Black Belly of the Tarantula

After an opening sequence featuring a beautiful woman enjoying a lovely massage, BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA finds the woman and her husband fighting over her having an affair and subsequent blackmail. This leads to a rubber-gloved, mask-wearing murderer using a unique method to dispatch the unwary, unfaithful wife.

Inspector Tellini (Giancarlo Giannini) suspects the husband, that is, until more, identical murders follow. As Tellini delves deeper into the case, he finds himself the target of the maniac he's trying to catch.

Stylish and suspenseful, this is a classic giallo from the genre's high point. Giannini's character is more human than the typical cop role. He plays a man ready to chuck his whole career, just as the vicious killer gets going, making Tellini more believable.

Co-stars Barbara Bach as the unfortunate Jenny...

In 1999, these films were impossible to get a hold of, and you had to look hard to find someone who would sell you them on the grey market. It is for this reason that my mate Marco and me found ourselves in the back room of some video store on Ingram Street, Glasgow city centre, staring into a filing cabinet jam packed with video nasties, category 3 Hong Kong films, and otherwise unavailable films like this. Marco bought this one. I watched the first five minutes and decided it looked boring, little knowing how obsessed by these films I'd be in a few years time. Also, I had no idea how bald I would become. And I didn't know YouTube would exist either. We were all young and naïve back then.

If there was a generic starters pack for giallo newbies I'd definitely include this one. It's a straightforward giallo plot as in it has one masked/gloved/hatted killer, plenty of suspects, a couple of red herrings, a clue at the start of the film, quirky characters, nudity and a bit of gore. It doesn't deviate from the formula but it's a good film anyway, thanks to Ennio Morricone's music, the lovely cinematography, and some good moustache action from Giacarlo Giannini.

It all starts off with Barbara Bouchet (a Bond girl) getting a nude massage from a blind guy and then getting into a fight with her husband because someone's sent him a nude picture of her with a mystery man. Next thing you know some gloved killer has paralysed her with a needle, then cut her open while she can only watch in horror.

Depressed policeman Giancarlo Giannini (whose eccentric wife has sold all the furniture in the house!) is on the case, and thinks the husband did it, but when another victim appears and he uncovers a drug smuggling ring into the bargain, things heat up a bit. It doesn't help that he's the laughing stock of the force when the killer plants some evidence that turns out to be a covertly made film of the policeman and his wife in bed.

There's a neat rooftop chase in this one too, and although it's a case of one killer all the way through, it makes for a good journey all the way through, thanks to appearances by Claudine Auger (a Bond girl) and Barbara Bach (a Bond girl) and Giancarlo Prete (not a Bond girl). There's also the requisite scene in a fashion store amongst mannequins that these films seem to require by law.

In most of the Giallo movies I have seen so far,there was always this gimmick that made the movie distinguish itself in the genre. While there is such a gimmick used here it nearly isn't as interesting as it sounded. The gimmick of course is the killer using acupuncture needles to paralyze the victims like this special wasp does to the black tarantula. And that is it. The title sounds more intriguing than it is. The movie contains enough moments to maintain a certain tension. But without red herrings it is actually pretty easy to pick out the killer. In good Giallos they often give hints and clues in making you think who the suspect is and then hit you with this amazing twist that turns everything upside down and still make sense. "Black Belly..." lacks serious suspects so basically everyone could be the killer. Very sloppy or lazy and no fun whatsoever. This movie doesn't even try to make sense of the killer's actions which usually should be the key element in unfolding the killer's identity. Apart from the beautiful women this movie isn't special. Is it a waste of time then? No,not really. But one familiar with the genre does expect more creativity. The main character also starred as Matis in the last two Bond movies which sort of gives this movie more glamour. Overall this movie just lacks the punch I expect to be in a giallo movie.

In the 1971 Italian giallo thriller "The Black Belly of the Tarantula," we meet a very unusual policeman, Inspector Tellini. He is unusual, insofar as these gialli are concerned, because he's unsure of himself, not certain if he should stay with his job, and makes many mistakes. Then again, his adversary here is a bit unusual, too: a killer who paralyzes his victims with an acupuncturist's needle in the back of the neck before ever so slowly (and excruciatingly...for this viewer, anyway) slicing their abdomens open. For the life of me, I could not figure out where this picture was headed or what it had on its mind; forget about figuring out the identity of the killer! Thus, I just sat back and enjoyed the ride, and was pleased when everything did congeal, plotwise, at the end. And there ARE many things to enjoy here. Tellini is played by Giancarlo Giannini, a year before he would commence a string of some half dozen hits with director Lina Wertmuller that would catapult him to international stardom. He is as fine an actor as has ever appeared in a giallo film, and he is here surrounded by some truly gorgeous women, including no less than three former/future Bond girls: Barbara Bouchet (whose exposed, superperky buttocks automatically earn this film 5 stars!), Claudine "Domino" Auger and Barbara Bach, here looking younger than I've ever seen her. Other things to enjoy: a creepy, arrhythmic, discordant score by the great Ennio Morricone, flashy direction by Paolo Cavara, some good action scenes (I love that three-way rooftop chase) and, like I mentioned, a meaty story to sink your mental teeth into. Not to mention those grisly murders! Don't believe the Maltin book, which gives a paltry 1 1/2 stars to the cut, 88-minute version of this film. Check out this fine-looking, uncut DVD from Blue Underground, with excellent subtitles and extras, for a unique and exciting giallo experience.

From the recent spate of giallo releases via the Blue Underground label, this was the one I was most looking forward to; still, now that I've watched the film, the proclamation on the DVD sleeve of its being "The Best Giallo Ever Made" is an exaggeration - as it's not quite in the same league as the best of Mario Bava, Dario Argento, or even Lucio Fulci!

Despite being made by people not usually associated with the sub-genre (director Cavara had started out in "Mondo" documentaries!), most of the requisite elements are present - and this, I have to say, is its major weakness: though the killer's modus operandi here is undeniably original and particularly vicious, the settings, (mostly irrelevant) plot complications and the unconvincing explanation at the end are all-too-typical, thus making the whole somewhat predictable (down to the identity of the murderer!), if never less than enjoyable and occasionally exciting (the rooftop chase scene above all). Still, as shot by Marcello Gatti, the film is stylish enough (even if the technique isn't really pushed to the limit as in, say, the films of Argento) and, in any case, it has two major assets in the performance of Giancarlo Giannini (as bewildered a giallo protagonist as one can get though, for once, he is a cop and a fairly intelligent, albeit disillusioned, one at that) and a typically unforgettable, indeed irresistible soundtrack courtesy of the tireless and ever-inspired Ennio Morricone.

One can't have a giallo without the presence of a bevy of beauties - most of whom get to shed their clothes and are soon shown on the receiving end of the killer's paralyzing poison-tipped needle: Barbara Bouchet (appearing, all-too-briefly, as the first victim in one of the most effortlessly erotic openings to any film!), Barbara Bach and Stefania Sandrelli (who, alas, is too often left by the wayside - though she does share a love scene with Giannini - and whose voice, as far as I can tell, was dubbed even in the Italian version!). The notable cast also features Claudine Auger, Silvano Tranquilli, Rossella Falk and Eugene Walter (as a patronizing gay waiter, whose vaguely androgynous features were later utilized to startling effect in another solid giallo, Pupi Avati's THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS [1976]). Trivia note: I got to see Giannini, Sandrelli and Bouchet at the 2004 Venice Film Festival (the latter on more than one occasion, since she was a guest of honor during the Italian B-movie retrospective!).