Meurtre par intérim

It's ironic sometimes how a film doesn't turn out quite like its director intended, but the end result still outshines much of his other work; Lenzi reportedly wanted to make something akin to EASY RIDER (1969) but producer Carlo Ponti requested "the usual giallo" – besides, the drug-trafficking angle was changed to an even more lurid (and commercial) one involving pornographic material (hence, the alternate title DIRTY PICTURES)! Anyway, this is an atypical {sic} – thus interesting – effort from the genre's heyday: for once, too, the tone isn't overly glum (Bruno Lauzi's score, in fact, is infectiously upbeat most of the time) while being, as ever, a very stylish film.

The plot concerns two English kids (Ray Lovelock and under-aged Ornella Muti) traveling through Catholic Italy selling uncommon 'brochures' (Muti is perhaps too Mediterranean-looking to convince as an English girl, but she's sexy and generally delightful all the same). Being reckless, they never save what little money they make – when it's not stolen by those who 'befriend' them along the way (including a real-life motor-cycle dare-devil, dubbed "Crazy Tony", popular at the time!) – so the couple are forced to keep up the act…until they're betrayed to the Police by a potential customer who run them out of town. However, on the way, their car (stolen, of course) runs out of gas and the only nearby 'oasis' is a secluded villa they at first believe to be uninhabited; it transpires that rich American(!) Irene Papas (a curious presence in this type of film which, to my mind, definitely works in its favor) is inside and she catches them in the garage just as they're transferring petrol from one of the cars within into their own vehicle.

The woman's first reaction is to send the kids away, but she soon changes her mind and they're invited to feed and even stay the night. The couple's freewheeling antics seem to liberate the stiff lady of the house, too, and before the night is out, the trio are having themselves a party (cue some crazy zooms on the dancing participants – something I forgot to mention, by the way, in my review of Lenzi's A QUIET PLACE TO KILL [1970]) for which Muti also contrives to dress up in exotic fashion. Papas and Lovelock spend the night together but not before she's sent him to the garage to fetch her some cigarettes: looking in the glove compartment of her car, he finds a gun and instinctively picks it up. This, as it turns out, was a deliberate move on her part as the young man now has his fingerprints on the weapon – when the kids first arrived, Papas had been acting strangely and we soon discover why: her husband's body (whom she herself shot, being in cahoots with a lawyer who's intermittently seen trying to make contact with her) is stashed in the boot of the car! To add more conviction to her fabricated story – that the kids assaulted the household – Papas feigns an attempted rape…

Typically, the picture is filled with solid suspense touches and clever narrative twists: when the Police finally arrive, as Papas had predicted, it's her they believe; the kids, thinking otherwise (having drugged the woman and 'planted' the gun in her hands) take it easy as they're reaching the border, even deciding to go for an impromptu swim. However, as they're departing once again, the Police bars their way and, as was the case in the afore-mentioned Lenzi film (which I watched on the very same day as this one), it all ends with the kids running the car off the road and tumbling to their death – still, the director gives the whole a cynical conclusion this time around (accentuated by the reprise of the jaunty theme tune) as there's no redeeming last-minute stroke of irony here!

By the way, this too emerged to have the dual audio syndrome I encountered during my recent viewing of some of the "Euro-Cult" titles I've been going through. At first, I was disappointed that the Italian-language track was missing from this copy but, actually, it makes perfect sense here – since all three protagonists are foreigners anyway; then again, many of the Italian supporting characters do speak in their native tongue. Even so, some of the dubbing is unintelligible (particularly Umberto Raho's Police Inspector, who only appears towards the end) while, for about five straight minutes around the one-hour mark, the dialogue reverts completely to Italian for a scene which presumably was cut from the U.S. version of the film!

In my personal quest to track down and watch every single Italian giallo ever made, I encountered Umberto Lenzi's "An Ideal Place to Kill" (a.k.a. "Oasis of Fear") many times already, but for some inexplicable reason I always deliberately postponed my viewing of this film. I don't know why, but it always felt to me as if this wasn't a 100% genuine and full-blooded giallo, or at least that Lenzi never intended for it to be one. Along with handful of other prolific Italian genre directors, Lenzi undoubtedly was one of the masters of the giallo-sub genre and he contributed some excellent titles ("Seven Blood-Stained Orchids", "Knife of Ice", "Spasmo"…) but I'm personally persuaded that he wanted to do something more and different with this film. Rather than a giallo, I'd say this is more of a "lovers-on-the-run" thriller inspired by the huge success of Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde"; yet predating several other tremendously popular films in this theme, like "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry", "Badlands" and "The Getaway". Also, this "An Ideal Place to Kill" is reminiscent to Lenzi's own previous "Orgasmo" although that latter one qualifies as giallo a lot more.

