Ursula and Marcello make a killing… The 10th Victim (1965)

This film was reputedly one of Andy Warhol’s favourite films – and soundtracks – and, in the under-over-thinking world of the pop art trickster… that may even be a compliment! The 10th Victim is indeed a hipster delight, a dystopian murder-World which is relentless in its lampooning of contemporary Italian mores, commercialism and a culture intent on amusing itself to death.

Fifty years on the world it portrays feels a lot closer to now than the world of Italian silent pre-neo-realist dramas such as 1915's Assunta Spina may have felt to the new wave of Italian auteurs, Fellini, Antonioni and Elio Petri this film’s director.

Amused to death?

Here we see reality television out of control, a world of moral bankruptcy delighting in the suffering of others and whose only imperative is profitability. Marriage is as long-lasting as a summer holiday whilst motoring violations are taken more seriously than murder.

But murder has to be by arrangement… in a world exhausted by endless global conflict, the solution has been found to man’s inherent violence: professional murder games run for profit and fun in which contestants compete to survive ten rounds as either hunter or hunted. Everything is state sponsored and run within the law and the World is fully absorbed in the reality TV ritual to the extent to which violence between nations has ended.

Why worry about over population and controlling the birth rate when you can ramp up the death rate and entertain at the same time. It’s not a new idea and, as an American film crew pass over the Coliseum in Rome it’s a clear tip of the hat to barbarism past… but this is something new and all played for ironic laughs in a mood of detached, swinging sophistication with a smart wise-cracking script that doesn’t take itself too seriously and which still works – even in translation.

Preaching to the converted...

The film opens in New York as a Chinese man (George Wang) shoots after a girl in go-go boots, mini skirt and a black wig. She taunts him as she easily evades his shots and runs past a cop who stops the man and asks for his licence after which he calmly waves him on… Something is severely different in NYC.

On the run in New York

The chase continues until the girl enters a club in which a wide-eyed figure (Jacques Herlin) has been explaining the rules of the new game hunting. Her hunter runs in wide-eyed but cannot find her and then he is distracted as the evening’s first act is due to start. Out comes a blonde in spiked silver bikini, who proceeds to entrance the males with slow and slinky dance. She is masked but the slim hips and lithe movements give away the presence of Ursula Andress.

Her assailant drops his gun and stares at the pelvic thrusts on show before with the snap of her hips she unleashes two killing gun shots from weapons concealed in her bikini top… yes, *that’s* where Austin Powers got the idea from.

Bang bang

The man lies dead and the crowd burst into applause for Caroline Meredith who has now achieved her ninth kill – just one away from the rarely achieved ten that will reward her with a lifetime’s riches.

Meanwhile over in Europe, a heavily armed German show-jumper (Wolfgang Hillinger) nervously prepares for his round. He is handed his boots by a smart-looking Italian man (Marcello Mastroianni) who smiles benignly… The German clicks his heels in his militaristic manner and ignites an explosive in the boots… Marcello Polletti has his sixth kill!

Marcello Mastroianni

A computer in Switzerland (where-else?) selects the next couples for the contest and Caroline must pursue Marcello. She heads over to Italy with film crew in tow, flying over Rome trying to select the best location for the hunt… there are lots of humorous lines about how the Italians have let the Roman city fall into ruin – even the Coliseum is unfit to house a slaughter. They decide on the Temple of Venus in the Forum and the event will be sponsored by the Ming Tea Company.

The baliff arrives to interrupt Marcello's TV programme

Meanwhile Marcello’s domestic arrangements are falling apart as his not-quite-ex-wife Lidia (Luce Bonifassy) refuses to annul their marriage and the bailiffs arrive to reposes even the TV he is intently watching. The bailiffs are a friendly lot and this has clearly happened before and is no doubt expected to happen again.

Elsa Martinelli

Marcello’s mistress Olga (Elsa Martinelli) is more disturbed about the removal of his classic comic books (The Phantom is his favourite) than the inconvenience of the disappearing furniture. She wants to marry Marcello or maybe just get his attention… she’s clearly piqued by his almost total ambivalence…

Marcello’s ennui is in stark contrast to his instinct for survival. Caroline engineers a meeting and tries to persuade him that she is making a documentary about Italian sexual habits and that she wants to interview him at the Temple of Venus. But he’s not so bored that he can’t spot a threat a mile off but as Caroline says, it’s the lazy ones you have to watch: you never know what they’re going to do next…

Caroline finds Marcello reading The Phantom

Gradually the two become attracted and we begin to discover more about this strange future world, one in which Marcello has a job as a sun-worshiping “priest” who calls out across the sand to hundreds of the faithful to watch the Sun disappear over the death of another day… They are pelted with eggs by some dis-believers but continue all the same.

Sunset worshipers

These strange episodes build up a picture of dislocation that more than resembles the strange cinema of Frederico Fellini (who gets a name check). Marcello hides his parents behind a secret wall in his wife’s house, sheep graze on the lawn amongst modern art including plaster of Paris statues that echoes the tormented shapes of the Pompeii dead.

Another contemporary, Michelangelo Antonioni declared that Eros was sick, but in Elio Petri everyone is sick… and tired.

Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress

The story continues its commentary of materialism, commercialism and the disintegrating quality of mass entertainment but also morphs into a meditation on romance and commitment. Marcello and Caroline are now involved in a context of conquest, trying to kill each other whilst at the same time trying to overcome their contract to find love.

