Lo strano ricatto di una ragazza perbene

An average tale of a stoned out hippie girl posing to be kidnapped by her delinquent friends to squeeze money from her wealthy father. Reasonably well scripted and acted and sufficiently sleazy, this one is worth a look, yet lack of ambition condemns it to video obscurity.

Notable for the fact that the hippie girl is topless for the better part of the film.

Released on VHS in Finland in the early eighties.

This movie starts out with a long gratuitous topless dancing scene in a disco, a long gratuitous topless dancing on the beach, and more brief but equally gratuitous orgy scene. Finally though, it settles down into the story of a spoiled, stoned-out hippie girl (Brigitte Skay) who convinces her boyfriend and friends to "kidnap" her in order to extort money from her wealthy father. Unfortunately, her evil, gold-digging stepmother (Rosalba Neri) gets involved, and gang's plans go horribly, horribly awry. (The movie has a great nihilistic ending, which unfortunately is ruined by a final twist that made me want to throw stuff at my TV screen).

It's kind of hard to categorize this movie. It doesn't really have the mystery elements of a giallo thriller. It kind of turns into nihilistic hostage drama at one point like an Italian "terror" film, but it was made well before the classics of that "genre" like "Late Night Trains" and "House by the Edge of the Park". And it's just too flat-out ridiculous to be any kind of serious drama: At one point, for instance, the protagonist opens the door to the black maid of a family the gang is holding hostage. For no real reason (other than the obvious) she invites her in and engages her in a catfight which eventually turns into a steamy lesbian sex scene!

Casual Italian movie fans might recognize Brigitte Skay as the voluptuous skinny-dipper in Mario Bava's "Bay of Blood". More knowledgeable fans might also recognize her as the swinger in Bava's underrated "Four Times that Night" and the lead in the fumetti adaptation "Isabela, Duchess of the Devil". This is not as good as any of those movies, but it might very well be Skay's best role. Rosalba Neri normally makes for great, sexy villainess, but she is not well-used here. She is badly-dubbed, has only one brief nude scene, and most of all doesn't get nearly enough screen time. Director Paolo Sovay also directed Neri in "The Devil's Wedding Night"(a better role for her if not necessarily a better movie). For better or worse, he also went on to direct the very appropriately titled "Nude for Satan" and the notorious Nazi exploitation flick "The Beast in Heat". As for this film--well, it sure ain't good, but it sure is entertaining!

24 Feb 2018, 22:25 #543 314) Blackmail (1974, Italy, Giallo (kind of), Director: Luigi Batzella)

Notable actors: Briggite Skay! Umberto Raho! Rosalba Neri! Briggite Skay's boobs, especially the right one!

I wasn't born until 1975, during a Tangerine Dream concert, so I'm not sure if this film is factually correct, but isn't 1974 a bit late for annoying hippies to be stinking up the place? This film is full of them. Especially the start of the film as we get to see loads of them hanging around some stuffy, body-odour filled nightclub, 'freaking out', 'turning on' and 'dancing'.

Among them is Briggite Skay, covered in beads, full of weed, and bringing out the pink-nosed twins for a bit of topless dancing. One police bust later, Briggite is delivered to her embarrassed father, Umberto Raho, who scolds Briggite for bringing his reputation into disrepute. Briggite responds by heading of to the beach with Claudio, Rik, and other girl, to do a bit of scheming about how to get back at old daddy-o and his stale, unhip, ways.

Briggite, who is still topless at this point, thinks that faking being kidnapped and getting a quarter of a million bucks (lire) out of her father would be a good idea, to which Claudio, Rik and other girl agree. This hilariously prompts an on-beach sudden party where a bunch of other people appear and dance the night away. Before having an orgy.

The next day everyone heads off to Claudio's sister's house (where he thinks she's away for a long time - guess how that works out). Once there, they fake the kidnapping, get Claudio to phone Umberto to arrange the drop, only for Claudio's sister and brother-in-law to turn up, so Rik, who's taking this far more seriously than everyone else, gets the bright idea to use the brother-in-law to make the drop. However, no one has factored in Briggite's evil stepmother - Rosalba Neri!

My absolute favourite bit of this demented pile of crap is when Briggite and Rik have everyone held hostage in the house when the housemaid suddenly arrives at the front door. She's ushered in at gunpoint, but this soon degenerates into a lesbian love scene with Briggite Skay that lasts about ten minutes. So there you go. An easy way to deal with unexpected visitors during a hostage situation.

Of course, things get even more stupid towards the end of the film and Luigi Batzella pulls a blinder with the brain damaged ending. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this one based on the premise. Rosalba Neri continues her diminishing appearances in Italian films (maybe she just got bored), and Briggite Skay is surely there to show off her assets, especially the right one which seems to pop out continuously throughout the film. Batzella of course would sink way lower than this with his Nazisploitation film Achtung! The Desert Tigers.

And then way, way lower than that with Nazisploitation film The Beast In Heat.