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Sue Lyon in TAROT aka AUTOPSY aka GAME OF MURDER from 1973 |
Fernando Rey, the suave actor best
known for THE FRENCH CONNECTION as the resilient drug lord taking a
busman’s holiday in New York City, gets mixed up with LOLITA herself,
Sue Lyon, who, over a decade since her star-making
role in the Stanley Kubrick classic, had a sexy weathered look with
cheap blue eyeliner, glazed/glossy eyes and a personal penchant for dirt
bikes...
Albeit completely befitting a dusty
exploitation from Spain titled TAROT, also known as THE MAGICIAN, ANGELA
or AUTOPSY... you choose... Beginning with a semi-psychedelic opening
credit sequence related to the film’s title: a collage of those spooky
cards, including Death on a Horse, than can foresee the future no matter
how bleak…
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Sue Lyon in TAROT aka AUTOPSY aka ANGELA |
Enter
Lyon’s vulnerable, naïve yet world-weary Angela as a Tarot card reader
and, partnered with a handsomely lean and vile, panther-like con artist
Marc (Christian Hay). She marries Rey’s blind
millionaire Arthur, residing in a plush villa and he’s more demanding
than a… rich guy with a trophy wife.
Much of TAROT
plays out like a, well, really low budget foreign film shot on a
shoe-string budget with pulpy dialogue obviously looped, faintly heard
behind soap opera soundtrack. Yet the Spanish locations are beautiful,
especially the mansion with a swimming pool at the base of a sublime
stone staircase.
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Sue Lyon in TAROT aka Erica... un soffio di perversa sessualità SCORE: *** |
Scenes
between Rey and Lyon far exceed those where the heroine is manipulated
by her gold digging/ever-plotting lover. And a few decent twists occur
sporadically, making this a tad better than most Neo Noir imports… Arthur’s
poker-faced maid is, right from the start, wary and suspicious,
sticking to the young couple like gum on a school desk...
The
suspense relies on how long the whiny millionaire will live before
someone, anyone, takes him to the other side... But what makes this
truly watchable is genuine Noir starlet Gloria Grahame as a long-suffering maid and of course, Lyon herself, the iconic blonde temptress wearing
close to nothing while, of all things, seducing a blind man... Now
that's impressive!
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Sue Lyon in TAROT aka AUTOPSY aka MACCHIE SOL |
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Sue Lyon in TAROT aka AUTOPSY aka Les cartes ne mentent jamais w/ Fernando Rey |
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Sue Lyon in TAROT aka AUTOPSY aka Der Teufel mischt die Karten aka TAROTS |
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Sue Lyon in TAROT aka AUTOPSY aka MACCHIE SOL |
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Sue Lyon in TAROT aka AUTOPSY aka MACCHIE SOL |
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Sue Lyon in TAROT aka AUTOPSY aka MACCHIE SOL |
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Sue Lyon in TAROT aka AUTOPSY aka MACCHIE SOL |
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Sue Lyon in TAROT aka AUTOPSY aka MACCHIE SOL |
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