One On Top The Other (1969) San Francisco Transitional Noir

"Sort of a riff on Vertigo in a far out psychedelic San Francisco"

A pretty good and pretty much forgotten film that fits in with the Transitional Noirs.

It's also known as Una sull'altra, Perversion Story, and Una historia perversa. Directed by Lucio Fulci just before he became the Italian Giallo master aka "The Godfather Of Gore - The Spaghetti Splatter King - Horror Maestro." Fulci is known for (A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971), Zombie (1979), along with his masterpiece and personal favorite Don't Torture a Duckling (1972).

One On Top The Other was written by Roberto Gianviti, Lucio Fulci and José Luis Martínez Mollá. The excellent cinematography was by Alejandro Ulloa who I admired from his lensing of Spaghetti Westerns (The Mercenary and Companeros) was director of photography and music by Riz Ortolani (who also provided music for Spaghetti Westerns).

Marisa Mell  as Susan/Monica

The film stars Marisa Mell (Danger: Diabolik (1968)) as Susan Dummurrier ("Monica Weston"), Jean Sorel (The Day of the Jackal (1973), Belle de Jour (1967)) as Dr. George Dumurrier.

Jean Sorel as Dr. George Dumurrier

Elsa Martinelli as photographer assistant Jane Bleeker, Alberto de Mendoza as Henry Dumurrier. Classic Noir vets John Ireland (The Scarf, All the King's Men, Raw Deal, The Gangster, Railroaded!) as Inspector Wald, Jean Sobieski as Larry, and Faith Domergue (Where Danger Lives) as Marta, and 1969 San Francisco.

Elsa Martinelli as Jane Bleeker

John Ireland as Inspector Wald

Faith Domergue as Marta

Alberto de Mendoza as Henry Dumurrier.

Also in the cast are Jean Sobieski as Larry a professional photographer, Riccardo Cucciolla as Benjamin Wormser, Bill Vanders as the Insurance Agent. Franco Balducci as Officer Loveday. Giuseppe Addobbati (as John Douglas in credits) as Brent, Félix Dafauce as Royal Insurance Official, Jesús Puente as Sergeant Rodriguez, and George Rigaud as Arthur Mitchell.

George (Jean Sorel) and Henry (Alberto de Mendoza) Dumurrier run a high class San Francisco clinic. George is the flashy promoter who overextends the business, while Herny is the one with his nose to the grindstone type.

Susan Dummurrier

George's wife Susan (Marisa Mell) is suffering form asthma. Susan looks terrible with pale skin and dark circles under her eyes. George and Susan argue and fight a lot. Their marriage seems to be on the rocks. Susan is in the care of her sister Marta (Faith Domergue) who does not think much of George. A nurse played by the un-credited Malisa Longo.

Malisa Longo

George is having an affair with Jane (Elsa Martinelli). She is the assistant to Larry (Jean Sobieski) a well regarded professional cheesecake/fashion/advertising photographer. George likes to gamble so on that pretext he and Jane make plans for a secret weekend rendezvous in Reno. Life is good until George gets a phone call from Henry at the Casino.

George and Jane in the sack

at the Casino

Henry tells George that Susan had a violent asthma attack and ended up dead. Rushing back to San Francisco George has to deal not only with the shock of Susan's death but with Marta's intense hatred of him. The only somewhat silver lining to the situation is the one million dollar life insurance policy that George is surprised to find that she took out.

Dead Susan

Back at the house a shocked an agitated George heads to the medicine cabinet to look for a sedative. While fumbling around he knocks over Susan's asthma medicine bottle which shatters on the floor tiles.

A detective hired by the insurance company begins to tail George and he eventually discovers the affair between George and Jane. The detective in turn informs Homicide Inspector Wald (John Ireland). Now that there may have been a few motives the police will investigate a bit deeper. The Inspector orders a tail on George.

Detective

Meanwhile George gets an anonymous phone call telling him to go to Varni's Roaring Twenties, a real club in 1969 at 807 Montgomery Street. The club was known for its "Girl On A Swing."  Skimpily attired  (by the mid 60s, g-string-nude) ladies swung back and forth within the open well area.

George and soon after Jane, who follows him to the club, sit down at a table and they watch the swinging girls and, the next strip act. Both Jane and George are shocked to see the stripper named Monica.

Varni's Roaring Twenties Sequence

a girl on a swing

Monia

Monica is the spitting image of Susan only she has green eyes and blonde hair. George finds himself dangerously attracted to her. Monica is also pulling tricks on the side moonlighting as a high class prostitute.

Before you know it George is morbidly wetting his noodle with Monica. One curious thing that George notices while in Monica's bathroom is that she or her roommate uses the same asthma medicine that Susan used.

Monica questioned by police

Monica also has a wealthy pushover client named Wormser who is hopelessly obsessed and equally in lust with her. The police, led to Monica by the insurance detective, eventually arrest her for prostitution.  After the police search Monica's apartment they find an envelope containing a large sum of money.

Betty on projected image

Questioned about it Monica tells them that she was paid to pose as Susan by a woman named Betty and to take out that life insurance policy. The police can find no trace of Betty

Wormser heads to the lockup to bail Monica out. However when he gets there he finds out that someone already posted her d bail.

San Quentin

It all goes Noirsville for George when the police find his fingerprint on the money envelope and an autopsy of Susan's exhumed body finds traces of poison.

Noirsville

Tail Fins

Eero Saarinen's TWA terminal that design straddles the Futurist, Neo-futurist, Googie and Fantastic architectural styles.

Split screen is the visible division of the screen, traditionally in half, but also in several simultaneous images. This technique was also used in Marlowe (1969). Several studio-made films in the 1960s popularized the use of split screen. They include Indiscreet (1958), John Frankenheimer's Grand Prix (1966), Richard Fleischer's The Boston Strangler (1968), and Norman Jewison's The Thomas Crown Affair (1968).

Interior of TWA terminal

One On Top The Other though an Italian film, was made during the Transitional Noir period of experimentation/exploitation freedom in America when the old Motion Picture Production Code disintegrated.

Think of Classical Noir as if they were a roller coaster thrill ride with the car careening back and and forth between the two guardrails of violence on one side and sex on the other. Once those guardrails weakened the style ricocheted creativity all over the map with various degrees of artistry, talent, production values, talent, and Genre mashups.

If instead of Jean Sorel, (who looks a lot like Robert Wagner) this film had starred say one of the big non action U.S. box office draws of the time say a Paul Neuman, Brando, James Coburn, George Segal, Robards, or even  James Garner, or even rat packers Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin, it would probably be much better known in the USA.

Its no knock on Sorel who does do a good job. and since the film was made for a European market its probably an understandable choice. All the women are great though Faith Domergue is probably underused and it's always nice seeing John Ireland. Screen Caps are from an online streamer. 6.5-7/10.