“I have enough money to do any stupid thing that comes to my mind.”

An early jet set gialli in the vein of The Sweet Body of Deborah. The wealthy, married, middle-upper class looking for an even larger piece of the pie, willing to do anything, no matter how ridiculous or far-fetched, to get it. For the late 60s, it was a very modern murder story: hippie photographers, Corvette driving Americans, fingerprint matching machines, and messages sent via Telex that deliver crucial information in the knick of time.

“Fulci’s first classic,” in the words of Stephen Thrower. Also, his first giallo and his first film shot outside of Italy. Four years after Bava defined the style, Fulci was less interested in the colorful murder set pieces, and more in creating an elaborate web of deceit in which to trap Jean Sorel. The oft-comparison to Vertigo is understandable, both films deal with the deception of appearances and a San Francisco locale, but the similarities mostly end there. The bigger influence seems to be two recent headline grabbing court cases, that of Caryl Chessman, who fought and stalled for years while sitting on death row, and the trial of ​​Giovanni Fenaroli, who hired a hitman to murder his wife for the insurance money while he was out of the country (turns out that murdering your wife doesn’t mean you can’t be arrested for plotting to successfully murder your wife).

Elements of both these cases can be seen in One on Top of the Other, especially in the film’s back half, which leans heavy on the police procedure of exhumed corpses, dental records, interrogation of servants, and last minute phone calls before the lever is pulled. There’s an almost macabre, documentarian style to the way the camera moves around the very real San Quentin State Prison and the stark, morbid gas chamber. As seen in the emphasis given to it in the movie’s trailer, the unparalleled access to these locations was a huge selling point for the film.

But I understand I haven’t properly sold this film to modern audiences who aren’t exactly dying to watch a near-bloodless giallo about a husband falsely convicted of murder. Let me start over: rakish Jean Sorel has never looked cooler trying to look cool than when he’s smoking a cigarette half through his teeth while driving in the pouring rain. And composer Riz Ortolani has never sounded so plaintive as when he’s soundtracking the slow approach to a dead body lying in state (or a sex scene shot from under a thin red muslin sheet).

Sorel has a reputation for a reserved and overly laconic acting style. But contrast the cocky asshole bragging about planting “fake news” heart transplant stories to boost notoriety for his medical clinic, with the sad, broken man being read his last rites while getting prepped for the gas chamber. There’s a sad fatalism to Sorel’s character, everything happens to him. And in the end, his rescue from state sponsored death comes not from anything he, or even his hired lawyers do, but from deus ex lovesick client with a gun. Even though George (Sorel) lives, we never actually see him escape the prison gates, we only hear of his exoneration second hand from a TV news anchor. It’s incredibly emasculating. Fulci essentially throws the formulaic male-hero trope back in our face.

All the hyper-stylized camera tricks and gorgeous photography by Alejandro Ulloa (The Diabolical Dr. Z) in the first half of the film fade away into this grim and austere finale about Fulci’s favorite topic: inescapable fate. Come for Marisa Mell riding a phallic motorcycle at a rope swing and balloon bouncing titty bar; stay for the near fatal glimpse of death.

A few select quotes from interviews with Sorel and Martinelli included on the Mondo Macabro disc’s Bonus Features:

Jean Sorel: “Us Frenchies headed to Italy like wild animals because we realized it was our meal ticket.” On Fulci: “A shit-stirrer, a joker. He gave everyone these dreadful nicknames….He was messy but talented.”

Elsa Martinelli: “I hate horror films.” On Fulci: “crazy, but charming and smart.”

Credit to Nathan and Mondo Digital for all the screen captures.