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“Terrible things are going to happen, I see blood.”
The 1970s were the swinging heyday of Italian 'giallo' cinema with a veritable
glut of gruesome and sexy thrillers filling silver screens far and wide.
However, by 1978 gialli were becoming a bit worn out – but meanwhile the market
for adult entertainment was exploding – and while many of Italy's pulp
thrillers flirted with sexuality and eroticism, few straddled the line this
side of full-blown flesh flicks quite like Enzo Milioni's The Sister of
Ursula...
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screenshots…
“It feels as if you could reach out for the sky.”
Dagmar Beyne (Stefania D'Amario, Zombi) and her curious sister
Ursula (Barbara Magnolfi, Suspiria) check in to a hotel on the
beautiful Amalfi coast, somewhere down the line in the search for their absent
mother. Sitting pretty on Daddy's fortune, inherited after his untimely death,
the sisters' relationship is a close – but fractious – one. Dagmar is casual
and confident in her sexuality, while Ursula is timid and extremely possessive
over her personal things. Indeed, while Dagmar wastes little time (a mere
three minutes) before stripping off completely, her sister – seemingly
sensitive to psychic goings on – is ready to leave immediately, and no doubt
fire off an arsey review on Trip Advisor.
“You could have had a good shag, rather than just
looking.” Dragged to the hotel's night club, Ursula is forced to mingle
with the various denizens of the swanky establishment. Owner and Operator
Roberto Delleri (Vanni Materassi), sultry singer Stella Shining (Yvonne
Harlow), embittered Mrs Vanessa Delleri (Anna Zinnemann) and, much
to Ursula's distaste, skirt-chasing junkie Filippo (Marc Porel, Don't
Torture A Duckling). With his cocksure attitude, brooding eyes, and Saturday
Night Fever style shirt, he's soon courting the attention of Dagmar.
“No, it wasn't a nightmare, it was worse than that.”
So far so groovy, but a voyeuristic killer is stalking the area. Content to
watch paid couples get their softcore thing on first (nuzzled nether regions
and smooth saxophones ahoy), the looming (and curiously rising)
shadow of doom inevitably follows – and the first of several grizzly
discoveries gets local tongues waggling. The event sets Ursula's strange senses
tingling and quickly she's adamant that Felippo is the ne'er do well suspect
number one, sure to tear them apart from one another. Drug running, open
relationships, and a pile of bodies follow – but who's wielding that bizarre
bludgeon, and why?
“It was just another crime of passion.”
Milioni's The Sister of Ursula (aka The Curse of Ursula) skimps
when it comes to crimson chaos – viewers will yearn for Argento style torrents
of blood – but engorges itself on young, firm flesh. Boobs, butts, willies and
bush, it's all frequently on-show here, as Mimi Uva's score practically creates
a Pavlovian response – smooth jazz? Time for tits. Sinister stabs? Time for …
well, not an awful lot unfortunately.
“When you lose someone you love it's like losing your
own life.” Aside from a few splashes of the sanguineous stuff
post-mortem, albeit revealing a disturbing modus operandi, the film is a bit
soft when it comes to thrills. Clearly Milioni's focus is centred much more on
bodies than blood, psychic mysteries and hidden secrets instead of who-dunnit
red herrings (see The Case of the Bloody Iris for a wonderful
collection of potential killers). Still though, the classic image of a
leather-gloved, hat-wearing killer in black – a mainstay of the giallo movement
– remains, albeit in fleeting glances.
“So what's left to us other than our blind eyes that
lead us astray?” Shameless Screen Entertainment's 45th DVD
release comes in the Italian language with English subtitles, and boasts a
clean 2.0 audio and 16x9 video presentation for the most part. The credits
exhibit particular grain, and the film has a few scratches and splotches
throughout, but ultimately it's a solid effort. The release comes with
trailers, and a thirty minute 2008 interview with Milioni (from Severin
Films), which proves to be an informative, candid, and heartfelt watch.
Among other topics, the Writer/Director discusses how the film came to be, and
the tragic story of Marc Porel who was – at the time of filming – Barbara
Magnolfi's partner. This particular release is limited to 2,000 copies, with
each edition numbered (mine is #1901), and a choice of covers – an
original, as well as a brand new piece by the hugely talented Graham Humphreys
(his rendering perfectly captures Magnolfi's arresting gaze).
“I earned your money, don't you think?” Light
on violence, but loaded with sex, Enzo Milioni's film trades sinister shocks
for lush locations (captured to full effect by Vittorio Bernini). It's
not up there with the best that gialli has to offer, but it lounges comfortably
somewhere in the middle of the pack with its knickers off and a mysterious
smile on its face.
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