Knife of Ice (1972)

Interesting facts

Il coltello di ghiaccio is a 1972 giallo film directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Carroll Baker, Evelyn Stewart, and George Rigaud. Both Baker and Stewart featured in several other films helmed by Lenzi. The film follows a mute woman who finds herself in danger when a serial killer begins stalking the Spanish countryside. The title takes its name from a quote attributed to Edgar Allan Poe, in which he refers to fear as a "knife of ice which penetrates the senses down to the depth of conscience"; the quote, however, was a fabrication by the filmmakers.

Production

Baker and director Umberto Lenzi had already collaborated in several films, including 1969's Così dolce... così perversa and Orgasmo, and 1970's Paranoia. After being approached by producers to direct a fourth feature starring Baker, Lenzi sought to write a screenplay featuring a notably different narrative, as the three previous films had largely centered around themes of greed and sexuality.

Lenzi initially considered directing Baker in a remake of the 1946 American horror film The Spiral Staircase—which also follows a mute woman stalked by a killer in a rural country house—but instead chose to write an original screenplay utilizing a similar plot device, but subverting it with a twist ending in which the villain is revealed to be the main character all along.

The film's use of Satanists as initial suspects has been compared to Lucio Fulci's film Don't Torture a Duckling, also released in 1972. Il coltello di ghiaccio features frequent use of close-up shots of characters' eyes, which has also been noted as a "Fulci trademark".

With Baker secured for the lead role of Martha Caldwell, Lenzi cast fellow American actor Alan Scott—who had worked primarily in bit parts in European films—as Dr. Laurent. Lenzi later commented that Scott was "clueless" about acting, and that he struggled directing him, adding: "I had to [instead] focus on Carroll, who knew how to act, and she was great at it." Established Spanish actor Eduardo Fajardo was cast as Martha's chauffeur, Marcos.

Principal photography of Il coltello di ghiaccio largely took place in Montseny in the Catalonia region of Spain. Because of the high altitude and frequent winds, the filming of sequences in the fog-filled streets proved difficult to shoot, as the wind carried away the fog produced by a fog machine.

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