Don't Torture A Duckling (1972)

aka Non si sevizia un paperino

If I had to choose Lucio Fulci’s greatest film, for me it would be a toss up between A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN and the film I’m reviewing today, DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING. I can already hear some fans of Fulci’s splatter era groaning at that statement—but while films like ZOMBIE, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD and THE BEYOND, made Fulci the icon he is today, it is his early films such as the two that I mentioned, along with PERVERSION STORY and BEATRICE CENCI that show Fulci is so much more than shock and awe, he was a damn fine movie director. While I enjoy Fulci’s horror films a lot (CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD is my favorite Fulci film hands down), I’ll be the first to admit that they’re flawed. LIZARD and DUCKLING are as close to perfect as you can get, for gialli that is.

DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING is so much better than it appears to be. In fact I avoided the film for a long time based on the DVD artwork, and the name itself. I mean, “Don’t Torture a Duckling?” What the fuck is that? Just in case any animal lovers are wondering, no ducklings are tortured or harmed in any way in the film, in fact—there aren’t any ducks in the whole film besides a Donald Duck doll. I guess what I’m saying is don’t let the wacky name throw you, DUCKLING is a fantastic mystery/thriller and worth seeing whether you’re a Fulci fan or just a film fan in general. The film features cinematography straight out of he Sergio Leone School of filmmaking (yes, it’s that good), terrific performances by the entire cast, including the child actors—bad dubbing aside, a beautiful score by Riz Ortolani, and all the old world glory of the Italian countryside in the backdrop. The dubbing, along with one bad special effect at the very end of the film (if you’ve seen the film you know exactly what I’m talking about) are really my only complaints, other than that—the film is perfection.

As giallo films go, DUCKLING’s plot works well, even if some people can figure out (so they say) the killer from his/her’s first appearance. Personally, I had no clue and was shocked by the conclusion of the film. The story starts out with the introduction of 3 young boys, doing what young boys do, being mischievous. All 3 boys are between 11 and 13, just entering puberty and the awkwardness of that age is captured well in the film, by both the script and the young actors portraying the 3 boys. Of course the Catholic Church plays a big part in the story as well. You get a sense of all three boys’ guilt for their dirty pubescent thoughts. This can be seen in the beginning as one boy can barely look at the saints on the walls of his church, knowing he was about to leave and spy on people having sex. Fulci has never hid his hatred for Catholicism, and he really lets the metaphorical bullets fly with this one—which resulted in the film being blacklisted by the Pope, causing the film to slip into obscurity for decades. Soon all 3 boys are killed one by one and suspects pop up right and left. The suspects include the town idiot, a rumored witch (Florinda Bolken), a young socialite with a mysterious past that has just moved to town (Barbara Bouchet), a machete wielding, creepy old man that practices black magic, and an odd acting mother of a retarded child. As the story goes on, the suspects get cleared until we find out the real killer in the films tension filled finale.

It’s really not much more complicated than that. DUCKLING is a straightforward mystery movie, with only a few touches of the surrealism that Fulci would become known for. DUCKLING could be considered the landmark film of Fulci’s career, as it almost seems to predict where his film style would go in the near future. There are a few scenes in the film that feature that misty dreamlike look that would be heavily used in Fulci’s future films. There’s the use of gratuitous gore to intensify an act of brutality, which would become trademark Fulci. Also, DUCKLING seems to be where Fulci developed his overall style that he became known for. Previous films of Fulci, such as A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN, PERVERSION STORY, BEATRICE CENCI, and all his comedies and westerns from the 60’s—while they were great films—and well made, all seemed like they were a made by a director discovering himself. Well, DUCKLING is where Fulci found his ‘mojo’. When I watch DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING, I know without a doubt that I’m watching a Fulci film, with his earlier films, you could tell me they were directed by some random Italian director and I’d probably believe you. Every film following DUCKLING is without a question, ‘Fucli’. Unfortunately, with some of Fulci’s later works, it was obvious he became jaded with horror and his trademark style started to disappear.

While this film is one of Fulci’s best, there are still folks who will not care for it—mainly the splatter era fans or those closed-minded individuals, not into anything that is ‘not’ 100% horror. To those people I say—eh, whatever, your loss. There are also people who will write the film off as bland Eurohorror, and really they couldn’t be more wrong. DUCKLING is never boring and the film flows well from beginning to end…unlike a lot European horror/thrillers. The plot is not complicated or overloaded with supporting players or anything like that—it’s about as basic as you can get for a mystery movie. So why do I consider it one of Fulci’s best, if it’s so “basic?” It’s not the story that makes DUCKLING great, it’s Fulci’s direction, Ortolani’s music, and the performance of the cast.

The three main players in the film are all great genre actors. First there’s Tomas Milian, usually known for his over-the-top villains, and his over-the-top cop characters—here he is quite subdued as a nosy reporter, doing a better investigation job than the actual detectives. He also looks like a 70’s porn star, sporting a bitchin’ moustache—I love Tomas Milian. Then we have the eye-candy, Barbara Bouchet who was on quite a roll with great films before and after DUCKLING, including BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA, MILANO CALIBRO 9, THE FRENCH SEX MURDERS, RICCO, and CRY OF A PROSTITUTE. Here performance here may be her best. The real highlight of the film is Florinda Bolkan, as the town crazy lady, Maciara. She doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time, the when she’s on screen—she owns it! Her ‘beating’ scene might just be one of my favorite scenes from a Fulci flick, right there with the eye gouge and Zombie vs. Shark from ZOMBI 2, the gut-vomiting scene and head drill scene from CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, and the gun shot scene from THE BEYOND—not to say it’s as brutally graphic as those scenes, but it’s just as memorable because of the way it’s shot.

Speaking of the special effects, I mentioned the one effect at the end—without giving any spoilers, I will say that I hate the scene—and love it all at the same time. I hate it because it really wasn’t needed and it just looks horrible. I love it because it’s kind of funny—because it’s so bad. I know Fulci was trying to show all his rage at the Catholic Church in one final shot, but the effect is just not pulled off correctly. Oddly, the same effect-almost shot-for-shot, would reappear in the opening scene of THE PSYCHIC a few years later and it looks better in that film. It’s almost like Fulci knew he didn’t pull of the effect in DUCKLING and THE PSYCHIC was his ‘do-over’. If the effect had been pulled of right, or had just been dropped all together, the film would be close to flawless.

DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING is classic Fulci and a must see for anyone that loves good cinema.

My fan trailer for DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING