The Girl Who Knew Too Much

The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)

La ragazza che sapeva troppo

LOOK... and you cannot look away for everywhere you turn it's there... watching... waiting to strike!

A tourist witnesses a murder and finds herself caught up in a series of bloody killings.

Date of release
1963-02-10
TMDB
6.9 / 10 (199)
Runtime
1h 26m
Genres
Horror, Thriller, Mystery
Director
Mario Bava

Casting

Interesting facts

The Girl Who Knew Too Much is a 1963 Italian giallo film directed by Mario Bava, starring John Saxon as Dr. Marcello Bassi and Letícia Román as Nora Davis. The plot revolves around a young American woman named Nora, who travels to Rome and witnesses a murder. The police and Dr. Bassi do not believe her, since a corpse has not been found. Several more killings follow, tied to a decade-long string of murder victims chosen in alphabetical order.

Production

Prior to working on The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Bava had taken a six-month break after filming the last of the special effects shots for his previous film Erik the Conqueror (1961). Bava spent this extended period reading mystery and horror magazines. He pondered retiring from directing and thought he might only return to work on special effects for film.

The opening credits credit Sergio Corbucci (credited as "Enzo Corbucci"), Ennio De Concini and Eliana de Sabata and the writers of the film, while crediting Bava, Mino Guerrini and Franco Prosperi as collaborators. Italian screenwriter Luigi Cozzi has said that the original script was more of a romantic comedy, but the film became more of a thriller as it went into production.

Letícia Román was cast in The Girl Who Knew Too Much, her first leading role. Román knew actor John Saxon prior to production on the film. Saxon has stated that he was invited by Román to work on the film by asking if he would be interested in an art film in Rome. Saxon agreed, but on receiving the script, he found that he misunderstood her as she said horror film instead.

Film began with tentative title Incubo infuori programma with the planned English title being Incubus.

The Girl Who Knew Too Much began shooting on 2 May 1962. Bava thought the plot was silly, and focused more on the technical aspects of the film. This included shooting the film in black and white, Bava's last film shot in this style. Bava had made earlier films in colour, but films in the horror and thriller genre made in Italy were generally shot in black and white in this period.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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