Tropique du cancer

The giallo universe takes the plane and lands in Haiti. A young faltering couple, Fred (Gabriele Tinti, La Morte risale a ieri sera) and Grace (Anita Strindberg, Una Lucertola con la pelle di donna), seeking for exoticism, goes on holidays in Haiti "expecting the heat of the tropics to rekindle their flame". But they come just in the middle of a perilous plot where is involved Fred's friend, Williams (Anthony Steffen, La Notte che Evelyn usci dalla tomba), an idealist doctor settled in the island, and inventor of a revolutionary aphrodisiac formula.

A bunch of unscrupulous businessmen lust for the new drug, from Peacock (Gordon Felio), an "ugly and fat man" found of young ephebes, and his greedy partner Garner (Stelio Candelli, La Morte scende leggera), to Prater and his violent henchman Murdock (Alfio Nicolosi), and all gather to the luxury hostel of Philippe (Umberto Raho, Sette scialli di seta gialla). And is Fred himself only in Haiti for vacation? Nevertheless, all those who track the marvelous potion become murdered through POV shot sequences by a mysterious killer gloved and shod in black, the corpses being found fully drained of their blood. Seeing she has been embarked in a very dangerous and deadlocked adventure, Grace seeks to flee away, but she might succumb to the call of the goddess Erzulie, mistress of "life and felicity", whom voodoo trances invite her to love.

The killer happening to be very ingenious, murders are always inventive and sophisticated. Unfortunately, the plot remains pretty confused, the motives of the murderer rather fuzzy, and the junction between the voodoo background and the pharmaceutic issue very wobbly, in spite of the fleeting appearance of the cursed Tetraodon fish of zombie poison. A very fine sequence full of reverie and eroticism with an Anita Strindberg under narcotics raises the level, but finally we stay much less far from Craven's Serpent and the Rainbow, not to mention Hitchcock's Capricorn other tropic. This movie shall however get attention from giallo addicts, and perhaps those interested in the Haiti under Duvalier, festal crowd sequences being put as "authentic in every details". (Viewed in the Italian 1h35 version.)

This is a combination of an Italian giallo and "black sexploitation" film. The latter is not to be confused with American "blacksploitation" films since these films weren't trying to "exploit" a black urban audience but rather the myth of "primitive" black sexuality for the delectation of white audiences. The giallo locale here is shifted to "primitive" Haiti. The plot is almost a "McGuffin". It involves various grasping characters chasing after a new drug a friend (Gabriel Tinti) of the the two married, vacationing protagonists (Anita Strindberg and Anthony Stefens) has discovered. This drugs and voodoo plot is somewhat similar to the later Wes Craven movie "Serpent and the Rainbow", but this is nowhere near as good.

Atypical for this kind of "black sexploitation" this film doesn't have any real black female characters (other than the ones involved in the typical sub-"National Geographic" topless tribal dancing scenes). The interracial thrills are delivered primarily in couplings of black men and white women. The one featured prominently on the poster is a standing sex scene between Strindberg and a Haitain voodoo priest which is actually the climax of a bizarre dream sequence (right out of "Coffin Joe" movie)that is probably the most visually interesting sequence of the film if you can get by the casual racism. The other, more gratuitous, scenes involve the Haitian police chief and his white mistress, but since this particular character is surprisingly three-dimensional and "civilized", these scenes don't quite fit the usual mold either.

The problem isn't that this movie is especially exploitative or racist as these kind of films go, but that it is not particularly effective as a giallo either. Aside from the exotic locale, there is nothing very interesting here. Whatever her charms, Anita Strindberg was not a great actress, and it doesn't help that she's paired with a stiff like Steffens. Speaking of stiff though, the best performance is turned by Gabriel Tinti, the future "Mr. Laura Gemser", who's most famous for having an obligatory sex scene with that exploitation goddess in practically ever movie she ever made (whether he was otherwise in the movie or not). I'm sure all these actors had a nice Caribbean vacation, but the resulting movie is no great shakes I'm afraid.

I saw this for the first time recently. The poster looked cool n the review by Coventry regarding the gruesome kill made me see this boring giallo. The only redeeming factor is the hot babe Anita Strindberg, one of the first giallo queens. The babe had a unique chiseled face n sharp features n inspite of being very ectomorph (one can clearly see the breast bones rather than the cleavage), her face was really illecebrous. The film lacks suspense n tension n the weird naked dance n the dream sequence is laughable. The kills r forgettable except for the fatso's face.

There are a couple of moments, with a pair of dark trousers, that we could say was like a giallo but the rest of the time it is really rather confusing. There are one or two rather good scenes, as the film was made in Haiti, but it is all a bit of a mess. There are some odd people but the dubbing is even more odd which makes it seem really silly. We have to mention Gordon Felio the rather large man had done a couple of films especially with What's New Pussycat (1965), uncredited as the 'fat man'. Anthony Steffen is usually rather good and was in The Crimes of the Black Cat (1972) and The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave (1971) otherwise he was in many great spaghetti westerns. Anita Strindberg can be good and certainly her best giallo was Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only Have the Key (1972). Of course she had her breasts enhanced and she usually bares them and also with a 'blacksploitation' moment in this one.

Giallos are known to be a little incoherent at times without being a complete mess but this movie certainly is the latter. It's a real mess. Many scenes of the movie look spectacular, especially the outdoor shots in the Haitian streets with full of crowds. The movie's certainly got elements that could have made it into a much better film than it actually is. It's just too bad that the Italian sense for style doesn't always work and this time even the plot stank so bad that it should have been rewritten almost completely. In my opinion the main problem is that the film doesn't engage at all and the pacing is just lame. I didn't care much what would happen to the characters in it. It's a kind of a problem when i was supposed to sit down and keep myself watching the film for its entire length of one and half hour.

The dream sequence with Strindberg and the voodoo priest made me laugh really hard. It's really the moment that was supposed to be surreal and scary but ended up looking like a skit.

What really is disappointing is that how much better this film could have been. I can only recommend this film for giallo fans who don't care much if the film is good or bad.