Formula for a Murder
Formula for a Murder is a 1985 Italian giallo film co-written and directed by Alberto De Martino.
The film was shot in Boston and Italy, and was one of the last films directed by De Martino. When it was released in Italy, it war marketed as a more traditional horror film, while retrospective analysis compared it to 1960s thrillers such as Taste of Fear.
Plot
A handsome teacher named Craig marries a wealthy, wheelchair-using woman named Joanna who suffers from PTSD and is tormented by a traumatic event that happened in her past. As a child, she was raped by a psychotic priest and thrown down a flight of stairs. The priest used a doll to lure her to the crime scene.Her attractive female caretaker Ruth has a lesbian attraction to her and tries to stop the marriage. As if Joanna doesn't have enough problems, her husband only married her to steal her money. He is trying to stop her from donating one-half of her wealth to a church project to which her deceased father committed her while upon his deathbed.
One by one, priests start turning up dead, as the murder plot unfolds. One priest has his throat cut while in a confession booth, another has his head bashed in with a heavy blunt object. Joanna's doctor warns her that she has a bad heart and that she shouldn't allow herself to get overly agitated nor too aroused during sex. Joanna begins to experience hallucinations in which she sees a leering priest stalking her while holding a bloody doll in his hands.
Cast
- David Warbeck as Craig
- Christina Nagy as Joanna
- Carroll Blumenberg as Ruth
- Rossano Brazzi as Doctor Sernich
- Andrea Bosic as Father Peter Farlow
- as Father Davis
- Daniela De Carolis
- Rodolfo Ruzza
- Adriana Giuffrè
Production
Formula for a Murder was filmed under the title Formula per un delitto. It was shot in Boston with interiors scenes done in Italy. Director Alberto De Martino stated he initially wanted to cast two young Italian actors: Valeria Golino and Nancy Brilli, but his casting choices were rejected by producer Fabrizio De Angelis. Both were replaced with American actors while the Golino and Brilli went on to have prominent careers in Italy.De Martino described the film as his own variation on the film The Postman Always Rings Twice. Historians and critics Adrian Luther-Smith and Roberto Curti both pointed out that the film closer resembled the Hammer production Taste of Fear more. Historian Troy Howarth echoed this statement saying that the film "harkens back to the "women in peril" thrillers of the 1960s" and "does not enter into the excessive spirit of the other gialli of the period." The film was one of De Martino's final productions, as he retired from directing in the mid-1980s.