Il sesso del diavolo

What in the hell is SOUTH PACIFIC's Rossano Brazzi doing in SEX OF THE DEVIL? Damned if I know but it's directed by his brother, Oscar, which may have had something to do with it. Explaining the plot's a little trickier but here goes- Andrea (Brazzi), questioning his competence as a surgeon and suffering from impotency, takes his much younger wife (Maitena Galli) and medical assistant (Sylva Koscina) to Istanbul where he rents a villa that his friend Omar tells him was once occupied by a French sculptress who committed suicide. One of the two men following Andrea tries to kill him and the villa's housekeeper is right out of REBECCA, only she practices some sort of zodiac witchcraft when no one's around...

At one point, Omar says he's leaving and that Andrea should come, too, and when Brazzi replied, "Not until I solve this mystery", I had no idea what he was talking about -and still didn't when the movie was over. The film's nebulous premise resembles Umberto Lenzi's A QUIET PLACE TO KILL wherein troubled race car driver Carroll Baker goes to a Spanish villa to recuperate only to have things go from bad to worse as everyone traipses off to dance the night away at a disco. Same here -and speaking of which, the score by Stelvio Cipriani rips off Iron Butterfly's "Inagoddadavida" shamelessly. There's plenty of female nudity on display and the middle-aged Brazzi kind of comes close when he steps into the shower with his wife or rolls in the surf with Koscina like they were doing a soft core remake of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. Part exotic travelogue and part erotic photo shoot with a story (not to mention title) that makes no sense whatsoever, this is the very essence of "Eurotrash". The gang who subtitled this were obviously appreciative and put "That was some good acid, man" in the end credits.

Very much of its time, Sex of the Devil is the type of film often described as "trippy" or "wild." Whether or not these are synonymous with "good" is another matter. The filmmakers clearly value the plot less than the visuals, but I will do my best to describe it below.

Rossano Brazzi plays a surgeon on vacation in Istanbul with his much younger wife (played by Maitena Galli), a former model. The surgeon is suffering from feelings of inadequacy, particularly since his wife is something of a flirt. The surgeon's assistant (Sylva Koscina, here a blonde) seems to be making eyes at her boss. These three and a fourth, a friend of the surgeon, are staying in a villa under the watchful eyes of a maid, who is something of a witch. The friend is disturbed to find that they are all staying in the former home of a sculptress who committed suicide on that property. In addition, to all of that, there is not one but two mysterious strangers prowling around the grounds, one of whom, for some reason, wants to harm the surgeon (even after watching the film I am still fuzzy on why). In the course of the film, the characters find themselves repeating the late sculptress's love triangle.

I watched Sex of the Devil expecting a giallo. I suppose the film is, although the body count is low (two). One should not expect much in the way of mystery or murder. The film does offer some colorful photography, an ambiguous ending, bare breasts courtesy of Galli and Koscina, and a Stelvo Cipriani score that occasionally borrows from Iron Butterfly. If that sounds like enough for a movie, then so be it, but it was not for me.

Taking a pleasure cruise together, a group of friends arriving at a villa in Turkey believes the strange incidents they encounter are related to a haunting years earlier only to find a far more sinister reason for their trip and must find a way of stopping it from continuing.

