As long as we’re on Italy today we might as well highlight this Renato Casaro poster for the giallo flick Le foto proibite di una signora per bene, aka The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion. We’ve dubbed the pose you see here the alpha, for both its theme of dominance and the A shape made by the legs of the foreground figure. Typically the figure is male, but not always. We put together a collection of paperbacks using this pose while ago.
In the film a bored housewife played by Dagmar Lassander is convinced by a sadistic stranger that her husband is a killer. In her desperation to protect her spouse she’s manipulated into the stranger’s bed, which results in him having explicit photographs with which to blackmail her. When Dagmar finally tells her husband and the police what’s happening the evidence disappears, which makes Dagmar look mentally unstable. This seems to have been the plan all along, but who’s behind it? Is the stranger working alone? Is Dagmar’s husband or best friend involved?
With its leisurely pace and unconvoluted plot, the film lacks some giallo characteristics, but it’s officially considered part of the genre. Because of its relative simplicity it avoids serious logical missteps, which is a worthy achievement considering how wacky these movies get. But while it’s sure handed and reasonably entertaining, you can expend ninety minutes of life in better ways, which is why we don’t recommend this except for giallo completists. Le foto proibite di una signora per bene premiered in Italy today in 1970.
