Don't Torture a Duckling — Don't Torture a Duckling( DVD/Blu Ray)
Don't Torture a Duckling(Non si sevizia un paperino) was originally released in 1972. And unusually for Giallo, which are mostly set in cities, it’s set in a rural location. Its plot tells of an Italian village, where several young boys have been killed- we get offered up a series of suspects- the village idiot, a witch who lives near the village, a promiscuous young woman who flirts with the boys, or one of the other villages.
The film takes in very memorable locations & landscape- featuring the long motorway bridge before the village, the village its self with it's sun backed on the hill setting, the mountains, and woodland. On the whole Don't Torture a Duckling is a very well made & shot film, that utilize it’s setting very well. And really if you’ve only seen Fulci’s later lower budget gory films- you’ll be surprised how classy & well produced the film looks
Like the best Giallo’s the film keeps you guessing until the very end, and the killers reveal is both surprising & shocking. Gory wise the film is fairly pared back, compared to Fulci’s gore epics- but there are some fairly harrowing & brutal scenes along the way. The murders of the children are played down, though the bodies are discovered. And later on in the film, we get a particularly intense & disturbing chain lashing scene.And someone getting their face ripped apart as the fall off a cliff in slow monition. So it’s not really the film for a gorehound, but if you enjoyed well-paced, and suspenseful Giallo I’m sure you’ll enjoy it a lot.
Moving onto the extras on this new release. And first up we get a new commentary track from Tim Lucas, who has been writing about cult film since the early 80’s, and he’s also written the definitive book on Mario Brava All The Colors Of The Dark. His track here is full of facts, yet passionate & highly interesting- as he talks about each of the films key players, the films filming location, Fulci himself, and we even get a potted history of J & B whiskey, which is often the drink of choice in Giallo films.
Other extras include: Giallo a la Campagna, a new video discussion with Mikel J. Koven, author of La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film. Every (Wo)man Their Own Hell, a new video essay by critic Kat Ellinger. Plus a selection of interviews with co-writer/director Lucio Fulci, actor Florinda Bolkan, cinematographer Sergio D Offizi, assistant editor Bruno Micheli and assistant makeup artist Maurizio Trani. And lastly, we get the film in both original Italian, or the English dub version.
It goes without saying this a release for any fan of the giallo genre, but I can also see it appealing to fans of 70’s thrillers & suspense films too- as it never over does its Giallo traits, and the whole film has quite a distinctive setting & feel, compared to much of the genre. So all in all another most worthy release from Arrow.