Perversion Story

Pretty decent stab at an erotic thriller from the Goremeister General. It's all the things you would want: stylish, sexy, and gripping. It's also crisply shot and has an excellent Riz Ortolani score. Again, the dubbing is pretty ropey but if, by this point, you're seeking out some of Fulci's lesser-known works then it's safe to assume you've made your peace with this constant problem.

Marissa Mell is great as the femme fatale and Elsa Martinelli is cool and chic as the devoted mistress who, despite herself, can't stop believing in her man. In fact, the female performances are much stronger than the men, probably because Jean Sorel doesn't have much to do except wander around with his shirt off, looking bewildered.

Great photography of San Francisco, looking as good - if not better - than in BULLITT. There's also a fine cameo from Jean Sobieski, for connoisseurs of louche photographers in movies.

The only real problem is that the film isn't quite gripping enough. The premise is set up well in the first half hour or so, and the suspense and mystery sustained during the kinky interludes in the middle, but all is revealed through a clumsy expository scene with about 20 minutes remaining and after that it runs out of steam.

Well worth a look though.

6/10

It's hard to believe that this thriller was directed by the same man who would go on to create such gory highlights as Zombie Flesh-Eaters and City of the Living Dead, but indeed this is a film from the Lucio Fulci that us gore hounds know and love. His later Giallo, such as A Lizard in Woman's Skin and Don't Torture a Duckling weren't as bloody as Fulci fans are used to, and this one is even less so; in fact, it isn't even a horror movie. Fulci does find time for graphic images, however, but things such as a badly decomposed corpse look out of place in a movie that is much more about mystery and suspense than shocking its audience. Fulci often doesn't get the respect he deserves when it comes to movie-making, and that's unfair as he really does know how to tell a story. One on Top of the Other focuses on themes of love and revenge, and follows the story of a doctor with a wife who suffers from chronic asthma. After her death, he is enticed to a nightclub along with his mistress, where he meets a young woman who is the double of his dead wife. Shortly thereafter, the corpse of his wife is unearthed and traces of poison are found in the body...

The film takes obvious influence from the great Alfred Hitchcock film 'Vertigo', but unlike a lot of Italian films from the sixties and seventies; this one is not merely a retread of its popular American influence. Fulci injects his own style and verve into the plot, and common Giallo elements such as crossed loyalties and compromising situation for the lead victim start to creep in. The acting on display here is superb, with Jean Sorel putting in a fabulous performance in the lead role in which he manages to captivate the audience and be convincing at the same time. The female leads are more striking; however, and both Marisa Mell and Elsa Martinelli get to act as well providing beautiful eye candy for the audience. Unlike a lot of Giallo's, this one takes place outside of Italy and makes San Francisco the central location. The landscapes look great, and the original jazz music by Riz Ortolani helps to ensure that swinging sixties feel comes across. There is a lack of murders in this film, which may disappoint Giallo and Fulci fans; but the intrigue that appears instead offsets this nicely, and overall I don't hesitate to say that One on Top of the Other is one of the great Giallo films!

Lucio 'godfather of gore' Fulci may be best known for his ultra-gory Zombie films, but the majority of my fellow fans of Italian Genre-Cinema will probably agree that his Gialli from the early 70s, most notably his greatest masterpiece "Non Si Sevizia Un Paperino" aka. "Don't Torture A Duckling" (1972) are easily as noteworthy. The master's first Giallo, "Una Sull'Altra" aka. "Perversion Story"/"One on Top of the Other" pf 1969 is a very gore-less but utterly fascinating Thriller/Mystery which no Cult-fan should consider missing.

As some other early specimen for the genre, this isn't a typical example for the Italian Giallo, as it doesn't focus on a series of murders. The womanizing San Francisco Doctor George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel) is with his mistress, the erotic photographer Jane (Elsa Martinelli) when he hears that his wife, who suffered from grave asthma, has died. Soon thereafter, George makes the acquaintance of the sexy and mysterious stripper Monica Weston (Marisa Mell), who happens to be the spitting image of his wife. Shortly thereafter, it is revealed that his wife was poisoned...

