The Designated Victim

1971
Italy
1h 35min
15

Directed by: Maurizio Lucidi
Cast: Tomas Milian, Pierre Clémenti, Katia Christine

Italian giallo. Taking the premise of Strangers on a Train but heading into far darker territory after two strangers make a pact to kill for each other. Clémenti plays a wonderfully fey unhinged murderer forcing an unwitting Milian into a deadly game of death. It could never live up to Hitchcock’s classic but it keeps the tension high and ends on a suitably down beat note.