The Devil with Seven Faces (1971)

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

What begins as a feel-good-human-interest story turns into a mystery, then a tragedy, and ultimately an outrage.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

How in the world did Carroll Baker and Stephen Boyd show up in this barely competent international "thriller?" O.k., so neither of their careers exactly took off into the stratosphere, but still, Baker copped an Academy Award nomination back in the 50s and Boyd made a splash in big-time Hollywood with his performance in "Ben-Hur." The acting profession can apparently be called many things, but predictable isn't one of them.This bargain-bin movie stars Baker as twin sisters who find themselves wrapped up with some insurance company and mafia toughs who are trying to collect a stolen diamond. For such a throw-away picture the plot is ridiculously hard to follow, not because it's necessarily complicated but because the whole movie is executed so poorly. The worst offender is the film editor, who makes a shambles of a car chase scene, and will cut from a scene of two people sitting on a sofa engaged in conversation to a scene of the exact same two people talking on the phone to each other from different locales, without any kind of transition.You'd never guess Baker had it in her to deliver an Academy Award-worthy performance based on this film, though she looks pretty fetching in the 1970s garbs she dons (even if she does frequently look like a hooker), and the constant parade of wigs she and every other female character wears are a riot -- at one point, she inexplicably appears sunbathing at the beach wearing a wig the color of a blue raspberry sno-cone.Once or twice the film flirts with an actually effective scene, like one where Baker is investigating noises in an attic and comes across a dead body (which however is never explained or tied back to the film in any way) or another set in a windmill. But every time it gets too close to competence, it veers away like a dog from a skunk.Grade: D

If you are expecting a good giallo from the title (Il diavolo a sette facce), especially with George Hilton (The Case of the Scorpion's Tail), and Umberto Lenzi's favorite, Carroll Baker (So Sweet... So Perverse, Silent Horror, Paranoia, A Quiet Place to Kill), you will be disappointed.There is no blood and gore as most of the killing take place with a gun. It is a straight-up crime thriller.It also stars Golden Globe winner Stephen Boyd (Ben-Hur).Lots chasing around and some torture as everyone is trying to find a million dollar diamond. Some real excitement towards the end in a windmill. Not a lot of thrillers use windmills. There is Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, as well as The Black Windmill. which also involves diamonds.Enjoyable action flick.

As has been stated by others, this does not have quite the style or blood of your average giallo but does have other of the elements appreciated by fans of the genre. Carol Baker, for one, and George Hilton, a nice jingly score and probably the most pairs of hot-pants seen in one film. Not much of a plot line and yet it is still made to seem complicated and the main police guy seems to think he is in a comedy film, talking nonsense and prancing about with a magnifying glass. However, it's all done with that gialloesque, fun spirit, with lots of planes and airport scenes, car chases and lots of female (Carol Baker) screaming. Nothing special, but pleasant enough.

This is one of those "slick" Italian movies where the world is populated with easy-to-bed don't ever wed women, well-heeled "where is my next lay"? wheeler-dealer men who are all connected to each other trying to pull off the big "heist", a dialogue that is fleshed out with the serving of drinks and the lighting of cigarettes, cinematography that looks like it was captured from an assortment from the airport post-card stand and music that is meant for the tourists.The acting is uninspired, the action scenes do keep your interest and the scene at the windmill is a hoot since all of the nefarious parties become conglomerated like a row of pins that get knocked over in succession. Then? Ta-taaaaa...the police arrive to tell the still non-sleeping members of the audience that they knew what was going on all the time. As usual.What is an endless fascination to me is these movies are usually starring some actors who had at one time some momentum in their careers but then fell flat. Two of these such performers are Caroll Baker in The Carpetbaggers & Stephen Boyd as the baddie in The Ten Commandments who tried to slice Chuck Heston's chariot in the Coliseum. Stephen Boyd went on to bigger and better things but never made it big on a consistent basis but his career lasted much longer that Baker's, who had a kind of unbuxsome Mae West/Jean Harlowe kind of thing going on.This film is for the videohounds only, since you never know what you are going to find.F.Y.I Never select an old movie title with two recognizable actors in it on the basis of the title since it RARELY has a connection with the film but is usually a loose translation of the original title name that is stylized to entice the American audience!