"All mimsy were the borogoves."
-Lewis Carroll Jabberwocky
What is it about this woman that drives men mad with desire? I don't know myself, but I must confess to being similarly afflicted of late. It started when I revisited Argento's Four Flies on Gray Velvet and continued with The Perfume of the Lady in Black and most recently culminated in the 1975 horror giallo Autopsy. Like a black cat drawn to catnip, I'm similarly attracted to this actress and can't seem to escape her alluring mystique. Maybe it's because she's one of the select few giallo queens that hails from America. Or maybe it's because she often displays a fragile vulnerability in the roles she takes. Or maybe she's just the human equivalent of nepeta cataria which works on some biological level to make men act whacky. It would certainly explain a lot about her character's effect on the males in Autopsy. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.
With short, often disheveled, bleached out hair, slightly gapped teeth and a talent for sculpture, Merle "Mimsy" Farmer seemed an unlikely actress. An American, who after doing some episodic television and a few juvenile delinquent movies movies in 60's Hollywood, went on to work in some of the coolest European cinema of the 70's and 80's. Her work in giallo films is what interests me most, but she has a varied resume with work in political thrillers, art house films, slashers and a host of other movies from such diverse directors as Argento, Fulci, Margheriti, Campanile, Barilli and Carpi. The roles she played were often that of delicate, possibly unbalanced women who always seemed moments away from being terrorized in some fashion. In no film is this description more apt than Armando Crispino's Autopsy.
In Autopsy, Farmer plays a forensic pathologist med student with the unlikely name of Simona Sana which not only alliterates quite nicely, but could also double as a Bond-girl's handle. Simona's main problem in the film is that men like her way, way too much. From the introduction of Sana until the end of the film, the character is harassed, terrorized or victimized in some way or other. So much so that the American release's alternate title of The Victim is a lot more on the nose than Autopsy in describing the film. But don't worry, there's plenty of gruesome stuff on the autopsy tables to make the title apropos. The movie bursts out of the gate with several scenes of the most enthusiastic suicides ever seen. I don't want to spoil by describing, but they are quick and disturbing at the same time. We're then whisked off to the morgue where the huge pathology lab is set up like a large hostel only with dozens of gurneys lined up in a big room instead of beds. Being use to one pathologist working over one body Quincy-style, I was unnerved by the mass production autopsies being performed. The young Doctor Sana is no sooner introduced than she starts hallucinating imagining the cadavers up to all kinds of hijinx. This scene, coupled with the opening suicides is a more than potent one-two punch that is easily the 'make or break' part of the movie. The rest of the film doesn't quite live up to the strong opening and becomes a much more conventional giallo. Initially, I thought I was in for a down and dirty psychological horror ride, but the film becomes more and more of a sleaze and gore fest. It's still well worth watching, but after a great set up it settles down to some degree to become a standard mystery.
With short, often disheveled, bleached out hair, slightly gapped teeth and a talent for sculpture, Merle "Mimsy" Farmer seemed an unlikely actress. An American, who after doing some episodic television and a few juvenile delinquent movies movies in 60's Hollywood, went on to work in some of the coolest European cinema of the 70's and 80's. Her work in giallo films is what interests me most, but she has a varied resume with work in political thrillers, art house films, slashers and a host of other movies from such diverse directors as Argento, Fulci, Margheriti, Campanile, Barilli and Carpi. The roles she played were often that of delicate, possibly unbalanced women who always seemed moments away from being terrorized in some fashion. In no film is this description more apt than Armando Crispino's Autopsy.
In Autopsy, Farmer plays a forensic pathologist med student with the unlikely name of Simona Sana which not only alliterates quite nicely, but could also double as a Bond-girl's handle. Simona's main problem in the film is that men like her way, way too much. From the introduction of Sana until the end of the film, the character is harassed, terrorized or victimized in some way or other. So much so that the American release's alternate title of The Victim is a lot more on the nose than Autopsy in describing the film. But don't worry, there's plenty of gruesome stuff on the autopsy tables to make the title apropos. The movie bursts out of the gate with several scenes of the most enthusiastic suicides ever seen. I don't want to spoil by describing, but they are quick and disturbing at the same time. We're then whisked off to the morgue where the huge pathology lab is set up like a large hostel only with dozens of gurneys lined up in a big room instead of beds. Being use to one pathologist working over one body Quincy-style, I was unnerved by the mass production autopsies being performed. The young Doctor Sana is no sooner introduced than she starts hallucinating imagining the cadavers up to all kinds of hijinx. This scene, coupled with the opening suicides is a more than potent one-two punch that is easily the 'make or break' part of the movie. The rest of the film doesn't quite live up to the strong opening and becomes a much more conventional giallo. Initially, I thought I was in for a down and dirty psychological horror ride, but the film becomes more and more of a sleaze and gore fest. It's still well worth watching, but after a great set up it settles down to some degree to become a standard mystery.Don't get me wrong though, there's still a lot of crazy, good fun to be had. A lot of people describe this film as convoluted, but it goes far beyond that. The main cast members regularly go off the acting deep end unnecessarily with their characters exhibiting wild emotional swings for no reason. It's as if director Crispino got bored during shooting and occasionally dropped a mouse down a random cast member's pants and shot their reaction. This was only exacerbated by the dubbed dialogue which would go from mild to wild in a split second. But the oddest aspect to the movie is that Farmer's character is constantly getting molested in some way, shape or form by every male character (except for the priest ironically). Guys just seem to lose their minds around Simona and get all kinds of inappropriate with her. Even her father, played by Carlo Cattaneo, takes a peak up her dress and gives her an unwanted kiss full on the mouth. It becomes almost comical the amount of times the men get rape-y with her and how often the camera leers. Not since The Sister of Ursula have I felt the need to shower off and attend a gender sensitivity training class after viewing a giallo. Again, this aspect doesn't harm the movie, it's just odd that it's ubiquitous throughout, but at the same time, kind of pointless.
The three main characters of the film are molestion-magnet/pathologist Simona, her boyfriend Edgar (played by Ray Lovelock) and the aforementioned priest, Father Paul Lenox, played by Barry Primus. Lenox, a former race car driver(!) who quit because he had a grand mal seizure while driving and killed a bunch of people, is a little tightly wound to say the least. Early on, after being attacked by a dog, Father Paul chokes the owner out exclaiming "I've killed before, I've killed before!". While Simona spends the majority of the film dodging wildly inappropriate sexual advances, only Lovelock's character of Edgar seems relaxed and groovy, even good-naturedly dubbing Simona "Ice Cube" when she won't put out for him.
As the story unfolds, Father Paul reveals that he is the brother of one of the suicide victims who he actually believes was murdered. As he begins to investigate, more people appear to commit suicide. All the while, there's a marked increase in sun spot activity (and male gropiness). What's really going on does get satisfactorily explained in the end, but it's the bat-shit insane ride along the way that makes the movie fun. Even with wild, erratic bursts of overacting and some odd directorial and editing choices, the film is still neither incomprehensible or incompetent. It's just a very nutty fever dream. The movie does get a little flabby in the middle, but generally sleazes out to sustain interest. The movie's tone is helped a lot by a steady and subtle Morricone soundtrack. The film isn't particularly stylish with a limited production value and looks fairly average but it's not quite ugly either. But for fans of hybrid gialli, Italian horror or especially Mimsy Farmer, this is an entertaining watch.
Score 6.5/10
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