing. It is from there that he figures it out. It just felt like a leap in logic after discovering what was used.
Since there isn’t much to the story, let me then take this to the acting. Cerusico carries this movie. He seems in control from the moment that he shows up. Another aspect to that is that everyone seems to get nervous around. Not the witnesses, but the people that might be looked at as suspects. I get that feeling around police officers. Even when you are innocent, you’re still on edge. Paola Tedesco is solid here in her role, even though I feel like it is limited. Aprà, Gildo Di Marco, Tom Felleghy, Marchesini and the rest of the cast are good as witnesses as well as red herrings. I will say one of them is also the killer. We also have a cameo by Fulvio Mingozzi as a police officer who is great in his smaller role.
All that is left then is the filmmaking. The cinematography is good. I do come to expect that with an Argento film though. The framing did seem a bit cheesy here for one shot where it focuses on something that feels a bit beneath him, but that doesn’t ruin anything. The effects are limited. The blood that we do get looked good. I wasn’t a fan of the soundtrack though. There was one song that took me out of what we were doing here. That shocked me knowing that Argento usually has great scores accompanying things. A smaller budget could be part of that. Doesn’t ruin this, but I wanted more.
In conclusion, this is a solid little giallo. We have a scenario that is focal. A woman is murdered on a tram with passengers around. Inspector Giordani needs to solve the case with what he’s given. I thought that this was made well enough. The premise is the major part here, but the acting is good to bring the characters to life. This is solid for the budget that they’re working with. The cinematography would be the bright spot there as were the limited effects. The soundtrack could have been better. Overall, it is worth a watch for gialli or Argento fans.
My Rating: 7 out of 10