Lucio Fulci’s Don’t Torture a Duckling was released in 1972. It’s usually regarded as a giallo but it’s not quite a conventional entry in that genre.
The setting is a very traditional poor rural small in southern Italy, whereas most gialli have wealthy modern urban settings and if they’re set in Italy are more likely to be set in northern Italy. Don’t Torture a Duckling takes place in a world still dominated by superstition.
A young boy is kidnapped, or at least he has disappeared and there is reason to think he has been kidnapped. We see him and his two friends and they appear to be no wilder than most young boys.
In the very early stages of the movie we are also introduced to a number of rather odd characters. There’s Guiseppe Barra. We see him spying on a couple of prostitutes servicing their clients in an old warehouse. Barra is a bit simple-minded but is generally regarded as perfectly innocuous. There’s a woman wandering in the woods who looks like she’s stepped straight out of the Middle Ages. We later find out she is Maciara (Florinda Bolkan) and she seems to practise witchcraft. Of course it’s unlikely that she has any supernatural powers. She is probably a bit crazy but totally harmless.
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There’s Francesco. He practises magic but he’s widely respected even by the local police and clergy.
Then there’s Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet), a beautiful young blonde with a rich daddy. She had a reputation as a bit of a wild girl. We see her flaunting her naked body in front of a young boy. She might be twisted and perverse, or she may be indulging in good-natured teasing.
We’re also introduced to the popular young parish priest, the experienced levelheaded older cop and the much keener young detective lieutenant. And lastly persistent newspaper reporter Andrea Martelli (Tomas Milian).
There are several murders. The victims are all young boys. None were sexually assaulted.
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The police arrest suspects which only leads to disasters. Andrea plays amateur detective and uncovers some clues.
The major problem is that once you’re ten minutes into this film you know exactly how it’s going to end and the grindingly obvious ending you fear and anticipate does indeed come to pass. A potentially great movie ends in a trainwreck.
The acting is pretty good. Seeing Tomas Milian in a sympathetic role took some getting used to. Barbara Bouchet is extremely good. It is however Florinda Bolkan who effortlessly steals the movie with her powerhouse performance. An extraordinary actress at the top of her game.
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The violence in the first half of the movie is very restrained and the potentially disturbing murder scenes happen entirely off-camera. Later on we get an incredibly brutal scene which really is disturbing and powerful. And at the end we get a totally pointless exercise in crude gore which makes the disastrous ending even worse.
This is a giallo but it lacks all the superficial giallo trademarks.
The setting is interesting and the location shooting looks good. There’s not much here in the way of impressive visual set-pieces. This is much less stylish than other Fulci movies I’ve seen.
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The Blue Underground DVD which I bought years ago still looks fine although it’s lacking in extras. There have been other DVD releases and the film has since been released on Blu-Ray.
I’m a major Lucio Fulcio fan and I still regard The Devil’s Honey (1986), One on Top of the Other (AKA Perversion Story, 1969) and A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971) as authentic masterpieces. I even liked Aenigma (1987). Which makes Don’t Torture a Duckling all the more disappointing. I saw this movie fourteen years ago. I hated it at the time and seeing it again just confirms my very low opinion of it. A poor movie from a very very good director.