Customer Reviews

Don't Torture A Duckling [VHS]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Lucio Fulci's Don't Torture A Duckling is a superb little giallo. It features a haunting score, beautiful cinematography, a gripping storyline about the murder of young boys. As the body count increases so do the number of leads and red herrings. A superb little film with a great sense of atmosphere. There is a powerful scene, one of such brutality but it remains integral to the plot. Overall I'd give this film 5/5, the films transfer onto DVD is quite brilliant with hardly any problems, there were only a few hairs and scratches visible for a very short period of time. The transfer looks beautiful, you can hardly believe the film is so old. The sound was fine on the disc, the film has a great music score. The film has no extras but who cares, when a film is this good I don't give a damn about extras. Check this film out if you like good murder mysteries or are a fan of Italian giallo films. This film doesn't rely on the heavy gore techniques that Fulci would use later in his career. Instead the film concentrates on it's characters and the atmosphere. Highly Recommended.

I'd also recommend Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin.

DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING is a rare bird in Lucio Fulci's very gilded cage of horror. Made a good seven years before his gorefests, starting with the excellent ZOMBIE, that defined his reputation here in America and the rest of the world, DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING is just as intense and brutal, if a bit less gruesome, than the typical Fulci fan is used to. Yet still in all, the story alone (co-written by Fulci) is as much a testament to Fulci's uncompromising and gutsy approach to horror and suspense as any gore scene in his later films (two scenes ended up starting off two later Fulci films). Hell, even the great Dario Argento says that this is one of Fulci's best films (it says so on the cover), and after my first viewing of DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING on New Year's Eve, I can see why; I also saw a lot of George Romeroesque social commentary in this film.
Child murders and disappearances are very galvanizing experiences for any society, especially in a town like in this movie. Everybody is desperate for answers as to who would do such a horrible thing. There have even been a few cases where some townspeople resort to vigilante behavior towards a suspect to satisfy their need for justice. Fulci handles this story in a surprisingly tasteful matter, with only two instances of violence against children; the fact that little boys are being murdered is shocking enough!
There are no likeable characters in the village, which makes the story more immediate and brutal. Even the little boys that are the targets of murder are portrayed as nasty (e.g., spying on naked people, killing animals with slingshots). The recent scandal with Michael Jackson gives more importance to the story arc involving Patrizia, whom one of the boys sees naked. The only character with any appeal is the reporter Andrea Martelli, who is covering the murders. That character is like the outsider that Argento gets you to identify with in his movies, and that plot device works wonders in this story.
The chain-whipping of a local Wiccan by three men as pop music plays from a car radio is the most psychosocially relevant scene in horror history. It speaks volumes about how far some people will go to achieve a degree of justice in the wake of horrible crimes. In this case, these men are driven by superstition since the woman claimed to have placed a spell on the boys because they were messing around her property. That entire sequence, appropiately hard to watch and grisly, tells you all about the moral decay of the entire village. Fulci also used a chain-whipping scene to kick off THE BEYOND, my favorite Fulci film, and it holds the same meaning.
*SPOILER ALERT* We all know how terrifying killers are in slasher movies, but imagine the killer being somebody who should protect you-such as a Clergyman. Just as Romero has always taken potshots at the military (e.g., THE CRAZIES, DAY OF THE DEAD), so Fulci knocks organized religion front and center here. The ultimate motivation behind the killings is a shocking one because it is so misguided. In fact, the eventual demise of the killer (reused for SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK/THE PSYCHIC) is all the more shocking when juxtaposed with some other footage. This plot point has more shock value in the wake of the scandal with the Catholic church of last year! I have never been stunned by a horror film since childhood until this one!
If DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING were to be released in theaters today, it would generate a major firestorm of controversy, especially in light of the aforementioned events in the media. Yes, this movie was definitely too strong for Europeans to stomach back in 1972 (it didn't get released elsewhere at that time) and it remains potent today. A gritty and ground-breaking giallo, Lucio Fulci's DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING is a definite must-watch!

