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

Infobox Film
name = Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key


image_size =
caption = DVD Cover
director = Sergio Martino
producer = Luciano Martino
writer = Adriano Bolzoni
Ernesto Gastaldi
Sauro Scavolini
starring = Edwige Fenech
Anita Strindberg
Luigi Pistilli
music = Bruno Nicolai
cinematography = Giancarlo Ferrando
editing =
distributor =
released = August 4, 1972
runtime = 96 minutes
country = ITA
language = Italian
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0069421

"Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key" ( _it. 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.cite web | title=Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key | work=DVD Times | url=http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=58795 | accessdate=2007-03-07]

"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, "Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh" ("The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh", 1971), [cite web | title=The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh | work=Eccentric Cinema | url=http://www.eccentric-cinema.com/cult_movies/strange_vice_mrs_wardh.htm | accessdate=2007-03-07] in which the killer leaves the phrase as a note to his victim. The victim in the film was played by Fenech.

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.

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.

References

External links

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