User Reviews

Crime in via Teulada was originally broadcast in 1979 on television as 15 segments of 5-minutes each. It was called Striped Mystery and the show aired before RAI's Variety. It was an attempt to mix reality and the world of the movie, as it was also shot at RAI's studios in Rome. The original version was called Giallo A Striscio.

In 1980, it was released in theaters as a 61 minute long movie.

The huge Rai building is filled with activity as so many shows are being made, including a crime film, a historical drama, a musical program called Discoring and the variety show Domenica In. In the midst of all this craziness, an actress named Diamante (Mariarita Viaggi) is killed and one of the RAI employees, Ely (Margherita Sestito), finds the body where film reels are stored. When security comes to help her, the body is gone.

Two of Ely's co-workers, blind switchboard operator Lia (Auretta Gay) and production assistant Sandro (Pietro Brambilla), take over the case when a dancer named Annie (Barbara D'Urso) are murdered and - spoiler warning - Ely are killed. There are also some actors playing themselves, such as Pippo Baudo, Domenico Modugno, Nanni Loy, Filippo Albertazzi, the Tessler Twins, Renato Rascel and Corinne Clery wandering about and anyone could be killed next. Everything seems to point to an actor named Enrico (Branko Vatovec), who is also Lia's brother, but the killer really could be anybody. And by that, I mean someone with ties to all of the victims from their past.

Director and co-writer - with Amedeo Pagani - Alan Lado made some really interesting giallo in the past, such as Short Night of Glass Dolls and Who Saw Her Die? He also made the Star Wars ripoff The Humanoid and Last Stop On the Night Train.

It also has a soundtrack by Fabio Frizzi that uses some of the music from The Gates of Hell.

It's pretty fun with people getting turned into silver statues and an axe carrying giallo murderer. There's even a dummy drop early in the movie!

CRIME ON TEULADA STREET (1980)-Director: Aldo Lado, Cast: Auretta Gay, Pietro Brambilla, Aldo Sassi, Attilio Duse. Music: Fabio Frizzi. The film opens with a movie within a movie: specifically a Giallo is being made. All the tropes are there: lightning on a darkened night, a killer stalking his victim with a pair of scissors, culminating in the stabbing death of a young woman. The director shows up, ranting and raving over all the imperfections he noticed. A female behind the scenes technician named Ely has to chase her cat throughout the studios (the film was made at the RAI television network) as we see all types of ongoing productions taking place with actors like Renato Rascal and Corrine Clery appearing on a talk show, a variety show, newscast and others. When she finally locates her cat in a remote part of the studio, she also finds a dead actress who was in an earlier scene shown being shot in the head. Of course by the time she returns to the scene with co-workers, the body has disappeared. No one believes her and we get to see all types of weirdness such as a camel traipsing through the studio, a costume designer ironing her hand because the heat helps her arthritis (the 3rd degree burns are apparently just a nuisance!) and a blind switchboard operator who we see walking around seemingly without a problem, in fact it's almost 15 minutes in before we realize she's blind! She and her friend Sandro decide to take the lead on discovering who the murderer is and notice that when the killer strangled his second victim, he was injured during the killing. They go to the set of the production taking place at the time (ZORRO'S REVENGE) and EVERYONE on the set has some type of injury!! More people are killed until the film reaches it's conclusion. The reveal of the killer has to be one of the most absurd things I have ever seen.

Director Aldo Lado was mainly known for his 2 contributions to the Giallo genre, SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS and WHO SAW HER DIE? This film has a definite tie-in to WHO SAW HER DIE and then completely reverses course at the end. Even though this was made for the RAI TV network, Lado got in some brief TnA and one of the murders was on the gruesome side. He was also able to create some very effective Argento-like stalking sequences inside the different studios with rotating full length mirrors and drapes that billow effectively through atmospheric lighting effects. He also beat George Lucas to the punch when it comes to carbon freezing Hans Solo in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK!! A scene that you won't believe till you see it. The lead is played by Auretta Gay whose main claim to fame was swimming topless with a hungry shark and living dead guy nearby (Fulci's ZOMBIE). A word about the score by Fabio Frizzi. It is mainly reused from Lucio Fulci's GATES OF HELL but it's used well here. Lado employs a lot of closeups involving eyes and when you add in the Frizzi score, it gives off a definite Fulci vibe.