Tweet
Released by: Camera Obscura
Released on: April 14, 2012.
Director: Giampaolo Lomi, Eduardo Mulargia
Cast: Gabriele Tinti, Anthony Steffen, Anita Strindberg
Year: 1972
The Movie:
Co-directed by Giampaolo Lomi and Eduardo Mulargia (credited as Edward G. Muller), 1970's Tropic Of Cancer stars Gabriele Tinti as a man named Fred Wright who takes his wife, Grace (Anita Strindberg) to Haiti for a vacation of sorts. They've been having some marital troubles as of late and he figures that spending some time in the tropics will do them good, though Grace seems more interested in checking out the local Haitian males than in reconnecting with her husband. While they are in the country, Fred decides they should pay a visit to his old friend Williams (Anthony Steffen - who co-wrote the script with the two directors), a scientist working as a doctor at the local hospital.
Complicating matters is the issue of a drug that Williams has discovered, a powerful aphrodisiac of sorts that a few nefarious types would love to get their hands on, not the least of whom is Peacock (Alfio Nicolosi), a wealthy and flamboyant gay man who lives in a huge house run by frequently nude young black male servants. While Fred and Grace are enjoying the resort they're staying at and catching up on old times with Williams, a murderer has been making the rounds, killing off various Caucasian characters in increasingly nasty ways and draining them of all of their blood. Is there some sort of Haitian voodoo curse at work or is there a psychopath in their ranks out to eliminate anyone who might stop him from stealing Williams' work?
A strange mix of fairly standard giallo trappings and more exotic sexploitation elements the likes of which were common in films like the Black Emmanuelle series, Tropic Of Cancer is an interesting film, if not a perfect one. The plot bounces around a bit and gets a little convoluted in the middle half but it works its way to a satisfactory conclusion and offers up some solid murder set pieces and fever dream scenes of eroticism along the way. The movie plays up the racial side of things fairly effectively, with Strindberg's character obviously intrigued by the black men who populate the country she's visiting so much so that she has a strange dream in which she runs down a red hall wearing a negligee as naked black guys grope at her! It's a very hallucinatory scene but shot in such a quirky interesting way that somehow it manages to fit into the narrative quite well.
Performance wise, Strindberg is a little bit wooden. She looks great here but doesn't really offer her part much emotion outside of a few spats between her and Tinti in the last half of the film where their marriage really hits rock bottom. Tinto fares a little better simply because he's given a bit more to do here. Steffen is also fine, playing the seemingly emotionless doctor who cares for nothing but his work with an appropriate amount of distance. Alfio Nicolosi as the horribly stereotypical homosexual character isn't quite as over the top as you might think but he definitely plays to seventies standards here and isn't exactly portrayed in any sort of progressive way. He's a caricature, really, as are many of the black characters in the film. Those concerned with political correctness need not apply!
The film does a good job of working the voodoo practices and rituals into the storyline nicely. This gives the movie something to stand out with, as they make up a large portion of what's interesting about the film. A scene in which our three white characters attend a sacrificial ceremony in which a (very real) cow is cut open for the purposes of blood drinking stands out and builds in intensity very well. The murder set pieces are creative and more than just standard slashings (though one scene in which a character's face is burned off by steam while his moustache remains in perfect condition might make more attentive viewers snicker). A scene in which a corpse is discovered in a slaughter house (more real animal violence in this scene as well) is also quite jarring and shocking.
The movie is well shot and does a great job of really hammering home the heat and sweat of its locations. It's well framed and well put together and it benefits not just from solid editing work but from an interesting score by Piero Umiliani (who has some interesting credits including Viva Django! and Five Dolls For An August Moon). Giampaolo Lomi doesn't have much else to his credit save for contributing to Savage Man, Savage Beast and Goodbye Uncle Tom, while Eduardo Mulargia remains well known for writing and directing a string of Spaghetti Westerns and a women in prison film or two. Neither made another Giallo after this one, a film that has, until this DVD release, been notoriously difficult to come by.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Camera Obscura presents Tropic Of Cancer in a great looking 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that presents the movie in excellent shape. There are no problems with any serious print damage and just the right amount of grain to make for a fairly film-like appearance. Detail and color reproduction are strong throughout as are black levels and there are no issues with any obvious compression artifacts or edge enhancement.
Audio options are provided in Italian and German languages with optional subtitles provide in German and English. Both tracks sound fine, offering clear, well balanced dialogue and a strong sounding score. There are no issues with any serious hiss or distortion and all in all, things sound fine here.
The main extra on the disc is an interview with Giampaolo Lomi entitled Shot In Haiti. Here he talks about his work in Italian cinema and about shooting this film with its cast on location. He also goes into detail on what it was like shooting the voodoo ritual scene and the sequence in which Strindberg runs through the red hallway full of naked black guys, noting the significance of it in terms of the story and how it ties into the beginning of the movie. At thirty-two minutes in length it's quite detailed and quite interesting and a nice look back at what he did in film. There's also a featurettes here entitled Bruschini's Place, which is an interview with film historian Antonio Bruschini who provides some welcome background information on the film and its cast and crew. It's a bit clip heavy but if offers up some interesting insight and some solid observations about the film and its place in Italian genre movie history. Aside from that, there's a German theatrical trailer for the film, an impressive still gallery, chapter selection and animated menus (in German and in English). Inside the typically lavish packaging is a booklet of liner notes detailing the history of the production and how/why it was given the title it was given.
The Final Word:
Slick, stylish and strange, Tropic Of Cancer gets an excellent worldwide DVD debut from Camera Obscura who have once again rolled out the red carpet. The transfer is great, the extras are solid and the movie itself is just screwy enough to work. Add to that a good cast, some excellent location shooting and some great murder set pieces and you wind up with an enjoyably sleazy Giallo hybrid that is as entertaining as it is bizarre.
