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3
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10
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Guest
Review by Troy
Howarth |
While
vacationing with her sister, Ursula (Barbara Magnolfi) has a
premonition of her own death; simultaneously, a mysterious killer
is knocking off the guests as their seaside hotel...
Beginning
with the release of Mario Bava's seminal The
Girl Who Knew Too Much (1962) and Blood
and Black Lace (1964), the Italian giallo established
itself as a colorful and perverse variation on the mystery-thriller
genre. Bava's early efforts set the standard, but it was up
to Dario Argento to take the genre to its commercial peak with
a series of stylish gialli in the early-to-mid 70s, notably
The Bird
with the Crystal Plumage (1970) and Deep
Red (1975). Argento's success spawned a daunting volume
of imitations, ranging from the excellent (Paolo Cavara's Black
Belly of the Tarantula, 1971) to the dire. Enzo Milioni's
Sister of Ursula falls firmly into
that latter category.
Devised, according
to its director, as a simple-minded commercial venture to ensure
financing for a more lofty 'serious' film pegged to star Dirk
Bogarde, Valentina Cortese and Gabrielle Ferzetti, the project
marked an inauspicious debut for Milioni. The story parrots
Argento's use of vaguely paranormal tropes, but much of its
running time is devoted to gratuitous sex. The murders are few
and far between, and none of them pack any appreciable impact,
but the notion of the killer's favored weapon is memorably kinky:
a well-endowed phallus that literally tears the female victim's
innards into coleslaw. Perhaps fortunately, Milioni opts not
to dwell on the details of the evisceration in any graphic detail,
limiting the gore quotient to a few posed tableaux of the nude
victims dabbed with blood in their genital region.
This distasteful
bit of sadism to one side, the film is more concerned with bumping
and grinding than it is with violence. There is graphic full
frontal nudity —
male and female, for once —
aplenty, with pretty Stefania D'Amario (best known for her role
as Richard Johnson's doe-eyed assistant in Lucio Fulci's Zombie,
1979) disrobing at the drop of a hat. Gorgeous Barbara Magnolfi
(the bitchy dancer in Argento's Suspiria,
1977) doesn't participate in any of the sex scenes, and her
nudity is limited to some discreet views of her breast when
it slips free of her night gown. More's the pity, really, since
her character is so ill-developed and disagreeable that it makes
it impossible to care what happens to her. D'Amario fares somewhat
better —
at least she's painted in a more sympathetic manner —
but her performance is strictly functional; at one point she
masturbates with a necklace for no particular reason (watch
out for those sharp edges!). It's all for the sake of art, no
doubt, but the extended lovemaking sessions, scored with monotonous
sleazy jazz, are staged with little enthusiasm and generate
little, if any, heat. The opening sex scene, with a very attractive
and nicely full-figured starlet simulating fellatio, is one
of the few scenes to generate any enthusiasm. Among the supporting
cast, "guest star" Marc Porel (Don't
Torture a Duckling, The
Psychic) is on hand for much more screen time than his special
billing would indicate; by this time, the actor was in the throes
of drug addiction that would eventually claim his life far too
prematurely, but he's still an amiable and engaging performer.
Milioni's handling
of the material is completely flat. The cinematography is dull
and overly bright, robbing the film of any possible atmosphere,
and the jazz/synth score by Mimi Uva sounds more appropriate
for a hardcore spectacular than a giallo; a song, titled "Eyes,"
must have been pegged for hit single status as it gets way
too much play. Though far from the absolute bottom of the giallo
barrel, Sister of Ursula is still
decidedly lower tier —
rabid genre enthusiasts will want to give it a spin, of course,
but don't go in expecting something along the lines of Bava,
Argento, Fulci or even Sergio Martino.
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Severin's
release of The Sister of Ursula continues
their track record of giving second-rate films first-rate releases.
That's a bit of an exaggeration, of course — they have indeed
tackled some excellent films, notably their Fulci releases — but
it does seem a shame to give a film like this such a nice release
while other, better gialli languish in semi-oblivion. That said,
Severin cannot be faulted for their transfer. The film looks as
good as the cinematography will allow. Colors appear accurately
rendered, detail is reasonably sharp and print damage is fleeting.
(It should be noted that the opening credits look inferior to
the remainder of the feature.) The film is said to be fully uncut,
though there are a few odd jump cuts — that said, this could just
be bad editing. The 1.85 transfer is enhanced for widescreen TVs;
compositions look balanced and correct. The Italian mono soundtrack
is clean and clear, and the removable English subtitles are easy
to read. (The tendency to refer to sex as "shagging," however,
seems a bit incongruous in such a sleazy picture.)
Extras include a spoiler-filled theatrical trailer (also in 1.85)
and a half-hour interview with the director. Milioni comes across
as a down-to-earth and likable guy, so much so that it almost
makes one feel guilty for not liking his film. 4/23/08 |
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