The Suspicious Death of a Minor

Director - Sergio Martino (The Great Alligator, Slave of the Cannibal God)

Starring - Claudio Cassinelli (The Adventures of Hercules, The Scorpion with Two Tails), Mel Ferrer (Murder, She Wrote, Fantasy Island), and Lia Tanzi (Erotic Exploits of a Sexy Seducer, Psychout for Murder)

Release Date - 1975

Genre - Horror/Comedy/Crime

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     My October has been odd in regards to what I've been watching.  I've already dug into a sexploitation and a few gialli while I would be balls deep in zombies and slashers.  I don't mind it because I happen to love sexploitation and appreciate gialli more than I used to.  A few weeks ago MVD and Arrow Video hooked me up with the Sergio Martino Collection set on blu that included three of his more popular gialli.  I decided to hold off until October to check them out as part of my annual horror binge.  After digging into The Case of the Scorpion's Tail I decided to keep the Martino train rolling with The Suspicious Death of a Minor.  This would be the only film out of the three that I didn't like but seems to be the most popular.  

     The film follows a detective that is investigating the murder of a young prostitute.  His investigation leads him to several unsuspecting people and before long he uncovers a sex ring with ties to the city officials.  

     I went into this one expecting a stock giallo with Martino's amazing eye but what I found was an uneven film that I struggled to finish.  I see that imdb has this listed as a comedy which is an aspect that I did not notice.  Instead, what I saw was a messy crime drama with slight murder mystery moments.  I was not a fan which is a bummer because I wanted to love every film in this set.  The acting in this one left me scratching my head.  I had seen other films Cassinelli but here he was very awkward to watch.  Some scenes he would deliver a decent enough of a performance to make the film bearable but in other scenes he was very awkward to watch.  I found myself cringing more than actually enjoying the film.  The rest of the cast is solid enough but when Cassinelli was hamming it up I found myself completely oblivious to the other actors in the scene.  The story for this one doesn't really feel like a giallo.  Giallo is famous because of the murder mystery angles that were drawn from pulpy paperbacks.  However, this one doesn't really feel like a murder mystery.  In fact, aside from the original murder, it's mostly a crime dramedy with a focus on sex trafficking.  It could have been a fun film as it but the strange acting and unusual character development made is unenjoyable.  Hell, a giallo story with comedy sounds like a movie made just for me but the humor, if there was any, did not land well for viewers like me.  Finally, the film has some blood but it's not a bloody giallo like we are accustomed to.  It's obvious Martino had other plans than making his traditional gialli but it didn't land well for me.  Overall, The Suspicious Death of a Minor was not what I was expecting and it left me very disappointed.  The blu from Arrow looks great.  It has crisp images and fantastic audio but the movie itself is disappointing.  This is the low point in the set.