Arabella l'angelo nero

Whole intention of the movie seems to be showing Tinì Cansino's flesh. That's a pity, because this could have been a good Giallo. Lot of loopholes in plot - which by itself is not a big issue, because movies of this genre are not known for immaculate plots - but total focus on sex/sleaze & nudity has diluted the actual suspense part. Tini is not a good actress but she is hot & has given few very bold scenes.

Arabella is a beautiful and sexy housewife with a clear goal: to fulfill all her darkest sexual urges. Her husband, a writer who sits in a wheelchair after a car accident, takes inspiration in Arabella to give life to his new book charachter called Black Angel.

But Arabella, on her quest for pleasure, will soon find herself in a cruel, dangerous world, where the innocence of lust cannot fight envy, corruption, nor a serial killer with a pair of sharp scissors following her high-heel steps through the night.

Promising aesthethics in a giallo influenced erotic thriller.

They often say the greatest Gialli (excessively violent Italian murder mysteries) were only produced during the early 70s. Well, they are probably right. You can hardly refer to the late-80s "Arabella the Black Angel" as a good giallo, but boy is it ever entertaining!!! In fact, the whole giallo sub-plot is nothing but a mere footnote, since the film is primarily a semi-pornographic thriller full of demented characters with perverted fetishes and kinky after-dark habits.

Beautiful and voluptuous nymph Arabella, or Deborah, roams the streets at night and visits secluded bondage/orgy clubs because her beloved husband Francesco is paralyzed and can't physically please her. The reason why he's in a wheelchair is actually quite hilarious and, moreover, Arabella's own stupid fault! During a raid at the orgy club, she's raped by a filthy copper who subsequently lets her go, but only to show up at her front gate the next day for a second portion of joyful sex! Arabella knocks him dead with a hammer, because she knows Francesco is watching, and apparently this vile act sparks up their sex life again! Francesco encourages his wife to pick up random strangers for sex, while he writes her adventures down in a new erotic novel, but meanwhile there's also an unseen killer with shiny black gloves butchering Arabella's bed partners with a pair of scissors.

The plot continues to make utterly bonkers twists and turns, since the traumatized police inspector Gina (with massively oversized glasses to illustrate just how feminist she is) gets put on the scissor-murders case and her lesbian lover promptly backstabs her, but it's all too to insane and useless to write down. The only thing you need to know is that "Arabella the Black Angel" is purely unhinged Italian exploitation trash! The obvious giallo trademarks (black gloves, ominous music, vicious gore, etc) are definitely there, but quintessential things like suspense and surprise denouements are sorely missing. The identity of the scissor-killer is easy to guess, but it doesn't matter all that much, because the beauty of Tiní Cansino's continuous nakedness compensates for all the shortcomings. Director Stelvio Massi was a prolific Poliziotesschi director during the seventies, but during the 80s he had to revert to making sleazy flicks like this one.

Trying to revive a life that has ended, eroticism viewed more like a virtue, but burdened and victimized by the christian, puritan values that come from outside forces. Hard to judge performances in an italian movie from this era, the dubbing doesn't help, but everyone feels genuine in this, tinì cassino as the titular black angel is fantastic, a completely thankless role that is entirely focused on eroticism, sensuality, a genuine sex drive that falls under every scene. Stelvio massi's direction is fantastic, the 4:3 frame just acts as a great wavelength to where incredible blocking and camera movements are seemingly easy (which they aren't), the constant zooms, the glorious sense of atmosphere, this is a director's movie and the way he shoots bodies, the fog, the nighttime, and the outward virtues is glorious. R. filipucci's screenplay, because it is italian, is nonsense in many ways, but the structure allows this to form into something genuinely mysterious, i can easily say i didn't know what was going to happen, so kudos to that, the screenplay forms pretty perfectly where it allows a sense mystery and character to actually be built. A fantastically mesmerizing, erotic, tantalizing, unnerving, and genuinely disturbing movie that could only come from weird italians.

Tina Cansino plays Arabella,an extremely sexy and devoted wife by day and a horny prostitute by night!Turns out that she's doing her nightly activities for her invalid husband in order to get realistic details for his upcoming bestseller novel.Unfortunately the black gloved scissor-wielding killer is butchering and castrating anyone that can link Arabella to her decadent behaviour.Lesbian inspector Valentina Visconti tries to stop the series of slayings...Pure sleaze Italian style!"Arabella,the Black Angel" is a crazy and misogynistic giallo with silly twists and turns.There's a lot of graphic sex,copious frontal nudity,rape and gore.The plot is ludicrous and is mainly an excuse to show tons of naked female flesh.A must-see for fans of Italian exploitation-it's a crying shame that fully uncut version is so tough to find.