No Il Caso E Felicemente Risolto (aka No, The Case Is Happily Resolved) (1973)

While fishing, a man (Enzo Cerusico) witnesses the brutal murder of a young woman (Loredana Martinez). The killer (Riccardo Cucciolla) makes eye contact with the witness. Not wanting to get involved, the witness doesn't report it to the police. The killer has no such qualms and goes to the police telling them he saw the girl murdered and identifies the witness as her killer! Directed by Vittorio Salerno, the film has the perfect Hitchcockian set up of an innocent man accused of a crime he didn't commit yet his behavior is guilty to the point that he actually becomes complicit in the murder even though he's innocent. The bond between the two men suggests STRANGERS ON A TRAIN but the film makes the mistake of making the innocent man a bit of an unsympathetic bastard (he's a prick toward his wife and makes one stupid mistake after another). Still, the movie is quite compelling but is stuck with a ludicrous "happy" ending by the distributors who didn't like the original ending which was obviously headed toward a very dark yet ironic finale. It demeans everything that went on before it. Riz Ortolani did the monotonous score (one theme repeated over and over again). With Enrico Maria Salerno and Martine Brochard.