No figure in the horror film genre is as divisive as Lucio Fulci. After watching one or two of his films, viewers tend to move into one of two camps. One side hails Fulci as a master of terror, a man who upped the gore quotient in his films while creating wonderfully atmospheric pictures. For these people, Fulci is right up there with the likes of Dario Argento as one of the best filmmakers ever to emerge from Italy. The other camp sneers at these claims, pointing to the plodding pace of his films, the use of extreme gore to camouflage plot holes, and the director's inability to draw good performances out of his cast as evidence of mediocrity. Initially, I enjoyed Fulci's films, specifically "Zombie," "City of the Living Dead," and "The New York Ripper" because I did not know any better. When I came on the scene, you went to Fulci to feed your craving for gore. What a difference a few years exploring the genre makes! While I will not go so far as to remove Lucio from my play list altogether, I have seen enough of his films to realize he is not a cinematic genius. He is at best a competent director, at worst an abysmal one, and there are plenty of examples of bad filmmaking in this director's filmography. "Zombie" is without a doubt his best film, but "The House By The Cemetery" runs a close second along with "The Beyond" and "The Gates of Hell."

This giallo, however, is magnificent, as good as many of Dario Argento's efforts. "Don't Torture a Duckling," set in a small village out in the Italian sticks, follows the activities of journalist Andrea Martelli (Tomas Milian) as he attempts to ascertain the identity of a killer preying on children. The first part of the film shows us one of the crimes and introduces us to three of the potential suspects. Possible killer number one is Maciara (Florinda Bolkan), a gypsy and practitioner of black magic whose child passed away some time before. She buried her child out on a hillside only to discover that three local youths desecrated the grave. Her anger over the crime, as well as her ethnicity and the suspicions of the heavily Catholic locals, make her a prime suspect when one of these kids disappears. Possible killer number two is Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet), an extraordinarily beautiful young woman with a shady past and a penchant for long drives at night. She also engaged in questionable behavior with one of the victims immediately before he perished. Possible killer number three is the local priest, Don Alberto Avallone (Marc Popel), a strange man who is on intimate terms with all of the youngsters in town thanks to his youth programs.

As the film progresses we learn more about the odd behaviors of the three principal suspects. Maciara, it is safe to say, fails to stay a suspect for long after several men in the town beat her to death with a chain. Patrizia's background rapidly comes to light partly through police investigation and partly through Martelli's persistent inquires. It turns out that she has a history of drug abuse, never a good thing when you're a suspect in a murder investigation, and she is staying in the village because of problems she incurred in Milan. Patrizia eventually teams up with Martelli to help solve the crime, but her continued evasion of critical questions--what about her cigarette lighter at the scene of a crime, for example--keeps her at the top of the list of potential killers. This journalist better watch his back whenever Patrizia is around. As for Don Alberto, well, we soon learn quite a few things about him and his mother Dona Aurelia (Irene Papas) that make us wonder if he isn't the one behind the despicable crimes. The strength of the film, as is the case with all wonderful gialli, is that it keeps us guessing right up to the final minutes. In fact, I think "Don't Torture a Duckling" takes us up to the very last minute of the film before revealing the identity of the killer.

The biggest surprise about Fulci's giallo is the lack of heavy gore. Most of us are so used to seeing his over the top gorefests that we assume he never made anything else as memorable. Not true. Besides this gem of a giallo, Fulci also made a spaghetti western ("Four of the Apocalypse"), a science fiction potboiler ("The New Gladiators"), a sword and sandal flick ("Conquest"), and a mafia thriller ("Contraband"). None of these films achieves the greatness of "Don't Torture a Duckling," although "Four of the Apocalypse" does come close. While there are a few disturbing scenes here that signal the bloody atrocities to come a few years down the road, such as the chain whipping and a body tumbling down a steep cliff shown in extreme slow motion close up, the movie is a relatively bloodless affair. Fulci seems more interested in launching pointed attacks condemning the Catholic Church, the police, and the irrational prejudices of rural Italians. There's nothing like an old-fashioned murder mystery spiced up with social commentary, eh? Throw in an interesting musical score consisting of lots of twangy strings, and Fulci blends every element into a seamless whole.

The only problem I had with "Don't Torture a Duckling" involved the pacing. As good as the film is, it at times slows down to a snail's pace. By the time the credits roll you realize Fulci needed to include everything you just saw in the movie to make it work, but the film still felt slow in parts. Of course, life moves slowly in a small town, so perhaps Fulci merely tweaked his film to match the environment. Anyway, this is a great Italian flick that's sure to entertain. Give it a shot.

