Non si sevizia un paperino
Tags: cruelty, murder, cult, horror, violence, flashback, suspenseful, sadist

Plot synopsis:
In the small Southern Italian village of Accendura, three local boys, Bruno, Michele, and Tonino are engaged in mischief and other activities. Guiseppe Barra (Vito Passeri) a local simpleton and peeping tom, who is seen spying on two rowdy swinging couples, is suprised when which the three boys appear behind him and yell out, "Giuseppe's a big baby!" which goads him into a state of bitter recentment. Meanwhile, in the hills surrounding the village, a reclusive Gypsy witch named La Magiara (Florinda Bolkan), is conducting sinister black magic ceremonies, first by digging up the skeletal remains of an infant, and then plunging pins through the heads of three tiny clay dolls. It makes it clear that these are the three youths taunting Giuseppe. When Michele returns home, his housekeeper mother urges him to deliver some orange juice to their employer, Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet) a young woman from Milan who is laying low in the village after a drug scandal. It becomes apparent that Patrizia offers undefined sexual favors to the local adolescents when she's shown sexualy taunting Michele.When Bruno Lo Casio goes missing, a media circus begins as reporters from all over Italy converge on the town. One of them is Andrea Martelli (Tomas Milian) a sharp-witted journalist from Rome whose insights into the case are acknowledged by the regional police commissioner (Virginio Gazzolo) working with the colloraboration of the village chief of police Captain Modesti (Ugo D'Alessio). Amid local hysteria, Giuseppe is soon arrested when he's found near the dead body of Bruno. But he protests his innocence for he claims to have only discovered the body of the boy and then phoned the parents in a feeble attempt to extract a pitiful ransom of six million lira. When another dead body of a young boy, that of Tonino is found, the police realize that he really is innocent.
A few nights later, during a raging thunderstorm, Michele Spriano, sneaks out of his house to meet with someone he speaks to over the phone, and he too is strangled by an unseen assailant and his body is found the following morning.Martelli soon meets and befriends Patrizia whom he recognizes from newspapers where he used to work in Milan. Patrizia is considered a slut by rest of the insular villagers mainly because of her modern style of dress with halter-tops and mini-skirts. Martelli also meets with the amiable young village priest, Don Alberto Avallone (Marc Poreli) and his strangely reserved mother Aurelia (Irene Papas). Don Alberto runs a boys group at the church (which the murder victims came from) and he also encourages the boys to play soccer on the church grounds to keep them off the streets and out of trouble. Since he is the priest and connected with the powerful Catholic Church (which holds the real power in Italy), he is well known and respected by everyone in the village and surrounding area. But Aurelia is a dour mysterious woman. A villager confides in Martelli that, "she is only tolerated because she is the priest's mother."Elsewhere, Captain Modesti and his aide meet with Francesco (George Wilson), an eccentric old hermit living in a tumbledown stone hut in the hills overlooking the town, who practices black magic and offers charms and potions to the superstitious. He claims to the police that he has passed his knowledge of black magic to his disciple, Magiara, and also shares time with the causal thrill-seeking Patrizia. He is also rumored to have had (and then disposed of) a baby from a tryst with Magiara. Angered by Francesco's unwillingness to co-operate with the investigation, the police proceed to hunt down and arrest Magiara. Under interogation, the fevered woman gleefully confesses to the murders. However, it transpires to Modesti and the Commissioner that she believes her voodoo dolls and incantations have merely brought about the deaths of the three interfering boys, and she profess to have no interest or awareness of the physical methods used. An alibi provided by a policeman sighting Magiara miles away from the latest murder scene clinchers her legal innocence and she is released the following day. Nonetheless, the hostile and superstitious villagers are not convinced and the so-called "witch" is set upon in a local graveyard by a small mob of men who savagely beat her with heavy chains and then leave her for dead. The bloodied and mortally wounded Magiara drags herself quite a distance to the nearby expressway where she futilely tries to flag down a car, and then dies on the shoulder of the road. The following day, another young boy is found murdered, drowned in a local stream, which further increases police frustration to the case.Patrizia herself briefly becomes a suspect when Martelli finds her gold-plated cigarette lighter at the scene of the latest killing and while being interogateded by the police, she refuses to supply an alibi for those nights of each killing. But under the threat of incarcination, she's forced to admit that she traveled outside