Posto ideale per uccidere, Un (1971)

Director:

Umberto Lenzi

Writers:

Antonio Altoviti (writer)
Lucia Drudi Demby (writer)

Release Date:

18 August 1971 (Italy)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Female Nudity

Cast

Irene Papas	...	Barbara Slater
Ray Lovelock	...	Dick Butler (as Raymond Lovelock)
Ornella Muti	...	Ingrid Sjoman
Michel Bardinet	...	Baratti
Jacques Stany	...	Official
Umberto D'Orsi
Calisto Calisti	...	Police Inspector
Ugo Adinolfi	...	Gas Station Attendant
Sal Borgese	...	Agostino's Friend (as Salvatore Borgese)
Giuseppe Terranova
Carla Mancini	...	Shop Worker
Umberto Raho	...	Police Inspector
Antonio Mellino	...	Agostino

Also Known As:

An Ideal Place to Kill (International: English title)
Dirty Pictures
Oasis of Fear (USA) (dubbed version)

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Filming Locations:

Chiasso, Canton Ticino, Switzerland

Company:

Compagnia Cinematografica Champion

Excellent character driven giallo

Posto ideale per uccidere, Un (1971) aka Oasis of fear aka Dirty pictures 7/10

A young free loving hippy couple Dick (Ray Lovelock) and Ingrid (Ornella Muti) buy a car load of porn in Copenhagen to help fund their holiday in Italy. Once in Italy they find plenty of takers for their product and soon find themselves very flush with cash which they spend like there's no tomorrow, soon they find they are broke again and Dick has the idea to take porno photos of themselves and flog them, but they approach the wrong person and are soon in the custody of the local police who confiscate the pics and give them 24 hours to leave the country. On their way home, their car runs out of petrol and so they knock into a nearby large house, where having received no reply decide to siphon off petrol from a car in the garage. They are confronted by Barbara, the apparently flustered lady of the house who threatens them with the police, but then on hearing their story changes her mind and invites them in for some food and to stay the night. It turns out she is the lonely wife of a NATO colonel and soon all three are involved in some flirtatious sex games, but who is taking advantage of who? Next morning we find out……

Another fine early Giallo from the diverse Lenzi, a rather bloodless and character driven film that doesn't really follow the Giallo tradition or for that matter let on where its going until the end, Lovelock and Muti are very good as the young sexually charged couple, who never hesitate to get naked, although Muti's nude scenes do seem to have been taken by a body double, Irene Papas as the very hospitable host takes most of the acting plaudits and portrays her characters vulnerability to perfection in a role that also requires her to show a sense of sexual frustration in a multi layered character and despite the fact not a lot happens in the first half of the film, there is a nice tension built up between the three leads. Lenzi also captures a fun frivolous swinging sixties full of flower power hippies, gypsies, sitars, swinging clubs which is defined by a very funky score with some horribly catchy songs by Bruno Lauzi. Although there is more than a slight overuse of the zoom lens throughout the film, Lenzi again proves to me he was a fine film maker. There's also a sting in the tale, in what is a rather muted and downbeat ending as Lenzi finally reveals his hand. Recommended