La rossa dalla pelle che scotta

THE SENSUOUS DOLL stars Farley Granger as a drunken painter who, after watching a group of free-loving hippies, is given a "female" mannequin to take home. At first, it's just a mannequin in a red wig. When he starts working on it, he also starts talking to it... a lot!

Lonely? Loony? Both?

Not-too surprisingly, said mannequin becomes a living woman (Erika Blanc), leading to jealousy, suspicion, and death.

This is a very strange movie. It approaches the level of BABA YAGA in its weirdness. While Granger spends most of his screen time looking stunned, Ms. Blanc has never looked or acted better!

Odd, but fun...

"The Redhead whose skin burns" follows the torments of a failed and alcoholic painter living in Istanbul, John (Farley Granger, Amuck alla ricerca del piacere), who is tricked and deceived by his sumptuous girlfriend and model (Erika Blanc, La Notte che Evelyn usci della tomba), who bears no surname but appears to be The Woman in a Carmen or Bardot way.

The film is somehow hard to catch, the tormented John living out of reality in a very confused state of mind. Like Pygmalion he seeks to create the perfect wife, "better than the real", who "should not talk back and always wait", and dreams to give life to a mannequin (Krista Nell, Rivelazioni di un maniaco sessuale), "an angel who never asks for something" gift of a hippie. Be aware that the Italian and the English versions are not exactly mounted with the same sequences succession, the one or the other seeming at some moments to be more coherent. The scene with the girl Mala (Ivana Novak, Sette Orchidee macchiate di rosso) for example fits well near the end like in the Italian one, but the same with the dramatic scene between John and his girlfriend as in the English. Sometimes it looks like as if the director has been hesitating between making a giallo or a sentimental drama.

Nevertheless, John is only interested in the purity of his art, disdained by the merchants Suleiman (Erol Keskin, You can't win 'em all) and Omar (Aydin Tezel, Il Sesso del Diavolo). But his girlfriend, free-minded and voluptuous, all but an object, wants to fly away and grasp all the pretty things of life, and she multiplies her love affairs, the main with a hunter (Venantino Venantini, La Morte negli occhi del gatto), who happened to pass near their house. John becomes more and more jealous and threatens to kill her, becoming like the painter who could kill his models as in The Madonna's Secret. Could he sell to her his soul just in order to possess her body, as even a priest told her once?

Should John finally escape from falling into madness by finding artistic success? Should his girl find on her side the freedom and love she needs near the man who could suit her? Could a passionate drama be avoided among this game of cheating and neurosis? The Istanbulites watch evenly these foreigners leading their tumultuous and sulfurous life until its conclusion. (Watched the Italian 1h24 and English 1h18 versions.)

I found this video, used, at a Mom-and-Pop video store in an obscure little town in Oregon (like vinyl and book aquisitions, look for out-of-the-way places). The video box boasted the Private Screenings label, usually known for releasing European and American soft-core features from the 60s and 70s. What interested me was the presence of Erika Blanc and Farley Granger. The box itself boasted an annonymous tart that had no connection with the movie.

What evolves is a (poorly edited) Italian giallo told in basically reverse order. Granger is an alcoholic artist bereft of inspiration, who may (or may not) be visited by a mute beauty borne of a lifeless mannequin (?) Granger had previously been involved with temptress Erika Blanc, and may (or may not) have murdered her. To tell more would reduce the fun quotient. Beware the Private Screenings release if you can. At least two scenes have been cut, and a rearranged sequence throws the narrative out of whack. Still, an interesting find and worth the hunt, especially for fans of Euro-babe Erika Blanc.

If you are a fan of Eurostarlet Erica Blanc, you will probably enjoy this movie in which Blanc plays a role very similar to the sexy succubus she played in "The Devil's Nightmare". Blanc plays an artist's mannequin come to life who starts out as a mute fantasy figure but soon turns into nightmarish femme fatale who tortures the artist with her increasingly blatant infidelities. The movie kind of reminded me of the later (and, of course somewhat better) Roman Polanski film "Bitter Moon" where a beautiful woman starts out as subservient to a shallow cad, but soon gains the upper hand to the point that you actually start to feel sorry for the guy.

The narrative is the typical Italian nonsense of the period where you're never sure if what is happening is real, supernatural, or a complete figment of the protagonist's imagination. Second-string Eurobabe Krista Nell is in the confusing prologue for some reason (only long enough to get naked, but I'm sure no one will complain). Blanc takes off her clothes a lot too, but compared to modern-day "erotic thrillers" (which it sometimes vaguely resembles)this movie is pretty tame. Unlike that garbage, however, this one does hold your interest beyond just the prurient, and even badly-dubbed, Erica Blanc and the male lead, American-expatriate Farley Granger, act circles around the performers of more modern-day erotic fare. This is pretty strange but worth seeing if you get a chance.

A depressed and alcoholic painter develops a relationship with a doll - does it come to life or are we watching something completely different unfold?

Farley Granger (who at this point did four memorable giallo thrillers in two years time - Something is creeping in the dark, Amuck, So sweet so dead and this one) stars alongside Krista Nell, Erika Blanc and other great stars from this period. This one is a surreal and odd film that to this day doesn't have a release worthy the film. I had an old American VHS release (really looking like something you'd rent in the adult movie department) before I upgraded to the Retromedia DVD (Eurofiends from beyond the grave) which is a raw transfer from what I presume would be a french or canadian negative and squeezed onto the same disc with the the movie Satanik so the resolution is not the best, but ok. Still I would love to see this movie in high definition as it actually is a better movie than many others in the genre but the current editions doesn't do the film justice. Also worth noting, this movie was released in a hardcore (inserts) version in europe, although I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Really, hope to see Vinegar Syndrome pick this one up for their Forgotten Giallo series, and give it the treatment it deserves. 6/10 on my giallo scale.