The Girl Who Knew Too Much – also known as La ragazza che sapeva troppo in its native country of Italy or The Evil Eye in the US – is a 1963 mystery thriller film directed by Mario Bava. It stars John Saxon as Dr. Marcello Bassi and Letícia Román (in her first leading role) as Nora Davis. An influential film, The Girl Who Knew Too Much is widely considered to be the progenitor of the giallo genre.
As for the story itself, the movie is about Nora Davis, an American tourist who takes a vacation trip to Italy. After she witnesses the passing of a family friend, Nora subsequently sees another type of death: murder.
Not to be confused with the 1969 American movie of the same name staring Adam West.
This movie provides examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: The protagonist is called Nora Davis in the Italian original but is called Nora Drowson in the American cut.
- Amateur Sleuth: Nora, an avid fangirl of murder-mysteries, figures out the identity of the killer before the police do. That said, the police do assist her by handing her some helpful forensic evidence, more specifically a button.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Played with. Laura and her husband are working together with Laura carrying out the murders while Professor Torrani covers them up and finds a Fall Guy to blame. That said, Torrani does eventually alert the authorities to arrest his unstable wife although this leads to Laura reacting poorly to Torrani's betrayal.
- Calling Card: The killer murders the victims in alphabetic order by surname.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Upon entering Laura's house, Nora thoughtlessly puts her hand upon a leftover sweater. It later turns out the killer wore said sweater while killing Maria.
- The locked door in Laura's house becomes important later after Nora discovers that it is strangely ajar. The room behind is where Laura and her husband hide all the evidence.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The entire movie is in black and white.
- Denser and Wackier: While the Italian version had its moments of comedy, the American cut Evil Eye takes itself less seriously and has more scenes dedicated to physical humor such as Nora bumping her head against another traveler taking the taxi.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Landini first appears as the mysterious man following Nora and is also the reporter mentioned in the newspaper's write-up of the alphabet murders. He only properly introduces himself to the protagonist in the last third of the movie.
- Frame-Up: Professor Torrani was able to frame Straccianeve, a mentally ill man, for the alphabet killings.
- Genre Savvy: As a fan of murder-mystery novels, Nora generally plays it smart when it comes to solving the movie's central mystery. Before going to sleep, Nora sets up a trap to protect herself from any potential home invader. Furthermore, she eventually identifies a button collected by the police as one that belongs to the killer.
- Giallo: The Trope Maker. Like the later giallo movies, it is a stylish murder-mystery thriller revolving around violent murders that are seemingly committed by a sexually motivated killer.
- Meaningful Name: Nora's surname starts with a "D", marking her as the alphabet killer's next target since the killer already claimed three victims.
- Red Herring:
- The first and most obvious suspect is Laura's husband Professor Torrani, whose face is revealed after Nora witnesses him seemingly assaulting another woman. The movie even points out his photo on the piano after Nora enters Laura's house. It's downplayed in that Torrani is actually in cahoots with the killer herself although Torrani doesn't kill anyone other than said killer.
- Landini is the stranger stalking Nora throughout the movie, and at one point, the killer uses a tape recorder to lure Nora into an apartment owned by Landini. Furthermore, Landini makes his first real appearance by breaking into Nora's temporary home and ends up making himself more suspicious because Nora then discovers that the killer's tape recorder she was keeping as evidence is missing. It doesn't help that Landini admits to imprisoning the wrong man for the alphabet murders.
- Dr. Marcello Bassi is also presented as a suspect since he is absent when Nora's aunt passes away. At the beach, he makes a Bait-and-Switch Comment angrily asking how Nora hasn't "figured it out" only to then disclose that he is in love with her, which is relevant considering that the killer is suspected to be someone that is sexually frustrated.
- If one considers the killer's home-invasion ability to be a clue, the doorkeeper fits the bill as the killer as she demonstrates early on that she has the keys to Laura's home so that she can do some house cleaning.
- A person of interest that turns up late in the film is Straccianeve's daughter Maria who, according to a co-worker, suddenly became rich one day. It turns out she was Dead All Along.
- Romantic False Lead: Pacini/De Vico is built up as a potential love interest for Nora, but he is quickly arrested by the police after he steps off the plane. The police then reveal that Pacini/De Vico was a drug trader who smuggled cocaine and marijuana into other countries.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is a reference to the Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Man Who Knew Too Much.
- Nora namedrops Edgar Wallace, Mickey Spillane, and Agatha Christie as her favorite mystery writers.
- Unbuilt Trope: While considered the first giallo film, The Girl Who Knew Too Much is a black-and-white movie and thus lacks the vivid and striking color composition that defined the later giallo movies. In practice, the movie resembles a Film Noir since it heavily relies on the contrast of lighting and darkness to build atmosphere. Director Mario Bava would later codify the vibrant colors of the giallo in his future film Blood and Black Lace.
