Psycho Maniacs

1974's "A Black Ribbon for Deborah" made three appearances on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater (under its simplified US title "Deborah"), the third by special request, but found few fans or even a cult following in the decades since. Marina Malfatti stars in the title role of infertile bride Deborah Lagrange, whose scientist husband Michael (Bradford Dillman) acknowledges that what she wants more than anything else is a baby. Her obsession with children manifests itself in psychic fashion, as she first anticipates a circus acrobat's fall, then almost kills a medium, Herman Ofenbauer (Gig Young), with forceful energy during a demonstration. The journey home is interrupted by a vehicle that crashes off the road, resulting in the husband badly shaken, his pregnant wife fighting for her life. Eventually Deborah befriends the woman, Mira Wener (Delia Boccardo), whose calming influence comforts Michael, but it's only the calm before the storm as Deborah reveals herself to be pregnant, despite her doctor's assurance that it would take a miracle for her to conceive. It's difficult to warm up to any of the characters, particularly the often hysterical Deborah, though an obviously disheveled Gig Young provides necessary exposition while pumping some life into the draggy narrative. Dillman can do little with his one note character, who truly loves his wife but remains helpless to provide what she needs. With her short Mia Farrow-style hair, the attractive Marina Malfatti looks decidedly unappealing, keeping the audience from identifying with her increasingly shrill and unbalanced plight. No true Giallo, though there are some otherworldly goings on that carry a measure of frisson, but only for those viewers who manage to stay awake. Stephen Boyd's "Marta" was another Italian psychodrama that aired on Chiller Theater, featuring the considerable charms of Marisa Mell to carry it through in far more intriguing fashion than this turgid soap opera can muster.

A Black Ribbon for Deborah tries to be an intriguing thriller, but unfortunately it's over reliance on atmosphere that isn't there and tension that is hard to care for means that the film just doesn't work very well. The film takes obvious influence from Rosemary's Baby and is often labelled as a part of the Giallo genre; although this is not the case. Director Marcello Andrei focuses solely on the lead character and her situation; there's no murder plot or anything else to tie this film to the Giallo genre other than the fact that it's an Italian thriller. The plot focuses on Deborah Lagrange; a medium with a strong psychic power. She is obsessed with the idea of having a child in spite of the fact that she is unable to conceive. After witnessing a car crash involving a pregnant woman, Deborah comes to believe that she has become pregnant and even begins showing signs that she is carrying a baby. However, her doctor assures her husband that it's just a phantom pregnancy...

The film is far too slow and the director doesn't offer much in the way of background entertainment which ensures that it is boring for the most part. The look of the film is very bland - certainly not what I've come to expect from Italian films - and that's a real shame. The bland cinematography is matched by an uninspiring music score as well as two unbelievable lead performances. Normally I wouldn't mind too much about bad acting in an Italian cult film, but this one is clearly aiming slightly higher and the lack of decent performances serves only in bringing it crashing back down. The pace of the film is akin to that of Rosemary's Baby; but the major difference between the two is that Polanski's film was endowed with interesting events that happened while the film ran slowly, whereas this one isn't. I wasn't expecting to be blown away by the ending; and indeed I wasn't. Rosemary's Baby can get away with an ambiguous conclusion, but A Black Ribbon for Deborah needed much, much more. Overall this is a turgid little thriller and one that will not be of interest to anyone other than the most patient of cult film fans.

What are you trying to do to me, film? I was all out for watching some sort of Giallo judging by the title, and instead I get a tepid film of pregnancy, moaning, and marital strife. I could have switched off the film and just lived life, morons!

Marina Malfatti (with a fetching Mia Farrow haircut that highlights her rather lengthy neck) can't have kids. She's not happy with this either and it seems to causing all sorts of psychological problems, like predicting a horrible accident at the circus. Her husband is supportive enough despite trying to get his end away with another lady, but things go pear-shaped when they attend a paranormal event hosted by the strangely named Gig Young.

As it's the mid-seventies Gig's all into the paranormal and wants to display psychic abilities by guessing the name of a book Marina has chosen by having the guests telepathically send him the title of the book, Marina ends up usurping his glory instead by having a vision of her own that involves flashing lights and loads of glasses of whiskey exploding. This also serves to lull the viewer into thinking they're up for something good.

On the way home from this party an impatient driver tries to overtake Marina and her husband and ends up crashing, where Marina spends a moment with the seriously injured female passenger (Dellia Boccardo). The next day, Marina's feeling a bit queasy, the dog doesn't like her anymore, and she suspects that she might have we what call back in our home town 'Irish Toothache'.

Yep, Marina's now preggy, but her husband and her doctor think that she wants a baby so much she's suffering from the old phatom pregnancy (and nobody bothers doing an ultra sound because I guess that would ruin the film). Is Deborah pregnant? And why is Dellia Boccardo now appearing everywhere?

Sadly, this film really bogs down in the marital strife, arguing, and staring around the place in fear. Surely someone at some stage in the production of this film could have said 'Look, this is going to turn out really boring', because that's what it is, a really tepid Rosemary's Baby rip-off with very little going for it except some nice credits and one good supernatural bit. What a let down.