The Film:
I only recently started to watch giallos over the last year or so and it is quickly becoming a favourite genre of mine, so I was all but happy to find that I would receive The Black Belly Of The Tarantula AKA La Tarantola dal ventre nero to review, as from what I have read it is a highly regarded film of the genre. Directed by Paolo Cavara, probably best known for his part in the 'Mondo' films, The Black Belly Of The Tarantula stars Academy Award nominee Giancarlo Giannini (Seven Beauties, Hannibal) as Inspector Tellini, an Italian detective who must investigate the sadistic murders where someone is injecting beautiful women with poison causing paralysation, yet leaving them awake whilst he rips into them with a knife. The story starts with the investigation of the blackmail and murder of Maria Zani (Barbara Bouchet - Casino Royale, Don't Torture A Duckling), followed by more murders, deception, blackmail and drug trafficking. However, the film doesn't just show you Tellini being a detective and in fact, as the story progresses and he is pulled into a web of immortality and murder we delve deeper into his personal life where it becomes apparant that the murderer also wants to kill his wife. As well as starring former Bond girl Bouchet, there are also two other former Bond girls, Claudine Auger (Thunderball) and Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me) with the films score wonderfully done by Ennio Morricone. The acting is pretty average with only Giannini giving an above average performance but the film grips you through its twists and turns as the story pans out. As with any good giallo, The Black Belly Of The Tarantula includes the main ingrediants of murder, gore, red herrings and nudity. What I had read and heard about this reasonably unknown film wasn't wrong and it certainly stands out as one of the better giallos I've seen (out of around 15-20) and it comes highly recommended.
The DVD:
Video:
Blue Underground is a company that is renowned for it's reasonably good transfers of unknown films, but unfortunately for me, they fall just short of the mark here. Although presented anamorphically in it's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the print suffers from aliasing and significant edge enhancement which did take away some of my enjoyment of the film. The edge enhancement probably comes from the fact the film came from a PAL transfer (the Italian release) and not converted properly making it too obvious. It also seems to be a bit darker than it should. Overall, the picture isn't poor and of VHS quality like a budget release, though it could've been better. Optional English subtitles are also provided and are deep yellow in colour making them easy to read.
Audio:
Blue Underground have included two language tracks for this release, the Italian mono track, and an English mono track. The Italian track was pretty good and had little background hiss. The score came across clearly and dialogue levels were consistent. I also flicked through to the English dub a couple of times for reviewings sake and the English track was of a similar quality, yet I did notice that the subtitles seemed very dumbed down from what was being said in the dub. All in all, an average effort.
Extras:
We have been given the exact same extras as the Italian release minus the booklet. We start with an interview with Lorenzo Danon, who is the son of the films producer Marcello Danon. The interview is in Italian with clear English subtitles and Danon starts off talking about the production company his father was part of (DA.MA and it's previous incarnations) aswell as the film itself and some of his own experiences on the set. Also included is the theatrical trailer and TV spot, both of which are in English.
OVERALL:
The film is one of the best giallo's I've had the pleasure of seeing, but the picture, sound and extras could've been better.