This here was quite the bland supernatural thriller. One of the more engaging elements present here is the fact that the film really manages to accomplish the feat of building it's supernatural storyline quite effectively, as this comes about rather nicely. While the first half really showcases a lot of them enjoying their trip and traveling together, the incidental scenes showing the presentation of the drinking glasses in the special arrangement, the statue of the previous owner erected in the garden outside and the significance that has with the macabre history of the villa and finally the discovery of the artifacts left behind which work in conjunction with the mysterious maid living there so well here in giving this one the desired feeling of a sinister, witchcraft-like presence in the house. It takes on a slightly more sinister air with the revelation that they've been watched over the entire time inside, and by going for the slow- building psychological route here it evokes a hypnotic spell over this one even without doing much in the way of action or horrific elements. That does change slightly once it gets to the final half which finally brings about some sense to the action with the reveal about the mysterious death and their connection with it all which really gives this a chilling build-up into the final act with the way this one carries out the final twist at the end in a rather dark manner. In conjunction with the fine copious nudity from the lesbian relationship intertwined within it all, there are some things to like here although the fact that there are a few big, detrimental flaws here does hold this one back. Among the film's main flaws here is the fact that there's just so much dead space in the film that isn't all that engaging or enjoyable as nothing really happens during these scenes. The main culprit in that regard is the travelogue footage of everybody running around the city shopping, taking in the sights and generally acting like tourists which isn't exciting or all that thrilling and to get as much of it as we do here makes for quite a challenging introduction to the film as it's not in the slightest bit engaging during these parts. Likewise, the fact that it really takes it's time building up the witchcraft and the history behind the villa that it really feels like a much longer time than usual is spent on the build-up rather than following through on the horror-based scenario that's being built-up alongside here which is where this one really falls off the rails. The fact that it's hardly ever concerned with building up its horror atmosphere that by the time it gets to the actual horror intentions at the end it's completely uninteresting and half-baked by the time it gets there, really making this one come off rushed, underwhelming and really misses the point of what the main storyline was telling since it's never been the intention throughout here. These here really hold this one back.

Rated Unrated/R: Full Nudity, Mild Violence and some sexual elements.

The only person, so far to have reviewed this movie on IMDb does a pretty good job summing up the slight story and certainly helped me out! However I'm not sure he quite does justice to just what a heady brew this is. Always stunning to look at, style over substance all the way and the girls can't wear much in the way of clothes for very long. The music, yes completely unoriginal but irresistible nevertheless, thank you Mr. Cipriani compliments this sparkling giallo like production perfectly. No killings that I was aware of, oh come to think of it I suppose there were, deaths at least. Veteran actor, Rossano Brazzi, Barefoot Contessa, South Pacific and many others moved into TV in the eighties but in the seventies it seems he lent his name and presence to several of his brother's films, of which this is one. Sex, drugs and r&r must also have been involved in the transaction going by this little number but I'm sure much fun was had. Sylva Koscina who is taken along for the ride looks wonderful throughout, wearing some stunning dresses when she can be bothered, appeared in several gialli and will be a much loved and familiar face to many. Not much here by way of sophistication but suffice to say this goes straight into my little list entitled, Acid Erotica!

Nutty giallo of the mysterious nature as unlikely 'hero' Andrea, who is a surgeon who now fears his instruments and also has trouble using his personal instrument, much to the hilarity of his annoying young wife Barbara, who ridicules him every time he tries it on with her and fails. Trying to get himself together, he sets off for Istanbul with his wife, his mate Omar, and his assistant Sylva. Once there, Andrea starts boozing heavily and staring at the sea, mumbling stuff while Barbara does some dancing to a tune that sounds a lot like Iron Butterfly.

It's hard to describe the plot because half the stuff that happens may not have happened at all, but let's give it a try. Omar explains that the house belonged to a friend of his, a sculptress named Claudine, who killed herself but then may not have killed herself. Omar then has a vision of Sylva hanging from a tree while the creepy maid arranges drinks on a plate with the signs of the zodiac on it. Andrea can't get it up with Barbara and Barbara seems to be hitting it off big style with Sylva, as we get a couple of montage scenes of them running around Istanbul. Around this time some unknown person attacks a stone triptych with three faces on it and smashes one of the faces to pieces. Plus, there's two guys following Andrea everywhere, one of whom wants to kill him.

Andrea turns out to be the main focus of the film and the whole thing (I guess) might have something to do with his impotence? Or is Claudine really coming back and inhabiting the body of Sylva, who starts dressing and acting like Claudine about halfway through the film. The line between reality and dream becomes further blurred to the point where even Andrea looks confused about what happened in the last ten minutes of the film. The whole film is off the wall, with many characters suffering from visions throughout the film. I thought this had something to do with the maid putting something in everyone's drinks, but then that was never explained either so who knows? And what was that bit where Sylva struts down the street with that marching band? Or that creepy camera shot while Andrea and the maid are playing chess?

It was all strangely watchable, by the way.