This 1972 giallo by Fulci may disappoint fans of his later gore films (although there is a bit of grue in this one as well), but it's a must for fans of euro-horror and giallos. This widescreen 2.35:1 presentation on DVD from Anchor Bay is a triumphant visual experience. Fulci shows that he can use the camera's eye as a canvas...filling each side of the image with a character or action....if you've only seen this film in a pan and scan bootleg, you're missing half the picture! It's a joy to see it in the correct aspect ratio -- it's stunning especially since it's 2.35. The film itself is fun as a standard giallo, albeit a bit more grim than usual, and includes some nudity (Bouchet), gore, and another great wide-eyed performance from Florinda Bolkan. Young boys are being murdered in a small village...who can the killer be? And what the heck does Donald Duck have to do with it all? Watch it and find out! The DVD is a very basic package from AB --- the only extra is the Fulci bio-info that is on some of the other Fulci discs. So the movie is the key here -- and although there is some graininess here and there --- you shouldn't be disappointed. Who would have ever thought someone would be releasing such titles on DVD? Accolades to Anchor Bay!

The idyllic Italian countryside, with a highway snaking along concrete supports, with church bells, houses clustered like barnacles on mountains, seems an unlikely place for murders to occur. Well, guess what happens in the village of Accendura?

Three boys, roughly 11 or 12 years of age, are strangled by an unknown killer. As the police point out, the killer's a maniac, "but his minds works in certain logical patterns which has a reasonable meaning to him."

At first, Giuseppe Barra, the village idiot, is accused, as he is caught picking up ransom money. Then suspicion falls on Maciara, an outcast and local witch who claims she did kill them for disturbing the grave where she buried her dead and deformed child, but only by making wax effigies and stabbing them with a pin thirteen times so that anyone can kill them.

A further suspect is Patrizia, a hottie who is lying low in Accendura following a drug scandal in Milan. She is so bored with nothing to do, that when one of the boys, Michaele, brings her orange juice, she, lying stark naked on a sofa, walks up to him, and asks him if he'd like to sleep with her. That is something that would never if not rarely be touched on in mainstream American cinema. She drives a cool red dune buggy and carries an expensive golden lighter. Oh yes, and she really steams things up when she appears.

A reporter, Andrea Martelli, is trying to solve the case and enlists the help of Patrizia. He also befriends the local priest, Don Alberto, who is worried about the effect material things have upon contemporary society. While speaking to Martelli about the boys in his flock, he says, "people aren't worried much about their immortal souls. They watch TV, go to the movies, they read the paper with all these scandalous photographs..." He tries to keep the boys occupied by having them play soccer, which is better than them playing in the streets and getting into trouble. After all, at their age, they're most liable to temptation. Indeed, there's a scene of Michaele is drawing dirty pictures, probably after seeing Patrizia in the altogether.

The most famous performer here is Irene Papas, and she has a relatively small role in the movie.

The music, with its intense, staccato strings, really helps work the tension up, especially in the opening, when Maciara's dirty hands dig the ground to produce the skeleton of her baby. And the wailing song that is sometimes heard in the background provides that provincial small village touch.

Originally titled Don't Torture Donald Duck, or in Italian, Non Si Sevizia un Paperino, this giallo thriller ranks alongside Dario Argento's Deep Red. Small question: if Lucio Fulce was to make a sequel, would he have called it Don't Kick Mickey Mouse In The (...)? Just wondering.

I didn't know what to expect when I rented this widescreen DVD. I knew it had a cult following but I had also seen a lot of the director's later works which although delightfully gory were also pretty much incoherent. DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING actually had a linear storyline and a mystery that kept me guessing almost until the end. And after all was said and done, it was a genuinely unsettling and creepy experience. One major caveat: I would much rather have heard the original soundtrack and read English subtitles than the uneven dubbing found here.

Because of some of the subject content, no major studio would touch it. I never heard of this before it came out on DVD, but it's definitely worth the money. Watch it and spread the word.

