Pink brought over to Spain a couple of American actors: Barry Sullivan, Martha Hyer and Sherry Moreland. The director was the Spaniard Julio Coll, and most of the cast and crew were Spanish. Soledad Miranda has a role later in the film. Originally the film was going to be called PHANTOM OF THE FERRIS WHEEL and star Vincent Price, but a year later, in 1962, Barry Sullivan was going to star in the film, which was still called PHANTOM OF THE FERRIS WHEEL. Then a title change: COLD WIND FROM HELL. But by the time the film was released and the pressbook printed, the title was settled: PYRO. The film premiered in America in December 1963, proving that once again the IMDB is wrong on these dates. They list 1964 as the year of the film's American premiere.
In the film, attention is paid to the clothes worn. When the married Vance Pierson (Barry Sullivan) first meets the kleptomaniac and pyromaniac Laura (Martha Hyer), she is wearing red and in a couple of scenes thereafter. Very soon, perhaps too soon, Vance begins an affair with her, disregardful of the consequences. Laura's daughter, whom we see later, also wears red. Laura escapes from the vengeful and horribly disfigured Vance to a far-away location in Spain. And, amid these calm surroundings, the daughter, a product of incest, is seen gleefully starting a fire in the bushes! Hmm....
Added to this, the Miranda character has a father fixation with the elder Vance, when he makes his escape from a hospital and establishes himself as a helper in a circus.
Passion rules several lives, it seems. And life is like a Ferris wheel, and that wheel fascinates Vance...
Given these plot nuances and hints, the ending should have been more uncompromising than it is. An interesting film, certainly, but not a classic, though it could have been given a more artistic temperament. Temperament, not temperature.
