1965's "Run, Psycho, Run" remains intact in its original Italian language version, "Piu Tardi Claire, Piu Tardi..." (Later Claire, Later...), while the English dub sometimes pops up from occasional screenings through AIP-TV (it debuted on Sacramento's KCRA-TV on Nov. 2, 1969). It was a troubled production that sat on the shelf for at least three years as it was shot in black and white in Tuscany, Italy, by director and coscripter Brunello Rondi, only seeing the light of day in Italy by July 1968, importing Hollywood veteran Gary Merrill as Judge George Dennison for added marquee value, not making his first entrance for a full half hour (he dubs his own voice). Very few comments are available to decipher a plot that proves to be dialogue heavy in its entirety, the Dennison villa a sumptuous one on the 1910 Cornish coast where the family gathers together every summer but there is trouble brewing for the Judge's beautiful wife Claire, her throat slashed by an unseen assailant (their piano playing son also dies trying to escape). Remarkably, the following scene takes place one year later, the same family members back on the same grounds, the killer never caught nor a motive uncovered for the crime. Dennison now returns with Ann (also Elga Andersen), a different woman who looks exactly like Claire, to become his new bride, another young son in tow (asked to refer to the Judge as Papa), ostensibly an attempt to ferret out the culprit but mostly to ensure a house filled with the same type of hatred that killed Claire. The final reel shows the connection to Hitchcock's "Psycho," a hidden corpse next to a diary where the murderer makes a confession that Ann discovers, only for the dismissive family to disbelieve her accusations, a vagrant found dead with one of Claire's earrings, allowing police to close the case as a robbery gone wrong. Poor Ann is forced to leave with her son, no questions asked and all wages paid for services rendered, a head scratcher that could prove baffling to viewers lucky enough to enjoy the opportunity. Too early to qualify as giallo, just one clear murder committed by an unseen killer whose later confession is only revealed by a diary, one crazy girl wielding a phallic knife but not to kill, and a host of wealthy family members who plan on keeping things hushed up for a continued life of luxury, perhaps not to everyone's liking.
5 Reviews
How did this play Chiller Theater?
BandSAboutMovies31 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Director Brunello Rondi directed Il Demonio, a movie that didn't do well. He was interviewed by Dario Argento and said that this movie was made with "no intention of making a mystery, or a horror film, or even a suspense yarn, Hitchcock-style. What really interests me is to grasp with a film set in 1912 the origins of today's disease within the bourgeoisie, and to portray its degeneration with extreme violence. I read very few crime novels in my life. And I must say that I do not even like them very much. In my film there is indeed a crime, and an investigation. But it's only a pretext, in a story full of hatred set in the last years of the "Belle Époque," when some kind of false euphoria was decomposing, while one could glimpse the first signs of the impending war, the signs of hatred and the strengthening of class struggle."
Rondi wrote La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2, so he was an intellectual. Then again, he directed Riot In a Woman's Prison and Black Emanuelle, White Emanuelle. Therefore, I respect him.
It was called Più tardi, Claire... più tardi (Later, Claire...Later) in Italy but when AIP bought it to show on American TV, it was called Run, Psycho, Run. It's never been released on home video.
Judge George Dennison (Gary Merrill), his wife Claire (Elga Andersen) and their son Robert arrive at a Villa in Mount Argentario for the summer. Shortly after a party, Claire and Robert are both murdered.
A year later, Judge Dennison returns to the villa with his new fiancée Ann (also Andersen) and her son. Because Ann looks like Claire, Dennison hopes to use her to solve the mystery of who killed his wife and son.
It's not a giallo but, as the director told Argento more of a class struggle on film. There's a lot of talking instead of showing and Dennison doesn't even show up until half an hour into the film. What a strange movie and yet another film that somehow played Chiller Theater.
Rondi wrote La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2, so he was an intellectual. Then again, he directed Riot In a Woman's Prison and Black Emanuelle, White Emanuelle. Therefore, I respect him.
It was called Più tardi, Claire... più tardi (Later, Claire...Later) in Italy but when AIP bought it to show on American TV, it was called Run, Psycho, Run. It's never been released on home video.
