Death Will Have Your Eyes!

In 1973 Marisa Mell worked in Almeria (Spain) on the movie "La Moglie Giovane", or better known in English as "Death Will Have Your Eyes" or even "Savage City" with co-stars among others Francesco Rabal and Helga Liné under the guidance of director Giovanni d'Eramo, which was his second and last movie! Again this movie is not a highlight on the filmography of Marisa Mell and one often wonders how on Earth is it possible to choose so many bad movies in one's career as Marisa Mell has done! Sigh! This movie was long time regarded as a lost Marisa Mell movie but last year it was released on the MYA label from a very worn out VHS tape transfer with a very grainy picture quality. The picture for this entry is another behind the scene photo of Marisa Mell relaxing between takes with her co-star Francesco Rabal. This picture has hardly ever been seen since 1973. From the looks of it they enjoyed each other very much and had a good time making this movie! BTW this is one of very few pictures of Marisa Mell where you can see her complete set of teeth in a broad open not staged spontaneous smile. Most pictures of her are with a closed mouth! I always wondered why that is!

"Death Will Have Your Eyes!" Reprise

Death Will Have Your Eyes!

On March 22nd 2011, the Italian based DVD company "Mya Communications" will release one of the rarest and much sought after giallo's from the golden age of this still much loved movie genre. The English title of the movie is "Death Will Have Your Eyes" but to fans of the genre it is better known under the Italian title "La Moglie Giovane" or in Spanish "Infamia". Untill now this movie was only available on DVD as a bootleg copy from a dark and grainy video print in Italian language without subtitles. This print is in Italian with English subtitles if wanted. Mya Communications has to be applauded for giving us in the past years access so many rare out-of-print Italian genre movies. The only problem with this company's (re-)issue of movies is that a) often announced releases get postponed or never published; b) you will never know in advance what the quality will be of the print or what kind of master was used to transfer the movie to DVD and c) if the movie is cut or uncut. So it remains to be seen when the DVD is issued in a few weeks what the quality will be of this print. I hope not that they used the video master of the previous mentioned bootleg because that would be very sad to giallo and Marisa Mell fans who deserve better for a first official release ever of this rare movie. The movie is an Italo-Spanish production from 1974 directed by Giovanni d'Eramo with Marisa Mell, Farley Granger and Helga Liné in the main parts. Music is by one Italy's best composers Stelvio Cipriani so that is also a plus. Marisa Mell plays a young women named "Louisa" who wants to make a living for herself in Rome, but soon falls prey to some very shady characters that force her into prostitution. While struggling to keep herself afloat, she meets a fascinating doctor played by Farley Granger who is also a would-be poet. When Louisa gets involved in murder, blackmail and violence ensue, untill the shocking final relevation. There are no bonus items like interviews or behind the scene footage except the standard trailer and a poster gallery. The cover of this DVD has nothing to do with this movie but was taken from another Marisa Mell movie called" Masquerade" from 1965 showing us an eleven years young Marisa Mell while in this released movie she was already 35 years old. The cover picture was selected by Mya Productions because it is one of the best pictures of Marisa Mell highlighting her beauftiful eyes in reference to the English title and Spanish poster of this movie!

The Eyes of ...

Marisa Mell was known in the movie industry as "...the women with the most beautiful emerald green eyes in the world...". Almost everyone who saw them, looked into them, fell in love with them. Since her early childhood, people were attracked to those eyes and commented on them. She grew used to it that this happened, but she was also smart enough to use them into her advantage to propel her appeal and career by charcoaling them heavily. Although it was high fashion to do this in the 60's, Marisa Mell did it untill the end of her life knowing that her eyes would keep their appeal untill the very end, no matter what happened.

Having green eyes against the world population is rare but having emerald green eyes is even rarer. The problem with emerald green eyes, as with a lot of other rare eye colors like a heavenly blue à la Paul Newman, is to catch their beauty in a picture or on film. Like real color gems they need the best light to give back their stunning beauty. Normal day light or artificial light is often not enough and you get some kind of color that is only a 10th of their real power and beauty. The angle of lighting needs to be in a perfect angle to be reflexed by the iris in the eye. So it is very difficult to find a photo of Marisa Mell on the cover where you can admire those emerald eyes. One of the rare exceptions is this German language magazine "Revue" from the beginning of the '60's. Here you can see how beautiful and intense they were. The photographer did a hell of a good job to catch those beauties in a time before computer enhancement and manipulation. This is nature at it's best.

For the poster of the movie "Infamia" from 1974 or in it's original title "La Moglie Giovane", her eyes were used as the central piece to attrack an audience to this movie.