Writer(s): Fulci, Roberto Gianviti, and Gianfranco Clerici, from a story by Fulci and Gianviti
Starring: Florinda Bolkan, Barbara Bouchet, Tomas Milian and Irene Papas
I have always wanted to see Lucio Fulci’s Don’t Torture a Duckling, but was never in the right mood when I had chances to see it. Me being a gorehound at the time also played a role in that decision: I had heard that it wasn’t as violent as films like Zombie, or The Beyond, and just figured it would bore me. Well, after signing up for an all-horror streaming service, I found it amongst the films being offered, and decided right then and there that it was time to clear my mind of any expectations, and finally view one of Fulci’s rare forays into the giallo film.
And what I learned from it is that, admittedly contrary to my beliefs, he was actually a talented director. Now please don’t take that the wrong way (as easy as it would be to do), because I happen to really enjoy the Fulci movies that I’ve seen. Zombie is a cinematic landmark of the subgenre (I’m still shocked that Microsoft, of all companies, used the underwater zombie vs. shark sequence in a nationwide television advertisement for something-or-other), while The Beyond compensates for a terrible, nonsensical plot with some top-notch gore effects—not to mention an excellent finale featuring zombies inside an abandoned hospital that ranks as one of my favorite moments of any such movie. So there is no doubt in my mind that this man was capable of getting high-quality simulated wounds on the screen; many of them even hold up as pinnacles of the genre today (the little redhead girl getting her head blown off in The Beyond, anyone?)
But Don’t Torture a Duckling is Fulci at his most clever—it’s a well-directed, and yes, even well-written mystery that quietly weaves in and out of any number of twists and turns, until it arrives at a surprisingly poignant finish that is as convincing as anything Fulci has ever put to screen. I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece—nor did I get one—but this is nevertheless a gripping cinematic turn that is a lot closer to perfection than I would have ever expected it to be.
Since the many twists and turns are a big part of what make giallo films special, I won’t elaborate into a lot of details here—the more that you discover on your own, preferably while watching the film, the better. Don’t Torture a Duckling starts off with the murder of a young boy. As the townfolk try to figure out who among them is the killer, a couple more children disappear. Could it be the mysterious woman who came on to one of the missing children a mere hours before he met his untimely demise? Or what about the local witch, who gets angry at the children for messing with the grave of her own dead child? Or is it the reporter that has come to help investigate the killings? Or maybe one of the policemen sabotaging his own investigation…much like the masters of the genre, Fulci makes sure there’s never a shortage of possible suspects or motives floating around, which truly lead to some brilliant, and thoroughly unexpected, revelations.
But here, he also demonstrates a competence in the director’s chair that I’ve never seen in any of his other films. Like the scene where a woman is murdered, in fairly graphic fashion, while the radio plays in the background. Midway through the extended kill scene, the song ends, with the disc jockey announcing that the next song will be slower; it is, and this slower, sad song provides the remaining background music to a scene that starts off brutal, and actually ends up being harrowing. This sequence was the first time that I really stood up and took notice of Fulci’s actual talents, which he tended to bury under buckets of blood and gimmicky kill scenes. This sadness also manifests itself, as I hinted at earlier, in a twist ending that’s similar to ones that have been done before, yet manages to elicit actual sympathy, for even the killer (in a way), thanks to Fulci’s excellent direction.
Of course, it is an Italian horror film, so it’s not without its fair share of bad: the English dubbing frequently crosses the line into self-parody, with voices that don’t come close to matching up to the people using them, and the grand finale features special effects so terrible that I can’t believe Fulci let them stay in the film at all. It also takes quite a while to get going, with the first half feeling slow and uneventful when compared to the second half, which finally starts to advance the plot.
However, this finds the director at his overall best, at least from the limited filmography I have seen from him. He seems confident and assured, and doesn’t merely fall back on special effects as a way to distract from the plot holes in his later films. Here, he’s blessed with a great script (that he also helped to co-write) and a fantastic story. And while there’s really nothing that’s all that new here—it is, after all, modeled after a pretty basic mystery storyline (who’s killing these children?)—Fulci’s fresh take on it makes it a gripping film with more than a few surprises in store for his open-minded fans that don’t mind letting the graphic violence take a backseat to the story.
RECAP: This is Fulci’s best overall movie that I’ve seen. Gorehounds will be largely disappointed that, aside from a couple scenes, there’s not much of his trademark gore, but there are a couple after shots of young corpses that are still completely jarring. Here, the mystery of the plot takes center stage (who’s killing the young children in a village) and thanks to assured direction from Fulci, it rarely becomes anything less than gripping. He even imbues some genuine emotion into the film at a couple different points, making it so much more than the one-note gorefests his later films would become (very enjoyable gorefests, but one-note nonetheless). The dubbing leads to some unintentional hilarity, while the film does take quite a while to take off, but the quality of just about everything here (save for a terribly hokey final death sequence that I’m seriously shocked Fulci himself signed off on) is loads better than just about anything else he would go on to do. Great stuff.
RATING: 8/10
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