AUTOPSY

Mimsy Farmer and Barry Primus

AUTOPSY (aka Macchie solari/1975). Director/co-writer: Armando Crispino.

A doctor named Simona (Mimsy Farmer of Four Flies on Grey Velvet) works in a morgue in Rome. She encounters a woman named Betty (Gaby Wagner), who is apparently involved with Simona's playboy father, Gianni (Massimo Serato of Constantine and the Cross). When Betty is found murdered -- with the unknown killer trying to make it look like a suicide -- Betty's brother, Paul (Barry Primus), a former race car driver who is now a priest, shows up and winds up investigating this and other murders with Simona. Neither the priest nor Simona seem too tightly wrapped, however, with the former given to sudden rages and the latter developing a hankering for the priest (!) even though she has a sexy boyfriend named Riccardo (Ray Lovelock). Despite its title, Autopsy is not as bloody as other Italian horror-mysteries of the period, but it could be considered a nominal giallo film. The movie is absorbing and fast-paced for the most part but it bogs down in the final quarter, with a dragged-out finale, although there is an exciting rooftop confrontation at the very end. Crispino also directed the equally weird The Dead Are Alive, but Autopsy is somewhat better.

Verdict: At least there's the Roman scenery. **1/2.