But… no spoilers…

Lovers or killers?

Dusty Verdict: The 10th Victim is a stylish film which makes its point with wit and verve. The cast is a strong one with Mastroianni and Andress both excellent. They are magnetic presences on screen with his nuanced intensity matched by her sensuality and a comic energy used to far better affect here than in say Dr No or What’s New Pussycat. Ursula’s no Monica Vitti or Jeanne Moreau but she has tremendous presence with an unpredictable look that matches Mastroianni’s more controlled expression.
 

The 10th Victim has lasted well and carries its message well in this century of screen to screen reality TV for which ritual humiliation is a staple. The sport is cruel and commercialized to death whilst actual death has been made a televisual art form by atrocities from all corners of the World.

Now we see so much of war: is it any more calculating, ruthless and pointless than the contests of this film?

Sponsored slaughter

The 10th Victim is available from Amazon on DVD or Blu-Ray, well worth catching it before someone catches you!

 

E-Type Ursula

TGI… Perfect Friday (1970)

This surprisingly snappy film was a vague memory from childhood viewing of a, no doubt heavily censored, version on TV… there’s very little violence but an awful lot of Ursula “Undress” as the wits of the day put it.

Smartly directed by Peter Hall (yes, that one: father of Rebecca and now a Sir…) it’s an ostensible straightforward turn of the decade heist movie which features a still unpredictable plot and three very strong leads. Its narrative structure is also unusual with deft turns in time which explain and elaborate on what could have been a less straight-ahead story.

The Office...Stanley Baker with TP McKenna next door

Hall keeps us on our toes throughout and it’s only when the robbery actually takes place when the viewer sees how it is to be done… not quite The Italian Job!

Stanley Baker (who also produced) plays Mr Graham a seemingly straight-laced Assistant Bank Manager with a great future behind him and a predictable course set ahead.

The film opens with a brief encounter with him telling an shadowy individual that he’s going to get some money… the titles roll in a computer-typeface over the modern London where Graham’s bank is located (Regents Park?). He walks into his glass office next to an identical unit housing Mr Smith (the great TP McKenna) and another, larger, room in which their boss Mr Williams (David Waller) practices his golf stroke.

Mr Graham has a meeting with Lady Britt Dorset (Ursula Andress) who is in need of a loan, too enable her to see her ill father back in Switzerland… She is granted £500 and two months in which to pay it back… now that’s what I call British banking!

Ursula Andress and Stanley Baker

The story is a ruse to allow her some funds to buy a new car – a splendid 1966 Sunbeam Alpine Series V – along with some new clothes. Taking a shine to her new financial friend she picks him up for dinner and explains the ploy.

A suit turns out, Britt’s dishonesty is exactly what Graham has been looking for – it’s unclear whether he arranged their first meeting… especially as their further connections are revealed.

Their date goes well and the Lady and the Bank Manager find themselves in bed – they obviously have more in common than at first appeared.

A boat briefing as they pass the old Southbank...

Graham begins to explain his true plans to Britt who volunteers her good-for-very-little, husband as a further accomplice.

But it seems that Graham and Lord Nicholas Dorset (David Warner) have already met – and it was "Nick" who suggested his wife as the potential third member of their putative gang… just one of many twists and turns that keeps things away from predictable.

Graham issues Britt and Nick with explicit instructions which verge on the over-cautious. He insists on their telling only the truth and feeds them both lines that he knows will come back to him unadulterated by their own agendas.

Nick is sent on various errands – to Amsterdam to buy a wig and elsewhere – untraceable steps in a larger caper. And, all the while Graham and Britt continue their bed-based intimacy… not that Britt and Nick have fallen out of their own habit.

Another side of Ursula...

Every Friday the bank sends an employee to count the money in the safe.  The person is identified with a passport and accompanied by the manager, Mr Williams. But Williams’ fondness for golf leads him to occasionally feign sickness in order to get a head start for weekend tournaments… and, when he’s away, Smith and Graham deputise in accompanying the teller…

All clear?

Now Graham has worked out a way to use this to his advantage and it would be churlish to reveal how this will be done, especially as the film takes so long to reveal the plot.

Needless to say, both Nick and Britt are heavily involved and everything is timed to perfection… well, almost everything…

The heist gets postponed in the nick of time and tension builds… can any of these people really trust each other: it’s not a question of will they get away with it but who will get away with it?

David Warner is his usual unsettling self - reminding me a lot of Rhys Ifans, a world-weary lothario who is just about likeable.

The face...

This is one of the best things I’ve seen Ursula Andress in and she acts with a subtlety that allows her natural beauty to come through much more than in her more overtly vampish roles… She has a good chemistry with Baxter and her sense of humour is reigned in to allow more sophisticated jokes to be made than in say, What’s New Pussycat?

Baker is also superb acting against type as the timid but determined Graham. Even the comb-over hair and appalling moustache can’t dent his masculine edge but he obviously relished the chance to play the blue-colour criminal.

Warner and Baker

Hall directs with invention and youthful zest and all is topped off by a superb score from John Dankworth (he also became a Sir later.)

Dusty verdict: An enjoyable crime caper with a little more under the bonnet than others of the same vintage may lead you to expect.

Now available on Blu-ray and DVD from those nice people at Network… it’s worth buying and re-watching every ten years as you’re bound to forget the plot details.

The Sunbeam Alpine

Tea and toast