cult film freak: SUE LYON IN 'TAROT' AKA 'THE MAGICIAN' WITH FERNANDO REY

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…

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.

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!