La decima vittima (1965)

Director:

Elio Petri

Writers:

Robert Sheckley (story)
Tonino Guerra (writer) ...

Release Date:

20 December 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Action | Thriller | Comedy

Tagline:

It's the 21st century and they have a licence to kill.

Plot:

Some people like violence so much, that they decide to create a club in which human hunts are organized - members being alternately hunters, and prey, until they end up dead.

Plot Keywords:

Violence | Futuristic | Toy Robot | Television | Trident

Cast

Marcello Mastroianni	...	Marcello Polletti
Ursula Andress	...	Caroline Meredith
Elsa Martinelli	...	Olga
Salvo Randone	...	Professor
Massimo Serato	...	Lawyer
Milo Quesada	...	Rudi
Luce Bonifassy	...	Lidia
George Wang	...	Chinese attacker
Evi Rigano	...	Victim
Walter Williams	...	Martin
Richard Armstrong	...	Cole
Antonio Ciani

Also Known As:

La dixième victime (France)
The 10th Victim
The Tenth Victim (UK)

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:A (1966) | Australia:M | West Germany:18 (f) | Norway:16 | Argentina:18 | Finland:K-16 | Portugal:M/18 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

1285 Avenue of the Americas, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Compagnia Cinematografica Champion

Trivia:

According to Simon Doonan, all the costumes for this film were by André Courrèges.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)

Soundtrack:

Spiral Waltz

A wonderful example of 60s pop art filmmaking,Italian-style.

As a wonderful example of 60s pop art filmmaking, Elio Petri has taken many of the decade's most popular culture crazes (the Bond films, Courreges fashions, discotheque jazz, etc.) and used them with great success to give a plausible look to a highly improbable (in 1965!) future world. Petri's digs at Mad Ave advertising and humanity's relentless pursuit of fame and money (no matter the price) are on-target, and his delight in mocking societal idiosyncrasies (the sun worshipers) is priceless. However, at the heart of The Tenth Victim is the old-fashioned battle-of-the-sexes plot (still very popular in the mid-60s), and yet Petri has the upper hand by his spoofing of the romantic-comedy genre and giving us instead a deliciously amusing trifle that is fun to watch for its joking attitude towards everything it depicts, including Marcello and Ursula! To one reviewer who found it outdated, it must be remembered that this film was made 35 years ago and so it naturally has nothing to do with today's standards - and why should it? That's like dismissing Griffith's Intolerance because it's a silent film!