Amuck (1972)

- Alla ricerca del piacere
Even with Barbara Bouchet and Rosalba Neri, it's surprisingly average, 20 May 2006

Given that Amuck features two of my Euro-favorites, Barbara Bouchet and Rosalba Neri, it's a surprisingly average giallo. Bouchet is a young secretary working for a publishing house. She becomes concerned when her friend and fellow co-worker goes missing. She gets assigned to the same writer (played by the dull Farley Granger) to investigate her friend's disappearance. She immediately suspects the writer and his lover, Neri, and must endure their sexual advances if she is to find her friend.

For a film of this type to be effective, I've found that it's important to believe the protagonist is in real danger. You have to believe that their investigations might lead to their death. Other than the duck hunting scene in Amuck, I never once felt that Bouchet's character was in any real sort of mortal peril. While there was a real chance she was going to be drugged and forced to have sex, I knew she wasn't going to die. Add to this the fact that the solution to the murder is laid out in the first 30 minutes and you've got no real tension or suspense.

5/10