Predating Dario Argento’s Tenebre by around forty years, Cortocircuito also features a series of murders which appear to have been carried out in the same way as they are described in a popular mystery novel.

Although he could possibly be dubbed one of the early pioneers of the Italian giallo, in the traditional ‘murder-mystery’ sense of the definition, director Giacomo Gentilomo is still best known in critics’ circles for his neo-realist feature O Sole Mio which was selected for the 1946 Locarno Film Festival.

Having started out as an assistant director to both Mario Mattoli and Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, he went on to become one of the more prolific directors of the burgeoning Italian film industry throughout the 1950s, until taking an early retirement in 1965 to dedicate himself to surrealist painting. Apparently, he was never one to bask in the glory and rarely attended premieres and festivals  – he also rarely gave interviews, feeling very much disillusioned with the industry in his later years.

Some of the cast and crew members had already worked together in Gentilomo’s only other giallo, Brivido, filmed the previous year. Umberto Melnati returns as the lead.

“Coming soon, a sensational giallo-rosa!”

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