Who Killed the Prosecutor and Why? (1972) User Reviews (6)

Is this film sufficiently coffee table?

[Bezenby · 5/10 · 14 June 2018]

Man, this director sure got a lot of mileage out of that topless dancing scene. Just as well though as this is a straight down the middle quasi-giallo that takes too long to get cooking and doesn't have enough sauce once it's ready. Or cheese.

Lou Castel is an arrogant photographer with a hot Euro-babe model as a girlfriend, and while he's taking stylish of her on some beach somewhere (well, while having it off on the beach after the photo session) he spies two men putting an seemingly unconscious man into a car, then causing that car to explode. Lou takes pictures of the two men and does what any honest citizen would do: He goes to a porno director and asks him how they go about blackmailing the men in the picture.

The blackmail thing doesn't pan out but the wheelchair bound porno guy (whose name is Uncle Fifi!) suggests that Lou take the pictures to a certain publication and ask them for a ridiculous amount of money, as the man killed was a high-ranking Prosecutor. However, by this point a black-gloved killer, complete with hat and raincoat, starts stalking and killing the cast, starting with the one hitman we did see at the start of the film.

We also spend plenty of time with cop Adolfo Celi, who, using his brain power, has to track down the killers of the prosecutor and Lou Castel. This helps the film immensely because Adolfo's natural charm keeps things afloat while not being terribly exciting. For added giallo quirkiness there's also a mafia boss who loves cats, and Adolfo Celi's character is a stamp collector.

However, there's dozens of these gialli so this one doesn't stand out from the pack too much. It's well made, well-acted by Celi and Castel, but isn't exactly essential when compared to the thousand or so other gialli made in 1972.

Pseudo-political thriller in the guise of giallo

[melvelvit-1 · 7/10 · 16 December 2007]

Fashion photographer Carlo (Lou Castel) and his model Olga (Beba Loncar) know they're on to a good thing when they happen upon two men beating and setting fire to a third during a shoot on what they thought was a deserted beach. Instead of going to the police, Carlo takes the pictures he surreptitiously took to Olga's uncle Fifi (Massimo Serrato), an unscrupulous pornographer with underworld connections. After they read in the papers that the victim was a crusading prosecutor for the Republic, Fifi tries to interest the Mafia in the photos while Carlo hawks them to a scandal sheet journalist. Everyone wants the incriminating evidence but none more so than a black-gloved killer who slays the murderers in the photos before setting out to eliminate anyone linked to the pictures and their negatives...

After the success of INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION (1970) there came a spate of Italian pseudo-political thrillers that, although occasionally entrenched in giallo tradition, were only average police procedurals where honesty doesn't have a chance until the final scenes. This film is no exception and here even the protagonist is on the wrong side of the law until the turnabout ending. Out to solve the murders using his powers of deductive reasoning is Inspector Vezzi (Adolfo Celi) who eventually exposes the corrupt underbelly of a society only out for itself. Clad in trenchcoat, fedora, and black gloves, the killer has a logical motive this time and never uses the same method of murder twice. There's a decent body count, a few surprises, a cryptic title used as plot device, J & B whiskey, and a harsh comeuppance for any wrong-doing. Worth a look.

Average Giallo

[Superwonderscope · 6/10 · 29 February 2000]

Giuseppe Vari (under the pseudonym of Joseph Warren here)reknowN for his fantasy peplum ROMA CONTRA ROMA (1963), directed this wannabe giallo. Some interesting political undertones in the script but that's really all you'll get. Standard stuff by Lou Castel and Adolfo Celi but you'll get the sexy Beba Loncar at her best. Cinematography is TV-like. Fine for a rainy saturday afternoon but don't expect much out of it. Good suspense though

Decent plot but a lacklustre film on the whole

[The_Void · 6/10 · 12 July 2008]

Who Killed the Prosecutor and Why is often considered a part of the Giallo genre, although it mixes a Giallo formula with police procedure. The film is generally not seen as one of the best Giallo's - and I have to say that doesn't really surprise me as while it's not awful, the genre has a hell of a lot of better films than this in it and despite a good plot, this one is unfortunately rather routine. The plot certainly does provide the opportunity for an exciting thriller; and indeed there have been exciting films based on similar plots before and since the making of this film; but here it just doesn't work well. The film starts by showing a photographer taking photos of his girlfriend on a beach. It just so happens that he's doing that at the same time that a bunch of inept criminals are putting together a car crash scene to make it look like somebody died by accident. The photographer wastes no time in taking photos of the incident and with the help of his pornographer friend, aims to sell them. However, it's not long before various people start turning up dead...

Director Giuseppe Vari (who also directed the best of the Emanuelle series - Sister Emanuelle) clearly didn't have much of a budget to work with and unfortunately he isn't able to get over this fact as the film does look very cheap throughout. It would also seem that he couldn't afford to hire a decent scriptwriter either as the plot rarely gets out of first gear and there is little in the way of surprises, which really is a shame since this is a plot that didn't have to play out in a completely expected manner. The acting is not very good on the whole, with Lou Castel giving a lacklustre performance in the lead role and only memorable cult actor Adolfo Celi standing out. The film does feature genre staples in nudity and violence - although both are featured only mildly. There are a fair few death scenes in the film although most of the violence happens off screen and the nudity is clearly only there for the sake of it. I wasn't expecting a surprise from the ending and it's a good job because I wasn't surprised by the time the film finished. Overall, this is worth tracking down if you're a hardcore collector - but otherwise I'd recommend staying clear!

Nice-looking but hollow

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 19 April 2022]

A fine looking and well acted giallo that sadly doesn't really have the drive or umph to make it particularly good. It starts off strongly enough, with a photographer witnessing a murder, but then it gets dragged down in a blackmail story that takes an age to get anywhere. Adolfo Celi's cop slows it all down further, and there isn't a whole lot of murder to boot. A nice looking but ultimately hollow view.

Who Killed the Prosecutor

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 19 January 2024]

Third Hypothesis on a Case of Perfect Criminal Strategy is better known by the name Who Killed the Prosecutor and Why? It was directed by Giuseppe Vari (Rome Against Rome) and written by Thomas Lang. Carlo (Lou Castel) and girlfriend Olga (Beba Loncar) started with a fashion shoot on a remote beach but have already dropped the camera - and most of their clothes - when two cars show up. Men throw the body of a dead man - who turns out to be a prosecutor - into the other car, cover it with gasoline and light it up. State prosecutor. Instead of going to the police, Carlo decides to find out who did this and blackmail them with the photos he's taken.

After talking to his pornographer Uncle Fifi (Massimo Serato), Carlo speaks to Don Salvatore (Fortunato Arena) about buying the photos. When he refuses, the photographer goes to the media, but his buyer Roversi (Carlo Landa) is soon killed, which means that both Carlo and the newspaper's editor Mauri (Antonio La Raina) decide to figure out who is killing people who want these photos. Maybe they should have just gone to the police and Inspector Vezzi (Adolfo Celi). If they did, we wouldn't have a movie, so that's how it goes, I guess.

So how is this a giallo? Whoever wants the photos has gained some of the negatives and is killing anyone else who has seen them, as mentioned before, but they have black gloves, we never see them and their murders are in the style of the genre.

If that isn't enough for you, some cuts of this movie have hardcore inserts, which is the definition of gratuitous.