Amuck!

1978 "An explosion of sexual frenzy!"
6.2| 1h38m| R| en
Details

A beautiful American woman infiltrates the home of a novelist and his wife so she can investigate the disappearance of her lover — who was her employers’ previous secretary — and soon finds herself the target of the couple's erotic desires and a murder plot.

Director

Producted By

West Films

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Reviews

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.
Iseerphia All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.
Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Sam Panico Amuck! is a great title, but this is a movie that has a ton of great other titles –Alla ricerca del piacere (In Pursuit of Pleasure), Maniac Mansion, Leather and Whips and Hot Bed of Sex were also used and the working titles were Replica de un delitto (Repetition of a Crime) and Il passo dell'assassino(Footsteps of the Killer). No matter what name you give it, this is one dark little film.Greta (Barbara Bouchet, who next to Edwige Fenech could be considered the queen of the giallo thanks to turns in Don't Torture a Duckling and The Red Queen Kills Seven Times ) is an American abroad, working as the secretary to Richard Stuart (Farley Granger, So Sweet, So Dead and What Have They Done to Your Daughters?).Along with his wife Eleanora (Rosalba Neri, Lady Frankenstein), the writer lives in comfort on his own island. Their past secretary, Sally, disappeared without a trace. However, Richard and Eleanora don't know Greta's reason for joining them — the missing girl was her lover, a fact we find out via a flashback lovemaking scene that is artful, if stilted, awkward and the way that men would assume women would couple (staring at one another and attempting to kiss, then going to sleep). Indeed, it feels like the fever addled wet dream of a maniac, which pretty much sums up what giallo can be at times.The more Greta gets close, the more sex, drugs and violence is unearthed. The Stuarts often hold sex parties in their palatial home. Oh yeah — Eleanora has ESP, seeing Great's death, screaming about it while in a fit of prophecy.Indeed, death begins to follow our heroine. The next day, a hunting trip turns into a brush with quicksand, that most evil of all movie doom.Richard reveals that Eleanora fascinates him because of her duplicitous nature and he is falling in love with Greta because of how honest she is. He then reveals the accident that claimed Sally's life in a flashback: Eleanora watches Rocco through her hunting scope before inviting him to a rendezvous with her and Sally. They both dance for him in a series of druggy jump cuts — perhaps the film's most assured scene. After making love to Eleanora, the fisherman kisses Sally tenderly before losing control, which is shown by how the film speeds up, like the Keystone Kops. He ends up choking Sally to death while Eleanora watches, powerless to stop him.Richard and Greta end up making love later that night during a storm. Eleanora watches through the doorway before looking directly at the camera, as if she is sad yet not surprised.
PimpinAinttEasy The first time I can say that I really liked a Giallo. Barbara Bouchet must be one of the most beautiful women to be shot on screen. Her slow motion lesbian scene with Rosalba Neri to Teo Usuelli's dreamy background score makes this film worth watching. Another lesbian scene under a waterfall was also terrific. The hunting scene where a paranoid Barbara Bouchet runs around like a scared rabbit was well edited. The plot, suspense and resolutions are all quite banal. But the beautiful women, the excellent score and the locales made me like this film. Farley Granger looked quite creepy i guess.(7.5/10)
MARIO GAUCI This is one of the better-known giallo titles, if mainly for the presence of two of the more luscious "Euro-Cult" starlets – blonde Barbara Bouchet (whom I saw, still looking good, quite a few times at the Italian B-movie retrospective held during the 2004 Venice Film Festival!) and brunette Rosalba Neri – in perhaps their role of greatest significance; it goes without saying, then, that the film's piece de resistance is their celebrated slow-motion love scene (which actually occurs very early into the proceedings)! With a generic if definitely attention-grabbing moniker that has no direct bearing on the plot, the movie has been given many an alternate title – such as MURDER MANSION and HOT BED OF SEX, depending on which aspect the respective distributors chose to spotlight (for the record, the Italian original translates to IN