Shadows in an Empty Room {aka Blazing Magnum} (1976)
It is wild and it never slows down
I love Italian cult movies. Whether they’re poliziotteschi, gialli, spaghetti westerns, or sex comedies, they are so offbeat and stylish that I can’t get enough of them, and Shadows in an Empty Room (aka Blazing Magnum) is a great example of why.
Filmed in Ottawa, this Alberto De Martino cult classic may not look like a typical poliziotteschi film but it has all the tropes of one. The new setting gives it some freshness as I don’t recall seeing any other Italian films of this era filmed in Ontario. You still get the bank robbery that open so many of these films and you get right off with a car chase as badass cop Stuart Whitman is speeding down the streets chasing the bad guys while the dispatcher is trying to reach him about a personal phone call from his sister. Martin Laundau receives a late night phone call about an emergency on the college campus where he works. He rushes off to find out he’s been pranked, but soon enough Whitman’s sister, a student with whom he’s been having an affair, collapses. He administers some medicine but before long she’s dead. The autopsy reveals she was poisoned, and it’s up to Whitman and his partner (JOHN SAXON!!) to find the killer as the bodies begin to pile up to cover up what’s been happening.
Shadows in an Empty Room is unrelenting, switching from feeling like a police thriller to a giallo at a moment’s notice, and it never slows down during its 100 minute run time. Like most Italian films of the time, it has an excellent score that helps build the suspense. Whitman is great to watch as he unravels alongside the mystery, slowly discovering his sister isn’t the angelic young woman he thought her to be. The kills are very giallo inspired, with a black gloved killer stalking around eliminating key witnesses, and we even get Tisa Farrow (probably best known for Lucio Fulci’s Zombie) as a blind co-ed that was close to Whitman’s sister. There’s a phenomenal 10 minute car chase scene Whitman goes after a criminal through the streets of Ottawa. It’s not the tight alleys of Italy like in the Lenzi films, but it’s just as thrilling.
It is wild and it never slows down. I can’t say too much more without spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that.