Murder in the black Cadillac

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Movie
German title Murder in the black Cadillac / excess
Original title Femmine insaziabili
Country of production Italy , Germany
original language English
Publishing year 1969
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Alberto De Martino
script Lianella Carell
Alberto De Martino
Vincenzo Flamini
Carlo Romano
production Hans Pflüger
Edmondo Amati
Piero Lazzari
music Bruno Nicolai
camera Sergio D'Offizi
cut Otello Colangeli
occupation

Murder in the Black Cadillac is an Italian-German thriller filmed mainly in California in the winter of 1968/69 with a European-American cast in the lead roles: Dorothy Malone , Robert Hoffmann , Luciana Paluzzi , Frank Wolff , John Ireland and Roger Fritz as a cunning villain and the very young Romina Power as a very rich, depraved Hollywood teenager.

action

Michael is (in the German version) a German (in the Italian version as Paolo Sartori an Italian) journalist who has only been working in Los Angeles for an American newspaper for two weeks. He is lying dressed on the bed with a severe alcohol-related headache when he receives unexpected and uninvited visits from two guys. They break into his room and beat Michael as soft as a diaper. In between, the thugs keep asking him whether he is "Lambert, the Smile" or where he is. Michael cannot know that this is his old friend Dieter Lambert (in the Italian verse: Giulio Lamberti). Michael stays behind, his face dipped in his own vomit, badly damaged because he does not know Dieter's whereabouts, which he has not seen for years. When the two gorillas have disappeared again, that very Lambert suddenly appears on his terrace. Lambert pays his old buddy $ 1,000 in damages for the hardships he has suffered and tells Michael the background that led to this act of violence: A few years ago he received a very lucrative offer from a powerful international corporation called International Chemical to become its advertising face. Soon Lambert's face with the big sunnyboy smile became the visual figurehead for the company's public campaigns and earned him the nickname "Lambert, the Smile".

Gradually, however, he discovered the dark machinations of the top management, and since then, killers have been hounded on him in order to silence him forever. Dieter now asks his old friend from Germany for his journalistic assistance. He told Michael that he had recorded his explosive findings in three diaries and was planning to officially hand it over to him coram publico in the presence of numerous media representatives as his life insurance. Michael made it clear to his newspaper boss Walter Salinger that he was about to land a huge story, but Salinger remained skeptical until the following day. Because the next day the announced handover will no longer take place. Michael drives to the agreed spot where the police have already arrived. Here they explain to him that Lambert had had a fatal accident with his sports car shortly before - and that on a largely empty, dead straight, four-lane highway. If Michael had doubts about Lambert's statements by then, he is now firmly convinced that his old buddy was murdered. There is some evidence that the two thugs who beat Michael at the beginning of the story acted on behalf of the chemical giant. He is now trying to find out on his own who could have promoted his friend to the afterlife. To do this, he needs the help of editor-in-chief Salinger. He brings him together with the decision makers in International Chemical during the funeral service.

There is, for example, Vanessa Brighton, the widow of the once all-powerful company founder, the opaque and tough company boss Frank Donovan, Dieter's private secretary Mary, the slightly gray self-made man Fletcher and the siblings Danny Murphy and Claire van Berg. Michael is certain that the order to murder Dieter must come from the boardroom of this economic giant. Dieter's widow Gisela (in the Italian verse: Luisa Lamberti) helps him with his research as best she can. But Michael's findings quickly reveal the unpleasant side of Dieter: The once politically and socially committed friend of days together in Germany has become a rather selfish, greedy and unscrupulous guy in the capitalism paradise of California, who agrees with his ruthless behavior quickly spoiled his social environment. In addition, Dieter used his knowledge against many a company's board of directors to put them under pressure or even to blackmail them, it is rumored. The danger situation comes to a head when, surprisingly, Michael’s boss Salinger, who wanted to meet with a certain Bill Steiner on this matter, dies. Michael is now meticulously trying to screen everyone who is possible for the two alleged murders. Vanessa Brighton, the filthy rich widow with heavy eyelids, as well as her sly and spoiled teenage daughter Gloria, a revealing hippie slut. She uses her Lolita sex appeal to drive the guys insane; once to Dieter, now also to Michael.

These women, like the red-haired Mary Sullivan or Claire van Berg, are “insatiable women” (as the Italian title suggests sensationally), especially in sexual terms. All of them, women and men, have one thing in common: that in the face of money and power, fame and the prospect of sex free from conventions, they have lost their standards, their moral compass. Michael finds out through Mary that the board of directors has approved the payment of a million dollars. This money is to be paid out to a blackmailer who claims to be in possession of Lambert's tying papers. Michael threatens to get sucked into this multimillion-dollar world of illusions and is drawn into an exuberant orgy in the house of the main shareholder Vanessa by the funky Gloria. But this proximity to danger apparently finally brings the German journalists closer to their goal: He learns that Gloria's mother had an affair with Dieter and almost fell into bondage with the much younger man. The measure was full when Dieter unabashedly slipped from his mother's arms into the lascivious daughter's bed. But is this really the reason for a murder assignment?

Michael is closer to the truth than ever before when he, too, is obviously put on the National Chemical Corporation's death list. From now on he has to fear for his life like Dieter Lambert once did. When things finally come to a head, the story takes a completely unexpected turn. Michael no longer believes he can believe his eyes: Dieter stands alive in front of him! He had only faked his own death in order to rip off the company and to take revenge in advance for the misery he had suffered in the form of his pending dismissal. Even more than the one million dollars extorted, he wanted to expose the obvious abyss of amorality at International Chemical, to which he has long since fallen victim to himself. Dieter now wants to eliminate Michael as his only confidante, in order to be able to disappear forever undetected. Dieter falls from a high roof and dies. Michael, however, has long been infected by Dieter's addiction to fame and money and accepts Vanessa Brighton's offer to be his successor at International Chemical.

Production notes

The shooting of Murder in the Black Cadillac , also under the title Excess (new spelling: Excess), began on December 2, 1968 and ended in February of the following year. Most of the shooting took place in the United States and Rome. The premiere took place in Italy on August 14, 1969, the German premiere almost a year later, on August 13, 1970.

synchronization

role actor Voice actor
Michael / Paolo Satori Robert Hoffmann he himself
Vanessa Brighton Dorothy Malone Tilly Lauenstein
Walter Salinger John Ireland Wolf Ackva
Frank Donovan Frank Wolff Herbert Weicker
Dieter Lambert / Giulio Lamberti Roger Fritz Erik Schumann

criticism

In the lexicon of the international film it says: “Moderately interesting crime story, which gambled away its time-critical claim with an undifferentiated drawing of relationships and characters.” The Protestant film observer arrives at a similar assessment : “Routine 'entertainment' crime thriller with tension, sex and likeable performers, but without any informational or expressive value, without any artistic commitment. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Murder in a black Cadillac. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 8, 2015 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ Evangelical Press Association Munich, Review No. 404/1970

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