The Bloodstained Butterfly, 1971.
Directed by Duccio Tessari.
Starring Helmut Berger, Evelyn Stewart, Wendy D’Olive, Günther Stoll, Giancarlo Sbragia and Wolfgang Preiss.
SYNOPSIS:
A TV sports presenter is arrested for the murder of his lover but while he is in custody the killer apparently strikes again.
The Bloodstained Butterfly is essentially a giallo picture in the same vein as countless other murder mysteries that came out of Italy in the 1960s and ‘70s but this one sets itself apart from the rest of the crowd by concentrating less on the murder itself and spending more time covering the police investigation and subsequent courtroom trial of the accused.
The accused in this case is TV sports presenter Alessandro Marchi (Giancarlo Sbragia), who was apparently spotted out in the park where the murder of a 17-year-old student took place, although the witnesses who said they saw him aren’t the most reliable as somebody wasn’t wearing their glasses, it was raining, the man in question had thinning hair and Marchi has a full head of hair on the TV (“I didn’t know he wore a wig”) and several other disclaimers are thrown about the courtroom. But this being a giallo there are more factors thrown into the mix just to make things a bit more complex than they need to be, such as Marchi having an affair with an alcoholic woman, Marchi’s lawyer Giulio Cordaro (Günther Stoll) having an affair with Marchi’s wife Maria (Evelyn Stewart) and then trying it on with Marchi’s teenage daughter Sarah (Wendy D’Olive), who is romantically – and often violently – involved with the slightly unstable Giorgio (Helmut Berger), who just happened to be one of the witnesses that saw the apparent killer that rainy day in the park. Overseeing the whole investigation is Inspector Berardi (Silvano Tranquilli), who spends most of the film looking as perplexed as the audience in trying to keep track of who is doing what and to whom.
So what to make of The Bloodstained Butterfly? At times intriguing, other times very dull, the film suffers by never really hitting a peak and staying there, often meandering all over the place to try and cram in more police procedural drama than most other gialli (the film even credits a forensics department for their assistance in making the movie) which does give it a bit more authenticity but at the same time drags down what could have been a much more tightly woven plot and eventual outcome. There is an amusing joke about the state of the coffee from the police vending machine that runs through the whole film, adding a lightness of touch to an otherwise very dour and dry story, but for fans of regular gialli there isn’t much in the way of sex, nudity and violence, director Duccio Tessari taking a more arthouse approach and filling up each scene with odd dialogue that, for the most part, doesn’t really resemble the way that people really speak to each other. Of the four kills in the film, none of them are particularly graphic and rely on suggestion, much like the sex scenes that feel muted and there simply because the filmmakers probably couldn’t get away with not having any titillation whatsoever.
But for all of its flaws The Bloodstained Butterfly is fairly watchable thanks to some gorgeous cinematography and a finale that, whilst a little short and feels shoehorned in, does wrap things up in a slightly more tension-filled way than most of the more dialogue-heavy set-pieces. Presented in a dual-format package, the disc comes loaded with extras that feature mostly interviews with cast members – the Helmut Berger one is definitely worth watching as the man is bonkers – plus a visual essay and a career retrospective on director Duccio Tessari so there is plenty of background info to delve into, but, overall, The Bloodstained Butterfly is one for the giallo completists and not really exciting enough for casual viewers to get invested in.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Chris Ward
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