The Red Queen Kills Seven Times

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
Italian theatrical release poster
Directed by Emilio Miraglia
Screenplay by
Story by Fabio Pittorru[1]
Starring
Music by Bruno Nicolai[2]
Cinematography Alberto Spagnoli[1][2]
Edited by Romeo Ciatti[2]
Production
companies
  • Phoenix Cinematografica
  • Romano Film G.M.B.H.
  • Trian Boeru[2]
Distributed by Cineriz
Release date
  • 18 August 1972 (1972-08-18) (Italy)
Running time
 98 minutes[2]
Country
  • Italy
  • West Germany[2]
Box office ₤513.725 million

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (Italian: La dama rossa uccide sette volte) is a 1972 giallo film directed by Emilio Miraglia.

Plot

Two sisters, Kitty and Evelyn, are cursed by a family painting depicting a hundred year-cycle in which a Red Queen is raised from the dead to kill seven times. Hoping to end the cycle, their grandfather Herbert orders the painting removed from their sight. Years later Kitty accidentally kills Evelyn during a fight. The death is covered up by their niece Franziska and everyone, including Herbert, is told that Evelyn immigrated to the United States. This doesn't sit well with Kitty, who is willing to allow Franziska to cover up the murder but feels overwhelming guilt. When Herbert dies from a fear induced heart attack, a series of murders begin to occur around Kitty, all of which appear to have been caused by a red cloaked Evelyn. The police begin to suspect that Kitty and her married lover Martin are the perpetrators of the murders, especially after Martin's institutionalized wife is found dead. It's eventually revealed that Kitty had only stunned Evelyn, who was also not her biological sister - Herbert had adopted her as an additional way of ending the hundred year-cycle. Evelyn's true murderer was Franziska, who murdered her as the start of an impulsive plan to be the only person to inherit Herbert's vast fortune. Resentful that she was not the main beneficiary despite providing his daily care, Franziska recruited some of Kitty's co-workers, who were unhappy of Kitty's station and preferential treatment by Martin. After murdering her female accomplices Franziska tricks Kitty into entering the basement of Herbert's mansion, where she tries to slowly drown her via flooding. Realizing the truth, Martin confronts Franziska and gets a confession, only for the woman to be shot by her husband, who had thus far been complicit with her actions. The husband then leads the police to Kitty's location, saving her from death.

Cast

Production

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times was the final film of director Emilio Miraglia and his second giallo film in a row.[3] The film was predominantly shot in Würzburg and Weikersheim in Germany.[3]

Release

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times was distributed theatrically in Italy by Cineriz on 18 August 1972.[2] The film grossed a total of 513,725,000 Italian lire in Italy.[2] The German version of the film is 15 minutes shorter than the Italian release.[3]

Arrow Films will release a Region 2 DVD edition & a Region B Blu-ray edition for the British market on 17th April 2017. [4][5]

Critical reception

AllMovie called it a "standard but solid entry in the giallo genre."[6]

References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 Curti 2017, p. 62.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Curti 2017, p. 63.
  3. 1 2 3 Curti 2017, p. 64.
  4. ↑ "The Red Queen Kills Seven Times | Arrow Films". www.arrowfilms.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
  5. ↑ "The Red Queen Kills Seven Times | Arrow Films". www.arrowfilms.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
  6. ↑ Donald Guarisco. "La Dama Rossa Uccide Sette Volte (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved 20 June 2012.

Sources

  • Curti, Roberto (2017). Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1970–1979. McFarland. ISBN 1476629609.
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