DOUBLE FACE

 

DOUBLE FACE is a 1969 Italian-West German co-production, a mystery thriller also known as A DOPPIA FACCIA and DAS GESICHT IM DUNKLEN. The movie was promoted as an Edgar Wallace Krimi in Germany, and it is listed as an official part of the Rialto Krimi series in a few sources, although it has nothing to do with anything Wallace wrote. 

Klaus Kinski stars as John Alexander, a well-to-do English businessman whose marriage to wife Helen (Margaret Lee) is on the rocks. Helen goes off on a trip by herself, but her car is destroyed in an explosion. Devastated by his wife's death, John takes a much-needed vacation. Upon his return, Alexander is bedeviled by a young woman named Christine (Christine Kruger), who shows him an adult film she appears in. John is convinced that the other woman in the stag reel is his wife, and as he tries to find out the truth behind what really happened to Helen, he deals with a set of weird occurrences and characters. 

DOUBLE FACE was directed by Riccardo Freda (THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK), and one of its many credited writers was Lucio Fulci. This is one of the reasons why the movie is a favorite of a number of Euro Cult experts. DOUBLE FACE has plenty of Hitchcock-style elements to it, and it is also regarded as a giallo story, despite the fact that it doesn't feature any stylized gory murders. The film even has some Italian Gothic aspects to it (at one point Klaus Kinski roams around his empty house holding a candelabra). 

John Alexander is an unusual role for Klaus Kinski. Alexander is a nattily-dressed member of the upper class (Kinski probably never had a better wardrobe selection onscreen than he did here), and he's trying to solve a desperate situation instead of causing one. Alexander is still considered a major suspect in his wife's death (this is Klaus Kinski we're dealing with, after all), and there's a suggestion that everything the man is experiencing is all part of some dream or nightmare. Much of the film consists of Kinski wandering around and looking pensive, and the viewer is as frustrated as his character, due to a confusing narrative. 

Riccardo Freda does inject a sense of jet-set European decadence, although one never believes for a second that this story takes place in England, despite the many insert shots of downtown London. At one point Kinski finds himself in the middle of a Swinging London style rave that isn't all that swinging, and goes on for so long that it appears to have been an attempt to pad out the running time. 

As in most European genre productions made around this time, DOUBLE FACE is filled with gorgeous women: Margaret Lee, Christine Kruger, Annabella Incontrera, and Barbara Nelli. All these ladies also go topless at one point during the story. This certainly kept my attention, but the film's pace drags at times, and from my perspective the final explanation for all the goings-on is way too simple. 

I viewed DOUBLE FACE on the Tubi streaming channel, and it was an uncut, colorful and sharp widescreen presentation. This version had an English voice dub, with English title credits (Riccardo Freda is listed under his "Robert Hampton" moniker). Once again Klaus Kinski is given a voice that doesn't match up to his attitude and style. 

DOUBLE FACE will be of interest to fans of Euro Cult cinema, but I felt it wasn't one of the better entries in that genre.