Death Carries a Cane

Death Carries a Cane (1973) follows a photographer who inadvertently glimpses a savage murder through a tourist telescope and soon finds herself entangled in a series of killings marked by a cane-wielding assailant. As suspects emerge and witnesses are silenced, the hunt for the killer tightens around shadows, red herrings, and mounting dread. This giallo thriller blends mystery and brutal slasher violence in a tense study of voyeurism and menace.

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  Death Carries a Cane contains a few memorably nasty murder scenes, but beyond that is a strictly by-the-numbers affair. The film is clearly indebted to the gialli of Dario Argento, but director Maurizio Pradeaux fails to bring the same kind of style and flair to the material. … Once again, a character witnesses a murder, but the police and even the woman’s boyfriend are firm in their skepticism. This tired set-up might have worked a bit better if, for one, the dullard of an inspector decided to err on the side of caution and investigate properly right away! The list of red herrings grows exponentially, but for all that the suspense quota is rather low. The characters are bland, the dialogue scenes drag on for an eternity and the mise-en-scène does not warrant much interest, either. … This film is so utterly pedestrian that one waits in vain for something, anything original to show up. It never does transpire.