Macchie solari (1975) AKA Autopsy

Directed and co-written by Armando Crispino, “Autopsy” stars Mimsy Farmer (Dario Argento’s “Four Flies on Grey Velvet”) as Simona Sana, Barry Primus as Father Paul Lenox and Ray Lovelock (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) as Edgar.

 

 

 

The film opens with a series of suicides that are seemingly attributed to sunspots. Enter Simona who is a forensic pathologist doing her thesis on the difference between simulated and real suicides. It starts off very surreal as Simona is wracked with hallucinations like the corpses in the autopsy room coming to life.

She briefly meets a redheaded woman who soon after ends up in autopsy. Father Paul Lenox arrives to identify the body as his sister and refuses to believe that she committed suicide. As more people die it becomes evident that someone is murdering people and making it look like suicide. Simona and Father Lenox begin an investigation. But everybody as a secret. Simona, the sexually frigid. Are her hallucinations driving her to murder? Father Lenox, who spent years in an institution after going mad because he killed 12 people in a motor accident as a race car driver. Or could it be Edgar the boyfriend.

 

 

 

What secret did Father Lenox’s sister hold from Simona’s father. And who was blackmailing who and for what?

It starts off with a bang as a really interesting nightmare but slowly grows into a somewhat typical but effective giallo. It is an interesting mystery leading us down a road of murder, psycho-sexual tension, greed and blackmail with a great score by Ennio Morricone.

When it was first released in America it was retitled Autopsy and heavily cut. There isn’t very much in the way of gore but there is quiet a lot of nudity. The version I am reviewing is the Anchor Bay version and it is complete and uncut. It is widescreen with a couple of trailers and offers English and Italian soundtracks. Also, if you are watching the English language version there is a scene that is in Italian with English subtitles because that part of the track was lost or damaged.

Directed and co-written by Armando Crispino, “Autopsy” stars Mimsy Farmer (Dario Argento’s “Four Flies on Grey Velvet”) as Simona Sana, Barry Primus as Father Paul Lenox and Ray Lovelock (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) as Edgar.       The film opens with a series of suicides that are seemingly attributed to sunspots. Enter Simona who…