Italian master filmaker in extreme gore and horror Lucio Fulci, experimented in this 1972 disturbing and tense "Giallo" thriller, a different aproach of collective fear, madness and religious censorship, a work that was actually his best effort before he turned his attention to atmospheric supernatural horror, zombie nauseous imagery and shocking graphic violence, in classics like "Zombi", "city of the living dead" or his all-time masterpiece "The beyond".

When several young boys are brutally massacred in a southern small italian village, the locals decide to take bloody justice in their own hands: Consumed by fear and ignorance, the supersticious villagers turn against the obvious suspects with violent rage, and weird misfits fall under the vicious attack of the linching mob. When the police is overwhelmed, a nosy reporter comes to town to investigate the murders, and soon became curious about a young priest and his influence over the villagers, who censors the reading to prevent the corruption of their souls. What continues was an unseen morbid tale of sexual desire and creepy explorations of moral values.

With the usual tight budget and time that 70's italian horror movies suffered from, Fulci accomplished a tense, disturbing and gruesome story that actually manages to turn the Italian rural provinces in a hellish scenario, with a cerebral and absorbing tale of superstition and ignorance, violence and revenge. The moody and dense photography of Sergio D'offizi transforms the beautiful italian landscapes into menacing spaces of despair, and the haunting and macabre music score of Riz Ortolani gets under the viewer's skin.

The most effective thriller scripted and directed by Fulci himself, never actually reached the status that deserved, but for fans of Fulci this is the most popular and frightening work. The threatening and creepy atmosphere involving the villager's superstition, religion and dark magic, adding to the macabre situations like the early highlight of a linching mob assasination sequence, the endless riddles of the tense story and the disturbing encounters with the gore imagery, was a serious demarcation of Fulci over the world of horror cinema: With the minimum resources, a great talented filmaker can create a whole universe of fear, thrills and chills.

George A. Romero's "Night of the living dead" was the most outstanding example of an "accidental" masterpiece that described with cheap effectiveness the very end of the world, with only few shots of outer lanscapes, an old house and amateur crew and extras, staged media reports on radio and tv, plastic special effects and great passion and imagination. Now, if Romero could do such a monumental achievement that changed the vision of horror cinema forever, Why the masters of the B-horror movie's style of the 70's, including the grade-A student Tobe Hoper with the milestone "The Texas chainsaw massacre", can't be considered genius as well?

The answer is obvious: Classic italian horror filmakers are the very school of flawed but astonishing achievements with less-than-much budget, but with a cappacity for creating surrealistic ambients and a weird abstraction of fear that borders dementia, an incredible talent that Romero himself wish he had. With all due respect.

Before Fulci earned his title of the "Godfather Of Gore", which enhanced(and to some, ruined) his reputation, Fulci made this very entertaining giallo film. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe this film actually got him blacklisted or something back in the 70s. Duckling is a story about young boys who are being murdered in a small town. Who's doing it? Is it the peeping tom village idiot? The local wizard? The witch who sticks pins in(and spits on) wax figures of the boys? The priest? The priest's shady mother? The sexy Annette O'Toole lookalike with a thing for drugs and 12 year old boys? The reporter? Or maybe the police themselves? You'll have to watch it to see, and Fulci does a decent job of keeping us in the dark. Those buying this for that trademark gore we all love will be disappointed. There are only two real scenes of violence. One is identical to the whipping scene in the opening of The Beyond, and the other is the killer's demise which looks pretty silly, but still cool. This film shows what talent Fulci had, and proves that he wasn't a complete hackmeister....only mostly. I think there are quite a few critics who actually like this one. Though low on gore, it's far from p.c. The subject matter is unsettling enough, but there's quite a tantalizing scene that is every boy's dream come to life. The leading lady at one point throws herself at one of the boys, but the boy's pesky mother interrupts. Were young boys allowed to act in scenes with naked women? I suppose they could in Italy in the early 70s. Watch it, good flick.

We can finally throw away our 8th generation Video Search copies... Don't Torture A Duckling is here! By far one of the most twisted giallos ever made, it is also one of Maestro Lucio Fulci's best films... truly a masterpiece.

This film remains one of the most atmospheric films I have ever seen. Every time you see it, you are drawn into every aspect of the film and are left both disturbed and relieved. One of the best! BUY OR DIE!