Greta Franklin (Barbara Bouchet) is the new
secretary/transcriptionist for “renowned” author Richard Stuart (Farley Granger), who lives in a mansion
on a small island off the coast of Venice, Italy. Richard’s wife, Eleonora (Rosalba Neri) excels at delivering
oeillades and hunting out on the marshes, and she takes a shine to Greta. But Greta has an ulterior motive for taking
the Stuart assignment, and it all hinges on what happened to Sally (Patrizia Viotti), Richard’s previous
secretary.
Amuck! (aka Alla Ricerca Del
Piacere aka Hot Bed of Sex aka Maniac Mansion [not to be confused with
the video game] aka In Search of
Pleasure aka Leather and Whips)
is an ostensible suspense thriller directed by the late Silvio Amadio. It all centers
on a mystery, but said mystery and its surrounding story are so transparently
obvious, you can almost see right through it and into several other dimensions
in gazing upon it. Richard is an
untortured artist, and man, does he lay it on thick. He literally speaks in purple prose. Some examples: “It’s modesty that doesn’t
allow me to be myself.” “…decadent,
corrupt, lost in the myriad facades of a doomed city.” “A perfect crime is possible. For a superior mind, of course.” Richard truly believes his own hype, and it’s
his and Eleonora’s attitudes that are the most intriguing aspects of the
film. They are the perverse elite, those
so far above the throngs of plebes that they can only find pleasure in decadence
and corruption. They gather about them
young turks like Sandro (Dino Mele)
and the Lenny-esque Rocco (Petar
Martinovitch) and unleash them to revel vicariously in their
carnality. For the men they bring into
their circle, it is enough to delight in their brutish ways. Men are allowed to do what they want, so long
as it pleases the Stuarts in some fashion.
Women, on the other hand, need to be debauched and brought under
sway. They must be made to want to give
pleasure for the others, who take it by will or by force.
Richard and Eleonora play this game
from similar, yet still opposite, ends.
Richard is the suave, Eurotrash, continental pseudo-intellectual. His ardor is high-minded (witness his
dialogue) and somehow stridently needy.
Eleonora appeals to the Sapphic side all women must surely harbor deep,
deep down in their lower recesses (of European genre films). She traipses into Greta’s room, while the
secretary is in a state of dishabille, pretending to comfort her after a scare
from the (very) abrupt appearance of Rocco on Greta’s balcony. Eleonora drugs Greta, and the two make love. What one would assume from this is that
Eleonora is turning Greta away from a heteronormative lifestyle. But Greta is, in fact, a lesbian, so the
corruption isn’t corruption in the sense of forcibly changing one’s sexual
orientation (which could equally be looked at as opening up the doors of
self-discovery). It’s corruption in a
physical, sexual abuse sense.
Regardless, the scene is shot to titillate (the sex is shot entirely in
slow motion), so it becomes little more than gratification of the audience’s
prurient interest.
In this same way, Richard is
treated as either homosexual or, more intriguingly, impotent (both equally evil
in the eyes of the film). Sure, he lays
a little liplock on Greta, but he quickly demurs and backs off. At no other time in Amuck! does Richard engage in amorous physical activity with
another person, male or female. Eleonora
is the leading force of the couple. She
dominates everyone who comes into the mansion, male and female. She is also a crack shot with a rifle, and is
a far better hunter than her husband (traditionally an interest considered more
masculine than feminine). Richard does
keep a gun in his study desk, but it’s a handgun (read: Eleonora has a bigger
dick than Richard). Richard thinks,
Eleonora acts. We can assume that
Richard derives some form of pleasure in the sex going on all around him, but
he doesn’t (or cannot) partake. Richard,
then, is submissive, weak, impotent, in character if not in physicality.
Outside of a select few moments,
however, the film falls flat. This is
kind of tragic, since it has all the elements needed to produce a taut, sexy
thriller. It has good-looking (and,
arguably more importantly, willing) leads.
The acting is solid, if unremarkable.
But the story has loads of potential, and Amadio insists on wasting it all.
There is no suspense to Greta’s investigation. There is no real menace emanating from
Richard and Eleonora (okay, there’s a little emanating from Eleonora). The plot is as clichéd as a tubercular street
urchin with sudden, violent coughing fits.
It’s often been said that films where the plot is bog standard may, in
actuality, be trying to do something else with the material, to explore
something within the confines of commonplace narratives. But this is not the case with Amuck!.
There are certainly enough avenues the filmmakers could go down, but the
narrative is about as straight a shot as driving Route 66 once you hit Oklahoma,
heading West. Sally, the whole reason
any of this film occurs, is an absolute cypher.
She provides a convenient motivation for Greta to show up, she takes her
clothes off a couple of times, but otherwise, she has no discernible
personality (and that’s even in the scene when she’s not under the thrall of
the Stuarts). Thus, we have no reason to
care if her disappearance is ever solved (regardless of the fact that there’s
zero mystery to this film’s mystery).
She’s a MacGuffin but is by no means a Maltese Falcon. Scenes meant to make an audience anxious
become mere endurance tests to get to their preordained destinations. It’s rare that there’s any tension in the
film, which made my disappointment that much more pronounced. Neri,
Bouchet, and Granger all seem to be giving it their all, but it’s a little like
pouring water into a bucket with no bottom.
The few sequences that actually engage stand out more because they
remind one that there is so much more this film could have been than because
they are especially satisfying.
MVT: Since there’s nothing
else about the film that aims high in most regards, I have to say that the sole
reason to watch it is to see some naked female skin (particularly of the Bouchet and Neri varieties). For some
folks that may be enough of a sell. For
others it would be nice to have a compelling movie around these scenes, too.
Make or Break: The duck hunt
out on the marsh is surprising in that it actually maintains a bit of interest
for a few minutes, but it also has a twist to it that is so implausible it made
me rub my temples.
Score: 5.75/10
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