La tarántula del vientre negro

"The Black Belly of the Tarantula" is a typically grandiose title in this genre of film known as the Giallo. Giancarlo Giannini stars as Inspector Tellini, a police detective on the trail of a killer. This killer is targeting the female clients of a health and beauty salon, and employs a particularly insidious method. They inject their victims with the poison from a rare species of wasp, and this poison thoroughly incapacitates them, so that they're unresponsive but conscious when they get carved up with the killers' blade.

Giannini is low key and likable in the lead role. His time on the job is contrasted with his more mundane home life with his wife Anna (Stefania Sandrelli), and it's actually what director Paolo Cavara *doesn't* do that makes this an interesting film of its kind. He doesn't concern himself with being overly stylish, instead opting for a slightly more matter of fact approach. Fans of this genre need not be concerned, for there is still quite a bit of female flesh to ogle and some bloody brutality to enjoy, but Cavara does an engaging job of combining the psychosexual proclivities of the maniac with a police procedural and a little bit of lightweight domestic drama.

All of the ladies just look ravishing, of course. Claudine Auger ("Thunderball") plays salon boss Laura, Barbara Bouchet ("Casino Royale" '67) is unhappy married woman Maria Zani, and Barbara Bach ("The Spy Who Loved Me") is the receptionist, Jenny. Silvano Tranquilli offers a fine supporting performance as Maria's husband Paolo, who decides to play amateur sleuth when he falls under suspicion.

Good pacing and a fairly tense finale help to make this a good entertainment, as well as a deliciously unconvincing dummy fall.

Seven out of 10.

From the recent spate of giallo releases via the Blue Underground label, this was the one I was most looking forward to; still, now that I've watched the film, the proclamation on the DVD sleeve of its being "The Best Giallo Ever Made" is an exaggeration - as it's not quite in the same league as the best of Mario Bava, Dario Argento, or even Lucio Fulci!

Despite being made by people not usually associated with the sub-genre (director Cavara had started out in "Mondo" documentaries!), most of the requisite elements are present - and this, I have to say, is its major weakness: though the killer's modus operandi here is undeniably original and particularly vicious, the settings, (mostly irrelevant) plot complications and the unconvincing explanation at the end are all-too-typical, thus making the whole somewhat predictable (down to the identity of the murderer!), if never less than enjoyable and occasionally exciting (the rooftop chase scene above all). Still, as shot by Marcello Gatti, the film is stylish enough (even if the technique isn't really pushed to the limit as in, say, the films of Argento) and, in any case, it has two major assets in the performance of Giancarlo Giannini (as bewildered a giallo protagonist as one can get though, for once, he is a cop and a fairly intelligent, albeit disillusioned, one at that) and a typically unforgettable, indeed irresistible soundtrack courtesy of the tireless and ever-inspired Ennio Morricone.

One can't have a giallo without the presence of a bevy of beauties - most of whom get to shed their clothes and are soon shown on the receiving end of the killer's paralyzing poison-tipped needle: Barbara Bouchet (appearing, all-too-briefly, as the first victim in one of the most effortlessly erotic openings to any film!), Barbara Bach and Stefania Sandrelli (who, alas, is too often left by the wayside - though she does share a love scene with Giannini - and whose voice, as far as I can tell, was dubbed even in the Italian version!). The notable cast also features Claudine Auger, Silvano Tranquilli, Rossella Falk and Eugene Walter (as a patronizing gay waiter, whose vaguely androgynous features were later utilized to startling effect in another solid giallo, Pupi Avati's THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS [1976]). Trivia note: I got to see Giannini, Sandrelli and Bouchet at the 2004 Venice Film Festival (the latter on more than one occasion, since she was a guest of honor during the Italian B-movie retrospective!).

After an opening sequence featuring a beautiful woman enjoying a lovely massage, BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA finds the woman and her husband fighting over her having an affair and subsequent blackmail. This leads to a rubber-gloved, mask-wearing murderer using a unique method to dispatch the unwary, unfaithful wife.

Inspector Tellini (Giancarlo Giannini) suspects the husband, that is, until more, identical murders follow. As Tellini delves deeper into the case, he finds himself the target of the maniac he's trying to catch.

Stylish and suspenseful, this is a classic giallo from the genre's high point. Giannini's character is more human than the typical cop role. He plays a man ready to chuck his whole career, just as the vicious killer gets going, making Tellini more believable.

