A Hyena in the Safe
- Year: 1968
- Country of origin: Italy
- Genre: Crime, Drama
- Director: Cesare Canevari
- Length: 100 min
Film Synopsis
Four ruthless thieves reunite at a secluded castle to open a massive safe holding diamonds stolen by their deceased boss—but only one of them is missing the essential key. As greed-fueled paranoia intensifies, alliances fracture and the motel‑like countryside mansion becomes a lethal trap where murder and betrayal are inevitable. Delivered with stylized camera work, flamboyant visuals, and a jazzy score, this caper‑meets‑giallo unfolds as a fatal game of double-crosses.
Critical Perspective
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This giallo, crime film hybrid has plenty of charm and atmosphere. The set up anticipates later, cynical thrillers like Mario Bava’s Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970) and Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971), as a group of greedy, scummy people gather together in an isolated locale in the hopes of screwing each other over for a large sum of money. The concept may not be anything new, but it is developed and executed in an engaging fashion. That the film is so obscure is a pity, as it surely has plenty to recommend; if anything, it proves to be livelier than many of the would-be Gothic thrillers of the period.
Troy Howarth, So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films, Volume 1, 1963-1973 (Midnight Marquee Press, 2015)
A Hyena in the Safe Blu-ray editions
See which disc extras are included across selected editions.
| Disc Extras | Celluloid Dreams BD-A/US 2025 |
|---|---|
| Audio Commentary by Guido Henkel | |
| On Location | |
| Schrodinger’s Diamonds: The Duplicitous Mystery of “Hyena in the Safe” - Video Essay by Andy Marshall-Roberts | |
| Stills Gallery | |
| Theatrical Trailer |
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