Devoted fan of sleazy and violent obscurities that I am I sorely wish I could get behind this one more. The tale of a frayed and fragile erotic model plagued by nasty phone calls and a killer targeting her co workers, Knife Under The Throat packs sleazy nudity and a bit of fun violence, but never really comes together in a satisfactory fashion, despite some nice moments and a fairly solid finale. A good deal of the problem with it comes down to the too dark cinematography, during night scenes or simply darker ones this is difficult to make out, I assume that the version I saw was culled from an old French VHS and given fan subtitles but unless a remastered copy comes out or a better quality version is discovered for me to re-evaluate I have to say that the version around that fans are likely to come across isn't of terribly good quality. It's nice just to be able to see such a rare French sleaze film but still, this is completists only stuff. And the problem isn't just in the darker scenes, overall this suffers from being a good deal too short. The IMDb lists the runtime as 84 minutes, what I saw had the credits rolling at 75, with two and a half minutes of end credits and I can't see any scenes which appeared to be noticeably trimmed, editing seemed fairly coherent and judging on one or two of the seedier scenes (shots of female pubic hair during a rape for instance) I'd be surprised if other stuff was removed, especially since I'm not sure this one ever had a wider release that might have been cut in the first place (plus format speed issues and IMDb's occasional inaccuracies may well be in play). So worries about censorship aside, the upshot of the short run-time is that neither the characters, the plot or the erotic photography milieu are ever explored to an effective degree and suspense is a little sparse. On the plus side, this one never gets dull and the game performances keep it moving nicely. Florence Guerin is an affecting heroine, beautiful and sympathetic as a character unusually abused and undeservedly misunderstood, while Jean-Pierre Maurin ably chews the scenery as a slimeball photographer. Alexandre Sterling provides a measure of light as a helpful neighbour, while French erotic legend and Jean Rollin regular Brigitte Lahaie has a callous yet ultimately understandable and business like side role as the manager of the films photography business. There are also a couple of gnarly kills and modestly twisted sleaze for genre fans to chew on, so those that simply have to watch this won't be at a complete loss, though it isn't good enough to recommend hunting down unless you come across a version longer than mine. Watch it if you simply must see every available sexy thriller/horror out there, or if you happen to be a big fan of director Claude Mulot (this is his last film), best known for Pussy Talk but otherwise one to pass on I'd say.
5 Reviews
Sex is violent
BandSAboutMovies21 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Catherine (Florence Guerin, Faceless, Too Beautiful to Die, Demons 6: De Profundis) is an adult magazine model who is being stalked over the phone. That's not as bad as some of the other girls she works with. After all, they're not just getting heavy breathing. They're getting killed.
Brigitte Lahaie is in this, pretty much a perfect fit for her background. She rose from the X-rated films of France to be recognized by Jean Rollin, who cast her in his films The Grapes of Death and Fascination. This also makes sense as to why Claude Mulot directed this, as the majority of his career was also in adult films. He'd die a few years later in a drowning accident. He also made The Blood Rose, a film so close to a Jess Franco movie that Troy Howarth would say in So Deadly, So Perverse: Giallo-Style Films from Around the World Volume 3, "wone would be forgiven for thinking that Franco had made it himself."
This doesn't do anything special or different than any other giallo. Both Guerin and Lahaie would make Franco's Faceless soon after, a much better film.
Brigitte Lahaie is in this, pretty much a perfect fit for her background. She rose from the X-rated films of France to be recognized by Jean Rollin, who cast her in his films The Grapes of Death and Fascination. This also makes sense as to why Claude Mulot directed this, as the majority of his career was also in adult films. He'd die a few years later in a drowning accident. He also made The Blood Rose, a film so close to a Jess Franco movie that Troy Howarth would say in So Deadly, So Perverse: Giallo-Style Films from Around the World Volume 3, "wone would be forgiven for thinking that Franco had made it himself."
This doesn't do anything special or different than any other giallo. Both Guerin and Lahaie would make Franco's Faceless soon after, a much better film.
not very good but is very watchable
christopher-underwood27 October 2015
Very violent, very sleazy, not very good but is very watchable. Another reviewer mentioned the running time and I concur this is nearer 75 minutes than the 85 given on IMDb. No problem for me there though, always happy when a film doesn't outstay its welcome and this could have not gone on much longer. As it is we get imagined scenes of sexual violence, real ones and then the real ones retold plus recurring nightmares, so there is plenty going on but it is not involving us too deeply.My DVD quality is fine including subtitles so there is a decent copy going the rounds. Brigitte Lahaie is a bit subdued, although she does, of course, get naked. She's overshadowed here by Florence Guerin, twenty here and not only very good looking but out performs most of the cast. I see she appeared the following year in Jess Franco's, Faceless, again with Lahaie and is still working today. Bit distasteful at times but a very decent watch, or should that be indecent?
Who needs logic when you have Brigitte Lahaie and Florence Guérin?
Coventry20 August 2023
A Giallo from a non-expert country (France) and released during an era when the subgenre was long dead & buried already, is that even worth watching? Short answer: God, yes! If only for the presence - and frequent nude sequences - of two stunningly gorgeous women. Blond Brigitte Lahaie is definitely in my personal top five of most beautiful women ever, and brunette Florence Guérin is probably not far behind. With these two parading around, and a couple of other beauties like Natasha Delange and the nameless woman who gets brutally strangled at the beginning of the film, I tend to be a lot milder for weaknesses in the script or lack of tension. Yeah, I'm that shallow.
