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.
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