La ragazza dei lillà

Weird film that kind of plods around the place jabbing at various genres before settling on none of them, all centred around a dodgy premise.

Larth is what you'd call a real Tomb Raider. He doesn't wear tiny shorts or fight dogs, but he likes to locate Etruscan tombs and get the goodies out of them to sell on, with the help of Mario Adorf. Walking home one night, he hears gunshots coming from a museum and witnesses a red car driving away. Turns out the guard has been killed, some pieces stolen, and suspicion falling on Larth.

Larth's wife Mimsy Farmer offers to give him an alibi, but Larth manages to convince the police he wasn't involved. Elsewhere in his life there's a race against time to get to a tomb that a better equipped Swedish team come along and get the good stuff, and adding more complications to Larth's life is barowner Vasco's teenage neice, who keeps giving Larth the eye and who resembles an Etruscan woman called Tania whom Larth has been in love with, even though she died 2,600 years ago.

The film is split between Larth investigating the murder of the guard, trying to get to the tomb first, and fending off the advances Tania, who even ends up staying with Larth and Mimsy and parading about the place topless. I guess the plot points do eventually converge, but the film is bizarrely lacking in energy and even spectacle, save for the vision Larth has in the tomb of a perfectly preserved Tania melting in front of his eyes.

It's visually quite interesting though, with lots of inventive camera angles and shots, especially the 'POV soup-eating' shot.