THE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE); incidentally, the English-dubbed and regrettably panned-and-scanned VHS-sourced copy (as a result proving soft and occasionally battered) I watched boasted no credits apart from the names of the picture itself, Bouchet and leading man Farley Granger! By the way, the film marked the second of three giallos the American star appeared in back-to-back (I watched the others, which I quite liked, only a few days ago) but, though I felt he delivered surprisingly committed performances in all of them, once again this one afforded him the meatiest characterization. Having said that, it makes for a good transition between SOMETHING CREEPING IN THE DARK (1971) and SO SWEET, SO DEAD (1972) – featuring elements from each, specifically the old dark house setting and a high sleaze factor respectively! The premise is simple enough, with heroine Bouchet insinuating herself into the Venetian household of renowned novelist Granger and his much younger wife Neri, in order (unbeknownst to them) to probe into the disappearance of their secretary – her colleague/flatmate/lover!; it transpires that the outwardly respectable wealthy couple leads a libertine existence, given to stag parties fuelled by drug-taking and the exhibition of snuff movies: starting to involve a dim-witted brute in their exploits, one day things turn sour and it is the secretary who gets the short end of the stick (no pun intended)! The local Police are aware of Bouchet's undercover 'mission' but, soon enough, she realizes that her employer is too – since the plot of his new novel begins to parallel the events that had taken place in the house and, more importantly, indicate what her own fate will be (a blackmailing servant is similarly gotten out of the way)! To further muddle the waters, Granger pretends to fall for Bouchet (thus getting a piece of the action himself for once!) – in fact, two of the film's highlights involve the depictions (via flashback confessions) of the former secretary's death and the disposing of the body; another – this time around a recollection by Bouchet – is a skinny-dipping episode (which goes a bit beyond that) involving her and the murdered girl, and yet one memorable sequence is the climax (planned to be a reprise of the secretary's unlucky demise, the tables are smoothly turned on the perpetrators: Bouchet had met the couple's unwitting associate during a chance but cringe-inducing encounter where he, a fisherman, had nonchalantly flayed a live eel in front of her and she even treated his injured finger!). As was often the case with the "Euro-Cult" style, one of the lasting ingredients here is Teo Usuelli's score which is versatile enough to suit the film's many changes of mood.
lazarillo This giallo is probably most famous for the slow-motion lesbian sex scene between Barbara Bouchet and Rosalba Neri near the beginning. That scene is certainly impressive (as you might imagine if you have ever seen either of these two actresses in action), but it shouldn't overshadow what a well-made, classic giallo this is. It has everything fans of gialli love--great visuals and setting, pulse-pounding suspense, sordid and perverse characters, truly surprising plot twists, and a great musical score and soundtrack. Farley Granger is wonderful, going convincingly from evil to sympathetic and back again. Bouchet and Neri are also both very good, particularly the latter. Neri is justifiably famous for her beauty (and her frequent nude scenes). She had plenty of competition in that respect when it came to gialli--Bouchet,Edwige Fenech, Nieves Navarro, Ewe Aulin to name a few--but she had no close rival when it came to sheer acting talent. This is definitely her best role, better even than "Lady Frankenstein". To get an idea of how impressive this film is try watching it back to back with one of those terrible "erotic thrillers" they make these days. How did we get from wonderfully sexy gialli like this to that dreck? The Eurovision DVD has recent interviews with both actresses (who look about the same even though they must be close to sixty by now). They both speak English (Bouchet quite fluently)and reveal some interesting tidbits. The director of this film Silvio Amado, according to Bouchet, dropped out of sight after an unrequited love affair with actress Gloria Guida (the Italian Lolita of the era). I have actually seen a second-rate melodrama Amado made with Guida a few years later, which is why I was genuinely surprised with the talent he shows here. It's truly a misfortune that he didn't stick around to do more films like this. A true classic of the genre