Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key
(Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave)

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Sergio Martino
Produced by Luciano Martino
Written by Adriano Bolzoni
Ernesto Gastaldi
Sauro Scavolini
Starring Edwige Fenech
Anita Strindberg
Luigi Pistilli
Music by Bruno Nicolai
Cinematography Giancarlo Ferrando
Release dates
 August 4, 1972
Running time
 96 minutes
Country Italy
Language Italian

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (Italian: Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave) is a 1972 giallo film directed by Sergio Martino. The picture stars Edwige Fenech, Luigi Pistilli, and Anita Strindberg. The film uses many elements from Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Black Cat", and acknowledges this influence in the film's opening credits.[1]

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key was Martino's fourth giallo film. The title of the film is a reference to his first one, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh, 1971),[2] in which the killer leaves the phrase as a note to his victim. The victim in that film was played by Fenech. The film has been released under several alternate titles, including Gently Before She Dies, Eye of the Black Cat and Excite Me!.

Plot

Oliviero Rouvigny (Pistilli), a failed writer and an alcoholic, lives in a crumbling mansion with his wife Irina (Strindberg), who is scared of Oliviero's cat, Satan, that used to belong to his late mother. To fight boredom, Oliviero organizes decadent parties for local hippies and humiliates and abuses Irina in front of the guests. After his mistress, a young student, is found murdered, Oliviero becomes the primary suspect. When he finds their maid dead on the premises, he decides to conceal it to avoid further suspicions.

With no-one knowing the identity of the murderer, Oliviero's paranoia builds and leads to more abuse of Irina. Then Oliviero's niece Floriana (Fenech) suddenly arrives for a visit. Irina finds comfort in Floriana's arms and bed, and the two decide to find a way to deal with Oliviero.[1]

After Irina kills Oliviero with scissors, Floriana reveals that she has been after the jewelry that Oliviero had stashed in the mansion. Irina humbly gives her the jewelry and the two part ways. However, Irina also had a plan of her own and she turns to Walter (Ivan Rassimov), the original murderer. Walter kills Floriana and her boyfriend making it look like an accident. Later, Irina pushes Walter off a cliff to have the jewelry all for herself. When Irina returns to the mansion, she finds the police there. An old woman had filed a complaint for animal cruelty, as she had seen Irina stabbing Satan. Inside the mansion, the police officers notice that the cat seems to be mewing in agony inside a wall. As they tear down the wall, they discover the cat and the dead body of Oliviero inside.

Cast

References

  1. 1 2 "Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key". DVD Times. Retrieved 2007-03-07.
  2. ↑ "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh". Eccentric Cinema. Retrieved 2007-03-07.
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