The Black Belly of the Tarantula (1972)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

In 1999, these films were impossible to get a hold of, and you had to look hard to find someone who would sell you them on the grey market. It is for this reason that my mate Marco and me found ourselves in the back room of some video store on Ingram Street, Glasgow city centre, staring into a filing cabinet jam packed with video nasties, category 3 Hong Kong films, and otherwise unavailable films like this. Marco bought this one. I watched the first five minutes and decided it looked boring, little knowing how obsessed by these films I'd be in a few years time. Also, I had no idea how bald I would become. And I didn't know YouTube would exist either. We were all young and naïve back then. If there was a generic starters pack for giallo newbies I'd definitely include this one. It's a straightforward giallo plot as in it has one masked/gloved/hatted killer, plenty of suspects, a couple of red herrings, a clue at the start of the film, quirky characters, nudity and a bit of gore. It doesn't deviate from the formula but it's a good film anyway, thanks to Ennio Morricone's music, the lovely cinematography, and some good moustache action from Giacarlo Giannini.It all starts off with Barbara Bouchet (a Bond girl) getting a nude massage from a blind guy and then getting into a fight with her husband because someone's sent him a nude picture of her with a mystery man. Next thing you know some gloved killer has paralysed her with a needle, then cut her open while she can only watch in horror. Depressed policeman Giancarlo Giannini (whose eccentric wife has sold all the furniture in the house!) is on the case, and thinks the husband did it, but when another victim appears and he uncovers a drug smuggling ring into the bargain, things heat up a bit. It doesn't help that he's the laughing stock of the force when the killer plants some evidence that turns out to be a covertly made film of the policeman and his wife in bed. There's a neat rooftop chase in this one too, and although it's a case of one killer all the way through, it makes for a good journey all the way through, thanks to appearances by Claudine Auger (a Bond girl) and Barbara Bach (a Bond girl) and Giancarlo Prete (not a Bond girl). There's also the requisite scene in a fashion store amongst mannequins that these films seem to require by law.

"The Black Belly of the Tarantula" is a typically grandiose title in this genre of film known as the Giallo. Giancarlo Giannini stars as Inspector Tellini, a police detective on the trail of a killer. This killer is targeting the female clients of a health and beauty salon, and employs a particularly insidious method. They inject their victims with the poison from a rare species of wasp, and this poison thoroughly incapacitates them, so that they're unresponsive but conscious when they get carved up with the killers' blade.Giannini is low key and likable in the lead role. His time on the job is contrasted with his more mundane home life with his wife Anna (Stefania Sandrelli), and it's actually what director Paolo Cavara *doesn't* do that makes this an interesting film of its kind. He doesn't concern himself with being overly stylish, instead opting for a slightly more matter of fact approach. Fans of this genre need not be concerned, for there is still quite a bit of female flesh to ogle and some bloody brutality to enjoy, but Cavara does an engaging job of combining the psychosexual proclivities of the maniac with a police procedural and a little bit of lightweight domestic drama.All of the ladies just look ravishing, of course. Claudine Auger ("Thunderball") plays salon boss Laura, Barbara Bouchet ("Casino Royale" '67) is unhappy married woman Maria Zani, and Barbara Bach ("The Spy Who Loved Me") is the receptionist, Jenny. Silvano Tranquilli offers a fine supporting performance as Maria's husband Paolo, who decides to play amateur sleuth when he falls under suspicion.Good pacing and a fairly tense finale help to make this a good entertainment, as well as a deliciously unconvincing dummy fall.Seven out of 10.

After a savage series of murders, a detective finds the clients of an upscale health spa are falling victim to a killer's strike with the poison of a deadly wasp paralyzing them in order to kill and must stop the rampage from continuing.On the whole, this is one of the more impressive and enjoyable giallos in the genre. One of it's better features is the fact that this one manages to fully indulge in it's many lurid components quite well with many fascinating moments throughout here, which is where this one really holds up over time. The central murder angle here is accomplished quite well with the rather deft round of deaths centered on the central spa as the many frequent visitors and staff are roundly butchered in the centerpiece method of the paralyzing venom and the subsequent butchery all the while aware and obvious of the incidents proceeding around them which in turn leads to classic motifs including the obvious red herring, a series of blackmail plots against the many frequent visitors and the world-weary case getting to a hard-nosed detective all making up some of the common ground within this. That suitably aids the action within this one as there's a lot of fun stalking about and chasing to be had, mostly a thrilling roof-top chase through the various equipment stored around there and a secondary car chase that makes for some rather fun times throughout here. As well, it knows how to work the suspense in here as well with the attack in a department store that gets continually halted by the mannequins strewn around the store as well as the several house-stalking scenes where the oblivious victims are all cut up and killed in lengthy, fun sequences. Added together with a generous helping of nudity delivered by those well-deserved to provide it and there's enough here to make this one of the most essential giallos along with a few minor flaws. The fact that the mid-section of the film, right when the case should be getting it's most active focus, is dropped for a series of lengthy discussions between the detective and his wife about this furniture arrangement makes this slow to a crawl at a certain point, and this only highlights the lack of action at that particular segment of the film as hardly anything really happens. Also, the usual giallo trapping of not making the plot all that sensible and logical for the resolution again rears its ugly head, none of the clues provided meshing with the real killer and their motivation at that point, but it's dropped in favor of the shock revelation instead. Still, these don't upset the good points in here.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Full Nudity, Language and sexual situations.

A not so great giallo with a very over-inflated reputation. Giancarlo Giannini is trying to track down a lunatic who's been injecting women with the paralyzing agent of a wasp. The victim then gets to watch her own murder. While the idea is compelling, the film, directed by Paolo Cavara, is not particularly intriguing. There's very little build up to any of the crimes therefore there's no suspense. The acting is fine, particularly by Giannini as a world weary police inspector. The supporting cast includes such beauties as Barbara Bach, Barbara Bouchet, and Claudine Auger. The great Stefania Sandrelli plays Giannini's wife and Ezio Marano plays a creepy blind masseuse. The music is by Ennio Morricone.