SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Italian director Umberto Lenzi dispatches with his usual decadence and debauchery for an Agatha Christie-styled whodunit set in the Spanish countryside. Carroll Baker (in her fourth teaming with Lenzi) plays a terrified woman--rendered mute since childhood after witnessing the death of her parents--who may be the next target of a sex maniac/devil worshiper stalking the area. Suspects include a snippy maid, a creepy chauffeur, an uncle who collects books on the occult, and a bachelor doctor with a cheerless manner. Well-made if derivative and poorly-dubbed thriller shows a hike in budget for Lenzi, who also co-authored the screenplay. Though the picture offers no let-up from the standard woman-in-distress clichés (footsteps in the fog, thunder and rain causing a power outage), at least it provides Baker with a fairly chaste role. The once-acclaimed actress had fallen on hard times in the 1970s, and appearing in Lenzi's twisted sex-fantasies provided a financial life raft. Here, Baker is demurely-attired, and it must have been a relief for her to stay covered-up throughout. With very few lines of dialogue, she does the only real acting in the film. *1/2 from ****

This movie is a mess. Pretentious. Overly slow. Poorly acted. And boring beyond belief.The plotAs a thirteen year old, Martha Caldwell witnessed the death of her parents in a terrible railway accident. Barely surviving the tragedy herself, Martha was struck dumb due to the shock. Now an adult, the still mute Martha lives with her uncle Ralph in the Spanish countryside. Martha's cousin Jenny arrives to be with the family but is quickly stabbed to death. It appears that a sex maniac is roaming the countryside; killing pretty young girls. The already traumatized Martha seems likely to be the next victim but the case turns out to be far more complicated than it would first seem.

The great Umberto Lenzi is undeniably one of the most versatile and multi-talented Italian genre directors, having contributed to almost all (sub-)genres of Italian cult-cinema. While he is probably best-known for his notoriously brutal Cannibal movies MANGIATI VIVI (EATEN ALIVE BY THE CANNIBALS, 1980) and CANNIBAL FEROX (MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY, 1981), his greatest films (in my opinion) are those from the 70s. For my money, Lenzi's greatest films are his Poliziotteschi, above all the gritty and brutal masterpiece MILANO ODIA - LA POLIZIA NON PUÒ SPARARE (ALMOST HUMAN, 1974), followed by his Gialli, most notably the great and incredibly elegant SETTE ORCHIDEE MACCHIATE DI ROSSO (SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS, 1972). While Lenzi's films have the just reputation of being among the grittiest and most uncompromisingly violent ones in Italian cult-cinema, this is not necessarily true for his Gialli. The great Giallo-genre is generally a violent, sleazy and often sexist one, and while Lenzi's genre-contributions do employ sleaze and violence, they are comparatively tame withing the Giallo genre. Especially this IL COLTELLO DI GIACCHIO aka. KNIFE OF ICE (1972) is a convoluted and plot-based Giallo which is practically sleaze-less and rather low on brutality.Caroll Baker, the star of Lenzi's early Gialli ORGASMO (1969) and PARANOIA (1970) plays Martha, a woman who was traumatized and left mute after witnessing the death of her parents at age thirteen. She lives with her uncle in a mansion in the Spanish countryside when her cousin is stabbed to death by a maniacal killer. What first appears to be the deed of a sex-maniac turns out to become a series of attacks with everybody involved being a possible suspect/victim...1972 was probably THE golden year for the Giallo-genre with several of the greatest genre-masterpieces being released (e.g. Sergio Martino's IL TUO VIZIO È UNA STANZA CHIUSA E SOLO IO NÈ HO LA CHIAVE, Lucio Fulci's NON SI SEVIZIA UN PAPERINO, Massimo Dallamano's COSA AVETE FATTO A SOLANGE?, Emilio Miraglia's LA DAMA ROSSA UCCIDE SETTE VOLTE, etc). While KNIFE OF ICE is not one of the absolute highlights of this great year of the Giallo, it is a good and very suspenseful one. As usual for the genre, the film is elegantly filmed and supported by a good (though not exceptional) score. The film has a gloomy atmosphere, and many the protagonists are likable, which makes the easy to root for. The fact that most of the murders are off-screen is one of the major letdown, especially for fans of the Giallo-typical elegantly gory murders. This is one of several Gialli that touch the subject of Satanism, even though it isn't as important as in some others (such as Sergio Martino's TUTTI I COLORI DEL BUIO). Caroll Baker is good in her role, as are most of the other actors. Overall, this isn't one of my favorite films from Lenzi, but it is a more than decent Giallo that my fellow fans of the Genre shouldn't miss.

I agree that "Knife of Ice" is one of director Umberto Lenzi's classier movies, but I didn't find it one of his more interesting ones (it's certainly one of his least sexy). The mystery is well conceived, the editing well done, and Carroll Baker turns in a good performance, no doubt aided by the fact that since her character is a mute she's spared the stilted post dubbing suffered by the other actors. But the pacing is a bit sluggish and some of the devil worship symbols laughable (dig the cartoon goat head "medallion" found by the police). Personally, I found other Lenzi-Baker thrillers like "Paranoia" (a.k.a. "Orgasmo") and "A Quiet Place to Kill" (a.k.a. "Paranoia"--confused yet?) a lot more hopping. Guess I prefer my giallos on the trashy side. Still, for fans of the genre, "Knife of Ice" is worth a look.