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Non si Sevizia un Paperino
Don't Torture a Duckling
Italy 1972
produced by Renato Jaboni (executive) for Medusa Produzione
directed by Lucio Fulci
starring Florinda Bolkan, Barbara Bouchet, Tomas Milian, Irene Papas, Marc Porel, Georges Wilson, Antonello Campodifiori, Ugo D'Alessio, Virgilio Gazzolo, Vito Passeri, Rosalia Maggio, Andrea Aureli, Linda Sini, Franco Balducci
story by Lucio Fulci, Roberto Gianviti, screenplay by Lucio Fulci, Roberto Gianviti, Gianfranco Clerici, music by Riz Ortolani
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Accendura is a small and slightly backwards rural village in Southern
Italy where nothing of interest ever happens ... until a young boy is
found brutally killed. The local police captain (Virginio Gazzolo) is
quick to make out the killer in local simpleton Barra (Vito Passeri), who
has tried to get ransom from the boy's parents, but it soon becomes all
too apparent that he had only jumped a bandwagon and tried to extort money
but had nothing to do with the murder even indirectly. Things get a bit
out of hand when more boys turn up dead, and soon a new culprit is found
in Magiara (Florinda Bolkan), an alleged witch who has lived in caves near
the town for years, and she even admits to the murders - but when she
insists she hasn't strangled the boys but put pins into voodoo dolls and
all evidence other than her confession prove her innocent, she's let go -
but local superstitions make sure that a small lynch mob slaughters her
anyhow. Now it's up to Marelli (Tomas Millian), a reporter from Rome,
and Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet), a rich girl from the city trying to beat
her drug addiction in the country who's shunned though for her liberal
lifestyle, to find the killer since the police seems to be rather
clueless, and it's not made any easier by the fact that Patrizia soon
comes under suspicion herself. The only one who offers help though is the
local priest (Marc Poreli), who has tried to fight superstition among the
locals for years but without success - but the little village it seems has
more skeletons in its closet than there are living souls, skeletons that
come back to haunt the living ... Made almost a decade before
director Lucio Fulci found his (permanent) home in horror, Don't
Torture a Duckling is a very well-conceived giallo that offers plenty
of expertly placed suspense scenes and jump scares, some gory shocks and
an abundance of macabre details, and it's also a film that really uses its
locations, not only for their exterior beauty but also to help tell the
story - a story that might be plenty confusing, but that's part of the fun
of the classic giallo. And in its own way, Don't Torture a Duckling
is also a very stylish movie and thus a delight to all fans of genre
nostalgia - as well as people just looking for some good thrills!
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