Still, even in terms of plotting, suspense, and grisly murders, "Le Couteau Sous La Gorge" isn't too bad at all! Admittedly, the whole thing is incoherent and everything that is happening feels random and like it was improvised on the spot. If, at the end of the film, the killer must explain the why and how he/she accomplished all the murders, there's something wrong. It didn't bother me, though.
The opening fifteen minutes are powerful. Florence Guérin runs half-naked (the lower half) and in panic through the city streets and into a police station. She claims to have been gang-raped but none of the cops takes her seriously, which initially comes across as quite shocking. It turns out the young woman - Catherine - is a mythomaniac who regularly makes up stories like this. She's also a successful nude model, and together with her roommate Florence and tough businesswoman Valerie (Brigitte Lahaie) she does an eccentric photoshoot in a cemetery at midnight. The caretaker of the cemetery can't cope with the scandal, goes berserk, and violently strangles an innocent young woman. One month later, after a trip abroad, Catherine receives obscene phone calls from an actual stalker, but given her condition, nobody believes her.
In good old Giallo tradition, there are sadist kills and plenty of potential culprits. Catherine has a drug-addicted ex-boyfriend, their regular photographer (who's named J. B. after the whiskey he's drinking) is an aggressive sexist, the girls' weird landlady always walks around with hedge clippers, or the cemetery caretaker might not be dead after all. Take your pick!
Lahaie and Guérin also both starred in "Faceless", which is director Jess Franco's third best film out of a total of two hundred.
Still, even in terms of plotting, suspense, and grisly murders, "Le Couteau Sous La Gorge" isn't too bad at all! Admittedly, the whole thing is incoherent and everything that is happening feels random and like it was improvised on the spot. If, at the end of the film, the killer must explain the why and how he/she accomplished all the murders, there's something wrong. It didn't bother me, though.
The opening fifteen minutes are powerful. Florence Guérin runs half-naked (the lower half) and in panic through the city streets and into a police station. She claims to have been gang-raped but none of the cops takes her seriously, which initially comes across as quite shocking. It turns out the young woman - Catherine - is a mythomaniac who regularly makes up stories like this. She's also a successful nude model, and together with her roommate Florence and tough businesswoman Valerie (Brigitte Lahaie) she does an eccentric photoshoot in a cemetery at midnight. The caretaker of the cemetery can't cope with the scandal, goes berserk, and violently strangles an innocent young woman. One month later, after a trip abroad, Catherine receives obscene phone calls from an actual stalker, but given her condition, nobody believes her.
In good old Giallo tradition, there are sadist kills and plenty of potential culprits. Catherine has a drug-addicted ex-boyfriend, their regular photographer (who's named J. B. after the whiskey he's drinking) is an aggressive sexist, the girls' weird landlady always walks around with hedge clippers, or the cemetery caretaker might not be dead after all. Take your pick!
Lahaie and Guérin also both starred in "Faceless", which is director Jess Franco's third best film out of a total of two hundred.
Giallo à la française.
BA_Harrison20 August 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Zut alors! Those naughty French have a bash at the giallo genre and, rather unsurprisingly, deliver a film brimming with top notch totty willing to strip at the drop of a chapeau. The film starts as it means to go on with brunette Catherine (the drop dead gorgeous Florence Guérin) running down a busy street, naked from the waist down. She rushes into a police station claiming to have been assaulted by three men, but her story is met with derision by the cops; apparently, it's not the first time that Catherine, an erotic model (who struggles to keep her clothes on throughout the film), has made such claims.
In a case of 'the boy who cried wolf', Catherine is subsequently terrorised by a real maniac (who wears regulation black leather gloves and likes to make creepy phone calls), but her story is once again dismissed, at least until her close friends and associates start to turn up dead. Who could be the killer? The violent photographer with the gimpy foot? The presumed dead cemetery caretaker with a grudge? The facially scarred woman with the wickedly sharp garden shears? Catherine's crazy drug addict ex-boyfriend? Or none of the above?
As the list of potential suspects gets smaller and smaller, director Claude Mulot takes every opportunity to get his female victims naked prior to their killing, the sleaziest deaths including the throttling of a woman motorist and the brutal beating and drowning of modelling agent Valérie (Brigitte Lahaie) while taking a bath. To be honest, the violence isn't all that gory, but its frequently risqué nature makes it one of the more outrageous giallos out there; if you have enjoyed the likes of Strip Nude For Your Killer, The New York Ripper and Giallo a Venezia, then this one is for you!
In a case of 'the boy who cried wolf', Catherine is subsequently terrorised by a real maniac (who wears regulation black leather gloves and likes to make creepy phone calls), but her story is once again dismissed, at least until her close friends and associates start to turn up dead. Who could be the killer? The violent photographer with the gimpy foot? The presumed dead cemetery caretaker with a grudge? The facially scarred woman with the wickedly sharp garden shears? Catherine's crazy drug addict ex-boyfriend? Or none of the above?
As the list of potential suspects gets smaller and smaller, director Claude Mulot takes every opportunity to get his female victims naked prior to their killing, the sleaziest deaths including the throttling of a woman motorist and the brutal beating and drowning of modelling agent Valérie (Brigitte Lahaie) while taking a bath. To be honest, the violence isn't all that gory, but its frequently risqué nature makes it one of the more outrageous giallos out there; if you have enjoyed the likes of Strip Nude For Your Killer, The New York Ripper and Giallo a Venezia, then this one is for you!
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