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Zarte Haut in Schwarzer Seide
Daniella by Night
De quoi Tu te Mêles, Daniela / Daniela, Criminal Strip-Tease
West Germany/France 1961
produced by Leopold Branona for Pandora Film, Contact Organisation P.I.P.
directed by Max Pécas
starring Elke Sommer, Ivan Desny, Helmut Schmid, Danik Patisson, René Dary, Claire Maurier, Käthe Haack, Romana Rombach, Sandrine, Brigitte Banz, Francoise Alban, Jean-Louis Boucher, Albert Dinan, André Dumas, Paulette Frantz, Richard Saint-Bris, Pierre Sylvestre, Roger Trécan, France Lonbard, Rudy Lenoir, Eddy Mitchell
screenplay by Grisha Dabat, Wolfgang Steinhardt, based on the novel by Walter Ebert, music by Charles Aznavour, cinematography by André Germain
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Daniela (Elke Sommer) travels to Rome to take up over modelling job at
Count Castellani (Ivan Desny) fashion house from a girl who has just been
murdered, and soon enough she realizes that Castellani really likes her -
and so does a reporter, Karl Bauer (Helmut Schmid), by the way.
At first she doesn't really know how to react to Castellani's advances,
but before she knows it, she is thrown into an affair that involves murder
- none other than Esmeralda (Claire Maurier), Castellani's former lover,
is killed -, blackmail - it seems Castellani has a micro film nighclub
owner Lanzac (René Dary) desperately wants to get his hands on - and
intrigue ... and before she knows it, Lanzac has stolen the micro film and
Daniela finds herself in one of his nightclubs retrieving it, and being
forcefully stripped (nothing too revealing though, her underwear remains
on) in front of an audience in the process - however, she manages to keep
the micro film on her body and escape Lanzac's clutches.
Later, Lanzac and Castellani meet again in Rome, where Lanzac finally
offers Castellani enough money for the microfilm ... and once again,
Daniela has a role in the handing over - but Lanzac doesn't play fair, and
soon enough he has murdered Castellani and prepares to kill Daniela too,
when ...
Enter Karl Bauer, who is now revealed not to be a run-down reporter at
all but an Interpol agent who has long been on the trail of Castellani and
Lanzac, and who finally saves Daniela from all the evil that has happened
to her, and the two become a couple.
This movie is beautifully filmed, competently directed and features a
swell jazzy score by Charles Aznavour - yet it totally fails to impress.
The reason for this is the totally flat, old-fashioned (even for its time)
and not really thought-through script that seems to be content with
showing a haphazard succession of genre clichés without ever taking into
account such crucial elements as characterisation of even its lead
characters or at least stringent narration.
Simply a big diappointment.
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