This film by Giuliano Montaldo (Top Job (1968) and BRILLE MIT GOLDRAND / Glasses with Gold Rims (1987)) was actually produced by the Italian RAI as a television film, but was so original that it was also shown at the Berlinale 1978, which was held for the first time in February. Has been shown.

In a Milan cinema, an average audience is watching a spaghetti western. When there is a duel on the screen between Giuliano Gemma and William Berger, a shot is fired that fatally hits one of the moviegoers. The police are alerted, but are soon faced with a puzzle: no motive, no weapon! Through the interviews, the inspector (Brizio Montinaro) has already gotten to know some of the different visitors: a sociologist (Flavio Bucci) who puts forward steep theories, a drug dealer (Tony Kendall) who goes about his business with a friend under the cover of darkness, a married woman Ftrau (Aurore Clement), who secretly meets her lover at the cinema. It doesn't help at all! There is no usable trace! The inspector lets the film run again. And then this! At the same point in the film there is another fatal shot! Will the commissioner be able to solve this case...?

The dark cinema as a life-threatening place - this is the experience conveyed by this unjustly forgotten film, which combines giallo elements with the supernatural.

Worth seeing!

Too bad it still isn't available on video or DVD. If you're lucky you'll find an ex-rental somewhere in the dungeons of some old videostore. But if you do....BUY IT!!!! This truly is one of a kind. I saw this movie many years ago en it still lingers in my mind. The setting is quite simple. An audience is watching a western in a cinema. Then suddenly a gunshot is heard and an man dies in his chair...shot. The police immediately starts an investigation and nobody is to leave the theater. The killer has to be in the building so it has to be just a matter of time that the killer will be found. But the strange thing is they cannot find him or any weapon. Further investigation reveals some strange facts and when they reenact the situation another man is killed in the same chair. And now for the big spoiler, so don't don't read any further than this if you don't want to know the twist: it is the cowboy in the film itself that shot both men and when they show the film for a third time the man in the dead man's chair panics when the gun is pointed at him from the screen. When he runs the cowboy on the screen follows him through the theater. Sounds rather silly but it isn't. This film is an chilling whodunit with a surprise ending (well, now that you know the ending not of course)

The nightmare begins in the cinema during spaghtetti western showing.Suddenly a middle-aged man watching climatic showdown is shot dead.The doors are locked and the police is called to investigate.They have suspects among the audience,but no weapon nor motive.One of the members of cinema staff sits on the same place for the dead man.He is shot dead too.The mystery of killings comes across as a truly perplexing...Overlooked Italian giallo with solid acting and highly original plot.The posters of "Deep Red","Four Flies on Grey Velvet","The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" and "The Perfume of the Lady in Black" are a nice touch.In "Circuito Chiuso" cinema is a mysterious and subversive place,which can easily provoke violent and dangerous fantasies.8 out of 10.