Ehrbare Leute

A young and free minded schoolteacher (Jennifer O'Neill) is relegated in the far south of Sicily, where she quickly discovers the picturesque local habits: corpses begin to add up in front of her, spectacularly staged on the town place, some of them with "a flower in their mouth". While mandolin serenades happen to greet each event, how could she decipher the mystery among people silent and standstill for ages? Unlike the usual giallo scheme, the unknown killer here seems to protect and not to threaten her. But could the honor crimes of these "people of respect" be the pretense of a kind of manipulation around some big real estate project, which she should be the "useful idiot" for? Perhaps her lover (Franco Nero) will give her the clue; unless it would be her landlord (James Mason), a rich but declining patriarch. A dialogue with the local senator (Claudio Gora) in the ruins of an old Greek theater sums up the situation: she wants the truth, but for him it doesn't exist and above all can't never be told. Secrets will have to be dug out, even in the past, until heavy rains could come to cover all hints of evil. For her, she will have the choice "to leave, to live with the strong, or to stay miserable", or perhaps to lead her own way like an Aeschylean heroin, even if she should end "in an empty tomb like a holy scrap", like sadly the writer of this story who shall be later killed by the mafia.

A strange little film set entirely in an isolated Italian township. A young female teacher turns up and is played by SCANNERS starlet Jennifer O'Neill. A creepy guy begins harassing her on the bus and is later found dead, and she's suspected. Meanwhile, the townsfolk seem to be hiding a conspiracy of silence. Very little actually happens in this mood piece, although I suppose it's of one with old westerns like HIGH NOON and SHANE with locals showing collective weakness. James Mason and Franco Nero are typically good value in support.

Nobody - and I do really mean nobody - could make suspenseful, ultimately strange, and politically relevant thrillers like the Italians during the 1970s! This "Flower in his Mouth", for instance, is a uniquely gripping, convoluted and truly original motion picture, brought to an even higher quality-level by great performances and another staggering soundtrack by the one and only Ennio Morricone.

I could easily fill three pages with just the plot description but will stick to a short summary. Elena Bardi arrives in a secluded town community in Sicily to become the new schoolteacher. The gap between the rich and the poor couldn't be bigger in this town, and even though she's embraced by the rich, Eleni immediately shows care and sympathy for the poor and struggling families that cannot even send their children to school. Also shortly after her arrival, Elena gets publicly harassed by a man who approached her on the bus already. One day later that same man is found murdered and placed on a chair in the middle of the town's square with a flower in his mouth. According to the old Sicilian code, this means he was killed for offending a beautiful flower and thus implies somebody in town guards over Elena. From then, she's feared by the eminent people, and she uses this power to help the poor.

"Flower in his Mouth" features great roles for Jennifer O'Neill and the always reliable Franco Nero, and a downright powerhouse performance by James Mason, as the seemingly kind town's patriarch. Many sequences are complex, and I even found the last 10-15 minutes almost incomprehensible, but the film is eerily compelling and hypnotizing to look at. The many moments during Elena Bardi is gazed at by hundreds of silently judging eyes of townsfolk are hauntingly tense; - especially because they are guided by the mesmerizing tunes of Morricone's score.

Jennifer O'Neil becomes the latest victim to the strange customs of Sicily when she takes up a teaching job in one of its rural towns. She doesn't even make it off the bus before being harassed by some sleaze-ball and finds that the townsfolk don't even bother lifting a finger when the man continues to harass her in town.

Her landlord seems like a sweet, if gossipy, old man. James Mason claims that his family used to be powerful in the region, but now he's reduced to just watching the world go by, even though he seems to know an awful lot about what's going on in town. It also helps that one of her fellow teachers is hunky Franco Nero, with his moustache and staring.

However, that creep keeps annoying her and one day his corpse is found sitting on a chair in the middle of piazza with a flower in his mouth. The police of course suspect Jennifer, who is enraged by such accusations. Then again, the townsfolk have totally changed their attitude towards her, now bowing and doffing hats to her in the street. She also somehow becomes a champion of the poor folk of the town, and their political voice. What's going on? And who's killing the people who go up against her? And why the flower?

Not quite a murder mystery, not quite a Eurocrime film, this is more of a strange puzzle that Jennifer O'Neil has to solve as the audience watches on. It's not terribly action packed but Jennifer O'Neil is pretty good as a strong woman who won't put up with anyone's crap, including Franco Nero. She switches from confused woman to a ball of female rage (and back again!) at the drop of a hat. Nero on the other hand is rather subdued, but I'm guessing that's down to the character he's playing. Mason of course is great as James Mason, all hissing English charm.

Although I enjoyed it, I'm not sure others will. It's kind of lacking in action and gore, and isn't quite arty enough to be off the wall. Fans of Franco Nero's arse will be pleased to note that his arse turns up in this one. So stop asking about his arse!

I saw this under the title The Masters on video in the UK. I've seen a lot of Italian movies from this time and if you allow for the limitations of dubbing and budget this film is actually pretty special. The idea of one man manipulating a whole population of a small town is brilliantly handled, and acted by James Mason. Franco Nero and Jennifer O Neal both give decent performances as pawns in a much larger conspiracy. It also has some great inexplicable moments, the frozen bodies on the motorbike, the revelation of what James Mason keeps in his backgarden, the superstitions of the townspeople. This all adds to the intrigue of this fascinating film. Somewhere between exploitation and art this film represents just what I personally look for in Italian movies from the 70's. Recommended, but not for everyone.