Death Walks at Midnight

La morte accarezza a mezzanotte (Death Walks at Midnight[1]) is a 1972 giallo film directed by Luciano Ercoli and written by Ernesto Gastaldi, Guido Leoni, Mahnahén Velasco and Mannuel Velasco. It stars Susan Scott, Simón Andreu, Peter Martell, Claudie Lange and Carlo Gentili.

Fashion model Valentina agrees to help her journalist boyfriend Gio Baldi research the effects of LSD. While under the influence of the drug, Valentina sees a man bludgeon a woman to death with a spiked gauntlet. Baldi publishes a report of her hallucinations; however, Valentina believes what she has seen is real. She begins to realise that the killer is stalking her, although neither Baldi nor the police will believe what she tells them.

La morte accarezza a mezzanotte marks the third collaboration between director Luciano Ercoli and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, who had previously worked together on 1971's La morte cammina con i tacchi alti and 1970's Le foto proibite di una signora per bene.[2] Ercoli's wife Nieves Navarro, credited here as Susan Scott, featured in several of his other films, often in similar roles as "tough, independent" women.[3] The director's preference for this type of character has been noted as being inspired by fumetti, a form of Italian photonovel often featuring such roles.[4]

La morte accarezza a mezzanotte was released in Italy on 17 November 1972.[5] It was released under that title in English by NoShame Films as part of a box set with La morte cammina con i tacchi alti, titled Luciano Ercoli's Death Box Set.[6] It has also been distributed under the title Muerte acaricia a medianoche,[7] and Cry Out in Terror.[8]

Writing for AllMovie, Robert Firsching gave the film one star out of five, calling it "laughably camp fun".[5] Writing for DVD Talk, Stuart Galbraith described the film as having "an exciting knock-down, drag-out climax". Reviewing the film alongside La morte cammina con i tachi alti, Galbraith felt that La morte accarezza a mezzanotte had "a stronger, less-predictable screenplay [and] a bit more visual flair" than its companion film; he ultimately rated both films together three-and-a-half stars out of five.[6] A retrospective of Gastaldi's films by the Italian magazine Nocturno described it as "flow[ing] smoothly and with some good jolts", highlighting Scott's screen presence as the film's main strength.[nb 1][9]