Accendura to buy marijuana for herself. With little to hold her on, the police let her go as well.Martelli and Patrizia become more determined to track down the killer on their own. During further meetings with Don Alberto, Martelli also learns that Don Alberto's mother has another young child, a six-year-old girl born mentally retarded. Martelli becomes convinced that the little girl is a witness to the killings after seeing that she compulsively pulls the heads off her dolls, as if doing an imitation to the strangulations. One doll's head, that of Donald Duck, is found near the latest crime scene, which this leap of reason proves accurate. But Martelli and Patrizia wonder: is the killer the priest or his mother? When Aurelia disappears with her daughter, Martelli and Patrizia track her down to a remote shack on a hill overlooking the town and when they arrive, Aurelia is found barely conscious begging them to help her stop her crazy son. It is Don Alberto who is the killer. It turns out that he straggled those young boys not for their sins, but to PREVENT them from committing sin when they grow up, as well as save them from the "horrors of sexuality", thus (in his mind) sending them to heaven with clean souls.In an act contrary to even his sick rationale, he attempts to throw his little sister, a witness to the crimes, off a remote cliff. Martelli arrives in the nick of time, and after a long and climatic fistfight between Martelli and Don Alberto, the twisted priest looses his balance and falls of the cliff to his gruesome death.

Review: Lucio Fulci, later known for his graphic horror films like The Beyond and Zombie, was years earlier a master of the Italian giallo (in the company of Argento and Bava) with films like A Lizard In A Woman's Skin and his masterpiece, Don't Torture A Duckling.
The young rich woman who is so bored that she sexually taunts the eventual victims, the reporter who likes to tamper with a crime scene to get a better photo shot, the townswoman with a mentally retarded daughter, the local witch, the town idiot....the list goes on, and you have to keep mental notes like a true game to play and solve.
Sporting a title seemingly more suitable for a Looney Tunes featurette than a grisly giallo, "Don't Torture a Duckling" (1972) is nonetheless a Grade A thriller from horror maestro Lucio Fulci.
Some of the colorful characters involved in the investigations - either as suspects, or those "helping" the investigation (or in some cases both) - include the towns police force, a small-time reporter, a beautiful and rich ex-drug addict, a young priest and his mother, An old man who practices witchcraft and his female protégé, a mentally handicapped townsman, and a deaf/mute little girl.
All of these people are interwoven into the plot to create several twists and turns, until the actual killer is revealed...DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING is neither a "classical" giallo or a typical Fulci gore film.
Recommended for giallo/murder-mystery fans, or anyone looking to check out some of Fulci's non-splatter films - but don't despair, DON'T TORTURE still has more than it's fair share of violence and sleaze.
Acting is generally average, though in a couple of cases, it's a bit overdone.Though not as visually brilliant as Argento's giallos, "Don't Torture A Duckling" nevertheless is a fine film, one that contains a thematic storyline and enough of a whodunit puzzle to interest most viewers who like thrillers and murder mysteries..
that would be something like a "who-done-it" movie in a nutshell.You won´t know who the killer is until the last moments of the film.But apart from that, there´s the plot: some maniac living in a small village starts killing little boys...
A journalist (Tomas Milian), a sexy young woman (Barbara Bouchet), a priest (Marc Porel), his mother (Irene Papas) and a witch (Florinda Bolkan) are the main characters in this tangled, bloody story.Talking about the actors, I want to say that Tomas Milian is superb (like always), and Florinda Bolkan is terrific as the village witch...Do you want to know who is the killer?...
DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING (Lucio Fulci - Italy 1972).Definitely a prime candidate for the most insane movie title ever conceived and that's quite an achievement in giallo-land.
By the time a quick-witted newshound (Tomas Milian) arrives from Milan to cover the murders, he immediately begins to question the authorities' assumptions, when he meets two other potential suspects: Don Alberto, the local priest (Marc Porel) with a high-minded attitude, and Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet), a bored young woman from the city with a troubled past of drug offense, who also fancies having sexual relations with the young boys in town.
Probably, the film's rather unflattering portrayal of small-town Sicilian values (when another boy is killed, the local populace are depicted as a retarded lynch-mob) might be cause for some offense in Sicily, but - considering Sicily's problematic relation with the rest of Italy - hardly problematic for other Italians, I would think.
