Robert Alda, born in 1914 in New York, was a multifaceted performer whose career spanned Broadway and film. He appeared in The Devil's Hand (1961), a cult classic that blends horror and exploitation, and The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969), a pivotal giallo film that marked his return to American cinema. Alda's background in vaudeville and his Italian heritage infused his performances with a unique flair, making him a memorable figure in the realm of cult cinema. He also took part in Holiday Hookers (1976), further cementing his presence in the genre.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
A truck smashes into a California nightclub owned by retired CIA agent and Orient adventurer Johnny Cain, and Grinaldi, an underworld figure, is killed. Cain is pressured to find the murderer--first by Grinaldi's syndicate and then by the CIA, which enters the case because of a threat to national security. Lucky, the club's entertainer, believes that Revel, Cain's Chinese ex-mistress and secretary to the slain gangster, is involved in the affair, and he hides her at Cain's apartment. Cain learns that she is marked for murder, and he also discovers that Grinaldi planned to steal a Tibetan statue worth $500,000 to the Communists for propaganda purposes. He gains an appointment with the syndicate's second-in-command, but the man is murdered just as Cain arrives. The murderer dies in an automobile chase, and subsequently the statue is recovered. Cain confronts the chief Communist agent as the agent gives $500,000 to the two men who have inherited Grinaldi's syndicate leadership. The Communists secretly plot to take over the underworld organization in order to cripple American commerce. A bomb planted in the moneybag explodes, killing all but Cain. Allardice, now the only living member of the syndicate hierarchy, confesses to Cain that he traded the statue to the Communists in return for the murder of his superiors. Cain and Allardice are interrupted by Grinaldi's widow, Tricia, a Communist secret agent who married the gangster to further the Communist plot. She orders Allardice to kill Cain, but he shoots her instead and then falls to his death as he attempts to escape. Cain and Revel are reunited at last.
