Io Ti Amo is a deliriously camp musical with Iconic Italo-French-Egyptian pop-star Dalida, a cross between Italian musicarello, a Douglas Sirk and Bollywood, deserves to get late night screenings a'la The Rocky Horror Picture Show, if only the foreign audiences could bother to sing along songs in Italian!
This film is often seen as anomaly in Margheriti's career - however it is not that unusual in the general context of Italian B cinema of the time. At the very core - this is a Musicarello - a very Italian variation of Musical comedy or melodrama, featuring pop stars in the main parts and usually built around a hit song or songs it has to promote - pretty much like the music videos. In fact musical numbers here could be easily cut and used as music videos for Dalida's songs. Unsurprisingly many of these were featured on her Italian language album released in 1968 and Italian song compilation album released in 1969. So in a way the film is one long promotional video!
Actually many crazy camera angles and tricks would work much better in the music video then in a feature film but then, when this was made, music videos hadn't been invented yet. Instead, they had Musicarelli.
Many Italian exploitation directors made Musicarelli - actually I think even Lucio Fulci made much more of these than the horror films but the fans of his gory works simply ignore the other part of his career, and the same is true for many other B-movie directors from Italy, including Margheriti.
However it is worth remembering this was the only film that Margheriti signed off with his own name and not as Antony Dawson or Antony Daisies.
Many fans of the "Exploitation" cinema tend to focus more on violence/sex type of exploitation, conveniently forgetting other enormous slice of exploitation cinema - tearjerkers. And while admittedly this type of overblown melodramas nowadays are mostly relegated to soap operas on TV, but even mainstream Hollywood keeps churning them out: after all every Nicholas Sparks adaptation or every remake of Endless Love (as well as every variation of twilight) are basically the same old good melodrama, tacky and simple, and yet very appealing to its target audience.
But there is more to IoTi Amo.
Apart from showcasing Dalida's songs (Lupo also has two songs - but these are nothing more than him just talking over a musical accompaniment and background singers), the film also works as travelogue with a picture postcard perfect views of Rome, Naples and environs...
But what makes this film even more interesting that it actually ties in with the best film of Margheriti - Gothic horror Danza macabre/Castle of blood (1964) with Barbara Steele (that he would remake with Michelle Mercier, Antony Franciosa and Klaus Kinski in just two years after the release of Io ti amo).
Story does start as a Bollywood melodrama set in picturesque italian settings, but as it goes on, things get darker, more "gothic" with volcano, abandoned house, all the dusty furniture and candelabras... and then... but I won't spoil it for you here, you have to see the film to know what I mean.
However, this doesn't mean that you HAVE TO SEE IT. It is a very, VERY acquired taste. For me it is a hilariously uber-camp Musical Melodrama that can be quite rewarding if you are in the right mood, if you like melodramas or camp, but I am afraid everybody else would simply hate it.
