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The
Black Belly
of the Tarantula
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Italy
- France |
1971
Directed by Paolo Cavara
Starring
Giancarlo Giannini
Claudine Auger
Barbara Bouchet
Color |
98 Minutes |
Not Rated
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC)
Blue Underground
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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7
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7 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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SNEAK
PREVIEW
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DVD Release Date: March
28, 2006 |
At
the end of this month Blue Underground is scheduled
to release four giallo Eurothrillers from
the 1970s on DVD: Forbidden
Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion, The
Fifth Cord, The
Pyjama Girl Case, and the subject of this
review, The Black Belly
of the Tarantula.
Little seen before — if at all — in the States,
these films (and their discs) will each be reviewed
here at EC.
Black
Belly
actually had a U.S. theatrical run in 1972, distributed
by MGM for the drive-in circuit, but until now
was never issued on North American home video.
Of the four titles BU is soon releasing it's the
most conventional in sticking with the classical
giallo motifs... Beautiful women are butchered
by a
gloved, black-garbed psychopath using a particularly
insidious method of murder. Kinky sex, drugs and
blackmail among the 'sophisticated set' are elements
of the puzzle holding the key to the killer's
identity. Mod production
design and a groovy pop-jazz lounge score complete
the list of standard ingredients. However,
the film does veer from the tried-and-true
template in at least one significant respect.
Typically the police play a minor role at
best in this type
of thriller; the mystery is usually solved by
a motivated amateur. In Black
Belly our sleuth is a professional detective,
Inspector
Tellini of the Rome homicide squad, played by
Giancarlo Giannini (Swept
Away, Hannibal).
Estranged from
her wealthy husband, Maria Zani (Barbara Bouchet
of Amuck!)
is murdered in her posh home only a few hours
after having a heated argument with him — upon
slapping her around a bit, he'd confronted her
with nude pictures of her with another man, then
stormed out. Now she's dead and that naturally
makes hubby Paolo (Silvano Tranquilli) the prime
suspect. His disappearing act soon thereafter
certainly doesn't look good, either. Yet the fiendishly
bizarre way Mrs. Zani was killed — stabbed with
a venom-tipped needle to cause paralysis, then
sliced open with a dagger, alive and aware — doesn't
quite fit with the typical profile of a domestic
homicide committed by a jealous, enraged spouse.
Inspector Tellini nonetheless uncovers a possible
link to Zani and the use of acupuncture needles.
Then another woman is slain
in the same ghoulish manner, paralyzed with a
needle to the back of the neck prior to being
fatally stabbed. The victim doesn't seem to be
connected to the first murder in any other way
besides the method used. Is a serial killer on
the loose? Is Zani that psychopath? The suspect
himself suddenly surfaces, pulling a gun on Tellini
to passionately proclaim
his innocence before vanishing again. Perhaps
Zani isn't the Needle Killer...
Large quantities of illicit drugs found at
the scene of the second murder add a new dimension
to the case, putting Tellini on the trail of a
smuggling ring employing rather novel means of
bringing dope into the country. His investigation
also uncovers a blackmail scheme preying on the
well-to-do customers of an upscale women's health
spa — of which the late Maria Zani was a member.
Two more Needle murders, both tied to the spa,
suggest that Tellini is getting very close to
cracking the case. So close, in fact, that the
killer now targets him and his pretty young wife
(Stefania Sandrelli) for intimidation and death...
Black
Belly of the Tarantula doesn't break any
fresh ground for a giallo but fans of the genre
will delight in its skillful, entertaining presentation
of the formula. Derivative
of the Mario Bava gialli of the early '60s and
Dario Argento's so-called "Animal Trilogy"
(kicked off by 1969's The
Bird with the Crystal Plumage), the film does
a splendid job of emulating its progenitors. Director
Paolo Cavara (The Wild Eye)
directs with assured style, assisted by first-rate
cinematography and editing. His stalk-and-kill
set-pieces could be plopped into the middle of
the best Argento slashers and wouldn't seem the
slightest bit out of sync. Ennio Morricone's score,
alternating between a recurring 'easy listening'
theme (accentuated by singer Edda Del Orso's breathy,
sighing vocals) and edgy suspense cues, is perhaps
the best the maestro ever composed for a giallo.
The cast certainly possesses
a surfeit of Euro-Cult appeal... In addition to
fan fave Bouchet, there's Claudine Auger (Thunderball,
Twitch
of the Death Nerve) as the secretive owner
of the salon, fellow Bond Girl Barbara Bach (The
Spy Who Loved Me, Short
Night of Glass Dolls) as her panicky assistant,
and an array of supporting players whose faces,
if not names, will be familiar. Initially, headliner
Giancarlo Giannini seems to be bored, merely going
through the motions as required by the script,
but as the story progresses we're shown his character's
home life. We learn that Inspector Tellini is
disillusioned and burned out, disgusted by the
aftermath of violence he routinely encounters
on the job. He wants to quit the police force
but the case of the Needle Killer gets under his
skin —
his determination to solve the mystery becomes
intensely personal when he realizes his own wife
is on the maniac's To-Do List.
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Taken
from the original 35mm negative, BU's 1.85:1 anamorphic
widescreen transfer of Black
Belly looks fantastic. Some minor dirt
and debris appears during the opening credits
but otherwise the print is virtually flawless.
The disc offers clean-sounding mono audio tracks
in both English and Italian, with optional English
subtitles.
The
DVD isn't exactly packed with extras but those
provided compliment the feature nicely. A 15-minute
interview with Lorenzo Danon, the son of producer/co-writer
Marcello Danon, actually spends more time on the
elder Danon's entry into the movie business than
it devotes to the making of Black
Belly; Lorenzo, who was present on the
set, nevertheless has a few interesting anecdotes
to impart about the production. (Such as just
how comfortable Barbara Bouchet was being naked
around people.) The original U.S. theatrical trailer
and an American TV spot are also included. The
latter, for a double feature bill pairing Black
Belly with Michele Lupo's The
Weekend Murders, features a narrator whose
campy, over-the-top delivery is quite amusing.
3/14/06
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