Black Belly of the Tarantula

More Giallo, this time:

Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971).

The plot in this Paolo Cavara directed Giallo is this:

A killer paralyzes his victims with a long needle to the neck before disemboweling them while still alive and conscious. Inspector Tellini (Giancarlo Giannini) is on the case, leaving nothing to chance as he chases the deranged killer. He also finds the time to handle some incidental drug smuggling until we get a tense climax.

The reason I can't go into any more detail then that is that it would go straight into deep spoiler territory. There are several things I'd like to go over but that would give away important plot points, so I'll do what I can. Maybe consider this a mild spoiler warning, just to be safe.

What immediately stands out is the presence of Inspector Tellini. In the majority of Gialli movies, the police are in the background investigating, but it is usually an involved civilian who solves the mystery. The police are either too obstinate or incompetent to get the killer, but they sometimes show up in the end to do the heavy lifting. Not so in Black Belly of the Tarantula. Inspector Tellini is intelligent, diligent, competent and sensitive. So sensitive in fact that he contemplates leaving the force as he dislikes the violence and sheer nastiness of it all.

The movie is competently filmed with occasional stand out shots. The music is by Ennio Morricone and suits the movie just fine. The other actors beside Giannini are good, but what irked me is that they bothered to get both Barbara Bouchet and Barbara Bach and then sidelining them both a great deal. With a lesser actor than Giannini, Black Belly of the Tarantula would have been a disaster. Luckily this is not the case.

The biggest problem Black Belly of the Tarantula has is the script. It is pretty messy with odd sidelines that make little sense. Busting a scientist for drug smuggling has no bearing on finding the killer, but we waste time on it anyway. One of the victims is killed off camera and beyond seeing the gloved hand of the killer grabbing her, we wouldn't even know she was dead until later when Tellini talks about it in a depressed, almost offhand manner. There is also a blackmailing plot woven into the story and it all becomes too busy. What is there is pretty good, but it gets muddled by adding too much to the story,

So, do I recommend this movie? I guess I do. There is nothing horribly wrong with Black Belly of the Tarantula, but there are numerous small annoyances. On two occasions a person tells Tellini “I'll talk to you tomorrow” and then they get killed. Once is fine, but using the same ploy twice is sloppy. Things like that. There is no way to solve the mystery as the viewer, it is all down to guesswork. I had the killer on my list of suspects, but that was more because I had no reason to not have that person there. If you are on a Giallo journey do give this movie a shot, it is worth it, but put it lower on the list and give your attention to better movies first. It's okay but it could be a lot better.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!