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Better Late Then Never

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The chirpy, Euro-Barbara Windsor squeaking soundtrack that introduces this film would perhaps fool you into think you're about to watch some "Whoopsy-Boing!" sex comedy, but you'd be wrong. Except for the sex bit.A horrible rich lady who has an open marriage with her Roman noble husband (Silvano Tranquili) is found dead within a locked room, her throat cut. Everyone thinks it was suicide...well, the police think it was suicide, but no one else does, especially housekeeper Magda, who now tends to the needs of Silvano and his mistress, photographer and professional moody looking smoker Rosalba Neri. A spanner is thrown into the works when the rich lady's daughter from a previous marriage turns up after quitting boarding school (or something like that). Her wide eyed innocence certainly catches the eyes of Rosalba, who quickly bonds with the girl by taking loads of pictures of her and conveying the idea that she may bat for both sides, as it were. Silvano's eyebrows are certainly raised when comes home to find his step-daughter bare-arsed in front of a mirror, but if this newcomer has a legit stake in the money left by the rich jerk lady, what are out scheming twosome going to do about it?This is more of your old-school giallo set in a big house with rich people being duplicitous and trying to out-do each other, with the usual plot twists thrown in for good measure, and a whole heap of photographer sessions between the young girl and a drooling Rosalba Neri. Obviously the girl gets it on with both the lead actors but you don't get a slow motion lesbian sex scene like you did with Silvio Amadio's previous Amuck. That said, those looking for nudity won't be let down as the stepdaughter seemingly spends half the film naked.I've got to admit that I found the soundtrack really irritating. "A-chi-chi-chi-di-di-dididida-chi...aaaaaaaah!" indeed.

Teenaged Nancy Thompson arrives unexpectedly at her mothers county villa.She discovers that her mom has died a violent death.The police investigate and believe the she killed herself by cutting her throat with a piece of broken of glass.Nancy meets and becomes friends with Gina who was her mothers best friend and who has a special relationship with her stepfather.Soon the older man turns his roving eye toward this young beauty as suspicion about the suicide starts to come to light.Pretty sleazy and entertaining Italian giallo with plenty of nudity and some nasty surprises.I haven't seen Silvio Amadio's "Amuck" yet,but I'd like to.The performances of Jenny Tamburi and sexy Rosalba Neri are fantastic and I must say that they are perhaps the main reasons to see this surprisingly obscure giallo.8 out of 10.

This obscure giallo was made after director Silvio Amado's excellent "Amuck" (his only work to get a decent DVD release so far), but before his tepid melodrama "So Young, So Lovely, So Vicious". It actually shares elements with both, but I'm pleased to report it is much closer in quality to "Amuck". Visually it is not as stylish (although that might just be due to the crappy available prints), but it has the same interesting plot twists and excellent acting.After a her mother's suspicious suicide, a pretty teenage girl (Lucia Della Robbins)shows up at her Italian villa where she quickly discovers that her new and recently widowed stepfather (Hiram Keller) is having an affair with her mother's sexy photographer friend (Rosalba Neri, also in "Amuck"). The villainous pair plot to do in the precocious youngster, but it turns out she has her own sinister agenda as she has sexually insinuates herself between the two of them (bedding the stepfather and doing nude photo sessions with Neri). The ending is genuinely a surprise.Neri is good as always (although she isn't quite as exciting shooting photographs as she is shooting a shotgun in a bikini). I initially thought the teenage girl should have been played by Gloria Guida (who was later in "So Young, So Lovely, So Vicious"). Robbins wasn't a sex bomb like Guida perhaps, but she turns out to be a much better actress going from wholesome innocence to sexual precociousness to scheming malevolence, where Guida could really only have pulled off the middle one very convincingly. Special mention should also be made of the catchy, cooing score, which somehow later made its way into a 1990's American car commercial (go figure). It's even more memorable than the "Sexual!" song from "Amuck". It's not a perfect movie perhaps--it suffers from having only one brief scene of Neri getting naked (made up somewhat by frequent scenes of Della Robbins getting naked)and, of course, it looks pretty crappy. Still with a restored print and a legitimate DVD release it could be a minor classic of the genre.

From the director of the better known "Alla Ricerca del Piacere" (aka "Amuck!") comes this stylish thriller that involves not only a confusing web of love affairs and relationships, but also - towards the climax - a bundle of twists that are guaranteed to surprise every viewer without becoming implausible at any moment.And this is the big plus of this movie: The twists all work. The first half moves on relatively slow (similar to Silvio Amadio's above mentioned earlier Giallo), but the viewer already gets enough information to know that the plot isn't as simple as it seems. In the second half the film becomes a roller coaster ride of red herrings, plot twists and other surprises, which makes it decisively superior to Amadio's earlier effort.The acting is also thoroughly convincing, which is especially important once the film is finished and the viewer gets the whole story. But the most remarkable thing in this intriguing Giallo is the lush, ear-catching main theme that will never let one go after being heard for the first time.