The Fifth Cord
The Fifth Cord is a 1971 film from Italy, directed by Luigi Bazzoni, running 95 minutes. reelscum files it under giallo.
- Year
- 1971 · 1970s films
- Country
- Italy
- Runtime
- 95 min
- Director
- Luigi Bazzoni
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (47/100)
- Also known as
- Evil Fingers · Silent Killer
Defined in the glossary: Giallo
The best-looking giallo nobody names, shot by Storaro between two Bertoluccis.
Franco Nero plays a drunk, washed-up reporter chasing a killer through a bleached modernist Italy, right up until the evidence starts pointing back at him. The reason to watch is Vittorio Storaro, who framed every stark white wall and black stairwell like a threat and made this one of the best-looking gialli ever committed to film. Ennio Morricone scores the unease, and the plot ties itself in the usual knots underneath.
The mystery barely matters. Look at it instead.
Trailer
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Where to watch
Legal options in USA
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The cycle in depth
- The giallo, 1963 to 1976
A line of yellow paperbacks, a killer in black gloves, and Mario Bava building the American slasher a decade before Hollywood cashed the cheque.
Filed alongside
The Perfume of the Lady in Black
Barely a murder mystery. A slow psychological collapse, and superb.
Death Walks on High Heels
Ercoli's best. Structurally cleverer than most of the cycle.
The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave
A widower lures redheads to his castle to get over his dead wife. Nonsense plot, glorious mood.
Death Walks at Midnight
Ercoli's brighter, faster Death Walks. Nieves Navarro sees a murder and nobody buys it.
Short Night of Glass Dolls
Narrated by a paralysed man presumed dead. Unusual and very good.
The Case of the Scorpion's Tail
Martino at his most efficient. Nobody wastes a frame.
Pieces
Spanish, incoherent, and gleefully stupid. 'Bastard! Bastard!'
The College Girl Murders
The point where the black-and-white krimi tips over into full-colour giallo delirium.
Hatchet for the Honeymoon
A bridal-couture killer who narrates his own psychosis, and the best ghost gag Bava ever staged.
The Black Belly of the Tarantula
The killer paralyses you first so you feel it. A first-rank giallo nobody name-checks.
Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key
Best title in the genre. Poe adaptation with Edwige Fenech and a black cat.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
A family curse, a killer in a red cloak, and a legend that kills every hundred years.