ChicRawIdol
A brilliant film that helped define a genre
Calum Hutton
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Staci Frederick
Blistering performances.
gridoon2018
And when I say "mediocre", I mean exactly that: "Deadly Inheritance" is neither very bad nor very good, it's just....fair. Made before the heyday of the "giallo" genre, this has some of its typical features but is much tamer in terms of violence and nudity. The major weakness of the film is that it lags in the middle, with far too much footage of the police hunting down a fugitive, whom we know is probably innocent anyway. But there are some nice twists in the last 20 minutes, and overall the story does make sense. Also making "Deadly Inheritance" worth a look is the presence of the beautiful and stylish Femi Benussi, who even graces us with a shower scene! ** out of 4.
capkronos
Deaf widower Oscar Marot (Arnaldo De Angelis) is run over by a train, leaving behind three pretty daughters; loner Simone (Femi Benussi), married Rosalie ("Jeanette Len"/Giovanna Lenzi) and naive Colette (Valeria Ciangottini), as well as an adopted invalid/semi-retarded son Janot (Ernesto Colli), who he seemed even more fond of than his own girls. Afterward, a will reader shows up and reveals that even though Oscar worked at a train station, he was something of a closet financial wiz who invested wisely enough to save back a million franks. However, a stipulation in his will is that the family has to wait three long years until Janot reaches his 21st birthday to collect their inheritance. Guess what happens next? You got it... people start mysteriously dying. First up is Janot, who gets splattered into about a dozen pieces after someone pushes him front of a moving train. Many others will follow. There are a lot of characters and they all pretty much have a motive to murder. Simone's married lover Jules Didier (Isarco Ravaioli) owns a popular dance club, but doesn't make enough to pay off his wife Natalie (Alessandra Moravia), who is demanding he give her 50,000 franks or else she won't give him a divorce. Rosalie's pushy, much-hated metal worker husband Leon (Ivo Garrani) is drowning in debt and urgently needs to pay off some debtors or else he'll lose everything. Throw in investigating police Commissioner Etienne (Virgilio Gazzolo) and Chief Inspector Gerard (Tom Drake) and you have a standard, though sturdy enough, foundation for an enjoyable giallo. Though much less stylish than the films brought to us from the likes of Argento, Bava or Martino, I have to give this one some extra credit for a decent screenplay, which will adequately throw most viewers off track with lots of twists and turns, especially toward the end. I also give it credit for sensibly bringing it all together by the finale. Overall it's probably one of the better-plotted films in this genre. Various interior and exterior locations are fairly well used here with several nice pan shots of a picturesque old city and some brief scenes taking place in a crumbling old building, around a lake with tall weeds and a field of dead corn stalks. Since this is one of the first of its kind, don't expect a whole lot of gore or nudity. Most of the murders are committed off-screen (including one committed with a golf club) so there's just a little bit of blood and Benussi has only brief partial nude scene taking a shower. The acting and direction are fairly good, as are the score by Stefano Torossi and cinematography by Ascenzio Rossi.
Coventry
I'm calling out to all of you, good people working at DVD-distributing companies like NoShame Films, Subversive Cinema or even Anchor Bay Entertainment! During the past couple of years, and especially with the revival of low-budget seventies exploitation cinema, a lot of stupendous Italian Gialli thrillers already received fancy DVD-releases. Even several lesser great and downright mediocre Gialli already got transferred to disc, but still there are numerous hidden treasures that remain stuck in video-oblivion to this date. "Deadly Inheritance" is an ideal example of this. Perhaps there aren't any famous names listed in the cast and crew, but nevertheless this is a wondrously convoluted and marvelously flamboyant showcase of Italian Giallo greatness with mouth-watering gore, sensational sleaze and phenomenal music. The plot may be derivative and the constant red herrings may be too grotesque for their own good, but I guarantee this is the stuff all you Giallo-fanatics are searching for. Straight from the first couple of minutes you'll already know you're in for a nice treat, as the opening involves a fast ride on rails – filmed from the trains' POV – and guided by THE most exciting music I ever heard. The ride abruptly ends when an elderly man messily ends up underneath the train and the titular (Deadly) inheritance refers to the arrangement of his testament between the family members. The deceased had three beautiful daughters and one mentally handicapped adopted son, but the will irreversibly states that nobody receives one penny before the boy reaches the age of 21. Naturally, none of the women (nor their husbands/lovers) intend to wait two more years or even consider sharing the family wealth and it doesn't take too long before the kid ends up underneath a train as well. It looked like suicide, but Inspector Greville suspects murder and quickly gets confirmed when more relatives turn up dead in less camouflaged circumstances. The rest of the plot unfolds itself as an engaging and unpredictable (because of its absurdity) Giallo with many inventive death sequences and perverted underlying sub plots. "Deadly Inheritance" is a must-see for genre lovers, so I sincerely hope it'll be widely available on short notice and, if it's not too much to ask, the wildly exciting soundtrack ought to be released separately as well. There's a more than fair amount of suspense and mystery, the killings are deliciously gross and the three leading ladies are luscious eye-candy. Femi Benussi is probably the most famous name in the cast, since she starred– and showcased her ravishing body – in "The Bloody Pit of Horror", "Bloodsucker Leads the Dance" and Mario Bava's "Hatchet for the Honeymoon". The rest of the cast, as well as director Vittorio Sindoni, is fairly unknown, but they all do good jobs and contribute in making "Deadly Inheritance" what is in my book the most undeservedly and shamefully overlooked Giallo ever.
John Seal
When an eccentric millionaire is killed in a train accident--that's what you get for standing on the rail tracks, bub--his family contests his will, which leaves his estate intact for three years and then leaves it to the idiot (Ernesto Colli, who looks a bit like Royal Dano) adopted into the family. (When I say idiot, I mean it in the old-fashioned way.) Greedy daughter Simone (Femi Benussi) and the rest of the family are determined to get their hands on the money, and will stop at nothing--including murder--to get it. This Italian thriller is relatively intriguing, well-paced, and features a wonderful go-go score by Stefano Torossi. I'd love to know who the band is that mime Torossi's music, because the bass player was clearly enjoying himself!
