Lively, entertaining reviews of, and essays on, old and newer films and everything relating to them, written by professional author William Schoell.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA

Giancarlo Giannini
BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA (aka La tarantola dal ventre nero/1971). Director: Paolo Cavara.

Inspector Tellini (Giancarlo Giannini) investigates a series of murders in which people are paralyzed with a drug and then are stabbed in the belly, in much the way a wasp kills a tarantula (to explain the title and little else). Black Belly of the Tarantula is a very confusing picture with an awful score by Ennio Morricone, who was clearly not much inspired by the material. Stefania Sandrelli plays Anna, Tellini's wife, who figures in the moderately tense finale, and also in the cast are Barbara Bach, Barbara Bouchet, and Claudine Auger [Twitch of the Death Nerve] as women connected to s spa and modeling agency. Gianinni, who went on to much, much better things in a long career, gives an okay if somewhat disinterested performance as a cop who wants to get out of the business (even as the actor probably wanted to get out of the movie). Black Belly is not an especially intriguing nor admirable example of the Italian giallo film. In fact, one could rightly state that the best thing about the movie is its title. A much, much better horror flick for Giannini was Mimic

Verdict: Blah dubbed thriller which wastes everyone's talents. **.  

2 comments:

angelman66 said...

Giannini is handsome and charismatic, so this might be work a look even if it is not happening best. Another Barbara Bach? she made more movies than I thought.
- C

William said...

Gianninni became famous due to Lina Wertmuller's movies like "The Seduction of Mimi." Bach did quite a few movies, some with hubby Ringo Starr. Now all we need is Rongo and Gianni to make a movie together -- maybe they did!