The sister of Ursula
Two sisters, Ursula and Dagmar, arrive at a seaside hotel. Ursula, played by Barbara Magnolfi is a bit of a strange one. She seems to take an instant dislike to the people she meets. Her sister attributes this to her psychic powers where she seems to be able to see everything about a person. The hotel has its fare share of characters, including Yyvonne Harlow as club singer Stella Shining and her junkie lover Fillipo. The resort is being terrorised by a killer with a fetish for watching people screw before stepping in and raping the women to death with his huge cock. Naturally the sisters get drawn into the mystery and need to discover who the killer is.
This one's a fairly bog standard giallo picture enlivened by liberal doses of filth. Its an utterly sleazy affair with plenty of gratuitous bush shots and soft core action. apparently it was briefly hardcore before the director stepped in and put his foot down. It was also initially intended to be a much more classy affair with Dirk Bogarde appearing before the producer decided to slash the budget and make things more 'commercial'. Its not a great film in terms of quality, however the excellent location and the sheer sleaze of the piece make it worth a punt.
Designated victim.
Tomas Milian plays Stefano Augenti, a successful fashion designer who is under the thumb of his rich wife. He's fallen in love with someone else and wants to sell the business for a huge amount and leave for south america with his new lady. However the shares are all in his wifes name and she won't sell. While in Venice Stefano makes friends with "Count" Matteo Tiepolo, a foppish aristocrat who makes Stefano a proposition. He will kill Stefano's wife and in return Stefano must kill his domineering brother. Stefano brushes this off as a joke, however the count begins turning up unexpectedly until one night his wife is murdered. Stefano soon discovers that Tiepolo has decided to go ahead with his part of the bargain and has set things up so Stefano either goes to Jail or kills Tiepolo's brother.
The film is an excellent update of Hitchcock's strangers on a train. Pierre Clémenti is terrific as the count, seemingly friendly on the surface but utterly unhinged underneath. He plays it as the character has an unspoken homosexual attraction to Millian's character. While Milian plays his character as essentially a nice guy, a little dumb and deeply flawed perhaps, but not necessarily a bad person.
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