The Killer Wore Gloves
                       (aka: Hot Lips of the Killer) 
                                      (1974) 
                                     review by Monkeyman

Just what the world needed-a giallo with comedic overtones!!.Peggys boyfriend Michael is a photographer who is working in Vietnam and hasnt been in contact with her for a number of months.To make ends meet she lets out the upstairs flat to John Kirk Lawford,a friend of a friend from Liverpool.(To be honest he doesnt look or sound like any Scouser Ive ever met!!)

A man is murdered at Heathrow airport in a toilet cubicle,Lawford is found dead after apparently falling from the flat window,and the secretary of Peggys boss is hacked up with a pair of gardening secateurs.The convoluted plot revolves around a bag of stolen money,with virtually all the cast members wheeling and dealing to get their hands on the cash.

Things take a turn for the worst when another man turns up at Peggys house,claiming to be John Kirk Lawford,and to cap it off a woman Peggy knows trys to steal a bag of money from her at a railway station and falls to her death in front of a train.

Also living in the building are the caretaker and his battleaxe wife,and a man called Mr Lewis who lives with his cat and forces it to listen to him playing the double bass and is certainly the campest character ever to appear on celluloid in the last 30 years.He makes Liberace look like Vin Diesel!!

This is a Spanish/Italian co production,and is peculiarly disjointed and not particularly interesting.Gillian Hills,who plays Peggy was in Blow Up with David Hemmings and is absolutely gorgeous,but the acting from all the cast members is variable at best,with Hills reacting to every event with a vacant,wide eyed expression.

Certainly not a worthless viewing experience,but there are many better giallos than this one for you to spend your money on-it is also not the easiest film in the world to track down(your best bet is probably the Greek vhs release on the Master Home video label,which has the sleeve title The Killer Wore Gloves,but the print itself is labelled as Hot Lips of the Killer)