Amuck (1972)

Original title: Alla Ricerca del Piacere
AKA: Hot Bed of Sex

Director: Silvio Amadio

Writer: Silvio Amadio

Composer: Teo Usuelli

Starring: Farley Granger, Barbara Bouchet, Rosalba Neri, Petar Martinovitch, Dino Mele, Umberto Raho, Nino Segurini, Patrizia Viotti

More info: IMDb

Tagline: He kidnapped beautiful women, forcing them to do what he wanted...AND HE WANTED EVERYTHING!

Plot:  Greta Franklin, a beautiful American blonde, arrives on an island near Venice and rings the door-bell of Richard Stuart, a famous novelist who lives in a beautiful house with his wife Elonora. She manages to be hired as Richard's new secretary, the former one having disappeared without a trace. What Richard and Eleonora do not know - yet- is that Greta has a secret motive for taking the job: not only did she know Sally, her predecessor, but she was her lover.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

I'm not a huge fan of the Giallo (Italian murder mystery) genre.  Maybe it's because I haven't seen that many good ones.  The kills are usually cool and they're stylish but the pacing is generally slow and that can be a deal breaker if the picture doesn't have much else going for it.  AMUCK is different and I appreciate that. Barbara Bouchet always brightens up a any picture she's in and back in the 70s you could pretty much count on her getting naked so that's a plus.  By the way, there's a lot of nudity in this picture.  The love scene flashbacks are in slow motion and that's not a bad way to do it.

Teo Usuelli's score is all kinds of groovy.  I was totally diggin' it and the slower tracks felt an awful lot like Ennio Morricone so I was surprised seeing Usuelli's name in the credits instead.  The picture has some nice moments and a reasonably good finale but the highlight is definitely Bouchet.  The movie isn't nearly as exciting as the poster below suggests, as great as the poster is.