Co-stars Barbara Bach as the unfortunate Jenny...

In 1999, these films were impossible to get a hold of, and you had to look hard to find someone who would sell you them on the grey market. It is for this reason that my mate Marco and me found ourselves in the back room of some video store on Ingram Street, Glasgow city centre, staring into a filing cabinet jam packed with video nasties, category 3 Hong Kong films, and otherwise unavailable films like this. Marco bought this one. I watched the first five minutes and decided it looked boring, little knowing how obsessed by these films I'd be in a few years time. Also, I had no idea how bald I would become. And I didn't know YouTube would exist either. We were all young and naïve back then.

If there was a generic starters pack for giallo newbies I'd definitely include this one. It's a straightforward giallo plot as in it has one masked/gloved/hatted killer, plenty of suspects, a couple of red herrings, a clue at the start of the film, quirky characters, nudity and a bit of gore. It doesn't deviate from the formula but it's a good film anyway, thanks to Ennio Morricone's music, the lovely cinematography, and some good moustache action from Giacarlo Giannini.

It all starts off with Barbara Bouchet (a Bond girl) getting a nude massage from a blind guy and then getting into a fight with her husband because someone's sent him a nude picture of her with a mystery man. Next thing you know some gloved killer has paralysed her with a needle, then cut her open while she can only watch in horror.

Depressed policeman Giancarlo Giannini (whose eccentric wife has sold all the furniture in the house!) is on the case, and thinks the husband did it, but when another victim appears and he uncovers a drug smuggling ring into the bargain, things heat up a bit. It doesn't help that he's the laughing stock of the force when the killer plants some evidence that turns out to be a covertly made film of the policeman and his wife in bed.

There's a neat rooftop chase in this one too, and although it's a case of one killer all the way through, it makes for a good journey all the way through, thanks to appearances by Claudine Auger (a Bond girl) and Barbara Bach (a Bond girl) and Giancarlo Prete (not a Bond girl). There's also the requisite scene in a fashion store amongst mannequins that these films seem to require by law.

La tarantula dal ventre nero is a nice Giallo dealing with a a series of victims being paralyzed by injecting a poison and then their corpses ripped open while they still alive. Inspector Tellini, Giancarlo Giannini, investigates the murder of a nymphoniac : Barbara Bouchet, then other astonishing series crimes are carried out much in the same as tarantulas are killed by the black wasp. There are various suspect people : a husband and insurance broker as prime suspect : Silvano Tranquilli, a drug dealer, a lover, a massage parlor owner, a blind person, a saleswoman and the clues lead to a sauna. With the needles dipped in deadly venom the victims are paralyzed, so they must lie awake and watch themselves die!

Decent Gialli with well-shot heinous murders , thrills, chills, red herrings, and suspense. This intrigue film contains usual Giallo ingredients : a killer with gloves, barroque style, unsettling and disturbing interiors and sadistic and ritualized murders. Here the main interest resides on finding out the murderer and to see the surprising victims being paralyzed by accupunture needles with deadly venom introduced in their necks and bellies being ripped open with a knife .This is one of several Gialli regarding an animal in the script and its title similar to other Dario Argento films as The bird with crystal plumage, 4 mosche develluto grigio, The cat of 9 tails or La coda dello Scorpione by Sergio Martino. Here stands out some notorious Italian actresses as Stefania Sandrelli, Annabella Incontrera, Rosella Falk and Bond GIrls : 3 young beauties as Barbara Bach who married Ringo Starr and played The Spy who loved me, Barbara Bouchet of Casino Royale and the recently deceased Claudine Auger of Thunderball.

Stirring and haunting musical score by prolific Ennio Morricone in the Seventies style, including voicalists exhaling mysterious sounds. As well as colorful and brilliant cinematography by Marcello Gatti. The picture was professionally directed by Paolo Cavara. He was a good filmmaker who made a few films until his early death at 56 . At his beginning he directed Mondo films as La donna nel mondo, 1962. Then he directed all kinds of genres as comedy, terror, thriller, Spaghetti Western and mystery, such as La Locandiera, Virilita, The Ravina, Plot of fear and Johnny Ears and Deaf. Rating 6/10. Acceptable and passable Giallu.