Above all, this is a taut, well-written, effective little mystery, nicely lensed by Fulci, with an impressive cast of genre-regulars like Barbara Bouchet, Marc Porel (not very convincing as a priest), Tomas Milian and Florinda Balkan (mouth-foamingly crazy as the town's witch).Camera Obscura --- 8/10.
Don't torture a Duckling is the most compelling and effective achievement Lucio Fulci ever brought forward and it easily ranks among the greatest Italian horror movies ever made.
Lucio Fulci's "Don't Torture a Duckling" paints an exceptionally unflattering portrait of small-town Sicily plagued by series of brutal murders of young boys.This surprisingly well-directed film(especially in comparison to later Fulci's gorefests)is distinguished by overall atmosphere of perversity,nastiness and two truly grotesque scenes of brutal violence.The soon-to-be-dead children are depicted as casually cruel and budding peeping toms;Bruno's near-seduction by the naked Patrizia(Barbara Bouchet)really has to be seen to be believed.Highly recommended-especially in pair with my another cult favourite "House with the Windows That Laugh"(1976)..
"Don't Torture A Duckling" of 1972 is not only by far Fulci's greatest film, this tantalizing and utterly brilliant Giallo is one of the absolute highlights of the genre.
"Don't Torture A Duckling" truly delivers cinematic perfection in every aspect, which makes it an absolute masterpiece of Italian Horror cinema.Contrary to other Gialli, it is not seductive beauty queens who are slain one by one, but little boys who fall victims to a killer on the loose.
But after I saw "New York Ripper" by Fulci, I found out that he could do pretty good giallos besides his graphic zombie movies and even outdo Argento, on a certain level.I love Fulci's style, and yes I love gore, but this film I think, although it has a more developed plot and characters than his other films, is not his best one.
The acting is also pretty good and the photography is great.Although this is not a bad film, I think Lucio Fulci has made better films than this, and I think his best one is "The Beyond", a very different movie but a more atmospheric and visual experience.I give "Don't torture a duckling" a 7 out of 10..
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin was dazzling and truly weird, and Don't Torture a Duckling, made the following year, stands on its own as one of the strangest and most engrossing thrillers to be found in the genre.In a remote Italian village, three young boys spy on couples about to engage in sex through a barn door and later torment the local idiot and peeping tom Giuseppe (Vito Passeri).
Despite not boasting an A-list American actor, there's no shortage of especially female talent on display in Lucio Fulci's penultimate giallo concerning a spate of child killings which maybe linked to a bizarre ritual of a mountain recluse and a deeply disturbed woman accused of being a witch.Fulci's narrative is unwavering, even though the usual procession of red herrings are trotted out and routinely exhausted, the suspense is never subdued.
Before becoming the go-to-guy for extravagant Euro-splatter, Lucio Fulci began his horror career on a fairly 'reputable' note, beginning with the trippy giallo "Lizard in a Woman's Skin" (1971) and "Don't Torture a Duckling" (1972).
These films are easily the most character- and story-based out of Fulci's best-known works, and if you can parlay your gory expectations, "Torture" is definitely worth a look.
There are also strong performances from Tomas Milian as an investigative reporter; super-super-sexy Barbara Bouchet as a wealthy ex-drug addict; and Florinda Bolkan as a practitioner of voodoo and witchcraft; while the English dubbing does the actors no favors, the characters have a memorable presence, even if a lot of their interactions are in service to the exposition-laden police procedural at the film's heart.
Those of you who enjoy watching Lucio Fulci's films solely for the gore effects might not like DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING very much.
And other than two significant gory highlights, the rest of the film is gorgeous cinematography, great acting, and typical giallo mystery.The storyline is one filled with a rich culture found in small Italian villages, a culture that may be all but gone now.
Balkan and Bouchet are the two main attractions in the cast, each being able to almost carry the movie themselves, but also present are Tomas Milian, a veteran of Italian crime thrillers, Irene Papas, recognizable from ZORBA THE GREEK, and Marc Porel from Fulci's MURDER TO THE TUNE OF SEVEN BLACK NOTES.
