The Girl Who Knew Too Much movie storyline. The American fan of mystery novels, Nora Davis (Letícia Román), travels from New York to Rome to spend vacation with her mother’s friend Ethel Windell Batocci. On board the airplane, she accepts a pack of cigarettes from the passenger on the next seat and in the airport she finds that the man is a drug dealer. When she arrives at Ethel’s place, she meets Dr. Marcello Bassi and finds that the old lady is on her deathbed.
During the night, Ethel has a heart attack and dies; Nora runs to the hospital to call Marcello. However, she is attacked and robbed on a staircase by a thief and faints. She awakens to witness a woman being stabbed, a man is after her. At the hospital, however, nobody believes her. At Ethel’s funeral, a stranger (Laura Craven-Torrani) introduces herself as a friend of Ethel’s and invites Nora to stay in her apartment while she travels to Switzerland to meet her husband. Nora accepts the invitation and decides to investigate the murder. She believes that the serial-killer of the so called Alphabet Murders is chasing her and she will be the next victim.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (Italian: La Ragazza che Sapeva Troppo) is a 1963 Italian giallo film. Directed by Italian filmmaker Mario Bava, the film stars John Saxon as Dr. Marcello Bassi and Letícia Román as Nora Davis. The plot revolves around a young woman named Nora, who travels to Rome and witnesses a murder. The police and Dr. Bassi don’t believe her since a corpse can’t be found. Several more murders follow, tied to a decade-long string of killings of victims chosen in alphabetical order.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much is considered to be the first giallo film, a film genre with a mixture of thriller, sexploitation and horror conventions. An alternative cut titled Evil Eye was released in the United States by American International Pictures; this version features a score by Les Baxter, deletes several scenes, and adds others which place a greater emphasis on comedy compared to the Italian release.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much was first released on February 10, 1963. The film grossed less than $27,000 on its opening and only weekend and failed to cover its own production cost. The film was the least commercially successful picture in Bava’s directorial career. The giallo films were not popular among the Italian film audiences on its initial theatrical release as the genre never gained popularity in its home country until the release of Dario Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) and The Cat o’ Nine Tails (1971).
The Girl Who Knew Too Much was released by American International Pictures in the United States on May 6, 1964, where it was shown on a double bill with Bava’s Black Sabbath; this release of the film retitled it as Evil Eye. Alterations between the two versions include the deletion of several scenes, including all references to marijuana, the addition of more comical scenes, and Roberto Nicolosi’s jazz score being replaced with one performed by Les Baxter. The two versions also have different endings. When Bava’s films were being released on DVD and Blu-ray, the Evil Eye edit of the film became more difficult to find as Bava’s original Italian version of the film was used. This led to audiences knowing the film under its translated Italian title, The Girl Who Knew Too Much.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much began shooting on May 2, 1962. Director Mario Bava thought the plot was silly, and focused more on the technical aspects of the film. This included shooting the film in black and white, Bava’s last film shot in this style. Bava had made earlier films in color, but films in the horror and thriller genre made in Italy were generally shot in black and white in this period. Location shooting in Rome took place at various locations including the Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport and the Trinità dei Monti. Some set pieces were borrowed from other Italian films, such as the painting in Nora’s aunt’s house, which is from Divorce Italian Style.
Saxon stated that he had initially gotten along with Bava during production. Later Saxon would be practicing judo on the beach which would upset Bava who felt as if Saxon was showing off. Saxon stated that later in a conversation with a producer for the film, that the producer said that Román convinced Saxon to enter the film as she said Saxon was in love with her. Saxon felt that Bava was perhaps initially annoyed at him as he felt his action might have interpreted from Bava as trying to usurp attention from Román. Filming finished in July 1962. Bava biographer Tim Lucas said that some re-shoots were apparently done towards the end of 1962.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)
Directed by: Mario Bava
Starring: Letícia Román, John Saxon, Valentina Cortese, Dante DiPaolo, Titti Tomain, Luigi Bonos, Milo Quesada, Marta Melocco, Adriana Facchetti, Dafydd Havard, Peggy Nathan
Screenplay by: Ennio de Concini, Enzo Corbucci, Eliana de Sabata, Mino Guerrini, Franco Prosperi, Mario Bava
Cinematography by: Mario Bava
Film Editing by: Mario Serandrei
Costume Design by: Tina Grani
Set Decoration by: Luigi D’Andria
Art Direction by: Giorgio Giovannini
Music by: Roberto Nicolosi
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures (Italy)
Release Date: February 10, 1963
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