La lunga spiaggia fredda

Ernesto Gastaldi is best known as the writer of some of the greatest Giallo's ever made - and with classics such as Your Vice Is a Closed Room and Only I Have the Key, The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion and The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh on his writing resume, it's not hard to see why. However, he also directed a few films - this being one of them. The Lonely Violent Beach is nowhere near as good as the films previously mentioned; but it represents a more than decent slice of Italian exploitation cinema, and it's made good by some interesting characters. The plot is pretty standard exploitation fare, and focuses on a married couple. It soon becomes obvious that the pair aren't happily married, and it turns out that they can't even have a happy weekend away, as their private party is soon crashed by a band of local bikers. The bikers tie up the bloke and the leader rapes his wife. The wife and the bike leader then fall for one another, and this is bad news for the husband; and for the bike gang...

The film isn't particularly violent - despite its title and the genre which it is a part of - and it's clear that Gastaldi was more keen to focus on the characters than merely violence. This is both good and bad; on the one hand, it makes the film more interesting on an intellectual level and it makes it stand out more from the crowd of similar exploitation films...but on the other hand, you go into this sort of film with a certain set of expectations, and this one doesn't really live up to those expectations. The film is extremely rare, and so every copy available is likely to feature the same grainy picture that I had to put up with. I can't really see this one getting a decent DVD release either, due to its obscurity. The acting isn't too bad, although it's not exactly award worthy either. Gastaldi's direction is fine as he makes good use of the beach setting and builds the characters up well. There are no real surprises in the plot, and there's not a great deal of tension and suspense either, which renders it a bit flat. I liked this film, however, as it's different from most of its ilk, and I'd say it's just about worth seeing.

I only discovered this one by accident when wondering what happened to actress Mara Maryl – turns out she only acted in films made by her husband Ernesto Gistaldi and she was more of a writer, so that answers that! Also, this seems to include a very early role for Joshua Sinclair, an interesting character who was a doctor in real life, worked with Mother Theresa, wrote the book Shaka Zulu, and most importantly went on to star in many a Enzo Castellari film!

This is a kind of proto-rape revenge film which is a genre that is not my thing at all, but this one seems to concentrate more personalities than anything else, on a beach. Mara Maryl plays a burned out, fed-up wife who is taken to a beach house by her ineffectual husband to bring the spark back to their marriage, which is clearly in trouble. Mara's having none of it, however, and her point is kind of proved by what happens next…

Four bikers, rather than hippies, turn up and knock the husband around a bit before their leader takes Mara upstairs to rape her, which he seems to immediately regret doing, causing him to turn insular and ignore his mates. One other guy doesn't seem to want to get involved at all, while Sinclair's character does and the last guy just wants to watch. The husband makes the odd move to save his wife but doesn't make much of an effort, which is pointed out by Mara right away.

The whole film is a character study as to why these bikers live the way they live, and about their relationship with each other, and the same goes for Mara and her husband. There's some hilariously outdated conversation here, like "This is a bad scene, dad, getting some negative vibrations" but the subject matter is too realistic and dark to laugh at to be honest.

It's not a bad film, but not my scene, dad. Too negative. The version I watched was sourced from a VHS tape with Finnish subtitles.

This rare film from screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (who wrote the screenplays for quite a bunch of memorable Gialli such as "Perchè Quelle Strane Gocce di Sangue Sul Corpo di Jennifer?" and "Il Tuo Vizio e una Stanza Chiusa e Solo Io ne ho lo Chiave") starts like a typical revenge movie in the tradition of "Deliverance" or "Last House on the Left" (which was made a year after this one, actually). A married couple drive to a lonely house by the sea. It becomes clear very soon that the marriage has the best days behind it. After the first night, the couple gets "visited" by a motorcycle gang consisting of four men. They tie up the husband and two of the bikers rape his wife. After this, the viewer understands that two of the gang are rather philosophical characters (the leader, who is the first rapist, and his best pal), while the other two are the more clichéd violent type that do it mainly for fun. Best thing is that the raped woman falls in love with the leader of the gang. So trouble is brewing not only between the couple and the bikers, but also between husband and wife and within the gang.

This film is a really peculiar surprise: At first, the viewer expects to be watching a film where it's obvious who's "good" and who's "evil". But after a while, the film becomes an interesting and believable psychological drama, in which none of the characters remains flat or superficial. It's a highly entangling movie in which the viewer cares about the characters. This makes it even more remarkable than it already is for its unusual storyline.

Viewers who expect a typical rape and revenge film will most certainly be a little bit disappointed. But people who expect an intriguing drama with interesting characters will be pleasantly surprised. And people who just want to witness a unique movie experience will have a good time with "La Lunga Spiaggia Fredda" anyway. Rating: 7 out of 10.