Death Has Blue Eyes

Movies don’t get much more scattershot than writer / director Nico Mastorakis’ Death Has Blue Eyes (1976), a title which suggests a giallo-tinged thriller, but actually delivers soft-core sex, cornball comedy and a telekinetic heroine who can make people spontaneously combust or prematurely ejaculate with equal skill.  It’s a quite a gift.


Dashing Vietnam vet Robert Kowalski and his best friend – gigolo, karate-master Ches Gilford – become embroiled in a international sting to capture a mother-daughter duo, Christine and Geraldine Steinwetz, who were witness to a political assassination.  Taking on the job to protect them, our heroes can’t help but notice Christine’s ability to read minds and control people at will, an ability that makes her both the hunter and the hunted in this game populated by covert agents and intrigue.   A series of car chases, shootouts and uncomfortable threesomes lead toward climax that’s surprising in more ways than one.

 

The less you know about Death Has Blue Eyes the better.  Of course, it takes a certain kind of film fan brave enough to sit through the first painful half-hour of Monkees-inspired sexual escapades.  But when you get there, Mastorakis stumbles into some innovations that are truly ahead of their time: the telekinetic mentor-student relationship is a legit precursor to Brian De Palma’s The Fury and there are more ridiculous excuses to take women’s clothes off than in the entirety of Boogie Nights.  The shifts in tone are dramatic and so is the editorial continuity.  But despite those glaring flaws it’s a film that will do anything to keep your eyes glued to the screen; exactly the kind of gonzo free-for-all exploitation fans will find hard to resist.

 

Arrow Video continues their line-up of terrific new Mastorakis restorations with both a widescreen and full-screen version of the film, interviews with Mastorakis and actress Maria Aliferi, tracks from the original soundtrack, trailers, an image gallery and collector’s booklet.

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