Well, I perhaps refer to the two protagonists as "lovers on the run" but admittedly they aren't dangerous criminals at all. The handsome Dick and the more than ravishing Ingrid form a wayward and indecent hippie couple from England that are traveling through prudish Italy. They try to make some extra money by selling nude pictures of the gorgeous Ingrid and committing a couple of other petty crimes, which naturally leads to a confrontation with the local police and the command to leave the country immediately. They ignore this mandate, head further south and stop at a secluded mansion to break into the garage and steal petrol. They are caught by the middle-aged lady of the house, but instead of informing the police the woman – Barbara – invites them to the house. She claims to be nervous because her husband didn't come home, but she also shows a love-interest for the much younger couple and arranges a wild night. The next morning, however, Dick and Ingrid begin to suspect that Barbara hides a few sinister secrets and that she might even try to frame them for something they haven't done. Lenzi's semi-giallo principally thrives on style, lurid atmosphere and the downright fantastic performances of the three lead players. You'd expect Caroll Baker in the role of the mysterious Barbara, but the slightly older Irene Papas does a terrific job as well. The casting of both Ray Lovelock and Ornella Muti was a great idea, since they are incredibly beautiful kids that live fast and careless and absolutely don't have any moral or traditional values. There are a few intense sequences, notably the one in the birdhouse, but the overall tone of the film is lush and free-spirited (also steered by the unusually joyous pop-soundtrack). The climax, on the other hand, is cynically harsh and relentless, and it once more states clear that the "love & peace" sixties are over and gone!

I found Oasis Of Fear to be a good movie. It is about a young hippie couple that are trying to sell illegal pornography whilst they are in Italy. There is not too much nudity in the film, They drive around in a yellow open top sports car. they manage to break into the garage of this womens villa, and try to steal petrol from her car. she agrees to let them stay in her villa for the evening she then gets tortured by the young couple and they get involved in a murder case. I noticed that during some parts of the film. some sences were done with Italian subtitles, where there was no dubbed English. i thought that it was a good made exploitation film.

A young Scandinavian couple are rousted by the Italian police for selling nude photos of themselves. After, some strange misadventures with some gypsies (who rob them) they try to steal some petrol from the villa of a wealthy NATO colonel and are caught in the act by his wife. They charm their way into her house and seduce and victimize the older woman, but she has a surprising agenda of her own and soon the young couple find themselves embroiled in a murder and on the run from the law.

This is one of a string of superlative gialli directed by the enigmatic Umberto Lenzi starting with "Paranoia" in 1968 and ending with "Seven Bloodstained Orchids" in 1972. After that, Lenzi seemed to lose interest in the genre directing much lamer entries like "Spasmo" and "Eyeball" before moving into violent police thrillers and eventually stomach-turning third-world cannibal films. The plot of this movie somewhat resembles Lenzi's first giallo "Paranoia" with a young, free-spirited couple victimizing a wealthy, repressed older woman, but the older woman is much more than a victim here, the couple is much more sympathetic, and the story is told from a very different point of view. The ending is also similar to the ridiculous deus ex machina ending of the earlier film, but is much more believable (albeit much more cynical).

As the young couple, the movie features two of the most attractive actors of 70's European exploitation films in Ray Lovelock and Ornella Muti. But Lovelock, unfortunately, is dubbed and not speaking in his usual Scottish brogue and Muti was obviously too young to do the copious nude scenes that are, for once, necessary to the plot, so an obvious body double is used and every cinematic trick in the book employed (of course, this doesn't stop Lenzi from making like Jess Franco with the zoom lens every time the real actress bends over in her short-shorts). Both actors are pretty good though despite these liabilities. Special mention must go to Irene Papas though, who almost outdoes Caroll Baker herself in the Carroll Baker role.

I hate too admit it, but I kind of liked to pop music soundtrack too.

Most enjoyable outing from Mr Lenzi and whilst giallo-esquire is really quite a mixed bag. Starting off as a bit of a hippy drippy affair with a young uninhibited couple using their bodies and their guile to get a free holiday, this turns into something much darker. There is real suspense including a splendid Hitchcockian scene in an aviary, lots of nudity and some pretty nasty moments. Irene Papas ( 'Zorba the Greek' and 'Don't Torture a Duckling') lends considerable gravitas with her impressive performance as the mature woman with something of a problem to sort out. Ray Lovelock is appealing as the handsome young man who likes fast cars and faster women but it is the lovely 16 year old Ornella Muti who is always catching the eye. Apparently the almost too perfect nude shots are of a body double but we still get plenty of up the shorts shots as she bends obligingly forward. All three are a great asset and with a decent script and Lenzi's constant inventiveness, this is a fine piece of exploitation cinema.