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Saturday, May 10, 2014

Love and Death in the Garden of the Gods



Amore E Morte Nel Giardino Degli Dei
Italy 1972
D: Sauro Scavolini
P: Armando Bertuccioli for Hermann Film//St & Sc: Anna Maria Gelli & Sauro Scavolini//DP: Romano Scavolini//E: Francesco Bertuccioli (Asst: Aldaberto Ciccarelli)//M: Giancarlo Chiaramello//Costumes: Hertha Schwarz//Color
Cast: Erika Blanc, Peter Lee Lawrence, Ezio Marano, Richard Melville, Orchidea De Santis, Franz Von Treuberg, Vittorio Duse.



A Professor goes to the country to study and record bird calls. While searching the grounds of the villa he's staying at, he discovers a pile of old audiotape. He plays it and discovers the villa housed a tale of perversion and death. Freddie was in love with his sister Irma causing her to attempt suicide. Rescued by the family doctor, she won't reveal the cause for her despair. Meanwhile Freddie tries to have an affair with a friend of Irma, but he's imp[otent and in a violent rage kills her. Obsessed with Irma, he knocks her out, makes love to her and slits her wrists. He kills her psychiatrist and lover before escaping. After playing the entire tape, the Professor discovers Freddie has returned to the scene of his crimes and must deal with this very real threat to himself.

Sauro Scavolini wrote many of the best Gialli, especially those for Sergio Martino. This, his directorial debut, shows he has as much talent behind the camera as he did on the printed page. He makes all the usual first time mistakes (too may handheld shots, weird, arty farty camera angles) however, his ambitious screenplay is realized to good effect. Erika Blanc is fantastic as a raven-haired beauty (brother Romano Scavolini was the cinematographer) torn between her lover and brother's affections. When the latter gets out of hand, she decides to stop it before it starts. Peter Lee Lawrence plays the tortured brother to perfection and when he goes nuts near the end, Scavolini allows the violence (up to this point it hasn't played much of a part) to also go over the top. Scavolini's screenplays have always involved violence as the result of sexual torment and with this film, he displays the last word on the subject.

http://www.eurotrashcinema.com/

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