Lo strano ricatto di una ragazza per bene (1974)

Director:

Luigi Batzella

Writer:

Luigi Batzella

Release Date:

16 August 1974 (Italy)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Breasts | Female Nudity

Cast

Brigitte Skay	...	Babel
Benjamin Lev	...	Claudio
Claudio Giorgi	...	Rick
Nuccia Cardinali	...	Eva
Luana Brown
Darla Abrem
Rosalba Neri	...	Stella
Umberto Raho	...	Babel's father
Lorenzo Piani

Directed by
Luigi Batzella		(as Paolo Solvay)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Luigi Batzella

Original Music by
Marcello Gigante

Cinematography by
Giorgio Montagnani

Production Companies

• P.M.R.

Also Known As:

Runtime:

75 min | USA:77 min

Country:

Italy | West Germany

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

P.M.R.

Trivia:

Italian censorship visa # 64529 delivered on 8-5-1974.

It sure ain't good, but it sure is entertaining!

This movie starts out with a long gratuitous topless dancing scene in a disco, a long gratuitous topless dancing on the beach, and more brief but equally gratuitous orgy scene. Finally though, it settles down into the story of a spoiled, stoned-out hippie girl (Brigitte Skay) who convinces her boyfriend and friends to "kidnap" her in order to extort money from her wealthy father. Unfortunately, her evil, gold-digging stepmother (Rosalba Neri) gets involved, and gang's plans go horribly, horribly awry. (The movie has a great nihilistic ending, which unfortunately is ruined by a final twist that made me want to throw stuff at my TV screen).

It's kind of hard to categorize this movie. It doesn't really have the mystery elements of a giallo thriller. It kind of turns into nihilistic hostage drama at one point like an Italian "terror" film, but it was made well before the classics of that "genre" like "Late Night Trains" and "House by the Edge of the Park". And it's just too flat-out ridiculous to be any kind of serious drama: At one point, for instance, the protagonist opens the door to the black maid of a family the gang is holding hostage. For no real reason (other than the obvious) she invites her in and engages her in a catfight which eventually turns into a steamy lesbian sex scene!

Casual Italian movie fans might recognize Brigitte Skay as the voluptuous skinny-dipper in Mario Bava's "Bay of Blood". More knowledgeable fans might also recognize her as the swinger in Bava's underrated "Four Times that Night" and the lead in the fumetti adaptation "Isabela, Duchess of the Devil". This is not as good as any of those movies, but it might very well be Skay's best role. Rosalba Neri normally makes for great, sexy villainess, but she is not well-used here. She is badly-dubbed, has only one brief nude scene, and most of all doesn't get nearly enough screen time. Director Paolo Sovay also directed Neri in "The Devil's Wedding Night"(a better role for her if not necessarily a better movie). For better or worse, he also went on to direct the very appropriately titled "Nude for Satan" and the notorious Nazi exploitation flick "The Beast in Heat". As for this film--well, it sure ain't good, but it sure is entertaining!