THE KILLER IS ONE OF 13 (1973)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological*

Paul Naschy must have got some satisfaction from his two previous collaborations with director Javier Aguirre, because he consented to appear in this Spanish film in what amounts to a glorified cameo; a butler on the estate where a bunch of killings take place-- eventually.

The star here, as in most such stories, is the mystery killer, to whom Aguirre gives one minimal "giallo" characteristic, that of wearing black gloves. But KILLER is not structured like any of the famous giallos, nor like the contributing influence of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." 

Rich widow Lisa Mandel (Patty Shepard) invites twelve acquaintances of her late husband to a party at her estate. Her purpose in so doing is to reveal that she suspects all of them of having covertly arranged for the death of Lisa's husband. However, once she reveals this purpose to her confused guests, none of them decide to leave. In many comparable "house of death" movies, there's some reason for all the potential victims to stay on the premises. But since co-scripter Aguirre couldn't come up with any such motives, he simply holds off on killing anyone for the first hour of the film.

So the first hour is mostly talking heads dialogue, with a few brief sex-scenes or scenes of husbands accusing their hot wives of wanting to get sexed up at this party. One might think Aguirre would use all the conversational scenes to establish clues that will help the audience identify the mystery murderer. Instead, what the director puts out there is a lot of soap opera emotion that doesn't contribute to either plot or characterization. Only two characters establish a little tension as to what they might do next: Lisa's aunt Bertha (Trini Alonso), who mentally dominates her grown son Francis (Eusebio Poncela). Bertha's dialogue states that she thinks Francis constantly chases after "low" women, and this oppressive dynamic could have Oedipal psychological connotations-- except that Bertha does want Francis to romance his cousin Lisa, because Lisa has money.

When the killings begin-- with minimal gore and no imaginative setups-- the guests still don't simply flee the mansion, as they're fully able to do. The resolution of the "mystery" is nothing special, though it does involve a perilous psycho wearing the aforementioned black gloves. The effect is so underwhelming that I barely give KILLER any credit for assembling a quantity of gorgeous women, including Shepard, Dianik Zurakowska, and Carmen Maura.