Amuck!

Amuck Review

This is a review for the Giallo film Amuck (Italian title:Alla ricerca del piacere, also known as Maniac Mansion, Leather and Whips and Hot Bed of Sex), released 1971. It stars Barbara Bouchet, Farley Granger and Rosalba Neri. This film was directed by Silvio Amadio, who’s filmography is sparse, mostly obscure films. The story is about a woman who comes to work for a researcher as a secretary, transcribing his notes from a reel to reel tape recorder. There is an ulterior motive with her however as we soon learn that the previous secretary went missing and also happens to be the friend of Barbara Bouchet’s character. She is there to solve her disappearance. The whole film plays out like a usual Giallo film. Giallo, meaning yellow in Italian, is used in this case for the suspenseful/slasher/thriller genre of films from Italy made famous by the likes of Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. To be totally honest, the reason I saw this film was because of Barbara Bouchet. I have seen her in a number of her other films and this one does not disappoint (though it ended quite abruptly) since she is the focus of this film, rather than just the eye candy. Though, I must say there were some very adult scenes as the couple that she is staying with is very sexually permissive/open, which can be slightly jarring in a few scenes, typical of the Giallo genre however. There is a bit of nudity, some of it gratuitous while other scenes are to move the plot along.

The film actually feels very suspenseful, and like Barbara Bouchet’s character, you get the feeling there is more here than meets the eye.
The cinematography is done very well though the version I saw was a poor transfer copy, likely VHS, but to be able to see it at all is pretty impressive in my book. Mostly because a number of these films suffer egregious cuts, both to the gore or the time, making them almost unwatchable because a fair number of key scenes maybe cut out or it is badly dubbed, any number of things to make the watcher feel like it’s not worth the time to watch. This film, however is worth the watch, if not for Barbara Bouchet alone.