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8
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
George
Dumurrier (Jean Sorel) is a supposedly wealthy doctor with his
own medical clinic in San Francisco. His brother Henry (Alberto
de Mendoza) helps run the private clinic but the siblings often
clash over George's sometimes crass publicity attempts to get
the facility better recognition. At home things are not great
either, as George's rich wife Susan (Marisa Mell) is a virtual
shut-in suffering from asthma and requiring almost constant
care. The couple's relationship is in bad shape and he has been
denied access to the areas of the house Susan occupies. On top
of this is the poor man's newly strained relationship with his
long time mistress Jane (Elsa Martinelli), who is close to deciding
to leave him and the city. He loves Jane but knows that without
his wife's money his debts would destroy him. Has this guy got
problems or what?
Only
by making a grand romantic gesture does George manage to change
Jane's mind and convince her to stay in Frisco. He makes vague
promises of divorce and hints that his rich wife can't life
forever in her condition. No sooner does this conversation take
place than he receives word that Susan has died! Completely
shocked by her death he is even more surprised when he learns
that she'd taken out a life insurance policy naming him as the
sole beneficiary. While this unexpected windfall will allow
him to clear the clinic's debts and put him comfortably in the
black, he can't understand why she would've done this. The marriage
had been on shaky ground for years and Susan had made her displeasure
with his financial dealings known. The police show some interest
at first but nothing suspicious is in evidence, so they leave
things alone.
Then a few weeks later
George receives an anonymous call telling him to go to a particular
nightclub. He does, accompanied by the suspicious Jane, and
witnesses the striptease act of Monica Weston (also Marisa Mell).
Stunned by the uncanny resemblance to his dead wife, he can
only see two minor differences —
hair and eye color. Monica is a blonde, green-eyed beauty while
Susan was dark haired with brown eyes. After her stage act the
sexy woman makes it plain that she's available for sex with
George and Jane or the both of them if the price is right; he
begs off but is far too intrigued to let it go. He contacts
Monica on his own and meets her at her apartment. After a scare
when he notices a drug Miss Weston uses that Susan needed as
well, George becomes convinced it's just a bizarre coincidence...
This is a crackerjack
of a film! Lifting both the setting and the central conceit
of a dead beautiful woman's doppelganger from Hitchcock's Vertigo,
Lucio Fulci (Zombie)
doesn't simply make a copy of that portrait of obsession. He
comes at the story sideways, like some kind of sex-crazed loon
hell-bent on one-upping Hitch while playing, tricking and mesmerizing
his audience. Unlike Vertigo's
nice guy protagonist we're presented with a main character we
can't sympathize with very much. He's a bit of a con artist,
willing to lie to advance his business prospects. He's clearly
no longer in love with his wife —
if he ever was —
and as we see her gasping for air during an asthma attack the
look of hurt accusation in her eyes invites our hostility toward
him. But then during a stylishly filmed lovemaking scene, as
he gently holds his mistress, we see someone we could possibly
like. And after his mad race to Jane's train destination we
see him as a flawed man certainly, but not the monster he might
have been. And, of course, the fact remains that we know he
didn't kill his wife. So when the finger of guilt points to
George we're with him because we understand his confusion. And
what a lot of confusion he has to contend with!
Of course, one of
the things confusing poor George so is also one of the big reasons
cult film fans have been drawn to this movie for decades —
the beautiful Marisa Mell. Playing both Susan and Monica, she
is very good here, showing more range than she was usually allowed.
When first we see her as the pale, dark haired woman at death's
door it's a bit of a shock to viewers familiar with her from
Danger: Diabolik.
In that Bava comic book she's the epitome of sexiness; as the
sickly wife she is a haggard mess. But don't despair if you
picked this film out to ogle bare flesh, because as Monica we're
given the chance to stare at her gorgeous body in scene after
scene, in many fetching poses. The sequence in which Jane photographs
the stripper in her private studio has enough imagery to jumpstart
puberty in an 8 year old! I think that even if the film's story
stank it'd be worth seeing for a lot of people simply because
of Marisa Mell's many nude scenes. She was certainly one of
the most beautiful women to grace European films in the '60s
and '70s, and if there's a film that shows more of her physical
charms I'm unaware. And if there is one, please contact me immediately!
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Now
for the good news/bad news. The cut of Perversion
Story (AKA One On Top Of The Other) presented here
by Severin Films is the slightly sexier version of the film prepared
for France. It contains a few more snippets of sex and nudity,
for which I am most grateful... But sadly this version leaves
out a few minutes of often very important dialog and several scenes
that give the characters more depth. When I heard about this I
pulled out my old bootleg and found that these missing bits are
defiantly not present; I have to admit that their absence hurts
the movie. Indeed, some of the nearly 10 minutes of missing footage
almost cripples the final third of the story as we are not given
some leading information that smartly keeps the mystery alive.
Some of the missing stuff sets up the very important final act
of violence that puts things to right. Surely this was not something
that should've been removed. Even though I've learned that Severin
used the best film elements available for this DVD, I'm quite
disappointed that there was no attempt to include the missing
footage in some way. If they were wary of compositing in less
sharp sequences from worse prints, a deleted scenes extra with
an explanation would have been a good middle path. But by not
even mentioning the other version of the film they have opened
themselves up to charges that have plagued other companies specializing
in cult films. Should we expect a future release of this movie
using all existing footage, as we recently had with Fulci's Lizard
in a Woman's Skin? Very frustrating.
Still,
if you look at this DVD as a release of a legitimate variant version
of the film (which it is, after all), there is plenty to recommend
it. Perversion Story is fantastic,
even in this less than optimal cut, providing a damned good story
and eye popping visuals with director Fulci pushing the style
button hard. Just witness the checkerboard-like screen shots of
the police lab at work, composed of more than ten separate images.
Each beaker or test tube is filled with a different colored liquid
and this high definition transfer makes the picture pop off the
screen. The film truly looks wonderful here, showing off the location
work in San Francisco well and making the sometimes trippy visual
set-pieces worthy of the rewind button —
and not just for the shots of bare female flesh. The image presented
here in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen is nearly prefect. If the
picture quality shown here is the way Severin plans to present
their films on DVD I can't imagine complaints will be taken seriously.
Both the Italian and English dubs are present with optional English
subtitles for the latter. Even thought the film was shot primarily
in English the Italian version might be considered superior because
of some slightly better choices in the dialog. As said before
there are no extras giving a look at the film or its cast and
crew but at least the theatrical trailer is provided. The real
added incentive for potential buyers of this DVD is the inclusion
of a separate audio CD of Riz Ortolani's jazz-influenced score.
I'm always happy to see more releases of obscure scores from this
period and even if this isn't one of the composer's best works,
it's still a very nice bonus. 4/01/07 |
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