Balkan was also in Fulci's A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN, which I still haven't had the chance to see (hint hint, Anchor Bay).Scenes to look for: the opening scene of Maciara digging with bloody hands on a hillside; Patrizia seducing a little boy by posing nude for him; a series of scenes depicting mysterious hands pushing needles into voodoo dolls representing a gang of boys; Maciara's "confession" and her subsequent breakdown; men from the village beating Maciara with chains and sticks in a cemetery set at first to rock music, then an Italian ballad; and the final scene, where the killer's face is ripped off while falling down a mountain.
The killer and the motive are quite a surprise, even for me.Gorgeous locales, great acting, an effective score by Riz Ortolani, brilliant cinematography, and an atmosphere that won't quit, DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING is not only a nice departure from the usual bloodbathes that Fulci created later, but stands out as one of the best giallos of all time..
If DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING hadn't been directed by Lucio Fulci, few people, including horror movie fans, would pay attention to it.
If that's what you want, you're probably not even reading this anyway.This movie has: **a beautiful female (potential) pedophile**bratty Italian kids who smoke, and are the victims of cruel on-screen murders**no distinct hero**some over-the-top gore**surprises**an extended and graphic beating of a woman in a cemetery by people who believe their actions are justified, set to sad music.
This weakness is less problematic on subsequent viewings though – like most gialli, Don't Torture A Duckling is eminently re-watchable.Technically, the film is well made with impressive camera-work, solid acting and effective music from Riz Ortolani – particularly good is a recurring unaccompanied female vocal that sounds like it's coming from a distant hill.
Andrea Martelli (Tomas Milian), an investigative journalist, and Patrizia (Barbara Bouchet), a local sexpot, end up joining forces to try to solve the crime.In the years before he became synonymous with gory, atmospheric horror films, director Lucio Fulci was one of the masters of the Italian murder mysteries known as Gialli.
(Andrea will actually rearrange a crime scene in order to get the most attention-grabbing photos.) The characters, also including Florinda Bolkan as a local "witch", Marc Porel as a priest, and Irene Papas as his mother, are reasonably colourful and interesting.This international cast makes the most of it, with Bolkan taking the opportunity to chew into the scenery at times.The beautiful scenic locations are wonderfully photographed in widescreen by Sergio D'Offizi, and Riz Ortolani of "Cannibal Holocaust" fame composed the lush, sometimes eerie, score.Essential viewing for Fulci fans, and newcomers to the Giallo genre.
They do all the things you expect little Italian boys to do — smoke cigarettes, watch prostitutes have sex, abuse a pepping tom — earning the ire of La Magiara (Florinda Bolkan, also the star of Fulci's giallo Lizard in a Woman's Skin), a witch who digs up the bones of an infant before conducting a ritual where she creates voodoo style dolls of the three boys, stabbing them with needles and chanting over them.Bruno is the first to go missing, inciting a media frenzy as reporters from all over Italy find the story of the week.
Martelli soon encounters various suspects, including a sexy young lady named Patricia, a sinister priest and a local witch who enjoys making wax effigies and sticking pins into them.While this film may not feature loads of gore, it does have two of Fulci's nastiest sequences to make up for it.
What we have here is a fine mystery coated with a sleek veneer of horrific blood, from one of the Italian masters, Lucio Fulci.In this movie, a series of child murders has a small town in a tizzy - they blame the local witch, but the constabulary believes someone else is behind the mayhem.
A journalist (Tomas Milian) and a morally-suspect young woman (Barbara Bouchet) try to solve a series of child killings in a remote southern Italian town that is rife with superstition and distrust of outsiders.The script was constructed by a handful of writers, including Gianfranco Clerici, who is probably best known for his controversial "Cannibal Holocaust".
If anyone watches that scene and thinks the intent was to torture a woman (on film) rather than to create sympathy, that point of view is within the viewer, not the creator.The star names in this one are Barbara Bouchet, perhaps best known up to this point for "Casino Royale" (1967), and Tomas Milian, who took off with Carol Reed's "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1965).
City of the Living Dead was a film I found very interesting but Don't Torture a Duckling is very nearly a masterpiece.Set in a small town in the Italian countryside in a repressive religious community where young boys are being murdered.
