"Don't Torture a Duckling". I'm still not absolutely certain what the title means, so i guess this movie is in good company with some other gialli, but
it's really atypical. I'm a fan of the style but it's always the atypical ones that stand out. This one isn't about rich sleazebags getting their just
desserts, and the rural setting gives it a very different feeling than most. My stepmother's family was from a village like this, and even today, just
an hour outside of Rome you can find places like the town featured in this movie -- a bit old-fashioned (some unkindly might say, "bkacward"), insular,
etc. No electricity is pretty commonplace.
Anyway, here we have a movie by Lucio Fulci, from the period when he was making a lot of very high-quality thrillers. It's short on the gore and bloodshed that he's known for except in a few key scenes, when the violence is really pronounced and startling. It also is a film that makes use of its red herrings in an unusual way. in fact, you could even say that the red herrings are the very point of the movie. Basically young boys on the verge of puberty are being killed violently in this little community, and of course, the townsfolks' suspicion immediately turns toward the outsiders, or those who are deemed to be weird and thus isolated even within the community, like Maciara, the epileptic witchy lady. The community is so suspicious, so determined to put someone away for these terrible crimes, that they simply will not listen to reason. Maciara's death is both the most violent and saddest moment in the film, as on her way out of town she is beaten to death with chains while soul music blairs from a radio so that people can't hear her screams of pain. The killer, of course, ends up being someone much closer to home, so to speak, and is "unmasked" almost in the last three minutes. His final scene is way more over-the-top than what came before but it somehow is really fitting. I love this movie and I think it's very possibly Fulci's best.
While the english dubbing might be considered a bit stiff by some, I really don't think it's too bad. The cast is also very much an international one, so I highly doubt they were all speaking Italian, thus hearing the film in English is not really any less" true" than the italian cut. Speaking of the cast, there are some real notables here, from western stars to women known for their roles in Bond films. The story is the real treat here, and it might surprise you how much pathos Fulci is able to wring out of it.
Anyway, here we have a movie by Lucio Fulci, from the period when he was making a lot of very high-quality thrillers. It's short on the gore and bloodshed that he's known for except in a few key scenes, when the violence is really pronounced and startling. It also is a film that makes use of its red herrings in an unusual way. in fact, you could even say that the red herrings are the very point of the movie. Basically young boys on the verge of puberty are being killed violently in this little community, and of course, the townsfolks' suspicion immediately turns toward the outsiders, or those who are deemed to be weird and thus isolated even within the community, like Maciara, the epileptic witchy lady. The community is so suspicious, so determined to put someone away for these terrible crimes, that they simply will not listen to reason. Maciara's death is both the most violent and saddest moment in the film, as on her way out of town she is beaten to death with chains while soul music blairs from a radio so that people can't hear her screams of pain. The killer, of course, ends up being someone much closer to home, so to speak, and is "unmasked" almost in the last three minutes. His final scene is way more over-the-top than what came before but it somehow is really fitting. I love this movie and I think it's very possibly Fulci's best.
While the english dubbing might be considered a bit stiff by some, I really don't think it's too bad. The cast is also very much an international one, so I highly doubt they were all speaking Italian, thus hearing the film in English is not really any less" true" than the italian cut. Speaking of the cast, there are some real notables here, from western stars to women known for their roles in Bond films. The story is the real treat here, and it might surprise you how much pathos Fulci is able to wring out of it.