The joy of being a movie collector is knowing you have many potential gems to watch whenever you are in the mood for something completely different, which is how I decided to finally sit down and watch Smile Before Death, a film I bought some time ago without knowing very much about it. I knew that it was an Italian thriller, although I couldn’t recall if it was classed as a giallo or not, and that was good enough for me.
The whole thing begins with the death of Dorothy (Zora Gheorgieva). That may lead to her estate being left to her husband, Marco (Silvano Tranquilli), which should be good for him and his lover, Gianna (Rosalba Neri). There’s only one problem. Dorothy’s daughter, Nancy (Jenny Tamburi, credited here as Luciana Della Robbia). She will be the first in line to any inheritance, which leads to Marco and Gianna plotting to get her out of the picture. Tensions soon rise as Marco seems to start becoming attracted to Nancy.
An enjoyably light and ridiculous work, Smile Before Death works best when it shows some bad and untrustworthy people realising that they have paired themselves up with someone equally bad and untrustworthy. Nobody will ever pick this as an essential Italian thriller, but it has everything you might want from this kind of thing. You get a few deaths, although two main scenes bookend the movie, you get bickering and scheming, there are one or two fun reveals, and Tamburi plays a young woman with a healthy and carefree attitude to whether she needs to be clothed or not.
Director Silvio Amadio also co-wrote the film with Francesco [Orazio] Di Dio and Francesco Villa, with a story credit for Francesco Merli, and there’s a consistently playful tone throughout that allows everything to work better than it otherwise would. And if you ever forget what tone the film is aiming for, do not fear, the ridiculously repetitive, erotica-tinged, coquettish main theme from Roberto Pregadio (credited as Bob Deramont) is played every few minutes to remind you.
Tamburi, Tranquilli, and Neri all do perfectly fine in their lead roles, with Neri being the best of the three, largely thanks to her being the one who is more often trying to plan things a couple of steps ahead of anyone else, and there’s also a fun little performance from Dana Ghia, playing a housemaid named Magda who starts to suspect that something is amiss in the household.
I really liked this, and I happily recommend it to others. It’s lighter than many others you could choose though, arguably much more of a black comedy than anything else. If that sounds like something you might enjoy then get to this ASAP. If you need some more grit, and are in the mood for some blood and gore, then (re)visit one of the many other Italian films that focus on those elements. THEN make time for this one.
8/10
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