I've given old Lucio Fulci a lot of flack for his movies in the past, but have persevered with watching his back catalogue in the hope of finding something worthwhile; and, by Jove, I think I've at last found a film by the prolific director that is worthy of praise.I had heard that Fulci's giallos were his best work, and chose the one rated the highest on IMDb, LIzard In A Woman's Skin, to see if this was true; I didn't like it and almost gave up on ever watching Don't Torture A Duckling, his other well known addition to the genre.
Fortunately, I decided to give Fulci one last go, and am glad I did: Don't Torture A Duckling is without a doubt the director's best film and is also one of the best giallos that I have seen.A spate of child murders in a rural Italian town has left the locals in shock.
Giallo aficionados, however, will appreciate the lovely cinematography, great score and satisfyingly logical conclusion (yes, this is one Italian murder/mystery that actually seems to make sense!).Even if, like me, you think you have seen enough Fulci films to last you a lifetime, give Don't Torture A Duckling a goit's worth it.8.5 out of 10 (rounded up to 9 for IMDb)..
(Lost as in only discovered for American audiences ten years ago) For one thing, it rises not only above its expectations of silliness and carnage, as one might see in other Fulci work (not least of which a movie more on common with ducks, New York Ripper), and even its set-up of the usual sort with the crimes being committed and the police being only somewhat apt to investigate leaving open an outsider- i.e. a journalist- and an attractive young woman to look into it themselves doesn't feel worn out or too typical.
The cries of horror from the townspeople as the body is uncovered and their continual invading of scenes raises the tension throughout this film, as they turn on any suspect and bay for their blood - especially that of 'local witch' Florinda Balkan, whom we see doing voodoo on some child like dolls!Most of the cops aren't used to dealing with these mountain folk, and the only voice of reason seems to be journalist Tomas Milian, who is very restrained here.
Fearing that they will be unable to track down the boy,Bruno's family receive a ransom note,which tells them that if they ever want to see their son alive again,they have to pay a huge ransom.Quickly setting a trap,the police find out that Giuseppe is the ransom maker,and that he has also recently buried the body of Bruno (who Barra says was already dead when he found the body in the woodland area,which led to him making a money grabbing plan.)Whilst the police declare the case officially close,Andera begins to suspect that Giuseppe is not the child killer.As the police continue to question Barra,the body of Michele is discovered.With Michele's body containing the same markings which were left on Bruno's body,Martelli beings to fear that the mysterious killer may connected right to the heart of this unsettling,isolated village.View on the film:Despite the identity of the killer being one that the audience can take a good shot at guessing,director/co-writer Lucio Fulci, (along with Gianfranco Clerici and Roberto Gianviti) screenplay is packed with a fascinating number of subtexts which lead to the film becoming a paranoid soaked Giallo.Placing the murders in a deeply rural southern Italian village,the writers dig deep into the north/south divide,with the residences all being as deeply uncomfortable over any 'outsiders' entering their land.Taking on the strongly held religious beliefs in Italy with a real force,the writers show the deep flaws in each of the religious and government departments of the village to be ones that are simply over looked by the residence,thanks to the police and the church each filling the power vacuum which is to be found at the village.For the whereabouts of the killer identity,the writers do incredibly well at giving the chances of Martelli finding the killer a strong sense of doubt,due to the rural setting being something which is shown to be prepared to crush any voices which speak out of line.Displaying a surprising amount of subtle notes,director Lucio Fulci (mostly) restrains himself from over exaggerating the gore,by smartly taking a matter of fact approach which emphasis the unsettling mood placed in the screenplay.For the killings in this excellent Giallo,Fulci shows an unflinching eye,with the rather daring on-screen child murders placing psychological terror on the viewer,rather then drowning the audience in buckets of blood.Taking full advantage of the rural setting,Fulci counters the bursts of violence with a hauntingly poetic atmosphere,with the brilliant icy score of Riz Ortolani backing Fulci's elegant wide tracking shots,which Fulci superbly uses to show the rural isolation which the 'outsiders' are met by.
No surprise of course, as Duckling is rife with fearful, violent zealotry, and grisly, controversial murder scenes.For along with his also-excellent giallo that preceded Duckling, 1971's Lizard in a Woman's Skin, Fulci laid the foundation for real gore in Italian Horror.
Lucio Fulci's gruesome thriller about the murder of a several little boys in the Italian countryside is probably the director's best.