Judge George Dennison (Gary Merrill), his wife Claire (Elga Andersen) and their son Robert arrive at a Villa in Mount Argentario for the summer. Shortly after a party, Claire and Robert are both murdered.
A year later, Judge Dennison returns to the villa with his new fiancée Ann (also Andersen) and her son. Because Ann looks like Claire, Dennison hopes to use her to solve the mystery of who killed his wife and son.
It's not a giallo but, as the director told Argento more of a class struggle on film. There's a lot of talking instead of showing and Dennison doesn't even show up until half an hour into the film. What a strange movie and yet another film that somehow played Chiller Theater.
used to be on TV
kuciak23 August 2011
Can't really review this film. I remember though it appeared to be rather weird. I first had seen it in the paper playing in one of those theaters in San Francisco on Market street, where you could go to see four movies at once. Later it was on TV on Channel 36 in San Jose. The picture quality was not so good being in Oakland.
Even in this DVD age when everything should be available, this film appears not to be.
Perhaps this is no great classic, but considering what HBO, Showtime, and other stations do show, why can't this be seen so we can at least find out for our selves. I have written about Hail Mafia being an interesting film that also has not had the exposure that it deserves. Makes you wonder if this supposedly 1968 film has been lost.
Even in this DVD age when everything should be available, this film appears not to be.
Perhaps this is no great classic, but considering what HBO, Showtime, and other stations do show, why can't this be seen so we can at least find out for our selves. I have written about Hail Mafia being an interesting film that also has not had the exposure that it deserves. Makes you wonder if this supposedly 1968 film has been lost.
Laborious
Leofwine_draca19 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
An early proto-giallo from Italy, and a film that apparently sat on the shelf for a few years before release. This is what gives it a dated look as the black and white sun-scorched environs don't look like something you'd expect from 1968. In fact this looks like a stodgy old TV episode. The setting is 1912, which isn't very realistic in terms of period dressings, and a dullish cast go through the motions of murder and double identity. There are nods towards the '60s psycho-thriller genre (eventually) but it's all very laboured and laborious and simply not very good.
Run, classiic film viewer, run!
mark.waltz14 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Impossible to watch, and not just because of the horribly scratchy print and the hideous dubbing, this Italian film is like a bad TV drama, a thriller with no thrills. It is a type of film you put on a 2 in the morning when you can't sleep, hoping that it works to knock you out quickly. The star is Gary Merrill, once known as Mr. Betty Davis and Mr. Rita Hayworth, an actor with a few classics to his credit, most notably the leading man in "All About Eve". He's greatly aged here as a widowed doctor who is trying to find a new wife, the only one not speaking Italian (although the print I saw had him appearing to be dubbing himself in English), and obviously under suspicion by at least the viewer. His son is also decreased so the large family, including a controlling sister-in-law and ancient mother, rallies around him.
This had the potential to be an interesting period drama in the realm of the Gainsborough style films of the 1940's with some elements of horror or at least some psychological thriller insights. The budget isn't cheap looking outside of the really poor print, perhaps it wasn't a product of not being given a restoration, and possibly just filmed with poor camera work. The costumes and sets are a bit more elaborate. The featured cast is rather bland, and with characters that are complete cliches. There's an old priest, various distant relatives and the young hero who obviously has an interest in the woman whom Merrill chooses to marry. The sister-in-law is obviously speaking with clenched teeth throughout even though the English dubbing doesn't show that. I truly can't imagine this playing in many American movies houses in the condition that it is in, but as a sleep aide, I highly recommend it.
This had the potential to be an interesting period drama in the realm of the Gainsborough style films of the 1940's with some elements of horror or at least some psychological thriller insights. The budget isn't cheap looking outside of the really poor print, perhaps it wasn't a product of not being given a restoration, and possibly just filmed with poor camera work. The costumes and sets are a bit more elaborate. The featured cast is rather bland, and with characters that are complete cliches. There's an old priest, various distant relatives and the young hero who obviously has an interest in the woman whom Merrill chooses to marry. The sister-in-law is obviously speaking with clenched teeth throughout even though the English dubbing doesn't show that. I truly can't imagine this playing in many American movies houses in the condition that it is in, but as a sleep aide, I highly recommend it.
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