In a mountain village in the South of Italy, a series of young boys are being targeted by a murderer. Andrea Martelli (Tomas Milian), an investigative journalist, and Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet), a local sexpot, end up joining forces to try to solve the crime.In the years before he became synonymous with gory, atmospheric horror films, director Lucio Fulci was one of the masters of the Italian murder mysteries known as Gialli. Here, he exercises good storytelling abilities without falling back on any gimmicks. There is some extremely striking violence at two key points, but here the violence is the exception and not the rule. For the most part, the killer offs the boys by strangling them. And because use of gore is so sparing, its impact is all the greater when it does occur. The vigilante-style murder of a suspect is particularly distressing.Just like any good Giallo, "Don't Torture a Duckling" has no shortage of suspects for us to keep our eyes on, and if they don't have skeletons in their closets, they at least have troubling quirks. (Andrea will actually rearrange a crime scene in order to get the most attention-grabbing photos.) The characters, also including Florinda Bolkan as a local "witch", Marc Porel as a priest, and Irene Papas as his mother, are reasonably colourful and interesting.This international cast makes the most of it, with Bolkan taking the opportunity to chew into the scenery at times.The beautiful scenic locations are wonderfully photographed in widescreen by Sergio D'Offizi, and Riz Ortolani of "Cannibal Holocaust" fame composed the lush, sometimes eerie, score.Essential viewing for Fulci fans, and newcomers to the Giallo genre. Some buffs consider it to be Fulcis' absolute best film.Seven out of 10.

Despite having a loyal legion of fans and cementing his name as one of the pioneers of Italian splatter, the work of the so-called 'Godfather of Gore' (a title I reserve for Herschell Gordon Lewis and nobody else), Lucio Fulci, has never completely won me over. Arguably his most popular film, Zombie Flesh Eaters, left me struggling to stay awake, and the likes of The Black Cat, The New York Ripper and Warriors of the Year 2072 range from p**s-poor to tedious at best, although it could be said that these are minor works in an extensive filmography. However, I adored The Beyond and City of the Living Dead, and there is something quite spectacular about his early gialli. A Lizard in a Woman's Skin was dazzling and truly weird, and Don't Torture a Duckling, made the following year, stands on its own as one of the strangest and most engrossing thrillers to be found in the genre.In a remote Italian village, three young boys spy on couples about to engage in sex through a barn door and later torment the local idiot and peeping tom Giuseppe (Vito Passeri). Soon enough, the boys start turning up dead, murdered and discarded in the surrounding areas. Giuseppe is arrested, but is soon released when another boy is killed while the simpleton is in custody. A media circus descends on the town, while intrigued journalist Andrea (Tomas Milian) and police chief Captain Modesti (Ugo D'Alessio) search for clues. Tongues start to wag as the beautiful Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet) arrives in town with a shady past and skimpy outfits, as she is quickly viewed with suspicion. Yet with a town full of eccentrics and loners, it's difficult to figure out just who the killer is. Is it the old nut at the top of the hill, or are the murders the result of black magic performed by demented witch Maciara (Florinda Bolkan)?The village of Accendura and its surroundings are a beautiful backdrop for the carnage and unspeakable horror playing out in the story. The ignorance of isolated small-town folks and the dangers of pitch-fork-waving mentality seems to be the main theme, something that Fulci explored later in his zombie movie City of the Living Dead. However, themes tend to take a back-seat in a film this bonkers, and Fulci has fun lining up the band of possible suspects and weaving in convoluted red-herring sub-plots to keep the audience guessing. There are many strange moments, including a scene in which Patrizia seems unnervingly comfortable displaying her naked body in front of a nervous young boy. Fulci can't resist dabbling in a bit of gore, and it's here that Don't Torture a Duckling stutters, climaxing with an unintentionally hilarious death featuring some diabolical special effects. Still, it's up there with the director's best work, and a must-see for fans of the more out-there gialli.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Following a child's death in a small-town, a reporter and a woman from a nearby city try to solve the strange killings that continue to be carried out on the children and once they find the demented culprit at the center they try to stop the rampage from continuing.This was quite the enjoyable and underrated Giallo. The biggest factor here for this one is the film flying boldly along and feeling comfortable in it's rather strong and confrontational themes that may be quite uncomfortable. Its initial premise is tied around a serial killer offing children that alone gives it some courage to be unique and brave, but there's more to that here as several scenes here with the opening strangling scenes or a rather chilling scene finding another drowned in a town well, though the fact that this features even more types of similarly controversial scenes is what really sells this one. The type of plot here is one thing, but to have the kids smoking, bullying the town retard and the film's showpiece scene of a fully naked woman openly toying with him, teasing him with her figure and about sleeping with her makes for quite a sleazy, depraved time in a truly memorable scene. Beyond this, the film is a fantastic Giallo that features a lot of stylistic elements usually associated with these as the stalking scenes come off incredibly well regardless of their target. The cemetery stalking here is impressive through the driving rain before the killer strikes, a chase through the open woods out into the mountains to corral a suspect and a later scene where the suspect is viciously and brutally beaten in retaliation for what happened all come together to give this one some really enjoyable scenes. As well, there are some great times in the big brawl at the end which gets fun with the action as well as the location playing into it for some fun here, and these here make this good enough to overcome the flaws. The biggest issue here is the flimsy plot line for a Giallo, where it jumps around to the different suspects here without any reason only to start doing investigative work in the final minutes as the rampage continues despite the supposed death of the killer which starts it up again. This might be a revolutionary ploy for the style, but it causes the film to flip around pretty constantly here. Along with the subject matter being a little tough for some to take, there here are the film's only flaws.Rated UR/R: Graphic Violence, Full Nudity, Graphic Language, children smoking, themes of pedophilia, violence-against-animals and children-in-danger.

Fulci's "Don't Torture a Duckling" is not only one of the best gialli, it's also an unforgettable portrait of life in a cloistered, superstitious Italian town. Fulci scandalously turned propriety on its head by introducing a usual suspects line-up of outsiders we would normally see as the killer in movies like these: there's a village idiot everyone hates, the witch doctor mistrusted but still relied upon by the suspicious villagers, the out-of-town snob who flirts with young boys to cure her boredom. Florinda Bolkan, particularly, is unforgettable as the madwoman who believes so strongly in the supernatural that she confesses to the movie's child-murders because she placed a curse on the victims. Her death scene is heartbreaking for what it reveals of the callousness of humanity.Fulci was, in this early stage of his career, a wizard behind the camera. The movie is filled with amazing shots. He shoots his subjects hypnotically, framing faces in close-up to suggest private thoughts; indeed, thoughts are the only thing the inhabitants of this town seem to be able to keep private, as they all live on top of each other.The depiction of small town life is so good, and so damning, that by the time we get to the final revelation of "who did it", we don't really care. The cruelty and idiocy displayed in such a place is like a petri dish for violent crime, and in fact, when the culprit is finally revealed, you see that his actions are intended as reactions to this moral turpitude.Perhaps, for a self-described decent person living in such a situation, violence is the only possible act.