I do not want to go into detail about the wonderfully convoluted storyline, but I can assure that "Una Sull'Altra" should satisfy any fan of suspenseful mysteries in general and Italian Cult cinema in particular. Italian cult-directors had a unique talent for combining sleaze and elegance; the late 60s in particular were a period when elegant films about sexual perversion (such as "Femina Ridens" or "La Malizie Di Venere") would lead from the restrictions of 60s cinema into the openly and explicitly sleazy 70s. "Una Sull'Altra" is from that period, and while the film is not yet quite as graphically explicit as many 70s Gialli, the focus on erotic elements is strong. Especially the gorgeous Austrian cult-beauty Marisa Mell ("Diabolik", "La Belva Col Mitra", "Milano Rovente"...) epitomizes eroticism as the femme-fatale stripper Monica. The film is full of tasteful female nudity, most notably by Mell. Elsa Matinelli makes another great, strong and sexy female as the sleaze-photographer Jane and Jean Sorel ("La Corta Notte Delle Bambole Di Vetro", "Una Lucertola Con La Pelle Di Donna", "Belle De Jour") makes a very good lead. The rest of the cast includes several other well-known cult-actors such as Alberto De Mendoza ("Lo Strano Vizio Della Signora Wardh", "La Coda Dello Scorpione"), John Ireland and Riccardo Cucciola, who is probably best known for his role in Mario Bava's 1974 masterpiece "Cani Arrabbiati".

As Fulci's later Gialli, "Una Sull'Altra" is elegantly shot. While the San Francisco setting differs from the typical Italian Giallo-Settings it has a great potential for atmospheric beauty which Fulci makes best use of. The psychedelic score by maestro Riz Ortolani is hypnotic and brilliant and one of the most mesmerizing atmospheric aspects of the film. While the film is almost completely gore-less, Fulci's talent for gore manifests in one sequence in a morgue. "Una Sull'Altra" is a suspenseful, atmospheric and highly interesting film that is worth watching for many reasons. The gorgeous Marisa Mell is only one of these many reasons, but she's undeniably the most obvious one. 8/10

This little Italian number is superficially similar to the famous Hitchcock film "Vertigo" in its basic premise and in its San Francisco location. But I don't recall "Vertigo" having the nude dancing, the psychedelic body painting, and the abundance of straight and lesbian sex. And as great an actress as Kim Novak from "Vertigo" may have been, she was no Marissa Mell. Marissa Mell was a six-foot Austrian model/actress who became infamous in the late 1960's more for her antics off-screen than on (her various paramours supposedly included everyone from Warren Beatty to the Shah of Iran). She was the archetypal Bond girl, even though she never actually got around to appearing in a Bond movie. Actually, the only big movie she was ever in was Mario Bava's pop-art, comic book adaptation "Diabolik". This obscure movie was probably her second most famous role before her career fizzled and she died at a young age from cancer. She is excellent here in the dual role of an asthmatic, dying wife and a seductive stripper. She also has copious nude scenes (if you're into that sort of thing).

You might also have heard of the director of this one, guy named Lucio Fulci, made a few zombie movies or something. This is actually the first of a series of superior gialli Fuici directed early in his career (the others were "A Woman in Lizard's Skin" and "Don't Torture a Duckling"). Fulci fans will find the plot of this film to be surprisingly coherent, but will probably be disappointed at the lack of gore (aside from one grisly scene of a post, post-mortem). It also lacks much of the directorial flair Fulci would demonstrate in his later gialli and his zombie films. The last act is particularly weak with one of those tiresome innocent-man-on-death-row countdowns. The very last scene is a pleasant surprise, but by then much of the momentum has been lost. Still, it's definitely worth seeing, for Fulci and Mell if nothing else.

Una sull'altra, which is more likely better known as One on the top the other is hard movie to categorize to a single genre. It has as much erotic and exploitative elements as it has elements from pre-giallos like Mario Bava's excellent Blood and black lace and his older work, Girl who knew too much. It isn't as psychedelic as Fulci's other giallos like Lizard in a woman's skin or as tense as his Don't torture a duckling or Sette notes in nero. Una sull'altra doesn't contain any gore or splatter either. Still, however, I found it very entertaining and I would even say it's one of the best non-gore movies from Fulci I've seen (and trust me on this one, I've seen lots of them too).

Movie follows a basic giallo structure, even though it was made in the same year with "the first actual giallo", Dario Argento's fabulous L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo, and in the way that it doesn't rip-off that movie as many other giallos does. That's why I cannot really say honestly that I found this one to be real giallo, but more like pre-giallo.

What comes to the plot of the movie, it's not really as simple as it might seem, but has many twists and misleads when police are trying to find out how the things really are (who is lying, who is telling the truth). Really nice twists and turns, I couldn't tell at the whole time how did what (and what comes to that matter, even who was who). Ending was really nicely surprising too, I really enjoyed it.

So, if you are bored with Fulci's not as good non-gore movies or if you just want a quick peak to the fantastic world of pre-giallos, One on top of other is highly recommended. At the scale of 1 to 10, I would give it 9, this movie really deserves it.